129: Chapter 129 Certified Saint-Level Blacksmith!

Then, he brought the hammer down! Boom—!

There were no wasted movements. It was simply the most basic, introductory technique in the blacksmithing world: the Vibrating Hammer!

The moment the massive, dark golden hammerhead made contact with the raw star-patterned steel, time seemed to stand still.

There was no deafening sound of metal colliding, only a crisp, strange hum that sounded like a dragon's roar! Hum—!

A visible, transparent ripple instantly swept across the entire piece of raw star-patterned steel from the point where the hammer struck.

Crack, crack, crack! Under this perfectly executed vibrational force, the incredibly hard, stony crust of impurities on the surface of the raw ore instantly turned into fine dust, falling away like gray snowflakes!

Immediately after, a light—a brilliant, dazzling radiance that made it impossible to keep one's eyes open—erupted from within the star-patterned steel as its stony shell fell away, shooting straight into the sky!

One inch! Two inches! Three inches! The dazzling radiance, a full three inches long, illuminated the entire transparent examination area as if it were broad daylight!

The once dull, gray piece of raw ore had transformed into a peerless gem, crystal clear and emitting a charming starlight.

Silence. A deathly silence. Even the sound of breathing had completely vanished.

The elderly examiner's legs went weak, and he collapsed onto the floor. He stared at the three-inch radiance like a fool, completely unaware that drool was pooling on the ground.

And Master Zong Yan, that dignified Saint-Level Blacksmith, the titan of the Great Xia Kingdom's blacksmithing world, was frozen in place as if cast under a petrification spell. He was stunned. Completely and utterly stunned.

In Master Zong Yan's mind, every detail of Su Yu's hammer strike was replaying frantically, like a movie.

"The force-exertion technique... from the waist to the spine, then to the arm; not a single shred of power was wasted! Flawless!"

"The striking position... it was exactly the core resonance point of the star-patterned steel's crystal structure! A miss by a hair's breadth would have led to a massive error! Flawless!"

"The strength control... a hammer weighing tens of thousands of tons came down, yet it didn't damage a single shred of the star-patterned steel's inner spirituality! Flawless!"

Master Zong Yan analyzed frantically in his heart. The more he analyzed, the more his scalp tingled! The more he analyzed, the more his soul trembled!

Finally, Master Zong Yan reached a conclusion that he himself found absurd. "This kid's blacksmithing level... is not the least bit weaker than mine?! Huh?!?"

Master Zong Yan widened his eyes violently, staring in disbelief at the three-inch radiance shooting into the sky. No! It's not that it's not weaker than mine! It's that he's even more monstrous than me!

In the ironclad rules of the blacksmithing world, purifying star-patterned steel to sixty percent is passing, eighty percent is excellent, and ninety percent is Master-level! Only when the material is one hundred percent purified, without a single trace of impurity, will it trigger a phenomenon of heaven and earth and erupt with a three-inch radiance!

This kind of absolute, one-hundred-percent purification—even for a Saint-Level Blacksmith like him, it would require spending several hours, undergoing thousands of hammer strikes, and carefully removing impurities to even have a chance of achieving it!

Yet this eighteen-year-old kid before him had done it with just one hammer strike! Just a single hammer blow! And he had purified the star-patterned steel to the absolute limit of one hundred percent?!

Master Zong Yan felt his worldview had been smashed to pieces by that one hammer strike.

The three-inch radiance shimmered within the transparent examination area. The light was not blinding, but it carried a purity that struck straight at the soul.

Master Zong Yan stared at the peerless gem emitting starlight, his entire body feeling as if all his strength had been drained, making even breathing difficult. One hundred percent! Absolute one hundred percent purification!

As one of the only two Saint-Level Blacksmiths in the Great Xia Kingdom, Master Zong Yan knew better than anyone what this three-inch radiance meant.

What was the most monstrous part? It was that this kid only had one thousand Vitality points!

Master Zong Yan roared silently in his heart, his blood running backward. "I am a dignified Martial Saint! With ten billion Vitality points! And over a hundred years of immersion in Saint-Level Blacksmithing techniques!"

