Heaven, Earth, Me

Chapter 1164 - 1164. Masterful Blacksmithing.

The other participants looked at Andrea's score with surprise and disbelief. How could one person score so high without having reached the Transcendence Realm? While they wanted to ask about it, the competition needed to carry on.

Still, the people in the stands didn't hold back from commenting.

"She is the most talented genius I've ever seen!"

"Her appearance isn't just a decoration. She truly looks like a perfect female blacksmith."

"While I admit that blacksmithing is more of a masculine profession, that junior is really powerful and not worse than men!"

"Grandma, perhaps that was the case when you were young. However, you need to understand that things have developed a lot!"

People said whatever they wanted, and since Andrea's accomplishment in the ranking was quite a surprise at first, the noise became somewhat bothersome. One of the judges, a man with a thick beard, spoke up, his voice booming like a thunderclap. "Silence!"

Everyone stopped speaking, and the judge spoke sternly. "Conversing is not prohibited. However, if you become boisterous and disrupt the Master Blacksmiths, you will be held accountable! Be careful with what you say and not say."

With that, everyone turned silent and looked intently at how the competition would develop. The slender woman chose the work station by Andrea's side for the second round, and she couldn't help but glance at the composed and relaxed woman. Even with all the chatter around them, she never even flinched. Her mannerisms were truly charming.

"Um. Hello, Junior."

Andrea was looking at the judges when she heard a soft and somewhat shy voice. Glancing to the side, he noticed the slender and beautiful woman looking at her with a smile. Andrea blinked and smiled back. "Hello, Senior Shang. Is there something you wanted to tell me?"

Senior Shang curled one of her long locks of black hair around her finger and spoke. "Um. Junior, do you mind exchanging pointers after the competition? I have one of the best forges in the entire city, so you might benefit."

Andrea was quite surprised by the offer. She pondered carefully, thinking that such a good deal wouldn't come without a price. Therefore, she asked. "What does Senior need from me?"

That Shang woman shook her head, speaking quite earnestly. "I need nothing, junior! I just think that making a connection with a talented junior like Junior Andrea will be quite beneficial. Nothing more, nothing less."

Hearing her sincere words, Andrea couldn't help but lower her guard slightly. After all, her eyes were clearly full of expectation that was hard to miss. Andrea also needed a good forging area to craft a few items for Yasenia's Secret Realm exploration, so she decided to agree with a condition. "I will go with the senior. I do have a use for it, after all. Moreover, exchanging pointers with Senior Sheng will only benefit me. However, I hope senior can hear what junior has to say without getting offended."

The woman cleared her throat and said. "D-Don't call me senior that, senior this. It sounds like I am an old person. My name is Shang Huang, and I'd prefer you to call me Sister Shang."

Andrea chuckled, her face showing a beautiful smile that made Shang Huang blush faintly. "I understand, Sister Shang. Then, I'll be blunt. I hope Sister Shang isn't too curious when I create my armor. My way of blacksmithing is slightly unconventional, and some people might covet it. I hope Sister Shang can rein in her greed about it."

Shang Huang nodded, thinking to herself. 'I might rein in my greed for your techniques, but the one for you seems to be growing! Kya!'

"Participants, get ready. The competition to create an armor will begin in thirty minutes. Ask for the materials and start your forges."

Andrea and Shang Huang stopped talking and focused on their task ahead. The second part of the competition was creating a full-body armor. Andrea was quite familiar with it since she herself wore one. Hence, she was quick to choose the perfect materials to create one.

Once the materials arrived, Andrea's lips arched. The people around were stunned when they saw what Andrea chose. Between the piles of materials, one could see many light and darkness attributed materials. It was common sense that contradicting materials would not be able to be combined.

One person commented. "Perhaps she is trying to create two of them? One of the light attribute and another of the darkness attribute."

"That would be the case, usually. However, look at her actions. She has thrown a [Obsidian Glaring Ore] and [Brilliant Ruthless Alloy] into the melter! Those two together will create a reaction and explode!"

"That's the case... usually. However, why are they not exploding?"

During the last decades, Andrea had not lost time in terms of Blacksmithing proficiency. Her [Alloy Weaving Intent] reached Level 9 very long ago, and now, her ability to understand and transform materials was basically peerless in the same realm. [Alloy Weaving Intent] was one of the most profound intents related to metals, and when applied together with [Blacksmithing Intent Level 9], which Andrea naturally unlocked over the last few years, the power behind them was staggering.

