Qian Duoduo's Shock: A Spirit Alloy Is Born!

After studying the burly new examiner for a moment, Xu Xingyu realized that the man before him had to be Qian Duoduo, the deputy dean of the Soul Tool Department in the original story.

Still, the examiner's identity had nothing to do with him. His goal had never changed: to pass the Soul Tool Department's assessment. That was all.

The Soul Tool Department's assessment consisted of two tests: a theory test and a practical test.

Neither was particularly difficult for Xu Xingyu. He had worked in engineering on Blue Star and had spent the past few years helping the Spirit Contract Pagoda research and create mechas and Battle Armor.

These were things he could pass with ease. Xu Xingyu picked up the written test on Soul Tool knowledge and answered every question at breakneck speed. Qian Duoduo was somewhat surprised as he watched him.

The test covered only the most basic of basics, but finishing it so quickly was incredible. Even a Level 5 Soul Engineer would have had some difficulty with it.

After Xu Xingyu finished, Qian Duoduo quickly skimmed through his answers. To his surprise, every answer was correct, and the methods used to solve the questions were the best choices available. There were even some methods that Qian Duoduo himself couldn't understand.

If Qian Duoduo took the test himself, he might have finished it even faster, but he was a Level 8 Soul Engineer and an expert at the Super Douluo level.

Even for him, quickly completing a theory test meant for Level 3 Soul Engineers while ensuring every answer was correct would have been difficult.

Yet Xu Xingyu was only a Soul Elder and a Level 3 Soul Engineer. Usually, the Level 3 Soul Engineers in their Soul Tool Department had only about a sixty percent pass rate on this test.

From this theory test, Qian Duoduo knew that the young man before him was not only a genuine Level 3 Soul Engineer, but his theoretical knowledge might already have surpassed the limits of a Level 3 Soul Engineer.

Qian Duoduo estimated that Xu Xingyu's theoretical knowledge had most likely reached the level of a Level 5 or Level 6 Soul Engineer.

In reality, Xu Xingyu's theoretical knowledge of Soul Tools could already rival Qian Duoduo's. The only reason his knowledge from Blue Star couldn't give him Soul Tool knowledge above Level 9 was that Soul Tools above Level 9 all touched slightly on matters concerning certain laws of the Douluo Continent.

When it came to the amount of knowledge he possessed, however, Xu Xingyu far surpassed the vast majority of people on the Douluo Continent. To him, with his knowledge from Blue Star, these things were no different from middle school math.

As for making Soul Tools, to Xu Xingyu it was like assembling Lego and doing arts and crafts. Those above Level 7 might have been a little harder, but at his current stage, that was about all there was to it.

After Qian Duoduo finished reviewing Xu Xingyu's paper, the practical test began.

For this test, the candidates were free to choose what to make. They had to use the materials provided by the academy to create a Soul Tool themselves. Once they were done, the examiner would inspect its performance and grade it accordingly.

Xu Xingyu had originally wanted to make something at random and bluff his way through this stage, but after looking at the materials the academy had provided, a bold idea appeared in his mind.

After making his selection, Xu Xingyu took two pieces of rare metal: Deep Sea Heavy Silver and Starfall Iron. The sight made Qian Duoduo's heart ache terribly.

He had realized that the box of materials he had brought Xu Xingyu was not intended for Level 3 Soul Engineers, but for Level 5 Soul Engineers.

Otherwise, Xu Xingyu could never have used rare metals of the caliber of Deep Sea Heavy Silver and Starfall Iron in this assessment. Although the two had not reached the status of something like strategic war materials, they were still priceless rare metals.

What Xu Xingyu did next, however, left him somewhat baffled. Xu Xingyu took two hammers out of his Storage Soul Tool.

With Qian Duoduo's discerning eye, he could tell that the two hammers were probably made of Heavy Silver, but what was Xu Xingyu taking them out for now?

Was he going to forge something? When making Soul Tools, some metals did indeed need to be forged to remove impurities.

But a Soul Engineer didn't actually need to do that work himself. It was enough to leave it to skilled blacksmiths.

Even at Shrek, they only taught the basics of purifying metals and had Soul Engineers practice a little when they were at Level 1 or Level 2.

After that, they were given metals purified by other blacksmiths to use. Students were rarely made to purify the metals themselves.

Besides, the metals provided for this test had already been purified!

But Qian Duoduo soon had no time to think about it. Xu Xingyu raised both hammers and began pounding the metals faster than a thunderbolt.

What Qian Duoduo couldn't believe was that, although Xu Xingyu's forging was swift and powerful, every blow landed just right, without damaging the metals' internal structures in the slightest.

Moreover, Qian Duoduo could see the metals' luster grow brighter with every strike.

Most incredible of all, Xu Xingyu was forging two rare metals at the same time! Of all the people Qian Duoduo knew, only the finest blacksmiths could do such a thing!

Soon, each piece of metal began to emit a halo of light: the spiritual light that signified first-grade thousand refinement.

What was known as first-grade thousand refinement would be called half-step spirit forging in the era ten thousand years later. At this point, the metals were only one step away from possessing spirituality and intelligence of their own.

Of course, Xu Xingyu's understanding of the two metals and his skill weren't the only reasons he could subject them to Thousand Refinement so quickly. After all, the metals had already been purified.

Normally, if one blacksmith had purified a metal, it would be somewhat difficult for another blacksmith to forge it. Everyone's forging techniques could differ, so it was easy to make a mistake and damage the metal's internal structure.

But in the present era, forging techniques were not very advanced. In Xu Xingyu's eyes, these two pieces of metal had only undergone Hundred Refinement.

And in this era, hundred-refined metal was already considered the finest work of forging.

Xu Xingyu's forging did not end with the spiritual light of first-grade thousand refinement, however. Flashes of electricity began to flicker around his two forging hammers.

The electricity traveled down the hammers to the surfaces of the two metals. The instant it touched them, they began to vibrate at different frequencies.

At last, the two pieces of metal seemed to melt, turning into molten metal. The moment the two differently colored streams touched, they began to fuse in a wondrous fashion.

This was the Fusion Forging technique from ten thousand years later! It used a special forging method to fuse two different metals while preserving the properties of both.

Originally, only blacksmiths who knew Spirit Forging could perform Spirit Forging, but Xu Xingyu relied on the superb special effect of his Heavy Silver forging hammers to accomplish something in a field he should not yet have been involved in.

His forging hammers' special effect was magnetic field control. It could control the electromagnetic fields of the metals he forged, allowing him to alter their shapes at will.

Back at the Spirit Contract Pagoda, he had tested whether his magnetic field special effect would let him perform Fusion Forging without having learned Spirit Forging. After many attempts, he had found that he really could do it.

It was just somewhat difficult. Fortunately, he was in good form today, and he had finally succeeded in completing Fusion Forging.

And now, the first fusion-forged metal, also known as a spirit alloy, had been born here! A piece of newly born Star Silver had been successfully forged!