Xu Xian’s hammer fell, and he exhaled a long breath of turbid air. "Phew—"
Raising his eyes, he saw Ruan Hao sitting there. He asked in confusion, "Master, when did you get here?"
Ruan Hao took a puff of his tobacco pipe, two long plumes of smoke drifting from his nostrils into the sunlight. "Just a moment ago," he said leisurely.
Xu Xian glanced at the thick pile of ash at the corner of the table and crinkled his nose. "I didn't even notice," he muttered.
Whether it was cultivation, sword forging, or even alchemy, when one performed a task with extreme focus, they entered a state of self-forgetfulness. In this state, everything was twice as effective.
This was a gift.
And the Xu Xian before him happened to possess it, filling Ruan Hao with unspeakable pride.
"Bring it over, let me have a look!"
"Oh!"
Xu Xian cooled the newly forged synthetic spirit ore and brought it to Ruan Hao. "Here, Master."
The bucket-sized piece of scrap iron had become a palm-sized block after a day and a night of hammering, resembling a common spirit stone.
Ruan Hao took it, set his pipe on the table, and instinctively sat up straighter to examine it closely.
Xu Xian sat down nearby, poured himself a glass of cold water, drank it in one go, and asked, "How is it, Master? Not bad, right?"
Ruan Hao glanced at him and asked a different question, "When did you start forging?"
Xu Xian thought for a moment. "Around the Hour of the Goat yesterday, I think."
[Hour of the Goat: The interval between 1 PM and 3 PM.]
Ruan Hao said in a low voice, "Less than a day."
"What did you say?"
"Nothing!" Ruan Hao put the spirit ore down, his expression calm. "It's alright. A common spirit ore, barely passing..."
Xu Xian smiled without a word.
Ruan Hao asked casually, "How many types of mortal iron did you use?"
Xu Xian replied offhandedly, "Thirty. Wasn't that written in your secret manual?"
Ruan Hao didn't argue, but said to himself, "Don't be proud. The path of forging is long. You'll only be considered a beginner when you can forge a single type of mortal iron into spirit ore."
Xu Xian was speechless and rolled his eyes. "Then I'll just have to take my time."
Ruan Hao changed the subject. "Hmm... good. That attitude is correct. You must take things one step at a time. Be down-to-earth. Being overly ambitious won't lead to greatness!"
Xu Xian knew exactly what was going on. This old man was putting on a serious act, but he was probably laughing his head off inside. After all, Xu Xian was a newcomer who had forged a piece of spirit ore from scratch in just one day. How many people in the world could do that? Even the old man himself probably couldn't have done it in his youth.
With such a disciple, how could a master not be happy? It was all just an act.
"Master, this is a gift for you. Please take it."
Ruan Hao had been sitting there all night and knew what was in the jar. He refused, "It's good stuff, but it's useless for me to eat. Keep it for yourself."
Xu Xian had expected this. "I'm already tired of eating it. This is a token of my respect as your disciple. Just treat it as something new to try."
Ruan Hao looked at Xu Xian skeptically.
Xu Xian shrugged. "You're not going to be so distant with me, are you? That would be boring."
Ruan Hao didn't persist. "Fine, I'll accept your filial piety."
Xu Xian was a little proud. "That's more like it!"
After putting the jar away, Ruan Hao tapped his pipe heavily on the stone table.
Thud! Thud!
"Alright, don't just stand there. Go back to your hammering."
Xu Xian stared. "Wait, I just finished. Can't I rest for a bit?"
Ruan Hao urged, "Rest? You can rest when you're dead. Go, go, go."
"Master, you can't be like this. You're trying to work me to death."
Ruan Hao glared at him. "You're in the nascent soul stage. How could hammering work you to death? Stop talking nonsense."
"I'm a human first, and a nascent soul stage cultivator second," Xu Xian retorted.
Ruan Hao narrowed his eyes, took a puff of smoke, and said slowly, "Are you going or not?"
Xu Xian pursed his lips. "Fine, I give up."
He drank some water and walked back into the forging workshop, grumbling.
Ruan Hao opened one eye and peeked over. His lazy voice drifted in, "This time, remember to use twenty-nine types!"
"I know!"
Seeing Xu Xian head into the warehouse where materials were kept, Ruan Hao opened his other eye. Like a thief, he sneakily grabbed the spirit ore from the table and looked at it again. He chuckled, "A genius!"
"This time, I've truly found a treasure."
From joining to starting, he had learned to purify mortal iron into spirit ore in just one day. A master forger with such talent... probably even that lofty Ancient Sword Mountain had never seen such a good prospect.
One must know that if one could forge spirit ore, one could forge a spirit sword. Theoretically, Xu Xian was already a first-grade spirit forging master forger.
In the forging hall on this very peak, it would take any other disciple eight to ten years to reach first-grade spirit forging. But his disciple had only taken one day. That was the gap.
If word got out, his reputation would skyrocket!
Seeing Xu Xian come back out shortly, he covered his sleeves and closed his eyes to rest. He thought to himself: So fast? This kid has really been putting in the work.
On the other side, Xu Xian cut the ore, glancing at the empty stone table from the corner of his eye. His lips curled up naturally.
'Old children, they really are like that,' he thought. 'His mouth was tougher than his temper!'
Xu Xian began his work, using his Pupil of Insight to repeat the process. Although the number of mortal iron types had decreased from thirty to twenty-nine—a difference of only one—the gap was like a wildfire compared to a spark.
There were more details to mind, and the proportions had changed drastically. It wasn't a simple math problem like 30 minus 29 equals 1. It was a doubling of complexity; he couldn't afford any carelessness.
Cutting. Melting. Cooling.
His movements weren't slow at all...
When he raised his hammer to strike, Ruan Hao, who had been secretly watching, could no longer sit still. His eyes, set in his aged face, were filled with shock.
"This..."
He seemed to be witnessing something extraordinary. Even seeing it with his own eyes, he could hardly believe Xu Xian's forging method.
According to Ruan Hao's method, the twenty-nine types of ore should be purified individually, hammered from ordinary mortal iron into refined mortal iron, and then combined in pairs before finally being hammered together.
He had arrived last night when Xu Xian was already forging the entire block. So, he had assumed Xu Xian was at the final step.
But now he saw that he was wrong.
Xu Xian had fused all those ordinary ores together from the very beginning, forging them as one. While this saved time, the difficulty of forging increased exponentially.
Even for Ruan Hao, forging this way would be extremely taxing on the mind. Xu Xian had just started and was only at the nascent soul stage. Did he really have such immense mental energy and control?
If so, his talent was even more terrifying than he had imagined.
Ruan Hao instinctively gripped the spirit ore Xu Xian had forged, swallowed hard, and stared unblinkingly at every fall of the boy's hammer.
The boy ignored him.
The sound of the hammer boomed, like a hymn of metal.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Rate on N.U.
