He picked up a piece with his fingers, rubbed it, and then moved on.

Shi Songtao had to admit that he was liking this Iron Smelting Hands Technique more and more.

If not for the fact that it was too difficult to cultivate, it would be the perfect match for forgers.

Not only was it convenient to smelt forging materials, but it also saved a lot of trouble when searching for mineral mines in the wilderness.

If not for the Iron Smelting Hands Technique, Shi Songtao would have had to prepare a bunch of special tools. Even clearing a path through the forest would have been enough to give him a headache.

Unlike now, with a wave of his hand, he could open a path by burning his way through.

Moreover, the Iron Smelting Hands Technique had one advantage over Xu Shi’s Eight Quaint Fire Divine Art. Its power was more controllable.

In contrast, the Eight Quaint Fire Divine Art could only set fires, but people’s hands couldn’t be turned into tools.

Zhou Shu followed Shi Songtao and searched for mineral mines. Zhou Shu wasn’t as good as Shi Songtao in this aspect. He had no knowledge of this.

The so-called professional things were left to the professionals.

Zhou Shu didn’t interfere with Shi Songtao’s search for mineral mines. He was holding the Great Destroyer Sword, and his hands were as red as Shi Songtao’s, as if they were made of magma.

He ran his palm over the body of the Great Destroyer Sword, doing something to it.

After entering the Ten Nations Martial Arts Tournament, Zhou Shu had used the Great Destroyer Sword to kill many demonic beasts.

The Great Destroyer Sword had already completed a hundred kills, so the upgrade condition had been unlocked.

On the page of the Great Destroyer Sword in the Legendary Armament Canon, the label after the words ‘Great Destroyer Sword’ had already become ‘Black’.

The upgrade conditions also returned to zero.

According to the past, when the Great Destroyer Sword became black grade and completed a hundred kills, the conditions to upgrade it to earth grade would be unlocked.

Zhou Shu didn’t care about this for the time being. He recalled the upgrading conditions of the Great Destroyer Sword.

The theory behind weapon upgrades was not difficult.

It was to increase the quality of the weapon itself so that it could withstand more star paths.

This was just like how people became first-rank martial artists. In theory, it was very simple. After accumulating enough spiritual essence and breaking through a few barriers, they would become first-rank martial artists.

It sounded simple, but actually doing so was almost impossible.

Everyone knew you only had to make a hundred million to be rich, but the question was whether you could.

To improve the make of a fully formed weapon, more forging materials had to be incorporated into it.

Forging was to achieve a harmonious balance of various forging materials and bring out the characteristics of the materials without them conflicting with each other.

A fully formed weapon meant that it had already reached a state of equilibrium. At this point, if more forging materials were integrated, it would make the original equilibrium unbalanced.

The result of the imbalance was that the weapon would shatter with a bang.

Therefore, it was necessary to find the balance again during the weapon upgrade.

But a weapon was made up of many forging materials. The quantity of each forging material and the change in temperature during the forging process would affect the balance.

Every single move would affect the entire upgrade. Not only did people have to know countless forging materials like the back of their hand, but their control of heat during forging had to be at the peak. In addition, they also had to have an abnormal calculation ability.

After all, upgrading weapons was different from forging weapons. All the forging materials had to be integrated as soon as possible. There was no room for delay or hesitation.

It was necessary to calculate the reactions of the various forging materials in an instant before it could succeed.

Speaking of which, Zhou Shu’s grasp of forging materials had yet to reach this level, including his control of heat and the required calculation ability.

But he had a cheat.

With the Legendary Armament Canon, he knew every step of the upgrade of the Great Destroyer Sword like the back of his hand. He didn’t need to calculate and study it himself.

As long as he was given the required forging materials, he would be able to forge successfully.

“Your Highness, I found something!” Shi Songtao shouted excitedly after more than half a day.

“Very good. Move aside a little,” Zhou Shu said.

Shi Songtao didn’t understand, but he still stepped aside slightly.

“Back up a little more.”

Shi Songtao took another few steps back.

Zhou Shu stepped lightly with his right foot and punched out.

He punched the stone wall of the mineral mine while using his Iron Smelting Hands Technique.

Boom!

