Chapter 172: Metal Life?

Lou Gao took out a small bag, which was filled with metal shavings.

Lou Gao gently picked up a handful and sprinkled it onto the Metal Slime. Upon sensing the shavings, the Metal Slime immediately became excited, swallowing the metal shavings scattered on its body just like a real slime, and then went into a soft, limp state of digestion.

Its liquid metal body, which looked soft and squishy but was actually quite hard, expanded and contracted, absorbing the essence between heaven and earth to convert into soul power, and using that soul power to assimilate the various iron shavings within its body.

Although it lacked facial features or organs to express emotion, Zhou Heng could tell just by looking at this puddle of liquid metal that it was very happy right now.

Lou Gao signaled for Zhou Heng to also take some metal shavings to feed it. But when Zhou Heng sprinkled the metal shavings onto this Metal Slime, the slime clearly showed a sense of confusion.

After "looking" at Zhou Heng, it moved its liquid-like body closer to Lou Gao, and only after confirming that Lou Gao's expression hadn't changed did it tentatively start to absorb the metal shavings fed by Zhou Heng.

It even had the concept that one shouldn't just eat things given by strangers.

Zhou Heng always felt that this thing's Spirit was truly too abundant; if it were left on a metal mine rich in soul power to live for a few hundred years, it might even be able to produce a Soul Ring in the future.

Lou Gao, with a peaceful expression, poked the Metal Slime with his finger while introducing its characteristics to Zhou Heng.

"Xiao Yin was forged by me using sixteen types of top-tier metals. Each one is a good material with abundant Spirit, and every piece was initially processed by me—impurities removed and its Spirit basically stimulated.

This child has many characteristics, for example, it inherited the Hidden Silver Iron's trait of being difficult to perceive by spiritual power and soul power, the Hundred Refined Flame Gold's corrosion resistance, the Thousand Heavy Iron's density, the Cloud Pattern Steel's soul power conductivity, and the Refined Gold's plasticity.

But it is a pity that because my technique was not up to par, and because I didn't consider too much at the time and added too many metals, although it has many characteristics, it only inherited a small portion of each metal's traits, and they are neither strong nor stable.

At the beginning, its Spirit was not this abundant, and sometimes it would even appear as if it were about to collapse. After a careful inspection, I began to prepare feed for it, and then tried to purify it, weeding out those unstable characteristics to let it grow in a directed manner.

These past few months, I mainly fed it metal shavings of a mixture of Cloud Pattern Steel and Hidden Silver, and every once in a while, I fed it some Refined Gold. Its characteristics have gradually stabilized, and some metal traits have been weeded out.

Now it mainly has three characteristics: the difficulty to be detected from Hidden Silver, the soul power conductivity of Cloud Pattern Steel, and the plasticity of Refined Gold.

By the way, during the process of forging it, it also absorbed nearly twenty years of my life force.

Although it cannot be considered a truly independent life like a human or a Spirit Beast, it does indeed possess some biological characteristics because of this.

But honestly speaking, it should still belong to the material stage; after all, it is hard to call this appearance a finished product, yet I lack the ability to continue purifying and crafting it."

When Lou Gao said this, he was both happy and somewhat troubled.

This lump of stuff could be considered above Soul Forging but not yet Fusion Forging; it had Spirit and life and used multiple materials, but it just hadn't triggered a talent.

Later, Lou Gao figured it out: his technique was a bit poor and the materials he used were too many and too mixed, which caused this stage where a talent should have been triggered to be forcibly stuck.

Nowadays, this existence known as Xiao Yin can no longer be put back into the furnace for re-forging.

Its structure is too complex; once it is re-forged, it is equivalent to completely killing its life force and Spirit, wanting to reactivate it.

In Lou Gao's estimation, that technical level, not to mention the God Craftsman level, would at least have to be infinitely close to a God Craftsman.

Knowing these problems, Zhou Heng took up the Metal Slime, which had spread out into a lump on the table and started digesting its food, with great interest. Against its reluctance, he forcibly entered its body, sensed its structure, and then casually branded it with his own mark.

The Metal Slime known as Xiao Yin was reluctant at first, but under Zhou Heng's control, its body gradually cooperated, and in the end, even its soul was branded with Zhou Heng's mark.

This little life had completely forgotten Lou Gao, its creator, and its interior had become Zhou Heng's likeness.

When Zhou Heng injected soul power into it, this little lump of Metal Slime would emit a faint tremor to respond.

Under Zhou Heng's will, Xiao Yin turned into liquid and wrapped around Zhou Heng's wrist, then deformed according to Zhou Heng's will, gradually taking the shape of a bracer.

Under Zhou Heng's precise control, lifelike dragon-shaped cloud patterns even gradually appeared on the bracer.

Watching this scene, Lou Gao opened his mouth wide, his eyes filled with an indescribable complexity.

Looking at Xiao Yin, which had turned into a bracer, Lou Gao felt a complex mix of emotions in his heart, as if an old father had seen his originally well-behaved daughter turn around and run off with a delinquent.

When Lou Gao's finger touched the Metal Slime that had turned into a bracer, and the Metal Slime Xiao Yin instinctively became alert, this feeling reached its peak in Lou Gao's heart.

Lou Gao was silent for a long, long time. After a while, he revealed a strange expression, sighed helplessly, and then smiled again.

"It seems that this metal with life and Spirit is no longer just metal; they will also choose their own masters.

With the Hall Master's ability, you certainly won't let down my craftsmanship, right?"

"I certainly won't let down Elder Lao's intentions." Zhou Heng replied to Lou Gao while stroking the bright silver bracer on his right wrist.

In the following half-month, Zhou Heng stayed in the blacksmith city of Gengxin City, discussing the development prospects of forging technology with Lou Gao, narrating some insights into the laws of heaven and earth, and incidentally helping Lou Gao use his life force to recuperate his body.

While everyone thought that Lou Gao hadn't appeared in front of people for the past half-month because he was about to die, Lou Gao was actually excitedly swinging a large hammer with a clanging sound in front of the fire, while Zhou Heng was responsible for assisting on the side, controlling the flames in the furnace while sensing the changes in the metal and informing Lou Gao.

One month after Zhou Heng arrived in Gengxin City, Lou Gao produced the first Soul Forging level product, a bracer made primarily of Earth Vein Flame Crystal provided by Zhou Heng, combined with many special metals.

Although this arm guard was primarily fire-attributed, at Zhou Heng's request, it was changed to an emerald green color by Lou Gao, and a green bead that wasn't of much use was inlaid on it. Chen Ming named it the Green Bead Bracer.