Chapter 538

Zhenhua laughed heartily and also sat down beside Tang Wulin.

"Hahaha, good, now I will teach you: if you can really forge a prototype of the four-word battle armor using soul-forged metal, then this time we will have made history."

The so-called prototype of the four-word battle armor, as the name suggests, is an unfinished four-word battle armor—only the shell has been forged.

Although the prototype of the four-word battle armor is not a completed four-word battle armor, its value can even be higher than that of a completed one.

The reason is simple: battle armor is closely tied to a soul master's abilities, and forcibly wearing armor that does not belong to you yields very little benefit; if an assault-type soul master puts on a support-type soul master's four-word battle armor, they would likely gain less improvement than wearing their own three-word battle armor.

However, the prototype of the four-word battle armor is different: it has no attributes, and its greatest function is to fuse with an existing three-word battle armor.

After the fusion is completed, the material of the original three-word battle armor can undergo evolution, formally evolving into a heavenly-forged four-word battle armor.

On the current continent, three-word battle armor is not scarce, but four-word battle armor is possessed only by the top experts of the major powers; thus, the prototype of the four-word battle armor is an absolute priceless treasure wherever it is found.

Originally, theoretically only Zhenhua could forge the prototype of the four-word battle armor, for he is the first and only Divine Artisan on the continent, the only one capable of heavenly forging and the only one able to craft a true four-word battle armor.

But after Tang Wulin completed soul forging, this theory developed a loophole.

Even if true heavenly forging cannot be achieved, if the quality of the forged metal can match or exceed heavenly forging, then using that metal to forge a prototype of the four-word battle armor may not be entirely impossible.

In fact, Zhenhua is also curious about what strange chemical reaction would occur when using the peculiar metals forged by Tang Wulin to cast battle armor.

He said, "Then, as we mentioned last time, so-called soul forging means infusing the metal with a soul, using the blacksmith's own power to completely elevate the metal being forged."

"Every Saint Artisan's soul-forged metal has different characteristics, so soul-forged metal is also called the blacksmith's incarnation; if the initially life-infused spirit forging is like a plant, then soul forging infused with soul and consciousness is already akin to an animal."

"It is precisely because soul-forged metal is so important that the status of high-level blacksmiths on the continent is so high; in the realm of one-word and two-word battle armor, the blacksmith's importance is actually not great, but once reaching three-word battle armor—that is, the realm of soul forging—the blacksmith becomes the most important of all secondary professions."

Of course, the relative scarcity of Saint Artisans is also a very important reason.

"Your soul forging is so powerful not only because the soul-forged metal you produce is of a higher grade than others', but also because your soul-forged metal inherits part of your strength; your strength far surpasses that of ordinary blacksmiths by a great margin, and consequently the soul-forged metal you produce is also much stronger."

"Oh right, Crazy Old Man, the reason you can still complete soul forging at your age and become a Saint Artisan is thanks to your own strength, right?"

At the end, Zhenhua glanced at Feng Wuyu, who was silently listening beside him, and casually asked.

Feng Wuyu pursed his lips.

"That's right, this isn't any secret."

"If it were merely teaching soul forging, that would be fine to say, but forging the prototype of the four-word battle armor completely exceeds his capability."

Although he is even a unique blossom in the history of the forging world, his talent and insight in certain fields may even surpass Zhenhua's, but when it comes to knowledge related to heavenly forging, the gap between him and Zhenhua cannot be described as merely a little bit.

Therefore, in this lesson, Zhenhua is absolutely the main character, while Feng Wuyu is truly just here to observe.

Although he felt a bit unwilling inside, he still obediently stayed here to listen to Zhenhua's lecture.

After all, that kid Zhenhua is quite cunning; to hear him unreservedly expound his forging experience is likely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Even for a Saint Artisan of Feng Wuyu's caliber, the Divine Artisan's lesson is extremely important; no matter how proud Feng Wuyu is, he cannot deny this.

