aircannonsinc Chapter 59 Forging Grade 1
Chapter 59 Forging Grade 1
Chapter 59 Thousand Refinements, First Grade
Unlike the main stadium in Tianhai, where the Soul Master competition was held, the Blacksmith competition was arranged in a nearby venue that had been specially converted.
The venue has a simple and unadorned appearance, lacking the dazzling lights and massive scale of the main stadium, yet it exudes a profound and dignified aura.
Lu Xingchen pinned the number on his chest and then walked into the stadium.
Looking up, the scene inside the hall is breathtaking. The entire venue has been transformed into a huge forging area, with hundreds of forging tables neatly arranged like well-trained soldiers.
Each forging table is built using the latest federal technology. The tabletop is made of high-temperature resistant deep-sea alloy, connected to an energy drive device below, and equipped with a precise temperature controller and metal analyzer on the side.
Although the Tianhai Alliance is not as strong as other established alliances in terms of high-level combat power, it boasts unparalleled financial resources within the Federation, thanks to its unique advantages in trade.
To host this competition, the league utilized almost all of the latest forging technologies, all to provide the best possible competitive environment for the participants.
Unlike the main stadium, which was packed to capacity, the stands at this blacksmiths' competition venue were not crowded.
In the eyes of most ordinary people, forging is a tedious and boring thing. There is no thrilling duel between soul masters, no blood-boiling mecha battle, only the clanging sound of hammering and sparks flying everywhere, day after day, repetitive and monotonous.
The audience members remaining in the stands at this moment are all people closely related to the forging industry.
Among them were members of the Tianhai Forging Masters Association, some there to observe and learn, others to encourage their younger generations.
Representatives from Soul Master families across the Federation were also present. Their purpose in coming was to discover outstanding forging talents so as to establish long-term cooperative relationships in the future.
Lu Xingchen's gaze swept across the stands and finally landed on the main platform in front.
On the platform sat more than ten elderly men and middle-aged men and women dressed in formal attire. Each of them wore a badge of the same style on their chest—the rank badge of the Blacksmith Association, with a gold hammer-shaped base and inlaid with a varying number of stars.
The number of stars on the badge represents the blacksmith's professional level: three stars is Master, five stars is Grandmaster, seven stars is Saint Craftsman, and nine stars is Divine Craftsman.
At this moment, everyone on the platform had at least five stars on their chest badges, which meant that they were all forging masters of level five or above, and enjoyed a very high reputation in the Federation's forging industry.
In the center of the stage, Lu Xingchen immediately spotted a familiar figure—his master, the master craftsman Duan Xuan.
Standing next to Duan Xuan was a middle-aged man wearing an eight-star badge on his chest.
The eight stars represent the eighth level of the profession, and the gold-based hammer shape represents forging. To be precise, an eighth-level forging master should be an eight-star master craftsman forging master.
There are definitely no more than ten blacksmiths of this level across the entire continent.
"It must be the president of the East China Sea Forging Masters Association, the Saint Craftsman Mu Chen." A thought flashed through Lu Xingchen's mind, and he instantly guessed the other party's identity.
Just then, an elderly man with white hair stood up on the platform. His badge, adorned with five stars, indicated that he was a fifth-level grandmaster.
The old man picked up the microphone, and his deep voice resonated throughout the venue through the amplification equipment: "Distinguished contestants, welcome to the Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition for the Youth Blacksmith Group. I am Lin Yue, one of the judges for this competition."
"The art of forging lies in craftsmanship and perseverance. In this competition, we will use quality, type of metal, and forging time as the judging criteria, and ultimately select the champion, runner-up, and third-place winners based on the finished metal products you forge."
"The competition rules are as follows: There is a one-hour time limit. The metals required for forging will be provided by the alliance, and you may choose any metal to forge. After one hour, the judging panel will score the work, and the contestant with the highest score will win."
The competition for the youth group was not complicated, allowing the contestants to choose any metal and showcase their highest level of skill.
The final score is determined by the judges on the stage, who will evaluate the quality, type, and forging time of the forged metal.
"Now, I declare—the Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition, Youth Blacksmith Group Competition, officially begins!"
As soon as the words were spoken, the contestants immediately dispersed to select the metals they needed.
Lu Xingchen naturally joined the group in selecting metals, but not everyone chose the best rare metals.
In the forging process, the quality of the metal is often directly proportional to the difficulty of forging. The rarer the metal, the more complex its internal structure, and the higher the requirements for controlling the heat and the force of the hammering. The slightest carelessness can lead to the scrapping of the metal, resulting in more losses than gains.
