"Roar!" (It hurts!)
Little Gold's roar failed to interrupt Su Ming's forging.
"It will hurt a bit at first. You'll get used to it."
Su Ming comforted him while simultaneously bringing the forging hammer down hard, channeling Spirit Power through it to drive Little Gold's power deep into the metal.
He already had a very profound understanding of Thousand Refinements and could interact with metal on a deep level.
If the metal had no spirit, he would hammer an external spirit into it!
This was his idea, and also the method he would use to solve the problem of his Douluo 1 and Douluo 2 selves being unable to perform Spirit Refinement.
If the Plane's laws weren't fully developed, then use grafting.
If the metal itself had no spirit, then graft one into it and transform the metal himself.
"At most, it means other blacksmiths without Spirit Souls can't become [Spirit] Refinement Masters. That doesn't affect me. As long as I can become a Refinement Master within the Spirit Refinement system myself, it's fine."
"Roar!" (It hurts!)
"Be good, don't move around. I'll try to be gentler."
"Roar!" (It still hurts!)
"Endure a little longer. It's almost done."
Su Ming hammered the metal again and again.
His Douluo 3 self was already seeking guidance. Using the opportunity of having just become a disciple, he asked Zhen Hua about the origins of blacksmithing and casually inquired why the blacksmithing system didn't exist in the past.
Zhen Hua lived up to being the Divine Blacksmith.
Heaven Refinement involved the domain of laws. Through repeated Heaven Refinements, he had gained some understanding of the essence behind blacksmithing's development.
"The Douluo Plane's laws inherently possess a special nurturing ability. All things have spirit and the potential to become Spirit Beasts. It's just that twenty thousand years ago, these laws were still very primitive. With development over the subsequent twenty millennia, especially after the Spirit Ice Douluo pioneered the Spirit Soul system ten thousand years ago, the influence of Spirit Masters pushed the laws of spirit, making this law more complete and thus spreading to more fields. Among these, the biggest beneficiaries were us blacksmiths. Because spirit tool technology had reached a bottleneck at that time, the demand for materials became increasingly urgent, leading to the emergence of the blacksmithing system. Many other fields benefited during this process as well, such as artificial Spirit Souls, which also caught a bit of the era's dividends."
The Douluo 3 Su Ming asked further: Would it have been possible to achieve Spirit Refinement twenty thousand years ago?
"Possible. All things have spirit; the laws have always existed, just to varying degrees of manifestation. Even without blacksmiths, rock and metal-type Spirit Beasts existed in nature. Before they transformed into Spirit Beasts, their bodies were blessed by the laws of spirit and could be used for Spirit Refinement."
Is there a universal method? Can grafting the spirit of another life form work?
"Haha, how could that be? Unless someone twenty thousand years ago had a Spirit Soul, then there might be a sliver of hope. Otherwise, how could the spirit of a living being be arbitrarily grafted onto metal?"
Can the spirit of a Spirit Soul really be grafted?
"Of course. Blacksmiths initially developed the Spirit Refinement system in cooperation with their own Spirit Souls."
"..."
With the Douluo 3 Su Ming acting as a relay, the Douluo 1 Su Ming forged while simultaneously receiving guidance from the Divine Blacksmith of ten thousand years in the future.
"Roar" (Feels different)
Su Ming's eyes flickered.
Little Gold's reaction undoubtedly told Su Ming that his spirit was adapting to the metal.
He continued swinging the hammer.
Bang!
Bang!
Hammer blow after hammer blow, Little Gold's roars became increasingly relaxed, even turning pleasurable towards the end.
"Roar roar roar!" (So good!)
Su Ming understood his meaning from the spiritual fluctuations Little Gold transmitted, knowing that Little Gold was now experiencing the feeling of his soul being nurtured.
His spirit had merged into the metal and was being forged by Su Ming as the metal's spirit, guided to become stronger!
Soon, Su Ming himself detected the spirituality within the metal.
This spirituality was distinct from Little Gold's. Initially covered by Little Gold's spirituality, it gradually began to grow and become noticeable.
"Little Gold, you can withdraw now."
Little Gold reluctantly retrieved all of its spirituality.
Without Little Gold's interference, Su Ming's subsequent forging proceeded very smoothly. With his rich forging experience, having solved the spirit problem, everything else fell into place.
A glow reaching a foot in height erupted within the small Ming Blacksmith Shop.
Su Ming took a deep breath and directly took out a dagger, cutting his left hand.
Blood spilled onto the Thousand Refined Heavy Silver, quickly merging into it.
The red light receded inward. Su Ming felt the Heavy Silver again and could clearly sense an additional connection between himself and it.
"Just don't know what characteristic this Heavy Silver has."
"Roar!" (Mine!)
Little Gold cried out beside Su Ming at this moment, claiming this piece of metal was his.
Su Ming was taken aback.
He looked at Little Gold, feeling he wouldn't demand this Heavy Silver for no reason.
"Roar." (This metal suits me very well.)
Su Ming laughed. "Since you want it, it's yours. Speaking of which, I'm quite curious if a Spirit Soul can possess a set of Battle Armor."
Battle Armor?
Little Gold indicated he didn't understand.
His eyes were fixed on the Heavy Silver on the table, almost drooling.
This was a rare metal whose spirituality was guided and nurtured using his spirit, so he could naturally sense some of the metal's characteristics.
"Since you want it, I'll forge a claw sheath for you."
"Roar!" (Long live the Spirit Master!)
Su Ming rested for a moment, then began swinging the hammer again to shape the Heavy Silver.
Two hours later.
"Alright, try it on."
Su Ming handed a pair of claw sheaths to Little Gold, watching him expectantly.
Little Gold put the sheaths on his bear paws; they fit exceptionally well.
"Roar."
"Don't worry, I can perform Spirit Refinement on them later and engrave some Core Formations. Then the claw sheaths can change size along with your body."
"Roar." (As expected of a Spirit Master, you can do anything.)
"Give it a try. The characteristic of this Heavy Silver definitely isn't ordinary."
This was Su Ming's first Thousand Refinement piece, and he had used a blood sacrifice. The quality of the characteristic born from such a process was usually not poor.
Generally, blood-sacrificed metal could only be used by the blacksmith themselves, but it could also be used by that blacksmith's Spirit Soul.
Little Gold roared excitedly and then swung his claws.
Su Ming's pupils constricted.
Oh no!
Little Gold had actually released a claw aura that landed directly on the forging table in front of him.
Boom!
The forging table, fortunately, was sturdy enough, but a clear claw mark still appeared on it. The things behind the table were destroyed, all torn apart by this claw aura, and the wall behind was pierced through.
"Shape Condensation? Or Tearing?"
Su Ming looked at Little Gold's handiwork with surprise and doubt.
He didn't blame Little Gold for the destruction. He stepped forward to examine the marks on the forging table and the wall behind, carefully sensing the aura left on the claw marks.
"Tearing!"
"Roar!" (Such powerful claw sheaths! The Spirit Master's things are actually this useful!)
Little Gold looked down at his two bear paws, extremely happy, and was about to try again.
"Stop, don't try anymore. I'll find you a place later where you can experience it to your heart's content. For now, fix these for me first."
Su Ming pointed at the claw marks on the forging table and the wall behind.
Little Gold immediately became unwilling.
"Roar!" (I don't know how to fix things!)
(End of Chapter)