That was a girl who appeared to be around ten years old, with a slender build and beautiful features. Her golden long hair was tied into a ponytail that swayed gently, and beneath her bangs was a pair of clear, bright eyes.
"Hello, Uncle Su." Mu Xi greeted him with proper etiquette, then curiously examined the boy beside Su Wuyan.
With Arthur's current adorable appearance, he could charm people of all ages and genders. Especially with that tuft of cowlick on his head swaying back and forth, it made Mu Xi's heart itch.
After his martial soul awakening, Arthur had developed a cowlick on his head. He hadn't looked in a mirror yet so he didn't know. Su Wuyan was too lazy to care about such a small detail.
"Oh, Arthur's here too."
Mu Chen looked up, his impatient expression suddenly changed, instantly becoming all smiles. Cute children were always well-liked.
He suddenly remembered that today was awakening day, so Arthur must have come right after awakening his martial soul.
Perfect, let's see how Arthur's physical talent is. To learn forging well, strength was of paramount importance.
"Arthur wants to learn forging. Come with uncle, let's go to the forging room for a little test."
Ignoring Su Wuyan in front of him, completely treating him as if he didn't exist, Mu Chen pulled Arthur along and went out, heading toward a forging room.
"Tsk." Curling his lips, Su Wuyan turned and followed.
Mu Xi's beautiful eyes also filled with curiosity as she ran over on her short legs.
Along the way.
A trace of regret flashed through Mu Chen's mind. Seeing Arthur again reminded him of that stunning couple.
Top-tier talent plus a martial soul fusion technique complementing each other—they were almost certain to become Limit Douluo. What a pity.
Entering the forging room, he casually picked up a forging hammer weighing about a hundred pounds and handed it to Arthur. Mu Chen spoke gently, "Arthur, give it a try."
Su Wuyan said impatiently, "I've already tested Arthur's physical fitness and strength. It's about—"
"Did I ask you?" Mu Chen glared at him, retorting unceremoniously, "Do you understand forging or do I understand forging?" This slacker was even trying to give pointers.
Mu Chen didn't say the second half of that sentence, afraid the other party would get angry.
Su Wuyan snorted, rarely not retorting back. For the sake of teaching Arthur, he'd let it slide for now.
Arthur easily picked up the forging hammer. A hundred pounds was effortless for him, and he swung it casually a few times as if it were weightless in his hand.
"Not bad." Mu Chen was somewhat surprised. This child's strength was at least a thousand pounds. Keep in mind he was only six years old and had just awakened his martial soul.
He took out a piece of rare metal, Heavy Silver, and placed it on the forging platform.
"Try hammering the metal with the hammer in your hand."
"Uncle Mu, I don't know how to forge." Arthur's tone was hesitant. Testing strength was fine, but he knew absolutely nothing about forging.
"It's okay, just hammer it a few times however you like."
For Mu Chen, an eighth-rank Saint Craftsman, he could roughly determine someone's talent from their first contact with forging.
Of course, testing talent this way was too arbitrary, but with his experience, he could already see many things.
"Bang!"
He swung the hammer down hard, and the resounding metallic sound echoed through the room.
"Bang, bang, bang—"
One hammer after another, the movements direct and forceful, without any force distribution or striking technique. Arthur was simply venting his tremendous strength chaotically on the metal.
With each metallic boom, Mu Chen's brow furrowed a bit more.
Watching from the side, Mu Xi couldn't help but cover her mouth and giggle. Having successfully achieved Hundred Refinements for the first time today, she was in a very good mood. Seeing this crude hammering filled her with a sense of superiority.
She completely forgot that this was the other party's first time forging, and he was even using a hundred-pound forging hammer.
Opening his mouth slightly, Mu Chen prepared to call a stop. He had already seen enough.
"Bang——"
The metallic sound suddenly changed.
Huh?
Wait!
The chaotic metallic booming suddenly transformed.
The crisp and dense sounds were extremely pleasant in both rhythm and frequency.
Like music.
Arthur didn't know when it started, but his eyes became unfocused and his mind went blank. He seemed to have entered a wondrous state, completely surrendering his body to his sixth sense, hammering the metal again and again.
The angle and force of each hammer strike were perfect.
"Bang!"
With the final hammer falling.
Hundred Refinements, complete!
The forging room fell into silence.
"Arthur, how did you do that!" Mu Chen rushed forward and grabbed Arthur's shoulders, shaking him excitedly. That was Hundred Refinements Heavy Silver! That was the standard for a second-rank forger. Not to mention this was his first time ever touching forging!
Even Su Wuyan understood the significance of this.
"I just, just followed my feeling and hammered casually, and this happened."
Arthur felt a bit guilty. His Hundred Refinements actually had a lot of water in it—it was all thanks to intuition.
He only discovered it halfway through forging. The holy sword seemed to have not only modified his soul skills but also granted him the ability of intuition.
Intuition was the ability to instantly determine the most suitable course of action for oneself in battle, even reaching the realm of predicting the future.
And his intuition was even more special—it could actually be applied to forging. It allowed him to complete Hundred Refinements purely through his sixth sense.
Simply put.
He was cheating.
It had to be said that being a holy sword wielder was really easy. The holy sword had fed him everything on a silver platter.
"I couldn't do it again."
This was a lie.
Although Arthur didn't know the how or why, with his intuition, no matter how many times he tried, he could replicate this Hundred Refinements.
"That's still incredibly heaven-defying." Mu Chen's eyes blazed. His disciple had the makings of a Divine Craftsman!
Completing Hundred Refinements on feeling alone the very first time forging. He had complete confidence in training Arthur to become a Divine Craftsman.
"Uncle Mu—"
"What Uncle Mu, call me teacher!"
"Uh, teacher, shouldn't you look over there first?" Arthur tilted his head.
Mu Chen followed Arthur's gaze and saw a girl standing there. Only then did he realize his daughter was also present.
Mu Xi, who had been smiling earlier, couldn't smile anymore. Her eyes were red, she was biting her lip tightly, and tears were swirling in her pupils.
Clearly, Mu Xi's defenses had crumbled.
The girl's heart was filled with indignation.
Why?
Because of her female identity, her father hadn't supported her choice of forging since childhood. But Mu Xi had started swinging a specially-made small hammer to practice forging from age five, persisting for two years before finally moving her father.
Three years later, today, she had successfully achieved Hundred Refinements. Next, she only needed to slowly practice with other metals to become a first-rank forger.
No one knew how much sweat she had shed these past few years.
But why, why did someone not need to work hard and easily surpass her on their first time forging?
And it was Hundred Refinements with Heavy Silver, a height that was unreachable for her right now.
"Dad—"
Her dao heart shattered, Mu Xi choked up and suddenly threw herself into Mu Chen's arms, burying her head and crying bitterly.
"Sigh." Patting his daughter's back, Mu Chen had a terrible headache, racking his brains trying to figure out how to comfort his daughter.
Arthur on the side felt absolutely nothing about this in his heart. He even wanted to laugh a little.
It was just a competitive child being struck down by a genius. It wasn't a big deal.
Besides, Arthur hadn't expected himself to be this talented either.
What could he say? Talk to his intuition about it!