Tribulation of Myriad Races

Chapter 793: Nine-Forged Body (2)

At this moment, someone arrived outside the hall and said, "Greetings, Seniors."

Great Han King smiled, "Tianbing, you sure are fast."

Silk Destroying King laughed heartily and said, "Little Zhao, your junior brother seems to be just as good as you. Your teacher is truly worthy of being someone who once competed against Heavenly Forge."

"..."

Even Great Song King opened his mouth to exchange pleasantries with this newcomer. The newcomer was none other than Zhao Tianbing. He had rushed over right after hearing about the attempt. And he had gone straight to the Invincibles after arriving.

It hadn't been long since he entered the Sunmoon Realm. He wasn't supposed to be worthy of such courtesy from Invincibles. But he was also the human nearest to the heaven grade. He was a grandmaster weaponsmith. These Invincibles were waiting for him to enter the heaven grade before asking for some weapons from him.

After stepping into the hall, Zhao Tianbing felt like he was standing above the grotto and inside the hall at the same time. He overlooked the entire academy and the grotto. He also heard the pounding sounds coming from inside the grotto.

Zhao Tianbing looked around and said, "Seniors, my junior brother is acting rashly. If he fails, his weapon will fall apart and his main character will suffer a massive damage. I beseech you to separate his main character from his cultural weapon when that happens."

Great Han King smiled and said, "Are you not optimistic about his chances?"

Zhao Tianbing helplessly said, "No, but my junior brother does not have the strength to forge so many stripes. If he only wants to forge a regular earth weapon, he will definitely succeed. But he is stubbornly trying to forge an embryonic heaven weapon. He needs to add dozens of incomplete stripes on top of the complete stripes. And the level of difficulty will only increase the more stripes there are. The probability of failure is too high."

"He has Cui Lang's help."

Zhao Tianbing felt somewhat speechless. He said, "No matter how talented Cui Lang is, he won't be of help to my junior brother. I don't know what my junior brother is thinking. Why did he find an outsider to help him? And a profound weaponsmith at that. If I knew he was going to do this, I would have offered to help instead."

Great Han King said, "Sure. If he fails, we'll help."

"Thank you, Seniors." Zhao Tianbing bowed with gratitude.

Marquis Xia said, "Brother Tianbing, take a seat. You can see the whole thing here as well. You don't want to be near the grotto. What will you do if Old Zhao senses your presence and fails his forging from sheer anger?"

Zhao Tianbing ignored Marquis Xia.

With a smile, Marquis Xia said, "Brother Tianbing, I'm not wrong, right?"

Zhao Tianbing snorted and said, "I wouldn't have left if Great Xia did not place so little importance on weaponsmithing. My relationship with my junior brother wouldn't have deteriorated badly if it wasn't for that. This is Great Xia's fault. Are you not ashamed when you say things like this?"

Marquis Xia helplessly said, "What are you saying? You asked for too much. You insisted on opening a new academy just for weaponsmithing. That is very expensive. Great Xia can't afford the money."

Zhao Tianbing didn't even deign to give a reply. He did not fear Xia Xiao'er. He was the honored guest of the prefect even in Great Zhou. After spending decades in Great Zhou, he had produced numerous students. One of them was even an earth weaponsmith.

In the field of weaponsmithing, he was the person with the highest status after Heavenly Forge King. Of course, his strength wasn't anything special. As an early Sunmoon, he was too weak.

"Will Old Zhao succeed? Is it hopeless?"

Marquis Xia was hoping that this would succeed. He was sure that Zhao Li wouldn't bear to leave. After all, this was an academy his own father had dedicated his entire life to.

Zhao Tianbing solemnly said, "He has about a thirty percent chance of success. But even if he manages to complete the weapon, things might not proceed in the direction he wants."

Marquis Xia nodded, "Brother Tianbing, since you're back, why don't you stay for good?" 

"..."

Zhao Tianbing couldn't be bothered to answer. Great Xia had turned into a quagmire. If possible, he wanted to take his junior brother away instead. Then again, perhaps that did not matter as Great Zhou would be in trouble very soon as well.

Su Yu had landed Great Zhou in big trouble. Of course, Zhao Tianbing was not interested in getting involved in that. Su Yu had a close relationship with his junior brother. Meanwhile, the Zhou brothers had treated him well during his time in Great Zhou. Thus, he had decided to stay neutral.

A genius would be able to do well everywhere. After joining Great Zhou, even Great Zhou King had personally met him several times. All five people in the hall were completely focused on the grotto. Nobody mentioned Feng Ji. The three Invincibles were merely avoiding the topic because they did not feel like talking about it. As for Zhao Tianbing, he was uninterested in the topic itself.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Again and again, booming sounds rang out. Slowly, the aura of the hanging hammer grew stronger and stronger. One golden stripe after another appeared. As for Su Yu, thanks to the vibrations, his body experienced a thirty percent increase in efficiency when absorbing heavenly source qi.

This was merely the start of the weapon forging process. It would become much harder toward the end.

