The reincarnated man was more than aware that he didn't have the strength to go through the entire refinement process of the metal in one go; if he didn't take a break to let his shoulder cool down, he knew he would faint after a few minutes.
Thus he made the decision to take his time with the refinement process and learn as much as he could from this experience. Despite coming up with a lacking end result, with the metal he refined turning into something that could barely be called semi-refined, he still felt that it was a worthwhile experience that made him see some progress.
When Sheng Hao finished refining the last stone sized rough iron. A long and haggard exhalation left his lips, showing the degree of fatigue his body had accumulated through the refinement practice. Going through three ore chunks at a slow but controlled speed, he had somewhat managed to finish the long task Sheng Wang had prepared for him.
Each of his strikes was taken into account and nourished the upcoming hammer swings that accompanied his right arm. Although Sheng Wang had noticed dozens of mistakes through the entire sessions, he was quickly surprised when he noticed the speed at which Sheng Hao would correct the mistakes and fix the overall form of his technique.
After three hours of swinging the small hammer, he still managed to complete the difficult task. Although he didn't manage to raise his mastery of refining iron, and never managed to execute a swing with the same sensation as his first strike. He was still able to fix several issues he had sensed and corrected throughout the long session, gaining plenty of experience when it came to forgery and manipulating the hammer.
During the entire refinement process, Sheng Wang didn't interact with his grandson at any moment and didn't help him even when it seemed he was tired to the point where he would drop his hammer.
Each time he swung the hammer, it turned into an experience that was added to his own database. He used his own mistakes to perfect every subsequent refinement he went through. The response of the metal when his hammer connected with it left him feeling tingles that resonated throughout his whole body. The different sounds producing through the refinement of the rough iron ores helped him understand if he was on the right tracks or was damaging the reddish ores.
Sheng Hao knew that he would never be able to refine the ores in the same seamless way his grandfather did. However he could still try his best at fusing his grandfather's teaching with the understanding he came up with. Although superfluous he had still watched Sheng Wang work the anvil day after day. Rarely skipping the times where his grandpa would swing his large hammer, the profession of blacksmiths had swiftly turned into an obsession as soon as it appeared in his life.
Sheng Wang couldn't help but feel impressed by his grandson's refinement. For someone that was going through the process for the first time in his life, and to manage to puzzle back the entire process all by himself. Even though it was still done in a crude manner, he was genuinely impressed but his face didn't show any form of surprise or praise. In the end he wasn't the type of person to show indifference when he was intrigued by an event but he still, he didn't want to inflate the young boy's self-confidence.
It was with difficulty that Sheng Wang managed to contain himself, even during the lecture that came after the refinement session his face didn't show anything. However that didn't mean he hid the compliments as he still noted the mistakes that Sheng Hao had fixed by himself and complimented him on noticing them and correcting his overall hammering form.
The long lecture walked Sheng Hao through an entire world he never dared to imagine before, from the angle of his swings to the muscles he used to back the strikes. Every single factor was taken into account by the master blacksmith.
"Half refining a metal twice won't really equal a true single refined metal. It's not really a problem now, especially with cheap metal like this as I can always melt it and reforge them into something else." He joked lightly and didn't bother to hide the truth even though it could have hurt Sheng Hao's ego.
The young boy smiled brightly, he constantly nodded after hearing the sentences that left his grandfather's lips. He couldn't help but tremble from time to time throughout the lectures, as though the word that had just left his old man's lips had resolved the crux of the issue he was trying to deal with during the refinement process. The further he listened to the old man's speech, the sooner he realized that blacksmithing was a craft with thousands, if not millions, of nuances.
The amount of change a single swing could acquire, despite not changing the angle of the swing or the strength used in it. Or even the change a metal would go through when refined, with some strikes altering the course one needed to take for the upcoming swing would depend on the reaction of the metal. If before he had understood that the control of the fire played an important role. Now he understood that everything was ultimately decided by the one handling the hammer, all the other factors could be dealt with if one was skilled enough.
"Try to remember everything we've spoken about. If you have any question, look for answers on your own and try to apply them the next time you work the anvil." Added Sheng Wang as his gaze landed on the sky before he continued.
"Don't worry, in the case where you are not successful on answering the questions by yourself. I will still take the time to explain everything." A large smile appeared on his face and replaced
"As long as they are not about advanced techniques!" His eyes shone with seriousness and his smile disappeared as he didn't want to think he was talking lightly about the importance of building a solid foundation. Sheng Wang wasn't the type of person who would belittle foundational skills, in the end they were the keys to developing all the upcoming techniques.
He knew that the results of Sheng Hao's training would depend on the discipline he imposed on him, and especially on how the developing child would react to the discipline in question. Thankfully, he had seen the young boy grow through the past years they had in the Toe Village. And had grown to trust his own judgment, especially with Sheng Hao's refinement practice made him reaffirm that belief.
"Get out of here lil pea. You've got other things to do at the old witch's house, no?" he said with a voice that foretold Sheng Hao he would kick him out of the courtyard if he dared to stay here.
