Chapter 350: The Quasi-Divine Smith and the Mountain Pilgrimage (Bonus Chapter for Monthly Tickets)

By the pool, the furnace burned fiercely.

Under the service of several dozen people, the four Grand Smiths were all forging iron; Li Yuan struck with neither too light nor too heavy a force, his attention also circling among the four.

These four smiths came from different backgrounds, their hammering arts also differed—some fierce and forceful, some yielding and soft, some leaning toward technique, some toward raw power.

Among them, the one Li Yuan paid the most attention to was Jiang Xie.

This Green Dragon Pavilion elder, clad in divine armor and wielding a divine-grade forging hammer, was burly in build, no less than Ba Wan, and employed an extremely fierce and forceful hammering style,

and with every hammer fall, the riverbank trembled; even the sound of the waterfall striking the shore could not drown out the ring of her hammer.

"Fierce, yielding, technique, chain-strikes—Elder Nie really was particular in whom he invited. In a certain sense, these four truly complement each other."

Li Yuan's attainments in weapon-forging were already quite deep; watching them forge now, he felt nothing but smooth, seamless perfection.

All four were hammering iron ingots, yet none affected the others—here the wind stirred the clouds, there a brook babbled, each undisturbed, yet coexisting in one place, possessing an indescribable beauty and rhythm.

"This kid is at it again—stealing a teacher's skill."

Li Yuan's casual forging naturally could not escape notice; Wan Chuan glanced over, not much caring, and the other three, sweeping their gaze in passing, also feigned unawareness.

"Where is the difference between them and me?"

Listening to the four men's hammers at different rhythms, Li Yuan's thoughts drifted further; later, he simply set down his hammer and, without watching the four forge, closed his eyes to listen to the hammer-sounds.

At times he would raise his hammer and strike a few times; most of the time, however, he kept his eyes shut, listening.

Of the four, Wan Chuan was the most attentive, glancing over from time to time; regarding the matter of having misjudged him in earlier years, he had been somewhat sore about it these past days.

"This kid doesn't even bother putting on a pretense."

Seeing Li Yuan openly steal the craft, Wan Chuan felt a measure of admiration instead; given Li Yuan's present status and standing, still caring so much about weapon-forging showed his love for the craft was genuine.

The other smiths wore varied expressions, yet said nothing—they had all come here after receiving a hefty sum of gold and silver from Nie Xianshan; letting a little slip was nothing.

"If the essence of forging could be stolen, this world would already be crawling with Grand Smiths."

Wan Chuan shook his head and calmed his mind to forge.

"What is Junior Brother Li doing?"

Outside the grounds, Xin Xin Wenhua was somewhat puzzled, but his attention was soon drawn to another person.

Pure-Gang Helmsman Lin Tingfeng, mixed in among the disciples hauling iron stock, was also closely watching the four forge, occasionally reaching out to mimic their motions, drawing frowns from the disciples and apprentices of the four smiths.

"Senior Brother Lin, what are you—?"

Xin Xin Wenhua's brow furrowed deeply.

"Lin Mou has heard that the four smiths have begun hammering out divine weapons, so I came to see if there were any places I could lend a hand."

Lin Tingfeng was a touch embarrassed, but having already squeezed his way here, he certainly would not leave—even though the gazes around him made his face burn, he still pretended not to notice.

"You—this..."

Feeling the looks cast by the smiths' apprentices, Xin Xin Wenhua was quite vexed; if he scolded him, this one was a senior brother, a helmsman of his own division—making a scene would only make him a laughingstock.

Not chasing him away would also make him a laughingstock.

"Senior Brother Xin, since this Helmsman Lin wants to watch, let him stay."

The speaker was a burly young man, his complexion the color of ancient bronze, one of the dozen or so people forging iron; he glanced at Li Yuan:

"It's not as if he's the only one, after all."

Regarding someone stealing their craft, the smiths' disciples all appeared quite composed—they had witnessed such things countless times.

But if stealing could lead to mastery, what would count for the decades they had spent at the masters' heels?

"You—!"

