Ben laughed a hollow, breathless laugh as he laid in his bed, alone, dying. His once sparkling emerald eyes gazed blankly towards the decorated ceiling of his house. How stupid? How utterly stupid? After all he had been through, after all the things he survived...this was the way he dies?
An unknown but extremely dangerous disease he came into contact with while repelling the forty third Vilgaxian-Chronosapien invasion several decades ago.
It was a rather embarrassing way to die for the bearer of the awe inspiring omnitrix. What made it even worse for him that he was suffering alone with only his healing droids keeping him company. Galvans had tried everything they could at this point to prolong his life, but that only delayed inevitable for some time.
A lone tear rolled down his cheek as he thought of his short life, of his mistakes, his regrets. He had so many, too many in fact. He hated the moment of weakness he had while facing off against his nemesis, the rogue galvan named Albedo and the mutated galvanic mechamorph, Malware which led to the unfortunate demise of his grandfather / mentor Maxwell Tennyson and Azmuth, the creator of Omnitrix. He wished to see Kevin and Gwen, the people who understood him the most, always encouraging him to be the man he truly wanted to be. However both of them fell prey to a vicious trap laid by the remnants of Rooters who wanted to avenge their master Servantis' defeat. And by the time he went there to help them out, it was too little, too late.
He wished to see his son, Kenneth, his only child. He knew he had been harsh on the boy than he should have been, at least whilst training him. However, all he wanted was to see his son becoming a true hero, rather than a failed one like him, to make sure he turned out to be better plumber than his father in all aspects. He might have been a bit sheltered and kind of spoiled, but he knew his limits pretty well and never ever underestimated his enemies like his father used to. By the time he turned fourteen, Kenneth had not only finished his basic and advanced plumber's training, but also mastered the art of spell casting, which was taught to him by none other than the reformed sorcerer Hex. His boy had been given the new omnitrix developed by Galvans and his friend Cooper at the age of twenty, and was currently the head of the entire intergalactic law enforcement organization, replacing his former partner Rook after he retired. He married a beautiful , refined Uxorite girl named Lyn , and together they had a pair of twins, brother and sister, Maxwell and Gwendolyn, neither of them he could physically meet right now due to his extremely contagious disease.
How utterly humiliating!
Ben's laughter died abruptly and wet, bloody coughs leaving his mouth. He grimaced at the bitter, metallic taste. And, unfortunately it wasn't the first time that happened ever since his illness had hit the final phase of the disease.
How will others react to the death of great Ben Tennyson? Will Kenneth be mad at that he broke his promise, to celebrate his grandchildren's first birthday party together? Will the likes of Malturant and Vilgax laugh their haughty laughs at how miserable and pitiful he looked in his last moments? It wasn't as if he really cared at this point, regardless of his shortcomings as the first bearer of the omnitrix, he did his job as a plumber, never wavering in his duty to safeguard and promote the public well-being throughout the galaxy.
Closing his eyes, he relaxed his breath. He knew he didn't have long. He would most likely be gone by an hour or two, and finally put all his regrets behind him. He would see his parents, grampa Max, Gwen and Kevin, and his beloved wife, Ester, and finally he would be at peace.
It was finally, calm, peaceful, numb.
And just like that, Benjamin Kirby Tennyson died with an ironic smile on his lips.
...xxxxxx...xxxxxxx...xxxxxx...
Somewhere within the South-western regions of the Heaven Dou Empire, within the Fasinuo Province of the Douluo Continent.
Holy Spirit Village.
If one only heard of its name, it might have sounded like a rather astonishing village. But in actual fact, this was just a measly little village of three hundred households located south of Fasinuo province's Nuoding city.
The reason as to why it was called Holy Spirit Village was because of a legend; a hundred or so years ago, a Spirit Sage (ranked 71-80) Spirit Master came from there.
This was also what became the eternal pride of Holy Spirit Village.
Outside of Holy Spirit village, there was without exception, a vast expanse of farmland where plentiful grains and vegetables were produced daily, and then sent to supply Nuoding city.
