Douro Continent

Chapter 12 Twin Martial Souls (Part 3)

Tang San had never seen his father's expression so complex. A variety of emotions flashed across Tang Hao's face. After a long while, he slowly uttered a sentence, "Remember, in your future, you must use the hammer in your left hand to protect the grass in your right. Forever."

Tang San nodded, puzzled. Tang Hao stood up and went back into the inner room without looking back.

While preparing lunch, Tang San pondered the martial spirit world he had encountered today. Twin martial spirits seemed to be rare in this world; otherwise, his father wouldn't have been so surprised. It appeared that his own hammer martial spirit had greatly affected him.

For him, the relationship between his martial soul and the Xuan Tian Gong was more important. If that soul ring was the key to his inability to break through the Xuan Tian Gong, then he had to find a way to get a soul ring to test it out, no matter what.

During lunch, Tang Hao appeared very quiet, and even his appetite seemed to be much smaller than usual. His gaze kept falling on Tang San, as if he was hesitating about something.

After lunch, Tang San was about to clean up the dishes as usual when Tang Hao stopped him.

"Let's pack up later. Little San, tell me, do you want to become a Soul Master?"

Tang San paused for a moment, looked at Tang Hao, unwilling to deceive his father. After hesitating for a moment, he nodded.

Tang Hao sighed, his face looking even older. "In the end, you still have to choose to walk this path." He only said this one sentence before returning to his room.

Tang San noticed that when Tang Hao sighed, his expression contained disappointment, but more so, a sense of relief. He understood that his father seemed to be hiding many things in his heart.

After clearing away the dishes, Tang San returned to his room to continue his work, the rhythmic clanging of the forging hammer against the iron block echoing through the room. Although he didn't know when he would be able to forge the iron to the fist size Tang Hao had requested, this forging method was quite beneficial for improving his mastery of the Mysterious Heaven Skill, and also had good effects on his physical training. Tang San had begun experimenting with using as little Mysterious Heaven Skill internal energy as possible to swing the hammer, so that he could sustain each consecutive strike for a longer duration.

When the afternoon's hammering had reached over three hundred strokes, and it seemed that some impurities had been removed from the pig iron, the curtain was lifted, and Tang Hao walked in. He didn't seem to have forged any farm tools this afternoon; at least, Tang San hadn't heard the familiar hammering sounds.

"Dad." Tang San looked at his father, and the iron hammer in his hand unconsciously stopped.

Tang Hao gestured for him to continue, then walked to the side and stood still, not saying a word, just watching him.

Tang San then continued swinging his hammer. By this time, his clothes were soaked with sweat. With his current internal strength, he was not yet able to adapt to the temperature, let alone the fact that this was definitely heavy physical labor.

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang... The sound of hammering rang out continuously. Tang San's small body was disproportionate to the iron hammer in his hand, but every time the iron hammer was swung, it was powerful and forceful.

Tang Hao thought to himself, "With innate divine strength and full innate soul power, no wonder he can wield a hammer at such a young age. Old Jack might be right. We shouldn't let our own despondency affect this child's development. Let him walk his own path from now on."

Seeing Tang San sweating profusely, Tang Hao finally made up his mind.

"Stop for a moment," Tang Hao said.

Tang San put down the iron hammer in his hand, slightly out of breath, and quietly activated the Xuan Tian Gong within his body to regulate his breathing and restore his strength.

Tang Hao walked up to Tang San, took the iron hammer from his hand, and looked at the red-hot iron block in the furnace. "If you keep hammering it like this, you won't be able to make it the size of a fist even after a year."

Tang San looked up at his tall father. "Then what should I do?"

Tang Hao said coldly, "Tell me, when you swing the forging hammer to strike it, what part of your body exerts force first?"

Tang San thought for a moment and said, "It should be the waist. Starting from the waist, it moves the back, and then the arms to swing the forging hammer?"

Tang Hao neither confirmed nor denied Tang San's statement, and continued to ask, "Besides the brain, what is the most important part of the human body?"

"The heart," Tang San answered without hesitation. The heart, like the brain, is a site of instant death, but while the brain is protected by the skull, the heart is only covered by skin and muscle. As a disciple of the Tang Clan, he was very familiar with human anatomy; piercing the enemy's heart with a hidden weapon was the most effective and simplest method of killing.

Tang Hao paused for a moment before saying, "Then tell me, how many hearts does a person have?"

"Huh?" Tang San looked at him in surprise, somewhat bewildered. Do I even need to ask how many hearts a person has?

"Answer me." Tang Hao looked at him coldly, and the pressure from his physique and aura made Tang San feel a little breathless.

"One."

Tang Hao shook his head and said, "No, you're wrong. Remember, a person has three hearts, not one."

"Three?" Tang San stared at Tang Hao in disbelief, not understanding what he meant.

Tang Hao reversed the forging hammer in his hand and touched Tang San's two calves with the handle. "Here. The muscles in a person's two calves are like the second and third hearts. If a person wants to unleash their full strength, then it must be the result of all three hearts working simultaneously. Therefore, when exerting force, it is not the waist that is the starting point. The three hearts are the starting point."

"When your heart is pounding rapidly in your chest, the power starts from your calves, travels up to your thighs, through your waist, back, and arms, and is finally released. That's a full-force strike. The heart generates the power, and the waist acts as the axis. Watch."

(End of this chapter)