Eternal Heavenly Emperor

Chu Hao entered that room, which was actually quite spacious, about eight meters in length and width, filled with blacksmithing tools and various artifact embryos.

"Kid, was it your first day learning blacksmithing yesterday?" Guo Zhen asked again to confirm.

"Yes!" Chu Hao nodded.

"Looking at your appearance and listening to your accent, you don't seem to be a local, right? Hmm, the Yunliu Sect just accepted disciples this year; did you come from the Lower World?" Guo Zhen sized up Chu Hao.

Impressive, just from a single sentence, he deduced Chu Hao's origin. Such observational and reasoning skills were quite astonishing!

Indeed, one cannot judge a book by its cover. This seemingly rough man had an evidently meticulous mind.

Chu Hao nodded and said, "I indeed come from the Lower World, and I've just joined the Yunliu Sect!"

"In the Yunliu Sect, you shouldn't be short of this bit of salary, right?"

"I want to take the opportunity to temper my physique!" Chu Hao candidly replied.

"I see!" Guo Zhen nodded, pointing to a chunk of raw iron, "This is a new piece of coarse iron, show me how you forge it!"

Chu Hao nodded. Since his intent was Body Refinement, he didn't mind starting from scratch. He placed the iron in the furnace and, once it turned red-hot, clamped it out and started hammering.

Clang! Clang! Clang! The rhythmic sound instantly spread.

A genius! Truly a genius!

Guo Zhen no longer harbored doubts. Being a master in this field himself, he only needed to observe Chu Hao's technique to ascertain the latter's "strength." The lad's movements were quite clumsy, but he already demonstrated a high level of control in the exertion of force.

Blacksmithing isn't about using brute strength; that would only damage the material's texture and toughness!

Just like kneading dough, to make it highly elastic and chewy doesn't involve just brute force.

Chu Hao's technique was rough, but his exertion of force was already up to standard and highly malleable, indicating that the lad had an immense room for improvement.

However, after only about ten minutes, Chu Hao was unbearably hot and took off his upper garments, with sweat pouring out and swiftly evaporating. Yet, on Guo Zhen's body, not a single drop of sweat was visible!

At least a martial master!

Chu Hao knew that upon cultivating Star Force, aside from increased strength and gaining up to fifty years of life expectancy, there were other marvelous benefits! Such as resisting cold and heat. While not completely impervious to cold and heat, he would be much more resistant than the average person.

He looked closely and indeed, Guo Zhen's body seemed to be covered with a thin layer of light, different from Madam Yun's. Guo Zhen's was tinged with a faint red, but Chu Hao believed it was also Star Force.

All of a sudden, Guo Zhen spoke, "You're wrong with these few hits. If done this way, the efficiency would be higher!" He too picked up a hammer and started demonstrating for Chu Hao.

After watching for a while, Chu Hao nodded and emulated the movements.

Indeed, it felt much easier, and the hammering effect on the iron improved.

An old blacksmith is indeed an old blacksmith.

One worked the hammer, the other observed, but the observer would soon offer suggestions, constantly helping Chu Hao improve his technique.

Before long it was midday, but both had forgotten to eat until Jiang Han called them several times before they were willing to come out. Guo Zhen gave Jiang Han an exasperated glare, feeling this apprentice was hopelessly clueless.

After lunch, they continued blacksmithing, still one hammering and the other watching. However, as evening approached, another uninvited guest arrived, and this disturber clearly wasn't afraid of Guo Zhen.

It was Guo Yushuang!

She had a deep interest in Chu Hao, the handsome guy, and often interrupted his hammering with endless questions, making Chu Hao's work utterly inefficient.

Yet, by the end of the day, the fifty-pound chunk of coarse iron had been forged down to within ten pounds, turning it into Fine Iron suitable for weapon forging.

A comparison would show that while Jiang Han and the others had been competent apprentices for a while, they needed three days to turn a fifty-pound chunk of coarse iron into Fine Iron, nowhere near the same level of efficiency.

Chu Hao had officially become an apprentice of the Bingyuan Pavilion, skipping the "probation period," and his salary was tied to the amount of Fine Iron produced, with five taels of silver per piece!

This showed that being a blacksmith could indeed be a lucrative profession—even for an apprentice!

Guo Yushuang showed deep interest in Chu Hao, and Guo Zhen, being very optimistic about this young man, did not object! As a father, not stopping his daughter from finding a suitor was tantamount to encouragement. The girl urged Chu Hao daily to go out shopping, but unfortunately, he was single-mindedly focused on blacksmithing.

This baffled the girl. Could it be that this handsome man was naturally indifferent to romance?

But Guo Zhen was very pleased. This was the hallmark of a future master artisan, focused on the craft, not distracted by beauty!

What he didn't know was that Chu Hao wasn't fond of blacksmithing; rather, he wanted to quickly increase his physical strength to match his innate power!

...

Unbeknownst to him, Chu Hao had already been at the Yunliu Sect for over half a month.

During these days, he spent only a small portion of his time practicing the Nameless Technique, and devoted the rest to forging iron to improve his physical condition. Now, most of the new disciples were keeping a low profile. After all, they were newcomers; this wasn't their family's turf, so causing trouble wasn't a concern.

But this situation was changing!

More and more people were leaving their small cottages, walking among the mountains, sparring with each other to gauge their strength against that of everyone else.

