Douluo: Legend of the Dragon King - The Voice of the Purple Emperor

The meteorite steel seemed to sense the fluctuations in Gu You's aura, and its initial jubilation turned into curiosity.

With each subsequent hammer blow from Gu You, the Spirit Forged Meteorite Steel would emit a whimpering groan, seemingly experiencing a bittersweet sensation.

The biggest difference between spirit forging and soul forging is that soul forging imbues the metal with one's own heritage, much like the inheritance of a soul.

The stronger the ancient spirit itself, the stronger its bloodline, and the more skillful its forging techniques, the greater its influence on the quality of the soul-forged metals produced afterward.

Therefore, at the three-word and four-word Battle Armor Master levels, it's better to have a secondary profession as a Mecha Maker. This is because you're best able to create battle armor that suits your own abilities. After all, no one knows you better than yourself.

Of course, even if the primary profession is not blacksmithing, the person who requests the creation of the battle armor will receive some kind of aura transmission, allowing the master blacksmith to combine this aura with his soul inheritance during the forging process, so as to create the battle armor most suitable for the original owner of the battle armor.

However, most blacksmiths would not agree to such a practice, because every piece of metal is their life. Who would be happy if the life they forged were tainted by other forces?

It's like your own daughter being dyed with yellow hair.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, it is the soul inheritance of the blacksmith.

Despite this, countless people still vie to forge, as blacksmithing is the most difficult of all secondary professions to master, with only a dozen or so Saint-level blacksmiths existing across the entire Douluo Continent. As for Divine-level blacksmiths, there is only one, Zhenhua.

Therefore, even if a Battle Armor Master has a request, they won't mention it in front of a high-level blacksmith. Minor requests are naturally not a concern; they can specify what level of ore they want to forge and what metal they want to choose.

……

At this moment, as time progressed, Gu You had undoubtedly begun the process of moving from spirit forging to soul forging. He was pouring all his bloodline energy into the meteorite steel, while also infusing it with his soul and his own aura.

Building upon what has been discussed above, soul forging is not merely the external forging of metal, but also an internal process. It involves infusing one's own aura, soul power, and spiritual energy into the metal, forging it from within through a connection with the metal itself. This combination of internal and external processes fully unleashes the metal's inherent properties, allowing it to be imbued with one's own soul power.

This has led to another theory: Soul Forger is the avatar of the Saint Craftsman!

After the soul forging process began, Gu You became noticeably more cautious. Each hammer blow was incredibly heavy, and his powerful bloodline fluctuations were poured in without reservation, yet without any sign of weakening.

Gu You knew very well that once he successfully taught himself Soul Forging, forging Soul Forged Metals would be extremely easy for him in the future.

As time went on, the colors that the meteorite steel had been imbued with by the heavy hammer faded more slowly with each strike. Often, before the previous color had completely faded, Gu You's second hammer blow would have already struck.

Gradually, the meteorite steel was completely preserved in its colored state. Gu You, like a machine, swung a hammer, and the speed of the hammering began to slow down.

Buzz!

Suddenly, after Gu You struck down with his hammer again, a crisp echo came from inside the sunken silver.

Echoes of the soul, a symphony of soul forging!

This may seem like an ordinary thing, but in the eyes of many blacksmiths, it is a chasm of divine retribution that some people may never be able to cross in their entire lives.

Soul forging is incredibly difficult, and the response represents a significant milestone in the process. It signifies that the various energies injected into the metal have been integrated and can now assist in forging from within.

This is incredibly useful.

It can be said that those who can reach this level have surpassed 99% of the people on the Douluo Continent, regardless of any level!

Gu You's expression remained unchanged as he continued forging. Sure enough, each hammer blow produced an echo, which grew increasingly clear.

Next comes the Soul Forging Solidification. Once solidification is complete, the Soul Forging is 70% complete. Then comes the final Soul Awakening. Once the Soul Awakening is complete, the Soul Forging is successful.

Of these three, starting is the hardest, while summoning the soul is the simplest.

As long as the blacksmith has enough spiritual power, in theory, the soul inheritance is sufficient, and the soul summoning will be very simple.

Gu You's hammer strikes accelerated; his vital energy was extremely powerful, showing no signs of diminishing even now. The colorful mist surrounding his body only intensified.

The meteorite steel had completely turned colorful, echoing with the roars of dragons and the clear sound of soul forging.

Suddenly, the piece of meteorite steel being forged shook violently, and then it actually jumped off the forging table.

It's gotten so strong, it'll start walking around when it sees metal!

Gu You was taken aback, as if he had thought of something.

He had seen it in Zhenhua's notes before.

The metal is trembling violently, trying to escape!

Once the metal is imbued with life and its vitality is stimulated to a certain level by soul forging, it will develop its own sentience. At this point, it will become panicked, unwilling to be controlled, and will attempt to escape. However, once it escapes the blacksmith's control, because its newly developed soul has not yet been solidified, it will quickly dissipate, returning to the spirit forging stage. At that point, the metal can no longer be soul forged.

Gu You remained calm and collected, coldly shouting, "Come back!"

Suddenly, a huge, colorful dragon paw appeared behind him. The paw flew out at an extremely fast speed and instantly caught the metal that was trying to escape.

"I am your creator, how dare you run away?"

This meteorite steel already possessed the bloodline aura of Gu You. And how powerful is the bloodline of a Dragon God? Under Gu You's influence, this piece of meteorite steel was unable to resist returning to its original state.

Gu You took a deep breath, raised his heavy hammers again, and brought them down with overwhelming force. The next stage began: Soul Solidification!

Gu You's eyes transformed completely from their original color to a deep purple. With each swing of his hammer, he released less of his bloodline aura, but his spiritual power surged. Two beams of purple light, each over a foot long, shot out from his eyes, directly applying the soul-piercing power of the Purple Demon Eyes to the metal.

Instantly, the amplitude of the trembling of the colored meteorite steel began to decrease. Under the dual control of mental impact and forging, the colored light on it began to converge inward as it trembled, and the previous patterns began to emerge.

But those were no longer lines, but lifelike rhomboid scales, very similar to dragon scales, yet not quite the same.

More and more dragon scales appeared, until they completely covered the meteorite steel. The colorful aura began to recede...

(End of this chapter)