"You have more experience forging Spirit Metal than I do, and your skill is higher. Have you already seen hope?"
Lou Gao looked at Su Ming, his face full of expectation.
Seeing Lou Gao's expression, Su Ming didn't hide the truth and nodded.
"I call it Spirit Refinement, and the corresponding Forging Master rank is Forging Grandmaster."
This aligned with the classification from the Douluo 3 era, where Forging Masters mastering Thousand Refinement were ranked 3 to 4, also called Masters, and those mastering Spirit Refinement were Grandmasters.
Su Ming's current classification referenced the future Douluo 3 era to avoid cognitive dissonance from experiencing two different eras simultaneously.
After Spirit Refinement came Soul Refinement for Sage Blacksmiths and Heaven Refinement for Divine Blacksmiths, but in this era where Spirit Refinement hadn't even been pioneered yet, he temporarily withheld these concepts.
Take it slow.
Now that he had defined the Forging Master and renamed the Blacksmith Association to the Forging Master Association, he had already secured a certain status.
Barring unexpected circumstances, would he become the Ancestor of Forging Masters in the subsequent interpretation of the illusory history? Or perhaps a future timeline, providing status for his Douluo 3 self.
Douluo 2?
The Douluo 2 era was also a desert for Forging Masters; providing status for Douluo 2 would be useless. Instead, the Su Ming of the Douluo 3 era could utilize this to the greatest extent.
Lou Gao took a deep breath, processing this information.
After repeated consideration, he said, "Today, let's discuss the details further. We can change the name tomorrow. But I truly cannot remain as President. The first President of the Forging Master Association must be you. Of course, if you find it troublesome, I can temporarily serve as the Executive President, responsible for the Association's upcoming transition."
"Agreed."
"However, Senior, there's no need for you to serve as Executive President either; serving as Honorary President will suffice. Because the key to Spirit Infusion lies in the Spirit Soul, and a Spirit Soul requires at least one Spirit Ring slot."
Lou Gao realized Su Ming was beginning to impart the core content of his Thousand Refined Spirit Metal technique and listened attentively.
"The key to Spirit Infusion is the Spirit Soul—imbuing the Spirit Soul's spirit into the metal, granting this part of the spirit to the metal, and guiding its growth. This is the method behind my Thousand Refined Spirit Metal. A Spirit Soul is essentially the Spirit Beast's soul, which did not dissipate during the Spirit Ring absorption process but instead coalesced into a spiritual entity. It uses the Spirit Master's Spirit Ring as its origin and forms a contract with the Spirit Master."
"Hiss—"
Lou Gao drew a sharp breath.
So that's how it was done.
He felt profound respect for Su Ming.
To conceive of this truly was like a deity reborn.
"Therefore, Senior, you should still strive to cultivate diligently. If you cannot break through to level 80 and obtain a Spirit Soul, you won't be able to尝试 (attempt) my Spirit Infusion technique."
Lou Gao's expression turned grave, acknowledging Su Ming's point.
"It seems this old man must also seriously cultivate Spirit Power," Lou Gao laughed. "With this, the old fellows in the Association will probably cultivate like they're injected with chicken blood, right?"
Simultaneously, he thought of Titan.
"That kid Titan, relying on his Spirit Douluo cultivation, has flaunted it in front of me countless times. I wonder what expression he'll have when he learns of your Spirit Infusion technique."
"Senior, let's discuss the Association's subsequent development next."
Su Ming signaled for Huo Lie to step forward.
"Huo Lie is indeed suitable. Si Long and I won't enter seclusion immediately; we'll first assist him in mastering the Association's affairs before cultivating."
Lou Gao summoned his four disciples and notified them of the results of his discussion with Su Ming and the others.
All four disciples respected Lou Gao greatly and agreed with their reform plan. In reality, they could also sense that Lou Gao was discussing the results with Su Ming first and only notifying them afterward indicated his stance—they could not interfere in this reform.
Not being able to interfere was fine; they were more concerned with the advancement of forging technology.
The Spirit Infusion technique Su Ming brought would allow them to go further in forging and see a broader future; they were overjoyed.
It had to be admitted; Lou Gao had excellent judgment in taking disciples. All four of his disciples were Grandmaster-level and genuinely passionate about forging.
Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan.
"That kid, he made exorbitant demands from us, then turned around and shared the technology with the entire Association?" Gu Rong's voice seemed to make the hall tremble.
Ning Fengzhi said helplessly, "Uncle Bone, please calm down."
"How can I calm down? It was practically the next moment! That kid exchanged that Spirit Soul array for so much from us, then immediately shared the technology with the Association!" Gu Rong's eyes darkened, feeling they had suffered a massive loss.
"Uncle Bone, it's not as serious as you think. Actually, we still profited," Ning Fengzhi explained. "As long as Su Ming doesn't announce it to the world within six months, we will always be ahead."
"He didn't ask us for Spirit Bones, nor did he demand particularly substantial treasures. Our only tangible loss is that ten percent share of the acquired rare metals. But considering it carefully, the intelligence value actually exceeds that of the Spirit Soul contract array."
The key was knowing in advance about the business opportunities arising from changes in the forging field.
Although he explained it this way, Ning Fengzhi was still somewhat thrown off balance by Su Ming's move.
It was only after returning and understanding the difficulty of advancement for blacksmiths that he realized how grand a promise Su Ming's offer to teach forging techniques truly was.
A talented blacksmith, not worried about Spirit Power level, would be considered good if they reached Master level within ten years of starting. Those who could become Grandmaster level within twenty years were rare across the entire continent.
"So, his training of forging masters for us was pure nonsense!" Gu Rong said irritably.
"Not exactly. It's still more about the value of intelligence. Judging by what Su Ming has shown now, it's clear he intends to promote the Forging Master profession. Rare metals will undoubtedly be a major field in the future. Us knowing in advance allows us to prepare and, crucially, also train in advance."
"And Uncle Bone, don't forget, our transaction includes the Spirit Soul contract array—the complete technology. In the Forging Master Association's reform, he didn't announce that he would solve the Spirit Soul problem for all Forging Masters. This is also our opportunity, probably a gap intentionally left for us by that kid."
Although the terms of this transaction were all undermined by Su Ming's actions, rephrasing it revealed that the difference wasn't that great.
Ning Fengzhi felt helpless.
Su Ming could have cooperated with the Spirit Hall just as easily as with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan, so even if undermined, he had to make the best of it.
Of course, the most fundamental point was that the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan didn't lose out.
"The Forging Master Association has already begun reassessment tests and started disseminating basic information about Su Ming's Spirit Infusion technique. This is the node where things are most prone to happen. We must seize this opportunity, simultaneously筛选 (screen) a group of disciples with potential in forging development to join the Association, striving to secure a place within this Forging Master Association."
Ning Fengzhi could see that Su Ming never intended to hide the technology from the start; he was always planning to make it public.
Compared to profit, he seemed to care more about reputation.
"Within a month, I will gather disciples within the clan who have forging talent and no aversion to Spirit Metal forging, sending them collectively to Gengxin City to join the Forging Master Association and study for a period.
Uncle Sword, I'll need to trouble you to stay in Gengxin City for a while this time. For the specific cooperation negotiations, I'll have Ning Yuan lead the team. He is familiar with Su Ming, so it's appropriate for him to preside over it."
...
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(End of Chapter)