A dozen timid fire foxes, peering from the tall grass, met Qian Jin's gaze, let out whines of sorrow, and quickly retreated back into the thicket, daring not to reappear.

Qian Jin managed a wry smile. If only the demonic beasts in the West Mountain reacted like these fire foxes when encountered, he wouldn't have to struggle so hard and exhaust himself.

"Finally returned," Qian Jin sighed deeply, stepping through the village gate and looking up at the sky. The last thread of tension in his spirit completely dissolved. In this village, even the ordinary vegetable sellers possessed strength equal to or greater than a Demon Slaying Warrior; the beasts of the West Mountain never dared to enter this territory.

Walking down the quiet main street, he entered the Blacksmith Shop. The old blacksmith uncle squatted in the corner, scrutinizing the sack on Qian Jin's back. Various metal ores clattered onto the ground, producing sharp, ringing sounds. "Regarding the Battle Heart awareness. What new understanding have you gained?" Qian Jin dropped the sack of ore, his hands trembling slightly, and looked up at Uncle Black with sincere eyes. Why was this uncle, who had only ever taught him smithing, suddenly so concerned with inquiring about the Battle Heart awareness?

"It's going well," Qian Jin shook off the last piece of ore and put away the sack. "I'm getting more proficient with its use." "Is that so?" Black, holding his pipe, pointed toward the roaring forge. "Forge iron, using your Battle Heart awareness." Using the Battle Heart awareness to forge iron? Qian Jin stood before the furnace, gripping his sledgehammer, and gazed at the iron block already blazing red in the flames. He took a deep breath, and his Battle Heart awareness spun suddenly, drawing substantial fiery essence from two adjacent furnaces. The second strike of the Eighteen Heavenly Hammers struck the air in a fluid arc, slamming down onto the iron block. The heavily bulged piece of metal transformed into a flat disc with just that single blow, sending countless searing sparks scattering outwards like magnificent fireworks.

Clang! The sharp, resonant sound of metal striking metal echoed throughout the courtyard. Qian Jin closed his eyes slightly, savoring this near-perfect collision sound. As a master smith, even with his eyes closed, he could discern the precise status of every hammer blow during the forging process and the extent of the work achieved.

This piercing metallic ring, when heard, was infinitely more beautiful and pleasing than any meticulously arranged musical composition.

Perfect! Qian Jin curled his lips slightly, revealing a smug smile. He could listen to this sound countless times and never tire of it—it was simply too beautiful!

"Is this the extent you achieved using your Battle Heart awareness?" Uncle Black raised his pipe, his question cutting through Qian Jin's self-adulation with an incomprehensible, almost entirely mocking tone, dousing him like a bucket of ice water from head to toe.

Isn't this good enough? Qian Jin respectfully handed the forging hammer to Uncle Black, curiously observing the old blacksmith who, though lacking the title of village elder, held authority no different from one. He mentally reviewed his recent forging attempt; utilizing the Battle Heart awareness to draw out the fiery essence had corrected many of his flaws. This should have been a near-perfect forging; why was Uncle Black so dissatisfied?

"You still haven't grasped what the Battle Heart awareness truly is," Black weighed the hammer in his hand and shook his head gently. "Last time, you merely acquired a complete Battle Heart." Qian Jin silently looked at the hammer in Uncle Black's grip. Having a complete Battle Heart—surely that wasn't not the Battle Heart awareness?

Black slowly raised the forging hammer high above his head, fixing his gaze on the glowing, red-hot metal in the coals. Not a single wisp of fiery essence was drawn by the Battle Heart awareness; everything looked exactly like any normal forging from the past.

Qian Jin stared intently at Black. This uncle never made pointless gestures. Since he had spoken, there must be a discernible difference this time.

Black, as usual, used tongs to extract the metal billet, blazing red hot, from the coals. The heavy forging hammer dropped swiftly from the sky, whipping up a howling gust of wind—like a star plummeting from the heavens—and slammed brutally onto the glowing metal.

The instant the hammer struck the metal, what erupted was no longer a harsh clang of metal. The courtyard suddenly exploded with a deafening roar, like earth-shattering thunder erupting right there, the booming sound soaring towards the high heavens, echoing in the vast firmament. Voom... Voom... Qian Jin instinctively reached up to rub his ears. A single hammer blow had produced a thunderous resonance strong enough to cause tinnitus even in ears protected by Battle Qi. This one strike... The red billet trembled slightly upon impact. The intense red heat rapidly gathered around the metal, and in an instant, the scalding red turned the color of fresh blood! It was as if this piece of metal was about to weep blood!

In the next instant, the intensely hot, red sparks erupted outwards from various points on the billet, piercingly bright, looking almost as if they carried the acrid smell of blood!

