Chapter 91: Dao of the Forge (2)
I see, Yao Shen replied calmly. Do go on, he added after a moments deliberation, tacitly confirming Tianjian Shuans suspicions as a mark of respect for his tutelage.
If there truly existed no Dao in the forge, then mimicking the technique I have taught you without making an effort to understand its profundities should have been enough to grant you a flawless result.
But it did not, Yao Shen conceded.
Tianjin Shuan nodded in confirmation before continuing, Indeed. For the same reason why not all disciples of the Heavenly Sky Sect practice the same Wind Qi cultivation technique. No two pieces of ore are the same. That logic does not fail when applied to the ingots you are currently using, especially since it is an alloy of two metals that originally possessed different Qi-Densities.
Realization dawned on Yao Shens visage, even if it only took the shape of a quick flicker of emotion.
Divine Sense, he muttered under his breath, as his gaze shifted to the cooling, half-formed chestplate that rested inert on a bed of mineral-rich sand. Despite the hammer sized hole that had been punched through its center, it had not been discarded as one might expect.
Yao Shens approach was marked by an intense focus, his brows furrowed and jaw set as he reached for the half-formed armor with both his hands. Then, he closed his eyes and sealed off his sense of sound, allowing the outside world to fade away.
His right hand swept across the armors surface while his Divine Sense traced its path internally, choosing a markedly different approach from his original forging attempt. It was not as if employing his Divine Sense to select a high-quality ingot was a foreign thought and indeed, Yao Shen had done so in order to maximize his chances of success.
However, it was only Tianjian Shuans words that allowed him to see how complacent his approach had been.
Yao Shen had been a cultivator far longer than he had a mortal and it would not have been remiss to say that he had forgotten the importance the sensory ability to touch held towards one that did not possess Divine Sense. Yet his own Divine Sense as a Soul Emperor was too powerful and consequently, unwieldy for him to employ it for such a delicate task as inspecting metal.
The solution had ended up being far simpler than he had anticipated it to be. An intentional overlap between his sense of touch and his divine sense, with the former serving as a guiding beacon for the divine sense to trace its path allowed Yao Shen to study both the plate armors interior and exterior in greater detail than even what Tianjian Shuan should be capable of.
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Yao Shen began his analysis from the periphery of the armor, slowly and deliberately spiraling inwards. It took him a few minutes to make sense of the sensory feedback that was flooding his senses. The minute resistance his divine sense felt was attributed to the metals density while its progress allowed him to assess the armors thickness.
It was only when Yao Shens divine sense neared the center of the armor, the site of the critical failure, did he understand why he had failed in his attempt. It came as no surprise to him that he had overlooked the reason while he had been forging the armor, for Yao Shen was certain that his divine sense was operating at a microscopic scale.
Pockets where the resistance his Divine Sense encountered dropped from minimal to none intensified as he neared the crater carved into the chest plate, a curious phenomenon that Yao Shen could only make sense of after his Divine Sense ran out of space to analyse, remaining suspended mid-air as a light breeze flitted past the gap in the armor.
Pockets of gas, or air, had infiltrated the armor he had been forging, contributing heavily to the reason behind its compromised integrity.
Yao Shen wasnt sure if his own hammering technique had been lacking or the ingot he had chosen had been of poor quality from the very beginning, perhaps intentionally as a test for him.
I see it now, Yao Shen opened his eyes and reinstated his sense of sound, before turning his gaze to Tianjian Shuan. By merely replicating the forging technique you have taught me, I failed to take into account the need of the alloy I was dealing with. If I had been studying the armor with my divine sense as I forged, then instead of empowering an equal amount of Qi behind my hammer strikes I would have modulated it, applying less Qi as the metal plate got thinner. Moreover, I suspect that the temperature I was forging at was lower than the ideal range, otherwise it would have warped under the stress of my Qi-Empowered Hammer blows far earlier.
Astute observations, Patriarch Shen, Tianjian Shuan praised, the surprise in his tone genuine as far as Yao Shen could tell.
There is also one more factor that I overlooked, Yao Shen added as he gave the deformed armor a final glance before returning it to the sand pile.
Oh?
Either my forging technique was lacking or the ingot I chose was sub-par, as I discovered that there were many pockets of air trapped within the chestplate, especially focused around the central region. If I had been more thorough in my forging, the attempt would have been a successful one.
Your divine sense was able to detect pockets of air within the armor? Tianjian Shuan asked, his tone tinged with incredulity as he locked eyes with Yao Shen.
Indeed.
Tianjian Shuan stood in stunned silence for the better part of a minute, his astonished expression displayed openly as if the cultivator could not believe what he had heard. Even the Core Formation disciple that had been serving as his assistant had forgotten that he was supposed to be too intimidated to gaze directly in the two Nascent Soul Cultivators, his mouth held in awe as he found himself inspecting Yao Shens hammer artifact.
Forge the armor again. I must see this for myself, Tianjian Shuan dropped all formalities as the raw passion of a craftsman came to the forefront.
Very well.
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