Tribulation of Myriad Races

Su Yu was still walking with Zhao Li’s student. He ignored everyone else in the academy. He did not go to meet Hong Tan and the others. At this time, they were the center of attention. A lot of eyes were on them. After a while, they arrived at Zhao Li’s research center.

Su Yu blanked out slightly when he looked at the familiar research center in front of him. But he recovered immediately. Senior Brother Wang smiled and said, “Brother Cui, this is my teacher’s research center. He showed a lot of appreciation when he saw your product earlier…”

Su Yu smiled, “Senior Brother Wang, are you sure Master Zhao didn’t say that it was a trash weapon? A mass-manufactured product?”

“…”

Senior Brother Wang looked quite awkward. So this fellow was aware of his teacher’s reputation? Fine. He had wasted his effort trying to cover for his teacher.

At that moment, the door of the research center swung open. Looking at Su Yu who had completely changed his appearance, Zhao Li said, “It’s acceptable. For your age, it’s not too bad. But if it’s a veteran weaponsmith instead, that weapon will be trash among trash.”

“Teacher!” Senior Brother Wang cupped his hands at his teacher.

Su Yu inhaled slightly and smiled, “Greetings, Master Zhao.”

Zhao Li turned around and walked inside, leaving the door open behind him as he said, “Come in.”

Su Yu and Senior Brother Wang entered together. This was a familiar environment. Compared to the research centers in Great Ming, Zhao Li’s research center was akin to a beggar’s hut.

But for some reason, Su Yu felt at home here. After entering the living area, he saw that the couch there was still as shabby as ever. He wondered when was the last time Zhao Li changed his furniture.

Not waiting for the two to say anything, Zhao Li went straight to the basement. He said, “Come with me to the forging room and forge a weapon for me. I’ll check your skills.”

His student felt very helpless. His teacher was as antisocial as ever.

The guest had just arrived. The old man had directly demanded that the guest forge a weapon before even asking for the guest’s name. This was quite rude. If this was a petty person, that person would think that Zhao Li was coveting his weaponsmithing secrets.

Su Yu did not seem offended. He smiled and said, “Sure. I do intend to seek some guidance from you, Master Zhao.”

Before long, the three arrived at the large basement. With a wave of his hand, the nearby furnace floated into the air.

Su Yu said, “I don’t need the earthfire. I have relevant forging characters so I can do it myself.”

Zhao Li nodded. Su Yu did not use to have these characters. He must have formed these characters in Great Ming.

Zhao Li then looked at his student and asked in astonishment, “Why are you here?”

“…”

Senior Brother Wang was astonished as well. Where should he be if not here?

“Leave. Are you trying to spy on his weaponsmithing skills? Do you think that the weaponsmithing teachings of my Zhao Family are weaker than Great Ming’s?”

“…”

Senior Brother Wang was left completely speechless. What…could he say here? Such double standards from his teacher! What could he say about that?

He helplessly cupped his hands at Su Yu and said, “Brother Cui, I’ll be taking my leave. I hope you have a pleasant exchange with my teacher.”

Su Yu cupped his hands as well, “Thanks, Senior Brother.”

“You’re welcome.”

Senior Brother Wang left reluctantly. He was itching to witness Cui Lang’s weaponsmithing skills. Alas, his teacher didn’t want him here. What was the point of chasing him away? It wasn’t like he had never learned about the weaponsmithing teachings of Great Ming before.

After Senior Brother Wang left, Zhao Li gazed at Su Yu.

Instead of exposing Su Yu’s identity, he said, “Hurry up. Show me your skills.”

Su Yu smiled, “Be patient, Teacher. My skills are quite incredible.”

With a casual wave of his hand, a pile of materials appeared on the ground. Then, his five elemental characters materialized.

Zhao Li’s eyes flickered as he saw that. Su Yu activated both his fire and water characters at the same time. The materials floated from the ground and had their essence extracted by the fire and water characters before transforming into liquid.

Then, a hammer appeared in Su Yu’s hand. All five elemental characters fused with the hammer as Su Yu started striking the refined materials. He struck the materials at a rapid rhythm.

He had greatly improved compared to before. During the month he spent in the pagoda, he had forged hundreds of weapons. Not even someone like Zhao Li could afford to forge too many weapons due to the limitation of materials.

Generally, one would only be able to forge one weapon every three to five days. Over the period of one year, one would only be able to forge around a hundred weapons. And that was only applicable to the more hardworking weaponsmiths.

Thus, Su Yu was already as skilled as some veteran weaponsmiths. Zhao Li watched in silence. The kid had improved significantly. Back when Su Yu was still in Great Xia, he didn’t have the time to spare to learn about weaponsmithing. Thus, he was quite clumsy even when extracting materials.

