Seeing that Yuan Ming was not directly dragged down, a hint of approval flashed in Fang Ge's eyes, and he returned to normal and said, "You first watch my demonstration carefully, and then try to practice by yourself." ”

As he spoke, he skillfully lit the fire and added charcoal, and when the fire was lit, he grabbed another handful of yellow powder and threw it into the fire.

"Hula" sounded.

A reddish-yellow flame suddenly rose from the fire pit, illuminating the square, angular cheeks of the grid in a red light, and the temperature around it doubled in an instant.

"This is a combustion powder, which is made of sulfur, saltpeter and other materials, which can save a lot of time. You only practice forging today, so let's use the smelted crude iron embryo first. As he spoke, Fang Ge picked up a palm-sized piece of iron and sent it to the fire to be calcined.

In a short time, the iron embryo was burned red.

"Look, I'll just demonstrate it once." Fang Ge said, taking the hammer from Yuan Ming's hand.

I saw him take a horse step, put the iron embryo on the anvil, held the clamp in one hand, turned the hammer with the other, and smashed it towards the red-hot iron embryo.

When his arms waved, the muscles rose up, the muscles were exposed, and the whole arm seemed to be drawn in mid-air, with an inexplicable sense of strength and beauty.

"Bell"

The hammer fell, the sound was clear, and the sparks splashed.

Yuan Ming stared at every step of the square, carefully observing his way of exerting force, and secretly wondered in his heart.

"Bell"

Another clear hammer sounded, and sparks were sputtered again, and the movement was clean and clean, without the slightest lag.

"The process is not complicated, as long as you follow it, it doesn't seem to be too difficult." Yuan Ming thought silently in his heart.

After more than a dozen hammers, the movement of the square began to accelerate, the speed of the arm doubled, the sound of "bell" sounded continuously, and the splashed sparks also continued to splash, like fireworks.

Yuan Ming looked at it, and his eyes began to change.

His gaze wandered slightly, his gaze seemed to lose focus, but his ears unconsciously stood up, and he was engrossed in trying to observe the other party's movements more thoroughly through the use of his ears and eyes.

Although in the entire fire workshop, there were not a hundred, but also eighty people in the wrought iron, and the sound was not messy, but the sound of the checkered beating clearly fell into Yuan Ming's ears.

Not because he was close, but because the voice was noticeably clearer than the others, and had a unique rhythm that could not be described in words.

Yuan Ming frowned, listening to the sound of hammering again and again, silently counting the number of beatings.

This is his unique habit, just like when he first entered the 100,000 mountains, he would silently make a descending mark, sketch a road map in his mind, and from the beginning, he was observing and recording all the details.

After the eighteenth hammer, the square began to increase the hammering speed for the first time, and when it came to the third hundred and sixty hammers, the hammering speed increased the second time, and now it was the fifth hundred and thirty-first hammer.

When he saw this, Yuan Ming's mentality had completely changed compared to not long ago.

He had realized that this method of hammering wrought iron based on refining tools was not simple at all.

One point alone can already tell what is extraordinary.

From the swing of the hammer in the arm, the grid has not been tempered again, except for the first time when the iron embryo was heated in the fire pit.

But the iron embryo has always remained bright and red, and has never cooled.

"It's already eight hundred and fifty hammers, and it's starting to accelerate again." Yuan Ming's eyes froze, and he said secretly in his heart.

"Bell ......"

At this time, the sound of beating has become very tight, and under the sound of continuous sound, it is like a large and small silver bead falling on a jade plate, and the "jingling" is very pleasant.

In the process of hammering, the grid is still constantly turning the folding iron embryo at a very fast speed, and the movement is extremely skillful and smooth.

"Such a continuous thrashing, the strength and endurance required are by no means ordinary, and the cultivation of this square senior brother must not be low." Yuan Ming looked at Fang Ge's unsmiling and almost expressionless face, and thought to himself.

Just as he was counting the thousandth hammer, the last sparks splashed up, and the square stopped thrashing.

He put the forging hammer aside, and on the black anvil, only the palm-sized, still hot and red iron embryo remained, cooling and discoloring little by little, until layers of finely textured forging layers were revealed.

Yuan Ming's eyes stared, and he saw that the forged patterns were layered on top of each other, not only very fine, but also the thickness of each layer was roughly the same, which looked pleasing to the eye and was very good.

"Aside from the materials used, the refined iron used in ordinary refining tools is qualified to be used to refine magic weapons after at least a thousand hammer blows. Come on, you try. Fang Ge said, extinguishing the flames in the fire pit and giving way to Yuan Ming.

He was going to start teaching from the fire, obviously taking into account Yuan Ming's situation, which was very detailed.

Yuan Ming nodded, stepped forward, untied the animal skin and long sword from his waist, and put them aside.

Then, he remembered what Fang had done earlier, and began to light the firewood.

Yuan Ming strictly followed the checkered way to do it, and with one look at the board, the flames soon rose.

