Regarding Ji Juechen's information, Mu Ye didn't have any particular feelings.
"Teacher, look at his cultivation method."
Su Ming reminded him.
Hearing this, Mu Ye patiently began to study Ji Juechen's cultivation path.
After reading it, his mind started to conceptualize.
"Man and Sword as One? Are you saying I should learn his Man and Sword as One?"
"I feel the 'Man and Sword as One' you're talking about is different from what I wanted you to see." Su Ming said: "It's not the realm of using a sword, but his cultivation method—infusing his spirit into the sword, achieving Man and Sword as One."
Mu Ye used his mecha as a blade and also cultivated blade techniques, achieving Man and Blade as One. He fused his mecha with battle armor, merging the two systems into one, resulting in powerful strength. But this Man and Blade as One here is merely a blade technique realm.
Mu Ye's eyes flickered.
"You want me to infuse my spirit into the blade?"
Infuse spirit into the blade, why?
For...
His pupils suddenly contracted violently.
"Although Little Red is fused with the mecha, it leans more towards the concept of your Spirit Soul Armor. That is, Little Red is equipped with the mecha, not completely fused into one entity."
Mu Ye became excited.
He knew where he had gone wrong.
"I shouldn't be fixated on gathering all the Soul Refined or even Heaven Refined metal to build the mecha, but should focus on forging the mecha into a single entity, then upgrading the whole thing!"
"Infusing spirit into the blade, the blade is the mecha, is the metal. By then, even a mecha forged from Spirit Refined metal could instantly be upgraded to fully Soul Refined, or even fully Heaven Refined!"
Haha!
Mu Ye laughed heartily, his laughter eventually turning into tears of joy.
Found it.
He had found the path.
Zhen Hua listened nearby, his eyes flickering, also somewhat hesitant.
"If infusing spirit into the blade can lead to Soul Refinement and Heaven Refinement, then what about forging..."
What significance does forging have left?
Su Ming saw Zhen Hua's concern.
"Teacher, infusing spirit into the blade isn't that simple. Over these ten thousand years, the only one who succeeded is Ji Juechen."
Hearing this, Mu Ye also calmed down.
Indeed, infusing spirit into the blade only provides a direction. How to achieve it specifically, and whether it can be achieved, are all unknowns.
"Ji Juechen infused his spirit into his sword, but his sword didn't undergo any transformation. So, his path can only serve as a reference for Teacher Mu Ye."
Zhen Hua analyzed along Su Ming's line of thought: "Therefore, Ji Juechen was lacking in some aspect, which resulted in neither the Meteorite Iron nor the Sword of Judgment he fused with later transforming into Spirit Metal."
Su Ming nodded.
Firstly, it might have been that there was no 'spirit' at that time.
Secondly, it could also be a Martial Spirit issue, because Ji Juechen's spirit infusion into the sword was his Martial Spirit entering the sword. It's hard to judge whether the Martial Spirit is living or dead.
"Personally, I lean towards having Teacher Mu Ye use the method of spirit infusion into the sword to have the Spirit Soul completely fuse with the mecha, becoming the spirit within the mecha, rather than using the Martial Spirit to merge."
Mu Ye said: "To put it bluntly, the problem lies in my fusion method. It shouldn't be a parallel fusion, but an overlapping fusion."
After summarizing, Mu Ye felt completely clear.
"I will reference Ji Juechen's cultivation path and investigate the legacy he left behind. I'll be in seclusion during this period; you all be careful."
Zhen Hua waved his hand.
"Go on, go on. You make it sound like I'll be in danger the moment you're not around."
After all these years, aren't I standing here perfectly fine?
Seeing this, Mu Ye immediately went to prepare for seclusion.
After Mu Ye left, Zhen Hua showed a worried expression.
"Xiao Ming, you've dug another pit for blacksmiths."
Not long ago, the Spirit Infusion Technique undoubtedly set the blacksmith world abuzz, destined to reach higher levels in the future.