Zhenhua smiled at Tang Wulin and said, "Look, this is the secret of Crazy Old Man's success; as far as I know, he is also the strongest among all living Saint Artisans today, and the greatest characteristic of his soul-forged metal is that the power it carries is markedly stronger than that of the soul-forged metal produced by other Saint Artisans."

As he said this, Zhenhua recalled the piece of living alloy forged by Tang Wulin.

A few months earlier, when Tang Wulin first met him, under his guidance he forged a living alloy with quality close to heavenly forging, and its fusion degree reached an unprecedented level—even a hundred percent, which is theoretically impossible to achieve.

Regarding why the fusion degree could reach a hundred percent, Zhenhua pondered repeatedly and still believed the key lay in the suppression of the forging metal by Tang Wulin's bloodline aura at that time.

Under the suppression of that powerful bloodline, the metal being forged completely submitted to him, resulting in it voluntarily relinquishing its own characteristics.

Such a thing is truly fantastical; if someone else told Zhenhua this, he would surely think they were crazy, but when it actually happened beside him, Zhenhua helplessly realized that this was already the most reasonable explanation.

Normally, a living alloy with a hundred percent fusion degree already has quality not inferior to ordinary soul-forged metal, and the reason it can match heavenly forging is evidently thanks to Tang Wulin infusing his own power into the metal in the final step.

During the two months that Tang Wulin entered deep meditation, Zhenhua conducted a comprehensive study of the living alloy he had forged.

In the end, he concluded: this piece of living alloy, in every characteristic, has reached the utmost limit attainable by ordinary living alloy.

Not only is the compatibility of all elemental attributes fully maxed out, but its own material is incredibly perfect in every aspect; moreover, if Zhenhua's guess is correct, simply fusing this living alloy forged by Tang Wulin with battle armor would allow the armor being fused to directly acquire a trace of Tang Wulin's bloodline attribute.

Anyone who has felt Tang Wulin's bloodline can understand how exaggerated this is.

Moreover, Tang Wulin's soul forging is even a step further than that living alloy; although it is still two stages away from heavenly forging, it has already become more formidable than ordinary heavenly forging thanks to the nourishment of dragon god power.

This is also the basis for Zhenhua's confidence that Tang Wulin can complete the forging of the four-word battle armor prototype in the coming period.

Because if spirit-forged alloy gives metal a hint of the blacksmith's breath, and soul-forged metal gives metal the blacksmith's attribute, then soul-forged alloy gives metal the blacksmith's talent.

For example, a Saint Artisan with a fire-attribute martial soul, the soul-forged alloy they produce often carries an extremely strong combustion attribute, and this attribute usually does not consume soul power; if it can be attached to battle armor, it can instantly boost the soul master's ability by a large margin.

Consequently, soul masters on the continent, when forging battle armor, often try to inquire about the different abilities possessed by various Saint Artisans across the land; otherwise, an ice-attribute soul master who forges battle armor bearing a fire-attribute talent would truly be laughable.

Given Tang Wulin's living alloy and soul forging performance, the quality of the soul-forged alloy he produces should also be heaven-defying.

In the following time, Zhenhua detailed to Tang Wulin the points to note when forging soul-forged alloy.

Most of these are actually similar to the precautions for forging spirit-forged alloy, which Tang Wulin already knows by heart, yet he did not interrupt Zhenhua and listened very attentively.

After finishing, Zhenhua took a breath, picked up the water on the table and drank a sip, kicked the table leg with his foot, and he and his chair retreated several meters; he gestured to Tang Wulin and said, "Alright, I've already told you the most basic and important things; the next content must wait until you personally try forging the fused alloy once before we can continue."

Upon reaching the level of Saint Artisan, some things cannot be learned merely by speaking and listening; only practice can yield true knowledge.

If we now simply dump those high-level theoretical knowledge onto Tang Wulin, he wouldn't even be able to digest and absorb it all; instead, he might develop misunderstandings, leading to problems.

It would be better to let him try it himself; whether he succeeds or fails doesn't matter—what matters is the experience of this forging.