Therefore, most players will choose the metal that best suits their current skill level, rather than blindly pursuing rarity.
Lu Xingchen picked and chose among a pile of metals, finally selecting a piece of blue-impregnated copper, simply because he was extremely familiar with this metal.
After selecting the metal, Lu Xingchen carried the blue-coated copper towards the forging table.
Many contestants along the way stopped in their tracks upon seeing this scene, a hint of surprise flashing in their eyes—this child could actually lift Blue Pregnant Bronze? Judging by his age, he probably couldn't even swing a forging hammer more than a few times, right?
Lu Xingchen didn't care about this at all. After arriving at the forging table, he placed the blue-coated copper in the slot on the table. The blue-coated copper sank into the forging table and began the pre-forging calcination process. This was all preparation work before the competition, and everyone did the same.
Just as he was standing in front of the forging table, waiting for the blue-coated copper to finish preheating, a very muscular young man suddenly turned around on the forging table next to him, numbered seventy-four.
The young man was about twenty years old, with an ordinary appearance, healthy bronze skin, and bulging muscles on his arms, clearly the result of years of hammering and forging.
He looked at the figure beside him, who was barely taller than the forging platform, his face full of confusion. After a long pause, he kindly reminded him, "Little friend, have you come to the wrong place? This is the place for the blacksmith competition. The audience seats are over there."
As he spoke, the young man pointed to the audience area on the east side of the venue.
In fact, Lu Xingchen had already attracted a lot of attention when he entered the venue through the contestant passage, but most blacksmiths just thought he was there to visit the competition venue.
This is not uncommon. Some descendants of master blacksmiths develop an interest in blacksmithing at a young age, and their parents bring them to watch competitions to broaden their horizons.
Previously, Mu Xi, the daughter of the master craftsman Mu Chen, had also strolled around the venue. Therefore, most of the blacksmiths present naturally assumed that Lu Xingchen was also a descendant of some powerful figure and was only here to satisfy his curiosity.
But now that the judges have officially announced the start of the competition, these "second-generation rich kids" should be obediently returning to the audience and watching the competition with their families. Why are they on the forging platform?
This is a forging competition for the youth group, not some children's game.
Despite the young man's reminder, Lu Xingchen remained calm. He raised his right hand, showed his previous competition number, and said, "I'm a contestant."
"what?"
The burly young man was taken aback at first, then his face showed an expression of disbelief and astonishment, his mouth slightly open, and for a moment he forgot to speak.
The young man subconsciously looked down at the number plate in Lu Xingchen's hand, then looked up at his youthful face, his eyes filled with disbelief.
The contestants on the nearby forging platforms all turned around. When they saw Lu Xingchen's small figure and the number plate in his hand, their faces showed expressions similar to those of the burly young man.
Shock, confusion, and a hint of undeniable absurdity.
"When did the association become so frivolous?"
A young blacksmith in purple attire frowned, his gaze sweeping over Lu Xingchen before he lowered his voice and muttered to his companion, "They didn't even set any requirements when they were registering. Does this brat even know what blacksmithing is?"
His voice wasn't loud, but it was loud enough for the people around him to hear. His words immediately resonated with many, who nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, even a brat like this can participate. The Tianhai City Blacksmith Association has really fallen into depravity." Another blacksmith from another region curled his lip, a clear hint of disdain flashing in his eyes.
He was tall and thin, with sharp eyes, and wore a badge of a level three blacksmith on his chest, clearly possessing considerable skill: "I don't think he can even lift a blacksmith's hammer, let alone complete a forging within an hour. I think he's just here to cause trouble, isn't he?"
"Maybe they used some back door?"
Someone whispered a guess, with a hint of sourness in their voice, "After all, getting a race number can't just happen out of thin air."
"Hmph, so what if he got in through connections? In forging, strength reigns supreme. If he can't produce a decent finished product in an hour, he'll still be eliminated, won't he?"
The murmurs grew louder, mostly in hushed tones, but when combined, they still reached Lu Xingchen's ears clearly.
These doubts, disdain, and ridicule, like fine needles, seemed to want to pierce his calm.
But Lu Xingchen seemed to ignore him. He put down the number plate and turned his gaze back to the slot on the forging table, waiting for the metal to be heated to completion.
After discussing for a while, the surrounding blacksmiths also turned their attention to their own forging tables, since the competition was the priority at the moment.
"Buzz—"
—
Once the metal was preheated, Lu Xingchen pressed a button to raise it from the forging table, and then took out his forging hammers, a pair of thousand-forged blue copper hammers.
"Bang!"
The next moment, a loud bang echoed through the stadium.
