Jiang Xia instinctively resisted a little at first, but upon hearing Mu Ye's voice, he immediately suppressed that instinct and followed his guidance to sense the changes in his blood and Qi.
He knew that the Body Sect of this era had already researched Blood Essence Power in great depth.
If he could condense Blood Essence Power, it would greatly benefit his future physical cultivation.
Unfortunately, how could condensing Blood Essence Power be so simple? He was merely a rank-ten soul master, and his Martial Soul did not enhance his physical fitness. If one meal and a single session of guidance were enough for him to condense Blood Essence Power, the continent's many factions could probably have worked out methods of cultivating it as well.
If this cultivation system were so simple, it would not have been exclusive to the Body Sect.
Jiang Xia did not condense Blood Essence Power, but under Mu Ye's regulation, his blood and Qi circulated extremely smoothly. Combined with the highly nourishing food he had just eaten, his blood and Qi surged within him. Yet rather than swelling chaotically, they flowed in an orderly manner, continuously nourishing his flesh and meridians, making him feel as though he had shed his old body and been reborn.
"Very good. Eat a little more."
Sensing the condition of Jiang Xia's body, Mu Ye motioned for him to eat a little more.
His body could withstand somewhat more than an ordinary person's, and he absorbed power faster. Now, after Mu Ye's regulation, he could actually eat a little more.
Jiang Xia did as instructed, picking up another large shrimp and eating two slices of fish.
His body grew scalding hot again, and this time it did not recover naturally.
Seeing this, Mu Ye once again began helping him regulate the blood and Qi within his body.
Jiang Xia devoted all his strength to resisting the swelling of his blood and Qi, so he could only leave their regulation to Mu Ye. Naturally, Mu Ye did not disappoint; his speed and efficiency far surpassed Jiang Xia's own.
Soon, Jiang Xia's flushed body gradually cooled.
At that point, Zhen Hua spoke. "If you have strength in your body and don't know where to put it, you can try forging."
Jiang Xia looked toward his teacher, Han Tianyi.
Han Tianyi offered no objection either.
Jiang Xia silently rose and headed to the forging room.
Boom, boom, boom. The sounds of forging hammers striking rang out continuously.
Under Zhen Hua's guidance, Jiang Xia adjusted his force bit by bit, getting accustomed to swinging the hammer.
Just like that, time gradually passed, and the surging Qi within his body was steadily depleted.
As it was depleted, he also assimilated it, strengthening his physical fitness and turning it into his foundation.
And when Jiang Xia finally managed to assimilate all the power within him, dinner arrived.
After dinner, naturally, came more assimilation.
By the time he finished, he was utterly exhausted. Jiang Xia reckoned he could fall asleep the moment his head hit the pillow, but he still forced himself to meditate.
He had not meditated all day. If he went to sleep tonight as well, it would mean an entire day without cultivation.
That was hardly a good start.
Meditation itself only required overcoming a little mental fatigue. In fact, once he truly entered meditation, both his mind and body would rapidly be soothed.
It was just that the process of beginning meditation would expend a little more mental effort.
Early the next morning, Jiang Xia was full of vigor.
Mu Ye handed him five steamed buns. They had different fillings and different effects: some strengthened his blood and Qi, some regulated them, and others temporarily enhanced his digestion.
Under his guidance, Jiang Xia ate the buns one by one.
Soon, the blood and Qi within him swelled once more.
A new day, a familiar cycle.
Jiang Xia did not even have spare mental capacity to consider the future development of his Martial Soul.
For now, he could only devote himself single-mindedly to improving his physical fitness and familiarizing himself with forging techniques.
Mu Ye had reached the pinnacle in the field of the body, while Zhen Hua stood at the continent's summit in forging. Who knew how many people throughout the Federation longed for their guidance?
And under their guidance, Jiang Xia rapidly shed his old self and was reborn.
His body grew sturdy, and he even seemed to have grown a little taller.
His entire bearing underwent an earth-shaking transformation.
Han Tianyi left partway through, seemingly to oversee the Ice Silkworm Soul Spirit's proxy-farming project.
When he returned, even he was astonished by Jiang Xia's transformation.
"Your forging talent lies in communicating with spirituality, but forging only begins to involve that communication at Thousand Refinements. Before Thousand Refinements, you have no advantage whatsoever," Zhen Hua said sternly.
Jiang Xia did not argue, merely bringing his hammer down earnestly, strike after strike.
His body was only six years old, but under Mu Ye's care, his strength probably already exceeded that of the vast majority of ten-year-old children.
The forging hammer in his hand had been specially made for him by Zhen Hua, tailored to his body.
Naturally, its weight differed from the hammers ordinary adult soul engineers used; it was considerably lighter.
Zhen Hua had not made him start with the weight of the forging hammer he would use in the future. There was no so-called adapting in advance, or adapting to the most standardized template.
In Zhen Hua's view, techniques for exerting force could not be trained that way.
The true core of training was still understanding.
A blacksmith was not a mere brute. He needed to know how to properly nurture the spirituality of rare metals.
Where should each hammer strike land? How much force should it use? Those were the keys.
Once he understood these things, and once he possessed sufficient strength, he only needed to adapt to a forging hammer and exert enough force with that new hammer.
And because his forging hammer was smaller, completing Hundred Refinements would require not a hundred swings, but two or three hundred.
Moreover, those two or three hundred swings could not contain any major flaws.
In the short span of a month, Jiang Xia had not completed his training in Hundred Refinements.
He could not even swing his hammer a hundred times in succession.
However, under Zhen Hua's instruction, his understanding of hammer swings and forging soared rapidly.
"Good. This level of physical fitness is fully capable of withstanding the impact of a thousand-year Soul Ring."
Han Tianyi circulated his Soul Power through Jiang Xia's meridians once and nodded in satisfaction.
The impact of a Soul Ring's Soul Power did not test a soul master's physical fitness alone.
Or rather, it was fundamentally not a test of physical fitness.
After all, soul masters of different categories had clear differences in physical fitness.
Combat soul masters simply had stronger bodies than support soul masters.
Even tool soul masters often had considerably better physical fitness than support soul masters.
Yet for the same Soul Ring slot, their capacity to withstand a Soul Ring was the same.
What truly determined the age of the Soul Ring they could withstand was the resilience of their meridians and flesh.
If you absorbed one beyond your limit, your meridians would rupture, and you would bleed all over.
But if your meridians were sufficiently resilient and tough, if they did not shatter in an instant and could remain connected, then they could use the feedback from absorbing the Soul Ring to heal anew and undergo rebirth. That would be enough to complete an absorption beyond your limit.
Of course, tougher meridians and flesh often also brought improvements in physical fitness.
"Teacher, should I keep cultivating here?" Jiang Xia asked.
It was not that he was tired of life here; he simply knew very well that he still had other cultivation projects.