After training his Spear Technique, Su Mu rotated through cultivating Feixu Skill, Eight-Step Chasing Cicada, and Thunder Shock Fist, causing his body to fully unwind, fine beads of sweat leaping from his skin.
Taking advantage of this blazing montum, Su Mu swallowed a Jade Bone Pill, and imdiately began practicing Red Fire Technique, Iron Cloth Shirt, and Iron Arm Skill—three Eighth-Grade Cross-Training Martial Arts.
Cross-Training Martial Arts temper muscles, bones, and skin; combining the Jade Bone Pill with Bone Forging brings miraculous effects.
This night-long cultivation ended with a Muscle-Toning Herbal Soup bath. The next morning, Su Mu rose early and returned to the Forging Workshop to continue pounding those two iron billets.
After his fourth Bone Forging, Su Mu underwent rebirth, his energy beca exceedingly abundant for a normal person, and his recovery speed was astounding. Despite a night of relentless cultivation, he felt little fatigue.
Clang, clang, clang!
Inside the Profound Iron Forging Room, Su Mu swung his sledgehamr again and again onto the iron billet; the impurities folded within those two billets erupted in sparks, growing ever purer with every percussion.
Ten refinings.
Twenty refinings.
Thirty refinings.
Ti slipped swiftly by; in the blink of an eye, three days passed.
On a drizzling rain night, thunder rumbled faintly from beyond the city, waking many sleeping townsfolk before they dozily drifted back into sleep.
Spring rains were frequent—night thunderstorms no rarity—the populace long since used to it.
But if one listened closely, one would notice the rolling thunder did not arise from the heavens, but instead ca from an unmarked hill five li outside Qingyun City.
Deep within a bamboo grove, scorched earth stretched forth, spring's abundant life unable to brave the thunder's threshold—even the spring shoots dared not cross. In those burnt lands, a youth unleashed both fists.
Rumble—
His fist-shadows poured down like torrential rain, dirt swirling from the earth, swept up inch by inch. Within a ten-foot radius, violet lightning coalesced into a Thunder Jiao, spinning wildly to sweep up dust, transforming it into a Thunder Drill that split the night.
"Violet lightning takes shape as a Jiao, spiraling force condenses… Thus, the second form of Thunder Shock Fist is nad Thunder Jiao Drill!"
The youth murmured softly—this move first conceived in the apothecary, observing thunderstorms over several nights, later sharpened under pressure from Lin Family Manor's Flood Banner Lord Qi Wuxing and the Iron Armor Corpse Puppet; tonight, it finally reached completion.
With the second form perfected, a surge of spiritual insight erupted in his mind; comprehension flooded in, and his mastery over Thunder Shock Fist soared at an astonishing rate.
Thunder Shock Fist (Small Success 98%)
After a long while, Su Mu exhaled slowly, a flicker of violet lightning passing through his eyes; this martial art he had created himself now encountered an invisible bottleneck.
"Only by inventing another form can I stride into the Realm of Great Success!"
Clang, clang, clang!
Before the Forging Platform, the iron hamr spun—a hamr now as a Po Jun Iron Spear, wielded by a peerless martial general charging the battlefield. But after a mont, it shifted to flashing blades; then, amidst a breeze, the cry of cicadas echoed through. Su Mu lded all his unfinished martial arts into each strike.
When passing by the Forging Room, many blacksmiths would stop, faces awestruck—such hamring was like heavenly music, rarely heard in this world.
"Blacksmith Su was truly born for forging… He is still progressing relentlessly; following three master craftsn to learn the Treasure-Forge Art for only a year, Blacksmith Su's rate of progress is simply monstrous!"
Fifty refinings.
Seventy refinings.
One hundred refinings!
In the sound of forging, the days burned like sparks in stone, bodies in dreams—ti passed in a rush.
"The iron billets are nearly done… One hundred thirty-five refinings—strong enough, no need to continue."
In a blink, a month went by; the iron billet, fused with Iron Essence and Cold Iron Essence, shed its dross, fine and dense in texture; its deep-blue chill flowed throughout—even as an unfinished billet, it seed to radiate cold.
With the final blow delivered—
"Wong———"
lting Gold Technique (Perfection)
Comprehension: 73 (Hidden-Dragon Level)
lting Gold Technique, an Eighth-Grade Martial Art brought back from Qingzhou Prefecture by the first Master of the Weapon Refining Workshop—a secret art of the forging house—at last, after nearly a year of Su Mu's cultivation, reached the Realm of Perfection.
