bookbashuk Chapter 306 The Shock of Technology from Ten Thousand Years in the Future
Chapter 306 The Shock of Technology from Ten Thousand Years in the Future
Chapter 311 The Shock of Technology from Ten Thousand Years in the Future
Xu Jiujiu and Jin Li were neither blacksmiths nor soul masters, so their knowledge of rare metals was limited.
In their eyes, the metal in Huo Yuhao's hand had a restrained and profound luster, and the natural eye-like patterns on its surface were quite peculiar, but that was all.
However, when their eyes swept over the expressions of the three presidents opposite them, even if they couldn't see through the details, they could guess that the piece of metal in Huo Yuhao's hand was definitely not simple.
After a near-frozen silence in the meeting room, Zhu Wen suddenly looked up.
All the restraint and politeness on his dark face were now replaced by a look of near-horrified shock.
His gaze towards Huo Yuhao was filled with disbelief, and his voice trembled uncontrollably as he spoke: "It—it's alive?!"
Having dealt with metal their entire lives, the three guild leaders immediately sensed its unusual nature the moment Huo Yuhao took out the piece of metal.
The feeling was extremely subtle. Deep within the metal, there was a faint, almost imperceptible pulse, like a sleeping heartbeat, weak yet real.
That wasn't the rhythm of energy fluctuations, but the breath of life, the rhythm only living things possess.
The silence just now, besides being one of shock, was the three presidents repeatedly confirming this unbelievable judgment.
Huo Yuhao looked at the three presidents' expressions, which were as if they had seen a ghost, but his smile remained calm and composed.
He gently placed the cube of metal on the table, tapping the smooth, mirror-like surface with his fingertips, producing a crisp and lingering echo.
Then he asked in a calm tone, "Speaking of the other blacksmiths in the Blacksmiths' Guild, could even the three guild leaders forge such metal?"
Upon hearing this question, the three presidents fell silent once again.
Even Qu Tong, who had the most fiery temper, did not slam his fist on the table again at this moment.
His dark red face showed several changes in expression, his lips moved again and again, but in the end he didn't utter a single word.
Because of such a rare metal, let alone forging, he had never even seen or heard of it in his entire life of blacksmithing.
It was only at this moment that the three guild leaders truly realized that Huo Yuhao's previous statement, "You have to listen to me on how to forge," was not the arrogance of a young man, nor was it a challenge to their blacksmith association's skills; rather, it was based on an unshakeable confidence.
Zhu Wen took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the turbulent emotions surging within him.
When he raised his eyes to look at Huo Yuhao again, the contempt and displeasure in his gaze had vanished without a trace, replaced by an unprecedented solemnity and caution.
His tone was tentative and cautious: "Master Huo, according to what you just said, as long as we forge it using your method, our Blacksmiths' Association can also forge such material?"
Upon hearing this, Huo Yuhao looked at Zhu Wen and thought to himself, "As expected of the president. The other two vice presidents are still in shock and haven't recovered yet, but Zhu Wen has already keenly grasped the most crucial information."
However, Huo Yuhao did not answer the question directly, but instead turned his gaze back to the metal cube on the table that was emitting a faint purple light.
He began his explanation: "This piece of raw metal was just ordinary magic silver. It underwent soul forging through a special forging technique, giving birth to its own life and soul, thus undergoing a qualitative change."
The moment the words "Soul Forging" were uttered, the three guild leaders looked at each other, their eyes filled with confusion and bewilderment.
They had spent their lives forging iron, but the term "soul forging" had never appeared in any forging manual, nor was this technique recorded in the blacksmiths' association's lineage of craftsmanship.
Zhu Wen opened his mouth, then tentatively asked, "I wonder, Hall Master Huo, what exactly is this Soul Forging—"
Huo Yuhao knew that he had already quelled the situation by taking out the Soul Forged Demon Silver. However, these old blacksmiths were straightforward and valued craftsmanship over personal connections. To get them to willingly follow his methods, words alone would not be enough; he had to let them see for themselves.
So he didn't bother explaining further, but simply glanced at the three guild leaders opposite him, a slight smile playing on his lips, and asked, "Where is the forging room?"
Zhu Wen abruptly stood up from his chair, staring wide-eyed at Huo Yuhao, his voice filled with barely suppressed anticipation: "Hall Master Huo, could it be that this piece of demonic silver—was forged by your own hands?"
Huo Yuhao nodded calmly. He was already a level seven blacksmith and was not far from becoming a level eight blacksmith. Soul forging was nothing to him.
A burning light suddenly flashed in Zhu Wen's eyes, and he shouted in a loud and urgent voice, "I'll take you there right away, Hall Master Huo, please, please!"