Su Yu continued hammering the materials, blending the essence of the materials together. Strike after strike, he utilized both the teachings of Heavenly Forge King and Zhao Family. He was fully focused on his work while Zhao Li was fully focused on watching the process. The two did not say a single word.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Eventually, a small saber took form. And after some time, the first golden stripe appeared on it. Su Yu continued hammering the saber at a steady pace. His willpower was being continuously drained as he kept his characters active, creating a glimmer of light that flowed all over the saber.

He was forging the weapon with all five elements.

One stripe, two stripes…

More and more golden stripes took form. Beads of sweat started appearing on Su Yu’s forehead as more and more of his willpower was drained.

After a while, Zhao Li frowned and said, “You’re too inflexible. Your fire has remained constant all along, as though you’re a machine without a soul. Start adjusting your fire. At the thirty-sixth golden stripe, increase the heat by thirty percent.”

Su Yu said nothing, but he did as told. At the thirty-sixth golden stripe, he increased the intensity of the fire.

“Wood fuels fire. With wood as the fuel, increase the might of your fire.”

Su Yu continued following the instructions.

“Fan the flames with wind. Do you have the wind character?”

“Yes.”

At this moment, Zhao Li cursed inwardly. This damn kid seemed to have every single character you need for forging. It hadn’t been that long since the kid left, but he had formed so many new characters.

“Temper it with the metal character.”

Su Yu did as told. At this point, the fortieth golden stripe had appeared. Zhao Li continued giving him instructions that were slightly different from the way Great Ming did things. Su Yu followed all of them.

After yet another hour, Zhao Li said, “Start striking with the Soul Expanding Hammer. Use all your strength and don’t stop. The more strikes you can land, the better it is. This is a matter of endurance.”

“Alright.”

At this point, there were forty-five golden stripes on the weapon. This was the limit of an early profound weaponsmith. Su Yu lifted his hammer and started striking the saber. He started sweating heavily. His white robes were instantly soaked with sweat, his previous elegant image completely destroyed. His medium-length hair whipped about wildly, and the strands of hair stuck to his sweaty brows were left ignored.

Zhao Li watched on silently.

One strike. Two strikes…

Slowly, the forty-sixth golden stripe started taking form. But before it could complete its formation, it bent slightly after a hammer strike by Su Yu.

Zhao Li frowned and struck the saber once with his hammer before scolding, “Trash! Again!”

“Teacher…”

“Hurry up!” Zhao Li said, “With a bent golden stripe, you can still complete the forty-sixth golden stripe. But a cultural weapon like this is garbage. A cultural researcher might be fine when using this weapon most of the time. But during a massive battle, the weapon might break suddenly, resulting in the death of the cultural researcher. Are you going to take responsibility for this death?”

“During your first day in the class, I told you to never settle with second-rate products. This is something only garbage weaponsmiths will do. If you think you’re also garbage, you can continue ahead like this.”

Su Yu was feeling very speechless. Garbage? No matter what, this was an early profound cultural weapon. It was only a tiny bit away from the middle profound grade. Whatever. So be it.

A total of three hours had passed. He had exhausted a lot of his willpower. In fact, not even some Cloudbreaches could last this long. But his recovery speed was excellent as well. Zhao Li had also lit up a stick of incense when nobody noticed. The incense was also helping Su Yu with his willpower recovery.

Zhao Li said nothing else and watched silently as Su Yu resumed his work. The more Zhao Li watched, the more complicated his emotions became. What a genius.

A true genius and an excellent seedling in weaponsmithing. If this kid focused on weaponsmithing, he would definitely become an earth weaponsmith within three to five years. What a pity.

On his second attempt to forge the same weapon, Su Yu’s actions were much smoother than before. Fire, extraction, water, quenching…

Yet another two hours passed. At this point, Su Yu was completely drenched. A small puddle of sweat had formed beneath him.

But he paid no attention to that. He had reached the forty-fifth golden stripe yet again.

Zhao Li calmly said, “Continue. Press on. Your willingness to pursue your goal relentlessly was why you caught my attention back then. Your talent is nothing special, but perseverance alone is sufficient. This is the basic quality one needs to succeed in any field.”

During their first meeting, Su Yu had used his willpower to help the army with killing some cultists. Even during a state of willpower exhaustion, Su Yu was still able to stand and talk to him. That was when he decided that Su Yu was a good seedling for weaponsmithing.

At the time, he was very weak yet his perseverance was very high.

Zhao Li was reminding Su Yu to not forget about the basics. He sternly said, “Keep forging. Let me see how many golden stripes you can make.”

“Yes…”

Su Yu groaned a response with great difficulty as he continued hammering the small saber. The more he struck the saber, the smaller it became. The Soul Expanding Hammer had the ability to temper and refine an item to remove its impurities. And when forging a cultural weapon, it was better the purer it was.