"Hmph, how am I supposed to keep watching this?" Feng Wuyu snorted coldly. "This is an insult to blacksmithing. Hm?"
Something wasn't right!
Under Arthur's guidance, Mu Xi's hammer rose and fell in steady succession. Her rhythm grew faster and faster until she gradually slipped into a peculiar state.
Her eyes became astonishingly clear, as though the entire world contained nothing but the piece of titanium crystal and the forging hammer in her hands. Her golden hair fluttered with every swing.
The titanium crystal slowly transformed. As its volume shrank, an almost miraculous radiance blossomed from within.
Spirit formation!
It meant she was on the verge of Spirit Forging!
Unfortunately, Mu Xi simply lacked the raw ability. Her strength gave out, and the inspiration sustaining her vanished.
In the end, the titanium crystal dimmed.
Mu Xi let out a long breath. Exhaustion showed on her face, but excitement and unwillingness were even more obvious. She had come so close to Spirit Forging, yet that tiny remaining gap might still take who knew how long to overcome.
Meanwhile, Qian Wu had already completed his Spirit Forging, drawing wave after wave of astonished cries from the audience, everyone except the first-years.
Looking at Arthur, who still hadn't begun forging, Shen Yi reminded him, "Aren't you going to start? Time's almost up."
"In a second," Arthur replied casually.
His Spiritual Power spread outward, vast and abyss-like, revealing every detail inside the titanium crystal.
Having failed to achieve Soul Forging for so long, Arthur had spent countless idle moments experimenting with extremely difficult techniques.
With his intuition and overwhelming fortune, he had actually come up with something spectacular.
He raised his hammer.
His movements lacked Mu Xi's explosive speed and Qian Wu's steady composure. Instead, they carried a strange rhythm, as if resonating with heaven and earth itself.
Clang!
The titanium crystal changed instantly.
Hundred Refinements, complete!
Feng Wuyu shot to his feet.
"What?!"
Clang!
The second hammer struck the crystal that had only just reached Hundred Refinements.
Fine cloud-like patterns instantly spread across its surface as the remaining impurities were pulverized under the impact of soul power.
Thousand Refinements, complete!
Feng Wuyu was nearly losing his mind.
His cloudy eyes were fixed on the titanium crystal as his voice trembled with excitement.
"Thousand Refinements! That's Thousand Refinements! One hammer for Hundred Refinements, two hammers for Thousand Refinements!"
Moments ago, he'd been lamenting Mu Xi's near miss.
Now Arthur's technique had left him completely shaken.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Three more hammers fell in rapid succession.
The rhythm grew faster and faster, yet the strange resonance never broke.
Every strike landed precisely on the crystal's core node.
The golden veins inside the titanium crystal were completely awakened, coming alive before everyone's eyes.
Its spirituality continued to rise, its brilliance growing ever more dazzling.
Spirit Forging!
Feng Wuyu clenched his fists so tightly that his palms were drenched in sweat.
"Impossible..." he muttered.
"Spirit Forging requires Spiritual Power and soul power to achieve perfect harmony. You also have to awaken the metal's spirituality and infuse it with spirit. How can it happen this fast..."
He couldn't do it.
That was right. Even though he was a Saint Craftsman and could perform Soul Forging, something Arthur himself still couldn't do...
He couldn't do this.
"Hahaha! Old geezer, dumbfounded now, aren't you?" Zhuo Shi finally burst into laughter. "You don't even recognize a Little Divine Craftsman, and you still call yourself the old master of the blacksmithing world?"
Truth be told, he was just as stunned.
Mocking Feng Wuyu simply took priority.
Unexpectedly, Feng Wuyu didn't react at all.
The way he looked at Arthur was completely different from how Zhen Hua once had.
There was no blazing excitement in his eyes.
Only a calm reverence that bordered on awe.
"How did you do it?"
"The hammer technique," Arthur explained with complete seriousness. "It's a hammer technique I created myself. I call it..."
"Victory Through Luck."
Just swing the hammer with everything you've got.
