"Just call me Su Yu, I'm just a Soul Saint."
"Su Yu? Soul Saint?" Kuang Tie was intrigued and blurted out, "Are you the Su Yu from the Sun and Moon Empire's Mingde Hall?"
"You know me?"
"..."
Kuang Tie was speechless.
Do you really not know the magnitude of what you've done?
Among the teams that participated in the competition, quite a few returned together with the Essence Sect team led by Poison Undying. The news of that battle had already spread.
Level 79 battled against Level 97, fighting two at once, resisting Shrek's Yan Shaozhe and Xuanzi, two Super Douluos.
Such terrifying battle achievements, even if the empire had measures in place to block information to maintain morale, still spread widely.
He did nothing else but achieve such unprecedented feats.
Moreover, Su Yu's performance made many believe it was replicable.
At the very least, for a Soul Saint to fight beyond their rank against a Titled Douluo seemed replicable.
As long as one possesses a full set of advanced battle armor, it seems entirely possible for a Soul Saint to challenge a Titled Douluo!
This is the fundamental reason Su Yu's deeds have been so widely spread.
Knowing Su Yu's true identity, Kuang Tie was internally shaken.
The mysterious senior he had the fortune to meet over a year ago turned out to be Su Yu.
Su Yu's combat prowess was undoubtedly at the Super Douluo level, and Kuang Tie became instantly wary, worried that Su Yu might attack him.
After all, the Sun and Moon Empire had already launched a war.
Without considering why Su Yu appeared here, he very likely would take action against the Soul Masters of the Douluo Three Kingdoms.
"There's no need to be nervous. I have no reason to make a move against you, right? I heard the Iron Blood Sect doesn't get along with the Tiandou Royal Family. Maybe we can have some common ground." Su Yu said.
His choice to chat with Kuang Tie was also for this purpose.
Even though the Iron Blood Sect isn't very large, its location is excellent. It's situated on the outskirts of Tiandou City, where the original Tang Sect was located.
As for the deteriorating relationship between the Iron Blood Sect and the Tiandou Royal Family, what makes Su Yu think they might have common ground?
The Iron Blood Sect outright took over the Tang Sect's territory and established their sect, which says it all.
Shrek seems unconcerned, possibly because of some unspeakable reason, needing to maintain some neutral nonsense, unable to intervene in conflicts between various forces, but the Tiandou Royal Family doesn't have this limitation.
The Royal Family of the Celestial Soul Empire is a bloodline of the ancient Celestial Battle Empire Royal Family. Although the relationship with the Tang Sect has eroded over ten thousand years, both sides are invariably tied by their roots.
Who in the continent is unaware of the numerous deeds of the Sea God from ten thousand years ago?
And the Celestial Soul Royal Family naturally becomes inevitably connected to the Tang Sect by reputation while trying to associate with that figure.
The Tang Sect's seizure of the sect's territory is a slap in the face, and although the Celestial Soul Royal Family may not enact substantial revenge, being royal and ruthless, the Iron Blood Sect's decision not to take the Celestial Soul Royal Family seriously is evident in itself.
"Common ground?"
Kuang Tie understood what Su Yu meant.
He was thinking about whether there could be cooperation between the two sides.
Not impossible!
This was the final conclusion Kuang Tie came to.
The conflict between the Iron Blood Sect and the Celestial Soul Royal Family is not simply because the Iron Blood Sect took over the Tang Sect's territory and slapped the Celestial Soul Royal Family's face.
Some Soul Masters of elder status within the Iron Blood Sect have hammer-type Martial Souls, and they all have the same sideline—that is, blacksmithing.
In Su Yu's memory, there was a City of Metals on the Douluo Continent.
Undoubtedly, he knew this location because he had read the first book in his previous life.
It was just a vague impression, and he had previously planned to visit the City of Metals to learn some forging techniques.
But later, he forgot all about it.
In fact, even if he hadn't forgotten, he wouldn't have achieved his goal.
The City of Metals, Gengxin City, and its Blacksmith Association had long been forced to disband.
After the collision and fusion of the Sun and Moon Continent and the Douluo Continent, the power of the soul-guiding devices became apparent, and the biggest shortcoming of the Douluo Continent side was the lack of rare metals.
The City of Metals naturally attracted the attention of many forces.
Needless to say, the Celestial Soul Empire; both the Xingluo Empire and the Douling Empire had once looted metals in Gengxin City for research purposes.
