Chapter 962: Chapter 599: Star Device Completed, Elder Long Arrives

The molten alloy flowed evenly into the mold.

From start to finish, there wasn’t even the slightest tremor in his hand.

The result, of course, far exceeded Mi Yue’s expectations. If Lu Lin were to enter the forging industry, even if his other skills weren’t exceptional, with this casting technique alone, he’d never have to worry about making a living.

After pouring it into the mold, the next step was to wait for it to set.

At this stage, many forgers would use the condensation method, but Mi Yue had never used this method.

The condensation method could quickly cool down the liquid metal in the mold, but it had a drawback: it cooled several times faster than natural cooling, and during this process, a forger couldn’t always ensure the Star Device’s status was under their control.

Not only him, but many Refining Masters in the Refining Star Mountain wouldn’t use condensation methods, whether air cooling, water cooling, or ice cooling.

Lu Lin had always been learning from Mi Yue and was unaware of other cooling methods, so the two of them waited in the forging room for three days.

Three days later, the knife in the mold had started to take on a basic shape.

But this was just the beginning. The knife now could only be called a rough embryo, and next, it still needed forging, slight modifications to its shape, burs, and to check if there were issues with the material of the knife itself.

After a half day, Lu Lin completed the initial forging and polished the knife. When choosing materials, he added a small amount of De Shan Graphite, which served only one purpose: coloring.

Having grown accustomed to using a broken knife, Lu Lin also preferred to manufacture a completely black knife.

Next came the most crucial step in making a Star Device: engraving the Star Runes.

Normal weapons, no matter how good the materials used, would only have basic features like sharpness and durability when forged. Of course, some refiners might add effects like causing bleeding or tearing.

However, if that’s all, no matter how powerful the weapon might be, it would only be called a mundane weapon, not a Star Device.

The most important aspect of a Star Device is the engraving of Star Runes; different Star Runes can enhance the Star Device’s power, thus increasing a martial artist’s combat ability.

This is something Lu Lin had already learned over the past year, mastering more than a dozen basic Star Runes. Placing the knife on the workbench, Lu Lin began engraving.

Wind Speed.

This Star Rune allows the knife to slash faster.

Silence.

As the name suggests, it enables the martial artist to use the device silently.

Penetrating Body.

This Star Rune is considered one of the more advanced among the basic runes, allowing the Star Power released by the martial artist to penetrate the opponent’s body, effectively striking their internal organs and meridians.

After engraving these three Star Runes, Lu Lin was still somewhat dissatisfied, though unbeknownst to him, Mi Yue was already stunned.

Is this some kind of joke?

Lu Lin’s casual engraving of three Star Runes was on par with the level Mi Yue achieved when learning forging.

Could he have learned this before?

Otherwise, how could he achieve this simply by occasionally glancing while being by my side for just a year?

Mi Yue didn’t understand Lu Lin’s abilities. In learning forging, the critical aspects had already been mastered by Lu Lin to the utmost extent.

His physical body had the strength of a Dragon.

His Soul Power had reached the fourth-stage Metamorphosis.

His vision was assisted by the Eyes of Broken Delusion.

If engraving advanced Star Runes, he might hesitate at first, but not with these basic ones.

Lu Lin shook his head. A knife with just these three Star Runes could be considered a Third Grade Star Instrument, though he felt it wasn’t ideal.

Even though he’d only studied forging for a year, handling it himself this time, Lu Lin felt the knife was far from perfect.

Wind Speed, Silence, Penetrating Body.

With these three Star Runes layered, the knife he forged was highly suitable for hidden assassination, yet something was still missing.

An assassin misses with one strike, then retreats a thousand miles.

That’s it; he should add another Star Rune to this knife for it to be truly perfect.

With a glint in his eye, Lu Lin immediately lowered his head and began to engrave.

Soon, under Mi Yue’s watchful gaze, Lu Lin completed the engraving of the final Star Rune.

"Lu Lin, you... you can even engrave this kind of intermediate Star Rune? You must have learned forging before; you must have learned."

Mi Yue exclaimed.

Subconsciously, Lu Lin reached up to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

Whether or not he’d learned forging, if no one else knew, Lu Lin surely did himself.

But it was no wonder Mi Yue was amazed. From the lowest grade to the third grade, Star Devices only display basic Star Runes—a first-grade Star Device features a single rune, a second-grade two runes.

But at the fourth to sixth-grade stage, at least one intermediate Star Rune is needed on the Star Device. Having one signifies a fourth-grade Star Device, two for fifth-grade, and three for sixth-grade.

Even when Mi Yue learned forging, a year only allowed her to master over a hundred basic Star Runes, and mastering and engraving intermediate Star Runes on weapons was something learned only after three years of training.

Although Mi Yue had spent considerable time, she was a genius-level prodigy at Refining Star Mountain, seen once in a millennium or even ten millennia, able to craft a Ninth Grade Star Tool within a hundred years of apprenticeship. Such a student’s work could be auctioned at the Refining Star Treasure Appreciation Conference. While other apprentices could only produce a single Ninth Grade Star Tool, Mi Yue could forge numerous ninth-grade Star Tools in a short time. This talent at Refining Star Mountain was undoubtedly at the apex of the pyramid.