Chapter 144: with translation of chapter title

Qian Renxue shook her head, calmly saying: "Get up, I can't teach you, at least for now I can't teach you; I myself came here to learn forging, I don't even know how to forge iron."

Lou Gao stared in disbelief, raising his head: "But your battle armor has indeed been forged, how could you not know forging?"

"Not bad, this armor on me is indeed formed, but it cannot be called battle armor; it was born by chance and coincidence, not forged, nor can it be considered true battle armor; its advancement method also differs from battle armor, its existence merely proves to us that the path of battle armor is indeed feasible, but how to popularize it still needs to be seen from you, this divine craftsman who knows forging."

"Because I don't know forging."

Qian Renxue always speaks factually; if she can't, she can't, she's too lazy to save face and pretend to be fat.

Lou Gao was stunned by this harsh news, but soon regained his spirit; although he suspected Qian Renxue was just unwilling to teach him, it didn't matter—since there was already a successful example, he dared to forge new battle armor!

Lou Gao climbed up from the ground, his round figure making him look a bit comical.

Lou Gao solemnly said: "Regardless of whether you know forging, in the field of battle armor you are the person who understands battle armor best in this world! If you don't mind, let us be teacher and friend—you teach me battle armor knowledge, I teach you how to forge!"

Qian Renxue's mouth corners slightly curled; that's exactly what she needed: "I agree; from now on, please, Master Lou Gao, give me plenty of guidance!"

"Where did that come from? It's actually me who should be troubling Master Qian Ling'er."

Lou Gao laughed heartily, then somewhat restrainedly rubbed his palms, showing an embarrassed smile, and asked:

"Since that's the case, hehe, could you tell me how this battle armor is formed?"

Qian Renxue nodded; although she didn't know exactly how forging is done, she still understood the conditions for forming battle armor.

However, she didn't directly dive into the topic, but instead smiled and threw out a question: "Master Lou Gao, in your view, what kind of blacksmith makes an excellent blacksmith?"

Lou Gao licked his dry lips, not understanding why Qian Renxue asked this, but now he was in an extremely excited state, ready to answer any question: "Needless to say, of course an excellent blacksmith is one who can forge divine artifacts!"

Qian Renxue smiled, neither saying he was wrong nor right, simply saying to herself: "In my view, as long as a blacksmith personally hammers the metal lump, he is an excellent blacksmith."

"What is forging? Forging and casting are completely different; casting only needs a mold, using machinery to press metal according to the die into the required shape—that's casting."

"But forging requires the forging master to hammer it by hand; forging can of course be done by machine hammering, yet metal also has life; machine forging can never truly grasp the grain of metal; only a good forging master is a true artisan, capable of forging true battle armor!"

"Look at your blacksmith association: aside from grandmaster-level blacksmiths, most blacksmiths use molds and machines to help forge; how can such blacksmiths forge divine artifacts? Although Geng-Xin City is called the City of Metal and Fire, its reputation limits it; most soldiers' equipment of the Star Luo Empire is forged in Geng-Xin City; due to workload, artisans using machines is understandable, but they are merely artisans, not true forging masters."

"Using molds is certainly easy, but thus they lose the ability to sense metal's grain; in my view, your blacksmith association truly lives up to its name—they are merely a group of blacksmiths, not true forging masters who forge divine artifacts."

Lou Gao's eyes grew brighter and brighter: "Grasping metal's grain, sensing metal's grain, you still say you don't know forging! This isn't something a novice could say!"

Qian Renxue neither affirmed nor denied, continuing: "In my view, forging also has many levels; generally speaking, it's hundred-forging; so-called hundred-forging means each part of a component must undergo over a hundred hammerings to complete; higher levels still have thousand-forging."

"For someone like you, a divine craftsman, this level may not be difficult; the more hammerings, the fewer impurities in the metal—this is common knowledge; of course, sufficient good metal is needed to withstand the pressure of thousand-forching; besides that, only the forging master's own strength can be relied upon."

"Master Lou Gao, can you perform thousand-forging on any metal? I need to know your forging ability; this will determine whether you can forge spirit battle armor."

Lou Gao looked at Qian Renxue with admiration, then sighed: "Actually, what you call thousand-forging is the standard to become a divine craftsman; I can achieve it; besides me, only Old Orangutan and Tang Hao of the Clear Sky Sect can do it; though he seems to have already become a Titled Douluo, so he should now be addressed as His Excellency."

