Zhen Hua jabbed a finger at Arthur, then rounded on Muye with a bristling glare. "Muye! Are you that bored?! Are you seriously yanking my chain right now?"
"A nine-year-old Rank 4 blacksmith, and he's going for Spirit Forging?"
With Zhen Hua's usual composure, he would normally keep his doubts to himself if anyone else said something like that.
But this was his best friend saying it.
Anyone who knew them understood what that meant.
He had met no shortage of prodigies in his life, but a nine-year-old Spirit Forger?
Even the most shameless braggart wouldn't spin a tale like that.
Muye himself looked completely stunned. He genuinely had no idea Arthur's forging talent ran this deep. He turned to Arthur instinctively, disbelief saturating every word. "You... your forging is already at Rank 4? And you're ready for Spirit Forging?"
Seeing that Muye was just as much in the dark, clearly not in on any joke...
Well then.
If his best friend wasn't pulling his leg, Zhen Hua found himself actually starting to believe it.
There was no reason for Arthur to lie to him.
"Alright!" Zhen Hua slapped his thigh, the irritation of a moment ago dissolving entirely, replaced by a face full of barely contained excitement.
He strode over to the forging table in a few quick steps, set down a piece of meteorite iron that gave off a faint, eerie shimmer, and turned to Arthur with barely restrained urgency. "Kid! Don't just stand there! Come on! Try it with this piece!"
"If you actually pull off Spirit Forging right here in front of me, I, Zhen Hua, will drop to my knees and kowtow three times on the spot! I'll take you as my master!"
"No, no, wait."
"You kowtow to me. I take you as my direct disciple and hand down everything I know about forging!"
Arthur said nothing. He walked to the forging table.
He reached out and summoned a forging hammer thicker than his own forearm, closing his fingers around the grip.
His body settled into a slight stance, and soul power and Spiritual Power surged through him in the same instant.
Both Zhen Hua and Muye held their breath, eyes locked onto Arthur's every movement, not daring to make a sound.
"Thud."
The first hammer fell with breathtaking force, yet the precision was absolute. The meteorite iron trembled, and a faint white light bloomed across its surface.
Zhen Hua's pupils contracted. The degree of force control in that single strike was nearly on par with his own.
And who was he? A Divine Blacksmith.
Muye nodded along with quiet approval. Under his training this past month, Arthur's mastery over his physical body had progressed at a startling pace.
The truth was, if Arthur had not kept his Instinct suppressed, his force control would already exceed Zhen Hua's.
That was simply how it was when it was switched on.
Arthur's movements grew faster and faster, the hammer strikes ringing out with a clean, rhythmic cadence, each one landing with exactly the right weight at exactly the right moment.
The light radiating from the meteorite iron grew stronger and purer, and the surrounding air seemed to take on a faint blue-tinged halo.
The spiritual light radiated outward. A thousand strikes, the first rank achieved.
Now came the spirit-imbuing.
"Spiritual Power... what an extraordinary Spiritual Power!" Zhen Hua let out an involuntary exclamation, his eyes wide with shock. "That level is more than enough to complete the spirit-imbuing."
Muye had gone just as slack-jawed. As Arthur's teacher, a month of close contact had given him a very clear picture of just how staggering Arthur's physical stats, soul power, and Spiritual Power all were.
But applying them to forging was an entirely different matter.
That Arthur could integrate all of it and channel it into forging was, frankly, beyond belief.
What made it even more astounding was that Muye had never once seen Arthur practice forging. Not a single time in the whole month.
It was obvious that forging occupied very little of Arthur's training schedule.
And yet here Arthur was, announcing out of nowhere that he had broken through in forging, and to Spirit Forging no less.
With the final heavy strike, the meteorite iron erupted in a blaze of brilliant light, as though it had come alive. The internal structure beneath the metal's surface was transforming, and a wave of pure, vital energy washed outward.
Spirit Forging. A success.
Arthur set down the hammer and let out a slow breath. The toll it had taken on him was nothing remarkable. He had lost count of how many Spirit Forgings he had completed before. This was simply the first time he had done it without relying on Instinct.
"And he's nine years old?!"
Zhen Hua stood frozen for three full seconds before lurching forward and seizing Arthur's arm, eyes blazing with an intensity that could have set the air alight. "It worked. It actually worked!"