Leave the rest to intuition and fortune.
Feng Wuyu slowly sat back down, his deep voice clear and steady.
"Who is your teacher?"
A genius like this had to have had a master long ago.
Before anyone else could answer, Zhuo Shi spoke first.
"His teacher is Mu Chen. Zhen Hua counts as half a teacher too."
"Mu Chen... that lucky brat again."
Turning toward Ya Li, he delivered his verdict.
"Arthur wins the forging competition."
Feng Wuyu's voice was low yet carried unquestionable authority, the authority unique to a Saint Craftsman. Every discussion in the arena immediately fell silent.
The next event was the design competition.
"The second exchange match, mecha design. Representatives from each side, please come forward."
Gu Yue flexed her fingers before walking calmly onto the stage.
The second-year representative was also a beautiful young woman.
The third-year representative was Mo Yu.
"First Year, Gu Yue."
"Second Year, Bai Hanying."
"Third Year, Mo Yu."
Shen Yi announced the rules loudly.
"This mecha design competition will evaluate design practicality and improvements to combat performance."
"You have two quarters of an hour to complete the design for a Battle Armor right gauntlet component. Previously completed blueprints may also be submitted. In the end, the Holy Spirit Douluo will personally judge the entries and select the winner."
As soon as he finished speaking, Bai Hanying and Mo Yu immediately began sketching.
Gu Yue, on the other hand, took her time.
After all, she'd already designed Battle Armor for Arthur.
Not to mention that in the past month alone, she'd participated in the design of at least eighty Battle Armor components, if not a hundred.
That didn't even include all the discarded drafts.
Two quarters of an hour actually felt excessive to her.
She had never fought a battle with such abundant preparation.
Time was up.
The three blueprints were delivered to the judges.
Ya Li first examined Bai Hanying's and Mo Yu's designs, nodding in approval.
Finally, she picked up Gu Yue's.
One glance.
Her breathing stopped.
The other elders noticed her reaction and curiously looked over.
A moment later, they all sucked in sharp breaths.
Gu Yue had incorporated a multi-element compatibility module into her design.
The elemental convergence slot in the center of the gauntlet's palm could accommodate the four fundamental elements of wind, water, fire, and earth.
The removable armor plates at each finger joint could be swapped with different elemental crystals according to the Soul Master's attributes.
She had even designed a soul power buffering layer inside the armor to prevent structural damage caused by conflicts between elemental energies.
Even more astonishing was the addition of a dynamic adaptation function.
The gauntlet could automatically adjust its elemental conversion efficiency according to the user's soul power output during battle.
Whether launching close-range assaults or providing ranged firepower, it could adapt perfectly.
"This..."
Anyone knowledgeable could tell this wasn't simply the product of exceptional talent.
It also required an unimaginable number of trials and failures.
How many beatings had she taken before reaching this level?
As expected, Gu Yue won.
Looking at the utterly disbelieving Bai Hanying and Mo Yu...
Gu Yue gave them a slight nod.
Hmph.
The wisdom of mortals.
As for the manufacturing and repair competitions afterward, the first-years had no chance.
The third-years won both events.
The atmosphere among the second-years sank to rock bottom. Quite a few students clenched their fists so tightly their faces turned red.
They had originally believed the exchange competition would be an easy chance to suppress the freshmen.
Instead, out of the four professional competitions, the first-years had taken victories in forging and design, while the third-years swept manufacturing and repair.
The second-years had become nothing more than scenery.
Finally came the main event of the inter-year competition.
Shen Yi didn't even need to announce it.
Ya Li personally stood.
Her ethereal voice echoed into the ears of everyone present.
"The final match: the entire first-year class versus the combined second and third-year classes."
The arena transformed.
The platform that had hosted the four professional competitions rapidly expanded before everyone's eyes.
Soul devices around its edges lit up with a gentle blue glow, enveloping all the surrounding open space until they formed a gigantic arena.
The three grade levels occupied three separate positions.
Like the legs of a tripod, they stood facing one another.