Initially, Qian Jin relied on the Blacksmith's Breathing Technique while swinging the hammer, but after three hours, his body could no longer draw in the heated air, and his arms began to feel the numbness of fatigue. He was forced to rely purely on his Dou Power to persist.

Another three hours passed, and Qian Jin’s Dou Power was also depleted. This one strike required vastly more effort than before; each hammer impact consumed ten times the Dou Power of his previous attempts.

Fortunately, once his Dou Power was exhausted, the Blacksmith's Breathing Technique became available once more.

“Your Forging Proficiency has increased…”

“Your Blacksmith's Breathing Technique Proficiency has increased…”

“Your Forging Proficiency has increased…”

“Your Blacksmith's Breathing Technique has leveled up…”

The monotonous clang of the hammer rang out, and though the system spirit occasionally chirped a notification, Qian Jin, utterly immersed in the practice of striking, couldn't hear a thing.

In that final hour, Qian Jin's hammer strike finally resembled something decent. He managed hundreds of strikes without breaking a single one. Blake, hidden in a corner, watched Qian Jin’s condition, momentarily so stunned he forgot to light his pipe: “Stop!”

Clang…

The hammer fell. Qian Jin felt utterly dismantled, sprawling onto the ground in a starfish position. This single strike had been a hundred times more exhausting than the previous sharpening exercises. Now, he didn't even have the strength to crush an ant; every muscle in his body was twitching involuntarily. The difficulty of this one strike surpassed everything he had learned before by a thousand, even ten thousand times!

Player: Qian Jin Blacksmith: Level Eight Forging Art: Level Eight Edge Sharpening: Level One Blade Sharpening: Max Level Special Skill: Blacksmith's Breathing Technique, Layer One Dou Power: Level Six Special Skill: ?? Eighteen Hammers (One strike incomplete, Proficiency 1,500.)

“Nine thousand proficiency points for one strike?” Qian Jin managed a wry smile. “What in the world is this hammer? It doesn’t even show a name, and the first strike is this hard to master?”

Closing the status panel, Qian Jin still felt a deep sense of satisfaction. His power in this Endless World was skyrocketing through relentless practice.

“You learned well,” Blake said, sauntering over, clouds of smoke trailing from his pipe. “We still have some time left; I’ll teach you some basic blacksmithing common sense.”

Qian Jin nodded weakly, thinking, Finally, he’s teaching me the basics. These past few days, the more people outside praised him, the more uneasy he felt. He knew absolutely nothing about the fundamental common sense of the blacksmith trade and dared not ask too many questions of others.

“Edge Sharpening, simply put, is an advanced form of Blade Sharpening,” the old man said, plopping down onto the dusty earth without caring how clean the ground was. “As a warrior, you should know that every weapon, or rather, every piece of equipment, is like a person; it has its own lifespan.”

Qian Jin regained some strength and felt that lying down was disrespectful to the elder. He quickly forced himself to sit up and nodded towards Blake. As a warrior student, he had touched upon the study of equipment lifespan in school.

Weapon lifespan meant, for example, that a blade loses its edge after prolonged use and needs resharpening. However, every weapon has a finite number of times it can be sharpened. Once that limit is passed, the weapon is ruined—it dies.

For the same blade, an ordinary blacksmith might sharpen it seven times, but an advanced blacksmith could manage twelve, or even thirteen times!

Warriors must take meticulous care of their equipment and weapons, minimizing repair frequency to preserve the weapon’s lifespan.

“What I am teaching you is Edge Sharpening. It differs from regular sharpening because it can resurrect the deadened edge of a blade or sword,” Blake’s wrinkled face broke into an expression of immense pride. “As a true Forgemaster, you must not only know how to forge and smith, but also how to repair all manner of equipment. Otherwise, are you expected to forge a brand-new weapon every time one breaks?”

“Forgemaster?” Qian Jin swallowed hard in astonishment. He had only heard during the day how prestigious a Forgemaster was in the blacksmithing world. Could he actually become one? If so, he wondered if Old Blacksmith Franlin would faint from shock?

“Yes, if you work hard, you have a chance,” Blake replaced the tobacco in his pipe and took a few pulls over the blazing forge fire. “You are an eighth-level blacksmith now. When you reach Level Ten and pass another advancement assessment, you should be able to become a Forgemaster and learn the basics of weapon forging.”

“Level Ten?” Qian Jin was so excited he almost forgot his exhaustion. “Does that mean Level Ten Refined Iron? I know about that! Rumor has it that the materials for Dou Weapons require Level Ten Refined Iron! Does that mean I might have a chance to forge my own Dou Weapon?”

“Pah! Such limited vision!” Blake spat a glob of thick phlegm onto the ground, glaring at Qian Jin with annoyance. “You know about Dou Weapons? A Dou Weapon forged from Level Ten Refined Iron is, materially speaking, second-rate—no! Third-rate! Actually, it’s bottom-tier junk!”

In the presence of a professional, Qian Jin immediately fell silent, listening intently to Blake’s explanation of Dou Weapons, not daring to let his mind wander. For any warrior, the dream was to possess their own Dou Weapon, perhaps even a set of Dou Armor!

Although any weapon could channel Dou Power, the quality of the weapon determined the efficiency of that channeling. Superior weapons transmitted Dou Qi and Dou Power much faster and helped condense that energy. Furthermore, excessively strong Dou Power might actually vibrate the weapon apart during conduction, making the inherent quality of the weapon even more crucial.

To cater to warriors, weapons and equipment were categorized by quality. Any weapon that met a certain standard of quality could be called a Dou Weapon. The most critical factors included the intrinsic quality of the material, the conductivity for Dou Qi/Dou Power, and the degree of condensation and adhesion.

“A true Dou Weapon should be made from Iron Essence (Tie Jing), not Refined Iron (Jing Tie)!” Blake declared, raising a single finger. “Refined Iron and Iron Essence—the characters are merely reversed, but the difference is monumental. Iron Essence is not something you can forge just by becoming a Forgemaster; it requires highly specialized techniques. Otherwise, even if you are a Forgemaster, crafting Iron Essence relies on pure skill, good luck, and maybe a pile of various metals thrown in to hit the jackpot.”

Qian Jin nodded repeatedly. No wonder Dou Weapons were so expensive.

“There are two ways to create Iron Essence,” Blake continued, a rare spark of excitement lighting up his face as he discussed his specialty. “One method is forging it from a mass of iron—this is called Pure Refined Iron (Chun Jing Tie). The other method involves mixing it with high-grade metals—this is called Iron Essence (Tie Jing).”

“Which one is better?” Qian Jin felt that Blake had opened a window to a world he had never known existed, and he quickly asked, eager to understand these matters.