"This really is a daunting task!"
After a long silence, Wang Hao gave a helpless, bitter laugh. He rubbed his face, collected himself, and summed it up. "In other words, the main quest for this world's World Advancement has to be divided into five steps. First, nurture that girl Dongfang Bai into the World Protagonist.
"Second, get that girl's cultivation to break through to the fourth tier and set the world's upgrade in motion. Third, survive the calamity created by the transformation of the power of fate. Fourth, seize that power of fate and let the system devour it. Fifth, let this world complete its upgrade and break free of the Heavenly Dao's control."
"You're so smart, Uncle!"
In the system space, Xiao Mengmeng obediently raised a thumb in praise, though her expression was somewhat awkward. The task really was excessively difficult, and the risks were considerable. Calling it a narrow escape from death would be no exaggeration.
"Don't go laying the flattery on thick!"
Wang Hao rolled his eyes irritably and thought for a moment. Then, as if he had suddenly remembered something, he asked curiously, "Little girl, I remember that before I entered this world, the main quest the system gave me was to fulfill that girl Dongfang Bai's wish. Was that really her wish?"
That wish had been truly bizarre. She had wanted to marry a great man, bear him nine pairs of children, and live a life tending to her husband and raising their children.
There would have been nothing wrong with any other woman of this era having such a wish, but it just didn't work for Sister Dongfang Bai. It was a complete mismatch with her domineering character!
It was like the whole art style had changed!
"That was Sister Dongfang's wish three years ago. After her entire family was massacred, with her parents, brothers, and sisters all killed, her temperament naturally changed drastically."
Seeing that Wang Hao hadn't been frightened off by the difficulty of the main quest, Xiao Mengmeng breathed a sigh of relief in the system space and casually answered his question.
Hearing that explanation, Wang Hao's expression abruptly darkened. Gritting his teeth, he demanded, "Xiao Mengmeng, don't you owe me an explanation for why I wasn't sent to possess someone before the Dongfang Lineage was wiped out? Do you know how many times harder my tasks have become now?!"
If the Dongfang Lineage hadn't been wiped out by the Blood Robe Tower, he could have found a chance to distance himself from the incident. At least he wouldn't have become the mortal enemy that girl Dongfang Bai hated most.
In that case, all three tasks would have been considerably easier. Instead, things had turned into this mess, jumping straight from hard mode to hell mode.
This was going to get him killed!
"About that!"
Wang Hao's tone gave Xiao Mengmeng a fright in the system space. Then she explained indignantly, "It's because you're too weak, Uncle! With your current strength, you couldn't possibly ensure that you'd destroy the other person's true spirit while taking over their body and still keep your own true spirit pure.
"I had no choice but to wait until the person you were going to possess died and their true spirit dispersed before taking over the body!"
When she finished, Xiao Mengmeng gave him another look of utter contempt and disgust. Clearly, she thought Wang Hao was far too weak.
"So you're blaming me?"
Wang Hao's eyes widened. He was not at all convinced by that answer.
"Who else?"
Xiao Mengmeng looked just as indignant, but a faint light flickered in her bright eyes. Clearly, there was more to the story.
"Forget it. Blame me, then!"
Wang Hao sighed and accepted his fate. Who had told him to end up with such an unreliable system?
"Clang! Clang! Clang..."
After walking for a while, Wang Hao heard rhythmic hammering coming from nearby. His face lit up.
"Finally found it!"
Following the sound, Wang Hao soon arrived at a crude smithy. Before he even entered, he caught the smell of cheap liquor.
He frowned slightly but paid it no further attention and strode into the smithy.
Inside, he saw an old man and a middle-aged man working at the forge. The middle-aged smith was bare-chested, swinging a large iron hammer and repeatedly striking a red-hot blade. The old man sat beside the bellows, drinking from a wine gourd while working them on and off.
Strangely, though, the old man had no right hand. He had simply tied the wine gourd to his right arm where his wrist would have been.
"Is there something you'd like forged, sir?"
When the middle-aged smith saw Wang Hao, he put the nearly finished blade into a water vat to cool. Only then did he look up at Wang Hao. He was startled by Wang Hao's exceptionally imposing build, but then smiled and asked.
"One tael of silver to rent your smithy for three shichen. I'll also use about a hundred jin of iron ingots. You stay and work the bellows for me!"
"You're going to do the forging yourself, sir?"
