His hammers were moving so quickly that a series of afterimages were being left in their wake, completely enshrouding the piece of heavy silver. At this moment, Tang Wulin resembled a sculptor more than a blacksmith, and he seemed to be carefully carving the piece of metal into his next masterpiece.It was exactly because of his familiarity with heavy silver that he found it easier to control it. As such, refinement of heavy silver had already become second nature to him. If he wanted to bring out all of the true characteristics in a piece of uncommon metal, or in other words, to elevate it and bestow upon it life, then he had to retain its original unique characteristics and ensure that he didn"t damage it.
In the past, he would always forge metals by directly purifying them before refining them. However, Tang Wulin could now see that metals themselves possessed souls, even prior to undergoing spirit refinement. Each and every piece of uncommon metal was like a living creature, and if excessively heavy hammer blows were used during the purification process, that would inevitably inflict damage to the body of the piece of metal. Different methods could be used to strengthen the piece of metal later on, but irreversible damage had already been done at that point, and there was no way to forge the piece of metal to the extreme.
As such, if one wanted to forge a piece of uncommon metal to perfection, then they had to carefully and delicately refine it in the beginning.
An a.n.a.logy could be drawn here to the human body. If a person had impurities in one of their meridians, that meridian could be compressed vigorously to expel the impurities by force. However, doing so would inevitably damage the meridian to a certain extent. If a more gentle and subtle method were to be used instead to gradually clear out the meridian, then the impurities could be refined, thereby clearing the meridian, while the meridian itself remained completely unscathed.
This was the difference between Tang Wulin"s past and present forging. During the forging process, he took extreme care in controlling his forging hammers, almost caressing the piece of heavy silver rather than striking it. Furthermore, with each hammer blow that struck the piece of heavy silver, he injected a wisp of his bloodline aura into the metal so it could develop a better sense of his aura.
At his current strength, if he were to strike the piece of heavy silver with all his might, not only would the piece of metal be reduced to a pancake, even his forging hammers could fall apart from the enormous force of the impact.
This was also an important reason why he had to be very careful during the forging process.
At this point, he"d completely immersed himself in his craft, and it took him three times the amount of time that was normally required to complete hundred refinement. If one were to carefully a.s.sess the piece of heavy silver, they"d discover that the Tang Wulin"s purification process resulted in a slightly larger piece of hundred refined heavy silver than normal. During the purification process, it was often the case that some good things would also be expelled along with the impurities, but he had been able to completely avoid that.
Mu Chen looked on at everything that Tang Wulin was doing with an intense gaze and an elated look in his eyes.
This hammer technique hadn"t been taught to him by Mu Chen nor by Feng Wuyu. Instead, he had invented it himself.
The Tang Sect"s Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer technique was very effective, but it was too violent and too damaging to the metal being forged. Even though the technique was still extremely effective for forging, it was very difficult to improve to the next level while using such a violent technique.
It was undoubtedly the case that Tang Wulin had found his own path and was progressing steadily along it.
Around 15 minutes later, a burst of dazzling silver light suddenly erupted upward, and a clear dragon"s roar also rang out with the emergence of that light.
That streak of silver light was like a wyrm rising up into the heavens.
The heavy silver had been refined with spirit!
However, under most circ.u.mstances, most metals that were thousand refined with spirit only release light that rose up to around five feet tall at most, but the streak of silver light rising up from the piece of heavy silver stretched all the way to around 10 feet in height. Furthermore, it was rising upward in a wavy trajectory, as if it were mimicking a silver dragon dancing through the wind.
Mu Xi"s eyes widened in shock. She was also a sixth-rank blacksmith, but she was sure that she"d be unable to do what Tang Wulin had just done.
"Extreme thousand refinement!" Mu Chen murmured to himself.
Indeed, Tang Wulin had completed thousand refinement on this piece of heavy silver to the extreme, meaning that he had perfected the process and that there was no room for improvement.
Even Mu Chen wasn"t confident that he"d be able to accomplish this, let alone Mu Xi. Perhaps only Divine Blacksmith Zhen Hua could replicate this feat.
