Dugu Bo stood by without making a sound, watching Little Gold complete all the preparatory work.
Then, Little Gold actually took out a forging hammer and slammed it hard onto the red-hot Heavy Silver.
Little Gold was shocked.
"Roar!" (The interference from the ice and fire forces is huge!)
With just that one hammer strike, the ice and fire forces had actually surged into the Heavy Silver along with its deformation.
Although the two forces were entangled and intertwined, achieving a balance, they were not fully integrated. The fire attribute was integrated into the Heavy Silver, causing its properties to change noticeably, while the ice attribute cooled another part of the Heavy Silver, causing internal chaos in its characteristics and directly rendering this round of forging a failure.
Bang!
The Heavy Silver shattered.
The Extreme ice and fire forces had too great an impact on the metal at high temperatures, causing a qualitative change in the metal's structure.
Dugu Bo breathed a sigh of relief.
Good, good.
This bear looks dumb and silly; how could it possibly know how to forge?
Just now, when the ice and fire forces surged into the Heavy Silver, even Dugu Bo, an outsider who knew nothing about forging, could instantly react on the spot and think of several solutions.
First, with the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's innate talent, injecting Spirit Power into the Heavy Silver would be enough to temporarily increase the metal's strength, preventing it from exploding. As for whether forging skill could save such Heavy Silver afterward, Dugu Bo didn't know; he wasn't a blacksmith, after all.
But since it was claimed to create life, then during the forging process, the Life Vital Energy here must be absorbable by the Heavy Silver. So, as long as the metal was temporarily saved, theoretically, the Life Vital Energy could repair the metal.
Second, quickly strike a second hammer and try to adjust the ice and fire forces, counteracting the influence of the ice and fire forces that surged into the Heavy Silver with the first strike.
Again, as long as the metal didn't immediately become scrap, it could be saved.
Of course, Dugu Bo didn't know much about forging and was just speculating based on his own ideas.
Little Gold stood in place, lost in thought.
He looked at the metal fragments around him, scratching his head, deeply troubled.
Su Ming hadn't taught him how to handle this situation.
Seeing the bear so perplexed, Dugu Bo couldn't help but speak up, explaining his two ideas to Little Gold.
Little Gold's eyes lit up upon hearing this, and he gave Dugu Bo a thumbs-up.
"Roar!" (As expected of a Titled Douluo!)
Little Gold adopted the first method suggested by Dugu Bo.
Then, the Heavy Silver still shattered.
How could this be?
It had no effect?
Seeing this, Dugu Bo didn't understand why it happened.
At this moment, Su Ming, who had been meditating with his eyes closed, spoke.
"Rare metals have the potential to become life forms, but before Spirit Infusion, they do not possess this potential. If Spirit Infusion isn't even completed, they naturally cannot absorb Life Vital Energy to nurture themselves."
Little Gold had a sudden realization.
So that was it.
He looked at Su Ming, but seeing that Su Ming gave no further instructions, he could only look back at Dugu Bo with hopeful eyes.
"Try my second method first. With each hammer strike, adjust the position as much as possible, and then perform Spirit Infusion."
Hearing this, Little Gold also picked up his forging hammer and began to try.
He used the forging method Su Ming had taught him that allowed for high-frequency forging while changing the metal's position—Rotational Forging.
The so-called Rotational Forging involved using two hammers to forge, alternately striking the sides of the rare metal to make it rotate. Because the strikes were always on the sides, the angle needed constant adjustment during forging, which was very time-consuming.
Little Gold was now doing just that, his two hammers alternating constantly, rapidly striking the rotating Heavy Silver.
His intuition was terrifyingly sharp, but his ability to adapt was lacking.
However, when given a clear guideline, his execution was exceptionally exaggerated.
The Heavy Silver rotated two and a half times, enduring ten hammer strikes in total, before finally shattering again.
Little Gold scratched his head. Without looking at Dugu Bo, he took out another piece of Heavy Silver and tried again.
He tried five times in a row, each time lasting longer than the last. The rate of improvement was exaggerated, allowing Dugu Bo to intuitively perceive his forging skill.
"This bear has been trained very successfully by Su Ming. His ability to innovate isn't strong, but his learning ability is truly powerful."
Dugu Bo noticed that Little Gold only began attempting Spirit Infusion after stabilizing at over fifty hammer strikes twice.
After fifty rotational hammer strikes, basically every part of the Heavy Silver had been struck once, and its internal texture had also changed noticeably, enough to complete Spirit Infusion.
Thus, on his ninth forging attempt, Little Gold took out a piece of Heavy Silver, gritted his teeth and roared, splitting off a part of his own spirit, infused it into the forging hammer, and slammed it into the Heavy Silver. Then, using the Rotational Forging method, he rapidly fused the spirit with the Heavy Silver.
Su Ming, while repeatedly refining the ice and fire forces, was also observing the situation. Seeing this, he breathed a sigh of relief.
He hadn't expected Dugu Bo to be so idle as to actually instruct a bear in forging.
An outsider and a Spirit Soul, a man and a bear who even had communication barriers, could actually get together and research.
If Dugu Bo hadn't helped Little Gold analyze the situation, Su Ming would have stepped in himself. However, he wanted Little Gold to fail a few more times to better observe if the ice and fire forces had any other effects on the metal during forging.
"Roar!"
Little Gold roared angrily. The final hammer strike no longer aimed for the side but slammed directly into the center of the Heavy Silver, stopping its rotation.
The Heavy Silver underwent a noticeable change, now resonating distantly with Little Gold.
Watching this scene, Dugu Bo inexplicably understood the significance of Spirit Infusion.
"Bestowing spirit upon the metal creates the foundational condition for subsequent forging."
Dugu Bo finally understood where Su Ming got the confidence to say he had overcome the bottleneck of 'Thousand Refinements, Spirit Awakened' and that subsequent forging techniques would rapidly improve.
This wasn't just overcoming one bottleneck.
This was directly providing the foundation for all subsequent forging.
Only with a foundation can subsequent construction proceed.
For Spirit Metal, the foundation is the 'spirit,' and Spirit Infusion is the process of giving rare metals this foundation.
The Heavy Silver, now possessing spirit, was indeed different. It began to digest the Life Vital Energy, absorbing the Life Vital Energy that had entered it along with the ice and fire forces.
"Stupid bear, quickly help it absorb the Life Vital Energy!"
Little Gold, scolded by Dugu Bo, didn't dare retort and hurriedly began the subsequent forging.
Unfortunately, because he had been too excited earlier, he missed the timing. The ice and fire forces damaged the Heavy Silver again, causing it to explode.
He had gotten carried away.
A phrase Su Ming often said surfaced in Little Gold's mind.
He silently took out a new piece of Heavy Silver.
This time, he must succeed!
Soon, Little Gold realized he had spoken too soon.
The ice and fire forces interfered not only with the Heavy Silver before Spirit Infusion; after Spirit Infusion, every hammer strike had to be adjusted because of the presence of the ice and fire forces, making it more suitable for the current environment.
Then, he failed another four times.
By now, Little Gold understood why Su Ming had told him to practice only five times a day.
The so-called five times didn't refer to the initial nine attempts that didn't even reach Spirit Infusion, but rather the five forging attempts after Spirit Infusion.
After five failures, his sp
irit body began to become unstable, and he needed to return to Su Ming's Sea of Consciousness to recuperate.
"Roar!" (Goodbye, Senior!)
(Chapter End)