Soul Land 3: Legend Of The Dragon King

Chapter 787

What was next? It was the process of soul refinement solidification. Following the completion of that step, 70% of the soul refinement process would've been completed. Only the final soul summoning would be required before success was achieved in soul refinement.

It was undoubtedly the case that heavy silver was one of the easiest uncommon metals to forge, but a soul refined piece of heavy silver would still fetch an astronomical price! After soul refinement, a piece of uncommon metal could no longer be referred to as such. Instead, it would become a true spirit item!

The frequency of Tang Wulin's hammer blows began to increase, and his blood essence power was so immense that he still showed no signs of tiring at all. Instead, the golden light radiating from his body only became brighter and brighter.

At this point, the piece of heavy silver had already turned completely golden in color, and dragon roars rang out from within it alongside the clear soul refinement resonance. These were all very positive signs.

All of a sudden, the golden piece of heavy silver shuddered violently, and it suddenly jumped up from the forging bench.

"Look out! That's the shock of life! It's trying to get away!"

Metals that had been given life would attain intelligence at some point during the soul refinement process. At that moment, it would become extremely panicked as it didn't want to be controlled by humans, and it would try to run away. If it were to escape from the control of the blacksmith, then its soul would quickly fade away as it hadn't completely solidified yet, thereby making it revert back to the spirit refinement stage. At that point, it would be impossible to complete soul refinement with that piece of metal again.

Tang Wulin remained unflustered as he let loose a cold cry. "Get back here!"

His third golden soul ring abruptly lit up as he spoke, and the piece of golden heavy silver shuddered before falling back down onto the forging bench amid a loud clang.

This was his Golden Dragon's Roar!

This piece of heavy silver already possessed Tang Wulin's bloodline aura, and in the face of the intimidation from Tang Wulin's Golden Dragon King bloodline, it was completely powerless to resist.

Tang Wulin took a deep breath before raising his hammers and bringing them down again. He had already begun the next step: soul solidification!

The golden light emanating from Tang Wulin's eyes became tinged with purple, and as he brought his hammers down over and over again, he was releasing less bloodline aura, but increasing his output of spiritual power. Two bursts of purplish-golden light erupted from his eyes, each of which was around a foot in length. He was using a spiritual attack from his Purple Demon Eyes directly on this piece of metal.

The shuddering from the piece of heavy silver immediately began to subside, and in the face of Tang Wulin's spiritual attack and forging hammers, the golden color on its surface began to fade, revealing its original patterns.

Those patterns had already taken on the form of extremely life-like scales that were identical to the scales on Tang Wulin's body.

Both Mu Chen and Mu Xi reflexively began to breathe in a heavier manner. The soul solidification process seemed to be also progressing very smoothly. At this rate, it really did appear that he could successfully complete soul refinement!

Even if he could only complete soul refinement once, he would officially progress from a sixth-rank blacksmith to the seventh, which would make him a new Saint Blacksmith!

Even in the entire Shrek Academy, there was only one Saint Blacksmith in the form of Feng Wuyu! If Tang Wulin were to become a Saint Blacksmith, then his social status on the entire Douluo Continent would become completely different. He would truly become a member of the upper echelons of society, and he could even become the president of the blacksmith association in a major city if he wanted to.

Even more importantly, he was only 19 years old, and there was a great chance that he'd be able to strive toward becoming a Divine Blacksmith in the future.

Zhen Hua held such a lofty status on this continent, that even the federation's parliament, the Spirit Pagoda, and Shrek Academy wouldn't dare to offend him for no good reason.

Following the assassination attempt that had been made against Zhen Hua, the Spirit Pagoda and the federation had joined forces to conduct an extermination operation, and as a result of that, evil Soul Masters had remained dormant to this very day. These were all clear indications of what a truly exceptional blacksmith meant to the world of Soul Masters.

More and more golden dragon scales appeared, all the way until they had covered the entire piece of heavy silver. The golden around the piece of metal began to withdraw, and the metal itself began to shimmer in a rhythmic manner.

Soul solidification, success! Mu Chen couldn't help but swing an arm through the air in elation.

Soul refinement resonance and soul refinement solidification were both extremely arduous processes, and if one could complete both of those procedures, then they were virtually guaranteed to become a Saint Blacksmith at some point. The final soul summoning process was very difficult, but this was something that could be honed over time.

Tang Wulin was still refining the piece of heavy silver, and the blood essence fluctuations emanating from his body were finally beginning to weaken, but he didn't dare to pause even for a single moment.

