Arthur took a deep breath and slowly raised the forging hammer in his right hand. His soul power erupted violently, ring after ring of soul rings rising up from beneath his feet, black and gold intertwining, radiating a suffocating pressure.
"That's..." Changgong Yan's pupils contracted sharply. "What kind of soul rings are those?!"
Arthur didn't answer. His gaze was already fixed entirely on the Blue Gestation Copper on the forging platform. The hammer trembled slightly in his hand, letting out a crisp hum.
"First strike!" he growled low, and the hammer came down.
"Clang!" A deafening ring of metal on metal echoed through the entire hall, scattering a wide spray of sparks.
Golden light washed over the Blue Gestation Copper, there and gone in an instant.
Hundredfold Forging!
"Clang!" The second strike fell.
This strike was entirely different from the first. The instant the hammer's head met the Blue Gestation Copper, the golden light no longer simply flashed and vanished, it flowed across the surface of the material like a tide, then swiftly seeped inward.
Thousandfold Forging!
Every strand of golden light was like an invisible little hammer, striking finely and densely at the copper's interior.
The internal structure, which had still been somewhat coarse, was rapidly compressed and reorganized in that instant. Impurities were forced out even further, and the density surged.
Changgong Yan's pupils contracted again, and the words burst out of him before he could stop them: "That's Thousandfold Forging?!"
The blacksmiths nearby, who had already been dazzled by Arthur's display, said scornfully, "Making a fuss over nothing."
Arthur, however, didn't pause at all. His soul power surged into the hammer like a tsunami.
He raised the hammer high overhead.
"Clang!" The instant this strike landed, the entire forging hall seemed to tremble faintly.
Inside the Blue Gestation Copper, a blinding blue light suddenly erupted. Wisps of spiritual light seeped out from deep within the material and wove together in midair into a hazy phantom shape.
Spirit Forging!
That was the "spirituality" of the Blue Gestation Copper, fully awakened, the "life" it possessed as a rare metal.
No, that wasn't right!
This time even the blacksmiths around them were stunned.
Even Zhen Hua and Mu Chen looked dazed. The first two strikes had been one thing, but they couldn't make sense of the third either!
Zhen Hua took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. "No, wait, did you see anything?"
Mu Chen stared fixedly at the blue phantom hovering above the copper and said in a low voice, "No. That third strike, I couldn't make out any forging technique at all. It looked like just any random hammer blow."
Of course they couldn't see it, because Arthur's third strike truly had nothing to do with forging technique.
He was cheating.
Put simply, it amounted to: "I command you: be born, and live!"
Using the authority of a plane, he was forcibly granting life to the metal.
"It's not over yet. Watch closely, everyone," Arthur said in a low voice.
The blacksmiths around him fell silent at once.
"What more does he mean to do?"
At this point, Arthur began the process of advancing from Spirit Forging toward Soul Forging.
The hammer came down in an instant like a raging storm.
"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!"
The dense clangor of metal on metal came so fast it nearly blurred into one continuous sound, shaking eardrums until they ached.
The Blue Gestation Copper seemed pinned down by some invisible hand, and no matter how the storm of blows rained upon it, it maintained an eerie kind of "calm."
Everyone could see it now: he was Soul Forging!
Under the hammering, the metal's physical structure had reached the level required for Soul Forging.
And then came what followed.
"Xiaxi! Help me call forth the soul!"
The little auspicious beast appeared, perching on Arthur's shoulder.
The greatest difference between Spirit Forging and Soul Forging was this: Spirit Forging granted life, while Soul Forging imparted one's own legacy into the metal, much like passing down a soul's inheritance.
At Arthur's call, Xiaxi slowly opened the vertical eye between its brows.
"Roar," a beast's cry, almost too faint to hear, echoed deep within Arthur's soul.
Xiaxi's vertical eye shot out a ring of golden light, and that halo enveloped the Blue Gestation Copper.
"Clang!" The final strike fell. There was no earth-shaking tremor this time, only a clear, crisp ring like the tolling of a bell.
