Back in the village, Ignaz quickly boiled the herbs and prepared a fresh round of medicinal baths to aid his recovery. Now that his martial soul had awakened, he could sense the presence of soul power within his body.
With his eyes gently closed, Ignaz tentatively slipped into meditation, tuning in to the flow of soul power inside him and the spiritual energy he absorbed from the outside world.
Because his innate soul power was weak, his cultivation was naturally slow. On top of that, without any systematic meditation training, his progress was only just a little faster than a snail's pace. Sometimes, he even had to take a fifteen-minute break every so often.
Sigh, he thought, it's a shame that besides my blacksmithing skills, I don't know Tai Chi, Xing Yi Quan, or any other martial arts techniques. Otherwise, I could probably level up my soul power cultivation a lot faster.
Still, this basic meditation wasn't without its perks. It helped his body absorb the medicinal strength from the herbal baths more effectively, making his physical strengthening twice as efficient. Plus, it helped heal some of the hidden injuries from all the hammering and forging.
Gotta hand it to the city's pharmacy — their herbs were way stronger than the usual mountain herbs.
The next morning, the familiar sound of hammering echoed again in the Cross family's smithy, though this time the blows sounded a bit weak and tired.
Bang bang bang, thud—
The Rust Spear snapped again. That made five breaks in just half an hour.
"This spear's still too soft. Especially the shaft — the moment I strike harder, it cracks."
Wiping sweat from his forehead, Ignaz looked at the freshly summoned Rust Spear and fell into deep thought.
Weapon forging is just about melting iron, hammering, and quenching — rinse and repeat, right? So why doesn't that method work for forging a martial soul weapon?
Suddenly, four words flashed through his mind: Soul Power Forging. And just like that, it hit him.
"Soul power forging. Martial souls aren't like ordinary weapons — the melting iron step isn't needed at all. If I just hammer it the usual way, metal fatigue will cause the Rust Spear to snap again. But what if, while hammering, I channel soul power continuously into the spear?"
With that idea, Ignaz immediately set out to experiment. He tried hammering the spear while simultaneously feeding soul power into it to maintain the basic form of the martial soul. This method would require mastering the art of split attention — focusing on two things at once.
Now, split attention isn't unique to the Seven Treasures Glazed Sect. At its core, it's just multitasking — anyone can train it with enough time. The sect just took that basic skill a step further, developing it into the ability to focus on multiple things at once.
For now, Ignaz only needed to master the two-task focus, which happened to be an essential skill for a good blacksmith. As an outstanding smith, he was already quite familiar with this kind of multitasking.
He immediately began channeling soul power into the Rust Spear while hammering the shaft hard. To make the spear truly battle-ready, he had to fill in the holes in the shaft.
Bang bang bang…
After a dozen hammer strikes, a large hole in the shaft shrank noticeably. The Rust Spear hadn't broken this time, which made Ignaz smile.
"Ha! So this is how soul power forging works!"
After more than 200 strikes, the two smaller holes near the shaft's end were completely sealed, and the spear's length shortened by two or three centimeters.
Half an hour later, Ignaz's soul power was nearly drained, and he could no longer maintain the soul power forging state. Watching closely, he saw the Rust Spear slowly revert to its original shape.
"It can change shape, but the form automatically resets itself. As expected, a martial soul is a physical manifestation of concentrated soul power — extremely difficult to alter permanently!"
Ignaz felt a bit speechless. He'd hammered for nearly an hour, only to find it was mostly pointless.
"I'm not giving up. No way…"
Steeling himself, Ignaz put down his hammer, grabbed the spear blade with his left hand, and tried to crush it. The rusty edge pierced his palm, drawing a few drops of blood that dripped onto the spear.
Suddenly, the Rust Spear's elastic deformation stopped.
Seeing this, Ignaz looked at his injured hand, then back at the Rust Spear resting on the anvil, his excitement bubbling up.
"I never thought that blood-forging — sharpening a blade with your blood — would have this effect. Could this be a hidden feature of my martial soul?"
Whatever the case, soul power forging to change the martial soul's form was doable. Combined with his blood-forging technique, he might craft a legendary weapon based on his martial soul.
The traits the broken spear showed could develop toward the Emperor-Slaying Spear.
The Emperor-Slaying Spear was the Feather Emperor's signature immortal weapon, filled with an overwhelming aura of slaughter. Its entire blade glowed deep red as if wrapped in a thick blood mist — mysterious and terrifying — yet its attack power was incredibly formidable.
With a clear goal now, Ignaz felt energized like he'd been injected with adrenaline. Sitting cross-legged, he quickly recovered his soul power and dove back into the next round of soul power forging.
That night, to prevent losing all the progress he'd made during the day, Ignaz didn't retract his martial soul into his body. Instead, he kept it out, maintaining a trickle of soul power to stop the Rust Spear from dissipating. To avoid losing it, he practically fell asleep hugging his martial soul.
Soul power forging went on like this for nearly three months. Although his soul power didn't grow much, the Rust Spear had completely transformed.
The shaft had shortened by two inches, dozens of holes had vanished, and the spear tips on both sides had been sharpened razor-sharp. After three months of blood-forging, the whole spear had a faint layer of blood mist.
To maximize its stabbing power, Ignaz had concentrated the rust on the spear's tip, giving it its deadliest edge.
Today was the first day of classes at Vast Sea City's Junior Soul Master Academy. Ignaz packed a few clothes and a year's living expenses, strapped the oddly long two-and-a-half-meter spear on his back, and boarded the carriage.
The village chief, seeing this strange sight, said, "Little Iggy, carrying your martial soul like that might stir up unnecessary trouble once you get to the academy!"
The village chief had been keeping a close eye on Ignaz. Seeing the huge progress in his martial soul, he couldn't help but feel proud. Sure enough, a skilled blacksmith can make miracles happen.
"Grandpa Chief," Ignaz replied firmly, "I absolutely can't retract my martial soul right now. Otherwise, all my work over the last three months will be for nothing. Don't worry — as long as the other kids don't pick a fight with me, I won't hurt anyone."
What Ignaz needed most now was the meditation techniques taught at the academy, not childish games with six-year-olds. Because of his lack of meditation training, and his low innate soul power, his cultivation had been painfully slow. Only proper meditation could speed up his soul power growth even a little.