Chapter 124: Eternal Spirit
Aldrian manipulated the divine iron, making it much softer but still hard enough for tempering. He didn’t want to make it too soft for fear of damaging the divine iron when hammering it. First, he and Duke Valiard separated the true divine iron from the rock covering it. During this phase, they also extracted the impure elements from the divine iron.
After a long time, they finally separated the entire divine iron from the impurities. What they saw was a mesmerizing, pure, shiny obsidian material that emitted various natural laws. Cultivating near it would greatly enhance a cultivator’s comprehension, tempting even Duke Valiard to cultivate on the spot.
He then instantly placed the Divine Iron into the furnace, and this time, Aldrian infused his energy into the blue earth flame to increase the heat. Even with the current heat of the earth flame, it was impossible to heat the Divine Iron, which astonished Duke Valiard, who had first discovered this in his research. The blue earth flame was the second strongest, surpassed only by the sky flame on this continent. To think that it couldn’t even heat the Divine Iron left him in shocked at that time.
Duke Valiard was also impressed by Aldrian’s golden energy, which could enhance the blue earth flame many times over. With Aldrian’s control over fire laws and the divine iron, they soon saw the iron begin to glow red, showing signs of melting. At this point, they quickly added Solar Illumination steel to mix with the divine iron. This marked the beginning of the divine forging technique ’Heaven’s Hammer of Creation.’
Together, Aldrian and Duke Valiard carefully adjusted the mixture, ensuring that the Solar Illumination steel complemented the divine iron rather than being devoured by it. Their goal was to merge the materials into a new steel rod, which they could later forge into a sword. They picked up the Heaven-grade hammer and slowly began hammering the mixture, which had become soft enough to hammer.
The Heaven’s Hammer of Creation technique teaches how to combine different materials to create a new mixture of steel, while also balancing their properties. Due to Aldrian’s higher mastery and comprehension of the technique, Duke Valiard assisted him in this phase. They carefully hammered the two materials, which had already fused in the furnace. Though they were exposed to the intense heat, they ignored it.
To conserve energy, Duke Valiard focused entirely on the hammering, neglecting to protect his body, which was now drenched in sweat. Aldrian, meanwhile, was also shirtless, his muscles exposed, but unlike Duke Valiard, his sweat came from exertion, not the heat. It seemed as if the heat itself avoided him—this was because he didn’t bother conserving energy and kept himself shielded the entire time.
They continued hammering until the steel completely melted, achieving the desired result. Then, they poured the molten steel into a long mold and quenched it with a special oil. They needed to use a large quantity of oil to harden the new steel. This marked the final step in creating the new mixture of material—a fusion of Divine Iron and Solar Illumination Steel, now ready for tempering.
Duke Valiard chose Solar Illumination Steel after conducting research on Divine Iron with Aldrian’s help. He discovered that the Divine Iron possessed a devouring energy property, capable of consuming energy in vast quantities—something that could be too dangerous if left uncontrolled once forged into an artifact. His hypothesis was that each time a cultivator used the artifact, their energy would be drained rapidly, leaving them vulnerable in prolonged battles.