Chapter 291: Daoist Draws His Blade, How Tall Are You?

Within Pure Gang Peak, misty smoke filled the air, and the sound of hammering on iron never ceased.

Inside the helm, in a tea room, the Helm Master Lin Tingfeng sat cross-legged, holding a cup of spirit tea, his expression cold:

"The matter of forging weapons is like alchemy; when success comes, failure comes too. When you came before, I told you that repairing a weapon might cause its grade to drop, and you raised no objection then. Now you come here making a scene—do you expect me to compensate you?"

"When repairing the weapon, I said that if there was no absolute certainty, one should never act lightly. Have you forgotten?"

Opposite him, Shan Hong, holding the 'Cold Edge Bone Sword', turned slightly dark in the face, his anger barely contained.

This sword was obtained by him years ago after slaying a Helm Master of the Xieshen Sect; later, at immense cost, he commissioned the Divine Artisan Wan Chuan to forge it, finally completing it. It was the finest of the finest, a sword with the potential to become a Divine Weapon!

"This sword remains of supreme grade, with only minor flaws. Since you disdain my methods, why did you not seek a Divine Artisan to repair it back then?"

Lin Tingfeng's face darkened: "Even if the Dao Master stood before me, I would say the same!"

"Hmph!"

Seeing Lin Tingfeng lift his teacup, Shan Hong, though furious, said nothing more, merely casting a cold glance at him before sweeping his sleeve and departing.

"Hmph!"

Lin Tingfeng set down his teacup, his beard trembling, his mood equally terrible.

At this moment, an old woman entered from outside, carrying hot tea:

"Sigh, head of the house, Shan Hong is after all a true disciple of the Sect. Why didn't you even prepare a cup of hot tea? Aren't you afraid of offending him?"

"Even if I offend him, so what?"

Lin Tingfeng's face grew colder.

"You are not afraid, but can Yun'er and the others not be afraid?"

The old woman stamped her foot, feeling truly helpless in her heart.

Lin Tingfeng's temper was cold and hard; over these years, he had offended countless people. She remembered that previously, when the Sect Master's direct disciples visited multiple times, he had shut the door and refused to see them.

"Earlier, seeing you rush to find that junior brother Li, I thought you had finally seen the light, but who knew you were still..."

"What do you know?"

Lin Tingfeng's face flushed red with anger: "When I asked junior brother Li for instruction on weapon forging, did I ever grovel and flatter?!"

"Sigh."

The old woman sighed, unwilling to say more, and left while carrying the tea.

At this moment, footsteps came from outside the door, and a disciple arrived to report:

"Helm Master, Junior Uncle Li has arrived!"

"Whoosh!"

Lin Tingfeng immediately rose, hurried out to welcome him, his enthusiasm making Li Yuan feel somewhat at a loss.

This rough old man, looking like a fierce general from the army, forcing such a demeanor, truly made him feel quite uncomfortable.

"Weapon forging is a secret never passed down outside our Divine Weapon Valley, Senior Brother Lin. Please do not make things difficult for me."

Li Yuan felt helpless.

For other things, he would be happy to build a good relationship with Lin Tingfeng, but weapon forging certainly did not fall within that scope.

"How would I dare pry into another sect's secret transmission?"

Lin Tingfeng pulled Li Yuan into the room: "It is only that we have not met for many days, and this elder brother misses you."

Li Yuan could not resist, so he followed him into the room, and greeted the old woman, who smiled and brought tea over.

"How can this tea serve Junior Brother Li? Then I shall bring 'Jade Luo Fragrance'!"

Lin Tingfeng scolded, and the somewhat bewildered old woman went to fetch spirit tea, which he then personally brewed.

Jade Luo Fragrance was a spirit tea produced in Hundred Beast Mountain; he only requested one liang of it every year and would not bring it out under ordinary circumstances.

Li Yuan had a headache.

This rough old man acted simply and brutally; though he said he had no designs on weapon forging, he actually displayed an attitude of not stopping until he achieved his goal.

"Come, Junior Brother, drink tea."

Lin Tingfeng wore a full smile, waiting for Li Yuan to taste, unaware that the other was already thinking about whether to change locations to forge iron.

"Good tea, good tea."

It tasted bitter entering the mouth, and bitter in the aftertaste; after one sip, Li Yuan felt his tongue was numb, as if he had eaten eight hundred jin of bitter melon, and his face even turned slightly green.

"I am glad Junior Brother likes it."

Lin Tingfeng poured tea for him, saying nothing, merely staring at him eagerly.

"This tea..." Li Yuan subtly moved the teacup further away, pondered slightly, and decided to bring out something, of course, something he had figured out himself:

"Senior Brother Lin is also a Grandmaster of weapon forging; I am far inferior. Some rough insights, please correct them, Senior Brother."

After a brief pause, Li Yuan asked before answering:

"Senior Brother, what do you think is the essence of weapon forging?"

"Hammering, alloying, quenching, polishing, and imbuing spirit."

There are many steps in weapon forging; Lin Tingfeng answered five of them without hesitation. Li Yuan gave no opinion and asked again:

"Among these five major steps, if you remove four based on priority, which one do you think would remain?"

"Remove four?"

Lin Tingfeng frowned slightly, very unaccustomed to this manner of conversation, but still answered:

"Imbuing spirit."

"Correct. The essence of weapon forging lies in imbuing spirit."

Li Yuan continued along his words: "The technique of imbuing spirit into armor and weapons is a secret transmission of our sect and is not suitable for external sharing, but some things can still be exchanged between us."

