At the instant the hammer collided with the metal, the surface of the metal suddenly became coated in a layer of crimson-gold light.
Duan Xuan explained:
"The second path works like this. As you can see, it uses elemental attributes to reshape the metal, allowing it to inherit certain elemental characteristics."
"Because of this, the metals forged by excellent blacksmiths usually have specific users they are best suited for."
"A blacksmith with a fire attribute martial soul is better suited to forge equipment for fire-attribute soul masters."
"Likewise, a darkness-attribute soul master should ideally choose equipment forged by a blacksmith with darkness attributes."
"These two forging paths don't really have a superior or inferior option."
"It mainly depends on the blacksmith's personal traits."
"For example, my martial soul doesn't greatly enhance physical strength, so I mainly follow the second path."
"Generally speaking," Duan Xuan continued,
"The second path is most suitable for light-attribute and fire-attribute soul masters."
"Fire works well because forging requires heating metal. High temperatures can reshape the metal's structure."
"As for light…"
"Forging is essentially the process of giving life to metal."
"Among the common attributes, light is the one most helpful in nurturing that life."
Hearing this, Bai Chen nodded thoughtfully.
As far as he knew, Mu Chen's daughter Mu Xi possessed the martial soul Blazing Sun, a top-tier fire-attribute martial soul that also carried traces of light.
No wonder their family could become top-tier blacksmiths, even though their martial souls weren't particularly related to physical strength.
Clearly, the martial soul still played a crucial role.
Come to think of it…
His Douluo Era 1 martial soul possessed Ultimate Fire and Ultimate Light.
If the Bai Chen from that era had access to metal, he would definitely want to test Duan Xuan's method of altering metal through elements.
Duan Xuan, unaware of Bai Chen's thoughts, continued:
"Your martial soul clearly enhances strength, so you should follow the first forging path."
"I will now—"
Suddenly, his voice stopped.
In front of him, Bai Chen slowly opened his palm.
Floating above his hand were three small spheres of different colors.
Cyan. Black. Blue-violet.
As a Saint Blacksmith, Duan Xuan immediately recognized what these represented.
Wind. Darkness. Lightning.
He twitched slightly and asked,
"Your martial soul can control three elements at the same time?"
"No," Bai Chen shook his head calmly.
"Five."
(In truth, it was six.)
But Bai Chen wasn't familiar enough with Duan Xuan yet.
For now, he had no intention of revealing his evil attribute.
"Five…"
Duan Xuan murmured.
"What are the other two?"
Since Bai Chen hadn't manifested them, Duan Xuan immediately guessed they must be non-standard elements.
Such attributes were usually extremely powerful.
Bai Chen closed his hand and answered calmly:
"Time and space."
"…."
Duan Xuan fell silent.
He had actually guessed space.
But time?
That was something he never expected.
Time attributes were incredibly mysterious.
A martial soul possessing time was almost guaranteed to be a top-tier martial soul, and powerful ones could even be classified as super martial souls.
Yet this child already possessed four attributes, and still had time on top of that.
This was far beyond the level of ordinary genius.
"Ha… haha… hahahaha…"
After a long pause, Duan Xuan suddenly burst out laughing.
He shook his head slowly.
"I'm starting to feel a little jealous of that brat Zhen Hua."
"He's done nothing, yet he's about to gain such an incredible disciple."
He gently patted Bai Chen on the shoulder.
"No matter what, this lesson has already been paid for by your father."
"So for now, I'm still your teacher."
"Come."
"Let me teach you the true hammer techniques of forging."
At Duan Xuan's level, strength and attributes were both essential.
Although he leaned more toward elemental forging with fire, that didn't mean he was weak in physical strength.
In fact, the opposite was true.
Because he lacked the raw strength of some power-type soul masters, he had devoted far more effort to studying how to maximize the efficiency of his strength.
For blacksmiths, the most direct way to conserve strength was through special hammer techniques.
Bai Chen had succeeded in producing Thousand Refinement earlier partly because of his exceptional strength.
But another important reason was that he had imitated Duan Xuan's hammer rhythm.
However, that imitation had been rigid.
He understood the technique superficially, but not its underlying principles.
If he continued like that, his progress would soon stagnate.
Duan Xuan now intended to refine Bai Chen's foundation.
"Come."
"Follow my rhythm."
"I strike once, you strike once."
"Yes."
Under Duan Xuan's guidance, Bai Chen spent the remaining two hours doing nothing but hammering metal.
Duan Xuan didn't teach him complicated theories.
Instead, he continuously pointed out errors in Bai Chen's movements and rhythm, correcting them by hand.
With such careful instruction, Bai Chen could clearly feel his fundamentals improving at an astonishing rate.
By the time the two hours ended, the sound of his hammer strikes was completely different from before.
"Alright, you may leave."
"Come back here in three days. Just give them your name when you arrive."
After the lesson ended, Duan Xuan gently patted Bai Chen on the head and let him leave with Bai Jiaming.
Watching them exit the room, Duan Xuan took out his soul communicator and dialed a number.
The call quickly connected.
"Hello? Teacher, what's the matter?"
A lazy voice came from the other side.
Duan Xuan spoke concisely.
"Come to Tianhai City immediately."
"Huh? That sudden?"
The voice sounded surprised.
Duan Xuan snorted.
"If I tell you to come, then come."
"I've found a good seedling. You must teach him."
The person on the other end was naturally Divine Blacksmith Zhen Hua.
"Oh?"
Zhen Hua's interest was instantly piqued.
"Teacher, you're giving him such a high evaluation?"
Duan Xuan himself was already a Saint Blacksmith.
If even he insisted that Zhen Hua personally teach the disciple—
It meant only one thing.
This student had the potential to reach the realm of Heavenly Forging.
After realizing this, Zhen Hua immediately replied:
"Alright, I understand."
"I'll arrive tomorrow."
"Hmph. Hurry up."
"You're really getting lucky with this child."
Duan Xuan grumbled before hanging up.
After putting away the communicator, he unconsciously picked up the piece of Thousand-Refined metal Bai Chen had forged.
He examined it carefully.
Then he sighed deeply.
"I'm really getting old…"
Once upon a time, he had also been a genius of his era.
Yet now—
Not only might his student surpass him,
But his grand-student might surpass him as well.
Still…
"That might not be such a bad thing."
After all, the true meaning of a teacher was to cultivate disciples who surpass them.
Duan Xuan placed the metal back on the forging table and walked out of the forging room without looking back.