Chapter 170: Sudden Enlightenment Amidst Forging

"Elder Lao, wait a moment, don't speak.

Your condition is somewhat dangerous; let me stabilize you first before we talk."

Zhou Heng grabbed Lou Gao's wrist and slowly injected life force and soul power into Lou Gao's body. Lou Gao's body, which had originally entered the stage of a final flash of brilliance, absorbed the power transmitted by Zhou Heng as rapidly as a sponge, and Lou Gao could feel his condition improving quickly.

Lou Gao's expression changed rapidly with the injection of life force. Along with the recovery of his body, the curve of his mouth grew wider and wider, and the shock in his eyes deepened.

Although he did not understand the principle behind this, being able to continue living and forging was better than smiling as he departed for the afterlife after leaving behind one final forged piece.

After slowly injecting life force for over an hour, the physical depletion Lou Gao had suffered over this past year was thoroughly alleviated; even some of his old ailments were eased or even cured by the injection of life force. He felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted from his body in an instant, and he could immediately continue swinging his forging hammer and happily forging.

Just as Zhou Heng stopped the flow of life force and soul power, Lou Gao suddenly moved to kneel, only to be stopped by Zhou Heng once again.

To prevent Lou Gao from kneeling at every turn, Zhou Heng simply made things clear this time.

"Elder Lao, kneeling and bowing have no meaning at all; I am not some tyrant who places extreme importance on power.

When I first recruited you, Elder Lao, it was for the sake of the forging system, for the sake of your abilities in forging.

Now that your forging technique has seen such a huge improvement, that is already the best result for me.

Kneeling or bowing, even a thousand or ten thousand times, has no meaning at all compared to the improvement of forging technique."

"Right, the Hall Master is right! Compared to those cumbersome rituals, the art of forging is what is most important." Lou Gao gripped Zhou Heng's arm, very agitated, his eyes filled with tears. His expression was just like those people from the previous life who saw the sun on the peninsula; his entire mind was filled with gratitude and indebtedness.

"Hall Master, please come with me; I will tell you about my progress in forging over this past year."

Lou Gao led Zhou Heng to sit before a workbench. There were no drinks or fruits, and the old man and the young man just started talking plainly like that.

Through Lou Gao's introduction, Zhou Heng also learned what had happened to Lou Gao over this year.

After returning to Gengxin City, Lou Gao had constantly explored the Small Gold Ball that Zhou Heng gave him, feeling that Spirit, and repeatedly recalled every word Zhou Heng had said while holding a small notebook. Then, after several attempts, he successfully stimulated the Spirit within the metal for the first time.

At the beginning, Lou Gao used metal that was already rich in Spirit. After forging several times and successfully triggering the Spirit each time, Lou Gao began to gradually switch to metals that were not as high in Spirit to conduct his attempts. Finally, it took him about three months to stably raise his forging technique to the level of Spirit Forging.

Because Zhou Heng had mentioned a higher realm, after breaking through to Spirit Forging, Lou Gao only celebrated briefly with his disciples before throwing himself back into the improvement of his forging technique.

After Spirit Forging came the basic Fusion Forging, which is the stage of simply fusing several types of metal together and then stimulating the Spirit.

For Lou Gao, who had been stuck before Spirit Forging for decades, this was not difficult. It took him only about a week to easily complete this stage, and then what lay before him was Soul Forging.

Spirit Forging is bestowing Spirit upon metal; Soul Forging is bestowing life upon metal.

Lou Gao had broken through to bestowing Spirit through the hands of Chen Ming, but bestowing life made him feel it was difficult, while at the same time making him feel somewhat familiar.

Lou Gao flipped through many ancient books left behind by predecessor blacksmiths and found a shortcut to bestowing life upon metal within the words of the ancient texts.

That was a special secret technique created by an ancient divine general, using the blacksmith's life and soul power as fuel to temper the metal. It is said that the realm in the mind of the creator of this technique was to bestow life upon metal.

Lou Gao first made a simple attempt and discovered that this secret technique created by his predecessors was actually real and effective. Although the effect was not that strong, it did indeed possess the theoretical characteristics.

Thus, Lou Gao became as if possessed, attempting it again and again, forging again and again.

Because Zhou Heng had greeted the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, many materials that were originally rare in the Blacksmith Association were transported to Gengxin City by the cartload by the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect for Lou Gao to use. Lou Gao triggered the secret technique time and again and recorded these insights.

Finally, in a chance occurrence a few months ago, Lou Gao finally grasped the realm imagined by the creator of the secret technique. In one forging session, he truly bestowed life force upon the metal and stepped through the gates of Soul Forging.

This metal, which possessed plasticity and the ability to deform like liquid metal, was the product of that forging session.

According to the terminology of Spirit Masters, that was undoubtedly a state of sudden enlightenment. In the state of sudden enlightenment, Lou Gao had abandoned all external factors and devoted himself entirely to the forging.

At the beginning of experimentally using the secret technique, Lou Gao still knew how to control the amount of the secret technique used, burning very little life force.

But in the stage of sudden enlightenment, Lou Gao completely forgot this important matter, forcibly stimulating his potential and burning his life regardless of the cost.

After the forging was finally completed, Lou Gao had indeed officially stepped into the realm of Seventh Level Soul Forging and even began to touch upon the Eighth Level of Fusion Forging.

But when he woke up from the state of sudden enlightenment, Lou Gao did not even have the strength to stand and collapsed directly onto the ground, fainting.

Fortunately, he did not fall into the furnace; otherwise, that would have been truly too ironic.

If it hadn't been for his disciples worrying about his condition, coming over from time to time to listen for the sound of forging in the room and checking the consumption of supplies and various materials, and discovering Lou Gao lying on the ground, dead or alive, then Lou Gao would likely have died in his own forging room.

Over these past few months, although Lou Gao had achieved a huge breakthrough in his spirit, and his spiritual realm had reached a level previously unimaginable,

his originally robust body had become worse and worse. Recently, he even needed someone to support him to move.

Even if Zhou Heng had not come at this time, Lou Gao would have considered having his disciples take him to Heaven Dou City to see Zhou Heng one last time in the near future.

After hearing Lou Gao's words, Zhou Heng did not quite know what to say.

For a seeker of the Dao, "to hear the Dao in the morning and die in the evening" is truly too normal.

If he were in Lou Gao's shoes, facing that unique opportunity, his choice would be the same as Lou Gao's: to burn his life for that realm in his ideals.

After Lou Gao finished speaking about the events of this period, he took a thick book from the Storage Soul Guidance Device at his waist and handed it to Zhou Heng.

That was a book crafted from metal. The cover of the book was made of Mithril, the material of the pages was made of specially treated Refined Gold, and it was written upon using a peculiar metal as pigment.