Chapter Nineteen: Zhen Hua: Damn it, it's still coming for me!

“I see now!” Xu Zhao nodded superficially, but a new understanding arose in his heart regarding how deeply the Original Sect held grudges.

Mu Ye actually knew that Xu Tianran was a eunuch. This secret must have been passed down from the Original Sect thousands of years ago, surviving intact through the millennia.

After all, if it were not something significant, trivial matters would have long since vanished in the river of time over ten thousand years.

“However, Uncle,” Xu Zhao said apologetically, glancing at Mu Ye before pointing to Zhen Hua across the table, “I have come to the Forgers’ Association headquarters with the intention of apprenticing under the chairman to learn forging.”

“Until this matter is resolved, I have little heart to consider what you have mentioned.”

Nearby, Zhen Hua, who was busy eating a red jade shrimp and watching the scene unfold, paused his movements.

“Uh...” He placed the half-eaten shrimp back on his plate and, under Mu Ye’s sorrowful gaze, slowly began to speak.

“Child, among the four major secondary professions, forging is the one that demands the most innate talent.”

“And I have never accepted a single disciple because my standards for their aptitude are exceedingly strict.”

“Given your original soul weapon, mech design is truly the most fitting for you; forging might be a bit beneath you...”

Before he could finish, Zhen Hua suddenly widened his eyes, staring intently ahead.

Above the dining table, seven elements—earth, water, fire, wind, light, darkness, and space—interwove to form a shimmering, multicolored ring slowly rotating.

“Chairman, I have heard that the Heavenly Forging realm is closely linked with elemental tribulations,” Xu Zhao said earnestly as he manipulated the radiant ring up and down. “I believe that the threshold for Heavenly Forging is not insurmountable for me.”

“Having said that,” Zhen Hua admitted reluctantly, though his heart was moved, “the prerequisite is that you must become a pinnacle Level 8 Saint Artisan.”

“For any forger, physical talent is an important metric.”

“While your spiritual soul weapon is strong, the physical enhancements it grants may not even match those of ordinary beast soul weapons at the same level.”

“If you were to awaken one of the Xu family’s three great legacy soul weapons—the Purple Radiant Annihilation Dragon—and combine it with your spiritual soul weapon, that would be perfect.”

“Purple Radiant Annihilation Dragon? I have not awakened that soul weapon,” Xu Zhao answered in a low tone, but then abruptly shifted his words.

“However, though I have not awakened the Purple Radiant Annihilation Dragon, I possess a True Dragon soul weapon even stronger than it.”

“Do you think this soul weapon will suffice?”

As he spoke, an ancient draconic aura, as if from primordial times, radiated from Xu Zhao.

He opened his right hand, and a phantom of the Primordial Ancient Dragon soul weapon materialized in his palm:

The starry sky faintly visible, the sun and moon shining together.

A violet-gold divine dragon phantom, holding the sun and moon in its claws and bearing stars on its back, leisurely wandered above his palm.

“This is... a soul weapon fusion mutation?”

Both Zhen Hua and Mu Ye widened their eyes, staring at the soul weapon phantom in Xu Zhao’s palm.

A fusion mutation is a theoretical soul weapon phenomenon.

The theory posits that soul weapons with fusion skills might have descendants who awaken directly into a fused soul weapon form.

For example, the White Tiger soul weapon and the Netherworld Spirit Cat soul weapon possess the fusion skill—Netherworld White Tiger.

Theoretically, their descendants might awaken directly into the Netherworld White Tiger fusion upon soul awakening.

However, fusion mutations are only a hypothesis proposed alongside advances in soul-tech.

It remains unproven because no instance has ever validated the theory.

Scientists explain this by saying that fusion mutations require a 100% compatibility between the two soul weapons—an almost mythical, god-level compatibility said only to exist in legend.

Therefore, even fusion mutations of two soul weapons with fusion skills remain unconfirmed hypotheses.

Yet, the soul weapon phantom before them clearly fused more than two soul weapons.

“The dragon is the Purple Radiant Annihilation Dragon, the blazing fire pearl represents the sun, and the icy jade pearl the moon—all three are from your Xu family’s three great legacy soul weapons.”

“But child, where does the starry element of your soul weapon come from?”

Facing this question, Xu Zhao did not hesitate and replied directly:

“The starry element of my soul weapon comes from the Star Saint Sword, inherited from my mother’s bloodline. It is a top-tier sword soul weapon with star attributes.”

“Star Saint Sword? So it is from the Ye family,” Zhen Hua suddenly realized.

The Ye family, one of the two top swordsmanship soul master clans in the Douluo Federation, was well known to Zhen Hua, who had even dealt with them before.

The current Ye family patriarch’s three-character battle armor was forged with soul-forging metal Zhen Hua had helped create in his youth.

At the same time, Zhen Hua’s gaze toward Xu Zhao grew increasingly fervent.

The mutated dragon soul weapon brought extraordinary physical talent, the mutated spiritual soul weapon granted tremendous mental power, and the ability to command the seven elemental forces by unknown means.

Such gifts seemed like heaven-sent inheritance for him.

If he could nurture Xu Zhao into the next Divine Artisan, he could retire honorably, free from the daily worries of the federation’s top powers constantly pressuring him to forge Heavenly Forging metals.

Not only Zhen Hua, but Mu Ye’s gaze toward Xu Zhao burned even more intensely.

The mutated dragon soul weapon could be treated as a physical original soul weapon, and the spiritual one made a dual original soul weapon pair.

The former controlled the body and vitality; the latter governed the mind and spirit. It was simply perfect, truly perfect.

Moreover, Xu Zhao, as a Xu family heir and a disciple of the Divine Artisan, had ample resources to procure the rare materials necessary for innate secret forging techniques.

With Xu Zhao and his senior disciple Aru Heng, their generation of the Original Sect now had two prodigies likely to master these innate secret techniques.

...

Thus, after a warm and profound exchange in the small canteen, Xu Zhao simultaneously became the senior disciple of Divine Artisan Zhen Hua and the second disciple of Original Sect leader Mu Ye.

Zhen Hua also readily agreed to temporarily reside at the Forgers’ Association in Mingdu for several years.

Mu Ye’s consent was a given.

If Zhen Hua did not go to Mingdu, Mu Ye could easily resign as the Divine Artisan’s private chef and settle there himself.

Before heading to Mingdu, however, Zhen Hua, as chairman of the Forgers’ Association, had many affairs to hand over, requiring about a week.

A week was not long.

Xu Zhao did not rush his grandfather to take him to Mingdu and instead treated this as a brief visit to Tiandou City, also an opportunity to deepen the master-disciple bond.

Zhen Hua was pleased by this as well.

To him, cultivating the master-disciple relationship was secondary.

What he most desired now was to reclaim his lost dignity before his senior disciple—he, the continent’s sole Divine Artisan of the era.