"No, I won't, Teacher, I don't want to be the senior brother anymore."
Ning Tianya shuddered, shaking his head like a rattle-drum.
His empty gaze gradually refocused as he looked at Zhu Jiuyang.
"Teacher, so... did Senior Brother really create the forging system?"
Before this, Ning Tianya had basically never believed it.
Now, he was starting to believe it a little.
Damn it, Su Ming's Spirit Soul is already this overpowered; how monstrous must he himself be?
An eleven-year-old creating a forging system seems almost acceptable?
"You're even questioning your senior brother now." Zhu Jiuyang snorted coldly and said, "Let me put it this way: starting from Spirit Infusion, all the new techniques related to forging were developed by your senior brother. I, your teacher, have been learning from your senior brother all along. Do I need to explain further?"
He didn't find it embarrassing to admit that he was learning from his disciple.
Some time ago, he had realized he was starting to fall behind. In forging, he had to learn from his disciple, and his own strength was beginning to fail to keep up with the association's development needs.
That's right, even strength at the Spirit Douluo level was somewhat inadequate. When the association needed protection, the one who stepped forward always seemed to be Chen Xin from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan...
Regarding this, Zhu Jiuyang also felt somewhat helpless.
Train desperately?
Then who would keep an eye on the association?
Hand it over to others?
Huo Lie was, after all, a Spirit Master and hadn't achieved much in the field of blacksmithing. Furthermore, his strength didn't carry much weight in the current Blacksmiths Association. Zhu Jiuyang was a Spirit Douluo; although he couldn't contribute much against external threats, he at least could liaise with people from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan and other major forces, and he could handle pressure.
Within the association, he had the highest Spirit Power. Coupled with his somewhat intimidating background, this was key to the association maintaining its independence in the short term.
"The key now is to help Xiao Ming manage the association well. As for cultivation, I can only squeeze it out from my spare time."
Su Ming needed to focus seriously on his cultivation. Therefore, in the future, the teaching of the Spirit Infusion Technique and the Thousand Refined Spirit Metal skills would be handled by Zhu Jiuyang and Duan Jin. This would significantly reduce the pressure on Su Ming.
But it was impossible not to let Su Ming appear at all.
If Su Ming were given no opportunity to show his face, what would the new blacksmiths they trained be like?
Exactly, they would be like the former Ning Tianya.
Having joined the association for a year, he was still questioning the authenticity of Su Ming creating the forging system!
No, even worse, it wasn't just questioning; he simply hadn't believed it from the start and had outright ignored this fact.
Zhu Jiuyang could personally discipline Ning Tianya, but he wanted Su Ming to step in, to make Ning Tianya feel awe and respect for Su Ming from the bottom of his heart. After that, Zhu Jiuyang would take over teaching the more detailed and intricate forging techniques.
In the future, for any talented blacksmiths who might potentially inherit the Thousand Refined Spirit Metal technique, Zhu Jiuyang would take on their teaching duties to lessen Su Ming's burden. However, he would not allow these possible future pillars of the association to fail to acknowledge Su Ming's status.
Forging Room.
Su Ming waited quietly.
He had only sent Little Gold out, cooperating with Zhu Jiuyang in this manner, knowing that it wouldn't be long before there was a result.
Although he said he had no time, he actually did have a little time to spare.
It was just that compared to taking action himself, Little Gold was more intimidating.
Most crucially, he wasn't ready to reveal his three purple Spirit Rings to the outside world yet.
Three purple Spirit Rings were just too shockingly exaggerated.
His eyes moved slightly, looking towards the door.
Little Gold pushed the door open and walked right in. Ning Tianya looked into the room, spotted Su Ming who appeared to be 'deep in thought,' and walked over with his head lowered.
"I'm sorry, Senior Brother."
Little Gold turned into a stream of light and merged into Su Ming's body.