The three master craftsn and Martial Fierce Pavilion Master had each been steeped in the lting Gold Technique over twenty years; among them, Master Chen Yuntian for nearly thirty years. Yet all four had stopped at Great Success, failing to glimpse the subtle mysteries of Perfection.
Now, in little more than a year since touching the art, Su Mu surpassed all three master craftsn, and even overtook Master Wu Lie—becoming the only one in the Forging Workshop to bring lting Gold Technique to perfection.
At this mont, Su Mu gained new understanding—he knew why Martial Master and the three master craftsn were unable to attain the Realm of Perfection of lting Gold Technique.
"Uncle Wu and the three master craftsn faltered; only relying on one's self can one climb higher. Borrowing foreign powers, Perfection cannot be achieved."
Yet they never realized it wasn't hesitation that held them back—the lting Gold Technique, when unleashed, erupts with a torrent of heat capable of slting the iron for Grade-Entering Treasure Artifacts; such a temperature is beyond endurance for ordinary flesh and blood.
Even Iron Armor Corpse Puppets cannot withstand this heat; when Su Mu drove on with Pill Force, the solid iron armor on his body lted away in re breaths.
Only a freak like Su Mu, cultivating top-level Eighth-Grade Cross-Training Martial Arts to Perfection, and further practicing three more Cross-Training Arts, could dare such recklessness.
Su Mu now multitasked, channeling the current of comprehension to the refining of his ridians for the third ti; upon breaking through, Su Mu attempted to unleash the lting Gold Technique at the Perfection Realm.
Sizzle!
Su Mu casually grabbed an iron ore; in an instant, a hair-raising sight—the ore blushed red at a speed visible to the naked eye, lting to scalding iron liquid that dripped from his fingertips within a breath.
"After achieving Perfection, the power of lting Gold Technique increased by almost forty percent… If I reforged an iron billet now, I would likely need only half the ti."
Su Mu felt the gap between Great Success and Perfection, nodded quietly in satisfaction.
"Next cos inscribing the Inscriptions; 'Durability' for the blade's body, 'Sharpness' for its edge."
The forging of the Grade-Entering Treasure Artifact proceeded thodically; Su Mu poured his soul into the inscribing of Inscriptions. For a martial artist, his sword arm is an extension of himself—what difference is there with an Inscription Pen?
One Inscription.
Ten Inscriptions.
A hundred Inscriptions!
Another month swept by with every stroke. Su Mu's pen wrought ironlike hooks and silvery gouges—like swords, like the sweep of a Tyrant Spear; with the last Sharpness Inscription fell a chilling aura as well.
"Kill!"
A cry of slaughter echoed in Su Mu's mind—his body shuddered, and a murderous energy akin to that born from the mound of dead on the battlefield saturated him, instantly blanketing the entire Cyan Blade Forging Room.
Seven Dominating Spear Forms (Great Success 1%)
Comprehension: 76 (Hidden-Dragon Level)
With that cry of battle, Su Mu reached enlightennt of Spear Technique—this Flying Goose Saber, Li Yan's ancestral Seventh-Grade Spear Technique—instantly broke through to Great Success, a potent murderous aura coursing through flesh and veins.
Thereafter, the Overlord's Spear Force of the Seven Dominating Spear Forms was born; Su Mu's power rose to fourteen streams.
With this breakthrough, Su Mu's comprehension soared to a terrifying seventy-six points. After a year, he once again sensed the invisible bottleneck of comprehension.
Seventy-six points—comprehension was brushing up against the limit of Hidden-Dragon Level; Su Mu foresaw reaching eighty points, whereupon a new realm of comprehension would be unveiled.
"Almost there, almost… Only Spiritual Infusion remains!"
The youth opened his eyes slowly, flas dancing within. Even as resolute as Su Mu was, now standing at the threshold of forging a Grade-Entering Treasure Artifact, he could not restrain his quivering heart.
Three days later, gray clouds hung thick, but outside the Forging Room, four silhouettes paced anxiously, waiting.
Within, Su Mu's hands glowed scarlet as he caressed the blade, then calmly cradled the long saber and placed it into the Cold Pool.
Sss——!
At the instant the blade entered the water, the entire Cold Pool seed to ignite; from its depths, as if a demon beast struggled for freedom, the rising mist coalesced into a frigid wolf's form—twice the size of that forged in the previous short-blade ritual.
Howl!
Suddenly a high and resonant cry of a cold wolf pierced the sky, three parts shattering the oppressive clouds above the Weapon Refining Workshop.
Creak!
The Cold Pool's door swung open; the youth stepped out into the backlight, gold rays pouring through the rifted clouds, gilding the frost-patterned blade in his hands with a living, dancing fla.
"I am grateful to have not disgraced my mission!"
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