The reincarnated man didn't understand the intent behind his grandfather's action and mistook them for jealousy. "He really did take it badly…" he mumbled silently in his mind before darting in a low jog toward the area of the house they used as a bathroom.
All along, the young boy wasn't aware that his grandfather didn't want to disrupt the gains he had acquired with what he might see in Sheng Wang's own refinement.
"I wonder if Grandma Melle is ready for the first teaching session…" he mumbled as he took out the subject of Sheng Wang's jealousy to the back of his mind.
He took a quick shower to scrub out the mixture of metal dust and small bits of coal that had mixed with his sweat and accumulated on his small body. Through the small shower, he felt the palm of his hands tingle with soreness but the water helped his tense muscle relax.
"What a great practice session!" he exclaimed with a sight. Sheng Hao rotated his shoulder blades and arms before leaving the shower with a slight warm up. He didn't even wait to completely dry himself before wearing a fresh pair of clothes and left the house.
"My body might be weak but damn does it recover quickly!" he mumbled as he couldn't help but feel his stomach grumble.
His right hand moved toward his face as he took a bite out of a large reddish apple he had picked up on the way out of the small cottage. Strangely, even though he just went through a few hours of intense physical work he didn't feel the need to eat that much.
He mindlessly swallowed the juice the apple turned into inside his mouth, his eyes shone brightly as he looked at the sky that had dimmed down by a few degrees. The sun had retracted far in the horizon and its glow illuminate the village with a faint reddish glow.
Sheng Hao breathed deeply, inhaling the freshness coming from the greenery that surrounded him and took the direction of the outer layer of the Village.
His small leg agilely took him to the small but dense Illusory Forest and his figure disappeared between the thousands of shadowy leaves. His legs weren't lost in the still forest that was basking in a near complete darkness. The reddish glow coming from the sunset turned dimmer when it passed through the sharp tree leaves but Sheng Hao didn't find any difficulty in finding his way to the place he was running to.
Before long, he saw the small intersection that lead to the center of the protective formation and stepped inside the quiet meadow. By the time he had arrived to this place, the reddish glow of the sky had completely retracted from the area above his head, already replaced by a starry sky that shone dazzlingly between the sea of thick clouds that sat between the sky and the village.
His head turned toward the large tree that rested quietly inside the meadow. He once again moved to the same location he went to the last time he had been here. Before long, Sheng Hao was sitting next to the solitary tree and was looking at his surroundings with a curious gaze. His eyes blinked around the crystalline meadow, the last time he had been here he had already sensed that this place wasn't just a random isolated area of the Illusory Forest.
His undeveloped senses couldn't pick up the density of the spiritual energy lingering in the air, but his guts told him that Vitenka wouldn't randomly choose to sit here. On top of that, he had come to appreciate the time he had inadvertently fallen in a meditative stance here and could still clearly remember the way he had learned how to reproduce that mindful practice.
After dozens of seconds, his eyes rose once again toward the sky and he soon lost himself in the large canvas that was sitting hundreds of meters atop of his head. The pollution of mankind didn't hinder the light of the astral stars and from the distant galaxies that penetrated the atmosphere, he felt his soul lift up slightly from the view as he couldn't help but think about the world outside of this planet.
His mind wandered and a strange atmosphere appeared around the young boy. He couldn't help but feel small and inconspicuous when compared to the large canvas that was entering his eyes. He could understand that the small dots of light could be in fact humongous stars with gargantuan sizes that made it difficult for the human mind to visualize them, and that fact made him feel even smaller and insignificant.
"Does this planet even exist in the same universe as Earth?" he mumbled softly before closing his eyes. "Eh I don't think there are ways to go back to my old world." He mumbled with a tinge of nostalgia before opening his eyes once again.
"Was I sent here for a specific reason?" Despite sitting in an area filled to the brim with spiritual energy, the young boy didn't try to meditate and simply tried to appreciate the calm soothing breeze that brushed on his skin.
However despite the fact that he wasn't meditating, his body was still naturally absorbing bits of spiritual energy. The process of turning that spiritual energy into his own spiritual power would slowly happen at the same pace as the development of his own spiritual soul.
Suddenly just as he had been feeling his consciousness slip in a daze, a bright light flashed in a corner of the sky he had been looking at. His eyes couldn't help but instantly focus on the glinting object when he noticed the presence of the shooting star. It was dazzling even when compared to its ridiculously small size among the other astral plane that made out the vast starry canvas.
Strangely the shooting star that should have taken but a split second to disappear seemed to elongate with the motion of time crawling to a near stop.
The blaming meteor made the heart of the reincarnated man thump loudly as he couldn't help but feel that he had understood something. The sensation of time crawling continued for a few moments before disappearing the moment the lone shooting star disappeared. The lone boy laughed dryly at the sky feeling that he had perceived something but that sensation disappeared too.
His gaze continued hanging on the starry canvas before finally disconnecting from it, after that the young boy soon rose to his feet and left the illuminated meadow. Before long, his small figure reappeared inside the village, running in the direction of the small cottage where he lived.