Douluo Continent III Haotian Wulin

The forging room was very quiet.

The fire in the furnace had been extinguished, leaving only a layer of warm red embers flickering deep within the furnace opening, casting shifting shadows on the metal patina that had accumulated over the years on the walls and iron racks. The blood sacrifice just now seemed to have left few traces, except for the shallow wound on Tang Wulin's palm and the clearly different Heavy Star Hammer within his body, proving that a piece of Thousand-Refined Heavy Silver had indeed been fed into this Martial Soul.

"Release them," Mang Tian suddenly said.

Tang Wulin was slightly taken aback, then nodded.

A flash of silver light.

The sinking hammer fell silently into his palm.

It still looked the same—short, heavy, and entirely black, not like any imposing and powerful weapon spirit, but more like an ancient hammer worn down by time. But if you got closer and looked more closely, you would find that it was completely different from yesterday.

Deep within the hammer, between the few faint dark gold patterns that were originally barely visible, there is now an extremely light layer of silver-gray ripples.

The pattern wasn't bright or prominent; it seemed as if it had been washed into the iron by the tide, sinking to the deepest depths, only occasionally flashing when the furnace fire flickered, revealing a hint of quiet, profound coldness. It didn't make the sinking star hammer more ornate; instead, it made the hammer look older, heavier, and more like something that had been pressed down at the bottom of the sea for many years.

When Tang Wulin held it, his first feeling wasn't "how much heavier it is".

Rather, it is "more complete".

That feeling is hard to describe.

It was as if what he had held before was merely a hammer that was inherently heavy; but now, the hammer possessed a layer of bone and texture that truly belonged to it. Like something that was meant to be this way, finally, in his hands, the missing part was filled in.

"Bring out a piece of metal," Mang Tian said.

Tang Wulin immediately responded and took a piece of red iron essence that had been prepared and heated from a nearby shelf. It was just a small sample, the temperature was just right, and its surface shone with a dark red heat.

He placed the sample steadily on the forging table, and just as he was about to swing the hammer, Mang Tian raised his hand and pressed it down.

"Don't rush to strike." He stared at the heavy star hammer, his eyes deep and unfathomable. "Listen first."

Tang Wulin nodded.

He raised the Heavy Star Hammer and, as he usually did when testing the hammer, gently tapped the piece of red iron.

"bite--"

The sound was crisp, with a slight vibration characteristic of hot metal.

But before the first sound had even faded, the second and third sounds followed closely from the same spot.

"Ding, ding, ding."

The three sounds were connected, extremely fast and extremely soft, yet clearly distinguishable.

Tang Wulin's hand stiffened for a moment.

It wasn't that he knocked twice more.

He was certain that he had only landed one blow.

The forging room suddenly became even quieter.

Even Tang Ziran sensed something was wrong and subconsciously took half a step forward.

"Try again." Mang Tian's voice was even lower than before, but his eyes brightened.

Tang Wulin took a breath, suppressing the sudden strange feeling that arose in his heart, and raised the hammer again, but only lightly tapped it.

"Ding, ding, ding."

It was still the third tone.

The same location, the same landing point, the same test hammer strike, naturally produced a double and triple echo.

Tang Wulin finally raised his head.

"teacher……"

This time, before he could finish speaking, Mang Tian spoke in a deep voice:

"Heavy blow."

Tang Wulin's eyes narrowed.

The next moment, he put away all the gentleness of the test hammer, flipped the heavy star hammer from his wrist, and swung it up with the strength of his shoulders, back, waist and legs, and smashed it down heavily!

"when--!"

The first booming sound suddenly exploded.

Immediately following the hammer shadow, two fainter and faster afterimages were forcibly created.

It wasn't like an illusion; it was more like the first hammer itself, after falling, being forcibly pulled back twice from its momentum by something.

"Clang! Clang!"

The two subsequent explosions were almost immediately followed by the first one, separated by only a hair's breadth, yet their force truly penetrated the piece of red iron essence.

Three voices in one.

Three hammers in the same position.

Where there was originally only enough space to leave a single hammer mark, three layers sank in the blink of an eye, the metal surface undulating rapidly like water, and then emitted a muffled, short groan.

Tang Wulin himself was stunned.

He looked down at the heavy hammer in his palm, then at the sample on the platform that had been crushed by the triple hammer force, and felt a slight numbness in his palm. But within that numbness was an indescribable clarity—as if the hammer had finally grown its true edge.

"This is..." he opened his mouth.

Mang Tian, ​​however, had already finished the sentence.

"Stacked hammer effect".

When he said those four words, his tone was not heavy, even flat. But if you listened carefully, you could hear a very rare fluctuation beneath that calm surface.

Tang Wulin stared at him blankly.

"Stacking hammers?"

Mang Tian didn't explain immediately. Instead, he stepped forward and pressed the triple hammer marks on the sample. The heat hadn't dissipated yet, but the surface had been pressed very deeply, and the edges were tightly closed, showing no sign of dissipating the force.

He withdrew his hand and looked up at Tang Wulin.

"The so-called 'stacked hammer' means that when a hammer falls, the momentum continues. The metal itself resonates and rebounds in an instant, adding two more layers of momentum to the original hammer blow."

"It's not an illusion, not a feint, but the real force of two hammer blows landing."

"The second layer is about 70% of the first hammer blow. The third layer takes another 50%. When the three hammer blows are stacked on one point, if controlled well, the effect of a single forging far surpasses that of an ordinary person."

