Douluo Dalu - Volume 01 - Douluo Continent

by Tang Jia San Shao

  The result was obvious, despite Tang San’s age. Adding on Mysterious Heaven skill, that this result was inferior to Tang San was clear, but compared to his previous hits, this effect was even more than could be made with ten before.

  Seeing Tang San’s movement, Tang Hao certainly did not give praise, but in his eyes flashed a trace of an astonished look, Tang San’s work was clearly beyond what he had anticipated. Tang Hao did not expect Tang San to actually master this force emitting method in this short time.

  He also did not know that Tang San had all along painstakingly cultivated Tang sect martial arts, not only having Mysterious Heaven skill foundation, but Controlling Crane Catching Dragon, Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track and additionally Mysterious Jade Hand, making his coordination ability by far surpass others his age. Since his understanding of the body also was not lacking, this strength emitting technique was naturally easy to grasp. Of course, since this is the first time, his wielding was still not skillful.

  “Dad, did I do it right?”

  Tang Hao slowly nodded,

  “You understand the effect of the heart? Humans employ the most muscle precisely in calves, ao the calves are the source of all strength. Use the power of the lower legs well, gathering strength to greatly increase effort.”

  Speaking, Tang Hao walked to the side of the bellows and sat down, and from under the bellows pulling out something forged from pig iron: was two foot pedal like objects. Tang Hao held them to connect under the bellows, and used both his hands to draw the bellows closed,

  “In forging, the effect of the bellows is also especially significant. Fully heated metal can be forged even better, and this can cause its toughness to become even stronger. Any block of metal, even if it is very impure metal, it all also has its own soul. If the temperature is inadequate, and when forging if too much physical strength is used it will shatter. Like that, even if melted and reforged this chunk of metal is still only waste. Therefore, when you use all your strength to hammer an iron chunk, you must maintain its temperature well. Pumping bellows is similarly also using the power of the lower legs. Not only can you as far as possible preserve physical strength, also can cause the bellows effect to reach the greatest temperature.”

  Both feet pressing down on the pedals, he abruptly released his strength. Starting at the legs, the whole body rapidly bounced back, both arms naturally driving the bellows handles to open, legs straightening and bending, again bringing the handles back. Between coming and returning, the bellows operated at full strength. Tang Hao’s movements certainly did not appear swift, but every one brought into play the bellows to the utmost. The muscles on the calf lead down, and as his body with the bellows took on a particular kind of rhythm, flames suddenly leapt up from the centre of the furnace, the iron chunk at once burned a fierce red.

  “You come draw the bellows, according to my movements just now.”

  Tang Hao gave over his seat to Tang San.

  Having previously experienced wielding the iron hammer and carefully observing, Tang San sat on Tang Hao’s previous seat, very quickly grasping the method to work the bellows, although still somewhat jerky. But he attentively took note of that every time strength released it started from the lower legs. Sure enough as Tang Hao said, not only did he save very much of his physical strength, but the result was compared to before was also he did not know how much better.

  Tang Hao held Tang San’s forging hammer, and coolly said:

  “Using all your strength in wielding the hammer to forge can fully bring your physical strength into use. But equally, with the hammer’s descent, the force from the rebound can create a very great load on you. In the event of being without a suitable guiding method, it is easy to injure yourself, and it can also cause part of the physical strength to be wasted, unable to act on the metal. Following my movement you must attentively observe, this is the key to whether you can beat this lump of pig iron into fist size in a short time.”

  Inhaling deeply, Tang Hao’s eyes focused. Following Tang San’s working the bellows, the whole iron lump already burned an intense red, blazing flames leapt up, causing the inside of the room to grow exceedingly scorching hot.

  Part 5

  As Tang Hao moved, his motion did not seem to be any different from before, from leg to waist, waist to back, back to arms, with a clanging sound the iron hammer pounded down on the iron chunk.

  Just as the iron hammer bounced up from the reaction force, Tang Hao abruptly made a turn, with the lower legs emitting power as before. The rebound swing of the hammer already rising, he wielded it in a circle overhead, bringing a sharp sound of wind, and again came a loud sound as it struck iron chunk. Not only was the speed of this strike remarkable, but the physical force was also stronger compared to the first.

  The iron hammer rebounded up high, and Tang Hao’s movement with the magnitude of the iron hammer’s rise seemingly attained a kind of perfect harmony. Not early not late, just in the split second the iron hammer reached its upward peak, his body drove the iron hammer in a full circle, to once again smash down.

  Tang San’s eyes shone. This was unmistakably a method to leverage force, utilizing the rebound force from the impact between hammer and metal and converting it into downward force. The motion was perfectly coordinated in order to the greatest degree avoid being harmed from the rebound force, and instead transforming this physical force to especially add to the hit. Starting from the second strike, the physical force of every hit surpassed Tang Hao’s full strength, but was still under his control.

