"Are you done eating yet?" Feng Wuyu looked over at Gu You, who was still wiping grease from his mouth. The boy had woken up early saying he was hungry. Feng Wuyu had thought, how much could a kid possibly eat? So, he simply handed over his own breakfast. But to his shock, Gu You devoured it all. And it wasn't just any breakfast — the ingredients used were century-old rare herbs, packed with energy. Feng Wuyu still couldn't figure out just how bottomless this boy's stomach was.
Gu You patted his belly and nodded.
"Today's task is this: hammer this piece of tungsten steel one thousand times. You can use your soul power. While you hammer, listen carefully to the sound and try to discern the purity of the metal's impurities. This kind of perception can only come from within you — it determines your talent for forging." Feng Wuyu gestured to a gleaming silver block of metal beside the forge.
"Got it!"
Without hesitation, Gu You summoned his life essence hammers. His arms, which had been swollen from yesterday's training, were now completely recovered — even Feng Wuyu was amazed when he saw how lively the boy was that morning. His recovery ability was basically a walking medical miracle.
Gu You threw himself into the work with all his strength, his martial soul fully activated. Purple-gold dragon scales wrapped around his hands as hammering sounds echoed non-stop.
Feng Wuyu watched curiously. His own martial soul gave a faint tremble as he observed Gu You — it meant that this child's martial soul level was actually higher than his own.
'No wonder his strength is so monstrous,' Feng Wuyu thought. 'Could this be a pure-strength true dragon martial soul?'
"All right, done!" Gu You wiped the sweat from his forehead after five minutes.
"…What? Done?" Feng Wuyu spat out a mouthful of tea. He had only been deep in thought for five minutes! How could the kid possibly finish a thousand strikes in that time? Even at one strike per second, that wouldn't be enough!
"It's really done. The hammers are so light; I can easily swing them three or four times per second," Gu You muttered, a little aggrieved.
Feng Wuyu quickly examined the hammered tungsten steel — and his eyes immediately sharpened.
'This… this is thousand-refined?!'
Although it was the lowest grade, the impurities in the tungsten steel had indeed been completely refined, and the metal even showed the sublimation effect!
'Impossible!'
Thousand refining wasn't just about striking a metal block a thousand times. It required careful, precise hammering to extract impurities, increase density, and most importantly, achieve sublimation — a transformative change in the metal's quality.
For example, take this tungsten steel. Its base strength was already quite high, but after thousand refining, its volume should shrink by a third, and its strength increase by 200%. The sublimation effect for tungsten steel was a roughly 30% weight increase.
Only when a metal underwent true qualitative change could it be considered a thousand-refined product. And the best metals even developed rare special effects, making them exponentially more valuable.
For most forgers, achieving thousand refining was a lifetime goal — something less than 10% could ever reach. It required not just raw strength or soul power, but deep intuition and perception of the metal.
Yet here was Gu You, who had been studying forging for only two days, managing to casually hammer out a thousand-refined metal block.
Sure, the sublimation effect was minimal — just a 2% weight increase — but it was still leagues beyond any hundred-refined material.
"This… counts as thousand refining?" Gu You scratched his head, confused. After all, he really had just hammered randomly while listening to the different sounds and shifting his strikes accordingly. Plus, the life essence hammers had been quietly releasing life energy the whole time.
Feng Wuyu sighed, shaking his head. "It was mostly a fluke. The life energy in the hammers seeped into the ore, helping trigger sublimation. Combined with your raw forging instincts, it just barely worked."
'I see,' Gu You thought. But he couldn't help feeling that forging wasn't as difficult as people made it sound.
"Well, it seems we need to skip ahead. I'll start teaching you true thousand refining." Feng Wuyu smiled bitterly. With this level of talent, the basics were practically useless — it was better to dive right into the advanced stuff.
"Is there some special technique to thousand refining?" Gu You asked.
Feng Wuyu shook his head again. "Not really."
"What? You're my teacher, and even you don't know? Then how am I supposed to learn?!" Gu You threw up his hands.
"I'm not your teacher yet," Feng Wuyu chuckled mischievously.
'Ah, I see how it is,' Gu You thought. 'You're going to play this game, huh?'
"Fine, fine! From now on, you're my second-profession master. Satisfied?" Gu You grumbled.
"Now that's more like it, my good disciple." Feng Wuyu laughed. "Listen well: thousand refining isn't about tricks — it's about practice, listening, and feeling. Practice means constant hammering; listening means paying attention to every sound you make when you strike, noticing how the impurities shift. Feeling means treating the metal as a living thing, communicating with it through your hammer. Only when you connect with the material can you truly grasp its secrets. That's why thousand refining is called the forging of intent — no two smiths do it the same way. You must use your own heart to forge, to comprehend."
Gu You's eyes widened slightly.
"Do you understand?" Feng Wuyu asked.
"I think I'm starting to get it. Let me try." Gu You rested his chin on his hand, mulling it over.
He had originally thought Feng Wuyu would at least demonstrate first — but no, the old man just tossed him into the deep end, treating him like a natural prodigy who would instantly figure everything out.
Stepping up to the forge, Gu You read through a nearby book, flipping to the section on the properties of ice crystal ore.
This particular ore was about a foot long, shimmering with a faint blue-white glow. According to the book, ice crystal ore was mined from the distant Far North, a region few dared to visit. It was an extremely rare material, highly sought after on the continent.
Ice crystal ore was prized because, under high temperatures, it became unusually malleable and elastic — perfect for crafting soul device conduits. High-quality ice crystal ore could even boost soul power transmission by 5–10%.
However, its biggest flaw was that it was notoriously difficult to forge. Too brittle in its raw state, too soft when heated, and with a maddeningly narrow working window, it required extreme precision to shape properly.
Even in border cities near the Far North, ice crystal ore was considered a treasure. Yet here in Feng Wuyu's forge, it was stacked casually in piles, as if it were nothing.
Gu You's fingers tightened on the hammer handle.
'Alright,' he thought, 'let's see what you've got.'
(End of Chapter)
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