The Science of Cultivation [Xianxia]

Chapter 136: Metal Affinity

An awkward silence befell the room as nothing happened, despite Li Lang striking the green bell with the mallet. Just as he had feared, it seemed he had no talent once again, but for artificing this time.

“Elder Tie, are you sure this bell is working properly? Maybe it ran out of metallic dust or something?”

The broad woman sighed and shook her head.

“I’m afraid the current you simply don't have the affinity for it. If artificing is something you really want to pursue, I recommend trying again in a few years. Unlike aptitude, affinity can change over time. You can try to work with metals more often or learn various metal Qi arts to acquire the affinity.”

Li Lang’s mind began to run into overdrive mode as the elder continued. While he may be annoyed by the so-called natural talent acting as some sort of roadblock for him again, he was just as eager to look further into it.

“Unfortunately, you are an adult now. If you were younger, we could still take you as an apprentice to build up your affinity.”

From the elder’s tone, Li Lang believed she wouldn’t budge on the matter, so he didn’t even attempt to plead his case. If what she said was true, there was no point anyway to become an errand boy to build up affinity when he could do the same by learning useful Qi techniques.

Hmm, a metal Qi art that can be useful to me. Why would practicing any technique with the metal attribute bestow this affinity, anyway?

Li Lang began to go over the issue from the perspective of a native of this world. The regular person here had minimal education. If the affinity could be earned by working closely with the metals or the associated attributed Qi, he suspected it had something to do with perception.

As far as he knew, even after countless years since the inception of artificing, no one in the world had discovered the reason behind the so-called affinity. They only figured out it was related to one’s experience.

They have a bad habit of believing things are limited by one’s natural talents around here. It makes no sense that just being around metals a lot would increase this made-up concept of affinity. It must be something people learn from observing and handling metal Qi itself.

It didn’t take long for Li Lang’s mind to go over the possible things one could learn about the metal attribute from observation alone. Since the elder had said she only accepted younger children if they didn’t have affinity, it was safe to assume it was because it was easier for children to obtain the affinity.

Children generally equate to low cultivation. It isn’t plausible for them to be able to observe intricate Qi techniques, so the thing they learned is most likely something physical that they can see.

Once Li Lang made those connections, a hypothesis swiftly formed.

“Elder Tie, do you think I can try this test one more time?”

“Li Lang, I’m sorry to say these things don’t change overnight. I advise you to try again another time.”

The elder’s tone made it apparent that she didn’t want to waste any of her time any longer, but Li Lang continued.

“Please, Elder. It’ll take just a second. Let me try one more time.”

Seeing Li Lang’s determined eyes, Elder Tie sighed.

“Fine. Make it quick.”

Having received permission, Li Lang quickly collected himself and picked up the mallet. He inspected the material again, running his hand over it. While he did so, he closed his eyes and concentrated.

Once he had adjusted his mindset, he struck the bell.

Elder Tie dismissively shook her head as she began composing the words she should say to be rid of the young man. While he was a friend of one of her current students, she was too busy to be entertaining the youngster.

She turned around and began exiting the room.

“Are you satisfied now, Li Lang? A shortcoming is a shortcoming. All you need to do is to recognize it so you may begin to address it.”

Hearing no response, the elder began to feel irritated. She had tried her best to be accommodating, but when a youngster refused to even give her the basic respect she deserved.

I’m going to have to take the appropriate action and dish out punishment, she thought to herself.

She did a one-eighty and just as she was about to lecture the young man, she abruptly stopped with her mouth still open.

She saw Li Lang leaning over, closely inspecting the bell. To be more precise, he was squinting his eyes at the area right below the bell. That wasn’t the part that had caught her off guard. It was the new layer of metallic dust currently forming below the bell that caught her attention.

As an experienced expert and artificer, even if she didn’t see the dust fall with her own eyes, she could still tell that the volume of metallic dust had increased. It was also that same experience that screamed out how absurd her observations were.

“That…You did it?” she weakly muttered.

From all her years as an artificer, she had seen countless people taking their affinity test. As the word implied, usually only those who regularly came into contact with metals and metal-attributed Qi would possess the quality of an artificer. Those who didn’t have to work harder to make up for it.

The affinity tests were always final. No matter how many times one did it, the results would be the same. It took time to build up this affinity. It was utterly unheard of that someone would succeed on their second try but not their first.

“How is this possible?”

“I… have no idea either, but I should have passed the test now, right?”

Elder Tie alternated her gaze between Li Lang, the bell, and the mallet. Many things ran through her mind, but she couldn’t make any sense of what happened. She could only stare on, astonished.

“Senior?”

Seeing her confused state, Li Lang struck the bell once more. A glittering wave of metallic dust once again rained down from the bell.

“Li Lang…What did you do?”

“Maybe I just wasn’t prepared the first time?”

Li Lang could only come up with such a poor excuse, as he had no intention of revealing anything.

After failing the first attempt, he took some time to consider the reasons why. Since it was known affinity could grow over time, Li Lang just had to figure out what factors stimulated this growth.

It didn’t take him long to arrive at a possibility. Many people in this world likely didn’t have the same education he had. For most people, they didn’t go to organized schools and instead learned from apprenticeships. Based on this, Li Lang suspected potential artificers learned the nature of metals over time. That meant a variety of things, including how it reacted to heat, how it could be reshaped, or how it could be combined with other materials into alloys. It was the mindset of how one treated metallic objects.

When Li Lang had done his affinity test, his mind wasn’t focused on any of these properties. Instead, he was thinking of how his Qi would react to the bell to produce the supernatural phenomenon of refining metals with a simple strike. It was ironic that a man of science like him would be hyper-focused on the paranormal instead.

That was why, on his second attempt, he stuck to a more traditional mindset. He thought of the specific atomic and structural properties, such as metallic bonds. He focused his mind on how the atoms are arranged in crystal lattice structures with free-moving electrons in the outermost shell. He also focused on the various metallurgy techniques used to handle metals.

To his pleasant surprise, his second attempt had produced the result he desired.

So the affinity is simply knowledge of the properties of metals? I guess you can learn some things from hands-on practice, like how old blacksmiths could tell the heat from the color. One has to be conscious of these principles. It would make sense that a person’s mindset about something would take some time to change. In my case, I simply blundered, allowing my curiosity to take over.

Still, the threshold to gain affinity shouldn’t be too high if children can attain it from observation alone. They don’t even have any proper education on the nature of metals.

Through this experience, Li Lang discovered the importance of a person’s mindset within the world of artificing. It made him particularly excited to be able to utilize his wealth of knowledge. At the same time, he knew creating an artifact wasn’t so easy, otherwise they wouldn’t be so rare.

While Li Lang was deliberating the specific factors one needed to know in order to qualify as someone with affinity, he eventually noticed how quiet Elder Tie had become.

“Elder Tie, are you okay?”

She didn’t reply.

“Elder Tie? Is everything all right? Have I passed?”

It was only upon hearing the last part that the elder reacted. She snapped her gaze at Li Lang, staring into him with the intensity of a predator watching their prey.