Tang Wulin nodded and looked at Feng Wuyu sitting before him.

"Um, Elder Feng, please step back as well."

Feng Wuyu curled the corner of his mouth.

"It doesn't matter; I'm not like that brat—my body is very sturdy, so I won't be harmed by the commotion of your forging."

The reason Zhenhua and Tang Wulin distanced themselves is not actually because they fear disturbing him; for an excellent blacksmith, the most important thing is concentration—if even the most basic focus cannot be maintained, the success rate for forging high-grade metal approaches zero.

Even Divine Artisan Zhenhua, when his attention is scattered, can at most accomplish spirit-forging-level work.

What he fears is the energy fluctuation produced by Tang Wulin as a blacksmith.

Back when forging the spirit-forged alloy, it was fine; Tang Wulin used little force to avoid damaging the metal, so Zhenhua could observe up close without any problem.

However, since the recent period of soul forging began, the energy fluctuations generated by Tang Wulin's forging have started to become somewhat alarming.

At least for Zhenhua, a Honored Douluo whose realm is somewhat unstable, prolonged close-range observation of Tang Wulin's forging could possibly cause bodily harm.

Feng Wuyu is a Super Douluo, and moreover a Super Douluo produced by Shileke Academy; his strength is considerably greater than that of an ordinary Super Douluo, so he was able to watch Tang Wulin forge right up until yesterday.

Unfortunately, this privilege of his ends today.

Tang Wulin said seriously:

"Old Feng, this time I'm serious; I will unseal more power, which might really hurt you, please step back, and if possible, I hope you can protect the teacher."

Seeing Tang Wulin's serious expression, Feng Wuyu's face stiffened, he gave a dry cough, nodded, retreated a few steps, obediently distanced himself from Tang Wulin, and came to Zhenhua's side.

"Alright, I understand."

He knows Tang Wulin's strength well; if previously he was the foremost combat power among blacksmiths, then undoubtedly the top combat power in the blacksmith world now is this kid before him.

Feng Wuyu had actually already asked Yunming about this; from Yunming he learned that Tang Wulin is a power-type assault-system soul master, and such people as blacksmiths never lack strength, often being the type with the greatest movement and noise in forging.

Feng Wuyu clearly understands that if this kid really goes all out with his hammer, he might actually be able to kill him with the aftershock.

Seeing Feng Wuyu also distance himself from him, Tang Wulin finally let his heart settle, and then his gaze became extremely focused.

At this moment, his eyes held only those few pieces of metal on the forging platform before him, nothing else.

Every piece of metal radiated nine-colored light; they were all spirit-forged metals that Tang Wulin had successfully forged before, and now he decided to directly subject them to soul-forging-level fusion forging.

Last time, Tang Wulin, because it was his first attempt at fusion forging, got the process wrong, performing fusion forging before spirit forging.

After several months of study, Tang Wulin realized that this kind of forging was laborious and unrewarding, so this time he chose to first perform soul forging, then complete fusion forging.

Tang Wulin had not made any lengthy preparations; these were metals he had forged himself, and he was already quite familiar with them.

With a surge of fierce aura rising in the forging chamber, the dazzling soul ring of six gold and one color appeared once again around Tang Wulin.

No matter how many times, seeing his soul ring combination, Feng Wuyu couldn't help but sigh from the heart: "What a monster……"

Golden dragon scales rose on his body, and nine-colored light spread with his hands onto the forging hammers he held; Tang Wulin raised both hammers and struck down fiercely.

「Clang! Clang! 」

Next, he began striking the two spirit-forged metals continuously, as if playing a percussion instrument, following a special rhythm with both hands.

The two observers present were both forgers with exceptionally keen eyesight, and they immediately saw that Tang Wulin was forging two spirit-forged metals simultaneously, attempting to complete soul forging on both at once.

If anyone else attempted this level of forging before them, they would surely be astonished; for both Zhen Hua and Feng Wuyu, the success rate of achieving soul forging this way would be extremely low, not worth the loss, and it would be better to honestly forge each piece one by one.