Without a doubt, Lu Xingchen was the first to make a move, his forging hammer striking the blue copper like a storm.
Blue-impregnated copper itself is not the strongest among rare metals; the biggest problem in forging it is its variability.
However, for Lu Xingchen, whose spiritual power had reached the Spirit Domain Realm, this change could not escape his perception at all.
With just over thirty hammer blows, the hundred-times forging process was completed!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
However, he did not stop what he was doing; the forging hammer in his hand continued to fall, making a series of booming sounds.
"Damn it, my rhythm is ruined—"
The young blacksmith closest to Lu Xingchen suddenly stopped hammering, his face flushed red, and his forehead covered with fine beads of sweat.
He had already found his forging rhythm, his mind and the metal in his hands in perfect harmony, but was forcibly interrupted by Lu Xingchen's rapid hammering, which sounded like a war drum.
In the art of forging, rhythm is the lifeblood.
Every blacksmith, through long-term practice, develops their own unique hammering frequency, breathing rhythm, and mental perception. These three elements complement each other and are indispensable.
Once the rhythm is disrupted, the mind will become scattered, and the perception of metal will become distorted. Subsequent forging will be like water without a source or a tree without roots, and the slightest carelessness will lead to complete failure.
This is also one of the hidden tests of the youth group forging competition - hundreds of forgers compete on the same stage, and the sound of hammering and the hum of metal intertwine, which is the ultimate test of each participant's mental focus and rhythm control.
But in previous matches, even when there was interference, it had never been this intense.
Lu Xingchen's hammering was not only dense and heavy, but also contained a unique rhythm, as if it had a certain penetrating power that could directly impact people's minds and make it difficult for the surrounding blacksmiths to concentrate.
"It's that kid! He's actually forging, and—and the speed and strength he's display are simply inhuman!"
Soon, the surrounding blacksmiths discovered the source of the disordered rhythm. When their gazes fell upon Lu Xingchen's "small" body, the contempt and doubt in their eyes vanished, replaced by shock.
Shock and disbelief.
The child they initially thought had gotten in through connections has now displayed a level of skill in forging that far exceeds their expectations!
"What happened over there?"
Such a violent commotion, such a dense and unique hammering sound, could not possibly escape the ears of the forging masters on the platform.
They had been whispering about the competition, but now they all stopped talking and turned their gazes to the forging area in the center of the arena, accurately locking onto the figure that stood out among the group of burly men who were 1.78 meters tall.
"Huh? Why is it just a child?"
When they saw Lu Xingchen's conspicuous figure, a hint of surprise flashed in the eyes of these blacksmithing masters. Mainly, among a group of strong men who were 1.7 or 1.8 meters tall, Lu Xingchen's "petite" body was really eye-catching!
How could such a young child get into the youth group competition?
"Why would he participate in the competition?"
On the platform, Duan Xuan frowned slightly. He recognized Lu Xingchen as his disciple the moment he saw him.
Although Duan Xuan was very satisfied with this disciple, he also understood the principle that "the tallest tree in the forest will be felled by the wind." Therefore, he planned to keep Lu Xingchen hidden for a period of time and let him make his official debut in the forging world when he was a little older.
Unexpectedly, Lu Xingchen came to participate in the competition without saying a word, and he even came to the youth group.
"boom!!!"
Lu Xingchen remained immersed in his own rhythm; it was just a hundred refinings, which didn't require much effort from him at all.
"boom!!!"
In just ten minutes, the volume of the blue copper had shrunk by half. At that moment, a beam of light suddenly shone from the surface of the blue copper, reaching a length of three feet.
"A thousand forgings imbued with spirit, reaching the first rank?!" a master blacksmith exclaimed in disbelief.
On the platform, the forging masters from the Tianhai Alliance were all dumbfounded.
Generally speaking, a level three blacksmith is one who can make the metal emit a spiritual light during the thousand-times forging process.
If one can raise the spiritual light to one foot, then one is a second-grade forging master, and can be called a fourth-level blacksmith.
Reaching three feet or more qualifies as a "thousand-fold forging of the first grade," an achievement that can only be attained by someone who has immersed themselves in the work of a fourth-level blacksmith for many years.
"This—this child doesn't look older than ten, how, how could—"
On the platform, more than a dozen master blacksmiths were stunned, while only two master blacksmiths managed to remain calm.
Duan Xuan had long suspected that his disciple might be the reincarnation of the God of Forging, which is why he was able to remain calm.
Mu Chen stared at Lu Xingchen with shining eyes, a smile unconsciously creeping onto his lips. He had only one thought in his mind: I've found him! This is the successor I've been searching for!
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