Zhen Hua smiled, and said, "This isn"t just a place with a good view; it serves a practical purpose. As I just described, a vast amount of the power of heaven and earth has to be drawn upon during heavenly refinement. In order to prevent the power of heaven and earth from being disrupted by all types of different factors, this heavenly platform was constructed. All of my heavenly refinement creations were completed here, and the price for constructing this heavenly platform alone exceeds that of a full suit of four-word battle armor, but it can only increase my success rate by 10%."
Tang Wulin was astonished to hear this. A suit of four-word battle armor would definitely cost an astronomical price, yet this heavenly platform supposedly had an even greater price! That was incredible enough on its own, yet this absurdly expensive construction could only increase the success rate by 10%?
Zhen Hua could guess what he was thinking, and he smiled as he asked, "Are you thinking that the effect is too minimal to warrant creating such an expensive structure?"
Tang Wulin nodded in response. "Is it not?"
Zhen Hua shook his head, and replied, "If it"s that easy to increase the success rate of heavenly refinement by 10%, then there would be more than one Divine Blacksmith on this planet. I"m referring to an increase of 10% based on my original success rate of 10%, which would increase the overall rate to 11%"
Tang Wulin"s eyes immediately widened with shock. Such a ma.s.sive price had been expended only for an increase of 1% in the absolute success rate? This was simply incredible!
Zhen Hua led him to the center of the heavenly platform before gently tapping his right foot onto the ground. A string of mechanical sounds rang out, following which a series of metal structures emerged out of the ground.
The first thing to appear was a huge forging bench that was at least five times the size of a normal forging bench. The entire bench was silver in color, and Tang Wulin could immediately sense that it was imbued with a certain type of power, almost like the domain of his suit of three-word battle armor.
The fact that the metal itself was giving off the sense of a domain meant that the entire surface of the forging bench had to have been constructed from divine-grade metals.
What insane extravagance!
Beside the forging bench, a series of shelves slowly rose up, and each shelf was laden with over 100 pieces of metal, amounting to a total of over 1,000 pieces of uncommon metals. This was such a complete and diverse collection that Tang Wulin couldn"t help but be amazed.
Zhen Hua said, "You are the second person to have come to this place aside from me; even your teacher has never been here before as only those who are a.s.sured to become Divine Blacksmiths can access this place. My hope is that you will become the future owner of this place. Here, you won"t have to worry about resources; any metals that you use will be immediately replenished, and the entire blacksmith federation will prioritize this place in its resource allocation, so you"ll have whatever you want."
Zhen Hua pointed up at the transparent dome before continuing, "Once you become a Divine Blacksmith, you"ll be able to access this place whenever you want."
Tang Wulin nodded firmly in response. "I"ll be sure to do my best, Uncle-teacher."
Zhen Hua smiled, making no attempt to disguise the fact that he was trying to lure Tang Wulin into becoming his successor. "Focus now!"
Zhen Hua raised his right hand as he spoke, and two pieces of metal flew out of the nearby shelf before landing on the forging bench in front of him.
Tang Wulin immediately entered a state of full concentration.
He had studied forging under Zhen Hua for a very long time, but this was the first time he was seeing Zhen Hua perform heavenly refinement.
Zhen Hua gently pressed his right hand down onto the forging bench, and its surface suddenly seemed to melt away, as if it were opening its mouth to swallow the two pieces of metal.
This forging bench was virtually a life form in itself! It had to be a priceless treasure!
At the same time, Tang Wulin could clearly sense a change in Zhen Hua"s aura. If he were to close his eyes now, then it would feel as if Zhen Hua had completely disappeared, as if he had become one with heaven and earth.
At the same time, the entire heavenly platform began to undergo some changes as well.
A series of colors began to appear on the transparent gla.s.s dome. These colors were very faint, but they were definitely there.
