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--- Chapter 489 ---
Han Yuan's past few days had been remarkably uneventful.
His daily routine had turned into a consistent, slow, boring cycle: he would casually stroll around the vast, soot-stained complexes of the Blacksmith Association in the morning, secretly slip away to his bedroom and have a nap while actually experimenting with his twin martial souls, stuff himself on the high-energy, soul-nourishing delicacies prepared by Mu Ye, and then sleep like the log.
Rinse and repeat. Initially, he showed a strong desire to explore and tour the streets of Heaven Dou City, but both Han Tianyi and Zhen Hua had flatly denied the request.
For reasons they refused to explain, his tourism limits were strictly limited to this warm, ash-filled blacksmithing district.
Of course, that casual, boring cycle shattered this morning.
Stimulated by the alarming realization that Han Yuan had been consuming enormous quantities of nutrient-dense spiritual food without showing the slightest hint of indigestion, Mu Ye finally decided to conduct a thorough physical evaluation.
When the Body Sect Master ran his soul power through the boy's meridian pathways, the results nearly stopped his heart. At a mere child's age of six, Han Yuan possessed the raw, dense physical fitness of a standard Spirit King.
This impossible discovery immediately sent shockwaves through the inner circle, initiating an emergency, locked-door gathering of Zhen Hua, Mu Ye, and even the recently arrived Han Tianyi.
Refusing to believe the initial physical readouts, the three towering figures also immediately subjected Han Yuan to a rigorous test of his innate spirit power.
When the testing crystal exploded with a blinding, golden radiance that defied the standard of the continent, the truth became indisputable.
It was the legendary, divine phenomenon: Innate Soul Power of Level Twenty!
A miracle of this level meant only one thing in the ancient texts! Yes, the divine favor!
It was a phenomenon that occurred when a soul master was born with a martial soul that carried the divine lineage or blessing of a god.
The sheer seriousness of the situation sobered the three elders, changing their awe into paranoid secrecy. They unanimously swore a binding oath to bury this truth from the rest of the world.
Using his newly stamped authority, Han Tianyi even personally accessed the Spirit Pagoda's database. With meticulous consideration, the Illusory Brain Douluo manually altered his grandson's own registration, severely downplaying the divine miracle into something merely genius-level: an Innate Full Soul Power of Level Ten.
Furthermore, he skillfully concealed the entry of Han Yuan's twin spirits, filing them under ambiguous, seemingly mutated, but fundamentally "ordinary" classifications.
Their extreme caution wasn't born out of mere overprotectiveness. In the current era of mechanized warfare, high-speed soul guidance technology, and a gradually breaking world, true god-level martial souls were entirely unheard of.
If the evil factions of the Federation, the high-rank executives of the Spirit Pagoda, or the hidden monsters of the Holy Ghost Cult ever caught wind of a child carrying divine potential, they would stop at absolutely nothing to seize Han Yuan, dissect his secrets, or brutally assassinate him before he could threaten the balance of power.
Yet, while the chaotic world remained blissfully unaware, this hidden truth cemented Han Yuan's transcendent status within the hearts of his three elder guardians.
To them, the path ahead was terrifyingly clear for Han Yuan.
If this boy was protected appropriately, allowed to temper his body, will, and dream, and given the room to grow, breaking the mortal limit and ascending to become a literal God wouldn't just be a distant goal.
It would be a total certainty.
Or so they thought, because the boy's brilliance isn't just that.
.
.
The next day arrived with a lazy, elongated stretch.
"Yawn~!"
Han Yuan lay on a sofa and rubbed his eyes, leaning lazily against a very comfortable pillow while watching Zhen Hua meticulously hammer a brilliant piece of glowing, rare alloy.
The rhythmic, explosive clang-clang-clang of the hammer echoed in the chamber. Han Yuan's silver eyes traced the trajectory of every strike.
The forging technique of his recently assumed God-Grandfather was very immaculate, totally earning the man his title of Divine Craftsman.
However, for a boy who inherited the massive technical memories of both Alpha and Beta, this level of forging was rather elementary compared to the deep, science-bending sciences of Spirit Guidance Crafting or the magical mysteries of ancient Artifact Refining.
Even so, watching the older man swing a hammer was significantly more entertaining than pacing around the soot-filled district in boredom.
"Xiao Yuan, do you want to give the forge a try?" Zhen Hua unexpectedly asked, pausing mid-swing as he caught the boy's lazy, half-interested expression.
Han Yuan's silver eyebrows shot up. A spark of genuine joy flickered in his eyes as he grinned. "Hmm, sure! Why not?"
Zhen Hua burst into a hearty laugh. "Haha! Alright, come over here then."
The Divine Craftsman brought Han Yuan toward the corner of the grand workshop, pulling out a considerably smaller, soot-darkened training anvil specifically made to be easily reached by a six-year-old child.
Zhen Hua wasn't worried about the silver-haired boy lacking the muscle strength to swing a heavy blacksmith's tool. They all knew this tiny body possessed the terrifying physical strength of a standard Spirit King.
