Spirit Refinement—for the Spirit Master world, this wasn't a novel term.
However, Spirit Masters' understanding of Spirit Refinement was far too limited, to the point where they had no intuitive impression of it.
Aside from Su Ming and those around him, no one had witnessed the Spirit Refinement process. Apart from the characteristics Su Ming had publicly disclosed, Spirit Masters weren't even very clear about the properties of Spirit Refined metal.
Especially before today, Su Ming's disclosure of techniques within the Blacksmith Association also had prerequisites.
He didn't freely offer all techniques to everyone.
To learn Thousand Refinements, Spirit Awakened, one must first learn Spirit Infusion. To learn Spirit Infusion, one must first have a Spirit Soul.
Similarly, before Spirit Refinement, one must master Thousand Refined First Grade. Moreover, the Association didn't recommend directly attempting Spirit Refinement; they would provide reasonable advice to adjust techniques first, master Thousand Refined First Grade proficiently, and then attempt Spirit Refinement.
The prerequisites for Spirit Refinement were even more exaggerated, requiring mastery of Fusion Forging.
Therefore, no one had ever received the true inheritance of Spirit Refinement.
Today, Su Ming revealed the key to Spirit Refinement.
Duan Lin and the other blacksmiths looked excited, staring at the figure on the stage as if in worship.
"If Thousand Refinements, Spirit Awakened is awakening the metal's spiritual essence, Spirit Refinement is bestowing life upon the metal, then Spirit Refinement is bestowing heritage upon the metal."
"What is heritage?"
"It's similar to Spirit Skills that Spirit Beasts are born with. The spiritual essence of the metal also contains its own mysteries. Once activated, it can create countless possibilities."
"Currently, I have been developing Spirit Refinement for three and a half years and have summarized the characteristics of Spirit Refined metal."
Hearing this, Du Busi, secretly watching this scene, twitched the corner of his mouth.
He felt his disciple had a thorough understanding of Spirit Refinement within half a year of breaking through to it.
Those six months, he truly went mad with Spirit Refinement.
Moreover, Su Ming's technique in Spirit Refinement was already very proficient.
At the very least, whenever Du Busi burned Spirit Refined metal to support his Gold-level Martial Soul Second Awakening and later requested new Spirit Refined metal from Su Ming, he couldn't detect any burden on Su Ming.
It seemed like a trivial thing given casually.
"Now, I'd believe it if someone said Little Ming has opened up an even higher forging rank."
"President Su Ming, I'd like to ask, you've been in the Spirit Refinement field for so many years. Do you still belong to Rank Seven Sacred Blacksmith? Or have you advanced to Rank Eight? What's the difference between Rank Seven and Rank Eight Sacred Blacksmiths?"
"Strictly speaking, there's no qualitative leap in technique between Rank Seven and Rank Eight Sacred Blacksmiths."
Su Ming thought seriously for a while before giving an answer.
"The foundation of Spirit Refinement is Spirit Alloy. The simplest way to bestow heritage upon metal is to combine it based on the characteristics of the rare metals themselves. This tests the Fusion Forging formula."
"Therefore, a Rank Seven Sacred Blacksmith is one who can successfully perform Spirit Refinement."
"The standard for Rank Eight Sacred Blacksmith is much higher. Either create more than three Spirit Refinement formulas oneself, or use the current Fusion Forging combinations to bestow different forms of heritage upon the metal."
"So that's it. Fusion Forging is for the subsequent characteristic ratio."
Duan Lin had a sudden realization, gaining a new perspective on Fusion Forging at this moment.
The emergence of this forging technique wasn't to give metal the characteristic of integrating with a Spirit Master at the Thousand Refinement level, but for Spirit Refinement.
Characteristics, fusion.
To what degree must one be familiar with metals to achieve such a feat?
And what kind of mind could conceive of this?
Rank Five Blacksmiths marveled.
Rank Three and Four Blacksmiths looked bewildered.
Everyone else could only babble, indicating they didn't understand.
Of course, "not understanding" didn't mean they couldn't understand the words, but they couldn't grasp the difficulty and profundity within.
