In the past, Xiao Yan only knew how to bury himself in cultivation. Although he had trained himself into a powerful martial artist, he never had an actual opponent to test himself against.
Now, swinging this iron hammer weighing over a hundred catties not only made him understand his own body better, but also accelerated his cultivation speed.
During the process of swinging the hammer, Xiao Yan clearly felt that the inner force constantly circulating within his body would be suppressed to some degree—the circulation would slow down.
However, under this kind of suppression, the newly cultivated inner force became extremely pure.
And when he put down the hammer, the flow of his inner force would significantly speed up.
This reminded Xiao Yan of the weighted training from Dragon Ball, especially the weighted clothing worn by Son Goku.
"If I could get a set of those for myself and wear it while training, the benefits would be enormous."
"First, my inner force would become incredibly pure. Then, after adapting to the weights, although the speed of inner force cultivation might not improve much, the purity would be several times what it was before."
But creating such weighted clothing was not very realistic at the moment.
Aside from cultivating inner force, another benefit was that by exhausting a lot of physical strength and nourishing the body with inner force, the effects of cultivating the Xuantian Body Refining Art also saw a significant boost.
Even though Xiao Yan tried to hold back, his strength was simply too overwhelming. Within six days, he had finished striking ten thousand times.
Xiao Yan's terrifying strength and persistence greatly surprised Tang Hao. In his view, even if his son was born with divine strength, he shouldn't be able to last more than three days.
But this son not only hammered the scrap iron ten thousand times, he even removed quite a bit of impurities from it.
Also, the handle of his hammer was intentionally rough to prevent slipping. Repeated swinging and friction with the palm would definitely cause severe damage to his hands.
Yet after several days, Tang Hao found that although Xiao Yan was forging every day, those little hands of his were still tender and delicate—almost no different from when he was a baby.
Little did Tang Hao know that ever since childhood, Xiao Yan had been cultivating the modified Xuantian Body Refining Art derived from the Black Jade Hand. Even without using inner force, his physical body was already far beyond ordinary.
Another five days passed like this, and the large iron lump full of impurities had finally been hammered down to the size of a fist, with its material reaching the quality of refined iron.
"Tang Hao, you damn old dog, you're really dumb—there's refined iron lying around and you don't use it, insisting on this garbage material."
Xiao Yan raised his hand to wipe away the sweat from the fire's heat, panting heavily as he pondered what kind of hidden weapon he should forge with this refined iron.
"This material didn't come easy—I need to make good use of it."
"Tang Hao, are you busy?" Just as Xiao Yan was deep in thought, he suddenly heard an elderly voice from outside.
It was afternoon. Tang Hao was working, crafting farm tools. Upon hearing the voice, he only responded with a grunt.
Xiao Yan, curious, walked out of his room. He saw an old man who appeared to be in his sixties, tall and skinny, but full of energy. His clothes were clean and neat, his hair meticulously combed. Compared to Tang Hao, he was like the complete opposite.
Xiao Yan recognized this man well—he was Old Jack, the village chief of Holy Soul Village.
This village chief was a kind man, deeply respected by everyone. It was thanks to his help that Xiao Yan got to eat rabbit meat.
Moreover, with his help, Xiao Yan was able to sell rabbit pelts and build up a small stash of money.
"Xiao San, come here. Let Grandpa have a look at you." Old Jack waved to Xiao Yan.
"Hello, Grandpa Jack." Xiao Yan smiled and walked over.
"If it weren't for Grandpa Jack helping me, even if I didn't die under Tang Hao's torment, there's no way I could've grown so strong."
"Something you need, Village Chief?" Tang Hao spoke coldly.
Old Jack was actually only a few years older than him, yet always spoke as if he were a generation above—it annoyed him endlessly!
After all, he was once a renowned powerhouse in the soul master world—the mighty Clear Sky…
But Old Jack was long used to Tang Hao's attitude and couldn't be bothered to argue:"Tang Hao, little San is almost six years old now. He should take part in the soul awakening ceremony this year."
Tang Hao glanced at Xiao Yan and calmly replied, "Then let him participate. When is it?"
"Three days from now. I'll come pick him up then." Old Jack replied.
To him, Tang Hao was just a drunk. If it weren't for the fact that the farm tools he crafted were useful and cheap, he would've been kicked out of the village long ago.
And if not for little San cooking every day, Tang Hao probably would've starved to death by now.
Counting on him to bring the kid to the awakening ceremony? The sun would rise from the west first.
Tang Hao gave a small nod and ignored the village chief after that.
Xiao Yan, however, was intrigued:"Grandpa Jack, this Martial Soul Awakening Ceremony… will it really let me obtain a Martial Soul?"
From the conversations around the village, Xiao Yan had learned that in this world called Douluo Continent, everyone had their own unique martial soul, but only a rare few could actually cultivate and become soul masters.
This rarity made soul masters the most prestigious profession on the continent.
Martial souls were divided into two major types: tool souls and beast souls.
As the names implied, souls that took the form of tools were tool souls; those that took the form of animals were beast souls.
In comparison, tool souls had a broader range, and most people possessed them. However, the proportion of tool souls that couldn't be cultivated was also much higher than that of beast souls.
Just knowing these scattered bits of information made Xiao Yan extremely curious—what would his martial soul be? How would his cultivated inner force and martial arts compare to the soul masters?
When the topic of martial souls came up, Old Jack suddenly turned serious:"Each of us has our own martial soul. Around the age of six, we undergo the Martial Soul Awakening Ceremony. Once awakened, our soul can enhance certain aspects of us. Even the most ordinary martial soul offers some benefits."
"If you happen to awaken an exceptional martial soul and can cultivate it, you'll become a noble soul master."
"The awakening ceremony happens only once a year—I can't let you miss it. And this year, a steward from the Spirit Hall in Nuoding City will personally come to help our village's children awaken their souls. That steward is a soul master of the Great Soul Master level."
Xiao Yan clearly noticed that when Old Jack said the words "Great Soul Master," his eyes shone with envy and reverence.
Having always been wary of Tang Hao the old dog for being a powerful soul master, Xiao Yan now heard a clear rank and immediately asked:"Is a Great Soul Master very powerful?"
Old Jack was clearly very patient with Xiao Yan. In his heart, this boy was the most sensible child in the entire village. It was hard to imagine how such a sweet boy came from a father like that.
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