210 Comprehension and Mu Xi’s Advancemen

From where they were standing, they could clearly see the two chunks ofthousand refined heavy silver on the table.

That’s definitely thousand refined heavy silver! And it’s second-grade!Second-grade thousand refined heavy silver was usually in the domain of fourthrank blacksmiths, yet two kids who had succeeded in forging it now stood infront of him.

Tang Wulin’s and Mu Xi’s state of comprehension was short-lived, but it toldthe Elder Duan everything he needed to know—both youngsters were at least thirdrank.

The old man turned to Cen Yue. “Little Yue, your Eastsea Blacksmith’sAssociation sure has some tricks up its sleeve! Mu Chen is truly formidable. Inever expected that he would have groomed two young successors, especially thatbrat over there. I looked into him and discovered he’s only ten years old. Justwhere did you find such a freak?”

Cen Yue delighted in the old man’s bitter expression. “Elder Duan, you don’thave to be so worried. We were just lucky. You should know that Mu Xi has shownpromise since she was a child, but Wulin is our president’s only directdisciple. He’s quite talented. Maybe he could exchange notes with blacksmithsfrom Skysea City in the future.”

Cen Yue’s reply was truly a needle hidden in silk floss. He flawlesslyexplained Tang Wulin’s status as Mu Chen’s direct disciple, secretly warningElder Duan to discard any ideas of preying on him.

Each blacksmith had their own blacksmithing techniques and ways to pass downtheir teachings. Just like how a good master was hard to find, a good disciplewas also hard to find! What master wouldn’t want a disciple that could one daysurpass them?

Forging a second-grade thousand refined metal wasn’t much in their eyes; whatwas significant, however, was how young Tang Wulin was! He was only ten yearsold! In the entire history of blacksmithing, a ten-year-old who could thousandrefine was unheard of! This was simply…

Elder Duan felt short of breath as he stared at Cen Yue. “Why hasn’t anyonetold me that Mu Chen took in a disciple? Have any of you heard about this?” Heswept his gaze across the other blacksmiths present.

“I haven’t heard about this,” each of the blacksmiths from Skysea City saidone after another, shaking their heads.

Cen Yue’s expression darkened. “Elder Duan, what are you implying?”

Elder Duan snorted. “Nothing. Let’s just head back then. We don’t want toinfluence the children’s competition.”

He glanced at Tang Wulin one more time before leading the others back to thestage.

Just after they left, Tang Wulin raised his head. His state of comprehensionhadn’t been as great as Mu Xi’s since he was forging the familiar heavy silver,but he did manage to grasp the barest traces of what a first-grade thousandrefining was like.

The fact that Tang Wulin had used his tungsten hammers needed to be kept inmind. He wondered just what the result would have been if he used his heavysilver hammers. If he had used them, he probably would have had at least asixty percent chance to produce a first-grade metal.

A first-grade Thousand Refinement was also called Half-Spirit Refinement. Thesooner that Tang Wulin could achieve this, the easier it would be for him tocomprehend Spirit Refinement. The only thing he currently lacked was soulpower. Even with his innate divine strength, Mu Chen was confident in hisassessment that Tang Wulin would need to have at least three rings beforeSpirit Refinement would be possible. This was because, during the process ofspirit refining, blacksmiths needed to infuse the metal with the vitality thatcame from the blacksmith themselves. In other words, the gap between theblacksmith’s martial soul and the metal.

An ordinary blacksmith needed to have at least four rings before being able tospirit refine, but with his innate divine strength, Tang Wulin only neededthree rings to sustain the process.

Nonetheless, a first-grade Thousand Refinement could be considered the gatewayto Spirit Refinement. The greater the feeling and the deeper his comprehension,the closer he got to the realm of Spirit Refinement.

Tang Wulin had set a goal for himself prior to the start of thetournament—before reaching three rings, he would thousand refine every metal hecould get his hands on to the standard of first-grade. This way, when it thetime for him to attempt Spirit Refinement arrived, his chances of success woulddramatically increase while lowering his material costs.  

Mu Xi let out a long sigh as she lifted her head, sluggishly gazing at thetwinkling silver metal before her. The moment she laid eyes on the heavysilver, she was dazed.

It’s thousand refined second-grade!

Although she couldn’t compare to grandmaster blacksmiths, her understanding ofhigh-level forging was still extraordinarily deep since she grew up as thedaughter of a Saint Blacksmith. She was naturally able to identify the level ofthe metal she had just forged.

I-is it actually second-grade? She hadn’t even grasped the fundamentals of theThousand Refinements, yet she had somehow managed to forge a second-grademetal? Mu Xi simply couldn’t believe it! Furthermore, she just comprehended thetrue essence of the Thousand Refinements and was now confident in her abilityto thousand refine any metal. Taking this into consideration, she knew that shewas now a third rank blacksmith.

She turned to Tang Wulin, her eyes welling with all sorts of emotions—relief,admiration, envy, and another emotion she didn’t understand.

A teacher guides the way, dispelling the disciple’s doubts; that was exactlywhat it felt like with Tang Wulin leading her. He was the one who elevated herto the third rank, something not even her father had been able to accomplish.

Using his own rhythm to spur her on, Tang Wulin pushed her into that state ofcomplete focus and reveal the path to the Thousand Refinements.

After putting away her hammers, Mu Xi walked over to Tang Wulin’s side. Shereached out to rub his head and pinch his cheeks, not expressing her gratitude.

“Let’s go,” she said, leading the way out.

A smile tugged at Tang Wulin’s lips as he watched Mu Xi leave gallantly. Atthat moment, the two understood each other even without giving voice to theirthoughts.

Mu Xi stopped once they left the blacksmithing competition grounds. “Are youparticipating in the individual competition?”

Tang Wulin nodded. “Senior disciple sister, why aren’t you participating?You’re definitely strong enough to place highly.”

Mu Xi currently has three rings, and from Tang Wulin’s understanding, hermartial soul was a powerful one.

“I can’t,” she replied and shook her head. “My talent for blacksmithing can’tcompare with yours, and I’ve had a change of heart since you arrived. I’ve beencontemplating whether my path is that of a blacksmith, a soul master, or abattle armor master. I want to embrace all three of these identities, but I amultimately destined to be a blacksmith. In light of that, I’ve decided to focusmy time and energy on forging.”

Mu Xi paused for a moment to give Tang Wulin a profound look. “Wulin, you arefar more talented than I am, so much so that you’re a once-in-a-centuryblacksmithing genius. Dad told me that, if you continue to steadily developlike this, you would one day become a Divine Blacksmith. So if you enjoyforging, you need to put even more effort into it from now on.”

Tang Wulin nodded slightly, understanding Mu Xi’s intentions. She wished toremind him that, if he wanted to be a blacksmith that stood at the peak, hecould not let himself get unnecessarily distracted. However, his goal was tobecome a battle armor master. That was his dream.

Tang Wulin dreamed of becoming a mecha pilot when he was a child, but after WuZhangkong educated him about battle armor masters who stood above mecha pilots,his dream changed. Blacksmithing had initially been a way for him to earn moneythat he just so happened to enjoy, but now it fueled his hope of one daybecoming a battle armor master.

“Senior disciple sister… I love blacksmithing, but my circumstances aredifferent from yours. Your martial soul is way better than mine. I only haveBluesilver Grass. People have been telling me that my martial soul is trashsince I was six. Even though I’ve devoted all of my energy into steadilycultivating, the results have been lackluster. Becoming a great blacksmith alsorequires soul power, so if I want to do that, I have to put in the effortcultivating. Aside from that, my one true dream is to become a battle armormaster.”