Old Tang was looking at She Meixiao and the transformed Sheng Feilong with a satisfied expression. Ignoring the burning furnace behind him, he waited for She Meixiao's response.
She Meixiao glanced at Sheng Feilong, slightly nodding to him. Sheng Feilong then slowly transformed back and and took a step forward to answer Old Tang's question. "Senior Tang, Master and I came to you to find a metal that would be fit to be used for creating my Battle Armour."
"Your Battle Armour? Lad, how old are you? Battle Armour can't be worn by just everyone who has a bit of money; You need the strength to support it." Old Tang looked at Sheng Feilong with a light ridicule in his eyes. Although he was surprised by the aura of Sheng Feilong's Spirit Essence, that didn't mean that he had what it took to become a Battle Armour Master.
Sheng Feilong smiled lightly and released his Radiant Emperor's Phantasmagoric Eyes' Soul Rings. All four of them appeared behind his back, bathing the whole room in a mix of purple and black light. "With all due respect Senior, I'm aware of what it takes to become a Battle Armour Master."
Old Tang didn't reply to Sheng Feilong instantly. Instead, he stared at the latter with narrowed eyes, looking him up and down. "Brat... you have Twin Spirit Essences? That transformation Spirit Essence and now this one with the four Soul Rings. Ha! I've underestimated you! So? Tell me, what kind of metal do you need?"
"My first Spirit Essence, the transformation one, as you called it, has powerful corrosive abilities and equally powerful negative energies. As for the other one, it's a spiritual type Spirit Essence that mutated from the Spirit Eyes body spirit. So, I need a metal – or Spirit Alloy – with dual spiritual and dark or corrosive attributes.", Sheng Feilong calmly stated, observing Old Tang in the process.
The latter's smile grew wider as Sheng Feilong continued to speak, not a hint of hesitation could be seen on his face. The old man actually seemed to get more excited about the whole situation, and finally spoke up after Sheng Feilong finished. "Wonderful! It's been a while since I've had such an interesting task. Brat, have you tried out how strong your corrosive powers are?"
Sheng Feilong replied instantly, not bothering to hide anything. "I've never tried it on metal on purpose, but Master told me that I corroded down Thousand Refined Black Iron machinery in a matter of seconds. Moreover, my first Soul Skill is strong enough to destroy the ground of the training facilities here at the headquarters."
Old Tang's expression brightened and he run over to one of the shelves in the back, pulling out a piece of Thousand Refined Black Iron. Stuffing it into Sheng Feilong's hand, he spoke up in a hurried voice. "Show me how you do it! I want to see just how strong that corrosive energy is."
Sheng Feilong nodded. Retracting his Soul Rings, he willed the Netherworld Putrefaction Demon Spirit Essence to take the lead again, using it's physical strength to slowly crush the metal before using his first Soul Skill, Putrefying Devil Claw. Naturally, he did so carefully, making sure not to show his grey-red Soul Ring; Even She Meixiao didn't know about it yet and he definitely didn't want Old Tang to see it. The less people knew about it, the better!
The greyish, muddy green vapour rose from Sheng Feilong's claw, causing a sizzling sound to echo out from the Thousand refined Black Iron as it slowly began deforming and melting down. Not letting it fall to the ground, Sheng Feilong completely corroding it away, leaving nothing of it.
Old Tang and She Meixiao looked at him with stoic expression, before Old Tang began laughing loudly. He ran back to the shelf, grabbing another piece of metal – a blueish dull coloured chunk – and stuffed it into Sheng Feilong's claw. Even through his armoured, transformed hand, he still felt that the metal was cold to the touch. Understanding Old Tang's meaning without the former even saying anything, he spurned his Soul Power again, using the Putryfying Devil Claw to corrode the metal as well.
Just as the Thousand Refined Black Iron before, it melted down into a puddle with a sizzling sound before turning into nothingness. Sheng Feilong looked at Old Tang, not knowing what kind of expression to expect, but the latter had already ran back to his shelf, coming back with three different kinds of metal in his arms. "Senior, shouldn't we top this? Those metals are expensive, are they not?"
"Who cares about that! Quickly use that ability of yours again, I want to see just how strong it is!" With no option to refuse, Sheng Feilong began corroding down one rare and precious metal after the other, glancing at She Meixiao from time to time. She and Old Tang were staring at the whole process with stars in their eyes, obviously thrilled by the whole thing.