He had chosen to use his blood essence power to complete soul refinement as opposed to using his soul power, and this was simply because he didn't have sufficient soul power!

Normal soul refinements would require at least the soul power of a seven-ring Soul Sage to complete. Tang Wulin was far from that level. His blood essence power also couldn't compare with the soul power of a seven-ring Soul Sage, but the difference lay in the fact that he possessed the bloodline of the Golden Dragon King. This was a bloodline of an extremely high caliber, and during the soul refinement process, it was far easier to fuse and control his blood essence power compared to his soul power. If Tang Wulin were to use his soul power alone in his refinement, he wouldn't even be able to get to the soul refinement resonance stage, yet he was able to accomplish this with his blood essence power.

Both hammers fell at once, and a crisp clang rang out as a burst of dazzling golden light suddenly erupted from the piece of heavy silver. There seemed to be a dragon-shaped projection revolving around the piece of metal within the golden light.

Tang Wulin took a deep breath before letting loose a low cry, and his aura immediately became more potent. His eyes glowed as he struck the piece of metal with his hammers in an alternating manner. Immediately thereafter, a loud dragon's roar erupted from his body, and his first golden soul ring lit up. It was none other than his Golden Dragon Body.

The process of soul summoning entailed summoning a piece of metal's soul with the power that had been previously injected into it, thereby creating resonance. If this process were successfully completed, the soul within the piece of metal would be truly brought to life.

Spirit refined metals only possessed life force, which made them similar to plants, whereas soul refined metals that attained souls were more like soul beasts. This was the true essence of soul refinement, and it meant that successful soul refinement would transform a piece of metal into a true living being.

The process was akin to the miracle of giving life, which was why it was so difficult.

Loud dragon's roars reverberated throughout the entire forging room, and the piece of metal was also ringing incessantly. However, Tang Wulin's brows quickly furrowed.

The process of soul summoning was too difficult, and in reality, he hadn't attempted it many times in the past. He had only been able to successfully complete soul refinement resonance and soul refinement solidification on a total of two or three occasions prior to this.

Soul summoning couldn't be taught as everyone's forging processes were different. There was no set formula that could be given, and one had to find that feeling on their own.

All of a sudden, the piece of heavy silver shuddered violently before abruptly falling silent.

A dejected look appeared on Tang Wulin's face. He had failed.

There was only an extremely short window of time during which soul summoning could be completed. Following soul solidification, the soul of the piece of metal would be active for an instant, and if soul summoning could be completed during that split-second, it would evolve to become a new life form, thereby heralding a successful soul refinement. If soul summoning couldn't be achieved, then it would remain in this soul refinement solidified state.

Golden light was flashing from the golden scales on the piece of heavy silver, indicating that it had attained a high level of sentient will, but unfortunately, it was never going to be able to become a complete life form like a soul beast.

A large and strong hand gripped onto Tang Wulin's shoulder. "You've already done very well; don't place too much pressure on yourself."

Tang Wulin turned around and was greeted by the sight of Mu Chen's smiling face.

"If you really can successfully complete soul refinement, then I'll be too embarrassed to continue in my role as president of this association. You've already completed the solidification process, which means that this piece of metal is already half-step soul refined. Even your uncle-master would be very pleased to hear about this. In just a few years, you've already reached a stage where you're just one step away from becoming a Saint Blacksmith. We were right about you; if you continue developing at this speed, you'll definitely become a Divine Blacksmith in the future."

Tang Wulin scratched his head in a slightly embarrassed manner. "You're far too kind, Teacher. There are still many fallacies in my forging, and I still haven't even begun to grasp the concept of soul summoning. The procedures prior to that step expend too much energy, so there's a very slim chance for me to complete that final step. Whenever I get to that stage, my energy would be insufficient to carry me through it."

Mu Chen said in a meaningful voice, "Forging is a process of accumulation. Among the three major obstacles of soul refinement, the most difficult one is soul refinement resonance. This is not something that one can achieve just by working hard; luck and talent play far bigger roles in that regard. Almost all blacksmiths who have achieved soul refinement resonance have gone on to become Saint Blacksmiths, yet you've even gone one step further and achieved soul refinement solidification as well. All you need is to accumulate more experience and increase your cultivation rank, including that of your spiritual power. The more you improve in those areas, the clearer the soul summoning stage will become to you. Barring any mishaps, you'll definitely become a Saint Blacksmith in the future; it's only a matter of time."