At this point, Mang Tian paused, his gaze returning to the Sinking Star Hammer, and a subtle, deep envy finally surfaced in his eyes.

"These are top-notch special effects."

"Moreover, it's the perfect special effect for a hammer shape."

Tang Wulin gripped the Sinking Star Hammer, his fingers unconsciously tightening slightly.

He certainly knew that the word "top-quality" carried weight, but he still didn't fully understand just how heavy that weight was.

Mang Tian glanced at him, as if seeing through his confusion, and coldly snorted.

"Don't even mention you," he said. "Even I have never forged a thousand-times-forged hammer with stacked hammers."

Tang Ziran, who was listening nearby, was stunned for a moment and subconsciously looked at her old friend.

Mang Tian knew better than anyone else who he was. This man was arrogant and sharp-tongued. It was rare to hear him say "not bad" on ordinary days, but now he had even said something like "I've never forged one before." This was beyond ordinary praise.

After hearing his teacher's words, Tang Wulin felt as if he had been gently bumped by something.

So... things have gotten this good?

Mang Tian hadn't finished speaking yet.

"The reason why a normal blacksmith's first masterpiece must be made through blood sacrifice is because the first piece is most likely to develop the most intimate and primal special effects. After the blood sacrifice, it becomes connected to the blacksmith's bloodline, and these special effects will be pushed to their extreme."

"Therefore, the most important piece of a thousand-times forging for most blacksmiths in their lifetime is often their first one. And for this reason, they often forge that piece of thousand-times forging into their own forging hammer, which accompanies them throughout their lives."

As he said this, his gaze fell on the Sinking Star Hammer in Tang Wulin's hand, and his tone softened slightly.

"You're different from others. You didn't forge the first thousand-refinement item into an outer hammer; instead, you fed it directly into your martial soul."

"In other words, this stacked hammer effect is no longer attached to an external object, but has grown into your martial soul itself."

"No one can take it away even if they want to."

Tang Wulin's heart suddenly warmed.

He looked down at the hammer in his hand, as if only now did he truly understand what he had just gained.

It's not a pair of forging hammers, nor a single material.

Rather, it's a capability that will continue to accompany him throughout his life.

"Teacher..." he began softly, "Does this mean that every time I forge something, I can use one hammer blow as three?"

Mang Tian glanced at him, as if he wanted to laugh but managed to suppress it.

"You wish!"

"The special effects are there, but the control is still far from perfect. You're only at the initial stage now. After the hammer falls, two layers will naturally stack up, which is the metal and the martial soul absorbing the force themselves. When you can control these three layers at will, whether you want one layer or three layers, and even deliberately stagger the landing points of the second and third layers, then you'll be considered to have truly mastered it."

After saying that, he added:

"However, even at this point, you're already way ahead of everyone else."

As soon as he said that, Tang Wulin could no longer suppress the glint in his eyes.

He looked at the sample on the forging table, then looked down at his hammer. A fire seemed to be burning in his chest, growing brighter and brighter as something burned within him.

He suddenly remembered the journey he had taken.

The unremarkable little black hammer when his martial soul awakened, the day he swung it in the workshop until his arms ached, the pieces of the most ordinary metal he hammered, the silver light that broke through the furnace fire last night, and the triple hammering sound that even he himself did not expect tonight.

It seems that everything that seems insignificant in the end gradually reveals the answer to him.

He is not without options.

He simply followed a path, never someone else's.

"Try again," Mang Tian suddenly said.

Tang Wulin was taken aback.

"Stop daydreaming." Mang Tian's voice turned cold. "Your top-notch special effects won't automatically stabilize just because you're happy for a little while. Practice them while they're still hot."

"yes!"

Tang Wulin answered very quickly.

This time, he wasn't testing the waters, but rather raising the hammer again with a straightforward excitement that only a young man possesses.

The first strike was still a triple strike.

The second time, it was the same.

On the third strike, he subconsciously began to try to catch the moment when the two afterimages appeared.

It's not about seeing, it's about feeling.

It felt as if, after the hammer fell, the residual force was "carried" up by the damp ripples deep within the hammer body, and how it was pressed back to the same point in an extremely short instant.

Stacked hammers are not simply echoes.

More like a trend.

One wave crashes over another, one layer upon another.

Thinking of this, Tang Wulin suddenly paused slightly.

tidal.

Yes.

The sublimation properties of the thousand-refined silver are inherently like the tides, and now they have been fed into the sinking star hammer. That layer of silvery-gray tide patterns not only makes the hammer heavier and more stable, but also brings in the meaning of "layering".

Once the hammer blows, the momentum continues unabated, like two dark waves that surge back after the tide crashes against the shore.

No wonder it's a stacked hammer.

No wonder the special effects were applied to this hammer.

The light in Tang Wulin's eyes froze completely in that instant.

He finally began to understand.

This wasn't just a matter of "good luck" forging a top-tier effect; rather, it was because the thousand-refined silver, the sinking star hammer, his blood sacrifice, and his martial soul all happened to be on the same page, ultimately resulting in this outcome.

Mang Tian stood aside, watching the boy bring down the hammer one after another. He watched as the triple hammer sounds gradually became smoother and smoother from the initial surprise. The emotions that had been suppressed deep in his eyes finally sank down little by little.

He knew that from this moment on, this child's path of self-improvement was different from that of others.