After that day, Tang San combined the remaining beast bones with refined iron to forge a Dark Gold Greatsword. Through Ning Rongrong, he sold it to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect for its market price of ten thousand Gold Soul Coins.
As a sect whose members primarily possessed support Martial Souls, it had spent years collecting all kinds of weapons that increased strength.
But within a few days, Ning Rongrong's father sent a black card with one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins in its account. According to her, it could be used at every money house in Heaven Dou. Purchases up to five million could be put on credit and paid back later, with no time limit. One could even wait until the full limit had been reached before paying it back.
And what if someone failed to repay it? As it happened, there really were people who had fallen on hard times overnight. But the result? Their cards were taken back, and nothing happened to them. Clearly, to the people behind the card, that amount was nothing. They might as well use it to show their generosity and attract the next talented person.
"Whoa, that's generous." In Xiang Yang's view, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, which did business across the entire continent, was certainly involved with whoever was behind it. It was even possible that the enterprise belonged to the sect outright.
After all, the countries here...
But he had to admit that the treasure-appraising talent built into their Martial Soul meant they deserved to be rich. It was at least a B-rank "golden rule."
Tang San was also shocked by Ning Fengzhi's lavish gesture. "It's just an ordinary weapon with some bones added. Is it worth investing that much?" Clearly, he too could tell it was an investment.
"Emmm... who knows? We might as well use it," Xiang Yang speculated. "Maybe something unexpected happened that we don't know about."
That was right!
When Ning Fengzhi received the greatsword, which looked to be nearly a palm wide and over 1.7 meters long, he was not particularly surprised. As master of the number one support sect under heaven, he naturally knew that beast bones could be forged into weapons.
If not for what was special about those two youngsters, he would never have thought of adding a weapon with a market price of ten thousand to his collection.
But the moment he personally handled the greatsword, he immediately changed his previously indifferent view. The reason was that ironmaking on Douluo Continent was still at the bloomery stage.
(It apparently hadn't changed much over the tens of thousands of years that followed, either.)
"Bloomery ironmaking" was an old method used in Xiang Yang's previous-life country more than a thousand years ago. From what Xiang Yang had learned earlier, Tang San had transmigrated during the Yuan dynasty, when they had already moved past "pig iron" and entered the "steelmaking" stage.
Otherwise, how could anyone have made things as intricate and compact as Hidden Weapons? They were very complicated, requiring steelmaking processes such as carburizing, folding and forging, quenching, and tempering.
The only reason the gap between Tang San and Douluo Continent's other smiths did not seem so great was the existence of Martial Souls. Relying on brute force and Soul Power to make miracles happen, they forcibly brought their material past pig iron to wrought iron. Divine Craftsmen might have been able to hammer iron into steel.
In other words, the so-called Divine Craftsmen could forge ordinary metal into divine artifacts, though no one had actually done it.
What was more, Xiang Yang had already brought out the idea of a steam engine. With only his disjointed verbal descriptions to go by, Tang San, whose manual skills were first-rate, had spent nearly a year making a functional one. Otherwise, they could not have made firearms either.
Sure enough, after some testing, several weapons made from materials not much different from the greatsword's broke on contact with it. It even had the unprecedented ability to amplify Soul Power.
Yes, although the materials and principles were much the same, the gap in technique meant those smiths simply could not distribute the beast-bone material properly throughout a weapon. As a result, they could only use it to boost a weapon's basic attributes; it could not react to Soul Power.
It could only be called a fixed way of thinking. Xiang Yang and Tang San were so familiar with it that they took it for granted—what they could get their hands on and buy at present was not as good as what they made themselves—and so overlooked it. Ning Fengzhi, as a sect master, was quick to notice any problem in the details.
On top of that, Bone Douluo, who had been watching the excitement from the side, picked it up to try it. One could tell from his title that he had something to do with bones. If he had lived ten thousand years later, he might have become an Evil Soul Master. Haha.
Whatever his Martial Soul was, he was now the protector Douluo of the number one support sect under heaven, and his Soul Power had long since reached level 95.
When his Soul Power, with its "bone" attribute (?), seeped into the weapon, it was like a dung beetle spotting a pile of poop, and it immediately shone brilliantly.
"Oh ho," Gu Rong said in surprise. "Fengzhi, the beast bones are distributed very evenly in here. It's as if they've completely fused with it."
Unlike ironmaking with bones on Earth, where the main purpose was to remove impurities, the ordinary bones of a Soul Beast, though not Soul Bones, had also been nourished by Soul Power. Naturally, they left behind some special substances. Those were what Bone Douluo sensed, and sensing them was one of his Martial Soul's characteristics.
"Oh, old bones, let me have a look." Before Sword Douluo Chen Xin, standing on the left, had even finished speaking, he made a sword gesture with his fingers and sent a streak of sword Qi shooting into the sword. His move startled Gu Rong. "You damned sword bastard, take my sword!"
