It took him a few minutes to arrive to the house where he lived. Sheng Wang was already awake and was currently meditating in the courtyard, readying himself to once again start working iron under the harsh sunlight.
Sheng Hao quenched his thirst and swiftly joined his grandfather, he didn't bother him during his preparation and started using the dumbbells that were sitting in a corner of the courtyard. Just like that without saying any word, he started his workout with some light dynamic stretches that were aimed at warming up every single articulation that was used in the body.
He couldn't help but notice that his breathing was far steadier compared to his training this week, the synchronization of his breathing and movement were more in tune with each other. Before long, he breezed through the entire set of movement with a flowing rhythm before moving on the dumbbells. He felt the empty wooden bar with his hands, using it like a spear for a few seconds before coughing dryly while looking at Sheng Wang from the corner of his eyes.
"I wonder if they are used to children like me, doing weird stuff that aren't part of this world." He thought quietly as he couldn't help but feel that the elders were far too lenient on his action. "Maybe they are just used to eccentric intelligent children…" he joked in his mind before installing the heaviest set of circular disks on the two sides of the wooden bar.
His body naturally positioned itself in a fitting position before starting executing one repetition after another. Before long the first set was finished, he placed the wooden bar in front of him before closing his eyes and breathing deeply. The meditation session with Vitenka had helped him understand that he could make better use of the recovery time he allowed himself during his training.
He couldn't help but attempt to feel the same sensation he had gone through with Vitenka. "If I have access to spiritual energy, I'm sure I can acquire the strength necessary to use metal weights!" he exclaimed in his head but that thought stopped him from clearing his mind of any idea. He didn't bother himself after failing once, he was well aware that Vitenka had played a major role in the success of his first cultivation.
Even though he wasn't trying to absorb spiritual energy, he still wanted to replicate the effect he had during the meditation. He had understood that meditating worked the mind to better interact with outside spiritual energy and absorb them thus forming cultivation, he knew that they were both separate things and he could develop his meditation skill before acquiring any control of his spiritual energy.
"In the end, the mind must have an important role in controlling one's energy. From the way Sheng Wang is able to coat his body with his energy and release his spiritual soul in a split second, meaning that they have trained their energy to the point using their energy was the same as using their dominant hand."
"I can feel that my soul isn't lacking for a seven-year-old child, but it wouldn't hurt to strike the iron this early…" he thought resuming the chest shoulder exercise he was going through. When he finished, he once again took the time to close his eyes and calm his mind before finishing the last set of the exercise he was working. He kept the same rhythm through the entirety of his training regiment, working the entirety of his body before coming to a stop.
As he was stretching some of his limbs to help his blood circulate, he noticed his grandfather quitting his meditation, and grabbing his hammer he started preparing himself. The moment Sheng Hao noticed that, he couldn't help but shorten his stretch. He got up from his position and prepared himself to go help his grandfather before being stopped in his track.
"I've noticed you have skipped a few stances in that training of yours. Go finish it and make sure to breathe deeply during these strange stances. I will take care of the furnace by myself because I am going to do something very special."
"Try to pay attention to what I am doing when you are finished with your practice." After that the old man shut his lips close and focused entirely on himself. Sheng Hao couldn't help but notice that Sheng Wang had been pretty talkative compared to his usual short sentence when he was manipulating his hammer. However he didn't mind as he had been feeling guilty due to skipping the end of his training.
He swiftly went back to his spot and took a few seconds to focus himself, the next moment he resumed the same deep lung he had been executing to stretch his thighs and hamstrings. The young boy maintained the position for a long period of time, his breaths were long and didn't show any sign of pain or struggle. Although his body was innately weak physically, somewhat having difficulties when it comes to developing strength. He didn't find the stretching exercise that would usually force him to grit his teeth and breath roughly for the entirety of the stretching, but here he didn't have any difficulty as he soon even achieved a decent split.
However he didn't force his body into developing an excessive softness as he knew that tendons could rip if they weren't accompanied with a good amount muscle training. If one didn't work through both aspects of the body, one could easily end up injuring himself if he only focused on one thing. However these rules only applied to normal humans as spiritualists were able to force their physique into many things with the help of their spiritual soul.
"Looks like he isn't just going to use iron or copper today…" noticed Sheng Hao as he paid attention to the furnace with curiosity. He understood that his grandfather could prefer managing everything when it came to crafting something special, his mind couldn't help but wonder what his grandfather was going to make.
