Tang Hao moved. His motion seemed no different from before—legs driving the waist, waist driving the back, back driving the arms. With a sharp clang, the hammer struck the iron block.
As the hammer bounced back from the recoil, Tang Hao suddenly pivoted. Using the same calf-driven force, he swung the rebounding hammer up and around in a full circle through the air, accompanied by a fierce whistle of wind, before it crashed down onto the iron block once more. This second strike was not only far quicker in speed, but the power behind it seemed even greater than the first.
The hammer bounced high into the air again. Tang Hao's body moved in perfect sync with the hammer's rebound—not too early, not too late. At the precise instant the hammer reached the apex of its bounce, his body carried it into another spinning arc and brought it crashing down a third time.
Tang San's eyes lit up. This was clearly a technique of borrowing force to generate force—using the recoil produced by the hammer's collision with the metal and converting it into the power of the next strike. The movements were flawless and coordinated, minimizing the damage the rebound force would inflict on his own body while instead turning that energy into a continuous barrage of blows. From the second strike onward, every blow carried more force than Tang Hao could produce with a single full-power swing, yet it all remained firmly under his control.
Tang Hao's movements grew faster and faster. The forging hammer fell upon the iron block like rain, and the block continuously deformed under its strikes. What was astonishing was the precision of Tang Hao's hits. Every time the iron was hammered down to roughly half its original thickness and began flattening out, his forging hammer would deliver one strike to the edge of the block, causing it to flip over. In this way, the iron received his blows evenly, rather than simply being pounded flat into an iron cake.
In the blink of an eye, thirty-six strikes had been unleashed. Tang Hao's hands guided the forging hammer through three complete rotations in the air before he finally dissipated its remaining force and stood at rest, hammer held still. His face showed no flush of exertion, his breathing was perfectly even—as if the barrage just now had been someone else's doing.
The entire iron block had shrunk by a full ring in those thirty-six strikes, and the impurities within were now nearly invisible to the naked eye.
Now this was real blacksmithing skill. What beautiful hammerwork.
"Understood?" Tang Hao looked at Tang San, who was still working the bellows.
Tang San thought for a moment, then replied, "Borrowing force to generate force—I understand the principle. But it doesn't seem so simple in practice."
Tang Hao said flatly, "If you want to reach my level, there is only one way: practice makes perfect. At the same time, remember this—if you are hammering a common piece of metal, then when it has the most impurities, it is also at its most fragile. At that point, you should use less force with each strike. As the impurities gradually decrease, you can begin increasing your strength to maintain the forging effect. The real key lies in controlling that force. Practice on your own. Don't blindly increase your power and speed—accuracy matters just as much. At the very least, you need to know exactly where each blow will land. Otherwise, what good is all that strength?"
The forging hammer returned to Tang San's hands, and Tang Hao turned and walked out.
Father had not gone back on his word. He had truly taught him the methods of forging. And judging from what his father had passed on, every craft held its own secrets—none of them as simple as they appeared.
Over the next half month or so, Tang San practiced the borrowing-force hammering method every single day. Although he had Crane Control Dragon Catch to aid his force control and Purple Extreme Demon Eye to pinpoint the exact location of each strike, this forging technique was far harder to master than he had imagined.
Since each swing was a full-power blow, the force used was already difficult to control. Layering on top of that the need to harness the rebound, maintain bodily balance, and land the strike precisely where intended made it exponentially harder. With each additional swing required, the level of control demanded increased proportionally. The constant spinning not only made his head swim, but it also made the force behind each successive blow all the harder to regulate.
Fortunately, the iron block had been hammered by him for a long time already and contained very few impurities, making it far less prone to shattering. Otherwise, beneath his wildly uncontrolled forging hammer, it would likely have broken apart long ago.
Yet through this process of practice, Tang San's application of the Mysterious Heaven Skill's circulation, as well as his coordination between Crane Control Dragon Catch, Mysterious Jade Hand, and Purple Extreme Demon Eye, were all steadily improving without him even noticing.
On the first day, he could barely manage two swings before his aim drifted off target. After half a month of practice, he could now deliver seven consecutive strikes, hitting the iron block with perfect accuracy. The improvement was unmistakable. At the same time, the iron block shrank further with every full-power blow—there was visible progress each day.
Of course, this was also inseparable from the calf-driven power generation method. By employing this technique, the consumption of his Mysterious Heaven Skill was greatly reduced, giving Tang San more time to work the bellows and carry out the forging.
Father had unleashed thirty-six strikes in succession, and had even appeared to have power in reserve. He himself could only manage seven. Who knew when he would reach his father's level? Whenever Tang San thought of this, his motivation to practice surged.
These days, he had all but forgotten about Martial Souls and Soul Rings. Even during his morning trips to the hilltop to cultivate Purple Extreme Demon Eye, his mind was occupied with questions of how to swing the hammer.
Three months passed quickly. By the time Tang San could sustain thirteen consecutive strikes, Tang Hao began teaching him how to forge actual tools and implements. Tang Hao's teaching method was straightforward: he would demonstrate once himself, then have Tang San replicate it. As long as he saw that Tang San had the basics down, he left him to practice on his own without much verbal guidance. Only at critical junctures would he offer a sentence or two of instruction.
It was precisely because of this that whenever Tang Hao did speak up with advice, Tang San remembered every word with exceptional clarity.
(End of Chapter)