Watching the two old men squabble before him, Ning Fengzhi shook his head helplessly. They only looked young; their actual ages and seniority were greater than his. They only obeyed his commands when the matter was important, but that was enough. After all, these were two Titled Douluo. Some people could not obtain their service no matter how hard they begged.
Once they stopped, Ning Fengzhi asked, "Well?"
"Very good. I think ten thousand Gold Soul Coins was a bit low. Make up the difference for him." Gu Rong leaned against the wall, idly twirling a strand of hair around one finger as he spoke.
"I see." Ning Fengzhi looked at Chen Xin without committing himself.
"Hmph, hmph." Chen Xin first cast Gu Rong a sidelong glance, instantly rekindling the anger that had only just died down. If they had not been here, Gu Rong would have fought him for three days and three nights.
"Sect Master, I don't think tens of thousands of Gold Soul Coins would be of much use." Sect Master Ning nodded. For people like them, that was indeed true. Let alone tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, millions, or tens of millions were not much use. In their eyes, only things that could increase their strength mattered most, such as Soul Bones.
But Sword Douluo had addressed him as "Sect Master" rather than "Fengzhi." It seemed he thought this matter was very important. How rare.
Ning Fengzhi narrowed his eyes. After dismissing the guards, he picked up the tea on the table, ready to listen carefully.
"I suggest bringing them straight to the sect."
"Pfft, cough, cough!"
Sword Douluo's concise words gave him a great shock. It sounded pleasant enough, but in practice it was no different from confining them.
Still... "Why?" Presumably, he had noticed something that Ning Fengzhi and... had not.
Sword Douluo pondered for a moment, then shared a secret. "My Martial Soul is a sword, but combat alone cannot fully represent the sword. So, in the beginning, my clan had a rule: before awakening our Martial Souls, we had to learn to forge swords and practice swordsmanship with swords we had made ourselves."
Ning Fengzhi looked thoughtful. For once, Gu Rong did not interrupt his old friend either, listening attentively.
"Though I don't know when it began, the Martial Soul we originally inherited became the Seven Kill Sword, and all that remained of it was the aspect of combat..."
He used Soul Power to draw the blade that had just fallen to the floor into his hand. Looking at the sword in his palm, he continued reminiscing. "I've been interested in swords for as long as I can remember, so before my awakening, I revived that rule in order to have a sword of my own.
"I'd say I know a fair amount about the art of sword forging. The techniques used to forge this sword are completely different from the methods used today, which is how it reached this level. If we could get our hands on those techniques..."
Sword Douluo did not continue, only looking at the two of them. "Mm, I understand."
Ning Fengzhi had not expected him to have such a childhood story, but what deserved more attention now was the sword and the person who had forged it—Tang San.
At the thought, he felt a headache coming on. He absentmindedly tapped the tabletop, making a "tap, tap" sound. Gu Rong found it a little strange.
"Fengzhi, what's so difficult about that? If it really won't work, I'll make the trip myself and bring Rongrong back while I'm at it." At that last thought, he could not help gritting his teeth. Fengzhi really was heartless, letting Rongrong stay out there alone when she was still so young. She had seemed thinner when he saw her recently.
"There must be something worrying you?" Chen Xin stood on the left, holding his sword.
Ning Fengzhi hesitated, but said, "Mm. The person who forged it is named Tang San, and his Martial Soul is Blue Silver Grass."
"His surname is Tang? Could he be from the Clear Sky Sect!?"
"His Martial Soul is Blue Silver Grass, and he lives outside the sect. Even if he is from the Clear Sky Sect, no one there would likely pay him much attention."
"But once you take his age into account, it needs careful consideration..."
"Eleven! Wasn't it eleven years ago that Tang Hao and...!"
"I see. That woman's Martial Soul... The place where they fought back then happened to be in the Balak Kingdom."
Ever since that incident, relations between Spirit Hall and the Upper Three Sects had rapidly deteriorated. After all, the saying that they were branches of the same tree was not empty talk; they really did get along fairly well.
Although the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had not known the inside story at the time, it had been ready to follow its big brother into a fight. Who would have thought that the Hammer Guys, who had always feared neither heaven nor earth, would lose their nerve? They lost their nerve!
Thinking back on it later, they reckoned that the one who was invincible on earth might have passed away. No matter how strong a Soul Master was, he was not a god. Anyone who was human would grow old, and Soul Masters spent their lives fighting; injuries accumulated over the years were not so easily healed.
Heaven alone knew how hard they had found it to believe at the time. In any case, that was how things had ended: one side withdrew from the world, while the other issued a wanted notice that did no real harm. If no one was going to search for him, fine, but they could at least have posted the notice in important places. The whole affair was exceedingly strange.
This also left them unable to stop the female Pope from stirring up trouble in secret afterward. The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon dared defy even the Clear Sky Sect, let alone them. Given those people's temperaments, if the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect went along with them, it would only be treated like a servant.
Sword Douluo fell silent for a while, then could not help sighing. "It seems the winds and clouds are about to gather over this continent again."