137: Chapter 137 The Fifth Life, The Blazing Sun Illuminates the Martial Path (Eighty-Five)

After speaking, he did not look at Chu Shi again, turned around and walked back to the furnace, picked up the hammer, and continued to strike a new iron billet, as if nothing had happened just now.

The smile on Liu Quan's face completely faded, and he looked at Chu Shi awkwardly, whispering an explanation:

"Senior Brother Chu, please don't mind him. Elder Jin... he just has this temper, he's like this with everyone. Back then, when Peak Master Lieyang came to learn artifact refining, he also started by hammering iron blocks."

Chu Shi smiled and said nothing.

It was normal. After all, he was an Elder in the Silver Marrow Realm and a Master Craftsman; it was normal for him to look down on a young lad like himself.

However, that old geezer, his master, had actually come here to hammer iron too?

Could it be that he was also given a hard time by Elder Jin, found hammering iron too arduous, and only then switched to cultivation?

But he was still unwilling to give up, which is why he tried so hard to swindle his own disciple into hammering iron.

Chu Shi maliciously grumbled about his master, the dear Peak Master Lieyang.

However, he had long expected it to be like this.

That old geezer Peak Master Lieyang went to such great lengths to throw him here, how could it possibly be comfortable?

The days ahead would be tough. He reckoned that in the eyes of this Elder Jin, no matter what kind of prodigy or personal disciple of the Peak Master one was, they were all less important than a piece of red-hot iron billet.

"Steward Liu, you go and get busy, I can manage here by myself," Chu Shi said.

Upon hearing this, Liu Quan felt as if he had been granted an amnesty, nodding quickly in response: "Alright then, Senior Brother Chu, if you need anything, just call me anytime. I'll be right outside."

After saying that, he ran off in a flash, as if there were a ferocious beast chasing after him.

Suddenly, only Chu Shi and Elder Jin remained in the artifact refining room, along with the monotonous sound of hammering iron.

Chu Shi shook his head, walked straight to the furnace in the corner, and lit the fire.

The orange-red flames licked the furnace chamber, and soon the black iron billet on top was burned bright red.

He picked up the hammer nearby and weighed it; it was about fifty jin, which was not heavy for a martial artist in the Iron Skin Realm.

"It's just hammering it a thousand times, simple," Chu Shi thought to himself, took a deep breath, circulated his true qi, and slammed the hammer down hard.

"Clang!" A loud noise erupted, and sparks flew everywhere.

Chu Shi only felt his arm go numb, and the hammer almost flew out of his hand.

Looking at that iron billet again, it only had a shallow dent, and most of the force had been rebounded.

"Hmm?" Chu Shi was stunned for a moment.

He was now at the perfection of the Iron Skin Realm, his life essence had undergone a transition, and his physical strength was over a thousand jin.

Coupled with the circulation of three hundred and sixty channels of true qi, his power was immense; let alone an iron billet, even a giant boulder could be smashed to pieces with a single hammer blow.

Yet that hammer blow just now had only left such a small mark.

"Are you a pig-brained idiot! Where is your inheritance? Didn't they say you were a personal disciple of the Peak Master? Has that 'Lieyang Artifact Refining Method' been fed to the dogs?"

"If you only know how to use brute force to hammer iron, you will never learn artifact refining in your entire life," Elder Jin's voice came coldly, reprimanding him without even turning his head.

"Metal is alive; it has life and a temper. You must feel its texture and strike along the direction of its force, not go head-to-head with it."

"As for that little bit of true qi of yours, save it for your breakthrough; it's useless here."

Upon hearing this, Chu Shi's face immediately flushed hot.

That was right, he had indeed been incredibly stupid.

He had completely forgotten the artifact refining inheritance that the old geezer had passed on to him during the Apprenticeship Ceremony, and just now, he had purely used brute force, which was a lower-tier approach.

After Chu Shi figured it out, he immediately focused his mind and began to browse through the "Lieyang Artifact Refining Method" in his mind.

Soon, he found an iron-hammering technique in the opening of the inheritance: the "Chaotic Cloak Hammer Technique."

A moment later, Chu Shi's eyes lit up. He began to apply this technique and struck a dozen more times in succession, using his full strength for every blow, shaking the entire furnace.

However, it only resembled the form; the iron billet was just deformed, and the impurities inside did not come out at all. On the contrary, due to uneven force, several cracks appeared.

"Trash, you are rotten wood that cannot be carved."

Elder Jin walked over, gave him a look of disgust, and kicked the hammer out of Chu Shi's hand.

Then he clamped the red-hot iron billet again, raised his own black iron hammer, and let it fall with a gentle strike.

"Ding." A clear sound rang out.

The sound was crisp and pleasant, completely different from the loud noise Chu Shi had made just now.

Only to see a layer of fine ripples appearing on the surface of the iron billet, and a bit of black impurity seeped out from within, quickly being burned into ashes by the high temperature.

Elder Jin's movements were not fast; strike after strike, the rhythm was even, as if carrying some kind of peculiar cadence.

His arm did not tremble in the slightest, the position of each hammer fall was precise, and the force was grasped just right.

In just over a dozen strikes, the iron billet that was originally covered in cracks and about to be scrapped became smooth and flat again, glowing with a warm metallic luster, and most of the impurities inside had been removed.

"Did you see clearly?" Elder Mo put down the hammer and looked at Chu Shi coldly.

"Artifact refining is not about refining iron, it is about refining the heart."

"If the heart is not calm, the hand will not be steady; if the hand is not steady, the iron will not become an artifact."

"If you are holding a dilettante attitude, you can go back now, so as not to waste materials here."

Chu Shi looked at the iron billet, then looked at Elder Jin's hands, which were covered in calluses but as steady as a rock, and the unwillingness in his heart instantly vanished.

He finally understood why Peak Master Lieyang insisted on having him learn artifact refining.

The perfection of three hundred and sixty channels of true qi only gave him immense power.

But to control this power precisely and use it to polish his alloy bones, he was still far from it.

And artifact refining was the best way to train this kind of fine control.

"This disciple understands." Chu Shi respectfully bowed to Elder Jin, his tone incomparably sincere.

Elder Jin snorted, said nothing more, and turned back to his own iron furnace.

Chu Shi silently picked up the hammer from the ground, took out another iron billet, and put it into the furnace to burn red.

This time, he did not use his true qi again, but held his breath and focused his mind, concentrating all his attention on his hands, feeling the temperature of the iron billet, and feeling the weight of the hammer.

"Clang."

The first hammer fell, still very awkward.

But he was not in a hurry, hammering it over and over again.

Time passed bit by bit, the sky outside gradually darkened, but the furnace fire in the workshop remained bright.

Chu Shi's arms began to ache, sweat soaked his robes, dripped from his chin onto the ground, and gathered into a small puddle.

But he did not stop.

In this constantly repeated action, he forgot time, forgot fatigue, and the whole world was left with only the hammer in his hand and the red-hot iron billet.

He gradually found that feeling, that feeling of becoming one with the iron.

He could feel the texture inside the iron billet, could feel the impurities seeping out bit by bit under the hammering, and could feel the iron billet slowly becoming pure in his hands.

Unknown how much time had passed, when the last hammer fell, the iron billet in Chu Shi's hand had turned into a palm-sized thin iron sheet, with a surface as smooth as a mirror, glowing with a faint silver light, without a single trace of impurity.

He put down the hammer, let out a long sigh of relief, feeling as if his whole body was about to fall apart, but in his heart, there was an unprecedented sense of fulfillment.