Soul Land 3: Legend Of The Dragon King

"Shhh, that's our most important secret; what if someone's eavesdropping on us?" Gu Yuena hurriedly cautioned.

Qiangu Zhangting chuckled, "This is Grandfather's office; there's no place with better security than here, so don't worry about anyone overhearing us. Nana, I really have to thank you. You're the one who planned this joust for a spouse event down to the very last detail, yet you gave all the credit to me. I..."

Gu Yuena smiled, and interjected, "I'm just a woman, so I'm destined to stand behind a man. Your glory is my glory, is it not? You are the man who's going to become the Spirit Pagoda chairman, and without you, the chairman wouldn't have supported me in all my experiments, so the Myriad Beast Plane wouldn't even exist; you deserve all the credit in the world."

Qiangu Zhangting faltered slightly before a hint of excitement flashed through his eyes, and he spread his arms to try and embrace Gu Yuena. Gu Yuena looked up at him as purple light flashed within her eyes, and Qiangu Zhangting was stopped cold in his tracks as the same purple light flashed through his own eyes.

"I'm sorry, Nana; I didn't mean to offend you. You'll be mine at the end of this event anyway, so I can wait. It's just that I'm too excited; I can't wait to call you my wife!"

Gu Yuena replied with a gentle smile, "You should go back and rest as well. You have some powerful competitors in your group, so don't get complacent."

Qiangu Zhangting nodded in response. "Don't worry, it's just Yu Longyue, isn't it? I'm going to crush him without giving him even a sliver of a chance!"

...... 

"Boom!" A bolt of rainbow lightning fell violently, sending spasms running through Tang Wulin's entire body. However, his hands didn't stop even for a single instant as he raised both of them in unison, guiding a much smaller bolt of rainbow lightning onto the piece of metal before him.

Rainbow light flashed, and the metal seemed to have sprung to life as it rose up as a streak of rainbow light amid a cry of elation. The lightning clouds in the sky also slowly dissipated at this moment.

The piece of metal now had rainbow light swirling all over its surface, and it would instantly change to any shape at Tang Wulin's behest, but it refused to stray far away from him. It seemed to be aware that it would've already perished if Tang Wulin hadn't bore the brunt of the elemental tribulation's power.

Tang Wulin closed his eyes as he inspected his own bodily condition, as well as the changes in the power of laws within the piece of divine-grade alloy that had just been successfully created.

After practicing heavenly refinement for so many days, he was finally beginning to understand its true meaning. The elemental tribulation wasn't just something to test the piece of metal. Instead, it was something that allowed the metal to communicate with and feel the power of the laws of heaven and earth.

These laws didn't just originate from this plane and this planet; they were imbued with a hint of the power of the universe as well.

Furthermore, Tang Wulin discovered that the less he shielded the metal from the power of the elemental tribulation, the greater the effect would be once heavenly refinement was completed.

Of course, this was a double-edged sword as the more elemental tribulation power the metal was exposed to, the greater the chance that it would be damaged.

As a Divine Blacksmith, he had to find this balance, and the more he approached this fine line, the greater the effect of the heavenly refinement.

Furthermore, the greater the number of metals used to create an alloy and the higher the harmony rate, the more fierce the elemental tribulation it would attract.

Tang Wulin had already developed this theory during soul refinement, and it was verified now that he was capable of heavenly refinement.

However, this didn't mean that the greater the physical tolerance of a piece of alloy, the easier heavenly refinement would be to complete. On the contrary, the greater the physical tolerance of a piece of alloy, the more fearsome the elemental tribulation it would attract. Tang Wulin's physical tolerance was limited, and once the elemental tribulation exceeded that limit, even his Son of Nature physique wouldn't be able to help him, and this was a problem that he'd been struggling with of late.

Having practiced heavenly refinement so extensively during this recent period of time, he was already somewhat confident that he would be able to begin forging suits of four-word battle armor for his friends. However, all of his friends had to reach the Titled Douluo level first. Otherwise, their bodies wouldn't be able to handle suits of four-word battle armor anyway.

Even though he was already a Titled Douluo, he couldn't complete heavenly refinement for himself as too many metals were used for his Dragon Moon Song battle armor, and the alloys were also of an extremely high caliber, which would make heavenly refinement exceedingly difficult.

"Wasn't this one a resounding success? Why do you still look so unsatisfied?" Zhen Hua asked with a smile. Looking at the piece of divine-grade metal revolving around Tang Wulin, he simply couldn't muster up a stern expression.

Tang Wulin's brows were tightly furrowed as he replied, "It's not that I'm unsatisfied with this piece of metal; I'm unsatisfied with myself. Do you think I was too greedy, Uncle-teacher? I used alloys comprised of six types of metals for my three-word battle armor, and the harmony rate is over 90%. In order to upgrade it to a suit of four-word battle armor, I'll have to incorporate at least one more type of metal. Even though I'm a Divine Blacksmith now, I can't forge a suit of four-word battle armor for myself."

Zhen Hua chuckled in response, "That's where you're wrong. The pursuit of forging is perfection; if I had your physical constitution and abilities, I would also pursue the same extremes. Just because you can't now doesn't mean you won't be able to in the future. The construction of your four-word battle armor will have to be delayed, but I'm sure you'll be able to complete it through your own power someday."

A wry smile appeared on Tang Wulin's face. "Is it really possible? My current limit is completing heavenly refinement on alloys consisting of three types of metal. I've never succeeded with four-metal alloys even once, and every time I fail, I sustain some injuries in the process. For my own suit of battle armor, there will be seven types of metal, and the harmony rate will be even higher; how is that even possible?"

Zhen Hua said in a meaningful voice, "Wulin, what you have to realize is that you and I are different. The difference between us is that you'll be able to go further than me. Becoming a Divine Blacksmith isn't the end for us blacksmiths; there are different tiers of Divine Blacksmiths, just like there are different tiers of Limit Douluos. I've been a Divine Blacksmith for so many years, yet to put it frankly, even if I were to give everything I had and completely disregard all consequences, I would only be able to complete heavenly refinement on a piece of four-metal alloy at most.

"That is my limit, and if I were to do that at my current age, I'd most likely have to rest for over a year. In contrast, you're only in your twenties; we're both Divine Blacksmiths, yet you have far more assets at your disposal than I do. You're a Titled Douluo who earned your power through arduous cultivation, and you possess Spirit Domain realm spiritual power. In my memory, there has never been a Divine Blacksmith who has reached the Spirit Domain realm before. On top of that, your soul spirit can help you absorb a part of the power of elemental tribulations.

"Your heavenly refinement success rate is already closing in on 40%; if the forefathers of our blacksmith world were to hear that you're still unsatisfied with this, they'd be rolling in their graves!"

An excited flush appeared on Zhen Hua's face as he continued, "What is heavenly refinement? It's true creation; an ability that only gods of creation possess. Even though our creation is on a very small scale, and we can only draw upon a sliver of the power of laws of heaven and earth, this ability is completely unique to our blacksmith occupation. I knew you were using many types of metals in your battle armor and even succeeded in soul refinement later on, but do you know why I didn't stop you? Do you know why I didn't step in even though I knew you were making heavenly refinement exponentially harder for yourself?"

Tang Wulin shook his head with a blank expression.

Zhen Hua explained, "There are two reasons, the first of which is that I didn't even think you would be able to become a Divine Blacksmith."

"Hah?" Tang Wulin's mouth gaped open upon hearing this.