Enlightenment: Beginning as a Disposable Warrior-Chapter 80 - 74: Forging Workshop Supreme Technique!

Amidst the admiring gazes of the crowd, Su Mu followed Chen Yuntian away.

"To be personally taught the Treasure-Forge Art by the Master just half a year after entering the Workshop... Such an honor is surely unique to Blacksmith Su."

Watching the two depart, the old Blacksmith Zhao Lin sighed in amazement. He had entered the Forging Workshop at fifteen, apprenticed for five years before becoming a blacksmith, then spent another twenty years to advance to Blacksmith.

Zhao Lin was quite pleased with himself when he became a Blacksmith at forty, but now, compared to Su Mu, his old face flushed in embarrassment.

He, Zhao Lin, had been at the Forging Workshop for a full thirty years. When he was an apprentice, the previous Workshop Master was still alive. Of all he had seen in these three decades, Su Mu was the most monstrous talent.

Even the current Workshop Master, Wu Lie, had to endure ten years before being instructed in the Treasure-Forge Art by the Master.

"Indeed... Perhaps within a few more years, the fourth Forging Chamber might see the light of day again."

As of now, the Forging Workshop had only three Masters; the two remaining private forging rooms had been sealed in dust for decades. If opened again, it would herald the birth of a new Master in the Workshop.

"With the Master's meticulous guidance and Blacksmith Su's talent, how many years will it take? Five? Or perhaps a little longer?"

"I recall Blacksmith Su is only fifteen this year... If it's five years, a twenty-year-old Master—that's something even the founder of the Forging Workshop could not have achieved."

The craftsman and Blacksmiths in the forging chamber discussed animatedly. These old hands of the Workshop all believed at least five years would be required, but not one doubted Su Mu's ability to become a Master.

In everyone's eyes, Su Mu becoming the Workshop's fourth Master was already a certainty; there was no need for doubt.

Outside the forging chamber, following behind Chen Yuntian, Su Mu suddenly recalled the scene from half a year before, when he'd just joined the Workshop. At that time, it was much the same, except his guide was Wu Ning, not Master Chen Yuntian.

"Kid, you probably know these two old fogies already, but old man here needs to go through the motions and introduce them anyway."

"You Chen fellow! Is this how you speak in front of the juniors?" The sturdy old man with high brow bones snorted coldly, his temper just as fiery as Chen Yuntian's.

"Su the kid, this old man is Lin Ruoshui, the current Blacksmith of the Cold Pool Forging Room."

Once he finished, the other was a thin old man with long, slender fingers. He spoke expressionlessly, "Zhao Ju, Cyan Blade."

"This old man is Chen Yuntian, and that Xuan Iron room over there is mine." At this, Chen Yuntian glanced at the two present with obvious pride, then cleared his throat.

"Next, you'll assist old man here first, then go to that Zhao... ahem, Master Zhao over there, then finally to that Lin fellow."

Su Mu stepped forward and cupped his fists in salute to the two Masters in turn.

"Junior pays respects to Master Lin, Master Zhao."

Just then, Chen Yuntian placed a hand on Su Mu's shoulder. "All right, enough with these empty formalities, come with me... Hm? Kid, you're about to reach Bone Forging?"

At these words, the other two's eyes flashed with surprise. Almost reaching Bone Forging at fifteen—though not as monstrous as Su Mu's forging skill—was still truly astounding.

Even if forging offered some modest help for martial training, to come so near to the Bone Forging Martial Arts Realm with such forging attainment left all three Masters astonished.

"Kid, I'm still a long way from Bone Forging... I've just been cultivating a Cross-Training Martial Arts." Su Mu explained calmly; as Chen Yuntian's hand fell upon him, he quietly ran the Small Faceless Transformation Technique.

Yet Chen Yuntian still managed to sense something amiss. Though Su Mu tried to explain, the three Masters remained shocked but did not inquire further.

"You're just a bit too modest, young man. Training martial arts is a fine thing—if you want to craft Grade-Entering Treasure Artifacts, you must have a sturdy body."

With that, Chen Yuntian led Su Mu to the Bluestone Forging Room hung with a 'Xuan Iron' bronze plaque and pushed open the door. Within, all equipment was present and accounted for. Most eye-catching, besides the piles of iron as high as hills, was a row of five or six forging hammers of differing sizes.

"Kid, let old man test you—which step is the most critical in forging?"

"Forging the iron billet." 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Su Mu answered without thinking—this was what Uncle Zhou had once taught him.

On hearing this reply, Chen Yuntian was quite satisfied. "A fine answer—the forging of the iron billet is especially crucial when creating weapons below Entry Level. But when forging Grade-Entering Treasure Artifacts, there is another point."

"That is, the forging materials themselves. No matter how you forge common iron, it can hardly reach Entry Level—materials are of utmost importance."

As he spoke, Chen Yuntian picked from a basket of ore a piece of pitch-black stone. "This is Iron Essence. No ordinary furnace fire, no matter how much the temperature is raised, can smelt it."

"There are two ways to address this. One is to rely on external forces, for instance, utilizing a naturally-formed Earth Fire Meridian to melt materials. Yet, alas, there is no Earth Fire in the vicinity of Qingyun County."

Innate Earth Fire Meridian!

Su Mu's eyes brightened. He faintly sensed that a brand new world above Perfection in forging was slowly opening before him.

"The second is to use the Power cultivated by Martial Artists."

"Power?"

"Precisely. Kid, tend the fire for me next."

Su Mu, without question, obeyed directly. As the bellows blew with a whoosh, the furnace flames shifted from red-yellow to a blue-cyan hue. The fist-sized lump of Iron Essence glowed red-hot, yet showed no sign of melting at all.

After a quarter-hour, Chen Yuntian used tongs to take out the Iron Essence, placed it on the forging platform, then, choosing a medium-sized forging hammer, began to swing it without another word.

Clang!

The first blow came down with a crisp, ear-splitting ring of metal.

Su Mu's eyes lit up at that strike—his forty-four points of Hidden-Dragon Level Comprehension now took effect. That hammer strike, to his vision, slowed down severalfold, even a dozen times over.

He could clearly see, as the hammer descended, Chen Yuntian's Power pouring from his body into his hand, then into the forging hammer, and, after a special Dharma Gate circulated, surging suddenly into blistering heat at the hammer's tip.

This intense heat, driven by the Power, was then injected into the Iron Essence, raising its inner temperature further.

After witnessing a single strike, Su Mu understood it at once. This Dharma Gate was somewhat akin to the Red Fire Shield that Zhou Tiande used, but the heat of Red Fire Shield was merely incidental—by comparison, its effect far inferior to this Martial Art Chen Yuntian displayed.

Clang, clang, clang!

With each blow, the temperature of the Iron Essence rose by degrees. After hundreds of successive strikes, faint signs of melting finally began to appear on the forging platform.

"Kid, have you grasped it?"

Su Mu was still digesting his insight, briefly staring in a daze—Chen Yuntian noticed. When the former Workshop Master taught him, he too was left slack-jawed. Now, seeing Su Mu—this monstrous youth—in the same state, Chen Yuntian felt much comforted.

"This is in fact a unique Martial Art—one of the Forging Workshop's top secret techniques. It is called the 'Melting Gold Technique.'" Chen Yuntian drew from his robe a timeworn, nameless Secret Manual.

"This is the manual. Spend the next few days here to comprehend it... The manual must not be taken out of this forging room, nor may it be passed to others."

(PS: The remaining chapters will be updated during the day.)