It was already late at night. Su Yu did not think about the passage of time. He was completely immersed in the forging. His willpower continued growing, and before he knew it, his willpower percentage had reached the peak again. His fire of inheritance remained active as he continued comprehending what Zhao Li was doing. The more he saw, the more shocked he was.

Boom!

As the hammer slammed down, Su Yu's face was covered with shock. This was not a single strike. He had only noticed this now. Or to be precise, he sensed it.

108 strikes.

With one strike, the hammer shook 108 times, generating 108 strikes within a single strike.

"Stacked hammer!"

Su Yu's jaws dropped in shock. He had thought that he wasn't that far away from Zhao Li. But at this moment, he finally realized that he was nothing. Was Old Zhao really a profound weaponsmith? Was this supposed to be a profound weaponsmith?

He had been observing the process for a long time. But he only sensed this with the help of his fire of inheritance. He had been watching for a few days, but he had only realized this now.

When Zhao Li heard Su Yu muttering, he smiled, "Not bad. You finally heard it."

Very good. This signified that Su Yu had reached a certain level in weaponsmithing. He wouldn't have noticed this otherwise. Even outside the grotto, very few people could notice this. Only those with formidable strength or weaponsmiths of a certain level could sense this.

Zhao Li was already as good as an earth weaponsmith. He had reached this level for years. But his cultivation was not enough and his main character had separated from him, resulting in his inability to forge earth weapons. Apart from that, he was already equal to an earth weaponsmith in both experience and skill. He had only been held back by his lack of strength after the failure of his previous attempt.

In his shock, Su Yu started brandishing his little hammer in an attempt to imitate what Zhao Li was doing. 108 strikes in a single instance. This was truly incredible. It wouldn't have taken him several days to notice this otherwise.

Stacking! If he could learn this, he would be able to hammer even someone stronger than him with a single strike! This was a divine technique! An advanced utilization of the Soul Expanding Hammer!

Sensing the rhythm of the hammer and the resulting vibrations, Su Yu started experimenting. His hammer hummed as he brandished it around, but he was unable to stack multiple strikes within one strike. He was not discouraged. He persevered and swung his hammer again and again.

Zhao Li smiled and slammed his hammer down again, releasing a vibrating force that slightly resonated with Su Yu's little hammer. With the resonance and guidance, Su Yu slowly grasped the intricacies of this move.

Hum! Hum!

He swung his hammer twice, but he still failed to stack the strikes.

Zhao Li said nothing. He continued hammering his weapon while guiding Su Yu, allowing Su Yu to experience the move himself. Zhao Li wouldn't have bothered guiding Su Yu on the stacking of hammer strikes if Su Yu had failed to notice it.

As far as Zhao Li was concerned, forcefully teaching someone this move might not necessarily be a good thing. Thus, he would only start teaching it after Su Yu noticed the move and grasped a certain level of comprehension of it.

Inside the academy.

The booming sounds of the hammer strikes resounded throughout the academy. Elder Chen muttered, "Is Zhao Li...preparing to accept another student?"

He could feel it. Zhao Li's hammer strikes were being launched in an educating manner. Of course, a complete layman would not be able to sense this.

When he looked at Hu Qi, she smiled and said, "Cui Lang is very talented. If Zhao Li is really interested, it's fine for Cui Lang to become his student. He is only an unofficial student of Old Niu. He can take another teacher."

"That wasn't what I meant. I was curious about Cui Lang. How had he earned the favor of an eccentric like Zhao Li?"

The people around them were listening to the conversation. Through the conversation, they learned that Zhao Li was teaching Cui Lang. As for how these two had realized that, well, the others were completely clueless. This was too complicated for them.

Hu Qi laughed, "I have no idea. Perhaps Cui Lang is a very endearing person."

Elder Chen was rendered speechless. After a short pause, he asked, "How many strikes did you hear?"

Hu Qi answered, "144. How about you?"

"138. Looks like I missed some of them." Elder Chen looked at his student and asked, "How many strikes did you hear?"

His student was a middle-aged man. At that question, he sank into a short silence before answering, "108."

Elder Chen frowned and looked at Senior Brother Wang before asking, "Little Wang, how about you?"

Senior Brother Wang answered, "122. I've been listening to this for decades so I'm a little bit more familiar with it."

Elder Chen nodded, "In terms of weaponsmithing skills alone, your teacher was better than me back then. Now, we're at a similar level. The standard of a peak heaven grade weaponsmith is 144 strikes. Senior Hu is better than me so she was able to hear the whole thing. If your teacher succeeds in this forging, he will surpass me."

Senior Brother Wang remained silent. That was not something he would dare to comment on. The surrounding people were completely confused. What were they talking about? A large number of earth, profound, and yellow weaponsmiths were there. The yellow weaponsmiths did not even sense anything. As for the profound weaponsmiths, those below the middle stage couldn't sense anything as well. Only some at the high or peak stages were able to notice a tiny bit of what was happening.

All these people were able to gain more from experiencing the vibrations. After all, the others could only hear a single strike while they could hear the dozens of strikes contained within a single strike.