Later, the blacksmiths within Gengxin City suffered as well.
Because apart from a small amount of rare metal, most of the metals in Gengxin City were still ordinary metals.
However, if a blacksmith's skills reach a sufficiently high level, it is said they can transform the rotten into the miraculous, leading some to target the relatively lower-ranking blacksmiths.
And a group of elders within the Iron Blood Sect are descendants of blacksmiths from Gengxin City.
To the Douluo Three Kingdoms, they can be said to have little sense of belonging, at least not to the point where they would sacrifice everything for the Douluo Three Kingdoms.
Cooperating with the Sun and Moon Empire was not an act of betrayal for Kuang Tie.
He just needed to ensure that the Iron Blood Sect would not become a sacrificial object in the cooperation and that he could secure enough benefits for himself.
...
An hour later.
After talking with Kuang Tie, Su Yu also learned about the history of the Iron Blood Sect.
"Indeed, fate works in mysterious ways."
The "Fate" rune in Su Yu's Sea of Spirit autonomously refined and integrated, becoming much more harmonious.
"Since your Iron Blood Sect are descendants of the blacksmiths from the old Blacksmith Association, you should have mastered quite a bit of forging technology."
Kuang Tie sighed.
"Blacksmiths vary in rank from low to high: basic blacksmith, intermediate blacksmith, advanced blacksmith, grandmaster-level blacksmith, and divine artisan level."
"To forge ordinary metals so they possess the characteristics of rare metals and can be used as rare metals, requires at least a grandmaster-level blacksmith. And grandmaster-level blacksmiths were among the absolute elite in the Blacksmith Association of that time, not exceeding thirty in number."
The existence of the Tang Sect made the blacksmith profession brilliant for a time, but it was the Tang Sect's internal blacksmiths who were brilliant, with at least a hundred grandmaster-level blacksmiths.
However, as the Tang Sect declined, the status of the blacksmith profession also plummeted.
Finally, as the Tang Sect completely collapsed, its foundation exhausted, the Three Kingdoms began to implement their conjectures.
"Moreover, grandmaster-level blacksmiths cannot perform this level of forging at any time; at most, they can forge once a month, which is already the limit."
This, to some extent, alleviated the Douluo Three Kingdoms' pressure on the demand for rare metals, but the relief was not significant.
Many grandmaster-level and above blacksmiths were taken by various forces, their forging techniques passed down, thereby cultivating more blacksmiths to relieve as much as possible the need for rare metals.
However, this had nothing to do with the Blacksmith Association of Gengxin City anymore.
The advanced blacksmiths in the association were plundered, and even family-inherited techniques were seized in the name of so-called righteousness, leaving the Blacksmith Association as a nominal entity.
In his youth, Kuang Tie gathered some descendants of the Blacksmith Association to form the Iron Blood Sect.
"What level of forging techniques have you mastered?" Su Yu curiously asked.
Kuang Tie had good talent and strong personal strength, so his enhancement of forging techniques should not be small, right?
"I'm not talented, but I have reached the peak of grandmaster-level." Kuang Tie replied with some pride.
"Oh?" Su Yu was inwardly very pleased.
Grandmaster level was already impressive.
Many Ninth-Level Soul Guides also need to hone their forging skills, but converting their level to the iron rank of blacksmiths on the Douluo Three Kingdoms' side, they were merely of the advanced blacksmith level.
At most, fusion forging techniques could reach a grandmaster-level standard, but other aspects were much rougher.
"Brother Kuang Tie, I have some interest in forging. I wonder if there might be an opportunity to seek your guidance in the future?"
"You, a disciple of Mingde Hall, are still in need of rare metals?" Kuang Tie asked in confusion.
In his view, the greatest current use of blacksmithing techniques is to forge ordinary metals to possess the properties of rare metals to replace them in the making of soul-guiding devices.
However, unless one is a divine artisan, completely transforming the rotten into the miraculous, the forged metals have numerous limitations when used in making soul-guiding devices, unable to fabricate devices above Level 6.
Even poorly manufactured forged products couldn't support the complex core arrays of fourth-level soul-guiding devices.
"Brother Kuang Tie misunderstood, I'm simply interested in forging and wish to learn a bit. By the way, have you ever thought of revitalizing the blacksmith profession?" Su Yu asked.
"Revitalize blacksmithing?" Kuang Tie looked puzzled.
He didn't know how such a revival could happen.
Cultivate a large number of high-level blacksmiths and work for the major forces?