Gu You's body spun gracefully, his twin hammers rising and falling, each strike heavier than the last. Every blow came down as if he were pouring his entire being into it. The ice crystal beneath his relentless pounding shuddered faintly with each impact, adjusting slightly in angle, almost imperceptibly — yet every movement, every shift, was precise, controlled, and perfectly calculated.
Before long, the material visibly shrank, its volume decreasing at a speed noticeable even to the naked eye.
Zhen Hua's face twitched slightly.
This forging method… it was bizarre.
Wild, ferocious, unrestrained — yet at the same time, delicate and exquisitely refined. It was the first time Zhen Hua had ever seen such a style. The balance between raw force and intricate control was mesmerizing.
"I'll head out first," Yun Ming said softly, turning toward Zhen Hua.
"Leaving? Where to? Isn't this kid going back to Shrek?" Zhen Hua's eyes flickered with surprise.
"He's not going back. He has his own plans now. I won't interfere anymore. There are too many matters waiting for me at the Sea God Pavilion, so I can't stay long. Once he's successfully apprenticed to you, he'll explain everything himself," Yun Ming said calmly, stepping lightly into the void and vanishing without another word.
Zhen Hua didn't press further. After all, when Yun Ming decided to leave, no one could stop him. All he could do now was wait until Gu You finished forging — perhaps, by then, all the answers would surface naturally.
While they spoke, the ice crystal's surface had transformed under Gu You's steady hammering. The once rough, dull surface now gleamed with a transparent luster. Its patterns grew finer, smoother, more uniform, and the hammering sounds ringing out became crisper, cleaner — the unmistakable sign that the metal's internal quality was continuously rising.
The Hundred Refinements had been completed.
Gu You's twin hammers began to move faster, the force behind them steadily increasing.
'Yes,' Gu You thought, his heart stirring. 'This feeling — this is it.'
Zhen Hua found himself utterly absorbed, eyes locked on the young forgemaster's movements. Wildness mixed with tenderness, ferocity intertwined with finesse — this was craftsmanship unlike anything he'd ever witnessed.
Suddenly, with a thunderous boom, a surge of brilliant blue light shot up into the air, crackling like a dragon coiling skyward.
It was as if the ice crystal itself had burst into joyous song. Its blue radiance danced and twisted like a swimming dragon, rising to nearly a meter tall and refusing to fade.
Gu You slowly drew back his hammers, lowering them to rest at his sides. His eyes — which had once been clear black — now shone a vivid, piercing purple.
At the same time, three shimmering soul rings rose at his feet.
Hundred Refinements with Soul: One-Product Realm!
Twin beams of visible purple light shot from Gu You's eyes, stretching three inches outward. With a smooth glide of his foot, he circled nimbly to the side of the ice crystal. Lightly, gently, he tapped the surface with his twin hammers, producing a crisp, melodious ding ding sound.
To his astonishment, the ice crystal itself echoed back with matching ding ding tones — as if it were responding directly to him.
'What… is this?'
Zhen Hua rubbed his eyes, wondering if he was seeing things.
Red — those soul rings were red!
A hundred-thousand-year soul ring?!
How had Gu You managed to obtain that? Never mind the rarity of ten-thousand-year soul rings — the Federation's official records only counted thirty-two known hundred-thousand-year soul beasts, including those from the oceans.
This wasn't just rare; it was miraculous. A three-ring Soul Elder with a hundred-thousand-year soul ring? No one would believe it — and yet, here it was, right before his eyes.
If this child truly continued to grow, he would become nothing short of a monster, a giant looming over the world.
Zhen Hua forced himself to remain calm. Frankly, he was already stunned beyond words. All he could do now was wait for Gu You to finish. Once the forging was complete, he was sure all the answers would fall into place.
Gu You began circling the Hundred Refined Ice Crystal, his movements now the exact opposite of his earlier explosive style. His hammer strikes landed softly, almost like whispers, yet within his twin hammers glowed a gentle greenish-white-gold light — the combination of his own soul power and the hammer's inherent life energy.
At the same time, purple dragon scales spread across Gu You's entire body.