The curtain of light around the Blue Gestation Copper suddenly contracted, pouring entirely inward. Within it condensed a grain-of-rice-sized orb of light, gold and blue intertwined, hovering quietly at the metal's core like a beating pulse.
Arthur slowly lowered the hammer. Xiaxi narrowed its eyes and nuzzled gently against his shoulder.
"Soul Forging... complete."
Changgong Yan paid no mind to the disciple beside him, whose composure had shattered at the sight.
He strode forward in excitement, reaching out his hand only to snatch it back again, over and over, before he finally dared to touch the Blue Gestation Copper lightly. The moment he channeled a thread of soul power into it, he grasped the core of Arthur's understanding of forging.
He bowed deeply to Arthur, a formal bow of great respect. "This old man has lived nearly a hundred years, and only today have I learned the true meaning of Soul Forging! Young Master Arthur, you are a true prodigy of forging!"
The blacksmiths around them bowed as well, one after another.
This was a historic moment!
Zhen Hua laughed heartily, his voice booming. "Excellent! What a magnificent Soul Forging! From this day forward, the name Arthur shall resound through the entire forging world, past and present!"
Suddenly, a speck of crimson light and a flash of sword light shot out from the side of Changgong Yan's neck, streaking toward Arthur and Zhen Hua respectively.
"Master!"
A huge hand appeared out of the void: Mu Ye had blocked the strike aimed at Zhen Hua. The speck of crimson light faded away, revealing itself to be a slender sword.
It made contact with Mu Ye for only an instant before being withdrawn at once. It vanished abruptly without ever fully revealing its form.
Arthur, too, had already anticipated this, and his entire body dissolved into a blurred streak of light. On his shoulder, Xiaxi opened its third eye once more, and under the divine light it cast, the sword light flying toward him disintegrated.
A mechanism!
Only now, belatedly, did Zhen Hua's four-word battle armor cover him.
The others, once they realized what had happened, flew into a rage.
Both the current Divine Craftsman and the future Divine Craftsman had been targeted for assassination. This was an attack on the very lifeblood of the forging world.
They glared fiercely at Changgong Yan.
"The Divine Craftsman has been attacked! Seal the scene!"
A terrifying surge of qi and blood flashed across Mu Ye and vanished as he set off after the attacker in an instant.
Zhen Hua also came to Arthur's side. "Arthur, are you all right?"
"I'm fine." Arthur shook his head and said angrily, "How dare they try to assassinate my teacher! Master, don't be afraid, I'll stand up for you!"
Zhen Hua: "...?"
Wasn't that backwards? Shouldn't he be the one standing up for Arthur?
Arthur remembered this assassination attempt on Zhen Hua from the original story, but that had happened in Skydou City.
He hadn't expected that here, in Shrek City, someone would still dare to make a move.
If he let the culprit get away today, he, Arthur, would be fiercely hounded by those women every single day just like today!
Arthur clapped his hands together and shouted, "Spirit Communication Technique!"
Beside him, Na'er gave a start, her eyes going wide. Was Brother Arthur about to send her out?
But that presence was at least Super Douluo level. Na'er wasn't capable of that yet.
"Ya Li!"
From the direction of Shrek Academy rose an ethereal, terrifying presence, pouring down like moonlight, and in an instant it blanketed the sky above Shrek City.
A holy streak of white light tore across the sky, moving at extreme speed, leaving behind only a fleeting trail of light, and within the span of a single breath it had already arrived above the forging hall.
As the light faded, it revealed a woman clad in a moon-white gown.
Her hair cascaded like a waterfall, her eyes clear as glazed crystal: she was none other than one of Arthur's spirit-linked beasts, the Holy Spirit Douluo, Ya Li.
"Oh, so it's not me after all..." Na'er lowered her head. She really wasn't being sent out, and that made her unhappy all over again.
"I already know what happened. Don't worry, he won't get away." As long as Arthur remained within Shrek City, Ya Li always kept a thread of spiritual power trained on him at all times, precisely to prevent something like what had happened with Cai Yue'er from happening again.