——After all, there would be a ranking battle for the newcomers in half a year, with generous rewards for the victors!

Therefore, it was necessary to understand where one's strength stood in the hierarchy. Of course, whether one was ranked at the top, in the middle, or at the bottom, no one could afford to slack off!

At this stage, if you relaxed even slightly, it was possible for someone to suddenly surge ahead of you!

Gradually, the true geniuses began to stand out.

Fu Xue, Chi Dao, Lin Zhendong, Li Xiang, Zhou Yuan, Chen Jiaqi, Mo Guxin... A series of names became recognized among the new disciples as experts, and among them, the most eye-catching was not Fu Xue or Chi Dao, but Mo Guxin!

This youth did not come from the Lower World, but from the Mo Family of Tianhe County! The Mo Family was a noble house with a long history, and although the strongest member of their clan was only at the Martial Sect level, they had once produced a War General!

In the past, this War General from the Mo Family was also one of the major forces that pushed Yunliu Sect toward becoming a Fifth Grade Sect. Unfortunately, as Yunliu Sect fell to a Sixth Grade Sect, the Mo Family's decline was even faster. No longer producing War Generals, or even Warrior-class experts, the family now relied on a Martial Sect to hold up their banner.

Regardless, the influence of the Mo Family was still considerable!

And Mo Guxin, at only 16 years old, had already reached Seventh Tier as a Martial Disciple! Such an achievement was rare in the history of Yunliu Sect, so he was viewed with high expectations by his family. It was even possible that in time he could help the Mo Family climb back to a Sixth Rank, or even Fifth Rank Noble Family!

Chu Hao was focused on his forging, leaving early for town and not returning until after dinner. Therefore, he had no time to challenge others, nor did he give them the chance to do so, almost becoming invisible.

There were likely others like Chu Hao who preferred not to attract attention.

Fu Xue was having the time of her life, mostly victorious in her battles but also losing several. Without exception, her defeats were due to lesser strength, not a lack in fighting skills.

And after this Female Tyrannosaurus advanced to the First Tier Martial Disciple Realm, her growth in strength accelerated notably. It was believed she would gradually close the gap in power, but as for comparing with Mo Guxin... it was unlikely within the Martial Disciple Realm!

However, breaking through from Martial Disciple to martial master and Sensing Star Force was a huge challenge. Many geniuses needed a month or even longer to sense the energies of heaven and earth and successfully convert them into their own Star Force, so the higher one's comprehension, the more likely they were to catch up, or even overtake, during such times.

After all, the Martial Disciple Realm doesn't require immensely high talent; with enough Pills to support, even a fool would quickly reach Tenth Tier Martial Disciple!

Chu Hao specifically inquired about Chi Dao's news.

First was the Chi Family, a Sixth Rank Noble Family on par with the Ling Family and also held considerable sway within the Yunliu Sect. There were nine such noble families, each holding an Elder position within the Sect.

However, the Sect Master of Yunliu Sect, Wu You, did not belong to any noble family, ensuring that the Sect maintained some independence and perpetuated true master-disciple traditions.

This was a custom of Yunliu Sect, where each generation's Sect Master would not be affiliated with any noble family, to avoid obvious preference in decision-making and maintain a fair degree of impartiality.

Chi Dao's talent was exceptional. The quality of Pills in this world was incomparable to those of the Lower World. In just one year, Chi Dao had soared to the Third Tier as a Martial Disciple, placing him within the top ten here.

But Chi Dao's fame wasn't due to his talent, but rather because he had a truly talented older brother!

Chi Kuan!

A Core Disciple, 19 years old this year, and already a stunning Eight Meridians martial master!

To be a martial master, one must open up the eight Meridians within the body, and each additional opened Meridian represented a minor stage of progression; eight Meridians was the limit! Those who reached Eight Meridians before the age of 20 in Yunliu Sect were only eleven in total!

The ten strongest among them were Core Disciples, ranked far above the average Inner Sect Disciple, with access to far more cultivation resources!

Chi Kuan was one of these geniuses, ranked ninth!

——Don't look at just being ninth, the Inner Sect Disciples themselves were elites among the Outer Sect, and Core Disciples were the elite of the elite! It's not an exaggeration to say that once the first-ranked from the Outer Sect moved to the Inner Sect, they might never rank in the top 50!

And the past two generations of Inner

Sect Disciples had witnessed a surge of talent. The current Top Ten Core Disciples all came from these two generations, sidelining the "Senior Disciples" completely!

Having such a genius brother was a blessing in one respect, because anyone who wished to target Chi Zhong would have to consider whether they wanted to offend Chi Kuan. But the downside was obvious, as no matter how much effort Chi Dao exerted or progress he made, people would habitually compare him to Chi Kuan.

——He would live in his brother's shadow for the rest of his life!

Chu Hao thought to himself, he was bound to have a fight with Chi Dao!

Although Chi Dao's attacks had been resolved by Madam Yun and he was sent scurrying away abashed, Chu Hao was not one to take a loss lightly!

If you punch me, I must return the punch!

But striking Chi Dao would surely lead to an encounter with Chi Kuan!

The corners of Chu Hao's mouth curved into a smile. Having a Core Disciple as a potential opponent fired up his spirit completely!

(Thanks to Zhang Fish Swordfish for yesterday's tip)