Celestial being

Seeing that Yuan Ming was not dragged down directly, a hint of approval flashed in Fangge's eyes, and he soon returned to normal and said: "You should carefully watch my demonstration first, and then try to practice on your own."

As he spoke, he skillfully lit a fire and added charcoal. When the fire lighted up, he grabbed a handful of yellow powder and sprinkled it towards the fire pit.

"Hula" sound.

A ball of red and yellow flame suddenly rose from the fire pit, illuminating Fang Ge's square and angular face with red light, and the surrounding temperature doubled in an instant.

"This is combustion-supporting powder. It is a mixture of sulfur, saltpeter and other substances. It can save a lot of time. You will only practice forging today, so use the smelted crude iron embryo first." Fang Ge said as he spoke. Pick up a piece of iron embryo the size of a palm and the thickness of a square brick, and put it into the fire pit for calcination.

After a while, the iron embryo was burned red.

"Watch it, I'll only demonstrate it once." Fangge said, taking the hammer from Yuan Ming's hand.

He made a horse stance, placed the iron embryo on the anvil, held the clamp in one hand, swung the hammer with the other, and smashed the red-hot iron embryo down.

When he waved his arms, the muscles rose up and the tendons were exposed. The whole arm seemed to draw a circle in mid-air, with an inexplicable sense of power and beauty.

"clang"

The hammer settled, the sound was clear, and sparks flew.

Yuan Ming followed Fangge's every move with his eyes, carefully observing his method of exerting force, and secretly trying to figure it out in his mind.

"clang"

Another clear hammer sound sounded, and sparks flew again. The movement was clean and neat, without any delay.

"The process is not complicated. As long as you follow it, it doesn't seem to be too difficult." Yuan Ming thought silently in his heart.

After more than a dozen hammer blows, Fangge's movements began to speed up, the speed of his arms doubled, the sound of "dang-dang" continued, and the splashing sparks continued to splash, like fireworks.

As Yuan Ming watched, his eyes began to change.

His vision was slightly wandering, and his eyes seemed to have lost focus, but his ears stood up unconsciously, concentrating on using both ears and eyes to observe the other party's movements more thoroughly.

Although there were not a hundred but eighty people forging iron in the whole firehouse at the same time, and the sound was not chaotic, the sound of square hammering fell clearly into Yuan Ming's ears.

Not because he was close, but because the voice was obviously clearer than the others, and carried a unique rhythm that could not be described in words.

Yuan Ming frowned, listening to the hammering sound again and again, silently counting the number of beatings.

This is his unique habit, just like when he first entered the Hundred Thousand Mountains, he would silently mark his progress and outline the route map in his mind. From the beginning, he was observing and recording all the details.

It was the first time after the 18th hammer that the beating speed of Fangge began to increase. After the 360th hammer, the beating speed increased for the second time, and now it is the 531st hammer.

When he saw this, Yuan Ming's mentality had completely changed compared to not long ago.

He has realized that this method of hammering and forging iron based on weapon refining is not simple at all.

Just from one point alone, you can already see something extraordinary.

From the moment Fangge started swinging his arm and swinging the hammer, except for the initial heating of the iron embryo in the fire pond, there has never been any tempering heating.

But the iron embryo remained bright and red and never cooled down.

"It's already eight hundred and fifty hammers, and it's starting to speed up again." Yuan Ming's eyes narrowed and he thought to himself.

"Dangdang..."

At this time, the beating sound has become very close. The continuous sound is like silver beads falling on a jade plate, "dinging" very pleasantly.

During the beating process, Fangge was still turning and folding the iron embryo at an extremely fast speed, and his movements were extremely skillful and smooth.

"Such a continuous beating requires extraordinary strength and endurance. This senior brother Fangge must have a high level of cultivation." Yuan Ming thought to himself as he looked at Fangge's serious, almost expressionless face.

Just when he counted to the thousandth hammer, the last spark splashed, and Fangge stopped beating.

He put the forging hammer aside, and on the black anvil, only the palm-sized piece of iron embryo that was still hot and red was left. It cooled and changed color little by little until layers of finely textured forging layers were exposed.

Yuan Ming focused his eyes and saw that the forged patterns were layered one after another. Not only were they very fine, but the thickness of each layer was roughly the same. It looked pleasing to the eye and very impressive.

"Regardless of the materials used, the fine iron used for ordinary weapon refining must be hammered at least a thousand times before it is qualified to be used to refine magic weapons. Come on, try it." Fang Ge said, putting the water in the fire pond The flame went out and gave way to Yuan Ming.

He wanted to teach him how to make a fire from the beginning. He obviously took Yuan Ming's situation into consideration and was very meticulous.

Yuan Ming nodded, stepped forward, took off the animal skin and sword from his waist, and put them aside.

Then, he recalled what Fangge had done before and started lighting firewood.