There was a loud bang and a blast of hot air.

Under Shi Songtao’s dumbfounded gaze, a ten-foot-square stone on the stone wall had disappeared into fiery red magma.

“Purify the material next,” Zhou Shu said calmly.

Shi Songtao nodded numbly. We both use the Iron Smelting Hands Technique. Why is His Highness so powerful when he uses it?

His mind almost stopped working as he mechanically purified the forging material.

The ore had already melted into magma, which saved him a lot of trouble.

While Shi Songtao was working, Zhou Shu cut a piece of wood and wrote the name of the forging material on it before casually inserting it into the ground.

[This mine belongs to Zhou Shu.]

The space where the Ten Nations Martial Arts Tournament took place was ownerless. Whoever occupied a place first would own it.

After inserting the sign, the mine would belong to Zhou Shu.

When there were enough miners, he would send them here to mine!

This repeated over the next two days.

Every time Shi Songtao discovered a mineral mine, Zhou Shu would insert a sign with his name.

Then he would take some forging materials, either by smelting a piece with the Iron Smelting Hands Technique or directly smashing a small mountain with a punch.

As long as he could quickly gather enough materials to upgrade the Great Destroyer Sword, there was no need to worry about anything else for the time being.

Toward the end, Shi Songtao was completely numb to Zhou Shu’s actions.

He didn’t even bother to calculate the value of the mineral mines he’d discovered.

When the amount of money people had reached a certain level, it was just a number.

Shi Songtao even suspected that if they could really bring all these forging materials back to Great Xia, then the position of the richest man in Great Xia would have to change.

However, Deputy Master Shi had no concept of money. He had never been short of money since he was a child. What he thought of now was to leave his name in history and become the idol of countless forgers in the future.

He wanted to help Zhou Shu successfully upgrade the Great Destroyer Sword!

And this didn’t seem to be far away. Zhou Shu was only missing two types of forging materials!

Shi Songtao was full of motivation now. In these mountains, there was an abundance of forging materials. He could definitely gather all the forging materials!

…

Thousands of kilometers away, a group of armed soldiers was stationed in a forest.

The army of thousands was silent, which showed how well trained they were.

If Zhou Shu were here, he would definitely recognize that the commander of this army was his sworn brother, Mi Ziwen!

Cough cough—

Mi Ziwen coughed a few times. When he moved his hands away, there was a pool of blood on his palms.

“General!” the deputy general said worriedly.

Mi Ziwen shook his head. “You haven’t been able to contact the great general?”

“For some reason, all the voice transmissions have failed. I can’t contact the great general.” The deputy general shook his head. “The scouts we sent out didn’t find the great general and the others. General, we seem to be alone.”

The deputy general looked worried.

The situation of the war was beyond everyone’s expectations. The strength of the Demon Realm army was too strong. Before the Great Xia army could react, they were split up.

If not for Mi Ziwen’s quick reaction, he might not have even been able to keep these thousands of people alive!

Even so, the price he had paid was not small. Even he had been seriously injured.

Fortunately, they were temporarily free of the demon army’s pursuit.

“How are the supplies?” Mi Ziwen asked grimly.

“There’s not much food left,” the deputy general said bitterly. “There are still a lot of forging materials, but we don’t have any forgers in the army. Even if we have the materials, we can’t repair damaged weapons. General, should we abandon the forging materials and advance light?”

When they first entered the Ten Nations Martial Arts Tournament, the army had brought a large amount of forging materials with them. After all, the Ten Nations Martial Arts Tournament lasted for three years, so it was impossible not to replenish their weapons.

But the forging materials were heavy. In this situation, continuing to carry them was a burden to the army.

“We can’t get rid of the forging materials.” Mi Ziwen shook his head. “Everyone’s weapons are severely damaged. If they are not replenished, our combat power will greatly weaken. These forging materials are the foundation. As long as we can find a forger on our side, these materials can save lives.”

Mi Ziwen looked up into the distance and muttered to himself, “Second Brother, where are you now?”

Suddenly, he remembered something and took out a palm-sized porcelain bottle.

Zhou Shu had given him this porcelain bottle before he entered the Ten Nations Martial Arts Tournament. He said that it could save his life in a critical moment.