Speaking thus, without waiting for a reaction, he opened his mouth:

"The so-called imbuing spirit can roughly be divided into four categories: imbuing blood to awaken spirit, imbuing qi and blood to awaken spirit, imbuing breath to awaken spirit, and, imbuing killing to awaken living spirits."

Below the level of a Famous Artifact, weapons prioritize sharpness and edge, while also considering spiritual nature; but above the level of a Famous Artifact, spiritual nature is the absolute core—without spiritual nature, there can be no Divine Weapon.

Lin Tingfeng was so captivated listening that he temporarily forgot to pour tea for Li Yuan.

The two conversed for a while, with Li Yuan doing most of the talking; after a long pause, he rose to take his leave. Of course, he could not privately teach the Spirit-Resonance Technique for Armor and Weapons.

Lin Tingfeng was still savoring the conversation, yet could only see Li Yuan off; naturally, he also did not ask, instead presenting all the various rare iron materials Li Yuan required.

"Forging a Divine Weapon is difficult."

Back at the forging platform, Li Yuan inventoried the iron materials he had gathered over this period; there were quite a lot, and their quality grades were sufficient, but compared to forging a Divine Weapon, they fell short by an immeasurable distance.

"Far short..."

Hammering refined iron, preparing to forge the second supreme-grade Famous Artifact, Li Yuan sighed softly in his heart.

Divine Weapons are priceless and do not circulate in the market.

It is common knowledge that items circulating only among the ultra-wealthy carry prices far beyond ordinary imagination; let alone a complete Divine Weapon, even the heavenly treasures and earthly herbs required for one exceed the 'three hundred thousand taels of gold' gift left by Chu Shan Xuan Kong.

"I can only place my hopes on that old Daoist."

Li Yuan's thoughts drifted.

On the third day after that old Daoist returned to Huishan, Nie Ying came to invite him to a banquet; the feast itself was unremarkable. What he remembered, aside from that old Daoist Nie's strange gaze, was only his widespread distribution of invitation scrolls, seeking a Divine Artisan to forge a Divine Weapon.

He also wished to try his hand, but hopes were slim; if the roles were reversed, he would not take materials he had painstakingly gathered and give them to someone else for practice.

Bang!

Before noon, Li Yuan extinguished the furnace fire; these past few days he had only hammered iron for half a day, and aside from repairing and forging supreme-grade Famous Artifacts, he accepted no other commissions.

At the main peak of Dragon Gate, Li Yuan cooked rice and stir-fried dishes as usual, delivered a portion to Old Dragon Head, chatted with him, then returned to his room to practice Wu Gong until late at night.

Hum~

In a half-sleep, half-wake state, Li Yuan sensed a familiar fluctuation; opening his eyes, he saw the bronze tower pierced by the massive blade.

"Taking turns, are we?"

Li Yuan muttered inwardly, yet did not pay it much mind; it had been only three days since he first entered the 'Cloud Mist Mountain', and if the Mountain Lord intended to test him, naturally he would be given time.

Wooo~

A gentle breeze blew; Li Yuan looked toward the stone stele, where characters flowed across its surface:

"This blade is not a blade, nor is it Qi; it is Will!"

"Will?"

Li Yuan chewed over the words on the stone stele, his mind deep in thought.

He certainly did not merely practice Wu Gong with his head down; every few days he went to the 'Upside-Down Mountain' to engage in bloody battles with that Ghost-Faced Man.

"How do I pull it out?"

Before making blunt requests or demands, Li Yuan would usually first ask what the other party wanted him to do.

If it were too difficult, he would simply run away.

Over these past few days, he had chatted with Old Dragon Head quite a bit, subtly asking how to exit someone else's 'Divine Realm'.

Of course, that method was not at all safe...

"Sever the blade's Will, and the blade may be withdrawn."

"I take my leave!"

Glancing at the massive blade whose tip vanished into the endless sky, Li Yuan acted with decisive resolve.

"You?!"

On the bronze tower, the woman in white robes stamped her foot, somewhat helpless; this youth was not even that old, yet how could he be so cunning?

"What do you want?"

The stone stele descended from the heavens, blocking his path.

"This blade's Will must be a thousand li high; with these small arms and legs of a junior, even if I die here, I fear I could not budge it by so much as a hair's breadth."

Li Yuan spread his hands.

"The blade's Will is not the blade itself; it varies according to the person."

"Can you be more straightforward?"

The stone stele trembled, and characters on its surface replied:

"When you have fully mastered the Meridian-Clearing stage, the Will manifested by that blade will likewise be at the Meridian-Clearing level; crush it, and the blade may be withdrawn."

Varies according to the person?

Li Yuan's heart stirred; he was not entirely surprised, for he had already harbored some speculation earlier; after all, if it were not so, how could he possibly be qualified to withdraw the blade for a Grandmaster?

"I want spirit pills; the more, the better."

Sly, greedy, and shameless.

On the bronze tower, the woman in white robes twitched her eyelids several times, yet still agreed.

"Wait."

Li Yuan interrupted: "I won't be injured, will I? This blade is somewhat fierce."

How could it be merely 'somewhat' fierce?

From far away, he had already felt a chilling chill, a grim coldness as if capable of freezing even his very soul.

"You will not."

The stone stele rose from the ground, transforming into a purple arc of light that stretched from beneath Li Yuan's feet all the way to the entrance of the bronze tower.

"What level of Wu Gong must this be?"

Li Yuan murmured to himself; after waiting a moment and finding no injuries upon his body, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, closed his eyes, and once again entered that bronze tower Divine Realm.

"I want a hammer!"

This time, Li Yuan was fully prepared; clutching that all-purple heavy hammer, he took a deep breath and stepped into the tower once more.

"I'd like to see just how tall you are!"