  Tang Hao moved faster and faster, the forging hammer lashing down on the iron chunk like a violent storm, the iron chunk continuously being deformed by the beats of the forging hammer. It was shocking, the precision of Tang Hao’s strikes was unreal. Every time the iron chunk was hit it was reduced to half its former thickness, and when it started to become flat, the forging hammer in his hand would at once hit the iron chunk’s edge, causing it to flip. Thus, the iron chunk was evenly enduring his hammer blows, and was not simply pounded into an iron flat cake.

  In a flash, the hammer had already struck thirty six times, and Tang Hao’s both hands drove the iron hammer to spin overhead successively in three circles. Not until the force of the hammer was dispersed, did he stand down the hammer. His face not red, breath not laboured, as if that previous mad storm of blows had not been produced by him at all.

  The whole iron chunk after just thirty six blows in the whole small circle, with the naked eye it was actually already hard to see any impurities within.

  This just now was true blacksmith mastery, a beautiful hammer method.

  “Understand?”

  Tang Hao looked at Tang San who was unceasingly pumping the bellows.

  Tang San thought, then said:

  “Leverage the force, I understand the principle. Only, this seems to be not simple at all.”

  Tang Hao indifferently said:

  “If you want to accomplish my kind of level, there is only one way: skill comes from practice. Furthermore, you must bear in mind, if you are striking a piece of common metal, then when it is the most impure, it is also most likely to shatter. At that time, when you beat it the physical force must be smaller, and as its impurities gradually decrease, your physical force can begin to gradually increase to maintain the effect of the strikes. This way of dynamic control is pivotal. You slowly practice by yourself, ok. Don’t blindly increase force and speed: accuracy is equally important. At least you must understand the hammer’s descent, unless you can hit any place, what use is more physical strength?”

  With the weight of the forging hammer returned into Tang San’s hands, Tang Hao turned and left.

  ‘Father did not go back on his word, he really taught his forging methods, and also, from father teaching his point of view on these things, any profession all have their own profound mysteries, they are all not so simple.’

  In the next half months’ time, Tang San everyday practiced the force borrowing ha
mmer forging method Tang Hao taught him. Despite having Controlling Crane Catching Dragon to assist his strength control, and having Purple Demon Eye to determine the position of his hammer blows, this forging method was still more difficult to master than he could have imagined.

  Since it was hitting with all his strength, using full strength was in itself very hard to control. Drawing strength from the rebound, and again controlling the body’s balance in order to position the hammer blow was extremely difficult. Without increasing hits, the required essential force control increased somewhat, and the body’s unceasing rotation could not only cause a sense of dizziness, but at the same time the force of each falling strike also became even harder to control.

  Fortunately, he had already been striking that chunk of iron for a very long time, so its impurities were already very few and it was not so easy to shatter. Otherwise he would not be able to control the weight of that forging hammer, and probably already have smashed it to pieces.

  But, in the middle of this practice course, Tang San’s use of Mysterious Heaven Skill, as well as Controlling Crane Catching Dragon, Mysterious Jade Hands with Purple Demon Eye’s coordination, all advanced unnoticed.

  From the first day when he was only able to swing twice before starting to deviate position, up until today half a month later, he already could continuously swing seven times, accurately striking the iron chunk without error. The improvement was extremely obvious. At the same time, the iron chunk under his full strength beating became smaller and smaller; every day brought results.

  Of course, this too with that lower leg force generating method had an inseparable connection. With this kind of force generating method, he could greatly reduce the consumption of the Mysterious Heaven Skill, enabling Tang San to have even more time to pump the bellows and forge.

  Originally his father swung the hammer thirty six times, but also it would appear had surplus energy. He himself could only swing seven times, he didn’t know when he could reach his father’s level. Every time Tang San thought about this, he immediately had additional motivation to practice.

  These days, as if he had forgotten about spirits and spirit rings, when cultivating Purple Demon Eye on the mountain top in the early morning, he also deeply thought about the problem of how to swing the hammer.

  Three months’ time passed very quickly, and just as Tang San could begin to wield the hammer thirteen times, Tang Hao began to instruct him on how to forge tools. Tang Hao’s teaching method was very direct: exactly like before he would do it once, then let Tang San do it again, and as long as he saw some of the basics were learnt he did not interfere with his practice, never having many words of direction. Only at crucial parts, did he say a few words.

  Precisely because of this, every time Tang Hao gave pointers, Tang San remembered it all the more clearly.

  Chapter 004: Otherworldly Tang San’s First Hidden Weapon

  Part 1

  Early morning, Tang San returned refreshed from the mountaintop to make breakfast, since this part of the day, because he every day used Purple Demon Eye, and also unceasingly cultivated in the morning, Purple Demon Eye compared to before had already made no small progress, his eyesight is already capable of clearly seeing the slight motion of a mosquito flapping its wings within ten meters. If not for Mysterious Heaven skill being unable to break through the bottleneck, Tang San believed, his progress in other aspects would be even greater.

  Forging a fifty square centimeter block of pig iron into fist size, that at first impossible seeming matter, Tang San had as early as half a month ago already accomplished. With the force leveraging method Tang Hao taught him, he was also capable of more than twenty four hammer swings, every swing with flawless precision, including control of force. Although all along Tang Hao never had any praise for him, but his father once in a while unintentionally revealed, Tang San knew, this hammer method also at last had some small accomplishment, and again thought it was still important to depend on unceasing practice.

