Chapter 59: Bright Crystal

As for Xu Zhao himself, although he broke through the bottleneck between a tier-four and tier-five blacksmith at the tender age of eight, that was the result of a combination of multiple factors.

The formidable spiritual power bestowed by his Mind Martial Soul and External Spirit Bone;
The mighty physique and vital blood energy granted by his Primordial Ancient Dragon Martial Soul and innate secret arts;
As for the deficiency in his spirit power rank, it was perfectly resolved by a complete set of sealed nursing-bottle-component soul guide arrays;
And finally, coupled with the personal guidance of a Divine Craftsman and unsparing forging practices.

These four elements combined to forge an eight-year-old tier-five blacksmith.
Being a tier-five blacksmith at just eight years old also earned Xu Zhao the moniker of "Little Divine Craftsman."

…

In the afternoon.
Inside a mecha-manufacturing room on the second floor of the teaching building.
Xu Zhao and his companions, along with several academy instructors, stood gathered in a circle to observe Long Chen’s attempt.

Long Chen’s martial soul, the Radiant Holy Dragon, possessed both the light attribute and a draconic physique.
Therefore, for this attempt, Xu Zhao provided Long Chen with a piece of Bright Crystal, created by melt-forging Blazing Sun Iron and Titanium Crystal together, achieving a fusion rate of ninety-three percent—falling just two percentage points short of ninety-five percent.

Long Chen had obtained the battle armor blueprints quite some time ago.
However, due to a lack of raw materials, he had never had the opportunity to try making one until now. When the chance finally presented itself, he felt a profound wave of excitement.
Even though he knew the chances of success were virtually nil, this was still his very first time crafting a battle armor component for himself. How could he not be thrilled?

Being surrounded and watched by a crowd like this, to be honest, made him feel just a little bit nervous.

"Whew!"

Clutching the piece of Bright Crystal in his hand, Long Chen took a deep breath, and his entire being gradually drifted into the zone.

The crafting of battle armor must be accomplished in one go, without any hesitation.
One must engrave the core array from the design blueprint onto the alloy, and in the process of shaping the alloy into the form specified by the blueprint, achieve a complete fusion between the core array and the alloy.
Throughout this entire procedure, there could not be the slightest pause or the tiniest error.
Once any mistake occurred—even if it were just a microscopic one—all previous efforts would be instantly squandered, and the alloy used for the creation would be reduced to a useless scrap of metal.

Therefore, he had to completely banish any external distractions from his mind, immersing his entire focus into the crafting of the battle armor component.

A faint dragon roar resounded.

Two pale purple spirit rings materialized behind Long Chen.
Since this was battle armor manufacturing, he did not undergo a full dragon transformation; instead, he only transformed his right hand—the one he would use for crafting—into a dragon claw.
The index finger, which was the most nimble and natural to use, was designated for engraving the core array.

At the same time, down on the floor, the soul guide array composed of sealed nursing bottles burst into radiance. The pure spirit power contained within illuminated the soul guide patterns etched into the floor tiles, surging toward the soles of Long Chen’s feet, standing by to replenish his spirit power at any moment.

As for physical stamina, Long Chen, as the possessor of a top-tier draconic martial soul, had no need to worry about that.

"It's starting."

Xu Yucheng, Xue Liushuang, and Weng Daimin followed Long Chen’s every move with rapt attention.
The sub-professions of all three of them were mecha manufacturers, and in the future, they would need to craft their own battle armor. Witnessing Long Chen’s maiden attempt would yield a wealth of valuable experience for them.

The Bright Crystal was levitated mid-air by the spirit power array, and the sharp tips of the dragon claw brushed across its surface, leaving behind faint trails.
As these marks accumulated, they gradually formed the embryonic shape of a core array.

However, the hardness of spirit-imbued alloy far exceeded that of ordinary metals, let alone the fact that one of the metals fused into the Bright Crystal was Titanium Crystal, renowned for its supreme hardness.
Although the hard and brittle nature of Titanium Crystal was neutralized by the Blazing Sun Iron—allowing Long Chen to exert his strength with peace of mind while engraving the core array on the surface of the Bright Crystal—the inherent hardness of the Titanium Crystal still made the Bright Crystal considerably harder than ordinary spirit-imbued alloys, thereby significantly increasing the difficulty of engraving the core array.