Immediately thereafter, Tang Wulin could sense that the abundance of elements of all different types of attributes was beginning to increase on this platform with Zhen Hua at their very center.
Zhen Hua was releasing a special type of aura, as if he were drawing the elements to himself through his spiritual power. Tang Wulin quickly discovered the purpose of this heavenly platform; it was like a spiritual power magnifier that enhanced Zhen Hua"s spiritual power so he could draw more elements to himself.
Tang Wulin was very confident in this area as his spiritual power was at the Spirit Domain realm, and he certainly wasn"t at an early stage in the Spirit Domain realm.
If the Spirit Domain realm were split up into the 10 levels, then the current Tang Wulin would be roughly at the fifth level after completing the first of the Nine Trials of the Sea G.o.d, thereby placing him at the mid-Spirit Domain realm.
One had to realize that even among Limit Douluos, not everyone could reach this level. The greater one"s spiritual power, the more difficult it would be to increase it, and it could even become dangerous at some point. Tang Wulin was only able to constantly progress and reach this level through a series of miraculous opportunities.
Right at this moment, a dark red vortex appeared at the center of the forging bench, from within which a red fireball slowly emerged.
Upon closer inspection, Tang Wulin discovered that the two types of metals were contained within the fireball, and at this point, they had been completely melted and combined.
All of a sudden, Zhen Hua opened his eyes, and they were filled with clarity and concentration. His body didn"t physically expand, but it was as if he had become a pillar that connected heaven and earth.
He raised his arms, and enormous soul power erupted forth, manifesting a dark red hammer mid-air.
"Boom!" The red ball of light was flattened with just a single hammer blow.
Tang Wulin looked on in a dumbstruck manner. This was the first time he had seen someone completely flatten a piece of metal during their forging! Wouldn"t this damage the metal"s internal structure?
Much to his surprise, he quickly discovered that it didn"t!
The flattened piece of metal sprang up, and Tang Wulin could sense that the two metals had been fused to a greater degree.
He was an eighth-rank Saint Blacksmith, so he was naturally extremely familiar with combining metals into alloys, but he definitely couldn"t do it with just a single hammer blow as Zhen Hua had done!
That"s right, the two types of metals had been combined with just a single blow, and a burst of light rose up into the air for over 10 feet.
Thousand refinement with spirit! First-grade thousand refinement!
This was no longer just forging; it was an integration of forging and one"s heart and soul! Not only was Tang Wulin astonished, he was struck by a sense of exhilaration.
This was the pinnacle of forging; the level that he had constantly been pursuing!
The hammer was raised before falling again, and another resounding boom rang out, upon which a faint aura of life was born within the metal.
Tang Wulin paid even closer attention on this occasion, and he noticed that even though this hammer blow had fallen very quickly, all of the elements on the heavenly platform had converged toward it in its descent, as if there were a funnel on the hammer that was drawing all energy toward itself.
With that hammer blow, an enormous influx of energy flowed into the metal, and what was even more astonis.h.i.+ng to Tang Wulin was that even though Zhen Hua"s spiritual power clearly hadn"t reached the Spirit Domain realm, he had achieved perfect control over the elements.
The elements that were being injected into the metal had clearly been adjusted according to a certain ratio during the descent of his hammer.
A faint buzzing sound rang out from the flattened piece of metal, and light began to ripple over its surface.
Spirit refinement had just been completed with a single hammer blow!
It was already extraordinary enough that thousand refinement had been achieved with one blow, but that could be partially attributed to this incredible forging bench, but that was not the case here.
One had to realize that countless blacksmith were stuck at the fourth rank precisely because they were unable to complete spirit refinement, yet Zhen Hua had been able to complete it with a single hammer blow! If the blacksmiths of the blacksmith a.s.sociation were to see this, they would most likely go insane!
However, Zhen Hua was merely treating this like a normal occurrence, and the hammer was raised up into the air again, slightly higher than on the previous two hammer blows on this occasion.