Chapter 169: Soul Forging?

After approaching Lou Gao, Zhou Heng discovered that although Lou Gao's body seemed to have aged several decades, his eyes were far brighter than when they had last met; the spirit power breaking through within his aged, dilapidated body could no longer be hidden.

Although he did not sense it in detail, Zhou Heng was still able to roughly gauge the state of Lou Gao's spirit power.

To make a horizontal comparison, if Lou Gao's spirit power a year ago was merely at the level of a normal Spirit Douluo, then there was no doubt that his spirit power had now reached the realm of a Title Douluo.

It was already comparable to a ninety-first level Title Douluo who was not particularly skilled in spirit power.

Moreover, within the spirit power leaking from Lou Gao, Zhou Heng could also sense a peculiar quality—an artistic conception that only a Super Douluo would comprehend.

Clearly, in the year or so since Zhou Heng and Lou Gao had parted ways, Lou Gao had made a tremendous breakthrough in blacksmithing; although this had consumed a vast amount of his vitality, causing his body to become aged and fragile, his spirit power had consequently undergone a massive sublimation and amplification.

If not for the fact that Lou Gao's body was truly in such poor condition and his talent in soul power was average—a combination of various reasons—his soul power would have grown even if his spirit power had broken through.

Otherwise, if Lou Gao were merely a Spirit Saint in normal condition, with his current spiritual realm, Zhou Heng could have declared that Douluo Continent would have one more Title Douluo.

As the Hall Master, Lou Gao's appearance on this floor caused quite a stir; many blacksmiths who were originally selling goods gathered around to pay their respects to Lou Gao, and some people who had come to buy things also crowded near Lou Gao to watch this God Craftsman.

Lou Gao gave a wink to the disciple beside him, and a Zhuang Shi middle-aged man stepped forward to meet the crowd, creating an opportunity for others to take Lou Gao and Chen Ming away.

To be honest, a year ago, this might not have worked so well.

But nowadays, Lou Gao's frailty was something everyone could see; in the eyes of these people, this disciple, whose name was unknown, was basically equivalent to the next Hall Master of the Blacksmith Association.

Thus, except for a few blacksmiths who truly had a good relationship with Lou Gao and asked about his condition, the majority of the others' energy shifted to the disciple who had stepped forward.

Ten-odd minutes later, Zhou Heng and Lou Gao appeared in Lou Gao's exclusive forging room on the fifth floor. The disciples who had been accompanying Lou Gao were all ordered by him to keep watch outside the door, leaving only Zhou Heng and the aged Lou Gao inside the forging room.

Looking at Zhou Heng, Lou Gao summoned his martial soul.

This was not because he intended to fight Zhou Heng, but simply because in his current condition, using soul power alone to bolster his body was already slightly insufficient.

Seven soul rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black—appeared around Lou Gao, and with the emergence of his martial soul, the Diamond Chisel, Lou Gao was finally able to move like a normal old man.

Looking at Zhou Heng, Lou Gao bent down, about to pay his respects to Zhou Heng, but was quickly stopped by Zhou Heng reaching out.

"Hall Master, this old man..."

"Lao Chang Lao, there is no need for such formalities. Given your current physical condition, these courtesies are completely unnecessary; you should pay more attention to your health."

Although he could infuse Lou Gao with vitality, allowing Lou Gao's body, which was as aged as rotten wood, to recover to a certain extent.

Zhou Heng still chose to first infuse Lou Gao with only some of his own high-quality soul power to alleviate Lou Gao's state.

"Hall Master, eh, this old man is truly..."

After receiving Zhou Heng's support, there were tears in Lou Gao's eyes, and the look he gave Zhou Heng held a bit more fanaticism.

Through the Pseudo-Demigodhood within his Spirit Sea, Zhou Heng could sense that Faith Power was coming from Lou Gao; the man was quite devout toward him.

Because there were too few believers (just one), Zhou Heng had no way to categorize them, unable to distinguish between levels like "believer" or "lay believer" as in Western fantasy.

However, just by sensing the Faith Power on Lou Gao, Zhou Heng felt that the current Lou Gao was at least at the level of a devout believer.

Lou Gao struggled to move his body, guiding Zhou Heng to a stone wall. This stone wall had an overall metallic texture and seemed to be breathing soul power at an extremely minute scale, but when Zhou Heng scanned it with his spirit power, he found nothing unusual.

Under Zhou Heng's gaze, Lou Gao reached out and knocked on the stone wall, and the wall immediately changed.

The uneven surface, which still carried a slight rock-like texture, immediately began to shrink, gathering like flowing water into a small ball, which then fell into Lou Gao's hand. The original yellowish-brown camouflage color gradually faded, turning into a faint silver.

During this process of metallic transformation, Zhou Heng finally sensed soul power and Spirit within this layer of strange metallic shifting. But unlike the Small Gold Ball he had previously forced into shape using Board Crystal Hair Gold, Zhou Heng could sense that this Living Metal, which had gathered into a small ball, contained not only power and Spirit, but even elements sufficient to be called life.

"This is not Spirit Forging, this is Soul Forging?!"

Feeling this silver metal ball, Zhou Heng was truly astonished.

He had originally thought that even if Lou Gao were a God Craftsman-level blacksmith of this era, limited by the times, Lou Gao would at most have broken through from Thousand-Refining to Spirit Forging in a year, and at most have come into contact with basic Fusion Forging.

He did not expect that Lou Gao would actually give him such a surprise, breaking through from Thousand-Refining to the level of Soul Forging in one go in less than a year.

Bestowing Spirit upon metal is the requirement for Spirit Forging (the fifth-level blacksmith of later generations), while Soul Forging involves bestowing life upon the metal while giving it Spirit, allowing it to truly possess characteristics like life; in later generations, this is the requirement for a seventh-level blacksmith, and such a blacksmith can already be called a Saint Craftsman.

Above this, there are only the two levels of eighth-level Saint Craftsman and ninth-level God Craftsman.

These two levels represent Fusion Forging (complex), which involves the complex smelting of various metals into one and adding talents, and Heaven Forging, which can trigger lightning tribulations.

Watching Zhou Heng's astonished expression, a look of successful mischief appeared on Lou Gao's face. He shed his heavy burden, and while his physical condition seemed to have improved slightly, in reality, he had simply entered the stage of a flash of brilliance before death.

If things had followed the normal process, Lou Gao would have told Zhou Heng how much effort and energy he had spent to break through to Soul Forging in one go, but that he had consumed a vast amount of heart's blood and vitality for the breakthrough and was about to die, having only held on to his last breath to personally hand the result to Zhou Heng, and that his disciples would inherit his will to continue serving the Soul Hall after his death.

Then, after handing the metal ball to Zhou Heng, he would immediately breathe his last, dying with a smile.

But Zhou Heng was not lacking in vitality; how could he watch with his own eyes as this great treasure, who was about to approach the God Craftsman of later generations in this era, breathed his last before him?

To tell the truth, even in this era where combat power had not yet inflated and Title Douluos were not everywhere, a Saint Craftsman was more valuable than a Title Douluo.