Eternal Heavenly Emperor

"Bingyuan Pavilion!" Chu Hao murmured, noting that it was a blacksmith's shop.

If they're short on personnel here, it must be for physical labor, right?

Chu Hao walked in, and immediately a clerk approached him and said, "Young man, what kind of weapon do you need? Pick anything, the weapons forged by Bingyuan Pavilion are absolutely the best in the whole Tianhe County! If you don't find anything here that suits you, no problem, just tell us what you need, and we can customize it for you!"

"I'm just here to ask if you need someone to do some physical labor!" Chu Hao said with a smile.

"Oh!" Upon hearing this, the clerk's enthusiasm diminished and he said, "Then go to the backyard and ask, I seem to have heard that a blacksmith apprentice quit, and we're short of one person!"

"Thanks!" Chu Hao waved and headed towards the inner courtyard.

After passing through the patio, the clear sound of ding ding ding reached his ears, the unmistakable noise of blacksmithing.

This backyard was indeed where weapons were forged; the furnace burned fiercely, emitting hot air waves that immediately made Chu Hao break out in sweat. As he walked in, he saw three young men shirtless, swinging their hammers and striking red-hot iron blocks, the ding ding noises sending sparks flying in all directions.

Because they were focused on their work and the noise drowned out the footsteps, none of the three noticed Chu Hao's arrival and continued hammering.

Chu Hao called out twice but found his voice was similarly drowned out by the noise of the hammering, so he walked closer, trying to approach one of the young men.

After a while, the young man finally noticed him, paused, stopped his work, and asked, "Who are you, and how did you get here?" But his voice was also covered by the sound of hammering.

He tapped with his hammer, two long and two short knocks, which seemed like some sort of signal. The other two immediately stopped too and said, "Eh, is it dinnertime already? How come it's so early today, I'm not even hungry yet!"

The first young man looked at Chu Hao and repeated his earlier question.

Chu Hao replied, "My name is Chu Hao, I want to become an apprentice!"

"Oh!" The young man nodded and said, "Simple, just pick up a piece of iron from the pile in the middle of the yard, heat it red in the furnace and then repeatedly hammer it. Each piece of iron here weighs 50 pounds. Hammer it down to 10 pounds, and that counts as completed!"

He paused, then asked, "Have you had any experience with blacksmithing before?"

"No!" Chu Hao shook his head.

"Since you're a newbie, I'll give you 10 days. If you can't forge a 50-pound piece of crude iron down to 10 pounds within ten days, then you'll have to look for work elsewhere!" the young man said. "There's no pay for these ten days, but food and accommodation are included!"

Chu Hao nodded and said, "Okay!" These ten days were essentially a trial period.

"I'm Jiang Han, I'm the boss. Just call me Brother Zhang!" the young man added.

Although this young man was indeed a few years older than Chu Hao, Chu Hao didn't mind. He smiled and said, "Alright, Brother Zhang!"

There were four anvils in the yard, just enough for four people to work on simultaneously. However, there was also a small hut in the center with its door open. Nobody was inside, but upon peering in, he saw that it too had a furnace and an anvil, and all sorts of forging tools were readily available.

That must be where the blacksmith worked, while people like Jiang Han and the other two, being only apprentices, could only do the rough, unskilled physical labor.

Chu Hao obviously wasn't here to learn blacksmithing or weapon forging, but he wanted to temper his physique, and this was indeed an excellent form of training. Moreover, if he could earn some money later, it would help cover some expenses.

He walked to the middle of the yard and picked up a piece of crude iron, indeed around 50 pounds, probably pre-weighed. He carried the crude iron to the furnace, the roaring flames making his skin feel like it was about to crack, and his sweat immediately evaporated into steam upon emerging.

An odd thought suddenly crossed Chu Hao's mind, giving him an impulse to throw himself into the flames, which caused him to shiver. What a strange thought - why did he have such an urge?

He grabbed the tongs and placed the iron block into the furnace, then quickly stepped back a few paces, avoiding looking directly at the roaring fire. The urge in his heart faded slowly.

The fire was strong, and in just about ten minutes, the iron block turned a glowing red. Chu Hao took the iron out with the tongs, placed it on the anvil, and picked up a hammer nearby. He weighed it, and to his surprise, although the hammer didn't look large, it was incredibly heavy, at least a few thousand pounds!

Chu Hao was astonished. What metal could possibly have such a high density?

As he mentally flipped through the periodic table of elements, he was certain that no metal on Earth had such a great density! This must either be a new type of metal or an alloy.

However, a few thousand pounds for a hammer was almost like a toy in the face of his strength as a Third Tier Martial Disciple. He swung the hammer, striking down on the red-hot crude iron, immediately creating a dent and sparks flew in all directions.

Ding ding dang dang, Chu Hao kept swinging the hammer. He consciously observed the techniques used by Jiang Han and the others, quickly going from unfamiliar to proficient motions. Anyone seeing him would not believe it was his first day learning to blacksmith.

—For someone who could learn an advanced martial technique in a day, mastering this repetitive technique was no hard feat.

The challenge was in the experience!

Swinging a hammer was easy! But choosing where to strike, that required experience!

Because the shape of the iron blocks each person forged was unique, different striking points resulted in different recoil forces, which affected the tempering effect.