Nuoding city was located in the middle of Fasinuo province, and while it wasn't considered a major city, the border of another empire was, after all, very close, and naturally, merchants of both great empires would often trade there.
Consequently, Nuoding city would flourish, and the lives of the commoners within the villages that surround the city were a whole lot better than everywhere else.
Barely reaching daybreak, in the distant eastern regions of Holy Spirit Village, the sky was beginning to turn pale grey in colour, with a tinged of orangey fire in the middle.
The first sign of early sunrise in the morning.
On a small hundred-meter tall forest hilltop, adjacent to Holy Spirit Village in the back. There were twin silhouettes of a small children.
They were only roughly five or six-year-old in age.
Evidently, every day they would endure the bare heat of the sun. Their skins have become a healthy wheaty yellow in color. Both of their hairs appeared to be black, cut in short lengths, and kept very neat.
Even their clothes were rather simple and ordinary looking, but they were undoubtedly kept clean and tidy as per usual.
One child sat down quietly on top of the hilltop, in a lotus meditative position, with both of his hands, placed on the side of each of his knee.
His two eyes were unwaveringly looking towards the east, where the dawn morning sky was gradually brightening up.
Slowly, the boy then started the process, inhaling through his nose, then gently exhaling through his mouth; in a continuous cycle of inhalations and faint exhalations that, in the end, became a splendid repetitive cycle.
During this process, the boy's eyes suddenly opened wide. And a noticeable faint trace of purple qi seemed to flash in the light of the growing bright grey dawn in the distant horizon. Without an astonishing vision and concentration, it would be impossible to notice it.
At the first sight of the purple qi, the boy's spirit was so completely focused that he no longer even exhaled, only light and slow inhalation. At the same time, the two sapphire blue eyes firmly stared in concentration at the flickering purple light.
The purple qi didn't last long; by the time the eastern light gradually rose to become daylight, the purple qi had long completely vanished already.
Only then did the boy, with a long exhalation of internal turbid qi, slowly closed his eyes. White qi then poured out through his mouth like a bolt of unrolling silk before it slowly disperses.
After sitting quietly for a long time, the boy once more opened his eyes. With a dejected sigh, the boy showed a grudging expression, unsuitable for his age.
He then shook his head, and thought to himself, 'Still impossible. My Mysterious Heaven skill is still unable to break through the first serious bottleneck. It's already been a full three months, so why is this the result? Even the Purple Demon Eye, which relied on the purple qi from the east that could only be cultivated in the early morning, has shown better progress. With Mysterious Heaven skill unable to break through the bottleneck, my Mysterious Jade Hand is also unable to advance any further.'
In his depressed state, he undoubtedly recalled on how easily he broke through this threshold, in his previous life, 'When originally cultivating to the border between the first and second-tier, I didn't seem to come across circ. like this. How come, when Mysterious Heaven skill altogether has nine tiers, it's this first tier that is this troublesome? Is it because this world is different from my original world?', feeling quite frustrated with himself...
This child was none other than Tang San, the one who had arrived in this world five years ago. It was the exact same Tang Sect's Tang San who leapt off from a cliff for his own prideful ideals.
The other child who seemed completely oblivious to what his fellow companion was up to was Tang Fan, his elder(by a couple of minutes to be exact)twin brother. Who appeared to be sweating bullets and panting like he had just run a marathon thrice over and some as he dangled upside down from a tree, doing pull-ups at such a speed that even the most fit of adults in the village would have a hard time keeping pace with, all while carrying a basket on his back, nearly twice his size and filled to the brim with firewood, which were tied and secured to his waist using vines of sorts.
His brother is simply an oddity Tang San couldn't figure out. He was a bit slower compared to himself when it came to learning this world's language, taking a few more months more than he did. But at the same time, he somehow regained his higher motor skills five months earlier. Which certainly wasn't as easier as people would like to think, even for an old soul in new body which somehow managed to keep all of their memories intact upon reincarnation. Learning to walk and speak and eat and most importantly, fight in a body with a mind that registered the actions as second nature seemed quite difficult. You had a theoretical understanding of how it worked, but implementing it was an entirely different story altogether.
