4 Vow Before the Forge

"Have fun Tang Tang." Tang Ziran said happily before leaving the premises, still beaming from the news of his son's martial soul. He was happy that his son had the chance of a good future, a chance he was sure his son would make good use of.

'What emotion is that?' Tang Wulin thought to himself in confusion as he entered the building. Logically it should be pride however it didn't fit the description he was aware of.

Mentally shaking off his question Tang Wulin followed the sound of extremely loud music to his blacksmithing teacher Mang Tian. He was the one who taught Tang Wulin from when he was a beginner until now, never giving up on him no matter how many metals he made explode.

"You're here you brat?" Mang Tian asked, a small curling of his lips being the only sign of his happiness. In his hands was one of Wulin's recent works, a small part of a mecha, that he was examining. It was perfect as usual.

"Mhm." Tang Wulin nodded emotionlessly, standing across from Mang Tian with his body standing straight up. Teachers were beings you had to be extremely serious to not disappoint in any way.

"What martial soul did you get?" Mang Tian asked seriously, panicking to the extreme on the inside. He trusted Tang Wulin would get a good one just based on his strength but he was still worried.

If there was anything that lessened his worries it was that Tang Wulin had the strongest body out of anyone he knew, even more than himself. He assumed this was because the strength of his martial soul strengthened his body even before it awakened but he wasn't sure. It was a flimsy god to pray to.

"The Golden Dragon martial soul." Tang Wulin said emotionlessly, not a trace of joy, pride, or any emotion in his eyes. He wasn't proud of the blessing he received, he didn't have any particular feelings toward it. Then again, he didn't have any feelings for anything.

"Oh, a Golden Dra- A Golden Dragon?!" Mang Tian shouted, a look of complete shock and bewilderment on his face. It was the best strength type martial soul in the world! Any blacksmith with it had practically been blessed by the forge god himself!

"Mhm." Wulin nodded, no change in expression on his face at his teacher's reaction though his head was slightly tilted to the side. He couldn't understand why he would be so surprised. Objectively, it was amazing but why was he so shocked? Emotions were confusion.

"Haha! I trained a Golden Dragon!" Mang Tian shouted proudly, even going as far as to bring Tang Wulin into a tight hug and twirling him around the forge. He was extremely, and he means extremely proud.

'What is this?' Tang Wulin asked himself in confusion. It felt warm, in a different way than the forge usually was. He was used to that heat but this heat felt… new. He didn't know what it was or how it was created but it was strange.

"Listen, Tang Wulin." Mang Tian said seriously, placing the child in question on his feet once again and holding his shoulders seriously. "You have the potential to reach the peak. I don't care how you go about it, reach it." Mang Tian said seriously, a passionate fire in his eyes.

"Okay." Wulin replied simply, his empty crimson eyes standing out to the passionate blue ones in front of him. Nodding happily, Mang Tian let go of Tang Wulin's shoulders.

Tang Wulin was an odd person, more robotic than human even, but when he said he would do something he would do it no matter how impossible it may seem. That wasn't exactly a good thing though.

Mang Tian had asked him to make difficult things before as a trial and Tang Wulin did it, after working himself to the bone without a wink of sleep for an entire week. Wulin's determination was a double edged sword.

"Now then! Let's go make something! We've got a request for a one word battle armor so let's get on it!" Mang Tian declared seriously, his words being insane if anyone else had happened to hear them.

What he was offering wasn't to watch him make something, it was to help him make a one word battle armor. It was something that should never be said to a new blacksmith especially if that blacksmith is six years old child.

However, Tang Wulin was a genius blacksmith. At the young age of six, after only three years of fairly light work, he had become a peak rank 4 blacksmith. He would have gone farther if it weren't for energy constraints that restricted him from spirit refining.

He would be an invaluable asset to making a one word battle armor. As an assistant, nobody was better than Tang Wulin. He could pump out peak first class thousand refined metals faster than even Mang Tian could.

At first, it was a struggle since the metal exploded like a grenade whenever Wulin hit it but he had rapidly improved once he passed that hurdle. Still, now it was easier to understand where his monstrous strength came from.

"Ok." Tang Wulin replied while following behind his teacher. He had perfectly understood how to spirit refine and even alloy forming from his teacher and his knowledge but he did not have the energy required to do the former while he only did the latter secretly.

He had quite a bit stored in his storage spirit tool that he hadn't quite managed to sell yet. At the moment all of his finished works were sold by Mang Tian so he wouldn't be able to sell them without him being aware.

The only reason that Wulin was able to alloy forge anyway was because he purchased his own metal for over a year now since he could choose his own tasks to complete. He simply needed to buy some extra while he did so.

It was worthwhile but… it was expensive. Really expensive.