Xin Xin Wenhua could not miss the mockery; Lin Tingfeng's whiskers quivered, his old face flushed red, he snorted a few times and turned away.

"Where is the difference?"

The commotion outside the grounds, Li Yuan heard clearly, but paid it no heed—without even this much face, how could one learn from others?

He closed his eyes and felt; the various sounds on the riverbank converged in his heart, and since receiving the Hall-Sound Art,

his hearing had surpassed his other senses, extremely keen.

From those scattered sounds alone, he could project the surrounding scene in his mind, observing and feeling the rhythm of the four smiths' hammering arts.

"Spirit!"

After a long while, Li Yuan's heart gave a jolt; after listening many times, he had finally perceived what the four smiths shared in common—and what set him apart from them.

It was not their divine-grade forging hammers in hand, but the sound of their hammers, which seemed alive.

A fanciful way to put it would be that their hammer-falls were as if guided by a god; Li Yuan's own understanding, however, was—

"Visualization Art!"

As if a thin veil had been torn away, Li Yuan opened his eyes, then closed them again; when he opened them once more, his gaze was already ablaze.

In the place of spiritual light at the bottom of his heart, his spirit-self, which had taken the form of a thunder dragon, gave a shudder, transformed into a human shape, and reached out to grasp a heavy hammer.

"It seems... it isn't all that difficult."

Li Yuan felt a measure of joy within; some things really are like a paper window—once pierced through, one finds they aren't all that mysterious.

At least for him, this was no great difficulty.

His thoughts gathered and were set aside in an instant; Li Yuan raised his hammer and brought it down, and in his heart, the heavy hammer in his visualized spirit-self's hand fell at the same moment.

This was, in the true sense, hand, heart, and spirit arriving together.

In a single hammer-fall, qi and blood, true qi, physique, and spirit converged perfectly.

"Boom!"

Just how great was Li Yuan's strength now?

Even without activating the Soldier-Summoning Art, his pure strength surpassed everyone present; the instant this hammer fell, Xin Xin Wenhua, Lin Tingfeng, and the others outside the grounds had already snapped their gazes over.

The sound wave rippled outward as if solid; the entire broad riverbank gave a jolt, and the dozen or so people closest at hand felt the forging platform leap sharply.

As the sound wave spread, their bodies twitched as if struck by lightning; bones and internal organs went numb, and their body hair stood on end in an instant.

"The Weapon-Forging Art has reached Great Completion!"

As the hammer fell, Li Yuan felt every pore on his body open wide; a tingling numbness spread through his whole body, and true qi like lightning was perfectly transmitted through this single hammer strike.

"Good lad!"

Jiang Xie tossed down his heavy hammer, a look of astonishment flashing across his face.

The expressions of the other several Divine Artisans all changed as well, especially Wan Chuan's, whose face was the most dramatic of all—watching Li Yuan's heavy hammer fall again, he felt even his scalp go numb.

This single hammer strike already possessed the qualification to forge a divine weapon.

"This works too?"

To Jiang Xie's left, the burly Gui Gui Haiyou also set down his hammer, looking rather doubtful and amazed.

Do Divine Artisans fear those who steal their teachings?

Naturally not!

Sects like the Divine Weapon Valley that inherited the Divine Artisan lineage were not few in number under heaven, but how many Divine Artisans were there? Even rarer than Grandmasters.

"Are there really people in this world who understand at a single hint?"

The few exchanged glances, all quite shocked—they hadn't even given a single word of guidance, yet this lad had grasped the mysteries within after only listening for this short while.

And moreover, executed it perfectly?

This could no longer be described as mere talent.

"Good!"

The crowd on the riverbank was all stunned for a moment; only Lin Tingfeng's eyes lit up. He shouted "Good!" loudly, then hurriedly lowered his voice, staring fixedly at Li Yuan's rising and falling heavy hammer.

Now, no one could say he had stolen the teachings.

Whoo~

Like a falling meteor, Nie Xianshan landed; the raging gale arrived only afterward, blowing his Daoist robe so it snapped loudly, while the great trees inside and outside the little temple let out a "whoosh whoosh" sound.