Tang Fan was quite precarious compared to a child around his age. He began engaging in activities like running and stretching at the mere age of one, even trying his luck with the mini obstacle course they had in the village's playground. By the time he had turned three, he had already started performing some simple strength building exercises like squats and curls on his own using their father's discarded equipment and chunks of iron. Though never to the point of harming his own little body.
Considered the fact their father, Tang Hao, wasn't exactly a warm parental figure, his brother stepped in as much as he possibly could. Starting from three and half, before any of them were able to reach the kitchen counter, his brother had already undertaken the task of cooking meals for three of them, even if that required him to stand on a stool.
However it was one peculiar incident from last month which made him start seeing his twin in a completely different light. One day, Tang Fan asked their father to teach him how to forge kitchen utensils and farm tools so he could generate some more income for the household. Tang Hao, who rarely spoke to both his children, seemed quite started by such a request coming from a mere six year old child. He lazily pointed towards a fifty square centimeter block of ordinary iron, containing numerous impurities and asked him to hammer that ten thousand times, only then he would be qualified to be a blacksmith and learn forging. Throwing a nasty glare towards his father, Tang Fan lifted which appeared to be even taller than him and began smacking it on the red hot iron lump without any sort of difficulty whatsoever. His entire strength was already enough to swing the hammer two hundred times or so, And every time it seemed like he was exhausted or somehow ended up injuring himself by overexerting his body, he'd always recover back to normal after resting for an hour or two.
Even though his brother didn't have a grasp on inner strength techniques like he did , he was truly built strong. Unfortunately, Forging was an absolutely dull and tiring process. Apart from that, Tang Fan worked on more jobs then even the most adults of this village did, and worked really hard at them. There wasn't a house cleaned, garden weeded, or some helpless old women in distress due to not being able to get water from the nearby river or too tired to look after their troublesome grandchildren. Tang Fan was always there to help out, at the right time and a reasonable charge. His brother's name was mentioned mentioned and commented in every passing of the holy spirit village, with the title "little entrepreneur " added to his name. While Tang Fan didn't exactly have a lot of time in his hands to practice hammering all the time, he wasn't lacking when it came to persistence, vitality and overall physical strength, almost reaching the seven thousand three hundred mark somewhere around last week
It seemed that their father was astonished by Tang Fan's immense strength and incredible progress , much more so when Tang San eventually joined his twin as well. While he never truly instructed them with a single sentence, he'd always let the children play with another furnace in the room, pounding on that lump of iron. His drinking also lessened to a significant extent , and the family's income also began increasing noticeably after that.
"You are a beast, brother." Tang San remarked in awe as he could hear the boy's murmured counting about to pass two hundred and seventy mark, "And to think you haven't taken a break since we got here."
Tang Fan merely grunted in response, focusing all of his energy into pulling his elbows to his knees, fighting the pull of gravity and the added weight of the block of firewood tied to his back. Upon seeing that his brother was finally done meditating, the emerald eyed boy jumped back on his feet, sweating bullets and panting like he had just run a marathon thrice over and then some, his body hunched over and looking ragged as he collapsed on his knees. Bringing his hand up , he ruefully rubbed the green black hourglass tattoo on his left wrist.
"We should head back to home with the firewood. That bum...I mean dad is still waiting for us to come back and prepare him breakfast."
Tang San looked a bit exasperated, feeling quite frustrated at himself , for both not being able to make any new noticeable advancement to his cultivation and not helping out his brother with chopping and gathering the firewood, like he was supposed to.
He then apologized to his brother, "I am sorry, Fan, for not helping you out with chores today."
The child who had arrived in this world six years ago was exactly the bearer of Omnitrix who was on his deathbed due to an incurable and highly contagious disease. When he regained consciousness, he discovered that in addition to a warm peaceful sensation, he couldn't move. Unfortunately, the expected peace after death never arrived and he quickly found himself being reborn in this world.
