Blacksmith: The Tempering Begins With One’s Flesh - Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Tempering His Heart

Turning back to the path overrun with beasts, Lin Feng had started out after the soldiers but had gotten to the destination ahead of them.

The city defense corp and the regional guard had sent some scouts to set up barriers to stall the beasts, but Lin Feng was running through the various camps at top speed right now.

The Blue Crystal Sword he was holding emitted a clear glow. Every time he charged into the beast tide, his sword would rise and fall, taking several beasts with it.

He knew that the beast tide attacked according to the plans of their mastermind.

The leaders of this small-scale wave from Whitewing he was facing were merely a few Grade-3 demonic beasts.

All he had to do was kill those Grade-3 demonic beasts, and the wave attacking Whitestar would fall apart without much effort.

After he killed the Grade-3 beast kings, Lin Feng saw the other beasts fly into a frenzy, losing their formation. He heaved a sigh of relief.

Putting some power into his legs, he borrowed the strength from his Grade-3 muscles and bones to leap into the air. Before he knew it, he was already treading over the bodies of low-grade beasts and heading back toward one of Whitestar’s barricades.

There, a few scouts from the city defense corp saw him, their eyes sparkling bright.

“I know you, sir! You’re the new blacksmith from Whitewing, Master Lin Feng!”

One of the skinnier male soldiers thumped his chest respectfully when he saw Lin Feng retreating from the battlefront.

Another officer gave Lin Feng a slight military salute as well.

“Keep reinforcing the defenses. The beasts’ leaders died here, so they probably won’t dare to attack Whitestar so callously again any time soon, but there’s no guarantee they won’t suddenly find a new leader rising within their midsts someday.”

Lin Feng retreated toward the city, giving the members of the city defense corp advice as he went.

By now, the city defense corp had set up wooden thorns and stakes to form a barricade about ten miles outside of Whitestar.

Lin Feng had given these safety measures a glance while he was killing the Grade-3 beasts earlier. Although the city defense corp was decently-organized, such a hastily-put together defense would not really make much of an impact if the beast tide truly attacked in full force.

Lin Feng’s mind continued whirring. Soon, he was back at Whitestar.

To his surprise, he had barely stepped into the city when he saw the city defense corp’s two captains approaching him at once.

There were many Whitestar civilians lining the sides of the road too.

“Master Lin Feng!”

Acht was closer to Lin Feng, so he strode up to the blacksmith and pointed outside Whitestar, saying,

“Most of the dust cloud we saw from the storming beast tide is gone. Did you really defeat them all on your own?

“There were… at least a thousand of them!”

Lin Feng waved him off relatively calmly, sweeping his gaze across the crowd before saying softly,

“The defense corp had a good set-up. Even before I arrived, the beasts had been separated into five groups by the wooden stake traps.

“All I did was defeat a few Grade-3 demonic beasts in each camp. It’s nothing nearly as crazy as you’re thinking.”

However, Lin Feng’s words made the soldiers’ expressions even more complicated. Even Acht and Captain Holland felt their faces twitch.

What kind of a creature was a Grade-3 demonic beast?

Even one of those could engage a troop of more than twenty defense corp soldiers into a long battle of attrition.

However, Lin Feng had barely been gone for two hours at most, yet he managed to kill at the Grade-3 beasts in each of the five areas.

Could he actually be from the Warriors’ Association? Perhaps smithing was just his hobby?

Everyone’s minds ran rife with speculation. Lin Feng saw that they had all gone inexplicably silent, and though he could not read their minds, he could still eventually guess that they were stunned by his power.

He gestured out of the city, addressing Holland,

“Captain Holland, the stakes can scatter the charging beasts, yes, but if they gather again afterward, they’ll only come back stronger.

“We should use this rare opportunity of respite to reinforce the defenses. Starting from tomorrow, I’ll have Brent send ten kilos of metal caltrops to the outposts. The soldiers can use those to strengthen the defenses.”

As soon as Lin Feng said that, Captain Holland had respectfully taken off his helmet and thumped his left chest with his right fist abruptly.

“Whitestar will not forget what you did for us, sir!

Lin Feng walked through the adoring masses and returned to his smithy, where Brent had been waiting for a while now. The boy had not even packed his things yet.

When Lin Feng walked in through the door, Brent was clearly overjoyed.

Their gazes met, and both of them felt the feeling of family between them.

Over the next few days, Lin Feng’s smithy became unprecedentedly busy.

However, instead of losing himself in his forging, Lin Feng was busy socializing with all sorts of people from all over Whitestar.

After he single-handedly saved Whitestar from a beast tide attack, the citizens of Whitestar brought him tons of daily necessities almost every day.

Lin Feng and Brent were both used to a simple life, so they were ill at ease when faced with all this sudden care and attention.

At first, these visitors only brought things like pantry staples, but after a few days, someone even began giving him precious materials worth hundreds or even a thousand gold pieces.

Lin Feng was quite discomfited by it all.

As a result, he simply sent them all away and did not accept a single gift.

That night, Lin Feng sat alone in front of his empty forging table. His eyes were closed, his eyelids rippling every few seconds.

He was using God-level Forgery to simulate a situation.

The consecutive battles with several Grade-3 beast kings from before had taught him something.

Aside from his muscles and bones, his organs were equally important in a battle.

If he could find a way to reinforce his organs to Grade-3 quality as well, he would have truly become a rare and priceless weapon.

However, it was extremely difficult to reinforce his organs. He tried using the upgraded Holy Flame to temper his muscles from the inside, but the effect was minuscule.

“My heart…”

Lin Feng slowly opened his eyes, those words leaving his lips. At the same time, he tapped his chest and a plume of gentle white fire lit up the next second.

Next, he tried to use all of the different rare materials in his smithy to temper his heart with the help of the Holy Flame. However, four hours later, when the horizon was beginning to brighten, he found that he had not made much progress at all.

“Reinforcing my heart will probably require more materials than I used on my bones and muscle put together…”