Battle Skirt

With the slightest misstep, the violent surging blood qi would blow the fragile liquid metal apart into powder—or worse, cause a catastrophic furnace explosion!

How in the world did this kid manage it?!

Zong Yan would stake everything on it.

There probably wasn’t a single person in the entire Great Xia Forgemasters Association capable of doing this!

No!

Even he—a true Saint-tier forgemaster—could never accomplish such a feat!

Lin Xiaoxiao stood some distance away.

The blazing firelight cast a warm glow over her sweet, delicate face.

She couldn’t understand Su Yu’s heaven-defying manipulation of materials.

Nor could she make sense of Zong Yan’s frantic shouts from the side.

All she knew was this:

Su Yu, gripping that massive hammer with an utterly focused expression, every swing brimming with raw power—

He looked incredibly cool.

And incredibly impressive!

Before the forge.

Su Yu’s movements never paused for even a moment.

In his hands, the Mountain-Shaking Hammer seemed to have lost all its weight.

Every strike carried an indescribable beauty, as though it followed the natural order of the Great Dao.

There was none of the wild frenzy of sparks flying everywhere.

None of the ear-splitting clamor.

Only an effortless, flowing smoothness—and a rhythm that seemed to strike straight at the soul.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The unbroken sequence of hammer blows sounded like an ancient, mysterious battle hymn.

Then, suddenly.

Zong Yan’s eyes widened again.

Staring at the metal mass gradually taking shape, his body began to tremble uncontrollably.

“Formation... formation patterns?!”

Zong Yan’s withered finger pointed at the forge table, his voice wavering.

In the world of forging, there was one inviolable rule.

Forging and inscribing formation patterns had to be done separately!

Both tasks were extraordinarily complicated and consumed an immense amount of mental focus.

First, the physical form of the battle armor had to be forged to perfection and allowed to cool into shape.

Only then could the forgemaster retreat to an absolutely silent chamber and carefully inscribe formation patterns into the armor’s interior with a spiritual engraving blade.

To do both at once...

To carve intricate formation patterns, accurate down to the micron, amid the violent vibrations of hammering?

It was simply too easy to make a mistake!

And once a mistake occurred, the formation patterns would clash. At best, the material would be ruined. At worst, the furnace would explode on the spot!

But!

If it could be done successfully, not only would it save an enormous amount of time—

The compatibility between the formation patterns and the battle armor would also reach an unprecedented level of perfection!

And now...

Su Yu was doing the impossible!

He wasn’t using a spiritual engraving blade at all!

With every hammer strike—

Amid the resonating pulses of his blood qi, different frequencies of vibration converged. Complex energy circuits were directly imprinted within the metal itself!

The nimble elegance of wind-element formation patterns.

The heavy solidity of strength formation patterns.

Two utterly different kinds of formation patterns intertwined flawlessly beneath Su Yu’s hammer, without even the slightest trace of conflict!

Not a single mistake!

It was as fluid as drifting clouds and flowing water—smooth to an absurd degree!

Zong Yan felt as though he were about to have a heart attack.

What kind of monster was this kid?!

Faced with such an insanely difficult method of simultaneous forging, he hadn’t paused even once?

Did he really not need to think at all?!

Watching Su Yu swing his hammer with such natural grace, each movement carrying even a faint, ancient resonance of the Dao—

An absurd thought suddenly surfaced in Zong Yan’s mind, making his scalp tingle.

Was this really just some inexperienced young brat?!

This kind of muscle memory, ingrained deep into his bones—this kind of effortless command over materials and inscription patterns, as natural as breathing—could never be explained by mere “talent” alone!

It required the dull, painstaking refinement of countless years, the pounding of innumerable mountains of iron into scrap, before such a grandmaster’s foundation could be forged!

“This kid... don’t tell me he’s been possessed by some ancient forging god who’s lived for thousands—tens of thousands—of years?!”

“He’s not forging at all. He’s like some old monster who’s hammered iron for tens of thousands of years, casually working on pure instinct born of muscle memory!”

How the hell could any human do this?!

Lin Xiaoxiao remained standing obediently where she was.

Her hands were clasped together before her chest, her beautiful eyes fixed unblinkingly on Su Yu.

She still couldn’t understand what she was seeing.

But she could clearly sense that the aura radiating from the armor taking shape was becoming more and more astonishing.