Ben Tennyson wasn't clear on what was going on until much later. He hadn't died, but he was also no longer the former Benjamin Kirby Tennyson he used to be.
Whether it was because of the god's dark will or simple coincidence, his old "friend" somehow miraculously remained attached with his left wrist, though no longer in the traditional watch form and it seemed that he could no longer actually transform into aliens , and only use their abilities through his human body, while silhouette of the said transformation appeared over his body, striking similar to what people of this world referred as " martial spirits", still he figured out how to make their glowing silhouettes disappear after a little bit of practice.
He had been in possession of species shifting tool since several decades, after all. Even if the Omnitrix he had right now appeared to be a form of "energy" of sorts rather than the physical wrist watch like form he was used to, he could still understand it's functions somewhat.
Unfortunately, despite his best efforts, he could only access up to the initial thirty of his transformations right now, except the likes of Ghostfreak , Waybig and Alien X, each form lasting anywhere between a couple of hours to an entire day depending on the "energy" output of the transformation. But he'd feel quite drained and exhausted afterwards, much more so compared to his usual time outs from past life, especially if he were to continue using their abilities for longer durations without taking a breather every now and then.
Actually since quite some time, he had been sparingly using his transformations' abilities to enhance and improve his overall training regime, also going back and forth between alien and human while performing highly strenuous physical activities like these seemed like a great way to temper his body and willpower. While it did feel painstaking and boring at first, he didn't have much going on with his prosaic life in this world. Besides there were no such tools as mobiles, computers and internet to make him relax. However, his unorthodox practices to entertain himself and test the limits of his abilities weren't a complete waste though. He could already feel that his physical capabilities, both in his human and alien form, had increased greatly.
Feeling a pang of sympathy for the child, Ben shook his head with a sigh. It's not their fault that Tang Hao is drunkard bum, who just gave up on his life after his wife passed away due to some mysterious reason. Of course, given what he had been through, Ben did understand pain and suffering one felt from losing their loved ones, but that still doesn't gave that loser Hao the right to ignore their children's feelings and loneliness. Not raising them properly , with unconditional love and care like he raised his own son back then. And he thought of himself as the biggest loser in the entire galaxy for the longest time.
Even if the brothers were born in much poorer family, or get taken in by Grandpa Jack, at least they wouldn't be that much worse compared to how they were living right now.
Still, even if Ben saw his father as a sort of nuisance for the most part, he couldn't bring himself to truly hate their deadbeat father. Perhaps because he had an inkling that there was much more to their birth mother's death then he lets them on. Whatever caused Ah Yin's death must have hit him very hard and it didn't feel like a great idea to stir the pot until Tang Hao was ready to talk about it.
Ben swiftly walked over to his "younger" brother , patting his back with a slight smile, "Eh...it's alright. We are brothers after all."
Tang San flashed a genuine smile towards his fellow twin. In his former lifetime, he was an orphan. In this life time, even though Tang Hao treated him badly, he at least had a family and a big brother who looked after him.
For him, this was more than enough to make him content with his current life.
...xxxxxxx...xxxxx...xxxxxx...
The Tang family lived on the west side and region of Holy Spirit village, right next to the village chief's place.
The three-room mud brick house could be said to be the crudest in the entire village. It had a wooden plaque, one meter in diameter above and over the door, painted with a simple blacksmith hammer. The hammer in this world was the most widespread symbol of a blacksmith.
That's right. Tang San and Benjamin Kirby Tennyson aka Tang Fan 's father Tang Hao was actually a blacksmith, the only blacksmith living here in Holy Spirit village.
In this world, the blacksmith occupation could be said to be the humblest of professions. This is because none of this world's best weapons were, for a specific reason, weren't forged by blacksmiths.
After returning back to their house, the boys continued with practicing their blacksmithing skills, With the collision between forging hammer and iron chunk, clanking noises resounded. Although none of them had any idea about at what time this chunk of pig iron could become the fist size that the old bum kept demanding. Which seemed scientifically impossible, no matter how he thought about it. Iron lump was becoming more and more concentrated with their continuous forging, making reducing its volume even more difficult even if he tried going Humungousaur on it.