An overwhelming dragon might surged outward, spiraling upward like a twisting vortex. That terrifying aura coiled gently around the still-glowing ice crystal, thin wisps of purple mist rising steadily from its surface.
A True Dragon Martial Soul…
Zhen Hua narrowed his eyes slightly.
'No wonder his strength is so insane. It's inborn.'
The Hundred Refinements with Soul had granted the ice crystal a half-soul essence. Now, during this delicate window, Gu You was using the bridge of his martial soul's spiritual power to communicate with the material, guiding it to awaken into full life. This — this was the true essence of Spirit Forging.
To use the mind and heart as hammers.
To use the martial soul as a guide.
To unify body, mind, and spirit.
To hammer life into the material — this was Spirit Forging.
Spirit Forging was a qualitative leap beyond the Hundred Refinements. Just as battle armor varied wildly in power depending on whether it was one-word or two-word, so too did the levels of crafted materials differ by realms.
Spirit Forging allowed metals to ascend to a higher realm entirely, unlocking potential that could not be reached through ordinary means.
For a forgemaster, achieving Spirit Forging was the critical milestone — the key to becoming a fifth-rank forging grandmaster. Even possessing a single Spirit Forged creation was enough to certify someone as a fifth-rank master. For any forgemaster, crossing this threshold was the single most important achievement of their life.
In truth, Gu You had already been qualified for a fifth-rank badge. But Feng Wuyu had held back from registering it officially. Why? Because it would be far too attention-grabbing. A nine-year-old, holding a fifth-rank badge? Unthinkable. Worse, back then, Gu You hadn't yet fully mastered Spirit Forging; his success rate was unstable. To protect the boy's confidence, Feng Wuyu had pulled countless strings to get him a provisional fifth-rank badge, officially acknowledged by the Federation but marked as "pending" in status.
Back then, Zhen Hua himself had paid immense prices to cross this same step.
Now, watching such a young boy stand at the same threshold, he couldn't help but feel a pang of humility. But alongside that, a deep satisfaction rose in his heart — finally, he had found a successor. And not just any successor — Gu You had already surpassed what Zhen Hua had once dreamed his heir would be.
Compared to other forgemasters, Gu You possessed one overwhelming advantage: his Spirit Sea Realm spiritual power. It allowed him to maintain complete clarity and precision, channeling and fusing the metal's nascent soul with flawless control.
Right now, Gu You was entirely immersed in his communion with the ice crystal. He could sense its emotions — its joy, its hesitation, its trembling uncertainty. It seemed afraid to cross that final line, reluctant to step into the unknown.
And Gu You's role was clear: to guide it through that crucial moment.
One step to heaven! Ten thousand hammers to awaken the soul.
The heart's ten-thousandfold hammering — an endless exchange, an unbroken spiritual dialogue. Each gentle tap of the hammer preserved the ice crystal's nascent soul, nurturing it patiently, coaxing it gently toward the birth of true life.
It was like the cultivation path of a soul beast.
A ten-year-old soul beast was barely more intelligent than an ordinary animal. A hundred-year soul beast possessed faint traces of awareness. A thousand-year soul beast underwent a qualitative leap, its life force strengthening, its mind sharpening. By the time a soul beast reached ten thousand years, its intelligence rivaled — and sometimes surpassed — that of humans.
The higher the cultivation, the greater the power — not just because of raw energy, but because of the leap in consciousness.
Metal was no different.
The richer its soul, the greater its ability to evolve — the greater its chance at transformation.
Slowly, an astonishing scene unfolded.
The once bulky, rough ice crystal — now drastically reduced in size through countless hammer strikes — began to tremble faintly under Gu You's delicate taps. The blue light radiating from its core gradually shifted, deepening, until faint purple patterns began to ripple across its surface like swirling whirlpools.
Its body continued to shrink, refining itself down naturally, while the intertwined blue-violet glow around it grew stronger and stronger.
This was the sign — the sign that Gu You's communication had succeeded, that a bond had been formed between forgemaster and material.
Now, it all depended on whether Gu You could maintain that connection and lead the ice crystal through its final metamorphosis, completing the awakening of its true soul.
(End of Chapter)
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