“Look closely at how I am doing it. Every strike has to hit the right spot, at the right angle, and with the right amount of energy. As long as one of these aspects is off, the result will not be ideal.”


    “Understood, Senior Martial Brother Tian,” Zhao Yunxiao nodded profusely.


    Before his eyes, a senior martial brother was hammering away while giving him a brief explanation of what he was doing.


    “Don’t do it blindly as well. Look for spots of non-uniformity, be it in terms of shape, thickness, gas bubbles, grain structure, or anything else,” Tian Mingre explained. “As a smith, you don’t hammer for the sake of hammering. There must be a reason behind every strike.”


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    That was still a failure in his eyes.


    “Perhaps Senior Martial Brother Tian is a little tired today. Going by your usual standard, the result would definitely have been better,” Zhao Yunxiao said.


    “Haha, perhaps you are right. I do feel a little tired after spending too much energy on recent activities,” Tian Mingre agreed hesitantly. “Perhaps I should have waited to recover before coming.”


    “I did learn a lot from Senior Martial Brother Tian today though. For that I am grateful,” Zhao Yunxiao clasped his fists towards Tian Mingre in gratitude.


    “Right... that’s all that matters,” Tian Mingre nodded in satisfaction. “As long as you managed to benefit just a little, this is not a completely wasted trip. Well then, I shall take my leave now that I am done here. Can I trouble you to clean up here?”


    “Don’t worry, that’s my job after all,” Zhao Yunxiao nodded. “Farewell, Senior Martial Brother Tian.”


    Now that his work here was done, Tian Mingre promptly left the Forge while Zhao Yunxiao remained to clean up the used furnace room.


    Unlike the last time he was here, this was a busy shift at the Forge.


    By the time he finished preparing the room for the next session, he did not have much time to rest before light knocking came from outside the door.


    “Please come in,” Zhao Yunxiao called out while opening the door.


    But when the door opened, Zhao Yunxiao could not help but feel surprised.


    “Senior Martial Brother Nie? This...!” Zhao Yunxiao blinked blankly as he saw a familiar face at the door.


    It was Nie Hanchang, the same person who had managed to excavate a relatively large amount of grimiron ore from Yellowshell Mine a few days ago.


    Zhao Yunxiao was still wondering what happened to the ore over the past few days since it did not appear on the market, but now he finally knew where it was.


    Nie Hanchang had a cart by his side, on which the same large piece of grimiron ore was placed.


    So he had been keeping it with him these few days...


    “Greetings, Junior Martial Brother Zhao. May I enter?” Nie Hanchang asked.


    “Sure,” Zhao Yunxiao quickly stepped aside to allow Nie Hanchang through the door.


    Nie Hanchang nervously pushed his piece of grimiron ore in. “I guess you will be helping me with the furnace fire?”


    “Yes...” Zhao Yunxiao felt the corner of his lips twitch. “Is this Senior Martial Brother Nie’s first time at the Forge?”


    “That’s right...” Nie Hanchang said awkwardly. “I will be relying on Junior Martial Brother Zhao for your guidance then.”


    “It’s my job, so I will naturally help. But are you sure about this, Senior Martial Brother Nie?” Zhao Yunxiao could not help but ask. “From the looks of it, are you intending to use the grimiron ore for today’s smithing?”


    “That’s right,” Nie Hanchang nodded. “I am here to use the grimiron ore to forge a bow!”


    Speaking of this, Zhao Yunxiao could feel Nie Hanchang’s nervousness dispelling, replaced by a strong sense of determination.


    Zhao Yunxiao might not be very close to Nie Hanchang, but he had still heard a thing or two about the latter.


    Since young, Nie Hanchang had always been wholeheartedly pursuing the path of the bow and arrow as his main weapon of choice.


    Even when everyone advised him to abandon the bow and arrow to adopt more generic weapons so that he could receive better advice from his seniors, Nie Hanchang refused to do so, choosing to walk the difficult path instead.


    It had not been bringing him particularly great results, but Nie Hanchang continued to insist on his ways with a zealous passion.


    “Is that so?” Zhao Yunxiao sighed inwardly after seeing that Nie Hanchang seemed firm on his decision. “All right then. Rest assured, I will definitely do my best to support you well. I wish you success!”


    “Thank you, Junior Martial Brother Zhao. Let’s start forging this then!” Nie Hanchang felt encouraged by Zhao Yunxiao’s words.


    “What would you like the temperature to be?” Zhao Yunxiao asked.


    “What should it be to soften the grimiron?” Nie Hanchang asked in return.


    “You want to soften the grimiron? Now?” Zhao Yunxiao blinked in confusion.


    “Isn’t that how you forge metal?” Nie Hanchang was confused by Zhao Yunxiao’s question.


    “Shouldn’t you be starting with smelting down the ore to retrieve the actual metal component?” Zhao Yunxiao asked.


    “Oh. Is that how it’s done?” Nie Hanchang revealed a look of surprise. “How do we go about doing this?”


    Zhao Yunxiao: “...”


    Do you have any idea at all about what you are doing?


    “It’s not that I want to say this, Senior Martial Brother Nie. I know you are determined, but you don’t seem prepared for this at all,” Zhao Yunxiao said with a sigh. “Instead of wasting your time and this precious piece of grimiron ore, why don’t you go back and research a bit more first? In fact, I would choose to sell the ore if I were you. That way, you can simply buy a bow with the sect points that you get from the sale. Isn’t that a more reliable method? There’s really no need to forge the bow yourself, is there?”


    In reality, it did not matter to Zhao Yunxiao what others decide to do with their time and resources.


    After all, it was not as though he would be penalised as a duty disciple simply because the visiting disciple failed the smithing process.


    If not because he could relate to Nie Hanchang, Zhao Yunxiao would not have bothered with saying all these and risk offending the other party.


    Just like Zhao Yunxiao, Nie Hanchang was an outer disciple who had been in the sect for many years.


    </a> Over the years, Zhao Yunxiao could still see and relate to the struggles that Nie Hanchang had gone through, as well as the effort that he had to put into improving himself.


    And because of this, he especially could not bear to see Nie Hanchang waste away what could be considered a miraculous jackpot in the form of the rare quality grimiron ore!


    He would have nothing to say if Nie Hanchang had made the necessary preparations for this.