The only reason he had been putting up with that unreasonable drunken old bum's demands was to test out his new technique which he came up with in his past life.
As Ben had seen likes of his cousin Gwen and stone cutter Kundo, rogue grand master of an alien martial art called Revonnah kai imbue their bodies with their life force/chi/mana to greatly increase their battle efficiency , he did come up with a formula of his own to compensate for the lack of any special abilities like his fellow comrades. Of course , it took him a lot of hard work , strenuous efforts and some thorough research of human body composition on his part. But he finally created his own special combat ability at the age of thirty two.
The technique required him to intake large amounts of oxygen, to the point where it would increase his lung capacity fourfold, increased blood flow, causing the body to undergo respiration converting oxygen to glucose in large quantities, which then feeds the muscles with energy for a certain period of time. This not only enhanced his speed, reflexes and strength greatly but also had the added effect of re energizing his body, enabling it to rapidly recover from exhaustion.
However, this technique wasn't something he could use willy nilly. The blood veins or blood vessel could burst and rupture under the strong current and pressure if the transformation he was using didn't possess a body strong enough to adapt to withstand the severe side effects which came with it.
Nevertheless, his reckless behavior from past life bared fruit, as it was only thanks to this technique and the abilities of his tetramand alter ego Four Arms, he could maintain the time he could successively swing the hammer even longer. He was still surprised about how his brother managed to keep up with him so far but didn't let it show on his face. Well, it was his brother's secret anyways. It was best to not dive in too deeply in his personal business. When the time comes, if he's ready to tell him or not. It's all up to Tang San to decide
From noon both twins beat another three hundred times, perceiving that every now and then a few impurities had been driven out of the chunk of iron. Lifting the door curtain, Tang Hao entered. This afternoon he seemingly had not forged any farm tools, at least Tang San had not heard the familiar beating sounds.
"Dad."
Tang San looked in his father's direction, halting the hammer in his hands and lowering it. While Ben didn't really bother greeting the drunkard bum and continued with his exercise.
Tang Hao motioned at his second child to continue, walking near to stand calmly at one side to watch over his children's progress.
Tang San did possess incredible strength just like his elder brother, but it seemed he was having somewhat trouble adapting to the temperature level, let alone this absolutely heavy physical labor.
Dang, dang, dang, dang, dang...
The beating sound unceasingly resounded, as Ben continued to swing the iron hammer nearly twice his size with immense strength. Unlike his own brother who was relying on his spiritual energy, he had been channeling the abilities of highly resilient and durable inhabitant belonging to a scorched and borderless wastelands of planet Khoros, he could continue with the forging even if their entire village caught on fire.
I wonder what kind of freak they are, Ah Yin.
Tang Hao spared a glance at the boys, who were dripping sweat right now. Closing his eyes for a moment, he finally set his determination.
"Pause a moment, kids."
Tang Hao started to speak.
Tang San lowered the iron hammer in his hands, faintly panting somewhat, quietly urging his body's spiritual energy to adjust his breathing, in order to recover his physical strength. Ben appeared to be a little better at dealing with his fatigue, but Tang Hao could see that his stubborn child was about to reach his breaking point. It was all written on his face and by the way he telegraphed his stance while hammering the iron chunk.
"If you two continued beating it like this, even with six months it might not become fist sized."
"Then enlighten us about how should we do it in the first place, Dad." Ben retorted sarcastically, getting annoyed by the mind games their supposed parent was playing with them right now. If it wasn't for the fact that he didn't want to overly rely on his transformations, he might have figured out everything related to blacksmithing and even more all by himself using his brainy and tech savvy alter egos such as Grey Matter or Brainstorm.
Despite his son's fiery temperament, Tang Hao responded in his usual indifferent tone.
Like always Tang San was the first one to respond. Ben wasn't the one to bother with the specific details or terms belonging to a particular field anyways. Besides why bother studying when you can turn into the world's smartest being with a simple tap on your wrist.