Fortunately, after undergoing the dragon transformation, Long Chen’s Radiant Holy Dragon martial soul bestowed upon his dragon claws a sharpness that was just sufficient; otherwise, he wouldn't even have been able to leave a scratch on the Bright Crystal.
Of course, if his dragon claws weren't sharp enough, he could have used a high-quality carving knife instead. However, an external tool like a carving knife could never match the instinctive, arm-like control of one's own martial soul.

The toughness of the Bright Crystal far exceeded Long Chen's imagination.
His dragon claw needed to carve over a thousand times in the exact same spot on the Bright Crystal for the resulting trace to truly count as part of the completed core array.

This was a long and arduous process.

Several hours later.
The shape of the Bright Crystal had altered drastically from its initial appearance, vaguely taking on the form of a battle armor gauntlet.

Yet, it was precisely from this moment onward that Long Chen began to feel his strength waning.
His inadequate mastery as a mecha manufacturer meant he had to expend an immense amount of mental energy to manipulate the Bright Crystal, causing his mental power reserves to deplete rapidly and stretch dangerously thin.

Another few minutes ticked by.

The massive drain on his mental energy caused Long Chen to commit a tiny slip-up during one of the engraving passes.
In a flash, the core array traces that had already been successfully carved onto the Bright Crystal caused a short circuit due to that microscopic deviation in the engraving.

The Bright Crystal, which had been glowing with a brilliant light like the sun, instantly dimmed, its surface covered in a dense web of cracks, both large and small.

Following this failure, the mentally exhausted Long Chen collapsed, dropping heavily onto the floor, his face pale as he breathed in ragged, heavy gasps.

Several academy instructors stepped forward, picking up the shattered Bright Crystal floating above the spirit power array to observe it closely.
After inspecting it, one of them even offered Long Chen a few words of comfort:
"A sixty-three percent completion rate. For the standard of a tier-four mecha manufacturer, achieving this much is already quite commendable."

"If my spiritual power could just be a bit higher, perhaps I would have been able to..." Long Chen thought to himself, a completely different notion forming in his mind.

Yet, with the help of the Mind-Clearing Liquid provided by the academy, his current spiritual power had only reached the peak of the Spirit Connection Realm, still falling a dozen or so points short of the numerical threshold for the Spirit Sea Realm.

At this thought, Long Chen couldn't help cast his gaze toward Xu Zhao, who was standing quietly to one side.

As fellow members of the Radiant Seven Stars, their captain’s initial spiritual power upon awakening his martial soul had soared as high as 499—the peak of the Spirit Connection Realm—falling just two points shy of the Spirit Sea Realm.
As for himself, even though he had awakened his martial soul more than three years ago, his spiritual power still fell short of their captain's initial starting point.

Truly, comparing oneself to others could drive one mad.
Still, as long as one didn't compare themselves to such a freak of nature as their captain, that gloomy mood would instantly brighten up considerably.

Among the Radiant Seven Stars.
Captain Xu Zhao’s spiritual power stood alone in a tier of its own, far surpassing everyone else, though the exact numerical value remained a mystery to all.
Among the remaining six members, the one with the highest spiritual power was not Xu Yucheng, who possessed the strongest combat prowess.
Instead, it was Weng Daimin—who usually kept a low profile and gladly acted as a living accessory for their martial soul fusion skill—whose Spirit Sea Realm spiritual power reached a staggering numerical value of over eight hundred.

Right behind her was Xue Liushuang, who ranked second in individual combat strength among the six, also possessing Spirit Sea Realm spiritual power with a value surpassing six hundred.
As for the remaining four, including Long Chen himself, their spiritual power was uniformly at the peak of the Spirit Connection Realm.
Among them, the highest was Xu Yucheng, whose spiritual power was slightly higher than his at 500, though he had been stuck at the bottleneck of the Spirit Sea Realm for quite some time.