The middle-aged smith was taken aback. Clearly, he hadn't expected Wang Hao to make such a request.
"Mm. Can you take the deal?"
Wang Hao nodded calmly and looked over the two men before him. When his gaze fell on the old man, he frowned slightly.
For some reason, he couldn't shake the feeling that the old man was no good. But after a glance at the man's gaunt frame, he thought no more of it.
"Of course!"
The middle-aged smith agreed without a second thought. After all, even a month of hard work might not earn him a tael of silver. Only a fool would turn down a deal that paid a tael for a mere three shichen!
As for the iron ingots, he had dug the ore from an abandoned mine outside the city and smelted it himself. They weren't worth much, so the tael of silver was almost pure profit.
"Here's the tael of silver. Put it away!"
Wang Hao casually tossed the middle-aged smith the tael of silver he had received from A Lan, then walked over to the iron ingots piled in a corner of the smithy and began selecting them.
These were standard iron ingots smelted from iron ore, each weighing ten jin. Though they looked identical, there were actually some differences within them.
Drawing on the experience inherited from his previous life in the Primordial Wilderness, Wang Hao quickly picked out the eleven best-quality ingots, weighing a total of 110 jin. Once the impurities were refined out, about a hundred jin would remain.
Wang Hao said no more. He took off the shirt A Lan had prepared, leaving only his trousers on and revealing the solid, corded muscles of his upper body.
Picking up the heaviest, hardest hammer in the smithy, Wang Hao placed all eleven iron ingots in the furnace. Once they were red-hot, he took two out and stacked them together. Circulating the explosive force inherited from his previous life in the Primordial Wilderness, he swung the heavy hammer down hard!
"Clang!"
A dull impact rang out. The blow was so powerful that the entire smithy shook, and the middle-aged smith and old man beside him looked on in shock.
The explosive force traveled through the hammer and slammed into the two ingots, flattening them and pressing them tightly together until they were indistinguishable from one another.
Immediately afterward, Wang Hao swiftly took a third ingot from the furnace and stacked it on top, then delivered another fierce hammer blow imbued with explosive force.
In this manner, he soon forged all the ingots together into one solid piece.
Without stopping, he continued gathering explosive force and sending it through his hammer into the ingot, repeatedly forging and refining it. Once it had fully taken shape, he folded it down the middle and began hammering it again.
This was the most common forging technique: fold forging. The "hundred refinements" in the legendary Hundred-Forged Refined Iron referred to this very method.
In fact, to describe it more vividly, it would have been more accurate to call Hundred-Forged Refined Iron hundred-layer refined iron.
After an iron ingot was folded and hammered once, it would have two layers. After the second folding and hammering, that would double to four layers. After the third, it would double again to eight...
And so on. After the seventh folding and hammering, it would have 128 layers. This was what was called Hundred-Forged Refined Iron.
After the tenth folding and hammering, it would accumulate 1,024 layers. This was the famous Thousand-Forged Refined Steel.
In normal history, divine weapons and sharp blades were basically all forged from Thousand-Forged Refined Steel of this level, making them extremely tough.
After the fourteenth folding and hammering, the number of layers would reach 16,384. This was Ten-Thousand-Refined True Steel, something that would never have existed in real history.
That wasn't all. At the seventeenth folding and hammering, the number of layers would reach a terrifying 131,072. That was hundred-thousand-fold profound steel.
Profound steel was already the primary material used for the weapons of Mortal Realm Third Layer cultivators. Its strength was extraordinarily high, enough to instantly outclass every alloy on Earth.
Ten-Thousand-Refined True Steel was the primary material for the weapons of Mortal Realm Second Layer cultivators. As for Thousand-Forged Refined Steel, it was naturally the material used for the weapons of Mortal Realm First Layer cultivators.
This was already the lowest grade of material. Scrap like Hundred-Forged Refined Iron had no value at all in the Primordial World.
Wang Hao's goal this time was naturally Thousand-Forged Refined Steel.
Although his previous self in the Primordial Wilderness had only been an apprentice, he had possessed the skill to forge Thousand-Forged Refined Steel. He had even reached the point where he could complete twelve rounds of folding and hammering, meaning he could forge refined steel with 4,096 layers.
That was no small feat. With each additional folding and hammering, the difficulty doubled. If the difficulty of the first was two, then the second was four...
