Gengxin City is well-deserving of its reputation as the holy land of blacksmiths; the air is perpetually filled with the scent of metal and charcoal. Towering chimneys, like the arms of giants, spew black smoke into the gray sky day and night. The clanging of hammers is the eternal background music of this city; from the largest forging workshops to the smallest smithies on the street, countless craftsmen pour their sweat into the fire and iron.
Chen Yuan (Yu Yuanchen) settled into a hotel that appeared clean and tidy. Once settled, he began to wander through this city of steel, his gaze lingering mostly on the various forging workshops.
In his previous life, he had been quite interested in the process of tempering raw iron into steel and imbuing it with form and power, though he had lacked the opportunity to experience it. While his focus in this life was on his cultivation as a soul master, seeing the unique forging culture of the Douluo Continent—especially when reminded of the masterful forging techniques of "Tang Da'er" from his memories—he couldn't help but feel a sense of longing. Since he was staying here for a while, why not give it a try? Perhaps it would provide new insights into his Power Usage.
He found a well-regarded forging workshop that accepted short-term apprentices: the "Black Rock Workshop." The owner was a burly man over fifty with knotted muscles named Shi Tie, a soul king level soul master and a master-level blacksmith whose martial soul was the "Melting Geng Iron Hammer," which was closely related to forging. After paying a hefty tuition fee, Chen Yuan became a temporary apprentice at the workshop.
At first, Shi Tie and the other craftsmen in the workshop thought Chen Yuan was a young master from some great family out to experience life because of his extraordinary temperament (though he had deliberately restrained it, that sense of composure and subtle nobility was hard to hide completely), so they didn't hold high expectations. However, Chen Yuan's learning ability and speed in getting started shocked them.
His powerful spiritual power allowed him to control his strength with meticulous precision, while his robust qi and blood and soul power granted him endurance and explosive force far beyond that of ordinary people. Swinging the hammer, controlling the fire, identifying materials... these basic skills that took ordinary apprentices years to master, he performed with proficiency in just a few days. Especially regarding his control over force, every strike was perfectly weighted, as if he were born to be a blacksmith.
Shi Tie watched in amazement, sighing privately to his assistant: "If this kid focused solely on the path of forging, his future achievements would likely far surpass my own; becoming a divine craftsman would be well within his reach."
Chen Yuan immersed himself in the world of forging, feeling the metal stretch and change under the hammer, his mind exceptionally focused. This process of condensing his entire strength into a single point and changing the form of matter through hundreds of strikes bore a subtle, inherent similarity to the way he condensed his soul power and compressed his thunder power during his own cultivation, giving him a deeper understanding of his Power Usage.
In the workshop, he also heard many rumors from the soul master world. The craftsmen were well-informed; merchants and soul masters traveling from all over would come here to commission or repair weapons and armor, bringing news from every corner.
One day, while helping Shi Tie work the bellows, he listened to a few soul masters waiting for their orders to chat.
"Have you heard? That kid Tang Chen from the Clear Sky Sect forged another divine weapon a while ago! It's said that the president of the Blacksmith Association personally hailed him as the 'youngest divine craftsman on the continent'!" one soul master said with envy in his tone.
"Tang Chen of the Clear Sky Sect? Incredible! His innate talent is terrifying, and his forging skills are just as astonishing. He is destined to be among the top powerhouses on this continent in the future!"
"Divine craftsman..." Chen Yuan felt a stir in his heart. He knew the name Tang Chen not only from the original story but also from family intelligence and his grandfather; he was already a famous, top-tier genius of the current generation, though he had been kept hidden by the Clear Sky Sect. It seemed he had been released for training now. He hadn't expected him to have such astonishing attainments in forging as well. The title of "youngest divine craftsman" carried immense weight.
This further ignited his interest in forging. He began to ask Shi Tie for more profound techniques and attempted to forge some simple weapons. Seeing his high aptitude, Shi Tie was happy to provide guidance.
However, as his learning deepened, Chen Yuan gradually discovered some issues.
The forging technology of this era seemed to have fallen into a misconception. The craftsmen were overly obsessed with the rarity of materials, the perfection of quenching techniques, the delicacy of design, and the sharpness and durability of the finished product. They viewed the metal itself as a "dead object."
They used hundreds of strikes to remove impurities, making the metal purer and tougher, but they never thought about whether it was possible to use some special method to make the metal "come alive" during the hammering process and nurture its own "spirituality."
Chen Yuan recalled the descriptions in his memories regarding "thousand forges," "spirit forges," and even "soul forges." That was a completely different path—not treating metal as a tool, but as a growing embryonic life, using the blacksmith's soul power, qi and blood, and even spiritual will to nourish and awaken its inner spirituality, causing it to undergo a qualitative leap.
He tried to subtly bring up some ideas about "metal spirituality" and "guiding the inner essence" while communicating with Shi Tie.
After hearing this, Shi Tie was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter and patted Chen Yuan on the shoulder: "Kid Chen, those are nice thoughts! But that's a realm only the legendary divine craftsmen can touch! For us mere mortals, being able to process materials well, engrave soul guidance circuits smoothly, and forge powerful weapons and armor is already a skill! Making metal come alive? That's just too mystical!"
The other craftsmen in the workshop mostly echoed this, thinking Chen Yuan was indulging in wild fantasies.
Chen Yuan fell silent. He realized that the forging system of this era had solidified; the craftsmen had walked the existing path of pursuing "utility" for too long and lacked that mindset of "enlightening life." Perhaps a very small number of top-tier craftsmen had touched the threshold, but they had not formed a systematic theory or method. The highest skill currently available was roughly equivalent to the "thousand forges" level of later generations; it might be more refined and complex in technique, but the essence remained unchanged.
