Chapter 152: Graduation of the Blacksmith!
"But the benefits are immense too. The Fire Forging Art is definitely the strongest body-tempering technique!"
Inside the Earthfire Blacksmithing Room, Jiang Lin pinched his arm. He realized that ever since he began forcefully cultivating the Fire Forging Art, his body had truly started to evolve beyond the human norm.
Even as a mere five-star Dou Shi, his physical strength was now such that, without even relying on Dou Qi Veil, regular iron weapons couldn't harm him at all.
Normally, the Fire Forging Art becomes impossible to train beyond the early Dou Shi stage. However, Jiang Lin was born with extremely powerful soul force and exceptional Dou Qi talent, allowing him to push the technique to two-star Dou Shi. Later, after receiving the soul cultivation secret method "Soul Refining Art" from Huo Lei, he managed to fully activate his Peak Mortal Realm soul talent, breaking through to three stars within a year and becoming a five-star Dou Shi.
"Right now, even with just bare fists and kicks, I could probably overpower any Great Dou Shi below six stars."
Nalan Yanran, hailed as a genius in the Yunlan Sect, was only a four-star Dou Shi at the moment, and Jiang Lin had already completely overtaken her.
However, had Jiang Lin known that it only took Nalan Yanran two years to advance from Dou Shi to Great Dou Shi, he would have understood just how difficult the Fire Forging Art really was to train.
Still, even knowing that, the current Jiang Lin wouldn't give it up.
Because he had discovered a possible synergy between the Fire Forging Art and the Soul Refining Art. It was just that his level in the Fire Forging Art was still too low—maybe once he broke into the Great Dou Shi or Dou Ling stages, the inner body temperature might be enough to melt stone, giving him a true foundation for blacksmithing?
Therefore, as long as he hadn't hit a complete bottleneck—until he saw the image of "forging within the dantian"—there was no way Jiang Lin would abandon the Fire Forging Art.
If his current speed, aided by Peak Mortal Realm soul power, wasn't fast enough, he was ready to try breaking into the Spirit Realm of the soul and continue forcibly cultivating the Fire Forging Art.
The reason Jiang Lin had such confidence in breaking into the Spirit Realm was because he found himself extremely gifted in the Soul Refining Art. If the Peak Mortal Realm was a full stage, then previously he had just reached the early phase, and now, with accumulated progress, he had entered the mid-stage.
Although abstract, Jiang Lin's soul realm now was just barely two minor stages ahead of old man Huo Lei's.
Boom boom boom boom!
Jiang Lin stood up and stretched. His whole body crackled like exploding beans. Then he walked up to the Qing Xuan Universe Cauldron and lightly slapped its outer wall with a golden-inscribed hand. Instantly, five items flew out from the cauldron and landed in front of him, making Jiang Lin scratch his head.
"My mastery of Universe Technique is still lacking. Every time I retrieve something, it just spits out all my stuff."
The five items that fell in front of him were: a half-metal, half-flesh arm; a ridiculously large black longbow; a heavy, blunt-edged sword as tall as Jiang Lin; an ultra-light black-patterned battle armor; and a flying device shaped like six razor-sharp blades.
Top-tier tier-3 Xuan Weapon: Black Feather Heavy Bow!
Low-tier tier-4 Xuan Weapon: Blunt Heavy Sword!
Top-tier tier-3 Xuan Armor: Black Knight Battle Armor!
Top-tier tier-3 Flight Dou Tool: Six-Leaf Feather Sheath Wings! (currently refining)
And a tier-4 Azure Scale Dragon Arm (Dou Weapon transformation).
Both the Black Feather Heavy Bow and Black Knight Battle Armor had been slightly upgraded by Jiang Lin. Technically, he could've forged a tier-4 heavy bow, but he simply didn't have the time—most of it had gone into crafting the Six-Leaf Feather Sheath Wings. The upgraded Black Feather Bow was already more than sufficient for him.
One could even say that Jiang Lin had spent the majority of the past half year researching the Six-Leaf Feather Sheath Wings.
