Successful Weapon Forging, a Plan Realized

Inside a partition of the Essence Chamber, mist-like essence drifted slowly. Wang Yue sat cross-legged on a cushion, holding the yellowed Herbal Compendium in his hands, his fingertips resting lightly on its rough pages.

Extract the Tier Two alchemy talent: Herbal Identification.

He murmured inwardly, his gaze fixed tightly on the medicinal herb illustrations on the page.

The next second, a gentle energy surged from the book into his body, transforming into countless fragmented motes of light that rapidly unfolded in his mind. The appearances, scents, medicinal properties, growing environments of three hundred herbs, and even the effects of different processing methods on their efficacy were branded into his consciousness.

Wang Yue opened his eyes, a flicker of delight crossing them. He put away the Herbal Compendium and rose to head for the Forge Workshop. He would digest his alchemy talent in the morning and practice weapon forging in the afternoon. This rhythm would improve both his craft and temper his body, killing two birds with one stone. At night, he would train diligently, and he would also spend one or two hours training at noon.

Within the Forge Workshop, the clanging of hammers had already begun. Wang Yue walked to his familiar forging station, picked up a red-hot iron ingot with tongs, and gripped the black heavy hammer.

After several days of practice, he had grown increasingly proficient in the force and rhythm of forging. The experience granted by the Hundred Forgings talent had fused into his movements like instinct. The angle and force of every hammer strike were as precise as if measured by a ruler.

Bang! Bang! Bang! The hammer blows varied clearly in weight and pace, fast and slow. Impurities constantly fell away from the iron ingot with each strike, while fine patterns gradually emerged across its surface. One, two... As the final hammer fell, the twentieth pattern was clearly stamped into the ingot, gleaming with a faint metallic sheen.

"Twenty-Forged Iron, complete!" Wang Yue set down the heavy hammer and let out a long breath. Though his arms were slightly sore, his heart brimmed with accomplishment. From initially forging ten patterns to now easily producing twenty, his weapon-forging skill was progressing at a visible pace.

He did not linger. Setting the Twenty-Forged Iron aside, he turned and left the Forge Workshop. He still needed to cultivate the Blood Dragon Secret Method in the Essence Chamber and strive to break through to the eleventh strand of Blood Qi as soon as possible.

Not long afterward, Liu Haibing returned to the workshop carrying a wine gourd. When he saw the refined iron bearing twenty patterns, the wine gourd slipped from his hand with a clatter. He stood rooted to the spot, his eyes filled with disbelief.

"This... This kid has only been learning weapon forging for a few days, yet he can forge such orderly Twenty-Forged Iron?"

Liu Haibing hurried forward, picked up the refined iron, and examined it again and again. His fingertips brushed over the even patterns as stormy waves surged through his heart. It took me a full two months to reach this level back then!

He looked toward the direction Wang Yue had gone, the corners of his mouth unconsciously lifting.

Night fell, and the Essence Chamber glowed faintly once more.

Wang Yue stood in the center of the partition, Blood Qi surging through his body. He pushed the Blood Dragon Secret Method to its limits. His fists howled through the air as all one hundred and eight variations flowed from his hands like drifting clouds and running water. Every movement carried dense Blood Qi, echoing with the essence around him.

"Hah!" Wang Yue gave a low shout. The ten strands of Blood Qi within him suddenly boiled and rushed toward his dantian like a tide, violently crashing through his meridians. The extreme weapon forging and nourishment of essence over the past several days had already brought his accumulated Blood Qi to its threshold.

A new strand of Blood Qi rose slowly within his dantian like a newborn morning sun, radiating an even denser aura.

"The eleventh strand of Blood Qi! I finally condensed it!" Wang Yue stopped moving, wild joy appearing on his face. He could clearly feel that his strength had increased by nearly ten percent, while his body had become even tougher under the nourishment of Blood Qi.

What delighted him even more was that, with the condensation of the eleventh strand of Blood Qi, the introductory secret to the fifth form of the Blood Dragon Secret Method quietly surfaced in his mind, though he had only made a start on it.

Blood Qi circulated slowly through his body, washing over his muscles and bones like warm water. Wang Yue gradually reined in his smile, his expression turning solemn. "Condensing Blood Qi is getting harder and harder. Going from the tenth strand to the eleventh took longer than the previous two combined. It seems every step in the late Blood Condensation Realm requires even greater accumulation."

He drew a deep breath and suppressed the impatience in his heart. There had never been shortcuts on the martial path; he could only plant one foot after another and advance steadily.

In the blink of an eye, seven days passed.

Inside the alchemy workshop, Fu Shuangyun held the Herbal Compendium and casually pointed at one of the herbs. "What are the medicinal properties of this Purple Placenta? What herbs is it suitable for combining with?"

