Chapter 3694: Forging, Fighting And Learning

Lin Mu reacted instantly.

His sword, still crude yet effective, swept downward. Hone enhanced its cutting edge, slicing through several strands, but more replaced them immediately.

He clicked his tongue.

’So brute force alone would not suffice.’ Lin Mu changed his approach.

He dropped the shield.

With both hands free, he spun the spear in a tight arc, creating a zone of motion that forced the threads back. At the same time, he shifted his footing, stepping into the path of the blade Dao Embryo rather than retreating from it.

The cleaver descended again.

This time, Lin Mu did not block.

He moved.

The massive strike passed just inches from his body, and in that instant, he drove his spear forward.

Hone sharpened the tip beyond its crude form.

The spear struck the core of the Mountain Cleaver Blade Dao Embryo.

A crack formed.

The massive blade shuddered before splitting apart.

Lin Mu turned immediately.

The spear Dao Embryo was already upon him.

Their clash resumed, faster and sharper than before. Lin Mu’s movements grew more fluid, his strikes more precise. Each exchange taught him something new about force, direction, and control.

Then, without warning, his spear shattered.

The stress had finally exceeded what Reinforce could maintain.

Lin Mu stepped back.

The Dao Embryos halted.

They did not press their advantage.

Instead, they waited.

Lin Mu understood.

This was part of the trial.

He exhaled and returned to the anvil.

Again.

CLANG.

CLANG.

CLANG.

This time, he forged a longer spear, refining its balance. Then he created a heavier shield, thicker and more stable. Finally, he crafted a short blade meant for close combat.

He stepped forward once more.

The battle resumed.

This cycle repeated again and again.

Lin Mu fought.

He lost.

He rebuilt.

He fought again.

There were times he believed he had failed completely. Moments where his weapons shattered too quickly, where the Dao Embryos overwhelmed him from all directions, where his movements faltered.

And yet, each time, they stopped.

They allowed him to try again.

Slowly, Lin Mu began to understand.

This was not about defeating them all in one attempt.

It was about growth.

So he adapted.

He stopped relying on a single style.

Instead of swords and spears alone, he forged axes when he needed power. He created bows when distance became necessary, forming crude arrows that carried the effect of Hone to pierce through defenses.

He even crafted heavy hammers, using sheer impact to disrupt the forms of certain Dao Embryos that relied on stability.

When the battles grew more complex, he began forging armor.

Layered plates formed around his body, reinforced through the Dao skill. They were heavy, imperfect, yet they allowed him to withstand blows that would have otherwise ended the fight.

His approach became versatile and dynamic.

At one point, he forged two blades and a spear, wielding all three simultaneously. The techniques of the Thousand Armament Blade Scripture surfaced naturally, his movements flowing as if guided by instinct.

Weapons shifted in his hands.

A sword became a spear.

A spear broke into fragments and reformed into daggers.

He fought with multiple forms, switching between them seamlessly.

Through it all, his understanding deepened.

He began to see patterns.

The way different metals responded to force.

The way structure influenced strength.

The way refinement altered potential.

This was no longer just combat.

It was comprehension.

His Metal Dao grew.

His Forging Dao advanced alongside it.

Even his other understandings evolved.

The Spear Dao sharpened with each thrust. The Bow Dao refined with every shot. Even his Fist Dao improved, as he occasionally abandoned weapons altogether and relied on pure impact, using reinforced metal gauntlets around his fists to amplify his strikes.

Time lost meaning.

Lin Mu no longer counted victories or defeats.

He simply fought.

Forged.

Learned.

And slowly, the number of Dao Embryos surrounding him began to decrease. Not because they vanished, but because fewer stepped forward. They had seen enough. And at the center of it all, still waiting, still steady, was the Flawless Metal Anvil.

It had not moved.

It had not struggled.

It simply observed.

And Lin Mu finally began to understand why.

Time moved forward in a way that only cultivators could truly perceive, stretching and compressing in uneven rhythms.

Outside the rune dome, the Dwarven elders stood in quiet watch, their earlier confidence slowly giving way to concern. What had begun as a test they believed Lin Mu would pass with difficulty had now turned into something far beyond expectation.

"This is taking longer than before," one of the Fireforge elders muttered, his thick arms crossed as he stared at the faintly glowing dome.

"It has been over a year now," another replied, his brows furrowed. "Even among us, those who attempted this rarely exceeded a few months."

A third elder, one of the Rune Dwarves, stroked his beard thoughtfully. "His comprehension is high, perhaps too high. The more one understands, the more choices appear. And the more choices appear, the harder it becomes to settle upon one."

They fell silent again, each recalling their own experiences within the Dao Forge.

Their trials had been harsh, filled with resistance and confusion, yet they now understood that what Lin Mu faced was something entirely different. Their struggles had been like crossing a river. His was like navigating an endless ocean filled with storms on a single piece of hay.

Inside the metallic realm, Lin Mu stood alone.

The battlefield had changed beyond recognition. What was once an open expanse of shimmering metal had become a scarred and layered domain, littered with fragments of weapons, shattered constructs, and lingering traces of countless battles.

The ground itself bore the marks of his persistence, dented and reshaped by impacts that would have shattered mountains in the real world. And Lin Mu stood at its center, transformed.

His armor rose high around him, layered plates overlapping like the scales of a primordial beast.

Each segment had been forged through trial, reinforced repeatedly until it could endure even the strongest strikes he had faced. The surface of the armor was not smooth. It bore marks of refinement, edges that had been honed and reshaped, proof of the countless iterations that had come before.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.