But since the one performing the work was Tang Wulin, their expressions remained normal, merely watching his actions calmly.

The reason is simple: the same task, Tang Wulin had already repeated it dozens of times before them. His learning process of soul forging was not as easy as when he learned spirit-forged alloys, given that he had stagnated for several years as a fifth-rank forger, his understanding of spirit forging had already reached the pinnacle, whereas soul forging was a completely new endeavor for him.

Thus, even with his excellent talent, he endured a full half month of failures before finally completing soul forging, becoming a true seventh-rank forger, one of the dozen or so Sage Craftsmen on the continent.

Zhen Hua and Feng Wuyu had no dissatisfaction with this; on the contrary, they were overjoyed.

Joking aside, the two of them had each been stuck at the threshold of seventh-rank forger for an incredibly long time—Feng Wuyu even more so, and even Zhen Hua had spent a full five years before finally breaking through, which earned him the title of the first genius in the history of the forging world.

Tang Wulin accomplished in half a month what had taken him five years to achieve; his forging talent is now beyond description as unprecedented, and Zhen Hua can confidently say that this is a level of forging talent unmatched by any future generation.

What's even more frightening is that the difficulty he experienced while learning soul forging vanished like a joke after he completed his first soul-forging work.

After officially advancing to seventh-rank forger, Tang Wulin's soul forging became extraordinarily easy; whether he had grasped the feeling or not, his success rate in soul forging reached an astonishing ninety-five percent.

This means that out of twenty soul-forging attempts, only about one would end in failure.

This is hardly believable; if it were any other forger who had just reached seventh rank, the failure rate would be about ninety-five percent, meaning only one success in twenty attempts would be normal.

Even after fully mastering soul forging, he soon learned many advanced techniques from Zhen Hua and began to show off.

The simultaneous forging before him is one typical example.

In the past forging world, simultaneous forging was considered useless, as it greatly reduced the success rate in exchange for a slight speed increase; under normal circumstances, unless time was truly pressing, no forger would use this technique.

But after mastering this technique, Tang Wulin became enamored with it, and thereafter almost every forging involved performing soul forging on two metals simultaneously.

Needless to say, for someone like Tang Wulin with an extremely high success rate, simultaneously forging two metals indeed saves a great deal of time.

Soon, the sound of Tang Wulin's hammers striking the two metals began to mix with a sound previously absent.

「Clang! Ding! Clang! Ding! 」

This is one of the phenomena symbolizing the preliminary completion of soul forging, the soul-forging echo.

The soul-breaking echo can almost be considered a stage‑wise victory in soul forging; as long as one completes the soul‑breaking echo, the success rate of soul forging has already exceeded half.

At the same time, this is the most difficult step to accomplish in the soul‑forging process, because it cannot be taught; even top‑rank forgers like Zhen Hua and Feng Wuyu can only impart to Tang Wulin the sensations they felt when completing the soul‑forging echo, and exactly how to achieve the soul‑breaking echo must be realized by the forger himself through personal insight, demanding an extremely high level of comprehension.

Thus, the vast majority of sixth‑rank forgers actually get stuck at this step; what they lack is not accumulation or experience, but the epiphany sufficient to make the breakthrough.

After completing the soul‑forging echo, the next stage is soul‑forging solidification.

Having completed the most difficult step, Tang Wulin no longer held back; he swung his hammers down with rapidly increasing speed, and the clanging sounds instantly filled the forging chamber, while the gusts generated by his swinging arms grew so strong that an ordinary person could hardly stand.

Under his hammer blows, the surfaces of the two metals began to continually emit nine‑colored light, and before that light could fade, his next hammer strike landed on them, infusing them with even more light.

Under this continuous striking, the two spirit‑forged metals seemed to be completely soaked in nine‑colored light; the fading of the nine‑colored hue began to slow, eventually gradually solidifying.

At that moment, the two metals suddenly jumped up from the forging platform as if startled, as though trying to escape Tang Wulin's vicinity.