"Purple Placenta has a warm nature. It can replenish Blood Qi and benefit essence and marrow. It is suitable for use with angelica and Prepared Rehmannia to enhance their blood-nourishing effects.

"It can also be used alongside astragalus and codonopsis to replenish both qi and blood, and is often used for symptoms of dual qi and blood deficiency."

Wang Yue answered fluently, his tone calm and without the slightest hesitation.

Fu Shuangyun proceeded to ask about dozens more herbs, from medicinal properties to processing methods and contraindications in combinations. Wang Yue answered every question without the slightest error, even adding details absent from the compendium.

"You... You really identified every herb within seven days?" Fu Shuangyun lowered the compendium, his eyes blank with astonishment. He had initially thought Wang Yue was merely chasing novelty, but he had not expected him to not only recognize every herb, but master them so solidly.

Wang Yue smiled faintly without explaining. He could hardly say that, through the Herbal Identification talent, the knowledge of medicinal principles had already been carved into his consciousness.

Over these seven days, he had not only digested his alchemy talent, but had also secretly extracted the Flowing Water Strength, Returning Cloud Strength, and Hundred Pill Universal Practice talents from the pill furnace while Fu Shuangyun was not paying attention. He already possessed the ability to refine Tier One High-grade pills.

Yet one matter still left lingering fear in his heart. The day he had extracted the Three Revolutions Transforming Dragon Strength, he had tried circulating it slightly in the chamber. The Blood Qi within him had immediately gone berserk, trying to condense inner strength. Had he not promptly suppressed it with essence, his meridians might have been injured.

From then on, he did not dare touch that inner strength lightly again and could only set it aside for the time being.

Besides that, while Liu Haibing was not paying attention, he had secretly extracted the Tier One weapon-forging talent Hundred Weapons from the hammer. Though he had not obtained the hammer itself, it still counted as a small gain. But after that—

Liu Haibing seemed to have sensed something and hid the hammer far more carefully. He kept it in his hand even while forging, never giving Wang Yue the slightest opportunity.

"Master Fu, this disciple has already mastered the basics of medicinal principles. In a few days, I would like to try refining a batch of Blood-Restoring Pills with the Cloud Sea Cauldron. I ask for your permission." Wang Yue withdrew his thoughts and took the initiative to request permission to refine pills.

Fu Shuangyun came back to himself. Seeing the confidence in Wang Yue's eyes, he nodded. "Good! In three days, I'll let you try!" He wanted to see whether Wang Yue truly possessed talent in alchemy.

"Thank you, Master!" Wang Yue bowed, then turned toward the Essence Chamber. Over the next three days, he needed to familiarize himself thoroughly with the Hundred Pill Universal Practice talent and ensure nothing went wrong during the refinement.

One day later, the furnace fire within the Forge Workshop burned fiercer than usual. Orange-red flames licked the furnace walls, casting the entire workshop in blazing heat.

Wang Yue stood before the forging station, holding five pieces of Twenty-Forged refined iron that gleamed with metallic luster. His fingertips lightly traced the patterns across their surfaces, and a sharp light flashed through his eyes.

"I've studied weapon forging for some time now. Today is the perfect time to test the results."

He murmured softly and arranged the five pieces of refined iron in a line across the table. From left to right, the ingots became more uniform in color, while the hammer patterns on their surfaces grew increasingly dense. They were clearly the results of his gradual improvement.

The first piece contained the most impurities and was made when he had only just mastered Twenty-Forged Iron. The three pieces on the far right, however, contained very few impurities and possessed greater metal density. They were the painstaking works he had produced after honing his craft these past days.

"You three will do." Wang Yue bent down and picked up the three refined iron pieces on the far right. He turned toward the furnace, carefully placed them inside, and then pulled the bellows.

The whoosh, whoosh of the bellows echoed through the workshop as the furnace flames burned ever stronger. The refined iron gradually reddened beneath the heat, going from dark red to orange-red, then finally becoming a dazzling crimson-gold. The impurities on its surface began melting and dripping away at a visible rate.

Half an hour later, Wang Yue used iron tongs to lift the three pieces of glowing refined iron and placed them steadily upon the anvil. Both hands gripping the black heavy hammer, he found that its handle already felt familiar after all his recent practice. With the combined support of the Hundred Forgings and Hundred Weapons talents, every swing carried an almost instinctive precision.

Bang!

The first hammer blow fused the three pieces of refined iron together at once. Amid flying sparks, the faint sound of metal merging could be heard clearly. Wang Yue did not pause. His hammer technique flowed like drifting clouds and running water, at times striking fiercely with heavy blows to shake out hidden impurities within.

