Soul Land 3: Legend Of The Dragon King

Tang Wulin was still forging away tirelessly, and he could easily pick up the pace, but this was not the time to be pursuing maximal speed; he had to be slow and steady so he could feel how the metal was reacting to each and every hammer blow.

Another two hours passed, and finally, the metal had turned from a dull yellow color into a faint golden color. 

Each of the seven pieces of metal had originally had side lengths of around a foot, yet now, the seven metals combined only had a side length of roughly a foot, which meant that they had been reduced to a seventh of their original size.

Tang Wulin's clothes were already soaked with sweat, and even with his physical constitution and the recovery ability of the Golden Dragon King bloodline, he was on the verge of overexertion. 

Using the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer Technique for such a long period of time was a massive test of stamina, even for him.

All of a sudden, a strange buzzing sound rang out from the metal on the forging bench, and it began to release scintillating radiance.

Ling Zichen reflexively took a step back and raised the arms of her mecha to shield herself.

The piece of metal was currently like a miniature sun, and it was releasing scorching light that even struck Tang Wulin with a slight scalding sensation.

The light filled every single corner of the entire platform, illuminating everything within the protective barrier.

Tang Wulin was ecstatic, and words failed to describe the emotions he was feeling right now.

During his prior experiments, he had never been able to get a seven-metal alloy to undergo thousand refinement on its own. In all those past instances, he had to use his soul power as a catalyst.

Prior to commencing today, he had already made up his mind that he was going to make the metal undergo the change on its own no matter how difficult it was going to be to achieve that.

He wanted to see just how much forging was required for a seven-metal alloy to undergo thousand refinement without the involvement of soul power, and he was even more interested to see what kind of change would result from such a special thousand refinement process.

As it turned out, all of his efforts were worthwhile.

In the past, the most successful seven-metal alloy thousand refinement that Tang Wulin had completed had only resulted in a pillar of light that was close to 20 feet tall.

However, this was completely different. The light being released by this piece of metal wasn't just extending upward as it normally did. Instead, it was radiating in all directions like the light of the sun.

There was definitely a fundamental difference here. Tang Wulin didn't know exactly what the difference was, but he was still overjoyed.

Such a drastic change could perhaps be a catalyst to success!

Only after several minutes had passed did the light gradually fade, and Tang Wulin was surprised to discover that the thousand-refined ally seemed to have become more transparent.

Furthermore, the light radiating from it was fluctuating in brightness in a very rhythmic manner, as if it had learned to breathe.

There was also a peculiar sense of life emanating from the alloy, which was also very unexpected as this was something that should only arise after spirit refinement or even soul refinement.

Spirit refinement created life, while soul refinement bestowed intelligence. However, even though this was only a thousand refined alloy, it was giving off a more potent aura of life energy than even any spirit refined metal that Tang Wulin had ever seen.

Furthermore, he could clearly sense a close bloodline connection with this piece of metal, as if it were calling out to him.

Tang Wulin slowly made his way over to the forging bench and set down his forging hammers before placing his right hand onto the piece of metal.

He was immediately struck by a scorching sensation that was transmitted deep into his heart, following which he sensed a very pure and clueless consciousness, like that of an infant that had just awakened.

Upon sensing Tang Wulin's touch, the surface of the piece of metal in contact with Tang Wulin's palm began to glow significantly brighter.

Even though it wasn't able to manipulate its own form like a heavenly refined metal, it was currently displaying characteristics congruent with the average soul refined metal!

Having said that, it had been far more taxing for Tang Wulin to complete thousand refinement on this piece of metal than normal soul refinement.

Despite their similarities, there was no way that the average soul refined metal could compare with this alloy as the latter had far more latent potential.

"Let me help you, alright?" Tang Wulin asked in a gentle voice.

The alloy emitted a faint buzzing sound, as if in response to Tang Wulin.

Even Ling Zichen couldn't help but clench her fists upon seeing this. She knew that Tang Wulin was most likely going to be making an unprecedented breakthrough on this day.

A faint smile appeared on Tang Wulin's face, and a look of unwavering confidence surfaced in his eyes as he picked up his forging hammers again. In that instant, all of his exhaustion seemed to have been wiped away, and he resumed in his forging.

Initially, the hammer strikes that he dealt were extremely light as he was trying to feel the changes that had taken place in the alloy through these strikes.

However, as he familiarized himself with this alloy's properties, the hammer strikes grew heavier, and with each strike that was dealt, the metal would respond with a flash of light.

In Tang Wulin's mind, it was as if the metal were absorbing his power, and during the forging process, it was working hard to grow up and evolve.

This was an extremely wonderful feeling, and Tang Wulin slowly became immersed in it. This was not just forging; there was also communication taking place.

The golden light grew brighter and brighter, gradually forming a light barrier that enshrouded both Tang Wulin and the piece of metal within it. Tang Wulin's hammer strikes were constantly varying in power, but he didn't pause even for a single moment.

Meanwhile, the piece of metal continued to shrink, and as it did so, it began to glow even brighter, but its energy fluctuations were completely contained and subdued.

"Boom!"

After an indeterminate period of time had passed, Tang Wulin finally landed the last hammer strike, and all of a sudden, the piece of metal shuddered before rising up into the air as a streak of golden light.

It then seemed to let loose a loud buzz of elation before morphing into a golden living golden statue that was completely identical to Tang Wulin, except it was a miniature version of him.

The statue was also holding a pair of forging hammers, and it was swinging the hammers in Tang Wulin's direction, as if to imitate him.

This was the first time Tang Wulin had ever seen something like this, and he was a little dumbstruck.

Right at this moment, fierce winds swept over the entire platform, and the abundance of elements in the air began to rapidly increase.

A dense layer of rainbow tribulation clouds took shape almost instantly, heralding the arrival of the seven-colored elemental tribulation.

What was quite perplexing to Tang Wulin was that he didn't even think that he had performed heavenly refinement!

He had merely forged the metal while constantly communicating with it, and during the process, he had completely forgotten concepts such as spirit refinement, soul refinement, and heavenly refinement. Before he knew it, the piece of metal was already about to face a tribulation! This was incredible!

Tang Wulin felt as if his eyes had been opened to a whole new way of forging. Was this what it felt like to forge with absolute focus? Only in this instant did Tang Wulin feel for the very first time that he had truly become a Divine Blacksmith.

In the past, he had been able to succeed in heavenly refinement due to his unique set of advantages. However, on this occasion, he had attracted the most powerful elemental tribulation using the simplest of forging methods, and he finally felt enlightened, just like back when he had attained spear essence.