Andrea quickly controlled the two materials so that they melted and didn't mix. The light and darkness alloys slowly moved in the melter, creating a yin and yang rotating pattern. Within that pattern, Andrea slowly spread her energy to start the first step of her unique blacksmithing process.

Having combined Sky Continent's, Lost Town's, and Distancia's blacksmithing processes, Andrea was now able to work both on the inside and outside of her treasures.

Sky Continent's smithing process focused on the energy veins crafted on the materials. The more complex and profound those were, the stronger the final result would be. Naturally, creating Transcendence Ranked energy veins meant that the cultivator had the knowledge about Transcendence Ranked circuits. The consumption of energy to create those and the attentiveness needed for it were ridiculous.

Still, Andrea almost managed to comprehend that even before she had Little Dawn.

Lost Town's smithing process focused on the "soul" of the equipment. One would transform and manipulate what made a weapon's spirit powerful. With it, creating high-level weapons even as a mortal was possible due to the fact that this method brought out the energy inside of the materials. It was as if the crafter was giving the weapons and other equipment souls.

Andrea also mastered the combination of both the Sky and Lost Town methods several decades ago. The last method, Distancia's method, was the most problematic when mixing it with the other two.

Distancia's method was the most traditional type of blacksmithing, modifying the ores through physical transformations. The other two methods had this step as well, but it wasn't as prominent. In Distancia's method, it was everything. Once you gave it shape, any further modifications could threaten the internal integrity of the materials, reducing its durability sharply. Hence, Distancia's and Sky Continent's methods were not compatible.

Or so Andrea thought until not too long ago. Andrea realized that the way she was crafting the treasures was wrong. Instead of shaping the entire thing and then giving it the Spiritual Veins through carving, she needed to do both simultaneously. The problem was that when she struck the item with her hammer, the gently carved Spiritual Veins would deform. Hence, she needed to develop a ridiculous mastery with her blacksmithing hammer so that when striking, the force would only spread where she wanted and nowhere else, even if it was by its side.

The time she took to refine this method was so long that there were straight months when Andrea would not stop hammering just to create the tip of one sword.

Still, her efforts bore fruit.

Andrea grabbed the searing hot melting pot of materials with her hands, not even flinching at the terrifying heat that it was emitting from them. Then, she let it cool down until it was a paste. She didn't use molds for it.

While letting it cool down, Andrea was not still. She was using her energy to form the "spirit" of the weapon. After the Transcendence Realm, almost all treasures had a subtle hint of spiritual intelligence, and Lost Town's method helped Andrea bring it out much easier.

Everyone looking at Andrea was confused. Why wasn't she using a mold? What was her energy doing around the cooling material? Everything was confusing since she didn't follow the usual steps.

She was not the only one with peculiarities, though. Shang Huang also had a very special way of forging. Instead of using a hammer, the woman used something similar to an Alchemy Cauldron to throw the molten materials inside and refine them!

The reason Shang Huang could do it this way was her bloodline and her innately powerful spiritual control. Inside of the cauldron where she was refining the materials, Shang Huang could modify them with her will to an atomic level. The energy she poured inside was also ridiculous, leaving everyone speechless.

As time passed, Andrea and Shang Huang completed their respective works. On Shang Huang's side, the visible part was not that attractive since everything happened inside her cauldron. However, Andrea was captivating the public.

Her arm rose high and fell.

Clang~!

The melodious sound of the hammer hitting a hardening metal resounded, tingling everyone's ears. As she continuously hit it, with a constant and unchanging pace, the spectators were almost hypnotized. Andrea's strong arm raised, her muscles stretching and beautiful tensing to gather power.

Then, leaving a few sweat droplets in her way, Andrea smashed the hammer down with agility, precision, and power.

Clang~!

Some women blushed and held their stomachs, imagining what those powerful muscles could do.

Andrea's figure was perfect, her flow mixing with Heaven and Earth as one. Her facial expression was serious and earnest, as if she were crafting a masterpiece and not just an armor. Slowly, it took shape, and as Andrea carved the veins and hammered away, the gorgeous white and black armor gained details.

Everyone couldn't stop looking and before they knew it, Andrea's last hammer strike landed on the armor.

Clang~!

BOOM!

A terrifying energy vortex appeared, sucking the surrounding energy into the armor. When the events finished, the profound aura of the armor soared to the sky as if telling everyone that it had been born.

Andrea smiled. "Good. [Light And Darkness Vortex Armor]. That's your name."

The armor hummed lowly with joy.