"Dragon......"

Nie Xianshan had barely uttered a single syllable when the temple gate was already open.

"Come in."

Nie Xianshan pinched his fingers, suddenly feeling rather unwilling to enter, but after a slight hesitation, he still walked into the little temple pretending nothing was the matter.

Beneath the old tree, Long Xi Xiang sat cross-legged; under the cover of Longhu Longhu Dandan's faint white light, his rosy-lipped, white-toothed appearance carried quite a few shades of solemn, dignified bearing.

Nie Xianshan's gaze sharpened; he only felt that Long Xi Xiang—

—in the void behind him, there seemed to be another "heaven," half-real and half-illusory, within which a azure dragon and an old elephant roamed and strolled.

"You—actually succeeded?!"

A tightness seized Nie Xianshan's chest; he nearly stumbled back a step. Looking at Long Xi Xiang, who was brimming with vigor with a heaven suspended behind him, he felt as if someone had slashed him with a blade.

"You actually succeeded?"

"Without destruction, no establishment; break through, then establish. This old man has succeeded!"

Long Xi Xiang slowly lowered his palm, looked at Nie Xianshan who was forcing himself to stay calm, first smiled, then burst into great laughter, laughing the latter's face until it turned livid and black.

"Enough!"

Nie Xianshan still couldn't hold back; with a raise of his hand, sword qi swept across and hacked straight down at his head.

Long Xi Xiang's laughter ceased at once, but he neither dodged nor blocked, letting that whistling sword qi arrive, only to vanish into the void behind him.

"Dragon Elephant Vajra Heaven, Great Completion."

Nie Xianshan's breathing grew somewhat rapid.

"These past forty-plus years, sitting here in seclusion, I have not been entirely without progress."

Looking at the four great suns hanging in the sky, Long Xi Xiang felt his mood equally bright; the gloom of many years was swept away in an instant, and he felt his spirit lively beyond compare:

"Old Nie, I feel that my current divine endowment should be no inferior to the two patriarchs."

"......"

Nie Xianshan's body swayed; he drew in a deep breath before finally letting it go: "Forty years of battling Wan Wan Zhuliu day after day—your accumulated power is already sufficient......"

Long Xi Xiang didn't bother with pleasantries at all, going on as he pleased: "Fifty years ago, I narrowly lost in the third victory of the True Disciple Trial. Now that I've come out of seclusion, I intend to make up for it."

"You......"

Nie Xianshan's face darkened slightly; he somewhat regretted coming. This old fellow was clearly poking at his sore spot.

"Go together?"

With a wave of Long Xi Xiang's hand, two beams of golden light in the temple had already landed on his body—precisely the Azure Dragon Kasaya, and his weapon, the Ancient Elephant Spirit Dragon Jiang Mo Chu.

"You're attempting the True Disciple Trial now, and you still need a divine weapon?"

Nie Xianshan's face was expressionless.

"I have it, why not use it?"

Long Xi Xiang stood up.

"......"

Nie Xianshan flicked his sleeve, about to leave, but Long Xi Xiang seemed to have anticipated it long ago; he reached out and pressed down on his arm, forcibly pulling him into the Mi Jing of health cultivation.

Nie Xianshan finally flew into a great rage:

"Are you never going to stop?!"

The sun had climbed high; in a grand residence in the east of the city.

Several old servants stood with their hands at their sides. Yan Yan Chunyang was eating; his movements were unhurried, and only after quite a while did he wipe his hands and stand up.

"Marquis, this is the Mount Hengshan Dragon-Tiger List, which records the current elite disciples of the Dragon-Tiger Temple......"

At this moment, the waiting old servant finally dared to speak.

Yan Yan Chunyang didn't take it, only asked offhandedly, "Long Long Xinglie is first?"

"Yes."

"Then there's no need to look."

Yan Yan Chunyang raised a hand, and a wisp of dim light had already fallen into his palm:

"Lead the way, Dragon Tiger Temple."

Free reading.