Clank… Clank… Clank… Clank… Clank…
The echoes of metal resounded across the vast distance from deep within Zhen Len's territory. Each strike rang out like an ancient force, shaking the hardened stone surface where he forged.
Zhen Len, currently a soul beast of barely two hundred years, held up his right front paw, which glowed faintly from accumulated heat. His eyes, fixed and unblinking, revealed absolute concentration. The air around him was dense and scorching, as if every particle was charged with living fire. Each time he raised his limb to deliver another blow, his body absorbed the resulting vibrations.
The Iron-Devouring Rhinoceros' skin lay stretched out over a flat stone. Its deep black color, tinged with a reddish glow from the extreme heat it had endured, along with its extreme thickness and hardness, indicated it was a high-grade metal. This soul beast, after thousands of years feeding on mineral-rich stones, had transformed the surface of its skin into a biological alloy of colossal hardness.
Zhen Len wasn't simply playing with fire. For a former divine blacksmith, even now that his body was different, the concept of mediocre practice didn't exist. Every forging session was a deliberate act, a demonstration of devotion. Despite having left blacksmithing behind for more than a decade since his rebirth, he wasn't starting from scratch with the Hundred Refinements, that fundamental technique used to cleanse impurities and consolidate metallic structures. At this stage of forging, the smith had to cleanse all impurities found in the metal to improve its molecular structure, making it more resistant and flexible.
He also didn't stop at the Thousand Refinements, where the smith must begin to feel the soul of the metal and grant it life. Through this process, Zhen Len sought not only to align the particles of the metal but also to begin connecting with it on a deeper level, tuning his soul to that of the material.
No. He was going far beyond all of that.
Zhen Len was performing a true Spiritual Refinement, where the metal was no longer merely purified or strengthened but awakened, granted a spark of life and thought. Unlike traditional refinement, in this phase it wasn't just about removing visible impurities but about giving purpose to the metal and the energy within it, awakening the dormant essence residing inside.
Because he couldn't use hammers, nor did he have an anvil or a proper forging table, he had to rely solely on his body, his will, his soul power, his spirit power, his blood core, techniques from the Tang Sect, and his own divine blacksmith techniques—though he couldn't use them all, since many required an enormous consumption of soul power, and he didn't even reach a tenth of what was needed.
His front limbs, now carefully coated in milky jade, allowed him to forge using his limbs, amplify vibrations, and strike with millimetric precision. Every time he struck the metal, it echoed five times:
Clank… Clank… Clank… Clank… Clank…
His vast experience helped him focus the blow's vibrations into the metal and also distribute them throughout his own body, preventing the rebound from shattering his joints. This vibration absorption process was crucial, as the strike, without such control, could spiral out of balance, preventing an ideal result.
He could clearly feel the exact moment, the precise point, and the ideal depth of each strike. By using the Purple Demon Eyes technique, which remained active, his eyes glowed with purple light, allowing him to see in absolute detail everything occurring within the metal, increasing the efficiency of each strike.
Moreover, by using the Eye of Truth located at the center of his forehead, he was synchronized with the fire element, allowing him to understand the internal flow of thermal energy that still persisted within the metal, which increased thanks to him using his elemental power to stoke the heat. This synchronization was essential, since blacksmithing was not just about hitting metal, but about harmonizing soul power, life force, and the metal together.
Clank… Clank… Clank… Clank Clank…!A precise strike, directed at the core of the piece. With just ten strikes, he had already refined the metal a hundred times. Each blow Zhen Len delivered not only compressed the metal but also made it resonate with his own soul power, imprinting part of his essence into it. At the same time, his spirit power, stored within the Eye of Truth, emerged as a purple light and interwove with the metal.
Clank… Clank… Clank… Clank Clank…!When the forty-second strike landed, he began to connect his life force, seeking the dormant essence deep within, like an awakening. Normally, blacksmiths used their martial souls as guides, but Zhen Len, being a soul beast, had no martial soul—so he himself began to guide the process instinctively.
Suddenly, a pillar of murky black light appeared, filled with immense resentment toward Zhen Len.
Clank...! Clank...! Clank...!
From the shadows of the burrow, his brothers watched him in complete silence. Some with vacant stares, not fully understanding what was happening. Others with hearts trembling, as if witnessing a sacred ritual. The scene held a mystical aura that couldn't be easily explained. The combination of strength, spiritual energy, and sacrifice was something beyond the mundane.
Clank...! Clank...! Clank...!
Zhen Len did not stop, and after two more strikes, the resentment within the murky black light began to weaken thanks to his spiritual power and his elemental fire power, which he used to keep heating the metal, making it much more malleable. Zhen Len was infusing it with his power, causing the column of light to shift from murky black to a metallic black sheen.
Upon completing the thousand refinements, as if the metal had forgiven him and desired to be with him, it began to resonate with each of his strikes, as though the metal from the Iron-Devouring Rhinoceros wanted to communicate with Zhen Len.