Su Ming learned about the battle process from Little Gold and couldn't help but be surprised by Little Gold's skill at showing off.
"It's good that you know you were wrong. I heard from Teacher that you succeeded in Spirit Infusion on your fifth attempt?"
Questioned by Su Ming, Ning Tianya described the feeling he had during the infusion, how he often recalled the process of sensing the spiritual nature extinguishing back then, and thus succeeded in Spirit Infusion on his fifth attempt.
Su Ming understood.
That made sense.
By a fortunate coincidence, he easily completed Spirit Infusion.
This was actually quite easy to accept.
What is Spirit Infusion?
Spirit Infusion is only the first step in learning the forging system, a step that isn't even necessarily required as preparation in Douluo 3.
Mastering Spirit Infusion merely means you've stepped onto the starting line of forging; you haven't truly achieved anything in forging yet.
After infusion, the rare metal possesses basic spiritual nature and can begin to be forged. Using forging techniques, the spiritual nature is fused with the rare metal, guiding the rare metal's spiritual nature to awaken.
Only after accomplishing the latter can one be considered to have mastered Thousand Refined Spirit Metal.
"Keep working hard on learning Thousand Refined Spirit Metal. This step isn't very easy. After you complete your first Thousand Refined Spirit Metal, I'll have Little Gold give you personal guidance for a day."
"Roar?"
(Why should I?)
Su Ming made a small promise to Ning Tianya on Little Gold's behalf.
A big stick followed by a sweet date.
Ning Tianya looked skeptical.
"Your senior brother's forging skills are second to none in the entire association. Little Gold's skills are third to none, meaning second only to your senior brother," Zhu Jiuyang remarked lightly.
Ning Tianya's face showed shock.
A Spirit Soul?
Forging?
Senior Brother's Spirit Soul also knows forging methods?
If I receive guidance from Senior Little Gold, could my Old Explosive learn forging too?
If that's possible...
Ning Tianya started grinning foolishly.
Then he could continue his advanced study of forging, Old Explosive could forge Spirit Metal, and then they could sell it for money.
How valuable is Spirit Metal?
Ning Tianya didn't know what price other forces would offer. He only knew the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan could offer prices ranging from ten to fifty thousand Gold Spirit Coins.
After resolving Ning Tianya's matter, the association entered a period of normal operation.
No one disturbed Su Ming anymore.
Zhu Jiuyang was responsible for guiding Ning Tianya in learning Thousand Refined Spirit Metal. Duan Jin acted as the instructor, teaching the basic techniques.
Thus, with Su Ming as the legend of the entire association, Zhu Jiuyang overseeing all affairs and managing the association's operations in an orderly manner, and Duan Jin serving as the instructor for basic techniques, their faction could be said to have become the core of the entire association.
Of course, this stable development didn't last very long. About a month later, the Heaven Dou Empire finally sent word.
"Ning Fengzhi has sent a message saying the Heaven Dou royal family intends to cooperate with the association."
Zhu Jiuyang called Su Ming over and told him the news.
"The Heaven Dou royal family plans to send Crown Prince Xue Qinghe personally to negotiate cooperation with us, and has preliminarily agreed to our establishment of a second Blacksmiths Association in Suoto City."
"That's excellent. Do we need to go to the Heaven Dou territory?" Su Ming asked.
The Blacksmiths Association was located in Gengxin City, within the Star Luo Empire. Would Xue Qinghe risk coming here?
"No. To show sincerity, Xue Qinghe plans to come to Gengxin City to cooperate with us."
Su Ming was surprised.
"This Xue Qinghe has quite some nerve. Isn't he afraid the Star Luo Empire will set an ambush in advance?"
Even as he said this, he knew in his heart that Xue Qinghe was actually Qian Renxue.
Would Qian Renxue fear an ambush?
Perhaps she would only fear accidentally revealing too many of her abilities while dealing with an assassination attempt, thus exposing her true identity.
(End of Chapter)