But now Su Ming has unearthed Ji Juechen's 'spirit infusion into the sword' and applied the concept to forging. Although the original intention was for Mu Ye's upgrade, this is ultimately a forging method.
An alternative forging method, one that potentially all Spirit Masters can attempt.
It's not that their conversation today would necessarily become known to the outside world.
But rather, Zhen Hua didn't trust himself.
He was worried now, but he had already started conceptualizing.
The technology of integrating failed artificial Spirit Souls into ordinary metal to achieve artificial rare metal had made a little progress. Zhen Hua felt that researching this technology further could perfectly connect with this new forging method.
Zhen Hua's heart was itching to explore this new forging path.
After all, it's still forging, even if it might affect the status of blacksmiths.
"Teacher, you're overthinking it. Even if a Spirit Soul can truly merge with metal, have you considered how many chances a Spirit Master gets to attempt this in their lifetime?"
Su Ming indicated that Zhen Hua was purely worrying too much.
"Ordinary Spirit Souls aren't qualified for the Spirit Soul Embodiment Path. Defective artificial Spirit Souls, integrated into ordinary metal, becoming the spirit of ordinary metal—after such forging, they still have to follow the steps of Thousand Refinement to gain a spirit, because their foundation is poor."
"To integrate with metal and directly transform the metal into Soul Refined or even Heaven Refined, firstly, the metal must be Spirit Refined. If it's not even Spirit Refined, how can there be talk of Soul Refinement bestowing legacy? Secondly, the Spirit Soul must possess the legacy, meaning the realm, to support the metal reaching the Soul Refined level."
To put it bluntly, truly following this path would be equivalent to shifting the work of forging to enhancing the Spirit Soul's age.
"Not only that, for metal that is already Spirit Refined, how excellent must its foundation be for it to only lack legacy to become Soul Refined, to become Heaven Refined?"
After hearing Su Ming's explanation, Zhen Hua breathed a sigh of relief.
That seems to make sense.
For fusion with metal to cause metal transformation, firstly the Spirit Soul must meet the standard, and secondly the metal blank must be able to withstand it. And Spirit Alloy capable of withstanding Heaven Refinement...
If one isn't at least an Level 8 Blacksmith, they probably couldn't forge such Spirit Refined Spirit Alloy.
What does this mean?
It means that if one originally needed to prepare normal Spirit Refined metal to lay the foundation for Two-Word Battle Armor, which a Level 5 Spirit Engineer can forge, but if they want to follow the Spirit Soul Embodiment Path, then when making Two-Word Battle Armor, they would need to ask a Level 8 Sacred Blacksmith to forge a set of Spirit Refined Spirit Alloy with Heaven Refinement potential for them.
Isn't that just asking for trouble?
If you don't want to find a Level 8 Sacred Blacksmith, the most basic version would require at least a Level 6 Forging Grandmaster to forge Spirit Refined Spirit Alloy with Soul Refinement potential.
But, even if the Embodiment Path succeeds and evolves a set of Soul Refined metal, completing the Three-Word Battle Armor, one's potential would be damaged in the process.
Because any Spirit Master capable of achieving this would only be wasting their potential by doing so.
After sighing in relief, Zhen Hua was free of psychological burden, and his itching heart began to show on his face.
"Xiao Ming, I want to give it a try."
His tone was excited.
If integrating a Spirit Soul into metal can truly aid forging, then this could be a great enrichment of forging technology.
"Alright, I'll talk to Teacher Zhang Tianyang and see if the Spirit Transmission Pagoda can provide Spirit Souls close to the ten-thousand-year level for us to research artificial Soul Refined metal."
Su Ming also felt there was potential to be mined here.
"Close to ten-thousand-year?"
Zhen Hua frowned.
If you want metal to transform into Soul Refined, the Spirit Soul should probably reach the ten-thousand-year level to be possible.
Why close to ten-thousand-year?
Could it be that...
***
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(Chapter End)