To this point apart from refining ore and crafting simple tools or object, Sheng Wang didn't produce any item that was worthy of an expert blacksmith. It wasn't that he didn't want to but because he didn't receive any order for these crafts and didn't have any resource in his own stocks, in the end he had just recently started working and apart the majority of his orders came from Flamelle.
As she had crafted and freely provided the medicine, he didn't mind doing some work as the materials for the forge and the anvil were given to him. Although he didn't gain anything, Sheng Wang took it as an opportunity to practice his craft and teach Sheng Hao some valuable lesson that would come to help if it was ever serious on learning his craft.
The old man didn't want to force anything, to him the worst case to his teaching would be to broaden the mind of the small child. Something that was unrelated to his intelligence, Sheng Wang knew the importance of discovering different professions and crafts as it would help the young boy develop himself into an adult that would be able to take care of himself.
"Hmmm…" The reincarnated man couldn't help but fail to recognize several of the ores the old man was currently using. He refrained from asking, not wanting to disturb his work focus and ended up watching Sheng Wang go through the entire smelting process in silence.
Sometime Sheng Wang used the Singing Hammer technique, other times he used simple technique to work the ores. Sparks would appear with every one of his strikes, even the softest of them end up producing intense reactions on the ore. Before long he worked through the first metal and soon added another as he smelted the two ores at the same time. Their hot temperature didn't completely hide their original silver and purplish color.
In Sheng Hao's view, it seemed as though his grandfather was growing another limb every time he pounded the two reddish ores. Before long his rhythms intensified as he lightly taped the two ores several times before stacking the two pieces together. His movement stopped for a few seconds then resumed with his hammer moving in a slow but heavy way.
The large impact that resounded with every single one of his strike gave Sheng Hao the impression that the temperature around the two ores were augmenting drastically with Sheng Hao's heavy strike. His grandfather's technique was slow but seemed perfectly suited to smelt two different ores into one alloy, helping him skip several steps that were needed when forming an alloy.
At some point he took a few breaks, letting the newborn alloy breath a little before resuming the process. This step continued for dozens of minutes before Sheng Wang moved on to the last step, the hand that wasn't holding the hammer glowed brightly as several rings appeared around him.
Several intense light blinded Sheng Hao's vision for a few seconds and forced a grunt out of his lips. When his vision refocused his grandfather's figure reappeared in front of him with seven rings hovering around his arm, one of these ring was dim but the other shone with bright colors that made Sheng Hao feel as though his vision was sinking inside those rings.
The next hammer strike appeared far too swiftly with Sheng Hao's entire figure turning into a blur the moment he struck the alloy. The sound that came with the smelting arrived later than the old man's motion, making Sheng Hao understand why he wasn't able to see his grandfather's motion. Sheng Hao couldn't help but take a step back from his grandfather's workshop, feeling that the wind itself was capable of injuring him when it left his grandfather's hammer.
"This isn't the first time I've seen those…" he pondered lightly as he couldn't help but feel that the rings had a relation with a spiritualist's soul. His body couldn't help but shudder, his mind twisted between a strange sensation of apprehension and excitation.
"Spiritualists were truly capable of breaking the barrier that is imposed on mortals…" he mumbled lightly as he couldn't help but imagine what he would be able to do after awakening his spiritual soul. The reincarnated man recollected his breathing and paid as much focus as he could to his grandfather's smelting process. Although he wasn't able to make heads or tails from his movement, the sound coming from the anvil was giving the young boy numerous details on the process.
The hammer's extensive speed influenced the sound released from the strike, but he could still judge the heaviness of that strike with his ears.
Just like that the young boy decided to close his eyes, fully focusing his being on the information he could process the best. Sheng Hao's forgery turned into a rapid medley in the reincarnated musician's ears and before long his mind lost himself the strange metallic melody, sometime even though his eyes were closed some specks of light would appear in his vision.
Accompanying Sheng Wang's Singing Hammer and subliming Sheng Hao's understanding of the current situation. The young boy wasn't aware that the small flashes of light were his own perception of the spiritual energy released by his grandfather, showing that his brain was becoming further more attuned to sensing spiritual energy. His spiritual senses were, however, still undeveloped, for instance now he was only able to sense his grandfather's spiritual energy but wasn't able to feel the ambient spiritual energy that existed inside the Toe Village.
For that to happen, he needed to raise his control of spiritual energy or wait till his body and mind go through his spiritual soul's awakening. A state that will open his mind to the spiritual energy that existed everywhere in this world. Until then he would only be able to vaguely sense flashes of light dots when the intensity of the spiritual energy rose to a certain level.