Ten minutes.

Half an hour.

Two hours.

...

Within the entire Extreme Flame Forging Chamber, only the rhythmic clang of Su Yu’s hammer echoed.

“Bzzzz—!”

As Su Yu brought down his final hammer blow—

The power of the fire vein within the Extreme Flame Forging Chamber suddenly contracted inward.

A stream of icy-blue light shot skyward from the forging platform, bathing the entire room in a dreamlike glow!

The armor was complete!

No—more precisely, it was a battle dress.

Since it was made for Lin Xiaoxiao, Su Yu had deliberately shaped it into a light, elegant battle dress tailored to the curves of a woman’s body.

Its entire surface was a deep, rich icy blue, flowing with an exceptionally delicate sheen from its inscription patterns.

The skirt was light and graceful, while the breastplate possessed the heavy, indomitable texture of something utterly unbreakable.

It perfectly balanced speed and defense.

Su Yu set down the Mountain-Shaking Hammer.

Then he slowly let out a long breath.

As he looked at the battle dress on the forging platform, a flicker of surprise passed through his eyes.

With the materials he had prepared, he had only intended to forge a peak War General-grade suit of armor.

But—

He had been in too much of a groove.

The Mountain-Shaking Hammer Zong Yan had lent him conducted vital energy with extraordinary smoothness.

Combined with the chamber’s geothermal fire vein and its supporting inscription patterns, the environment had been practically perfect.

Before he knew it, he had failed to hold back.

He had overperformed.

Zong Yan rushed forward in a single stride.

He moved so fast that he hardly looked like an old man over a hundred years of age.

His hands trembling, he stroked the icy-blue battle dress, which still retained a trace of warmth.

Yet the instant his fingers touched its surface—

Buzz!

As though it possessed a life of its own, the battle dress activated on its own. A visible layer of translucent icy-blue astral energy gradually condensed across its surface!

Zong Yan was struck dumb, as if by lightning!

“This...”

“The inscription patterns are embedded into the very framework! Its vital energy circulates on its own! Protective astral energy?!”

Zong Yan whipped his head around and stared at Su Yu as though he had seen a ghost. His voice cracked completely under the sheer force of his shock, reverberating through the cavernous forging chamber.

“Breakthrough General grade?!”

“This is an entry-level Breakthrough General-grade battle armor?!”

Zong Yan’s mind had completely shut down.

As a Saint-grade forgemaster, he knew better than anyone just how vast the gulf between those two ranks was!

The reason Pojun-tier armor was considered the dividing line for high-grade battle armor was that its composite formations had been completely integrated into the material itself. Not only could it withstand combat of extreme intensity, but it could also resonate with a martial artist’s vital energy, unleashing tangible protective astral energy!

But the problem was...

The materials this kid had used were only basic War General-tier materials!

Mystic Iron Mother, Scarlet Copper Essence—cheap, brittle materials found everywhere. How could they possibly withstand the violent energy circulation of Pojun-tier armor?!

They should have been blasted into dust by the backlash from the formations long ago!

How was this possible?!

Did this comply with the law of conservation of matter in materials science?!

Zong Yan clutched the battle skirt as his entire body began to tremble violently.

A wild thought.

Like weeds, it rapidly sprouted in his mind, instantly consuming all his reason!

Using War General-tier materials, one could forge Pojun-tier armor.

He had forcibly crossed an entire major realm!

Then could that mean...

If they provided this kid with top-grade Nation-Guardian-tier materials...

He could cross that barrier, which was as insurmountable as a heavenly chasm,

and forge the legendary...

Mythic-tier armor that could increase a Martial Emperor’s combat strength tenfold—or even twentyfold?!

Zong Yan’s eyes instantly turned red.

He abruptly spun around and grabbed Su Yu by the shoulders.

The force was so great that his knuckles turned bluish-white.

He stared at Su Yu as though he were looking at the savior of the human race!

“Kid!”

Zong Yan’s voice was hoarse, brimming with fervor.

“You...”

Su Yu shrugged.

“It feels good in the hand.”

“Just a normal performance.”

He turned his head toward Lin Xiaoxiao, who was still standing there in a daze.

Then, with a casual flick of his hand, he tossed over the ice-blue battle skirt radiating Pojun-tier pressure.

“Try it on.”

“See if it fits.”