Cultivation Through Artifacts

Pushing air onto the fireplace through the bellows, Khal watched as the Star Steel turned brighter and brighter. At first, it had a simple bright red color, but with time, the more air he used and the longer it was engulfed by the raging flames, its shade slowly turned into a luminous orange hue.

“One inhale, two exhale. This is the tempo that I need to follow. Not that hard.” as Khal thought about how the starting process was not that hard, suddenly, when the Star Steels color changed once again from orange to light yellow, a hologram materialized before the fireplace. It held a long stick, with a curved end and two places to hold; it was almost like a scissor with the only difference that it was used to grab the iron instead of putting things.

“It’s already time to take it out?” thought Khal with wonder but still followed the hologram. Walking before the fireplace, Khal picked up the item that the hologram showed to use from the side, and with it, he grabbed the Star Steel.

“Woah… It’s… Surprisingly light.” Khal was pleasantly surprised by the weight of the iron because it was no longer as heavy as before. He could pull it out even with his shaky legs just as easily as lifting his arm.

Following the hologram back to the anvil, Khal placed the burning Star Steel down and grabbed a hammer. In that very instant, all the holograms vanished and what happened was something even greater. The Star Steel, which looked like a block of boiling lava, slowly turned translucent, revealing its inside. The interior of it looked exactly like before, with different sizes and lengths of vein-like threads in it, but with the only difference that they were now glowing with a bright red color.

“What exactly are those?” pondered Khal with a slight frown. He noticed the threads before the heating process too, but at that time he didn’t give it a thought.

But now things were different. Not only did he saw the threads inside the Star Steel with greater perception, almost as clear as he would do with his Heaven’s Eyes, but even saw as different sizes of pulsating red dots materialized around the chunk of metal one by one, almost like target marks.

And that is what they exactly were.

A second later that those dots emerged, a hologram arm holding a hammer formed and hit one of the dots on the right side.

“I see.” Khal instantly realized what was going on and without hesitation raised the hammer in his hand and swung it.

*CLANG!*

Bazz who stood on the side all this time stood straight up and widened his eyes. He could no longer control himself and his jaw dropped down unwillingly.

“That… But… How?”

The sound that just emerged the moment Khal hit the Star Steel was not an ordinary sound like when someone hit a metal rod onto a piece of iron, but instead, it had a personal and distinct tone that only appears when one perfectly hits the so-called Soul Thread inside the material.

Every material in this world has a Soul Thread inside them without exception, even the trees have; some were as big and thick as an adult arm, but some were as tiny and thin as hair. Even their length differed too. However, let alone hitting a Soul Thread, finding one was extremely difficult; almost as hard as finding a small needle in the hay!

And right now, Khal not only did hit one by pure coincidence, but he hit it perfectly! Was this kid’s luck so great or was it a hidden genius?

But Bazz’s surprise didn’t last long when Khal raised his hammer and swung it once again, causing the whole surroundings to be filled with soft but sharp sound as before.

*CLANG!*

“This…” began Bazz but was unable to finish when Khal swung the hammer once again.

*CLANG!*

“…”

*CLANG!*

Both Bazz and Nate on the side watched in utter silence as Khal swung his hammer from time to time and hit the Star Steel in different places, causing it to shrink in size with each strike of his.

Even other people started to appear around the stall one by one, attracted by the melody of the Khal’s hammer and the Star Steel.

“This… Impossible… How?” right now Bazz was stupified beyond speechlessness. He no longer understood a thing, because currently, Khal did something only those with years of experiment and hard work could do; Soul Thread Refinement!

When Khal first came and applied for the Job, Bazz instantly knew from a single glance that Khal was not someone who did forging or tempering in the past; even his physique looked unsuitable for this Job, which showed the moment he carried the Star Steel!

Yet, the very moment he started the test, he wronged him every time; from beginning to end, except for his strange and sluggish movement, he worked like a professional blacksmith who tempered Star Steel for ages!

From the moment how he put the Star Steel into the fireplace, how he used the bellows, and how he started to hit the points where the Soul Threads were… Every single movement he performed was top-notch!

*CLANG!*

“Haha… This kid…” Bazz could only laugh like an idiot because he realized one thing; he found a gem! A hidden gem!

“I need to make him my disciple no matter what! I…”

*CLANG!*

*BZZZ!*

“!?”

Even before he could have finished his line of thought, suddenly the moment Khal’s hammer fell on the Star Steel once again, alongside the same soft and sharp tone, a buzzing sound appeared too.

Nate and the other others, that by this time formed a complete crowd around the stall, exclaimed aloud with surprise and awe while there were even a few who started to clap their hands in excitement. 

Except for Bazz. While others were mesmerized by the melodic sound Khal caused with every strike of his on the Star Steel, Bazz took a step forward with such expression that it was almost feared he will faint; both his arms and legs were trembling but not because of fear or happiness, but because of pure excitement!

“He is doing Soul Thread Tempering!? At such a young age!?”

Soul Thread Refinement was where one hit and refined the material through the Soul Threads, refining its quality. For example, if one refined a piece of raw gold one could refine it to become pure gold; that was the concept of Soul Thread Refinement, and only through hard work could one achive that.

On the other hand, Soul Thread Tempering was something way harder than and only one out of a hundred or even a thousand could achive it! Soul Thread Tempering was akin to forming a diamond out of charcoal! It not only made the quality of the material improve leaps and bounds, but it also forms a completely new one!

Talking about Soul Thread Refinement and Soul Thread Tempering was like comparing earth to the heavens! While one could achive and use the former one after years of hard work and experience, one couldn’t do the latter through those ways. One not only needed years of experience through sweat and blood, but one needed to understand the forged material like the back of their own palm! They needed to understand its structure, its weak points, and its traits; put it simply, everything!

“Just who the hell is he?”