Dragon's Origin

“Then how am I supposed to know which attempt will be the best?” The old blacksmith stopped hammering, heedless of whether stopping would damage the material. He pondered for a good while before looking up and asking.

“There’s no good way, just experiment!” Wang Sheng casually replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Without large-scale computer simulations, systematic research into basic materials, or precise chemical compositions, relying solely on generations of experience and groping in the dark, there’s no better method than experimentation.

“How many times would I have to experiment? How long would that take?” The old blacksmith clearly hadn’t realized that Wang Sheng was suggesting such a rudimentary method and couldn’t help but frown.

“You’re working with materials and you don’t want to experiment? Serves you right that you’ve achieved nothing.” Wang Sheng was too lazy to argue with the old man and simply said this to him.

Which material scientist on Earth doesn't have to spend countless nights in the lab to determine the properties of a material? To find a new material, you have to experiment countless times and fail countless times before you can be lucky enough to obtain a new material formula.

It can be said that even in the industrialized era on Earth, working with materials can only be done with this clumsy method. Even if there are large computers that can simulate and calculate, the results calculated by even the best simulation algorithms still need to be verified by real experiments.

Not wanting to experiment and assuming something is feasible with a simple thought is simply relying on luck. It’s only by relying on the accumulation of experience from predecessors and oneself that one can make a rough deduction, and even then, luck plays a big part. It has to be said, it's too backward and unscientific.

Of course, perhaps this is the norm in this world. This place hasn’t reached the level of industrialization, and being able to do this much relying entirely on manual experience and inheritance is already quite good. Therefore, Wang Sheng only said one sentence and didn’t say anything more.

But this one sentence stunned the old man even more. His mouth was half-open, and he didn’t care that the furnace ash was being blown up, some of it even floating into his mouth. He just stood there, motionless like a wooden figure.

Wang Sheng completely stopped what he was doing. If the old man wasn’t hammering himself, Wang Sheng was afraid that he would accidentally hit himself while in a daze, so he waited slowly.

After a long while, the old man came back to his senses, turned to look at Wang Sheng as if he were looking at a monster he had never seen before, and asked with wide eyes, “How did you come up with that?”

“Does this even need thinking? Isn’t this the dumbest method?” Wang Sheng almost turned around and left. Could it be that the grandmasters of the Exquisite Pavilion are only at this level?

The old blacksmith was stunned again. After a long while, he looked at Wang Sheng with a bewildered expression on his face.

Crap, the old man must be obsessing over something trivial. Wang Sheng came to get him to find a few grandmasters to open the Two-Sided Exquisite Box, not to have him obsess over trivialities here.

“There’s never been a shortcut on this path.” Wang Sheng hurriedly said comforting words: “You think there’s a shortcut, but in reality, you’re just standing on the shoulders of your predecessors, letting them lead you through this path. In fact, all paths are the same, there’s only this one.”

While comforting the old man, Wang Sheng was actually thinking himself. These words weren’t just a sigh, but truly came from the bottom of his heart. Don’t think that Wang Sheng can look down on the natives of this world in terms of certain scientific methods, but Wang Sheng knows that he himself is just standing on the shoulders of giants on Earth.

Standing higher, seeing further, that’s all, there’s nothing to be proud of. Just like the path of cultivation in this world, Wang Sheng is also standing on the shoulders of those cultivation seniors from both worlds, using their past experiences and lessons to improve himself, but the path under his feet still needs to be walked step by step.

“Young man, just for these few words of yours, it’s worth having a few drinks with you.” The old man suddenly laughed, the bewildered look on his face swept away, as if the things that had been troubling him had disappeared.

“My treat!” The old man was in high spirits, and Wang Sheng wouldn’t spoil the fun, so he immediately chimed in.

“No hurry, no hurry, I still have a question I want to ask you.” The old man smiled so happily, as if he had seen an old friend he hadn’t seen for many years: “You said, there’s so little material, only enough for one weapon, how should I experiment?”

“That depends on what you think is more important.” Wang Sheng answered almost without hesitation: “Whether discovering a new material and method is more important, or forging a divine weapon is more important, it’s up to you to choose.”

“Hahahaha!” Hearing Wang Sheng’s words, the old blacksmith suddenly laughed heartily: “Which is more important? Hahahaha! So the answer is actually so simple!”

In the midst of the wild laughter, Wang Sheng suddenly noticed a surge of majestic spiritual energy gathering in this direction. This feeling was all too familiar to Wang Sheng, it was clearly the spiritual energy tempering the body during a cultivation breakthrough.

The old man actually broke through after hearing his words, congratulations! Wang Sheng didn’t interfere, found a corner to sit down, and waited quietly.

The commotion here couldn’t be hidden from the surroundings, and soon seven or eight equally old people rushed over, both men and women. Seeing the old blacksmith standing there tempering his body with spiritual energy, and Wang Sheng sitting aside watching the fun, everyone didn’t make a sound or a big commotion, but quietly found a place to stand or sit around, waiting quietly.

Two old men even specifically found a place near Wang Sheng, didn’t say anything on the surface, and even nodded and smiled at Wang Sheng, but Wang Sheng understood that they were still guarding against him.

This was normal, after all, Wang Sheng was a stranger. At such an important moment of the old blacksmith’s advancement, Wang Sheng was an unpredictable bomb, so it was always right to be careful.

From the time it takes to temper the body with spiritual energy, you can basically see the level of a cultivator’s cultivation. The longer the time, the higher the cultivator’s cultivation. Wang Sheng’s last spiritual energy tempering took four hours, so his cultivation was only at the third level of the Bixi Transformation.

But this old blacksmith, from the beginning of tempering to now, has been a full eight hours, and there is no sign of completion, still standing there motionless, isn’t this too exaggerated?

Before, Wang Sheng guessed that he was at the fifth level of cultivation, but now it seems that he is probably more than that! An old man who seems very casual in the Exquisite Pavilion has such a cultivation, then this Exquisite Pavilion is definitely not an easy target.

Finally, at the eleventh hour, the old man completed the spiritual energy tempering and recovered from the cultivation state. But this took half a day, it was still daytime when he came in, and it was already midnight when he went out.

“I used to be very confused, but finally, the young man’s words made me understand.” The old blacksmith didn’t skimp on praising Wang Sheng. The first sentence after completing his cultivation surprised the surrounding old people.