Perhaps... this path is the correct one? It just hasn't been walked to the end by anyone yet? Chen Yuan pondered inwardly. But he quickly shook his head, suppressing this tempting thought.
He was not Tang Chen; he did not have the energy to be distracted by other matters. His foundation was the path of the soul master, the thunder power, and the evolution of his bloodline. Forging, to him, was currently just a hobby, an auxiliary practice for his control over power. Perhaps in the future, when his cultivation reached a bottleneck and he possessed a long lifespan, he could try to research and open up this new path, but for now, he must not give up eating for fear of choking.
Having figured this out, his passion for forging cooled somewhat. Continuing to stay in the workshop would only be repetitive technical training, which had limited benefits for his core cultivation.
A few days later, he bid farewell to Shi Tie, thanking him for his guidance. Although Shi Tie felt it was a pity, he did not force him to stay.
Leaving the workshop, Chen Yuan began to inquire about places suitable for training. He quickly locked onto a target—the Savage Beast Hills.
According to the information he gathered, the Savage Beast Hills were located in the west-central part of the Star Luo Empire, a vast area with a high density of soul beasts. Its greatest characteristic was that the soul beasts there generally had low intelligence; even ten-thousand-year soul beasts mostly acted on instinct and lacked the intelligence that normal ten-thousand-year soul beasts should have. Moreover, the soul beasts there increased their cultivation level very quickly before adulthood, but once they reached adulthood, their cultivation speed would plummet, being more than ten times slower than soul beasts in the outside world. This resulted in a large number of thousand-year and ten-thousand-year soul beasts in the hills, but almost no soul beasts with top-tier bloodlines or hundred-thousand-year soul beasts; it seemed that those top-tier soul beasts with intelligence had voluntarily left the area. Furthermore, they were extremely vengeful; if you ran fast after hunting a soul beast, it was fine, but once they latched onto you, it was very difficult to escape.
The soul master world had various speculations about this. Some believed there was a natural force field there that suppressed intelligence, while others guessed that rare minerals affecting the minds of soul beasts were buried underground. Even Titled Douluo had explored deep inside, but they had found nothing. Regardless, it had become an excellent place for training—the quality of soul beasts was not low, the quantity was high, they lacked intelligence, and the danger was controllable, making it a "high-spec version of the Soul Hunting Forest."
"It's just right for me to consolidate my cultivation, hone my combat skills, and collect some soul beast materials." Chen Yuan made his decision.
He did not delay, and after replenishing his supplies, he left Gengxin City and headed toward the Savage Beast Hills.
Leaving the city and stepping into the wilderness again, Chen Yuan felt a familiar sense of freedom. He remained vigilant, his Electric Field Perception acting like an invisible radar, scanning everything around him.
A few days later, he passed through a small town located on the edge of the Savage Beast Hills. Looking from afar, the town was deathly silent, and even the usual cooking smoke was nowhere to be seen. In the air, a faint, lingering scent of blood drifted by.
Chen Yuan's heart tightened; he slowed his pace and approached quietly.
When he stepped into the entrance of the town, the scene before him made his pupils shrink, and a cold fury instantly surged from the bottom of his heart!
Ruined walls and charred wooden beams were still emitting wisps of smoke. On the streets and inside the houses, dark red bloodstains and scattered, mutilated corpses could be seen everywhere. Men, women, the elderly, children... none were spared. The entire town had been slaughtered, with not even a chicken or dog left alive!
The intense silence and the smell of blood were almost nauseating.
Chen Yuan suppressed his fury and carefully inspected the scene. Most of the wounds on the corpses were hideous and terrifying, as if torn by sharp claws and fangs, while others bore clear signs of blunt force trauma and biting. On some of the claw marks, he sensed a faint, lingering trace of evil soul power.
"Not the work of human soul masters..." Chen Yuan's gaze was cold as he searched for more clues. Soon, he discovered some peculiar footprints on the mud outside the town—neither wolf nor human, with deep claw marks and a violent aura.
At the same time, a disgusting, evil soul power fluctuation mixed with a foul stench still lingered in the air.
A term instantly jumped into Chen Yuan's mind—Wolf Bandit!
He had once seen records about Wolf Bandits in family classics. They were half-human, half-wolf monsters created by the combination of certain evil soul masters and the Gale Demon Wolf soul beast. They inherited the speed and power of the Gale Demon Wolf, as well as the cunning and cruelty of humans. They were bloodthirsty by nature and took pleasure in slaughter and looting; wherever they passed, nothing usually survived. Wolf Bandits usually acted in groups, led by the most powerful "Wolf Bandit Leader," and their strength was not to be underestimated.
Looking at this hellish scene and imagining the fear and despair of those innocent civilians before they died, the fury in Chen Yuan's chest could no longer be contained. Although he practiced hiding his strength to protect himself, the pride of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Family flowing in his bones and the sense of justice in his heart made it impossible for him to turn a blind eye to such atrocities!
"Beasts!" he cursed in a low voice, purple lightning flickering in his eyes.
He closed his eyes, combining his powerful spiritual power with his Electric Field Perception to carefully distinguish the direction of the evil aura lingering in the air and the footprints of the Wolf Bandits on the ground.
The tracks were still fresh; they hadn't left long ago!
Without any hesitation, Chen Yuan moved, turning into a blurred gray shadow, following the tracks left by the Wolf Bandits like the sharpest hunter, giving chase!
Cold killing intent permeated his body. This sudden encounter had to end in the most brutal way possible.
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Translated by: randomtranslator.com
Proofread by: GodKun-Chan