Once a metal given life reaches a certain level of vitality stimulated by soul forging, it develops its own sentience.

At that point, it becomes panicked, unwilling to be controlled, and will exhibit behavior akin to fleeing.

Once it escapes the forger's control, because the newly heightened soul has not yet been solidified, it will quickly dissipate, returning to the spirit‑forging stage, after which that metal can no longer undergo soul forging.

However, for Tang Wulin, who had undergone soul forging many times, this step was expected; he did nothing more than let out a heavy cold snort, the nine‑colored light in his eyes flashing briefly, and the two metals that had been about to flee dropped back onto the forging platform, still trembling slightly, as if feeling fear.

These two metals, having been forged by Tang Wulin, already possessed a certain draconic bloodline; in a sense they are an extension of his power, and he need only think to mobilize the suppressive force of his dragon‑god bloodline toward his kin to easily restrain their movements.

Having suppressed the metals that wanted to flee, Tang Wulin's expression remained normal, as if nothing had happened, and he proceeded to the next stage, soul solidification.

What soul‑breaking solidification aims to achieve is not only the solidification of soul power but also the solidification of the soul; only when the newly born soul within the metal is completely stabilized does the second step of soul forging, soul‑forging solidification, count as fully successful.

The nine‑colored light in Tang Wulin's eyes suddenly intensified, and with his hammer strikes, layers of mental power began to envelop the two metals.

Although not as strong as Huo Yutong, Tang Wulin's mental power has actually entered the Divine Origin realm; considering that his mental power has completely transformed into divine sense, his mental power level is even higher than that of Yun Ming.

Using such a level of mental power for soul‑forging solidification is like using a butcher's knife to kill a chicken.

As a result, the speed of soul solidification even surpassed that of the earlier soul‑power solidification; before long, layers of nine‑colored dragon scales began to appear on the surfaces of the two metals.

Meanwhile, Tang Wulin's hammering speed, which had originally been as violent as a raging storm, gradually slowed down, becoming much more normal.

Of course, this so-called normal much is only relatively speaking; the two observers present have personally undergone soul forging, knowing that Tang Wulin's current forging speed is much faster than theirs back then, at least about twice as fast.

Although the double-hammer strikes had slowed considerably, they were still rapid; soon the surfaces of these two rare metals were completely covered with nine-colored dragon scales, and while the surfaces continuously emitted nine-colored light, the aura they gave off became very substantial and steady.

The appearance of this phenomenon indicates that Tang Wulin's soul solidification has also been formally completed, and the soul-forging solidification has ended.

After the soul-forging solidification ended, all that remained was the final step: summoning the soul.

This step, like the previous soul-forging resonance, belongs to the type that can only be understood, not explained in words, and Tang Wulin also spent the most time on this step.

Fortunately, those failures are now in the past; for the current Tang Wulin, this summoning step is no longer an obstacle for him.

With a resounding dragon roar, a huge golden dragon head glowing with nine-colored light appeared behind Tang Wulin—this was his third soul skill, Golden Dragon Roar.

He hardly used any of his internal strength; for him now, if he truly unleashed Golden Dragon Roar at full power, the one to suffer would be the entire Shrek City.

He now uses this soul skill simply because it best combines his soul power and spiritual power, and it's also the easiest to control the degree of.

Under the shock of Golden Dragon Roar, the two pieces of metal before Tang Wulin also responded with two dragon roars; as nine-colored light burst forth, the summoning ritual ended and soul forging was officially completed! The two soul-forged metals on the forging platform continuously emitted nine-colored light, as if cheering and leaping, conveying excitement.

Because the quality and characteristics of soul-forged metals forged by different holy artisans vary, whenever a new holy artisan is born, the new metal they forge will have a unique name.

Because the metal Tang Wulin forged is overly strong and uniform, the names of these metals are mostly the same: Nine-Colored Dragon Scale Steel.

This name obviously comes from the metals' uniform external characteristics; thereafter, if one sees a piece of soul-forged metal covered in nine-colored dragon scales on the market, it is likely a product forged by Tang Wulin.