He suddenly realized the girl before him was from the Spirit Hall, his face flushed with embarrassment; the Clear Sky Sect and Old Orangutan have grudges with the Spirit Hall; saying this, would she be angry?

To change the subject, he immediately asked: "What do you mean by spirit battle armor? How does it differ from ordinary battle armor?"

Qian Renxue had no interest in the legend of Tang Hao leaving in Geng-Xin City; she continued to fabricate a reason: "The concept of battle armor actually came to me from the sect master of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect—Yu YuanZhen—on his person; the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon's draconic transformation ability is famous worldwide, and Yu YuanZhen's true martial soul form is even more terrifying; his seventh soul skill does not transform him into a huge Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, but rather advances upon the draconic transformation base! The degree of draconic transformation on his body deepens, his combat power far surpasses that of an ordinary martial soul true form!"

"True strong ones never let their bodies become larger; this armor imitating draconic transformation, capable of enhancing a soul master's abilities, I call battle armor."

"As for spirit battle armor, this armor on me actually barely counts as spirit battle armor—namely, possessing spirituality, able to fully merge with a soul master's body; that is the battle armor I want you to forge!"

"The way to forge spirit battle armor differs from previous thousand-forging; instead, it requires using spirit-forging methods."

Lou Gao listened entranced; since becoming a divine craftsman, his path has been cut off; he is the strongest blacksmith, only able to grope forward on his own; now hearing there is a new forging method simply makes him excited to the point of almost suffocating; he hurriedly asked: "What is there to say about spirit-forging? Is it an advanced technique of thousand-forging?!"

Qian Renxue nodded, continuing: "Exactly! Spirit-forging differs from thousand-forging; usually, ten-thousand-forging gives spirit; once metal gains spirituality, spirit-forging can begin; spirit-forging is the fusion of life and metal, using one's own martial soul as a bridge, the process of imparting life to metal."

"Of course, a gifted forging master can even forge metal's spirituality during the thousand-forging stage, directly opening spirit-forging." Lou Gao excitedly couldn't control himself: "Spirit-forging! Excellent spirit-forging! Master Qian Ling'er! Then exactly how should I proceed?!"

Qian Renxue coughed once, bluntly saying: "I don't know; the spirit-forging I know is just this concept; strictly speaking, I only know the theory; as for how to actually do it, I don't understand, I'm not a forging master."

Lou Gao felt a mouthful of blood stuck in his throat, unable to spit it out; this is too agonizing; who speaks halfway and stops!

"Ten-thousand-forging gives spirituality, endowing metal with spirituality; seizing the moment this spirituality appears, using the martial soul as a bridge to communicate, help it shape life—this is the spirit-forging process; I only know this much."

Lou Gao thought for a moment, feeling he had some inspiration, could try later, then asked: "So spirit battle armor is simply metal after spirit-forging, forged into battle armor?"

"Exactly, if you want to forge armor like mine, you must master spirit-forging technique; only then do we have continued experimental value; you can also first teach me hundred-forging, my comprehension is decent; perhaps later I can figure it out myself."

Lou Gao blinked, curiously asking: "You already have battle armor, why still need to forge spirit battle armor for yourself?"

Qian Renxue's face turned slightly odd: "Because this battle armor doesn't suit my martial soul at all; all along, battles have always been me accommodating it; even when using it, I rarely employ my martial soul."

"True battle armor should double the power of a soul master's own martial soul; although my armor possesses spirituality and has power, it hardly enhances my martial soul ability; in other words, it doesn't suit me."

"This armor actually suits Wu Chen best, after all it came from Wu Chen's body as a mutant ability."

"Moreover, it is merely a spirit bone skill, cannot become true battle armor; Qian Renxue was once blinded by the ability of external spirit bones to evolve, but the more she uses this armor, the more she understands its limits."

"The Purple Lightning Holy Light Qilin Armor is completely restricted by heavenly rules; soul skills can only be soul skills, soul skills are the heavenly imprints left on spirit bones; this is the rule formed after the dragon god's demise; and after Qian Renxue becomes a god, her external spirit bone will become part of her divine gear, while the Purple Lightning Holy Light Qilin Armor remains merely a divine gear with an innate divine skill, merely overlaying onto her divine gear when used."