Chu Hao paid careful attention, his powerful analytical and deduction abilities kicking in. After each hammer strike, his brain immediately informed him of the effect. In just half an hour, he became an experienced 'old apprentice', swinging the hammer faster and faster.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Each strike of the hammer seemed to follow a specific rhythm, emitting clear, melodious clangs, like a song.

A smile slowly surfaced on Chu Hao's lips, a sign of his focused demeanor.

The crude iron, originally the size of a human head, was continuously purified through quenching and hammering, shedding impurities bit by bit as it transformed towards fine iron!

Steel is forged through a hundred refinements!

The hammer might not look heavy, but swinging it for half an hour straight was still exhaustingly tiring, so Chu Hao had to switch the hammer to his left hand and keep going. However, his left hand's dexterity clearly couldn't compare with his right, and his efficiency immediately plummeted.

"This could be a good way to train the balance between my hands!" Chu Hao thought to himself; most people definitely favor one hand over the other, and for the vast majority, it's the right, but if one could make both hands equally agile, there may be unexpected benefits!

For instance, if one were accustomed to wielding a sword with the right hand in battle and that hand was severely injured, rendering it incapable of wielding a sword, the opponent might let their guard down. At that moment, switching the sword to the left hand and launching a sudden strike could potentially turn the tide of battle!

Viewing this as a form of training, Chu Hao was naturally tireless and fully engaged in it.

He even took off his shirt, baring his fair upper body, but he had endured arduous training under a waterfall for half a year and had been doing frog jumps with heavy stones every day, so he had long since developed muscles!

His physique had lines as if carved from rock, yet there was nothing grotesquely knotted or fierce about them, just a smooth, aesthetic beauty!

After three hours, Chu Hao's arms were certainly sore and aching, but the piece of crude iron had been reduced to less than a third of its original size!

At most, only 15 pounds were left!

That was an incredibly scary rate of progress!

He looked over at Jiang Han and the other two, unable to help but be astonished, for they had scarcely rested from start to finish. They too would switch to the left hand when the right tired, and switch back to the right when the left tired, constantly alternating but still maintaining their original pace.

Those three might not be stronger than him, but their physiques were definitely superior!

After all, his strength had increased too rapidly over the past dozen days or so, his physique was actually still in the 100,000-pound class, and since those three worked with iron every day, their physical condition must be particularly good.

"Lalala!" Just then, a girl around seventeen or eighteen years old with her hands tied behind her back, entered with cheerful steps. She had a nice figure and a pretty face, qualified as a pretty girl, though not quite a great beauty.

Upon seeing this girl, Jiang Han and the others stopped their work at once, all scurrying over, asking after her well-being, offering her tea and water, putting on a show of eagerness to please.

However, they clearly weren't favored by the girl, who kept fanning herself as if afraid their body odor would contaminate her.

Her gaze quickly found Chu Hao, and her eyes lit up.

In a world that venerates the strong, it doesn't mean handsome men have no appeal! In fact, both the strong and the handsome have their allure, and of course, it's even better if one is both strong and handsome.

The girl glared at each of the three men from Jiang Han's group and said, "Aren't you going back to work? Be careful, or I'll tell my daddy to dock your pay!"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Han and the others could only reluctantly return to their original spots and pick up their hammers again, though their eyes still followed the girl, paying no mind to the quality of their work.

Chu Hao immediately understood that this girl's father must be the blacksmith who hadn't yet arrived, wielding the real "power of life and death" over the four of them. And the reason for Jiang Han's trio pandering to the girl was naturally an attempt to rise from apprentices to sons-in-law.

But no sooner had this thought crossed his mind than he refocused on the blacksmithing "career," regarding it as a fine way to train his physique.

The girl, however, came over with her hands still clasped behind her back, sizing him up from left to right with a cute and mischievous look.

Feeling uncomfortable under her scrutiny, Chu Hao stopped hammering and asked, "What's the matter?" Since Jiang Han's trio were slacking off, his voice carried clearly to her ears without interference.

"Are you new here today? What's your name?" the girl countered with her own question.

Chu Hao nodded and replied, "My name is Chu Hao, I'm new here!" He lifted his hammer and resumed his work, hoping to reduce the crude iron to ten pounds by nightfall.

"I'm Guo Yushuang, my dad's the blacksmith here, and he also manages this branch of Bingyuan Pavilion!" The girl revealed her identity, seemingly eager for Chu Hao to immediately put down his hammer and become enthusiastic.

Chu Hao just uttered "Oh," and continued to hammer away.

Such indifference did not anger the girl; instead, she found Chu Hao cool. Unlike Jiang Han's trio who clung to her like dogs, he exuded the aura of a real man! She chatted with Chu Hao about this and that, not caring whether he responded or not.

This drove Jiang Han and his buddies almost to the point of frustration. They thought, "She's ignoring you, why are you degrading yourself?" But then they realized they were no different.

Ding ding ding!

Pounding heavily, they resumed hammering the iron blocks, and for a time, the backyard was incredibly noisy, to the point where even Guo Yushuang could not hear her own words.

"Let's chat after dinner!" the girl said, her heart fluttering as she left with affectionate eyes.

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