Fang Ge on the side looked at it in his eyes and nodded secretly, he had the best impression of this kind of junior disciple who studied seriously.

"Whew"

A handful of combustion powder was sprinkled, and the temperature in the fire pit instantly increased.

Yuan Ming picked up a piece of iron embryo, sent it into the fire, and began to count the time to heat it.

When the iron embryo was burned red, he immediately took it out, placed it on the anvil, picked up the forging hammer, and began to pound it.

"Bell"

A spark splashed, Yuan Ming couldn't help frowning, the sound of thrashing was a little dull, far less clear than the grid.

"Is it because there is not enough time to heat up, or is the force too light?"

Yuan Ming forcibly suppressed the doubts in his heart, began to round his arms, and continued to beat.

The sound of thumping sounded one after another, and the sparks on the anvil splashed everywhere, and the sound began to become a little clearer.

After beating it eighteen times, the mana in Yuan Ming's body secretly moved, the power of swinging the hammer increased, and the speed began to increase.

When Fang Ge saw this scene, his eyebrows raised slightly, and a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes.

The more Yuan Ming swung the hammer, the more he was amazed in his heart, this seemingly simple mechanical thrashing action was far more power-consuming than he imagined, and after only a few dozen hammers, there was a burst of soreness in his arm.

After a hundred and fifty hammers, the feeling of soreness doubled, and it began to slow him down.

By the time he had struck the one hundred and eighty hammers, the speed had already changed to the way he had swung the hammer at the beginning, and the fiery red color of the iron embryo on the anvil had begun to darken significantly.

"Alright, don't keep thrashing." Fang Ge stopped Yuan Ming's movements.

A look of disappointment flashed in his eyes, Yuan Ming's qualifications were not as good as he had hoped.

"Senior brother, I can continue." Yuan Ming gasped in his mouth and said.

"No need, even if you continue to hammer, this iron embryo will no longer be a qualified product." Fang said, his tone still unhurried.

"Why is that?" Yuan Ming put down the forging hammer, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and wondered.

"Our current process is called forging, also known as embryo refining. In essence, it is to hammer out the impurities in the iron embryo through continuous hammering. In order to ensure the best ductility and the best state of the iron embryo, at least a thousand hammers are required, and these thousand hammers cannot be broken in the middle. Do you know why? Fang Ge explained slowly, and after asking the last question, he looked at Yuan Ming.

Yuan Ming had already guessed the answer and said, "Senior Brother did not temper and heat during the previous beating, so it is necessary to ensure the temperature of the embryo iron through continuous hammering, right?" ”

"Yes, and as there are fewer impurities in the iron embryo, its temperature becomes more and more difficult to maintain, so it has to fight faster and faster. Once the intermediate speed is slowed down, the iron embryo will inevitably cool and become brittle, and the ductility will be impaired. Fang Ge nodded and said.

When Yuan Ming heard this, he was quite shocked in his heart, what seemed to be a simple forging was not easy in essence.

"Senior brother, how can we reach a level like you, with a thousand hammers?" Yuan Ming raised his head and asked sincerely.

"First of all, how did you feel after observing me refining embryos and trying it yourself?" Fang Ge did not answer, but asked Yuan Minglai.

"Earlier, I paid attention to the action of my brother's swing of the hammer, estimated the strength of my brother's swing of the hammer, and also paid attention to the node of each time my brother increased my speed, and even noticed that the sound of my brother's hammer falling was different from everyone else, but when I did it myself, it was too far away." Yuan Ming thought for a while and said.

"It's not easy to notice this, but apart from not being able to see my mana flowing, you didn't pay attention to my breathing." Fang Ge nodded and said.

"Breathe?" Yuan Ming frowned slightly.

"The rhythm of your breath is the basis of your refining rhythm, which is very important. However, although you didn't pay attention, when you swung the hammer in front, the rhythm was maintained well, which is considered unintentional, but it needs to be maintained in the future. Fang said.

"Senior brother, then my question is?" Yuan Ming asked, this was what he was most concerned about.

"Needless to say, your biggest problem is not enough strength and lack of experience. None of this can be solved in a moment, and it takes years of cultivation to solve it. Fang said with a wave of his hand.

Yuan Ming thought for a while, and then asked, "Is there a lot of senior brothers like Senior Brother who can keep hammering a thousand times?" ”

"You want to ask, what kind of level is your level among senior brothers, right?" Fang asked rhetorically.

Yuan Ming was a little embarrassed and nodded.

"Inferior." Senior Brother Fang Ge was blunt.

Yuan Ming was stunned when he heard this, he never thought that it would be such an answer, and he became more and more embarrassed.

Unexpectedly, Senior Brother Fang Ge seemed to be completely ignorant, touched his chin and continued to mend the knife: "The first attempt, I can only swing the hammer one hundred and eighty-three times in a row, which is considered ...... The worst record of the year. ”