"It should be the waist, right. From the waist through the back, then afterwards along the arm to raise the forging hammer?"
Tang Hao did not confirm nor deny Tang San's statement, but continued asking,
"Of the human body apart from the brain, which part is the most important?"
"It's the heart."
Tang San replied without the slightest hesitation. As an unrivaled expert when it came to hidden weapons, he knew quite well that heart and brain could similarly cause instant death, and while the brain still had the skull for protection, heart only had only skin and muscles nothing more.
"Then you tell me how many hearts a person has?"
"A regular human should have one heart" Ben retorted in a dry tone. Just wanting to get over with his father's boring lecture on the human body's composition.
Tang Hao shook his head, saying:
"No, you're mistaken. Remember, people have three hearts, not one."
Tang Hao reversed his grip on the iron hammer, using the handle to poke both his children's calves one by one.
"Here. On people's two calf muscles, in other words, are the second and third hearts. If a person wants to bring out one's entire physical strength, in that case, he must use three hearts simultaneously to have a result. Therefore, when bringing out strength, it definitely does not stem from the lower back. The three hearts is the correct starting point."
"When the heart inside your chest beats rapidly, power originating from the two calves, force transmits up, reaching the thigh, passing through the waist, back, arm, and finally releasing. This is how to hit with all one's strength. Hearts give force, the waist is the axis. Watch."
Tang Hao raised the hammer in his hand, forcing both boys to take several steps backwards. At the same time, the hammer in his hand already changed direction to return, and with a deep loud shout, his body half turning, both legs sticking firmly to the ground, uncovered by tattered trouser legs both calves momentarily tensed, his whole person resembling a fierce tiger ready to spring. Legs emitting strength, waist twisting, and the forging hammer was invisible in the midst of already being brought back down, with a clanging sound. Heavily coming down on top of the red hot chunk of pig iron.
Tang San could completely feel that this was only a single person emitting physical strength, just like his brother usually did but this seemed to on an entirely different level compared to that . Tang Hao didn't have internal strength, and even further he had not released some kind of spirit power. This was entirely the strength of his human body, and that chunk of previously red hot iron, still had completely caved in nearly a third from the smash, the deformation was extremely distinct.
"With the lower legs emitting strength, controlling the body's strength to successfully link it into a whole, is how to go all out. "
While speaking, Tang Hao walked to the side of the bellows and sat down, and from under the bellows pulled out something forged from pig iron: two foot pedal like objects. Tang Hao held them to connect under the bellows, and used both his hands to draw the bellows closed,
"In forging, the effect of the bellows is also especially significant. Fully heated metal can be forged even better, and this can cause its toughness to become even stronger. Any block of metal, even if it is very impure metal, it all also has its own soul. If the temperature is inadequate, and when forging if too much physical strength is used it will shatter. Like that, even if melted and reformed this chunk of metal is still only waste. Therefore, when you use all your strength to hammer an iron chunk, you must maintain its temperature well. Pumping bellows is similarly also using the power of the lower legs. Not only can you as far as possible preserve physical strength, you can also cause the bellows effect to reach the greatest temperature."
Both feet pressing down on the pedals, he abruptly released his strength. Starting at the legs, the whole body rapidly bounced back, both arms naturally driving the bellows handle to open, legs straightening and bending, again bringing the handles back. Between coming and returning, the bellows operated at full strength. Tang Hao's movements certainly did not appear swift, but everyone brought into play the bellows to the utmost. The muscles on the calf lead down, and as his body with the bellows took on a particular kind of rhythm, flames suddenly leapt up from the center of the furnace, the iron chunk at once burned a fierce red.
"Little Fan, come draw the bellows, according to my movements just now."
Tang Hao gave over his seat to Ben, motioning him to step forward.
