RNP Chapter 18: Beginning the Forging
Chapter 18: Beginning the Forging
Time flies, and half a year has passed in the blink of an eye.
The afternoon sun streamed through the towering glass windows of Mangtian Studio, casting dappled shadows on the floor strewn with metal shavings. A faint smell of rust and the chilling aura of aged metal dust filled the air.
It's very quiet here, even a bit empty.
Since deciding to focus on raising these two children, Mang Tian dismissed all irrelevant people from the studio. In the vast space, besides him alone, there was only Tang Wulin cultivating in the backyard and Yu Chen in front of him.
"teacher."
Yu Chen's voice interrupted Mang Tian's thoughts. The young man walked into the room, his figure upright, wearing a simple black outfit. His every move exuded the vigor unique to young people, yet he also revealed a composure that did not match his age.
"Teacher, I think I can try the thousand-fold forging now."
Upon entering Mangtian's studio, Yu Chen first greeted him politely, and then spoke.
After breaking through to Soul Master, Yu Chen became even more adept at forging. Under Mang Tian's guidance and after half a year of hard training, Yu Chen's understanding of Thousand Forging had deepened considerably, and now he officially launched a challenge against Thousand Forging.
After explaining his desire to formally try the Thousand Refinements technique to Mang Tian, Mang Tian was not surprised, as he had witnessed Yu Chen's progress step by step over the past six months.
Mang Tian turned and walked towards the metal warehouse wall behind him. This wall was made of thick alloy and had dozens of grids of different sizes arranged on it.
He reached out and slowly ran his hand through the dazzling array of metal grids, finally stopping in front of a grid with a silver label.
"Click".
The bullet popped open. Mang Tian took out a gleaming silver metal ingot from it. The ingot was heavy in his hand, and its entire surface was a cold and noble silver-white color.
"This is sunken silver." Mang Tian handed the metal to Yu Chen, his tone becoming serious. "The threshold of a thousand forgings is still very high for someone your age; only this kind of high-density metal can withstand it. Also, although Wu Lin hasn't broken through yet, I'm planning to have him observe your process as well, is that alright?"
"I'll leave it all to Master's arrangements." Upon hearing Mang Tian's words, Yu Chen took the silver ingot from Mang Tian's hand and replied.
"Alright." Mang Tian waved his hand. "Go and call Wu Lin over. Also, bring out the spare monitoring soul tool; I need to record the whole process."
Yu Chen accepted the order and left, his footsteps sounding particularly clear in the empty studio.
Mang Tian watched Yu Chen's departing figure, a complex expression flashing in his eyes. In the past six months, Yu Chen's progress could only be described as "monstrous," but he always felt that there was a veil of mystery surrounding this child, something he couldn't see through or understand.
A moment later, Yu Chen returned with Tang Wulin.
"Teacher! Senior brother!" Tang Wulin exclaimed excitedly as soon as he entered the room, his clear eyes filled with curiosity and anticipation.
Mang Tian waved his hand, signaling Wu Lin to be quiet.
Yu Chen silently walked to the huge forging furnace.
"call--"
He pressed the switch, channeling his soul power into the array at the bottom of the furnace. In an instant, flames shot into the sky from the furnace, the intense heat distorting the surrounding air.
Yu Chen carefully used specially made alloy pliers to hold the silver and slowly sent it into the core area of the furnace.
"Sizzle sizzle—"
When the cold, icy silver comes into contact with temperatures of over a thousand degrees, a dark red halo instantly appears on its surface.
"The essence of 'thousand-time forging' is to 'remove the dross and retain the essence, compressing the density'." Yu Chen stood in front of the furnace, his eyes fixed on the smelting silver inside.
His breathing became long and rhythmic, his chest rising and falling slightly, and his entire aura sharpened like a knife. He appeared to be waiting to heat up, but in reality, he was quietly mobilizing his power within his body.
Tang Wulin stood aside, not daring to breathe. He could feel that his senior brother was radiating an extremely powerful aura, which made this little guy with level eight soul power feel oppressed.
Time passed by, second by second.
The silver inside the furnace had completely turned a deep red color.
"That's about it!"
Seeing the state of the scorching silver, a sharp glint flashed in Yu Chen's eyes. He swiftly pulled open the furnace door, and the alloy pliers firmly gripped the scorching hot scorching silver, then slammed it heavily onto the heavy metal forging table.
"when!"
The silver shards landed with a dull thud.
Immediately afterwards, Yu Chen picked up his pair of exclusive forging hammers.
"breathe!"
Yu Chen spread his feet apart and firmly planted himself in a horse stance, his arm muscles showing as he raised two large hammers high.
"Ding-dong!"
The first hammer blow landed with a crisp, clear sound.
Immediately afterwards, his movements suddenly quickened.
"Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!"
The hammer flashed, moving so fast that only afterimages could be seen. Yu Chen swung his arms like a tireless machine, each hammer blow striking the surface of the silver with precision, sending up strings of golden sparks.
Less than three minutes later, the dense, rain-like hammering stopped abruptly.
Yu Chen stopped. The piece of silver in front of him had shrunk significantly, and the impurities on its surface had been removed.
But this is just an appetizer.
Yu Chen took a deep breath, his chest heaving, and then slowly exhaled. His eyes changed.
Those originally jet-black eyes were now slowly tinged with a faint golden hue. Martial Soul—Golden Eyes, activated.
"Senior brother has awakened his martial soul!" Tang Wulin exclaimed in surprise.
Mang Tian's gaze also sharpened. Although he knew that Yu Chen's martial soul was the Golden Eye, which possessed extremely strong insight, he always felt that these eyes were not just for "seeing".
Under the golden gaze, the internal structure of the crimson silver was magnified infinitely. Yu Chen could see the gaps between the metal molecules and the deeply hidden impurities.
"rise!"
Yu Chen raised his double hammers again, this time with slow, steady, and rhythmic movements.
"Ding...ding...ding..."
The sound of the hammer became deep and resonant.
However, beneath this seemingly calm rhythm, the "Time Zero" within Yu Chen's body had already quietly activated.
In Yu Chen's perception, the flow of time in the world had changed. Everything around him became extremely slow, and the flickering of the fire in the furnace seemed to have stopped.
In those few seconds, Yu Chen swung the hammer hundreds of times, frantically compressing the internal structure of the sunken silver.
Mang Tian and Tang Wulin only saw that Yu Chen's hammer was raised in mid-air, and it seemed to pause for a moment, and the movement became extremely slow, like a video that had been paused.
"Huh? Why is Senior Brother slower?" Tang Wulin scratched his head in confusion.
Mang Tian frowned, looking completely bewildered: "Strange... this rhythm is off. Thousand Refinement emphasizes going all out in one go, why does he seem to have lost his breath? Could it be that his soul power can't keep up? That shouldn't be the case."
Mang Tian began to have doubts. As a master craftsman, he had seen all sorts of failed attempts at forging, but this kind of "slow-motion" failure was something he had never seen before.