Forging required strength, but the more strength that was used, the more a blacksmith would have to sacrifice on control. It was impossible for Mu Chen to refine metals using just the power of his wrists as Tang Wulin was doing as he simply wasn"t strong enough to accomplish that. He could perhaps replicate this by using soul power, but that would further hamper his control, and it would be a lot more difficult to control than if he were to use pure strength.
However, this was something that clearly wasn"t beyond Tang Wulin"s capabilities. His strength had already exceeded the 100-ton mark, so even just the power in his wrists was extremely fearsome. Throughout this entire refinement process thus far, he hadn"t even used a single shred of soul power. He had only drawn upon his bloodline power slightly, and the rest of this procedure had been accomplished through pure strength. Only then could he complete thousand refinement to such a degree of perfection.
Tang Wulin took a deep breath and spread open his pair of Heavy Silver Hammer by his sides as the streak of silver light rose up into the air.
His eyes began to glow as his Heavy Silver Hammer circled through the air, and before the streak of silver light had completely faded, his hammers had struck the piece of heavy silver again.
On this occasion, the sound of the hammers striking the piece of thousand-refined heavy silver was a lot clearer and crisper.
If one were to look closely at the piece of heavy silver now, they"d discover that there was a layer of fine patterns running all over its surface. The patterns themselves were radiating dazzling light, and it was as if the piece of heavy silver had been transformed into another type of metal altogether.
Tang Wulin wasn"t using solely the power of his wrists anymore. Following extreme thousand refinement with spirit, the internal structure of the piece of heavy silver had already been completely aligned, and it was countless times harder than it was before, thereby finally making it able to withstand Tang Wulin"s strength.
His eyes glowed as he completely spread open his spiritual world, and spiritual power surged forth in a frenzy before it was injected into the piece of heavy silver in a gentle manner through the use of his hammers.
Spiritual power and blood essence power combined, and Mu Chen could clearly hear that with each strike Tang Wulin dealt to the piece of heavy silver, it would emit a faint dragon"s roar. The patterns on its surface would also be adjusted slightly.
Soul power injection! Spiritual power injection! At this point, Tang Wulin had already begun the most important step to spirit refinement: giving life.
The main difference between spirit refinement and thousand refinement was the level of sentience that was attained by the piece of metal being refined. The more sentience a piece of uncommon metal possessed, the more valuable it became.
Most fifth and sixth-rank blacksmiths were unable to guarantee spirit refinement with every single piece of metal they forged, but Tang Wulin was able to do so.
Mu Xi was capable of this as well as they were both among the cream of the crop of sixth-rank blacksmiths, and they"d already set their sights beyond the sixth rank long ago.
However, Mu Xi could sense that Tang Wulin"s spirit refinement was completely different from hers. His method of calling expended a lot more power than the power that she expended during this procedure. The amount of soul power being injected was quite normal, but he seemed to have released far too much spiritual power, and there also seemed to be something extra intermingled in there, as evidenced by the dragon roars being emitted by the piece of heavy silver. Under normal circ.u.mstances, such a special type of sound shouldn"t appear during this stage, and this could only mean that Tang Wulin had added his own extra twist to his refinement.
Tang Wulin brought his hammers down over and over again in an extremely steady and consistent manner. He wasn"t being as delicate as he was in the beginning, but his hammer blows didn"t appear to be all that heavy, either. He was simply striking the piece of heavy silver with moderate power.
The patterns on the piece of heavy silver gradually began to transform, and as Tang Wulin continued to inject his soul power into the piece of metal, light began to ripple around it in a rhythmic manner.
Is it beginning to attain sentience already? This is way too soon for that!
Compared to the slow hundred and thousand refinements that Tang Wulin had completed, the speed at which he was completing spirit refinement was so astonis.h.i.+ng that Mu Xi"s jaw had completely fallen onto the ground.
If she had been in Tang Wulin"s shoes, it would take her at least an hour to complete spirit refinement on even the more ordinary types of uncommon metals. After all, detecting and activating a piece of uncommon metal"s life force was certainly far from a simple task. At this point, Tang Wulin hadn"t completed spirit refinement yet, but the metal had clearly already begun to attain sentience, which meant that completion of spirit refinement was imminent.
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