Chapter 134: Spirit Forging?

After confirming there were no eavesdropping devices in the room, Zhou Heng got straight to the point and stated his purpose to Lou Gao.

"God Craftsman Lou, I am very interested in forging. I have read in books that a blacksmith is not as simple a profession as people imagine."

"An excellent blacksmith can stimulate the Spirit within metal during the forging process, allowing the metal's inherent qualities to reach a state of awakening, thereby forging weapons and armor suitable for Spirit Masters."

"It is said that when the Spirit of metal is stimulated to the limit, it will appear in a state similar to a soul bone, which can be absorbed by a Spirit Master, grow alongside the Spirit Master, and become a true Divine Artifact."

"I wonder if God Craftsman Lou and the Blacksmith Association have any research in this area?"

What Zhou Heng was talking about was not the current Blacksmith System, but the Blacksmith System that would originally only develop on Douluo Continent twenty thousand years later.

Hundred Refinements, Thousand Refinements, Spirit Refinements, Soul Refinements, Fusion Refinements, Heaven Refinements.

That was a complete path from the simplest metal purification to bestowing life upon metal.

It was one of the sources of the powerful equipment for Spirit Masters in the third and fourth eras of Douluo—Battle Armor and mechs.

Spirit Masters with extreme attributes can fight across 20 levels, and those at the Soul Saint level can possess the combat power of a Title Douluo.

And the boost that Battle Armor provides to a Spirit Master's combat power is not inferior to extreme attributes at all, and in some respects, it is even higher.

Even a simple one-word Battle Armor can provide at least 20 levels of enhancement.

For example, if a one-word Battle Armor master is a five-ring, wearing the Battle Armor makes their strength equivalent to a seven-ring. A two-word Battle Armor master is equivalent to an eight-ring, a three-word Battle Armor master is equivalent to a nine-ring, and a four-word Battle Armor master is equivalent to a Limit Douluo. (Original work setting)

Tiejiang Zhi Du was definitely a place Zhou Heng planned to visit.

Among the three great God Craftsmen of Douluo Continent, Zhou Heng had targeted Lou Gao from the start, wanting to let this God Craftsman, who was obsessed with forging to higher realms in the original work, help him perfect Battle Armor—something that should have only appeared tens of thousands of years later.

For a Spirit Master, Battle Armor is undoubtedly a Divine Artifact; the value of a set of three-word Battle Armor is not inferior to a set of normal Ten-thousand Year Spirit Bone, and the boost a four-word Battle Armor gives a Spirit Master is even greater than a full set of Ten-thousand Year Spirit Bone.

Since Zhou Heng plans to become a god in the future, the process of forging Divine Artifacts himself is indispensable.

A good Divine Artifact can significantly increase a deity's combat power; the Sea God, a Level 1 God, was only half a grade lower than the five God Kings in the God Realm because he possessed the super-Divine Artifact level Trident.

The Trident was even used by Tang San all the way into the era of the fourth Douluo.

Zhou Heng does not just need weapons at the Divine Artifact level; his ambition is greater. He wants a full set of Divine Artifacts, not just simple divine equipment.

From weapons to armor, from helmets to combat boots, he wants to forge custom-made, exclusive Divine Artifacts for himself.

But forging Divine Artifacts is certainly not a simple process.

On Douluo Continent, which is a blank slate in terms of artifact refining, forging a set of Divine Artifacts would take an unknown amount of energy and time.

And in the settings of the original work, fourth-level Battle Armor belongs to genuine semi-Divine Artifacts.

By using Divine Power and divine sense to nourish them, they can become true Divine Artifacts.

Hearing Zhou Heng's description, Lou Gao revealed a bitter smile, his eyes filled with frustration.

Unable to care about the pressure Zhou Heng was putting on him, the old man, struck in his sore spot, let out a long sigh and spoke his heart.

"You joke, you joke. How could blacksmiths be that powerful? That is nothing more than exaggeration in ancient books."

"Since I awakened my martial soul at the age of six, I entered a blacksmith shop to become an apprentice. At twenty, I apprenticed under the God Craftsman of that time to cultivate, and at fifty, I became a God Craftsman myself."

In the twenty-plus years since then, I have been painstakingly studying the craft, seeking to reach a higher realm."

"To tell you the truth, I can indeed faintly sense the Spirit belonging to metal within the metal, but as for how to stimulate it, I have used various methods over these years without getting the slightest result."

"Did young friend Zhou Heng read books or exaggerations by predecessors? Even though I am a God Craftsman, I cannot reach the stage of stimulating the Spirit of metal."

"Perhaps there were God Craftsmen in ancient times who could reach this level, but as far as I know, that was limited to the stage of stimulating the Spirit."

When Lou Gao said this, he felt a piercing pain in his heart.

For him, immersed in the way of the blacksmith, the fact that there was no hope of progress in blacksmithing technology was even more painful than being unable to progress in soul power.

Because if soul power cannot progress, one can say their talent is too low; there are predecessors who have stepped into the realms of Spirit Douluo and Title Douluo, it is just that one cannot do it oneself.

But in the realm of blacksmithing, he had already become a God Craftsman.

Even if his technique surpassed his master and grandmaster, looking up and ahead, he could not see the slightest path forward.

Nowadays, Lou Gao can only pin his hopes on those materials that are naturally full of Spirit, wanting to see if he can push the upper limit of the blacksmith's path through research on the innate Spirit of these materials.

"Is that necessarily so?" Zhou Heng smiled and took a piece of turbid crystal from the Ruyi Hundred Treasure Pouch at his waist.

Although the crystal in Zhou Heng's hand looked very turbid, in the eyes of an ordinary person, it wouldn't even sell for a single Gold Soul Coin.

But Lou Gao only had to take one look before he immediately became excited.

"Board Crystal Hair Gold? Such a large piece? I'm afraid it has a ten-thousand-year history, right?"

Under Lou Gao's excited and puzzled gaze, a red fire ignited in Zhou Heng's hand.

That was the manifestation of Extreme Fire. Under Zhou Heng's control, the terrifying destructive power of the Extreme Fire became extremely restrained, causing no damage to the outside world.

Only Lou Gao, sitting nearby, could perceive with his own eyesight and experience that the temperature of that flame exceeded all the flames he had ever seen.

The turbid Board Crystal Hair Gold was placed into the flame in his palm by Zhou Heng using soul power. The Board Crystal was instantly vaporized, while the Hair Gold, like star points within it, was gradually melted under the scorching of the flame, and then gathered together under Zhou Heng's control.

Watching this unique skill of controlling fire in his palm, Lou Gao could not help but subconsciously hold his breath, focusing all his spirit on the Hair Gold gradually melting in the flame.

A little bit of the Hair Gold was melted into a gold ball about the size of a thumbprint.

The Spirit contained within it was gradually stimulated under Zhou Heng's control.

During the process of the Spirit's elevation, Zhou Heng's left hand simultaneously raised, and cold soul power gathered on his palm.

When the Spirit of the gold ball was elevated to a peak, the Extreme Fire suddenly disappeared, and the gold ball in his right hand was thrown by Zhou Heng into the soul power of Extreme Ice gathered in his left hand.

Under the cooling of the Extreme Ice soul power, the Spirit that had been forcibly elevated within the gold ball gradually decreased and tended to stabilize.

A few minutes later, the gold ball, shrunk to the size of a pinky fingernail, was placed on the table by Zhou Heng.