Clank....!
There were no longer loud noises, only comforting chimes for those witnessing the scene, and each blow now produced a white light with slight red tints.
His body was beginning to pay the price. Thin threads of blood ran down his striking limb. It was intentional. The Blood Sacrifice had begun. In blacksmithing, the blood sacrifice was the final step to forging a living piece of metal. The blacksmith had to offer a part of himself to bind with the metal, giving it a deeper, more personal essence, making the metal unusable by anyone else.
So, he had stopped reinforcing certain parts of his limb with jade, and using his vast experience, controlled the vibrations so that the impact would reach more deeply into his own flesh. An offering. A bond of pain and respect toward the metal he was trying to awaken. This sacrifice was not only physical, but also spiritual. Lacking a martial soul, he had devised another method to guide the process on his own. He used his blood through his blood core, making it carry not just life, but memory and soul—something the metal had to accept to be completed.
Drop by drop, it merged with the piece, marking it, claiming it. The metal could feel it, it recognized him. With each new drop, their connection deepened. For Zhen Len, this was a sacred process a rite that transcended mere blacksmithing.
His front claws no longer just bled, they trembled from the vibrations, causing him to feel intense pain with each strike.
But his eyes remained as steady as they were at the beginning. This pain didn't compare to even a tenth of the first level of the Body Sect's body-forging technique. Furthermore, by using the Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track technique, the process was fluid, as it allowed him to deliver many precise blows in quick succession, causing afterimages to trail from his limbs.
His determination was unbreakable. The rhythm of his strikes didn't slow, even as the pain became increasingly difficult to bear. At the same time, the metal from the Iron-Devouring Rhinoceros' hide began consuming a large amount of soul power. But since Zhen Len's was completely pure, the metal needed far less than it normally would.
Maintaining the spiritual connection continuously was also supposed to be a major challenge due to the constant and absurd consumption of spirit power. But who was Zhen Len? He was a soul beast of fire and mental attributes. Upon evolving during his 100 years of cultivation, he had already reached the Spiritual Sea level, so maintaining that connection was easy for him to the point that he began infusing even more mental power than necessary to further strengthen it.
A step to the heavens! Ten Thousand Refinements of Life!The metal, sensing that it wasn't just gaining life, but that the connection was growing stronger, began to cooperate with much greater enthusiasm.
Zhen Len was cultivating its intelligence, much like how soul beasts acquired intelligence as their cultivation increased. Feeling this progress, he, filled with emotion and intense concentration, began to strike faster and harder. The metal began to shine with a black hue that then turned red, alternating colors, because aside from absorbing soul power, it was also absorbing the elemental fire power Zhen Len was transferring, making its form more moldable and each strike intensified the glow, while the metal continued compressing.
When Zhen Len sensed that only one final strike remained, he began to pour all his soul power, fire elemental power, blood essence, and spiritual power into it before unleashing it.
Clankkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!
A powerful chime echoed from Zhen Len's territory, spreading for hundreds of meters and covering several kilometers, accompanied by a five-meter-tall reddish-golden pillar of light indicating the successful completion of the spiritual refinement.
The metal had been reduced to just one-fifth of its original size, which was impressive considering it could withstand attacks from soul beasts over 10,000 years old.
Zhen Len, completely exhausted, began panting slightly from the massive consumption of soul power, blood essence, and his own spirit power, which didn't come from the energy stored in the Eye of Truth.
With a smile, he brought his paw close to the metal on the stone floor, which was no longer black but had taken on a reddish hue similar to Zhen Len's eyes.
Ignoring his fatigue, Zhen Len began to emit chirping sounds. "From today on, you shall be called Flame-Devouring Metal."
After speaking those words, he brought his paw closer to the newly refined metal, and it began to dissolve into his body as if it longed for his presence.
It wasn't absorbed by force. The metal desired it.
Because this wasn't just a simple Spiritual Refinement.
Zhen Len had achieved something much deeper and far rarer. A Soul Refinement.
In this process, not only does the blacksmith's soul awaken the metal, but it intertwines with it. The soul of the metal and that of the blacksmith become irrevocably linked.
That's why the metal didn't need to be stored, sealed, or transported. It returned of its own free will, because it had already become part of Zhen Len's soul.
The metal now had an absolute master. Not because it was forged, but because it was born from him.
Zhen Len felt a warmth spread through his body, as if a living spark had ignited within him.
It was no longer just a refined metal.
It was an extension of himself.
A life form born of blacksmithing, his fire, his soul, and his will, making him wear a melancholic and nostalgic smile as he longed for the days he spent cultivating and locked away in his forge, surrounded by many kinds of precious materials he could once easily acquire, unlike now, when he no longer had human connections to obtain them.
But that smile didn't last long, because he suddenly realized something.
"Aren't I following the same path that left me full of regrets in my past life!?"