Yuan Ming strictly followed the grid method and was meticulous, and soon the flames started to rise.

Fang Ge on the side saw it and nodded secretly. He had the best impression of this kind of junior brother who studies seriously.

"call"

A handful of combustion-supporting powder is sprinkled down, and the temperature in the fire pit rises instantly.

Yuan Ming picked up a piece of iron embryo, put it into the fire pit, and began to count the time to heat it.

When the iron embryo was hot red, he immediately took it out, placed it on the anvil, picked up the forging hammer, and started beating it.

"clang"

A cloud of sparks flew up, and Yuan Ming couldn't help but frown. The sound of beating was a bit dull, far less clear than the square grid.

"Is it not heated for enough time, or is the force too light?"

Yuan Ming suppressed the doubts in his heart, began to round his arms, and continued to beat.

The sound of hammering sounded one after another, sparks flew from the anvil, and the sound began to become a little clearer.

After hammering for eighteen times, Yuan Ming's magic power secretly began to flow into his body, and the power of swinging the hammer increased, and the speed also began to increase.

When Fangge saw this scene, he raised his eyebrows slightly, and a trace of surprise flashed in his eyes.

The more Yuan Ming swung the hammer, the more amazed he was. This seemingly simple mechanical beating action consumed far more energy than he imagined. After only a few dozen hammers, his arm felt sore and swollen.

After one hundred and fifty strikes, the feeling of soreness and swelling doubled, and it began to slow down his speed.

By the time he hit one hundred and eighty hammers, the speed had returned to what it was when he first swung the hammer, and the fiery red color of the iron embryo on the anvil had begun to darken significantly.

"Okay, no need to continue beating." Fang Ge stopped Yuan Ming's movements.

A look of disappointment flashed in his eyes, Yuan Ming's qualifications were not as good as he had hoped.

"Senior brother, I can continue." Yuan Ming said while breathing heavily.

"No need, even if you continue to hammer, this iron embryo will no longer be a qualified product." Fangge said, his tone still unhurried.

"Why is this?" Yuan Ming put down the forging hammer and wiped the sweat from his forehead, wondering.

"The process we are doing now is called forging, also called embryo refining. In essence, it is to beat out the impurities in the iron embryo through continuous hammering. In order to ensure the best ductility and best condition of the iron embryo, It requires at least a thousand hammer blows, and these thousand hammer blows cannot be broken in the middle. Do you know why this is?" Fangge explained slowly. After asking the last question, he looked To Yuan Ming.

Yuan Ming had already guessed the answer and said: "Brother, during the beating process, there was no tempering and heating. Is it necessary to maintain the temperature of the embryonic iron through continuous hammering?"

"Yes, and as the impurities in the iron embryo become less and less, its temperature becomes more and more difficult to maintain, so it has to be beaten faster and faster. Once the intermediate speed slows down, the iron embryo will inevitably It becomes brittle when cooled and its ductility is damaged." Fangge nodded and said.

Yuan Ming was shocked when he heard this. Forging seemed simple, but in fact it was not easy.

"Senior brother, how can we reach your level, where you can strike thousands of times?" Yuan Ming raised his head and asked sincerely.

"First, let me tell you, after you observed me refining embryos and tried it yourself, how did you feel?" Fang Ge did not answer, but asked Yuan Ming.

"Previously, I paid attention to my senior brother's movements of swinging the hammer, estimated the strength of my senior brother's swing, and also paid attention to the point at which senior brother increased his speed every time. I even noticed that the sound of senior brother's falling hammer was different from others, but when I did it When I got up, it was really too far apart." Yuan Ming thought for a while and said.

"It's not easy to notice these, but besides you can't see my mana flow, you also don't pay attention to my breathing." Fangge nodded and said.

"Breathe?" Yuan Ming frowned slightly.

"The rhythm of breathing is the basis of your embryo refining rhythm, which is very important. However, although you didn't pay attention, when you swung the hammer in front, the rhythm was maintained well. It was unintentional, but you need to maintain it in the future." Fang Ge said.

"Senior brother, what's my problem?" Yuan Ming asked, this was what he was most concerned about.

"There is no need to talk about the subtle problems. Your biggest problems are, firstly, insufficient strength, and secondly, insufficient experience. These cannot be solved in a short while. They require years of practice to solve." Fangge waved his hand and said.

Yuan Ming thought for a while and then asked: "How many senior brothers are there who can strike a thousand blows like this?"

"You want to ask, what is your level among the brothers?" Fangge asked.

Yuan Ming was a little embarrassed and nodded.

"Inferior." Senior Brother Fangge said bluntly.

Yuan Ming was stunned when he heard this. He never expected such an answer, and he became even more embarrassed.

Unexpectedly, Brother Fangge seemed completely unaware. He touched his chin and continued to hit the target in deep thought: "On the first try, I could only swing the hammer one hundred and eighty-three times in a row, which is... the worst record in the past years."