East Sea City Blacksmith Association.
Arthur hammered away with a bang-bang-bang, pondering whether he could use his Intuition to achieve Fusion Forging now.
"Bang!"
It wasn't the sound of hammering, but the sound of a door being kicked open.
"Arthur! You went to the Heaven Dou City Blacksmith Association?" Mu Chen walked in quickly, looking very anxious.
Sparks splashed onto the back of Arthur's hand, and he abruptly retracted his hammer.
"Ah, I felt like I was about to break through at the time, so I went there to practice for a bit."
"Breakthrough?" Mu Chen jolted. "Fusion Forging?"
"Uh, Spirit Forging."
A false alarm. Mu Chen slapped his thigh, left with a wry smile. "Weren't you already able to do Spirit Forging long ago?"
"Why go there specifically? Now look what's happened." Mu Chen pulled out his constantly vibrating soul guidance communication device. "My communicator hasn't stopped; it's practically exploding with calls."
Others didn't know about forging by Intuition, so Arthur found it hard to explain.
"Is it Teacher Zhen Hua?" Having accepted the other's heaven forging metal, calling him teacher was no loss.
"What did you call him?" Mu Chen was furious. "I am your teacher!"
"It's just a title." Arthur took out the heaven forging metal and explained, "Look, a huge profit."
"If you mind, I won't call him that anymore."
"Then again..." Mu Chen's expression changed instantly, his previous anger vanishing into thin air as he patted Arthur's shoulder. "As if I don't know you."
A required course for adults: changing faces!
"Even if that old geezer is a Divine Craftsman, you certainly wouldn't be moved."
"Call him that, why wouldn't you?"
"Call him teacher a few more times and make him cough up more of this good stuff."
"Work him to death!"
Every session of Heavenly Forging is a massive drain; one can't withstand it without sufficient cultivation. This was the biggest Bottleneck for Mu Chen in becoming a Divine Craftsman—his cultivation was insufficient.
Zhen Hua could barely manage, but he was reaching his limit too. His vital energy and blood were also on the decline.
In this World, heaven forging metal is truly a finite resource; once used, it's gone.
This was also why Mu Chen and Zhen Hua treated Arthur like a treasure.
The talent he displayed not only meant he was destined to become a Divine Craftsman, but his cultivation also had the potential for the Limit rank.
A Divine Craftsman with the cultivation of a Limit Douluo—wouldn't he be able to perform Heavenly Forging however he pleased?
Regarding the drain of Heavenly Forging, Mu Chen had watched Arthur grow up and knew exactly how terrifying he was as a Soul Master.
While Zhen Hua didn't know about Arthur's talent as a Soul Master, he knew Mu Ye!
To make Mu Ye take him as a disciple, and even lose contact with his good buddy for a while because of it, was enough to see how strong the boy's talent was.
Mu Chen turned off the constantly vibrating soul guidance communication device, and the World instantly became quiet.
He said cheerfully, "Since that old geezer already knows, I won't hide it anymore."
"This year, you will represent our Donghai Blacksmith Association in the Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition."
"Hahaha, a nine-year-old performing Spirit Forging—it'll scare them to death!"
"Anyway, no one can compete with you. It doesn't matter if the forging is good or not then; the main point is to show off. Just show off your skills however you like."
Arthur laughed along with his teacher. "You got it."
"I can't say about other things, but acting cool—ptui, I mean showing off skills—is definitely no problem!"
"Make them cry from fear!"
"Yes, exactly like that, good job! Hahaha!"
The two of them stood with hands on their hips, their laughter echoing in the forging room.
Mu Xi, who was about to enter, froze in her tracks outside the door.
She had originally come to ask Arthur if he would join her in the blacksmithing competition of the Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition.
And to bond a little.
Now, she suddenly didn't want to go in.
The two people inside were so childish.
And yet, those two were the most important people to her in this World.
This is so lame... During this period, everyone was seizing the time to Cultivate and improve themselves, hoping to show their best side in the Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition.
Arthur was different; he was mostly thinking about how to smoothly and seamlessly display every side of himself.
It couldn't be helped; he was the best in every aspect.
With so many spectators...
How to act cool was also a field of study.
And this time, Shrek Academy would also be participating.
Just the right time to give them some real monster-level shock.
But he couldn't overdo it; it wouldn't be good to trigger a reaction from the Holy Spirit Cult.
Sigh, how troublesome.
In Class Zero, Wu Zhangkong was briefing everyone on things to note for the grand competition. Finally, he asked, "Arthur, Tang Wulin. The academy said the Blacksmith Association wants you to participate in the blacksmithing competition of the Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition. Is that true?"
"That's right," Arthur and Tang Wulin nodded in response.
Arthur knows blacksmithing too?
The others all stared over. They had known for a long time that Tang Wulin could forge.
What they didn't expect was that Arthur could too?
Gu Yue's expression was calm, as if she had known all along.
Don't underestimate her intelligence network; the fact that Arthur could forge was too minor to even be written into her observation diary.
Na'er was genuinely surprised; she had never secretly gathered information on Arthur, nor would she.
"Hmm, I've checked. The schedule for the blacksmithing competition happens to be staggered with our competition schedule, so there's no conflict," Wu Zhangkong explained.
"Oh," Tang Wulin responded, then asked the question he cared about most, "Teacher Wu, is there prize money for participating in the competition?"
Wu Zhangkong glanced at him. "There are prizes for reaching the top sixteen in the team competition and the top thirty-two in the Individual Competition."
"Your food expenses are almost equivalent to the entire Intermediate Department, and you still want extra rewards?"
In fact, Tang Wulin's appetite had started to decrease recently, saving a lot of money. Everyone saw it.
Tang Wulin stuck out his tongue.
It couldn't be helped; having been scared by poverty as a child, he couldn't change his money-grubbing ways. Even if the prize money was just a penny, he wanted it.
"Teacher Wu, can I sign up for the Individual Competition? What if I make it into the top thirty-two?" he asked tentatively.
He would never forget the experiences brought about by his past lack of money.
"Whatever you want," Wu Zhangkong said indifferently.
"Then I'll sign up. No harm in trying, just in case." Tang Wulin's eyes were determined. He had confidence in his strength. Since waking up from the last mutation, Old Tang and that Golden Dragon King power he mentioned had both disappeared.
But Tang Wulin actually felt great, more relaxed than ever before.
It was as if there had been countless shackles on his body before, which had now all vanished.
He could feel his Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul growing rapidly, becoming stronger every moment.
And the increase in his Soul Power was incredibly fast; the rate of improvement felt more like the speed of recovering Soul Power than actual cultivation.
Although it had slowed down recently, he was about to break through to Rank 20. Even the slowed-down speed was countless times faster than before.
With two thousand-year spirit rings by then, he was confident in achieving a good ranking.
After studying in Class Zero and being taught by Wu Zhangkong for this period, Tang Wulin was no longer a clueless novice.
Recalling the withered state of the Blue Silver Grass on the Seal when he first saw the Golden Dragon King's Seal, he gradually began to understand.
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