And so on. The difficulty of the twelfth folding and hammering was 4,096, an enormous difference by comparison.
Of course, Wang Hao was not his previous self from the Primordial Wilderness. Even though he had inherited everything from him, there was still a gap in what he could bring to bear.
On top of that, the body he had possessed this time was far weaker than his previous body in the Primordial Wilderness, diminishing his ability still further.
Thus, Wang Hao really wasn't very confident that he could complete the tenth folding and hammering and forge Thousand-Forged Refined Steel this time.
But it didn't matter. Even if he couldn't complete the tenth folding and hammering, the ninth or eighth would be acceptable. At least it would be enough for his current needs.
As he used explosive force again and again, Wang Hao's stamina was rapidly being consumed. If he hadn't eaten large quantities of meat and drunk plenty of wine the night before, storing up enough strength, he would probably have collapsed from exhaustion long ago.
Forging had to be completed in one continuous effort. Once he stopped, the ingot would essentially set, and even if it were heated and hammered again, it could not be further improved.
"Clang!"
As the final hammer blow landed heavily on the ingot, the entire piece underwent a qualitative transformation, gaining a mysterious sheen on its surface.
The Thousand-Forged Refined Steel was complete!
"Whew... Luckily, my luck was good. I finally did it!"
Panting heavily, Wang Hao gazed with delight at the iron ingot on the anvil... no, it should now be called a steel ingot.
He hadn't expected the forging to go so smoothly, allowing him to complete the tenth folding and hammering in one go and produce Thousand-Forged Refined Steel.
It was also thanks to the improvement sword intent had made to his senses, which helped make up for some of the gap between him and his previous self in the Primordial Wilderness in another way. Only then had he been able to forge the Thousand-Forged Refined Steel in one continuous effort.
"Sir, this is the legendary Thousand-Forged Refined Steel, isn't it?"
The middle-aged smith swallowed, his gaze burning as he stared at the steel ingot on the anvil. As a smith, he naturally hoped to produce Thousand-Forged Refined Steel and forge a legendary divine weapon from it.
Unfortunately, with his ability, even forging Hundred-Forged Refined Iron was a struggle, let alone Thousand-Forged Refined Steel.
He had never expected to encounter a god of craftsmanship today!
"You know a thing or two. That's right, this is Thousand-Forged Refined Steel. I didn't expect my luck to be so good today either, letting me complete the tenth folding and hammering in one go."
In a good mood, Wang Hao didn't mind talking about it. His luck really had been good this time.
"Sir, I can't accept this tael of silver. Please take it back. Just being able to see a divine weapon about to be born is already an immense fortuitous opportunity."
The middle-aged smith hesitated, then took out the tael of silver he had tucked away earlier and respectfully offered it back to Wang Hao.
The gesture surprised Wang Hao. He began looking the middle-aged smith over closely and only then realized that the man wasn't middle-aged at all. He was in his early twenties at most; he just looked a little older than he was.
"I'm hungry. Take that tael of silver to the shop next door and buy twenty roast geese."
A thought occurred to Wang Hao, and he spoke with perfect composure.
The young smith hadn't said anything yet, but the old man beside him, who had been drinking all along, had already been unhappy about the young smith returning the tael of silver. Hearing Wang Hao's words, he would not stand for it. He rose and said angrily, "Twenty roast geese cost at least two taels of silver! Are you trying to swindle us? Don't think we're afraid of you just because you're big!"
"Father-in-law, please don't be angry. Two taels of silver for the chance to watch a master craftsman forge a divine weapon is no loss. It's a huge bargain!"
After hurriedly calming the old man down, the young smith turned back to Wang Hao with an apologetic smile. "Sir, my father-in-law is a layman and doesn't understand how these things work. Please don't take offense. I'll go buy you twenty roast geese right away."
With that, the young smith went into the room at the back to get some money, then hurried out to buy the roast geese with it and Wang Hao's tael of silver. He looked delighted, clearly believing he had gotten a bargain.
"Hmph!"
With a cold snort, the old man, unwilling to stay with Wang Hao either, staggered out of the smithy. Before leaving, however, he cast a covert glance at the piece of Thousand-Forged Refined Steel on the anvil. His eyes flickered; he was clearly hatching some wicked scheme.
Unfortunately, Wang Hao couldn't be bothered with the old man and failed to notice anything amiss, bringing a great deal of trouble upon himself.