Instead, Zhen Hua patiently began to talk about the core basics of forging to the boy. He walked the boy through the technique of breathing control, the alignment of the hips, the optimization of leverage, and exactly how to read the lines of hot metal to know where to strike.
It was basic stuff.
It was information Han Yuan already understood in theory, but hearing it conveyed through the refined, lifelong wisdom of a Divine Craftsman brought a sudden, refreshing eagerness to his mind.
There was a massive difference between merely possessing memories or being self-taught, and receiving direct, personal instruction from the peak grandmaster of the profession, after all.
Countless elite blacksmiths across the continent would gladly trade their entire fortunes for a single hour of private tutoring with Zhen Hua. Han Yuan knew, with a slight smirk, that he was incredibly lucky.
"Do you understand everything I just laid out?" Zhen Hua asked, his eyes gleaming with high expectations, though he carefully hid his expression to avoid placing unnecessary pressure on the child.
Han Yuan merely nodded, offering a casual, modest reply. "Hmm, just a little bit."
"Can I try forging now?"
"Of course you can!" Zhen Hua beamed, reaching into his collection and pulling out an old, weathered forging hammer he had used during his own youth.
It was a dense, sharp-looking, dark-gold hammer forged entirely from a thousand-refinement Gold Meteor Ore. Despite its small size, it weighed well over half a ton.
Yes, a staggering half a ton of condensed metal.
Yet, when Han Yuan reached out and took the handle, his small fingers wrapping securely around the grip, the weapon felt as light as a stray feather in his palm.
His monstrous, god-blessed physique didn't even feel the weight.
Zhen Hua nodded inwardly, his heart swelling with wonder as he watched how effortlessly the boy wielded the hammer. "Remember, spread your stance wide, but don't keep your joints too loose."
"Strike when you feel the metal's internal heat shifting, but whatever you do, do not hit it randomly."
"Mhm," Han Yuan responded with a focused nod. "Grandpa Zhen, then what metal should I start forging first?"
"Uh..." Zhen Hua was suddenly completely stumped. He glanced around his workshop and even scanned the contents of his personal spatial ring, facepalm by a humorous dilemma. He didn't own a single piece of low-tier, newbie-friendly metal.
Every single ore within his reach was either an exceedingly rare mineral or a volatile one far too complex for a complete beginner to handle safely.
Finally, his sharp eyes spotted a few scattered chunks of Heavy Silver discarded carelessly in a dusty corner, likely leftover pieces from a high-grade alloy mixture he had experimented with weeks ago.
With a swift, casual wave of his hand, Zhen Hua telekinetically pulled the Heavy Silver across the workshop, tossing it straight into the roaring high-temperature forge before slapping the glowing, orange-heated chunk onto Han Yuan's dark anvil.
The movement was so blindingly fast, smooth, and effortless that Han Yuan could only stare blankly at the display.
"That should do it!" He said while dusting his hands off.
'This God-Grandfather of mine... is might actually be a bit of a comedian,' Han Yuan's mouth twitched slightly in amusement.
Turning his focus back to the task at hand, Han Yuan gazed intently at the radiant, heat-emitting block of Heavy Silver sitting on the dark metallic surface.
He raised the dark-gold Meteor hammer in his right hand, took a steady breath, and brought the heavy tool down with a slow, highly calculated, moderate force.
Clang!
At first, Zhen Hua watched with an amused, grandfatherly smile, fully expecting the boy's initial attempt to dissolve into a clumsy, uneven failure that would serve as a good learning experience.
But the silver-haired boy didn't stop. Slowly, methodically, his rhythmic strikes began to shift.
Han Yuan rapidly adapted to the Heavy Silver's shape, entering a hyper-focused state as he synchronized his strength and internal soul power with the vibrating anvil.
His hammer swings were initially a bit rough, even visually uneven to the trained eye. Yet, defying every known law of standard apprenticeship, the dense Heavy Silver beneath his hammer began to compress at a visible, shocking rate.
In just five minutes of continuous striking, the metal even underwent a faint, mirror-like finish.
'A perfect Hundred Refinements... in five minutes?!' Zhen Hua's jaw nearly dropped. 'Even a trained Rank 2 Blacksmith would struggle to achieve this level of refinement so quickly!'
However, Han Yuan's display of brilliance was far from over.
The boy kept forging, his silver hair swaying as he brought the dark-gold hammer down with an increasingly stern, unyielding expression.
Every impact caused the entire small anvil to shake violently, the deep vibrations rippling through the reinforced floor. With every precise strike, the compressed Heavy Silver let out a resonant, high-pitched soul cry, the literal proof that its latent impurities were being utterly refined.
The metal began to radiate a soft, silver spiritual glow, illuminating the dim workshop.
"This... This is...!" Zhen Hua lost all his professional composure, jumping back as he shouted in disbelief. "Holy Shit—Fuck! This is the Thousand Refinements!"