Repeating over and over again, it took only a short hour before Sheng Feilong had destroyed over 70 different kinds of rare metals. Some of them were special, rather unique pieces, but they were still melted down regardless; Even some more basic Spirit Alloys weren't spared! Sheng Feilong didn't spent much energy as his Soul Skill activated quite easily and the amount of energy needed to melt down a single piece of metal was laughable, even to the current him.
"Senior, is this enough already..? We've been at it for over an hour.", She Feilong said as he glanced at the shelf on the other side of the room. The prior glittering collection of metals had shrunken down considerably and although he wasn't a blacksmith, the sheer waste made Sheng Feilong uncomfortable.
Surprisingly, Old Tang nodded, still with the same excited expression on his face. He picked up two more chucks of metal from his shelf, both of which Sheng Feilong had destroyed specimen of once before. "You're right, this should be enough. From the tests, the ones that could take the most of your energy are the Nether Storm Quartz and the Vorpal Aldismium, with the latter seemingly reacting to the corrosive energy. If we use those two to form a Spirit Alloy, your Battle Armour would be incredibly powerful!"
Sheng Feilong nodded again; he trusted the old blacksmith's input and felt that those two materials were the best to use as well. But with those two, the material would only assist his netherworld Putrefaction Demon Spirit Essence. "Senior, about the metals; we still need to find ones that fit my Radiant Empe-" Before he could finish his sentence, a piece of metal was thrown over to him.
Catching it by reflex, Sheng Feilong looked at it. He looked at it and felt a slight tug at his heart while staring at it; nearly losing control over his Soul Power as he could feel the Radiant Emperor's Phantasmagoric Eyes' violently react to the metal. This metal was clearly in perfect sync with his Spirit Essence! With a shocked expression, Sheng Feilong suppressed his Soul Power. "Senior, what kind of metal is this?"
Old Tang didn't show any expression; his previous excited smile washed off of his face and he replied in a plain tone. "That's one of my most priced Spirit Alloys. It's compatibility with spiritual power is unmatched when compared to everything I've worked with and it's incredibly rare; A single chunk like the one you have there is easily worth around 200-300 million Federational Coins."
He paused a moment, enjoying Sheng Feilong's shocked expression when he mentioned the metals price. With a smirk, he continued. "Star Platinum. That's it's name. Highly compatible with Spirit Power, highly compatible to be fused with any other metal, incredibly rare as the base metals can only be gathered in small amounts and the one in your hand has a harmony rate of 87 percent."
Sheng Feilong looked at Old Tang with a slightly sluggish expression. "87 percent... and you want to forge it into an even higher leveled Spirit Alloy and mix it with the Nether Storm Quartz and the Vorpal Aldismium? Then, wouldn't it become a four metal Spirit Alloy?"
"Five metal Spirit Alloy, actually; Star Platinum is made from three base metals – Heavy Silver, Meteoric Iron and Volcanic Platinum. Heavy Silver's no issue, but the other two are rare, especially the meteoric Iron. I think you understand why just from it's name, right?", Old Tang said without batting an eye.
"Well, I'll make sure to create you as many pieces as you need, and all of the finished five metal Spirit Alloys will have a harmony rate of over 85 percent. That way, you can use them until you upgrade your battle armour into a Three Word one without reforging it in between." Old Tang turned back to his furnace for the first time since they began the tests with Sheng Feilong's corrosive energy. "Well, get out now, I've stil lgot to work on that piece of crap Hammer for the old fogey. Come back in a few days; I'll have the first batch ready by then."
Without further ado, he pulled huge chunk of metal out from the furnce with his bare hands before conjuring up a big, purple and red hammer – his Spirit Essence – and started hammering the metal. Resounding booms echoed through the private workshop as Old Tang didn't even bother to say anything else to She Meixiao and Sheng Feilong.
The latter looked at his master, confused, but calm, and they exited the forging halls. Outside, She Meixiao smiled at Sheng Feilong before speaking up in a amused tone. "Well, no that we've sorted out the matters regarding your Battle Armour's materials, it's time to pay a visit to a good Mecha Designer, right?"