Su Ming didn't waste more time explaining and began forging directly.
Although the difference between Rank Seven and Eight was as he described—whether one independently researched unique Spirit Refinement heritages—he still made a distinction.
Today, he used a three-in-one Spirit Alloy for Spirit Refinement.
Ding-ding-dang-dang sounds resonated.
Above the arena, images of Su Ming hammering during forging materialized.
"Whoa, what kind of Spirit Tool technology is this?"
"Projection in the void? Has the Sun Moon Empire's Spirit Tool technology developed this far?"
"Wake up. This isn't Spirit Tool technology. This is a phenomenon caused by Su Ming's forging."
"Huh?"
This was something a human could cause?
Just from forging, one could trigger phenomena?
"Mommy, I want to learn Spirit Refinement to show off later."
"Don't make me laugh. I dare say only Su Ming has this kind of phenomenon. Even if others perform Spirit Refinement, it wouldn't be like this."
This is like showing off in front of people, just an enlarged version of Su Ming. How could it be a phenomenon of Spirit Refinement?
Soon, a melodious reverberating sound echoed throughout the venue. An enlightening echo made scalps tingle, as if the brain was soothed and the soul detached.
Spectators rolled their eyes one by one, expressions of extreme pleasure on their faces.
They all felt their intelligence had been enhanced in that instant.
"This is the true phenomenon of forging."
Su Ming, long accustomed to it, forged diligently.
Today, he used Primordial Spirit Iron, Magic Silver, and Heavy Silver. The Spirit Alloy forged from Magic Silver and Heavy Silver is Jade Silver, which has extremely high acceptance. Therefore, when adding other rare metals to complete the three-in-one Spirit Alloy, it's usually named based on Jade Silver. The Spirit Alloy Su Ming is forging now is named Spirit Jade Silver.
Spirit Jade Silver is the Spirit Refined metal he can use.
However, a three-in-one Spirit Alloy was a bit low-level for him.
So, he could use this piece of Spirit Jade Silver, but not for making Battle Armor. He planned to use it as consumable material for Gold-level Second Awakening in the future.
"Characteristics intertwine, using the spiritual essence of the rare metals as threads to weave a heritage unique to this Spirit Alloy. Primordial Spirit Iron for element control, Magic Silver enhances element affinity, Heavy Silver possesses good malleability—the three merge into one!"
Su Ming brought his hammer down.
Beneath his hammer, a six-colored halo rippled. Dazzling light erupted from the Spirit Jade Silver, sketching a scene of heaven and earth in mid-air.
The brilliant scene captivated everyone's gaze, while Su Ming had already taken the Spirit Refined Spirit Jade Silver in his hand.
As the audience's attention returned to him, he stimulated the spiritual essence within the Spirit Jade Silver, activating it externally.
His Spirit Power surged, condensing into a carving knife in mid-air. He continuously sketched in the air, integrating and outlining the scattered spiritual essence of the Spirit Jade Silver, rapidly carving out a complex Spirit Tool formation.
Preparation Area.
"How is this possible?"
Huo Yuhao watched this scene, his brain feeling somewhat swollen.
He used his Spiritual Detection to forcibly memorize the core formation, finding his mind growing increasingly drowsy.
"There's too much information here. It's even a hundred times more complex than the core formation of the Eighth Rank Spirit Tool you secretly learned." Tianmeng sighed, intervening to help Huo Yuhao record everything first for digestion later.
"But it's just a combination of core patterns. Why does it consume so much mental energy?" Huo Yuhao was still puzzled.
"Ah, that's the brilliance of his formation," Tianmeng exclaimed in admiration. "Although I haven't seriously studied your Spirit Tools, I've watched many with you. Spirit Engineers create Spirit Tools by carving formations, guiding Spirit Power to form circuits to produce effects. But besides the circuits guided by the formation, every single line in his is also intertwining with the metal's spiritual essence on a deeper level. This will likely be the mainstream direction for future Spirit Tool development. Its upper limit definitely far exceeds current Ninth Rank Spirit Tools."
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