He took out the dagger blank, already cooled and covered with a layer of black oxide, and casually tossed it onto the anvil, making a thudding "clang."

"Yesterday, you only gave it shape. Today, we’re going to give it a soul. Next is the heat treatment. Remember, whether a blade becomes a magic weapon or scrap iron depends 90% on this step."

"Let it sleep in the sand for a whole night, this process is called ’annealing’. The purpose is to eliminate all the ’internal injuries’ left in its body from yesterday’s hammering, namely work hardening and internal stress."

"Now, the disordered crystal structures inside it have returned to their most relaxed and stable original state."

"But that’s not enough," Old George’s tone turned serious as he placed the blade blank back into the furnace. "Forging makes the grains inside the steel coarse and uneven. Annealing eliminates stress, but we’d better normalize it to refine these grains again."

"You can think of it as kneading dough. We need to make the dough inside more delicate and uniform. Only in this state, can it perform with its strongest capabilities during the final quenching."

"Any slight mistake will render all your efforts yesterday into a pile of scrap iron." Old George provided detailed explanations to ensure Lin Yu’an fully understood the importance of this matter.

He then placed the blade blank back into the furnace, but this time, Old George meticulously controlled the bellows’ airflow and the furnace mouth’s vent, transforming the once fierce furnace fire into a steady and intense stream of flame that powerfully licked the blade.

Subsequently, he didn’t seal the furnace mouth like during annealing but directly used tongs to take out the blade blank, placing it on the refractory bricks aside, allowing it to cool naturally in the workshop’s still air.

"See? This cooling speed is quicker than annealing but much slower than quenching. This is normalizing," Old George explained, "This process is quick. Once it’s completely cooled, we can proceed to the next step."

"And during this time..."

"During this time," Old George pointed to another pile of treated 5160 spring steel in the corner, "Theory is over, now it’s time to practice. Your talent is excellent, but craftsmanship has no shortcuts, only through repeated practice. Continue forging the blade blank. Your body must remember the feel of iron before your brain."

Lin Yu’an nodded, once again donning his goggles and apron, plunging into the tedious yet passionate pounding process.

With yesterday’s experience and the blessing of the Golden Finger, his movements today were completely devoid of clumsiness. Every swing of the hammer was filled with a beauty of power and rhythm. Old George would occasionally cast a glance, then no longer pay attention, his face unable to hide his satisfaction and appreciation.

More than two hours later, when Lin Yu’an, drenched in sweat, completed a blade blank even more perfect than the first, Old George finally spoke.

Old George finally spoke: "Alright, you can come over."

He removed the refractory brick, used tongs to take out the completely cooled to room temperature, annealed blade blank. At this moment, it was entirely covered in a layer of black oxide, looking quite unremarkable.

"Now, try filing the edge with a file."

Lin Yu’an took a sharp, brand new steel file, clamped the blade blank in a vise, then took a deep breath, and pushed hard against the bevel of the blade edge.

"Shwap——"

Accompanied by an extremely smooth sound, the black oxide was effortlessly filed off, revealing the silvery, delicate metallic luster beneath. The feel was nothing like filing steel, but rather like filing a hard piece of pear wood.

"Can you feel it?" Old George wore a slightly proud smile, "This is the power of ’heat treatment’; annealing and normalizing make spring steel, a hard bone, as obedient as soft cheese. In this state, we can proceed to the next step."

Old George led him to another end of the workshop where an old belt grinder stood. "Use the wire wheel over there to first remove the surface oxide. Then, use an 80-grit coarse sanding belt to smooth out the lines of the blade body and the outline of the handle."

He picked up a piece of scrap material, personally demonstrating, his tone becoming extremely serious: "Our goal is just to fix the obvious flaws from forging and make the blade body roughly symmetrical. The most important point is the blade edge! It absolutely cannot be sharpened too much!"

He pointed to the edge of the scrap material: "The blade edge must be at least the thickness of a coin left behind! Roughly 1.5 to 2 millimeters."

"If you grind it razor-thin now, then during the violent quenching process to come, the extremely thin blade edge will crumple or even shatter due to excessive stress concentration!"

Lin Yu’an nodded, firmly memorizing this lesson learned from blood.

He started the belt grinder, beginning the rough reshaping. He did not pursue extreme smoothness but instead strictly adhered to Old George’s requirements, focusing on correcting the blade blank’s contours and cautiously leaving a uniformly thick "false edge" at the blade.

After completing all this, Old George nodded in satisfaction.

He looked at Lin Yu’an, "Very good. Now, this blade’s shape is ready. Next is the most critical and the most ’magical’ step. We’re going to turn it back into a steel beast, endowing it with indomitable hardness."