Chapter 04

it was at this exact moment that the sects realized their loss, it also signified that this young man should have the backing if a large family.

it was common for large families to deny their offspring admittance to any sects as the family itself had the same resources the child can get from the sect,

secondly the child's success wouldn't be leveraged by the sects and it would all be taken by the family raising the family's status in society,

however there wasnt any major families in the southern region, there were only a few big families in the southern region as they all focused their attention in the central region, the few in the southern region were all well known and none was in the Ming city area.

from there came the resilience test, on the side was a drum, it was a regulated circular drum resting in its side, once struck the drum would produce a vibration effect which spread throughout the body.

to qualify one needed to survive atleast two strikes on the drum without harm to their body.

the survival of two drum strikes was equivalent to the resilience of a regulation level 20 cultivator. to have that at level 10 before absorbing a first origin crystal signified outstanding resilience.

Zise stood in front of the drum and prepared himself, he had tempered his body using the waves of a waterfall earlier on due to his father's guidance.

in the beginning the waves would wash him away in less than a second, however before he came to the academy he could withstand the pressure of the waves for atleast five minutes,

so the first strike was hit and Zose felt the vibration wave spread throughout his entire body, his muscles were vibrating as of they wanted to detach from his bones, he started realizing that maybe he had underestimated this test.

however he didn't move an inch this entire time and the second strike was landed, the vibration in his body doubled and he felt his bones vibrate like they wanted to break, his head was becoming woozy.

he started seeing the world through a faded lens and as he contemplated stopping the test a third strike was landed, the moment the vibration entered his body he attempted to hold it in and his body was still holding on however his mind gave up and he passed out instantly.

a short while later he regained consciousness and found himself lying on the ground with someone above him, this person was the representative from the blacksmith association.

as Zise opened his eyes the representative welcomed him back, Zise's first question was whether he had failed, the representative laughed heartily and said that he was a rare gem.

to pass the test one needed to fully withstand the first strike and a portion of the second strike, however Zise fully withstood two strikes and the majority of the third strike,

his endurance is almost equivalent to a peak level 30 cultivator and this was before Zise even gains his first origin crystal.

the representative tells him that no one has seen his kind of talent in centuries, he then asked Zise why he didn't join any sects.

with his talent and potential any sect would be begging to have him join them, Zise simply states that his father asked him not to.

the representative didn't push it any further as below several kids were undertaking the resilience test, majority of them were blown away at the first strike, however on rare occasions someone reached the end of the first strike.

only one person managed to reach the second strike besides Zise however even he passed out at the mid of the second strike.

those two were the only ones qualified to undertake the secondary test from the blacksmith association.

the second test was a strength test and it would test the strength their strike could exert, the second test had them use a forging hammer to strike against a metal panel and the strength would be represented by the rise in energy on the scale.

a regular cultivator at level 10 possessed a strike of atleast 10kg, at level 20 it became 30 kg, at level 30 60 kg, at level 40 90kg while at level 50 140kg

at level 60 it was 200kg while at level 70 it was 270kg, at level 80 it would rise to 350kg, at level 90 it was 440 kg while at level 100 it was 600 kg.

because of that, to become a blacksmith one needed to posess strength above their class which meant these kids needed to posess atleast 20 t0 30kg

the other student chose to go first as he was highly confident in his strength, this student was a muscled kid even at five years old his strength was off the charts

his name was Xiao Lang, he had innate mana of level 8 with 12 meridians of medium size and elasticity, he was a new talent form the Tian sect

he wielded the hammer, channeled his mana and struck the scale, the scale rose at a fast pace from o until it found its rest at level 25.

he had strength equivalent to a minimum level 20 cultivator which meant he qualified. next it was Zise's turn and he followed his father's teachings on how to swing a hammer.