Led by Zhu Wen, the group of six passed through a narrow corridor in the back hall of the blacksmiths' association, spiraled down a stone staircase blackened by the furnace fire, and finally arrived at a heavy iron door.
Zhu Wen pulled a gleaming brass key from his waist, inserted it into the lock, and twisted it hard. With a dull click, the iron gate was pushed open.
A wave of hot, dry air, carrying a faint metallic aroma, wafted over; this was the guild leader Zhu Wen's private forging room.
Huo Yuhao stepped into the room, his eyes habitually scanning the surroundings.
The forging room wasn't large, but it was arranged in an orderly manner. The walls were made of thick, fire-resistant blue bricks, which had turned slightly yellow from years of exposure to high temperatures.
In the very center is a forging table about half a person's height. The surface of the heavy anvil has been hammered countless times and is covered with deep and shallow dents.
Next to the forging table were a series of furnaces, and the walls were covered with all kinds of hammers, pliers and measuring tools. In the corner were piles of different kinds of metal ingots.
Although it was far less sophisticated than the modern forging workshops of the Spirit Pagoda ten thousand years later, it still had everything it needed.
Under everyone's gaze, Huo Yuhao took off his coat and casually handed it to Jin Li beside him. He rolled up his sleeves to reveal his two well-proportioned forearms and walked straight to the forging table.
He first bent down to inspect the structure of the furnace, and then skillfully lit the fire.
The orange-red flames leaped merrily in the furnace. After the fire stabilized, his gaze swept over the pile of metal ingots in the corner, and finally he bent down and picked up a piece of silver the size of an adult's palm.
The three presidents exchanged glances but remained silent, focusing their attention even more intently on Huo Yuhao's every move.
Huo Yuhao returned to the forging table. When the flames in the furnace turned from orange-red to bright orange-yellow, he used a pair of long-handled iron tongs to pick up the piece of heavy silver and steadily placed it into the hottest area of the furnace.
Then he stood quietly to the side, calmly watching the metal slowly change color in the flames.
When he judged that the heat was about right, the piece of silver had been heated to a deep red color, radiating intense heat, and its surface showed faint signs of melting.
Huo Yuhao used pliers to lift it out and placed it steadily in the center of the anvil. The red metal touched the cold anvil surface, emitting a short hissing sound, and a wisp of white smoke rose up.
Huo Yuhao clenched his hands in front of him, and with a slight thought, a dense layer of black light suddenly surged from his long, fair hands, instantly transforming into a pair of jet-black forging hammers.
These hammers were larger than the hand hammers used by ordinary blacksmiths, and their bodies were covered with dense, mysterious purple patterns that seemed to shimmer slightly with Huo Yuhao's breathing.
What shocked Zhu Wen and his companions the most was that the aura emanating from the hammers was exactly the same as that of the Soul-Forged Demon Silver they had just encountered; they too possessed life.
Huo Yuhao was oblivious to everything around him. His gaze was fixed on the red-hot silver on the anvil, and his entire demeanor became incredibly focused and concentrated.
He adjusted his breathing slightly, gripped the hammer handle tightly with his right hand, and slowly raised it, the muscles in his arm taut like a bowstring in that instant.
Then, the hammer slammed down.
"Bang!!!"
A tremendous sound exploded in the closed forging room, like a thunderclap from a clear sky, and the entire room seemed to tremble slightly under the blow.
However, when Huo Yuhao raised the hammer, the piece of silver on the anvil was not smashed into a flat silver disc as everyone had imagined.
It still retains the general outline it had when it was pulled out of the furnace, but its overall size has strangely shrunk by more than half.
Around the shrunken piece of silver, a ring of tiny black metal beads was scattered on the anvil.
As the saying goes, the layman sees the spectacle, while the expert sees the details.
The three presidents of the blacksmiths' association were all trembling with shock. Their three pairs of old eyes were fixed on the piece of silver on the anvil, which had shrunk by a whole size, as if they were witnessing some incredible miracle.
They could clearly see every detail of Huo Yuhao's hammer strike, from the swinging posture to the angle of the hammer's fall, from the rhythm of the force exerted to the aftershock of the hammer's retraction. However, when these details were combined, they found that they couldn't understand it at all.
The skill contained in that hammer blow far exceeded the forging system they had learned in their entire lives. They couldn't understand the process, but they could understand the result.
The tiny black metal particles on the anvil are all naturally occurring impurities in the smelted silver.
These impurities are usually tightly bonded to the metal matrix, and blacksmiths need to repeatedly heat and forge them to gradually force them out.
However, Huo Yuhao forced out all these impurities with just one hammer blow, and the purification effect was as thorough as the results of their thousands of hammer blows and forgings.
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