"Even so, if I want to purify a piece of star-patterned steel to the one-hundred-percent limit, I need to adjust my state to its peak. Then, in front of a furnace with temperatures reaching several thousand degrees, I must spend over ten minutes, using the mountain-shaking hammer to strike thousands of times with absolute precision, carefully stripping away every single impurity. Only then can I barely manage it!"

"And this kid?! One thousand Vitality! He had only just stepped over the threshold of a Martial Master! He didn't even warm up! He just lifted the hammer casually and swung it down, just like that! One strike to settle the matter!"

"This breaks the laws of martial arts! It breaks the ironclad rules of the blacksmithing world!"

"This kid's intuition and control over power..." Master Zong Yan clenched his withered hands tightly. "Can no longer be described as genius. This is just a monster in human skin!"

Shock. Unprecedented shock rolled through Master Zong Yan's mind like a raging sea. He even had an illusion: that seemingly casual hammer strike from the kid seemed to contain some kind of supreme Dao that even he, a Saint-Level Blacksmith, could not comprehend!

Inside the examination area, the deathly silence continued to spread. The elderly examiner responsible for the test was still slumped on the ground, his eyes glazed over, muttering nonsense like "Impossible" and "What the hell."

Lin Xiaoxiao stood outside the glass door, her small hands tightly covering her mouth, her beautiful eyes filled with shock and admiration. Although she didn't understand blacksmithing, she knew how to read the room. Even that mysterious old senior who could casually pull out a Nation-Guardian Rank giant hammer had been scared silly by Su Yu's strike. What earth-shattering event had Su Yu actually accomplished?!

Just as everyone was plunged into a stupor, Su Yu slowly put away the mountain-shaking hammer. He looked at the crystal-clear star-patterned steel on the forging furnace, his deep eyes showing not the slightest ripple.

Ten billion years of deduction. If he couldn't purify even the most basic star-patterned steel with one strike, he might as well just find a block of tofu and smash his head against it.

Su Yu turned his head. His gaze fell upon the elderly examiner slumped on the ground. He then looked at Master Zong Yan, who was standing to the side like a stone statue. He scratched his head, his tone calm. "Examiner. Does this count as passing the examination?"

This plain, unremarkable sentence fell into Master Zong Yan's ears like a thunderclap on a clear day! Does it count as passing?! Master Zong Yan shuddered violently, finally waking up from his extreme shock.

He looked at Su Yu's cold, calm, and even slightly "I don't want to show off" young face. His old face instantly flushed red! "Passed!" "Passed!"

Master Zong Yan could no longer maintain that high-and-mighty senior demeanor. He stepped forward and rushed directly in front of Su Yu. He grabbed Su Yu's shoulders tightly, his strength shockingly great!

"To hell with the examination!" Master Zong Yan was so excited that spittle flew everywhere, his eyes bloodshot, looking just like a fanatical gambler who had found a peerless treasure. "With your talent, why take the exam for a Beginner Blacksmith?! That is an insult to your talent! It is a blasphemy against the word 'blacksmithing'!"

Master Zong Yan grabbed Su Yu's wrist and turned to leave. "Go! Come with me! I will take you to the Blacksmith Association headquarters right now! I will personally vouch for you! I will certify you as a Saint-Level Blacksmith directly!"

At these words, Lin Xiaoxiao, who was outside the door, gasped, nearly fainting on the spot. Saint... Saint-Level Blacksmith?! There were only two in the entire Great Xia Kingdom! Su Yu was only eighteen, and he was being certified as a Saint-Level directly?! If this got out, it would trigger a magnitude-ten earthquake across the entire Great Xia Kingdom!

At this moment, she finally understood completely. Just how terrifying Su Yu's talent really was!

However, faced with Master Zong Yan's near-manic solicitation, Su Yu stood like a steel nail driven into the ground, not moving an inch. He frowned slightly and shook his wrist. A subtle yet irresistible force instantly shook off Master Zong Yan's hands.