Jiang Lin raised his hand and recalled the Black Knight Armor into his Thunder Pattern Storage Ring. Then, as his Dou Qi surged, countless armor plates appeared around him and were drawn to his body, automatically aligning with his Dou Qi Veil.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Jiang Lin stood motionless, while armor pieces kept flying out of the ring and snapping onto his body. A continuous symphony of metal clashing joyously echoed out, and in just under three seconds, the grey, fitted martial robe was fully replaced—Jiang Lin now looked like a fully armed black-armored warrior.
Yellow-grade low-tier secret technique: Armor Merge!
"Hmm, the stability is decent." Jiang Lin nodded to himself in satisfaction at the Dou Technique he had tinkered together in his spare time.
This was considered a secret technique because it required specific armor to use—just like the Xuan Armor Puppet Technique, Ziyun Wings, and similar Dou Techniques that relied on specific items to activate.
Following his Yellow-grade low-tier flying technique, Jiang Lin had now created another Yellow-grade low-tier secret technique.
However, one couldn't completely trust Jiang Lin's classification system. For different people, this technique would produce vastly different results.
Below the Dou Shi level, the technique couldn't be trained at all. For those above Dou Shi, it was simple—but it required a blacksmithing foundation, as one needed to craft the specific armor.
So in short, for blacksmiths above the Dou Shi level, it was a basic low- to mid-level Yellow secret technique. For others who lacked the requirements, it would be extremely difficult.
"I'll keep this technique to myself—better to sell transformation armors in the future."
Jiang Lin then packed his belongings back into the Qing Xuan Universe Cauldron. The Six-Leaf Feather Sheath Wings were still being refined with soul fire, so he wasn't planning to use them yet.
This past half-year, Jiang Lin had completed three major tasks:
First: he disassembled and absorbed the energy-storage technology from the Xuan Weapon scroll of the Rift-Cutting Sword, upgrading the Black Feather Bow.
Second: he disassembled and absorbed the Earth-rank Dou Technique "Flame Splitting Wave Ruler," and initially perfected the low-level Earth Secret Art: Dou Qi Furnace. He also forged the Six-Leaf Feather Sheath Wings and a blunt heavy sword to practice with Flame Splitting Wave Ruler.
Third: he completed the upgrade of the Yellow-grade low-tier flying technique "Feather Sheath," turning it into Xuan-grade low-tier flying technique: Six-Leaf Feather Sheath!
But as previously mentioned, Jiang Lin's own rankings couldn't be trusted. The challenge of the Xuan-grade low-tier "Six-Leaf Feather Sheath" lay entirely in the soul realm! Without at least a late-stage Mortal Realm soul, it was nearly impossible to train in this flying technique! Forced cultivation would result in complete loss of control. Only with a late-stage Mortal Realm soul could one truly enjoy the "low difficulty" of a Xuan-grade low-tier technique!
Theoretically, Jiang Lin could have created a lower version, like a Four-Leaf Feather Sheath, but he didn't. The Six-Leaf version was his exclusive Dou Tool, and he didn't even plan to reveal the self-made Six-Leaf Feather Sheath to others.
"But these pieces of gear basically drained my first pot of gold. My teacher left on a trip not long ago, and I happened to be in seclusion crafting the Six-Leaf Feather Sheath Wings... sigh, otherwise, I'd have invited him to explore the Magical Beast Mountain Range together."
Jiang Lin returned the Qing Xuan Universe Cauldron to his ring, then picked up the Dou-weaponized Azure Scale Dragon Arm.
After returning this to its original owner, he planned to go home for a bit.
The Six-Leaf Feather Sheath Wings gave Jiang Lin the confidence to continue exploring the Magical Beast Mountain Range. If the item he wanted was guarded by a high-tier magic beast, he could always return to the capital and bring back a Dou Huang to assist. It would only take two or three days anyway. Before leaving, Huo Lei had said that if anything happened, he could find the Alchemist Association's President Fa Ma.
But Fa Ma wasn't Huo Lei, after all. Jiang Lin didn't even know whether the thing he was looking for really existed. Asking Fa Ma without certainty would just be a waste of favors.
"According to the letter Xiao Yi Xian sent, Xiao Huohuo has been making waves lately..."
(END CHAPTER)
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