Time flowed, and another month passed in a blink.
In an outer district of Mingdu, inside a temporarily built forging room, equipped with top-tier spirit tool constant temperature and sound insulation devices, the heat was scorching.
Dozens of burly men, with calm auras, stood in a circle, holding their breath, their gazes all focused on the center of the room.
At the center, Xiao Hongchen, with white hair and heterochromatic eyes, stood shirtless, sweat dripping along his muscular physique, instantly evaporating in the high temperature.
In his hand, he tightly gripped a specially made heavy forging hammer, his heterochromatic eyes intently watching the metal in front of him, his gaze terrifyingly focused.
"Clang! Clang! Clang—!"
Rhythmic hammer strikes, imbued with unique spirit power fluctuations, rang out densely, like war drums beating.
Each hammer fall was accompanied by a precise burst of spirit power, the hammerhead colliding with the glowing red metal blank, sending out brilliant sparks.
Xiao Hongchen's expression subtly changed during the forging, his eyes fixed on the metal, seemingly immersed in a "dialogue" with the metal.
Finally, after a heavy hammer strike imbued with a special rhythm, his movements abruptly stopped.
Immediately, the entire forging room fell into a dead silence, everyone subconsciously holding their breath.
On the forging table, the metal, which had only been faintly glowing with spirit power, seemed to have something within it completely activated. The next moment, a soft spiritual light, pulsating like breathing, suddenly rose!
The forging room fell into a brief silence, then—
"Hahahahaha! It's done, I've done it! Done!"
Xiao Hongchen's hearty laughter broke the silence, his words filled with uncontrollable excitement.
The onlookers instantly erupted in enthusiastic cheers and praise, crowding around to look at the transformed metal.
In the observation room above, Meng Hongchen looked at her older brother's smug, almost dancing appearance, and couldn't help but rub her forehead, wearing an expression of "I don't know this fool."
Kong Mingan, on the other hand, leaned against the railing with interest, faint blue light flickering in his eyes as he carefully observed the successfully forged metal.
This was "Semi-Spirit Forging."
In just one short month, Xiao Hongchen had completed Hundred Forging and Thousand Forging.
The reason he could do it so quickly was thanks to numerous forging classics collected by the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile School and the forging notes of successive Divine Craftsmen from the Douluo Continent over the past ten thousand years.
It could only be said that the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile School was truly wealthy; they would directly buy and properly preserve anything they thought might be useful, after all, how much did it cost? The Nine Treasure Glazed Tile School had no shortage of money.
Among these classics, there were relatively mature theories on Hundred Forging, as well as general theoretical directions for Thousand Forging, which greatly saved Kong Mingan the time he would have needed for deduction.
Coupled with Xiao Hongchen's terrifying metal forging talent, demonstrated by his natural affinity and control over metal due to his Three-Legged Golden Toad Spirit,
In just seven days, which even included the initial two days of familiarizing himself with the forging process, he mastered stable Hundred Forging.
Subsequently, he spent more than twenty days, with Kong Mingan's assistance, to Breakthrough again, successfully crossing the threshold of Thousand Forging and stabilizing it.
Of course, some might ask, isn't this only Thousand Forging? Why did he say it was "Semi-Spirit Forging"?
It's simple. The reason this piece is called "Semi-Spirit Forging" is that the blank Xiao Hongchen forged this time was not ordinary metal, but a piece of "Spirit Metal" that had already cultivated spirituality!
After Xiao Hongchen stabilized his Thousand Forging technique, Kong Mingan had him try to purify Spirit Metal through Thousand Forging.
And after several failures, this time, Xiao Hongchen succeeded!
In Kong Mingan's observation, this metal, due to its inherent spirituality, had a strength that surpassed ordinary Thousand Forging metal, but it had not undergone a qualitative leap. However, the spirituality it contained became more active and condensed.
Calling it "Semi-Spirit Forging" was an apt name.
A moment later, the door to the forging room was pushed open. Xiao Hongchen, still excitedly impatient, strode in, looking at Kong Mingan with undisguised pride:
"How is it?"
Kong Mingan nodded, sincerely praising, "Not bad."
"Naturally!" Xiao Hongchen said with a light chuckle, without a hint of modesty, "After all, I'm a Genius!"
Kong Mingan neither confirmed nor denied, merely slowly said:
"Next, you still need to continue forging. Forging with Spirit Metal as the blank is, after all, a shortcut."
"Your next direction in forging should be to make metal spontaneously develop spirituality through forging techniques; that is the true 'Spirit Forging.'"
To mass-produce usable "Spirit Forging" metal, forging is an indispensable step.
As of now, he has successfully used spirit tool machinery to imitate and replicate forging techniques, thereby achieving standardized, batch production of the most basic "Hundred Forging" metal.
However, the subsequent mass production of "Thousand Forging" metal and even "Spirit Forging" metal still requires more samples.
Xiao Hongchen nodded thoughtfully upon hearing this.
He didn't mind it. His Spirit was special; forging high-grade metal could even allow him to obtain pure Energy from the metal itself. Forging was essentially Cultivating, and its efficiency was even higher than normal Cultivating. Continuously forging did him no harm. However—
He leaned closer to Kong Mingan, nudged him with his elbow, and asked in a low voice:
"By the way, you're making so much high-grade metal, all mysterious-like. Are you planning to build some big contraption? How about I join in?"
Kong Mingan thought for a moment, then sent a design blueprint to Xiao Hongchen via the "Spiritual Pivot Network."
Xiao Hongchen received it and opened it. After just a quick glance, his eyes involuntarily flickered slightly.
On the design blueprint was a set of armor, complex in structure, exquisite in components, and full of a sense of power and beauty.
"This is?"
"I'll temporarily call it 'Douluo Armor,'" Kong Mingan explained.
This was something he had deduced, based on his grandfather's "mecha" and using the "Douluo Armor" of later generations as a conceptual source.
Compared to "mecha," "Douluo Armor" would probably be more versatile, perhaps serving as an enhancement for "Spell Cultivator" and "Body Cultivator." Of course, it was just a concept, with no basic content filled in.
In the past, it would roughly be used to create PowerPoints to secure funding.
Xiao Hongchen stared at the blueprint, his eyes growing brighter and brighter, his fingers rapidly tapping and swiping on the virtual blueprint:
"Mingan! I think your 'Douluo Armor' can be modified! Here, here, and also here, thicker composite armor plates can be added!
"And here and here, linked spirit tool cannon arrays can be embedded! And the back, reserve interfaces for large thrusters."
As he excitedly made modifications and suggestions, the design blueprint in the shared view rapidly deformed. The "Douluo Armor," originally leaning towards close-fitting armor, gradually evolved into a humanoid armor with more heavy firepower platform characteristics.
Kong Mingan looked at the gradually forming design blueprint, with its somewhat familiar outline, and was momentarily speechless.
Good heavens, didn't this look like a simplified, scaled-down version of his grandfather's mecha? No, actually, it was closer to a humanoid spirit tool?
"Do you like this style?" Kong Mingan asked.
"Of course!" Xiao Hongchen's eyes gleamed, his tone filled with enthusiasm, "It has to be this kind of tall and mighty humanoid armor to be cool enough!
"Preferably four or five meters tall! With twelve spirit tools cannons of different uses mounted all over the body!
"High-power thrusters added to the legs and back to ensure mobility! And equipped with a giant melee spirit tool sword and a heavy spirit tool shield!
"Finally, piloted by a Spirit Master himself—this is what a man should drive!"
(End of Chapter)
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