Having previously experienced wielding the iron hammer and carefully observing, Ben sat on Tang Hao's previous seat, very quickly grasping the method to work the bellows, although he still had some doubts regarding the old man's explanation. But it didn't take him much to figure out that every time strength was released from his body , it started from the lower legs. Sure enough, as Tang Hao instructed, not only did that help him save much of his stamina, but the result as compared to before was also incomparably better despite not putting as much effort like previously did.
Tang Hao held Ben's forging hammer, who seemed a little bit dumbfounded by Tang Hao's sudden display of sheer strength and such high level of artisanship, "Using all your strength in wielding the hammer to forge can fully bring your physical strength into use. But equally, with the hammer's descent, the force from the rebound can create a very great load on you. In the event of being without a suitable guiding method, it is easy to injure yourself, and it can also cause part of the physical strength to be wasted, unable to act on the metal. Following my movement you must attentively observe, this is the key to whether you can beat this lump of pig iron into fist size in a short time."
Inhaling deeply, Tang Hao's eyes focused. Following Ben's working on the bellows, the whole iron lump already burned an intense red, blazing flame leapt up, causing the inside of the room to grow exceedingly scorching hot.
As Tang Hao moved, his motion did not seem to be any different from before, from leg to waist, waist to back, back to arms, with a clanging sound the iron hammer pounded down on the iron chunk.
Just as the iron hammer bounced up from the reaction force, Tang Hao abruptly made a turn, with the lower legs emitting power as before. The rebound swing of the hammer already rising, he wielded it in a circle overhead, bringing a sharp sound of the wind, and again came a loud sound as it struck iron chunk. Not only was the speed of this strike remarkable, but the physical force was also stronger compared to the first.
The iron hammer rebounded up high, and Tang Hao's movement with the magnitude of the iron hammer's rise seemingly attained a kind of perfect harmony. Not early not late, just in the split second the iron hammer reached its upward peak, his body drove the iron hammer in a full circle, to once again smash down.
Both brothers' eyes shone at the same time. This was unmistakably a simple yet great method to leverage force, utilizing the rebound force from the impact between hammer and metal and converting it into downward force. The motion was perfectly coordinated in order to the greatest degree avoid being harmed from the rebound force and instead transforming this physical force to especially add to the hit. Starting from the second strike, the physical force of every hit surpassed Tang Hao's full strength but was still under his control.
Tang Hao moved faster and faster, the forging hammer lashing down on the iron chunk like a violent storm, the iron chunk continuously being deformed by the beats of the forging hammer. It was shocking, the precision of Tang Hao's strikes was unreal. Every time the iron chunk was hit it was reduced to half its former thickness, and when it started to become flat, the forging hammer in his hand would at once hit the iron chunk's edge, causing it to flip. Thus, the iron chunk was evenly enduring his hammer blows and was not simply pounded into an iron flat cake.
In a flash, the hammer had already struck thirty-six times, and Tang Hao's both hands drove the iron hammer to spin overhead successively in three circles. Not until the force of the hammer was dispersed, did he stand down the hammer. His face not red, breath not labored, as if that previous mad storm of blows had not been produced by him at all.
The whole iron chunk, after just thirty-six blows in the whole small circle, with the naked eye it was actually already hard to see any impurities within.
This just now was true blacksmith mastery, a beautiful hammer method.
He then turned towards the pair of dumbfounded siblings, and coolly said, "If you want to accomplish my kind of level, Little Fan and Little San, there is only one way, skill only comes from practice. Furthermore, you must bear in mind, if you are striking a piece of common metal, then when it is the most impure, it is also most likely to shatter. At that time, when you beat it the physical force must be smaller, and as its impurities gradually decrease, your physical force can begin to gradually increase to maintain the effect of the strikes. Don't blindly increase your force and speed, just cause you are strong, accuracy is equally important. At least you must understand the hammer's descent unless you can hit any place, mastering this way of dynamic control is pivotal before you two start forging tools on your own. Slowly practice this by yourself, okay?"
With the weight of forging hammer returned into Ben's hands, Tang Hao went back to work on farm tools on his own. A small smile appearing on his usually dim and lifeless face as he saw his children diligently continue at the drill he was putting them through, overseeing their practice.