"However, spirit battle armor, like spirit bones, does not occupy spirit bone positions and can merge into the body; in other words, this is an alternative system of spirit bone; even after her eventual godhood, her spirit battle armor might also evolve together, becoming true divine gear; at that time, the two different systems of divine gear might possibly merge."

"Furthermore, Qian Renxue has not forgotten the Black Snow Soul-devouring Asura Spider Empress; her battle armor needs to match both angel and spider martial souls; whichever martial soul she uses must be able to unleash full power; after all, the right to use the second martial soul she must obtain, just after she obtains the seventh ring and masters the origin of the Eight-winged Angel martial soul!"

Lou Gao muttered: "Perfectly matching a soul master's martial soul—this way, whether not wanting to fall behind or wanting different battle armor from ordinary people, all soul masters will want to forge their own battle armor; battle armor will replace rare spirit bones! The value of rare metals will increase dozens or even hundreds of times; blacksmiths may become the most sought-after profession under heaven."

Qian Renxue interrupted him: "Don't get excited yet, hear me out; besides spirit-forging, there is another forging method you must also figure out, that is fusion-forging, the technique for forging alloys; however, seeing you used eight metals on the Eight Treasures Like-Illusion Soft Armor, I know your skill in this area is certainly not bad; but forging ordinary metal alloys and forging spirit-metal fusion-forging are completely different things."

"Fusing living different metals into one is not a simple matter."

Lou Gao nodded, excitedly asking: "When do we start! Spirit-forging is too important, must be figured out first! Like this! In the morning I'll teach you hundred-forging and thousand-forging; in the afternoon you watch me forge; if you have any inspiration, tell me, I can first help you try! After we figure out spirit-forging, you will tell me your martial soul's characteristics, I will select suitable metal according to your martial soul for spirit-forging; however, at the start I need to use metal I'm skilled with for experiments."

Qian Renxue's mood also rose somewhat; she wants to forge a truly perfect battle armor suited to herself! "Let's start now; you can first try on your own; I'll just watch from the side; spirit-forging must use your martial soul to guide, using soul power; soul masters are the mainstream of the Douluo Continent; this is an unchangeable fact; even if forging masters, their soul power level cannot be too low, otherwise they will only lose strength during forging."

"The rarer the metal, the easier it is to sense spirit-forging; moreover, if spirit-forging fails, the metal will be completely scrapped."

Lou Gao said with a smile: "Here in Geng-Xin City, there's not much else, only rare ores are sufficient!"

Don't worry, I am a Soul Emperor! Although I'm old, my soul power level's increase is getting slower and slower, but forging ten thousand times should be fine, I'll try first!

Lou Gao walked quickly to the nearby metal rack, looking at those pieces of precious rare metal, a hint of pride appeared on his face, and then without hesitation he picked up two pieces of metal from the bottom layer.

These two pieces of metal are dull and unnoticeable, even looking like ordinary stones.

Qian Renxue stopped the circulation of her soul power, and the armor on her body turned into points of light and vanished.

She curiously asked, 'Is this kind of stone also a rare metal? It looks quite ordinary.'

'I really believe you won't be able to forge it now; this is meteoric iron, a top-tier rare metal that does not exist naturally on the Douluo Continent—it comes from extraterrestrial meteorites that have fallen, and we have refined it into a new type of ore.'

The meteorite iron on the Douluo Continent has almost all been purchased by me; although the stock is not large, it's still more than enough for my personal use, and this is also the rare ore I'm most familiar with.

Its density is extremely high, its weight extraordinary; most remarkably, this meteorite iron itself contains a special energy, and weapons forged from it gain a penetrating effect. Therefore, generally speaking, we would choose to use it to forge sharp-type weapons, such as swords and spears.

While saying this, he had already placed the two pieces of rare metal onto the forging platform, letting Qian Renxue examine them thoroughly, and then, feeling the pain of the cost, he shoved them into the smelting inlet.

Although this meteorite iron looks dull and gray at first glance, a closer look reveals a fine speckled dark-gold cross-section on its surface; Qian Renxue's eyesight would certainly not miss such a detail, and perhaps in this room, the most precious thing is this meteorite iron.

4200(End of chapter)