Li Yuan was no stranger to ultimate skills. In fact, City Toppler, Six Convergences, Cloud Piercer, and Gold Body—seventh rank blade, spear, archery, and body tempering ultimate skills respectively—had all come from his own insights.0

Now, he needed to derive a new ultimate skill, the Quickening, from the three foundational smithing skills—Flame Observation, Metal Melding, and Iron Listening.0

This was not something he could achieve by simply allocating skill points. It required genuine comprehension. To unlock an ultimate skill, he first had to master the three preliminary skills to perfection, then rely on true insight for the breakthrough.0

However, compared to understanding martial arts, comprehending weaponsmithing was a whole different level of difficulty. It was no wonder it couldn’t be widely taught; even lineage transmission was rare.  0

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A few days later.0

Master Zhu walked Li Yuan through the details one more time before planning their first live smithing session. Under normal circumstances, it would take much longer, but Li Yuan was already a sixth rank martial artist with extraordinary memory, so a handful of days was enough preparation.0

“Listening to the iron means sensing what extra metals are mixed within the iron and using the hammering process to guide them to where they need to be,” Master Zhu explained. “But if you...0