Heart... Qian Jin stared, wide-eyed, at the sparks—ten times hotter than any sparks from any previous strike. This single blow had forced the internal heat, which hadn't yet escaped, to compress and squeeze within the metal body! Consequently, in that instant, an extraordinary temperature accumulated, further tempering the billet itself. Finally, due to the inability to smoothly vent the excessive pressure, the heat channels competed against each other, raising the temperature of the flames even higher, thus generating these blood-red sparks.

The sparks themselves did not actually carry any pungent, bloody odor; it was simply that the sparks were too brilliant! Too dazzling! Brilliant enough to shock the heart, dazzling enough to command admiration! At this moment, the metal truly seemed to be bleeding, rather than just ejecting metallic sparks.

Just one strike! Qian Jin stared blankly at the blood-red billet held by Black’s tongs. No wonder the uncle said that what Zhouzhou achieved was also using the Battle Heart awareness? The disparity between them was too vast. This wasn't merely a difference in explosion sounds or the color of the sparks. The greater gap lay outside: forging. The impact force of the hammer striking the billet—the moment of collision—affected much more than just the metal! Qian Jin estimated that he could perhaps manage to strike the anvil hard enough to create an explosive sound, but what he absolutely could not achieve was the resulting state of the object beneath the billet after one strike.

Such a tremendous impact force—how could the anvil supporting the billet, and the earth beneath the anvil, withstand it without significant change? Solid ground, be it earth or even granite foundation, should have been pulverized by such ferocious impact, sending dust billowing throughout the courtyard, enveloping the entire forge. The anvil itself could very well bend or be utterly ruined by such excessive force.

Uncle Black’s single strike visibly improved the billet, yet the anvil and the ground beneath it showed absolutely no change. Apart from the strong gust of wind raised by the hammer's downward thrust, which blew up some surface dust, not even a single speck of dirt was raised elsewhere.

All the force, in that instant, had been driven completely into the billet, scattering outwards with those vivid, blood-red sparks!

What kind of control was that! Qian Jin shook his head gently. Impossible! Forget seeing how Uncle Black used the Battle Heart awareness in that strike; even if he truly knew the method, it wouldn't be something graspable in one or two minutes.

Uncle Black's forging hammer did not cease its motion. The ten-pound giant hammer danced in his hands like a fluttering butterfly, and the brilliant, dazzling, blood-red flames, like pollen-rich flowers, bloomed time and again, vanishing swiftly each time.

Boom! Another colossal sound erupted. It was like hundreds of bolts of lightning striking the courtyard simultaneously and exploding, or perhaps thousands of fierce tigers issuing their unchallengeable, kingly roar at the same instant. The sound was dozens of times louder than the first blow.

Qian Jin watched the sparks bursting from the metal. This time, the glow was no longer the seductive, blood-red hue of intense heat, but blue! An indescribable, eerie blue—the pale blue flames that only appear on the outermost layer when fire reaches its absolute highest temperature! These blue flames burst forth violently from within the metal!

Heart... Was this what it looked like when forging with the Battle Heart awareness? Qian Jin blinked hard. If the previous strike had been aimed at an opponent instead of an anvil, what would have been the result? Qian Jin subconsciously flexed his arm, rotating his wrist nimbly, instinctively simulating a combat scenario, but realized replicating the method used in that strike was far from easy.

"What is the Battle Heart?" Black set down the forging hammer, his eyes, usually murky, now blazing with an intensity sharper than any honed blade. Even a man as razor-sharp as Enrak seemed dull when compared to the gaze of Uncle Black.

In that instant, Qian Jin felt Black’s look pierce directly through his eyes, sinking into his heart and brain. He felt as though his entire being had been completely seen through. "The heart is not solely for beating to sustain life," Black said softly, looking at the irregularly pulsing flames. "The heart also thinks. When you acted, did your heart think?" Think? Thinking with the heart? Qian Jin instinctively raised a hand to touch the area over his own heart. To think with the Battle Heart? How does one think?

"Your heart is empty," Black pointed toward Qian Jin's chest. "If you want to know how to use the Battle Heart, go to Enrak's Battle Qi room again." Enrak's Battle Qi room? Qian Jin scratched his head in confusion, looking at Black. Since the uncle clearly understood the Battle Heart, why send him on a roundabout journey to find Teacher Enrak in that room? Why not just teach him right here?

"Perspective..." Black used the fire from the forge to light his pipe. "It must be broad. One must never assume they can learn everything from a single person." (Requesting next month's votes to fill the empty heart. To be continued. For the next chapter, please log in for more. Support the author, support legitimate reading!)