he carried strength from his feet, compounded it at the waist and empowered his hand to strike a fully body strength strike,

the scale rose swiftly through the levels until it rested at level 38 meaning his strike was worth 38 kg, this was beyond anyone's expectations and he too entered the blacksmith association,

however having chosen the blacksmith association exclusively his talent made him qualified to obtain their sponsorship, this meant he never had to worry about his tuition or accommodations at the academy.

however the one thing the association didn't give him was cultivation resources or guidance, for this he would have to help himself.

the dean then announced that classes would begin in two days time so in this time the studnets should settle into their sects.

those that need to perform last minute preparations should get them done as once the studies begin the studnets cannot miss any classes.

as the other studnets were led away by their sects, Zise was taken to the blacksmith association branch in Ming city, there he was taken to the forging lab.

the representative closed the lab and then seriously faced Zise, he asked him why he blocked three of his meridians during the test to lower his result,

Zise said that it wasn't good to have all his secrets out in the open as being an overwhelming genius would make him a target and he didn't want that.

the representative asks him who taught him the secrets of forging because the strike Zise landed earlier was the perfect forging strike which meant he had a teacher.

Zose revealed that he taught himself with guidance from his father's records, with that he retrieved one of the pieces of his father's information.

this one was focused on forging and as the representative read through he confirmed that these were high grade forging instructions however to master them via self teaching is an incredibly hard thing to do, it represented one's comprehension.

at that point he asked Zise if he has ever forged before, Zise says that in his village he used to go the village blacksmith to practice forging every once in a while however he wasn't any good at it.

the representative then retrieved a piece of steel from the wall and asks Zise to forge it to the best of his capability,

Zise obtains a forging hammer from the wall and goes to the forge to heat up the metal, once he was done he started pounding away at the metal,

as he forged he immersed himself directly in the process, his mana flowed swiftly forming a loop between his body and the metal he was forging.

without noticing thirty minutes had passed and in those thirty minutes he had fully refined the metal cleaning all the impurities out of it and with his mana elevating the strength, tenacity and use of the steel.

he then forged the steel into three arrow heads when he was done, these arrow heads would use a cultivator's mana to unleash a skill when used.

the representative was so shocked when he saw that he didn't realize Zise was asking him a question. when he regained his senses he immediately sent for the branch president.

he then took Zise and his arrowheads to the office of the branch president, the president had been waiting for them, on arrival the representative explained the whole situation to the president.

the branch president was shocked that he personally tested Zise's meridians and mana level just to be sure,

after that he ran his mana through the three arrow heads and he could feel their connection to Zise, he immediately asked if Zise wanted to be his studnet.

the representative was shocked because the presidenteet hadn't taken a studnet in ages, he was a highly respected blacksmith however he had chosen to move to the southern region because he didn't want to be bothered by major families asking him to take their descendants as students.

blacksmiths are divided I to grades similarly and their grades run from grade 1 to grade 9, there are no grade ten blacksmiths as that would make them divine blacksmiths.

the branch president was a level 8 blacksmith and the best among his level, it is said that apart from the chief of the blacksmith association no one was better than him when it came to forging.

his name was Hong Li and he was a fire element cultivator following the path of Huo Shen the blacksmith god.

Zise didn't need to be told twice before he accepted this opportunity, although he didn't know the secret of this blacksmith but the fact that he was a branch president meant he was powerful.

after taking him as his teacher Hong Li gave Zise a red crystal with a star glowing at its center, the crystal was about the size of his fist, one look at it and he knew what it was.

this was an origin crystal from a level 1 beast or one that had been condensed from heaven and earth energy for ten years.

however heaven and earth formed crystals were normally protected as they were more beneficial once they reached level 10,

that was why 99.9% of all the lower level crystals come from chaos beasts, Hong tells Zise that that crystal was obtained from an 11 year old purple lightning bear.

It's suitable to be his first origin crystal because he too is of the lightning attribute, although for the first three levels any origin crystal from any beast would do, it's better when the beast is of the same element.