  At once entering the door, lightly touching his wrist, Tang San’s face showed a trace of a satisfied smile, on his wrist, is attached his first work since arriving in this world, and every step was made by himself.

  That was a spring loaded dart concealed in his sleeve. When in the first place speaking about Tang sect, the concealed dart is the most ordinary kind of hidden weapon. The key to manufacturing the concealed dart depends on the power of the mechanism as well as the degree of ingenuity of the design. Tang San’s manufactured sleeve dart was even equipped with a safety device, so no accidental injury was possible.

  One set of sleeve darts was just like three arrows made to fit in a sleeve, even now it was without exception on Tang San’s hand. The material for this sleeve dart had consumed exactly that chunk of pig iron he had hammered for nearly a hundred days.

  Just as Tang San delivered the completed task to Tang Hao, when he held that fist sized chunk of completely forged pig iron, he was shocked to discover that piece of pig iron that originally had contained numerous impurities had changed into a chunk of iron mother, genuine iron mother.

  In his previous life, let alone him, even if it was Tang sect’s best forging grandmaster could not accomplish this method to forge common pig iron into iron mother. But in this world it was reality. This in itself was an extremely inconceivable matter. This sleeve dart on Tang San’s wrist was made from that chunk of iron mother. To completely manufacture the sleeve dart, including three ten centimetres small arrows inside, he used all the iron mother he had.

  Speaking of forging, Tang San was no good; far inferior to Tang Hao. But when speaking about making clever hidden weapons, let alone Tang Hao, perhaps all of Douluo Continent did not have anyone who could compare to his Tang outer sect genius.

  Ordinary sleeve darts had a range of fifteen metres or so, but the sleeve dart made by Tang San could maintain an effective attack range of over thirty metres.

  What is called effective attack range, is exactly the sleeve dart emission distance in a straight line, it is also exactly the distance where the weapon is fully able to kill or wound.

  Tang San’s sleeve darts, even though only three, but they were made extremely ingeniously. On each sleeve dart was three blood grooves, if not because of too few in quantity, he still thought to give the sleeve dart arrowheads barbs. The tail had four tiny fletchings that could cause the sleeve dart to fly extremely smoothly. The tapered arrowhead was spiral rifled, so that when the sleeve dart was launched it possessed even stronger piercing power.

  Making designs for hidden weapons Tang San was always pursuing perfection, even though this was only a single ordinary sleeve dart, nothing more.

  Tang San knew that he was still young right now, Mysterious Heaven skill also could not break through the bottleneck. Even if he was an ordinary person he could not say he was worried, only in case he encountered a spirit master like Su Yuntao who could use spirits, his strength would be far from enough. But with this sleeve dart it was different, Tang San believed that depending on it, even if his actual strength was not more powerful than a spirit master, he had ways to deal with it all.

  ……

  【Tang sect Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record, general principles second item: what are hidden weapons: employed surreptitiously, a special martial weapon to vanquish the enemy and win victory. If the enemy knows you want to use it, like that, it is no longer a hidden weapon, rather an overt weapon.】

  ……

  Tang San of course could not let his hidden weapon become an overt weapon. Tang Hao also never bothered about what he used this chunk of iron mother for, therefore this sleeve dart was a secret that belonged to him alone.

  Entering the house, the appetizing smell of congee wafted out, the same as he made every day, and that he had already long since become used to.

  “Dad, come eat.”

  Tang San called towards the inner room.

  Unusually, the Tang Hao who every day appeared when he heard about
food was nowhere to be seen today.

  Tang San’s heart at once tightened, was his dad ill? He hastily took three steps and ran two steps towards his father’s room.

  Tang Hao wasn’t in the room. In however many years, this was the first time he was not still sleeping in.

  When Tang San was in the middle of thinking over where Tang Hao could have gone, Tang Hao returned.

  “Little San, where on earth did you go this early in the morning?” Tang Hao coolly asked.

  Tang San said:

  “I went out for exercise. Every morning I go out for a run.”

  This did not count as a lie, he truly did go out to ‘exercise’.

  “Oh.”

  Tang Hao did not try to dig deeper, and coolly said:

  “Today you won’t practice forging again. Get your things ready, tomorrow old Jack will take you to Nuoding city.”

  Tang San was dumbfounded for a moment,

  “Nuoding city? Why on earth there?”

  The last time he had gone to Nuoding city was roughly a year ago. Old Jack went into town to do some shopping, and brought him along to let him experience it.

  Tang Hao gave him a look, and said:

  “Do you not want to study spirit master abilities? Old Jack can take you to Nuoding city’s primary spirit master academy to become a working student. There you can study whatever you want.”

  Hearing his father’s words, Tang San’s pulse suddenly sped up, and he found it difficult to speak from the surprise and excitement he felt. Mysterious Heaven skill’s inability to break through had all along been a puzzle that was his greatest preoccupation; a spirit master’s spirit ring was clearly an opportunity.

  “Dad, what changed your mind?”

  Tang Hao returned with a question: