It was the third year that Zuo Tianxuan came into contact with blacksmithing.
At dawn, Zuo Tianxuan came to the forging room.
He first walked to a wall on the east side of the forging room and saw a reduced version of Feng Qi's statue placed on the desk on the wall.
Before the forging began, he habitually sat in front of the Fengqi statue and began to meditate to build up his faith.
This miniature hero statue is a treasure passed down from our ancestors.
Although blacksmithing has declined now, it was one of the most valuable professions in Star City back then.
His ancestors contributed a lot to the front line and were specially awarded this miniature statue of the hero.
This is also the most valuable and historically significant treasure in their family.
Half an hour later, the faith meditation was over. Zuo Tianxuan stood up, took off his shirt and came to the forging furnace. He reached out and pressed the switch button on the forging furnace. Suddenly, blazing flames rose from the inside and billowing heat waves hit his face.
Facing the high temperature environment, Zuo Tianxuan has completely adapted to it in the past three years.
After three years of study, he has been able to forge weapons and equipment independently. In the words of his grandfather, his forging talent is very high and he is much better than himself when he was young, so he deserves to have this opportunity.
Zuo Tianxuan had nothing to say about this.
Although I don’t reject becoming a blacksmith in my heart, this profession would really be hard-pressed without the support of Star City.
There are very few orders for weapon forging now.
They are also generally repair orders for weapons sold that year, and there are rarely custom orders for new weapons.
Today's young people will choose Destiny City's customized weapons as long as their families have some conditions.
At the next level, psychic weapons will also be chosen.
For those excellent combat schools, such as the combat departments of Star City Academy and Daybreak Academy, each graduate school will let students fill in their customization requirements for weapons and equipment for free, and directly connect with the Messenger of Destiny to customize a complete set of equipment for each student.
Grandpa also thought about connecting with some combat schools, hoping to obtain some forging orders through this method.
But the school would not agree to Grandpa's request at all.
After all, Grandpa's forging efficiency is too slow. Orders for weapons and equipment required by the school are generally decided a few months before graduation, and are customized according to the latest status of the combat department graduates.
Grandpa's forging efficiency obviously cannot meet the requirements of the school.
But submitting it to the forging merchants in Destiny City is very simple, and the goods can basically arrive in a few days.
Therefore, the future of their profession is indeed difficult.
Zuo Tianxuan has no doubt that if his grandfather had lived in the era when Ji He controlled Star City, he would have had his benefits cut off and been forced to change jobs so that he would no longer waste Star City's welfare resources.
After all, Nianhe did a lot of this kind of thing back then.
Many outdated industries at that time were eliminated by Jihe, including the frontline reform that had the greatest impact on modern times. After the disbandment of the battle group model, the military took over, and Jihe personally planned and executed it.
I glanced at the thermometer on the forging furnace and found that the temperature had reached the standard.
Zuo Tianxuan no longer thinks wildly.
He reached out and picked out a piece of metallic iron with a shimmering silver color from the tool table, and threw it into the forge for smelting.
This forging furnace is very old, and professional maintenance personnel used to come regularly to inspect and maintain it.
Now he basically has to rely on his grandfather to maintain and repair it himself. Over time, his grandfather has become very familiar with the structure of this forging furnace.
After years of use, several forging furnaces in the forging room are approaching the limit of their service life. Now the temperature control device for the rising flame inside has lost its function, requiring the forging master to personally control the temperature.
Grandpa's method is to use his spiritual beast Blazing Dog to breathe out flames to control the heating, or absorb the flames to cool down.
Just when Zuo Tianxuan was about to start a new day of forging, there was a voice at the door. He turned around and saw a figure wearing a raincoat walking from outside.
I saw this figure taking off the raincoat on his body and casually hanging the wet raincoat on the hanger, revealing his figure.
The person arriving was none other than his grandfather, and behind him was his grandfather's old friend.
What surprised Zuo Tianxuan was that his grandfather actually held a palm-sized Blaze Dog puppy in his hand.
"This is for you. Since you have decided to take the path of a blacksmith in the future, the Blazing Dog can help you go further."
Hearing these words, Zuo Tianxuan was not surprised.
The first thing that came to his mind was that cultivating spiritual beasts requires a lot of expenses.
The evolution of a spirit beast requires feeding a large amount of spiritual materials. If it is just ordinary food, not only will the spirit beast not evolve, but it will also cause the spirit beast to be unable to obtain sufficient energy replenishment, causing the bloodline shackles to become stronger or even degrade.
This is also the reason why Grandpa’s old friend Blazing Dog has never advanced to the fourth stage.
The problem lies in the consumption of resources. If another spiritual beast that eats spiritual materials is added to the family, their life will only become more difficult.
Taking the blazing dog from his grandfather, Zuo Tianxuan asked with a little curiosity:
"Grandpa, where did this blazing dog come from?"
"My old friend sent it for breeding, and they gave birth to three babies. They gave me one as a gift. I originally planned to send it to the spirit animal management department, but I thought it might be useful to you in the future, so I brought it back."
"It seems I have to ask dad for money, otherwise I won't be able to raise a third-level spirit beast."
"He is your father, and it is only natural to ask him for money."
Looking at his grandfather with an unhappy expression, Zuo Tianxuan felt helpless.
The relationship between grandpa and father can be described as enemies. In his early years, grandpa hoped that his father could inherit the ancestral forging craftsmanship and pass this technology on, but his father had no interest in blacksmithing, but was more interested in the practice of system architecture.
I chose to study architecture.
At this point, the relationship between the two worsened and they rarely had any contact.
He felt from the bottom of his heart that his father's original choice was not wrong, but he could also understand his grandfather's inner thoughts.
This blacksmithing craft has been passed down for hundreds of years. Grandpa did not want this technology to be cut off from his own hands. He hoped that his father could become a blacksmith and open up a new path for the future of blacksmiths.
Inheritance is sometimes like a shackles.
My father's choice was to break the shackles and follow the trend of the times.
Differences in ideas meant that father and grandfather had nothing in common. Occasionally, when father and mother came home, the whole family would sit in silence when they ate together. The atmosphere often made him feel embarrassed sitting aside.
Now that he has inherited the blacksmith's heritage, the relationship between his grandfather and his father has eased slightly.
Grandpa has a successor, and his father no longer needs to be scolded by grandpa for cutting off the inheritance of his ancestors. Each of them has a choice, and there is no longer any ideological conflict.
The next month.
In addition to learning blacksmithing knowledge, Zuo Tianxuan also began to learn how to cultivate spiritual beasts.
It is not difficult to cultivate spirit beasts. Star City now has an excellent competitive environment, and it is easy for spirit beasts to break through the shackles of blood.
The only problem is resource consumption.
At this stage, the spirit beasts cultivated by many people in Star City are stuck at one stage. It is not that the spirit beasts cannot advance due to lack of emotional motivation, but that the investment of resources cannot meet the needs for advancement.
His idea was also very simple. He planned to put the little fire he adopted into the third bloodline stage and no longer needed to advance.
After breaking through the fourth stage of bloodline shackles, their family simply cannot support the consumption of spiritual materials.
After a month of growth, Xiaohuo has now learned to breathe fire.
Occasionally, it would imitate its father and open its mouth to spit out a puff of fire into the forge, but compared to the blazing flames that its father breathed out, it could only cough out a string of sparks.
In terms of forging technology, he only completed one piece of armor work in this month.
It's not that he doesn't work hard, it's just that there are really no orders to take.
Improving training skills requires practice. If he consumes spiritual materials to hone his skills without an order, it is purely a loss-making business. His family conditions do not allow him to be so wasteful.
This is also the deadlock that is stuck in blacksmithing science at this stage.
If you want to improve your skills, you must continue to practice forging equipment and weapons. Without orders, the opportunities to practice your skills will be reduced. This will indirectly lead to fewer forging orders received if your skills are not up to standard.
Although his grandfather is very satisfied with his growth rate and thinks that he is a more talented blacksmith genius than himself.
But in this line of work, Zuo Tianxuan saw the future at a glance.
He felt that there was a high probability that he would be the last blacksmith in this era and there would never be a successor.
Zuo Tianxuan was not pessimistic about this; he accepted the choice of the times calmly.
In the past three years of contact, he has gone from being indifferent at first to becoming interested in blacksmithing.
The process of forging weapons and equipment seems simple, but in fact it is a delicate job.
Each forging process is like a long race, requiring a professional breathing rhythm, otherwise the body will easily become exhausted under the huge physical exertion.
Secondly, the placement of each hammer during the forging process is very particular. The spiritual metal after opening the Forging God's Eye is like a blank picture scroll. Each hammer stroke is an outline, and the final product is a picture scroll.
The arrangement and combination of the internal structures of weapons is an art, and the structure is carved using a seemingly crude process.
When you are concentrating on forging, your consciousness can easily enter a state of selflessness.
In this state, his perception of time becomes blurred, and he can only see the spiritual metal that is gradually taking shape. Every time he completes a work, he feels physically and mentally happy.
His grandfather watched his performance and praised his forging talent from time to time.
He believes that his talent far exceeds his own. If he had been placed in the era when the demand for blacksmiths was huge hundreds of years ago, he would have been a master of blacksmithing.
Zuo Tianxuan just listened to his grandfather's praise and didn't take it seriously at all.
That night, grandpa came back very late.
Grandpa returned to the forging room with a disappointed expression, as if he had something on his mind.
Facing his inquiry, grandpa told the truth.
Grandpa said that an old blacksmith friend of his passed away and he went to attend his funeral today, saying that there was another blacksmith missing in the world.
Like him, this old friend once lamented the decline of the blacksmith industry and tried to turn the tide, but it was obvious that he could not stop the trend of the times from moving forward.
Zuo Tianxuan discovered that the departure of his old friend seemed to have a huge impact on his grandfather.
For the next few days, my grandfather was in a trance, sitting alone by the window of the forging room in a daze. Occasionally, he seemed to have thought of something and couldn't help but sigh.
Seeing the loneliness on his grandfather's face, Zuo Tianxuan's heart was touched.
He suddenly had the urge to try to change the future of the blacksmith, but he didn't know where to start.
At that time, under the persuasion of Star City's executive, he realized that the mass production route was not feasible. Grandpa also imagined a path that was most suitable for blacksmiths, and that was to take the high-end customization route.
As long as the quality of weapons and equipment can be made much higher than mass production, the value of the blacksmith can be reflected.
In the future, the top magical weapons will be forged by the blacksmith profession.
This is an elite training route that does not require the training of a large number of blacksmith talents. It only requires a small number of people to be responsible for the casting of top weapons.
This model can not only retain the efficiency of mass production, but also make up for Star City's demand for top-notch weapons and equipment.
But Grandpa’s idea is good, but the problem is that Grandpa’s technology cannot break through the equipment produced by the equipment black hole in Destiny City.
If the quality limitations of the equipment cannot be overcome, the existence of the blacksmith will be meaningless.
If he wanted to revive the line of blacksmiths, the most suitable thing would be to follow the top-level weapons and equipment casting route originally planned by his grandfather.
Zuo Tianxuan has the confidence to surpass his grandfather, and even has the confidence to gradually master all the knowledge of blacksmithing through his own efforts.
But he has no confidence that the weapons and equipment he forged can surpass the output quality of the equipment black hole.
Although the equipment black hole is an imitation of a miracle item, its function is very powerful, and the quality of the equipment it forges far exceeds the weapons and equipment produced by their forging masters, and is even several levels higher in quality.
Even though there is an upper limit to the casting quality of the equipment black hole, the casters cannot touch this upper limit, let alone surpass it.
Faced with the cruel reality, he chose to let go of the idea he just mentioned in his heart.
He thinks this is an unrealistic idea.
Even if all the existing knowledge of blacksmithing in the human race were learned, it would not be enough for him to reach that level. If he wanted to open his own path, it would take a long time to accumulate, or even the accumulation of several generations. He wanted to reach that level.
The height is purely a dream.
…
At this time, there is a space of faith.
"Boss, that's it. Do you understand what I said?"
Feng Qi laughed in his heart as he looked at the adorable You who was gesticulating in front of him and constantly describing it with his body language.
"Boss, do you understand?"
Noticing that Feng Qi didn't answer, Xiaoyou's conscious body placed its hands on its hips, pretending to be fierce, and assumed a posture that said I'll be very angry if you don't answer.
"understood."
"Well, that's good, so if there is anything you need to ask Xiaoyou to do, Xiaoyou's messenger will serve you throughout the whole process. The service fee will be a barbecue, and you will pay me back when you wait for the next timeline... By the way, remember to give me my
Take your memories back too, otherwise I'm afraid you won't be able to repay your debt."
Listening to Xiaoyou chattering endlessly, Feng Qi felt worried in his heart.
Xiaoyou just reported on the current situation of Star City, and mentioned one point in it. Star City's current low-level weapons are produced and sold by themselves, and they use the psychic weapon technology that Li Xingchen gave him back then.
However, high-end weapons are completely imported from Destiny City, and a high purchase fee must be paid for this every year.
The upgrade of psychic weapons is slow, and it is difficult to surpass the quality produced by the equipment black hole. During this period, a large amount of resources and manpower are required to be invested in research and development.
This problem is not a big problem. As long as Star City’s senior management understands that technology must be in their own hands and cannot rely entirely on imports from Destiny City, they can always find a suitable development path in the future.
But his current thinking is that there is actually no need to explore the future in such a complicated way.
In the previous timeline, he and the Demonic Sword fused and read each other's memories. As a result, he gained a large amount of forging knowledge from the Weapon Clan.
The weapons and equipment produced by pseudo-miracles are by no means comparable to the blacksmithing achievements of the Weapon Clan.
He feels that Star City has abundant resources at this stage, and he can definitely train a top blacksmithing master, teach him the forging inheritance technology of the weapon clan, and train him to open up the manufacturing channels of the human race's top weapons and equipment.
"Boss, why are you looking so serious?"
Faced with Xiaoyou's curious inquiry, Feng Qi did not hide anything and answered immediately:
"It suddenly occurred to me that maybe I could personally train a blacksmithing master to solve the shortcomings of Star City's current forging of top weapons and equipment."
"What do you think of me?"
Xiaoyou raised her slender right arm and made a bicep arching motion.
"It's not that great. You continue to be your little messenger and don't think about it all day long."
