Cultivation Through Artifacts

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

The sharp noises filled the entirety of the hall, showing just how determined everyone present was to pass the Beginners Event and obtain their first-ever Golden Star in their lives to become an official blacksmith!

Some were forging Middle-Quality steels with great enthusiasm while some tried their best to refine and temper High-Quality materials as if their lives were on the line!

Only a single young man was bold enough to choose a Supreme-Quality material on his first competition even though he never in his life touched much less forged such hard steel.

But who would have guessed that this boy didn't have to forge Supreme-Quality materials as he had a power, a cheat code to help him forge it without a problem!

Clang!

As the strong pitch reverberated in the surroundings, Khal watched as Flaming Sun Steel slowly began to glow, while the heat around him started to increase with each of his strikes!

"Amazing! To think such steel can truly exist... I can't wait to see what it will become once I pull its Soul Essence out!" thought Khal to himself, and after letting the force inside him take full control over his body, he proceeded to hit the chunk of metal with greater power!

On the other hand, Elder Sige didn't seem to be happy, but instead became dumbfounded, his jaw already dropped to the ground because of pure shock!

'Just who the hell is he? He is forging that steel for more than 15 minutes now, yet he has made no mistakes at all! Not even once!!'

Elder Sige recollected his thoughts after a moment of silence and straightened his back, 'I should not judge so quickly. Even though his performance so far is outstanding, forging the Flaming Sun Steel is not that easy especially if the one doing it was a newbie. Just let me see how far you can go!'

Under Elder Sige prying and calm gaze Khal proceeded on forging the Flaming Sun Steel, and after 1 hour of straight arms swinging and hammer striking, the heat increased so much that Rubie had to fly into the distance while Khal had to resist the urge to stop right there and then.

'Hell, this is almost like being inside a sauna! No, it's even hotter than that!' thought Khal inwardly, his body below his robe already soaked in sweat almost as if he just took a quick bath!

'Let's just hope I can finish this quickly or else I will definitely be scorched alive!'

Swish!

After swinging his hammer a few more times, Khal watched as several red dots appeared on the piece of metal's surface while 8 Soul Threads appeared below its gleaming texture.

"8? That's the most I have seen so far," exclaimed Khal with shock, amazed to see 8 Soul Threads inside a single chunk of metal even though he knew the average amount was 3!

Though maybe he was truly shocked to see 8 Soul Threads, he knew that until he had his Creation Mode helping him forge, he will be doing perfectly fine thus didn't worry at all.

Instead, he tightened his grip around the hammer's hilt and swung his arm, striking the first red dot on the Flaming Sun Steel.

CLANG!

A metallic pitch with a mixture of a unique tone suddenly resounded inside the hall, causing many to halt whatever they were doing and turn toward Khal, including Seila too.

"This... Is he really doing Soul Thread Refining? Isn't he just 17 years old? Where did he learn the technique from?" mumbled Elder Sige, but soon another melodic pitch appeared, but this time from somewhere else!

"That girl... She is using Soul Thread Refining too!?" Elder Sige felt even more shocked to see that both Khal and Seila, two individuals only 17 years old, were able to use the Soul Thread Refining Technique as easily as breathing air!

'Just wait and see... I can do just as good as you if not better!' hissed Seila inwardly, an indistinguishable flame already burning inside her heart to show she was better than Khal!

However, Khal didn't care about Seila nor about her performance as he didn't want to get distracted by useless things such as that. Instead, he quickened his movements and continued to refine the threads inside the Flaming Sun Steel until he could finally start pulling its Soul Essence out!

Sharp metallic sounds filled the entirety of the hall, pushing the ordinary metallic sounds into the background while only Khal's and Seila's performances could be heard!

Elder Sige watched both of them with great shock, but as more time went by he soon began to realize that... Both of them were monsters!

One was forging a Supreme-Quality metal under intense heat while the other one moved as quick as lightning without making any mistakes even though she was doing Soul Thread Refinement.

But, if his shock wasn't great enough, about 4 hours after the start of their outstanding 'performance', the moment both of their hammers hit the piece of steel at the same time, an even greater pitch together with a slight shockwave swept through the hall, shocking Elder Sige and every participant around even more!

"Essence Burst! Those two just began to do Soul Thread Tempering!"

Knowing what it exactly meant, Elder Sige's complexion turned serious and got ready if anything seemed to get out of control, especially in the case of Khal as he was forging an extremely difficult and dangerous metal!

Rumors say that a Flaming Sun Steel's Essence Burst was so fast and powerful that it could demolish city's and melt everything into a boiling mess under seconds in a proximity of 10 miles!

If it was forged improperly, not only could it cause the piece of metal to become completely useless, losing all of its previous value as a Supreme-Quality material wholly, but it could also kill hundreds if not thousands of lives in a blink!

'At least he is just performing Soul Thread Tempering, so at the very most, only this hall will be affected if he fails.' thought Elder Sige calmly, but even after he attempted to comfort himself, he still felt a bit anxious.

Just who would have guessed that there will be someone crazy enough to forge a Supreme-Quality material in the Beginners Event, and a Flaming Sun Steel on top of that!

No one obviously!

And while Elder Sige watched Khal's every movement with a sharp gaze, ready to jump in and help him if he seemed to make a mistake, inside Khal's head Nova's voice sounded, bringing joy to Khal.

[Notify! 'Soul Essence' detected!]

[Final strikes for success: 8]

Immediately after that, the sight in Khal's eyes changed, leaving only 8 red dots on the chunk of metal's surface out of the previous hundred!

'...' Khal glanced at the sight with an unnoticeable smile on his face and without further ado, swung the hammer in his grasp, striking the first red dot with extreme precision and power!

CLANG!