If it were as usual, Tang Wulin's work would have ended here, and his attention should have turned to the subsequent metals.

But today is different; today he must continue with the subsequent work, namely alloy forging at the soul-forging level.

Tang Wulin lowered his hands holding the hammers to his sides, took a deep breath, and focused his gaze on the two soul-forged metals on the forging platform.

Then, as a red light flared, the Fire Dragon King that Zhen Hua and Feng Wuyu had become very familiar with during this period emerged once again from Tang Wulin's left arm.

It opened its huge mouth toward the two metals on the forging platform.

"Boom—"

Instantly, scorching flames surged toward the two soul-forged metals.

Feng Wuyu and Zhen Hua's faces instantly changed.

They somewhat understood why Tang Wulin had just told Feng Wuyu to retreat as well, and to protect Zhen Hua as much as possible.

Previously, when Tang Wulin used the Fire Dragon King's power, the temperature of the expelled flames was actually not that high; even if Zhen Hua were directly sprayed, it probably wouldn't cause much trouble.

But this time is different; likely because the two metals used to make the alloy are both soul-forged, although Tang Wulin still considerably restrained the Fire Dragon King's flames, their temperature still reached the level of an ordinary fire-system Super Douluo.

In other words, even if Feng Wuyu personally unleashed flames, the temperature would be about this level.

Zhen Hua's mouth corner twitched uncontrollably.

Know that Tang Wulin hasn't even begun formal forging yet; he merely made a few preparations for the soul-forging ritual, and already caused such a huge commotion.

If the commotion later truly keeps increasing, he feels he would no longer have the ability to stay here.

Unlike him, Feng Wuyu, as a Super Douluo possessing the Blazing Fire Dragon martial soul, has a deeper perception of the Fire Dragon King's aura.

Previously, the Fire Dragon King's suppression of his own power was not obvious; now, with just a slight use of power, he can feel his martial soul and bloodline trembling in waves, as if paying homage to a sovereign.

What is the origin of Tang Wulin's this soul spirit, and is it perhaps overly powerful? How did he find such a powerful soul spirit ten thousand years ago?

No, upon reflection, only the era ten thousand years ago when wild soul beasts ran rampant could provide such a powerful soul spirit.

Although a soul spirit's combat power is greatly influenced by the soul master, its intrinsic quality is the most crucial part.

Feng Wuyu dares to bet that, up to now, Tang Wulin's this fire dragon soul spirit has not yet displayed its full strength.

If it unleashed full firepower, how high could its strength rise? It surely couldn't reach Limit Douluo-level combat power, right? Remember that even Yun Ming's strongest soul spirit is only at the level of an ordinary Honored Douluo.

What Feng Wuyu doesn't know is that he actually guessed correctly.

As the soul spirit of Tang Wulin's Blue Silver Emperor martial soul, the Water Fire Dragon King's power has in fact been greatly suppressed all along.

At least when Tang Wulin and Huo Yutong have the same soul power level, any one of the Water Fire Dragon King's entities is inferior in strength to the Snow Emperor, who has retained most of his primal power.

The gap between the Blue Silver Emperor martial soul and the Ice Snow Girl martial soul is truly enormous.

But now, things are different from before.

As the current first heir to the Dragon God's divine throne, Tang Wulin obtained the power of the Dragon God's bloodline from the soul core bestowed by the Dragon God.

Because the life-attribute soul core governing the Blue Silver Emperor power is wrapped within the Dragon God soul core, Tang Wulin not only carries the bloodline aura, but even his soul power is tinged with the Dragon God's bloodline power.

Thus, the Water Fire Dragon King's power has been greatly enhanced.

Now, any one of them, when fighting at full strength, is not inferior to the Snow Emperor, and can even match wits with Di Tian and the Evil Emperor.

In other words, their combat power is at the quasi-god peak level; not to mention Yun Ming's soul spirit, even Yun Ming himself, facing these two Dragon King-level soul spirits joining forces, would surely lose more than win.

(End of chapter)