"My disciple! Come on, I'll kowtow to you!"
"No, no, you kowtow to me! Starting today, you are my direct disciple, and I will teach you everything I have ever learned!"
He kept talking as he grabbed Arthur and tried to pull him down toward the floor.
The sheer exuberance on his face surpassed even how he had looked when he himself broke through to Divine Blacksmith.
It was a remarkable sight, honestly comparable to the day Muye had first laid eyes on Arthur and essentially kidnapped him on the spot.
Small wonder the two of them were such close friends.
Muye hurried to restrain him. "You old fool, calm down! What's the rush? Arthur isn't going anywhere."
That was far from certain, actually.
Watching Zhen Hua's manic enthusiasm, Arthur was starting to have thoughts of a quiet exit.
Zhen Hua caught himself at last, let out a sheepish laugh, released Arthur, and rubbed his hands together. "Right, right, no rush."
"Arthur, from now on you learn forging from me. Whatever you need, your master will get it for you!"
"The thing is... I already have a forging teacher."
"What?!"
Zhen Hua's voice shot up an octave. His grip on Arthur's arm tightened. His expression was one of pure disbelief.
"You already have a forging teacher?"
"Who is it?!"
"Which blind fool had the nerve to steal a student from under a Divine Blacksmith's nose?!"
He had only ever felt this kind of pull toward a disciple once in his entire life.
How could he possibly accept being beaten to it?
He refused to accept it. In his heart, Arthur had been his disciple from the moment of birth.
"My teacher is Mu Chen." Arthur lowered his head slightly and kept his voice soft. He was worried about how Zhen Hua might take it.
Zhen Hua did not take it well.
The name Mu Chen landed, and for a moment he simply froze.
Then he shattered.
"Mu Chen?!"
Why was it always him?
Yes, they had been brothers since childhood, grown up side by side.
But right now, Zhen Hua had a sudden and vivid desire to fight Mu Chen to the death.
Twice in his life, something had truly moved him.
The first time was falling for a woman. That woman was now Mu Chen's wife.
He claimed it meant nothing to him anymore, but how could it truly mean nothing? That was just a man's pride holding the last line, nothing more.
The second time was wanting to take the boy in front of him as his disciple, only to find he already belonged to Mu Chen.
Damn it all.
Zhen Hua was on the verge of exploding.
"Someone! Book me a ticket to Eastsea City."
"I'm going to take that bastard down with me!"
He seethed aloud in pure contempt. "What does Mu Chen even know about forging?"
"I am the Divine Blacksmith here!"
"Arthur, when it comes to the final tier, Heavenly Forging, I am the only one who can teach you."
Beside him, something clicked into place for Muye. Of course. Arthur's uncle was Su Wuyan.
Given the relationship between Su Wuyan and Mu Chen, even if Arthur had shown no forging talent whatsoever, Mu Chen would still have been his teacher in the craft.
Muye glanced at Zhen Hua, who was still muttering a steady stream of grievances against Mu Chen, and regarded him with an expression of quiet sympathy.
"Zhen Hua," he said with a sigh. "Let it go. You can't win this one."
"Arthur's uncle is Su Wuyan."
"Su Wuyan..." The fight went out of Zhen Hua all at once. He sank into a chair, suddenly limp.
"Ah. I see."
"But I refuse to accept this!" Zhen Hua's head snapped back up, a last stubborn spark still burning in his eyes. He looked at Arthur, his tone stripped down to something almost earnest. "Disciple, even if you have taken Mu Chen as your master, don't forget about me!"
"Any time you hit a wall with your forging, come find me. I know more than he does. Especially Heavenly Forging. He'll never reach it in this lifetime. I can teach you."
As he spoke, he reached into his chest and pulled out a palm-sized piece of black metal.
A Heavenly Forged metal.
He pressed it into Arthur's hands. "Take it. A meeting gift from your master. Mu Chen could never match this, could he? And whenever you're short on materials, just say the word. Your master will sort it out."
"Oh no, I couldn't, I really couldn't. This is far too precious."
Arthur waved his hands in repeated protest while simultaneously, with considerable skill, closing his fingers securely around the Heavenly Forged metal.