At other times, he tapped lightly and carefully, adjusting the shape of the metal until the three pieces of refined iron completely merged into one, gradually forming the outline of a long saber.

Impurities continuously fell away with each hammer strike, turning into black slag that piled beside the anvil. From time to time, Wang Yue sprinkled in mixed materials to further remove remaining impurities from the metal while enhancing the blade's toughness.

Once the blade had roughly taken shape, he clamped the red-hot saber blank and strode quickly to the nearby barrel of cold water. With a splash, he plunged it into the water. The moment the cold water met the blazing saber blank, a great mass of white mist billowed up, accompanied by a piercing sizzle. The metal structure on the blade's surface became harder under the sudden cooling. This was the tempering process, which could greatly increase a weapon's strength.

A moment later, he fished out the saber blank and returned it to the furnace for reheating. He repeated the earlier forging, impurity removal, and shaping processes. After doing this three times, every round of heating and forging increased the blade's metal density, tightened its patterns, and reduced its impurities.

After the final quenching was completed, Wang Yue fixed the saber blank to the workbench and picked up whetstones of varying coarseness. He began carefully polishing the blade, from the spine to the edge, from the hilt to the pommel. Every part was polished smooth and even, gleaming with a cold metallic light.

Time slipped by unnoticed. The workshop held only the soft rasp of whetstone against metal. Wang Yue had long since immersed himself in the world of forging. His eyes saw only the saber blank in his hands, as though the entire world contained only him and the weapon about to be born.

When the last ray of sunlight streamed through the workshop window, Wang Yue finally stopped. A Binhai Saber, five feet long and roughly three inches wide, lay quietly on the workbench. Its blade was black as ink, and twenty fine hammer patterns could vaguely be seen flowing across its surface like rippling water. Though it had not yet been sharpened, it already carried a frightening edge.

"It's done!" Wang Yue let out a long breath and reached out to grasp the hilt. It felt icy cold in his hand, yet possessed a strange heaviness, as if it had become one with his arm.

The next second, golden text abruptly appeared on the panel in his mind:

Tier One High-grade: Binhai Saber

Body Talent: Tier One Strength Mastery increases fine control over strength, allowing strength to be divided and allocated to improve movement precision

A golden gleam suddenly flared in Wang Yue's eyes, and his heart filled with delight. Successfully forging a Tier One High-grade weapon had produced a talent just as he had expected. Was he still far from forging weapons himself and extracting talents from them?

"Brother Yue, you... You really forged a Tier One weapon?" A disbelieving voice came from behind him. Wang Daoling had somehow appeared at the workshop entrance, his gaze locked on the Binhai Saber upon the workbench, his face filled with shock.

He had also been diligently forging these days, yet even producing Five-Forged Iron consistently was difficult for him. Meanwhile, Wang Yue had not only easily mastered Twenty-Forged Iron, but had directly forged a Tier One High-grade weapon. The gap left his heart filled with complicated emotions.

Wang Yue turned around and nodded with a smile. "At least these days of effort weren't wasted."

Wang Daoling's expression instantly stiffened. He opened his mouth but did not know what to say. He could only slowly turn and walk away in silence. Compared with Wang Yue, his own progress was truly far too slow. He felt both envy and an indescribable sense of defeat.

Wang Yue paid no attention to Wang Daoling's reaction. He gripped the Binhai Saber again and murmured inwardly, Extract the Tier One body talent: Strength Mastery!

A strange energy surged from the saber hilt into his body. Unlike the warmth or stabbing pain he experienced when extracting talents before, this energy was like countless fine threads, rapidly spreading through all four limbs and every bone in his body.

Wang Yue could clearly feel that a portion of his strength seemed to have been divided into several parts, making his movements extraordinarily precise.

He tried swinging the Binhai Saber. Its originally heavy blade became remarkably light at that moment. As he displayed the Tiger Might Saber Art, every chop and horizontal slash carried extreme precision. He could even subtly adjust the force in his wrist while swinging, allowing the blade wind to avoid the nearby anvil.

This fine control over strength was like operating an incomparably precise machine, every movement accurate down to the smallest fraction.

"This Strength Mastery talent is practically tailor-made for martial cultivation!" Wang Yue was ecstatic. With this talent, he could not only control weapons better, but also precisely control the circulation of Blood Qi when cultivating the Blood Dragon Secret Method. It would allow every move to strike with exactly the right force and even help him master those complicated variations faster.

He gently stroked the blade of the Binhai Saber, anticipation flashing through his eyes. His weapon forging had already made a breakthrough. If the pill refinement three days later went smoothly, perhaps one day people would call him peerless in both pills and weapons?

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