This will keep my little monsters occupied for at least next couple of months.
...xxxxxxx...xxxxxxxx...xxxxxxxx...
Next morning...
Somewhere in the outskirts of Holy spirit Village...
"My wrists...my poor wrists.." Ben whimpered, blowing on his aforementioned cuffs just below his hands as he continued with plucking out handful of grass and weeds, placing them inside a straw basket.
"Fan, this might take ages." Tang San complained a little as he carried the basket full of weeded out grass and emptied it out into the compost bin, placed layers upon layers on top of each other, in between the soil. "Do you really need the money that badly?"
Ben had been given a job by a farmer who lived nearby to get rid of any and all unnecessary plant growth that might be harmful towards herbs growing in his garden. Alongside an added bonus for watering the corps and performing some small repairs in the yard if needed. He had managed to rope Tang San into it with promises of a hear felt meal afterwards. Tang San seemed quite bored after eating the same sort of food everyday so he immediately agreed take some time off from their usual hammering "practice" like their father insisted on and help him out.
"I want to be a billionaire so fucking bad, " Ben replied in a sing song tone, wiping the sweat off his face, with his own shirt, "Buy all of the things I never had."
Both of them soon had their arms, legs and belly aching , and Ben's palms throbbed a bit due to a bunch minor bruises he'd gotten from practicing the hammering skills for a few hours last night, which their lousy father showed them back then, but he and his brother actually had a lot of fun competing against each other, if you could believe it.
"How do you come up with these ridiculous songs anyways, they are so..." Tang San laughed, shaking his head a little as he went over and lifted the heavy watering can, filled to the brim with water, with relative ease, not even tipping a little bit while he took his position , raising the watering at a perfect angle such that the rainwater collected within could be equally distributed amongst the herbs and useful plants. Ben was working on the same process right now. Repeatedly refilling another heavy watering can up in his hand , covering the plants in the garden his brother couldn't, and ultimately after a while, there was nothing left for the brothers to do.
"Still, I can think of a few things I might want to buy..." Whatever Tang San was going to say was cut off by the back door opening , and village's kind elder Grampa Jack hobbling out using his walking stick.
Tang San walked over in front of Old Jack, respectfully bowing to him. Ben was a little bit reluctant in doing so at first (Given he was arguably old enough to be called a grandfather himself) but he eventually followed the suit, he couldn't do anything about current biological age anyways.
"Morning Grampa Jack/ Gramps."
Both twins greeted the village elder simultaneously.
"Ah, Little San, Little Fan. Both of you have quickly become six years old this year. You ought to join this year's awakening ceremony. And don't worry about Hao, I have already talked with him." He spoke to the children with a reassuring smile.
"Awakening ceremony?" Ben dumbfounded upon hearing that. Tang San seemed rather curious as well.
"We all have our own martial spirits, which can be awakened around the age of six with the awakening ceremony. Having a martial spirit we can ability in a specific field related to that. " Old man Jack replied enthusiastically, displaying a carrot hologram of sorts in his right hand, "If by any chance you gain remarkable spirit, we can speak about going through cultivation, even to the extent that you could possibly become a spirit master on your own. The awakening ceremony is held only once every year. I cannot let you two miss it. It's a lord attendant from Nuoding city's Spirit sub hall who personally comes every year to help our village's children awaken. That loyal attendant also a veteran in this field, an accomplished spirit grandmaster to be exact."
When saying the words "Spirit Grand master" , there was obvious admiration in Old Jack's eyes.
Both Ben and Tang San had only heard a few vague things related to martial spirits and spirit masters ever since they arrived here from their own respective world and universe, which in itself didn't intervene with each other and connected in anyway possible. But both of them had one thing in common, they used to be accomplished warriors back in the days and clearly looking for some sort of opportunity to jump back into action. So right now they naturally couldn't let this golden opportunity slip by.
"What does a spirit grandmaster mean?"
The former bearer of omnitrix asked , his eyes narrowed slightly.
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