Forging the Light Shadow Blade, Part Two

Forging Weapons—Light Shadow Blade, Part Two

He placed a low-grade Light Magic Crystal at the hilt, then separately drew upon a trace of magic power and battle qi within his body to test the effects.

Seeing the entire blade blank flare with dazzling light under his control, Fengyun smiled in satisfaction. "With my current attainments in Alchemy, I can only manage a simple Illumination Spell enchantment. Still, it complements my most important tactical move, Sun Slash, quite well!"

"More importantly, once it has been modified into a magic weapon, the energy channels running throughout the blade will reduce my battle qi consumption when I use moves like Battle Qi Slash in the future."

"And aside from casting Healing Spells, my power as a second-level mage will no longer be completely useless. Once I get used to it, I might even be able to use the Illumination Spell attached to this blade directly in place of my Sun Slash."

"That will save another portion of battle qi!"

"If necessary, I can even overload the Magic Crystal in the hilt to amplify my Combat Skills and unleash attacks beyond my level!"

Stroking his chin, he muttered, "When using magic power, activating the Illumination Spell consumes less than using battle qi, and it is smoother and more stable."

"I have already comprehended Lifting the Light as if Heavy. The next stage is Drawing Upon Heaven and Earth, drawing upon the energy of heaven and earth to seek control over the surrounding elemental forces and enhance one's own offense and defense. It demands even greater comprehension."

"It is not something I can grasp in a short time. I might as well use this time to properly practice using this new weapon."

"To see whether I can use the Illumination Spell attached to this blade in place of my Sun Slash!"

Filled with enthusiasm for his new weapon, Fengyun resumed the subsequent work on the blade blank.

Scraping, polishing, quenching, and sharpening—the details of every process had to be carefully integrated with Alchemy methods, all the way through the final assembly stage.

And so, a Straight Sword—or rather, a Tang saber—was born. It was perfectly straight throughout, one inch and two fen wide, three chi and six cun long, and weighed nine jin and five liang!

The black blade made the patterns formed from silver alchemical materials stand out all the more, making it exceptionally eye-catching.

Beneath the glow of the furnace flames, the cold blade reflected a bright, snowy gleam.

There was no guard where the hilt connected to the blade. If an ordinary person used it and their hand slipped, they might injure themselves before harming an enemy. However, with Fengyun's powerful control over himself and his mastery of Lifting the Light as if Heavy, he had no fear of hurting himself.

The hilt had been polished from a Star Brilliance Stone that glimmered with specks of starlight. It was undoubtedly the most valuable material on the entire blade; all the materials used for the sword, including those consumed by Alchemy, were not worth as much as this single Star Brilliance Stone.

Of course, that was not to say this Star Brilliance Stone, worth only tens of thousands of gold coins, was particularly exceptional. Rather, most light- and dark-element magic materials were monopolized by the Light Church and the Darkness Church. This Radiance Stone, which could amplify the power of light-element magic and Combat Skills, had been acquired by chance during his training in the Monster Mountain Range.

Moreover, the idea of making a sword had come to him on a whim. His original intention had merely been to forge a weapon suited to himself, one appropriate for his current strength and comfortable to use.

He had never intended to forge anything particularly exceptional, so he had not specially prepared any fine materials. The main material of the blade was nothing more than ordinary hundred-forged steel!

Yet the more he worked on it, the more he liked the sword. So, he had casually used the Star Brilliance Stone that he had left at Brady's Smithy to help Brady put on a show.

Touching the Magic Crystal at the end of the hilt, Fengyun moved his thoughts, and the entire blade began to emit a bright but non-dazzling white light like a glow stick.

Feeling magic power and battle qi flow smoothly through the blade, Fengyun suddenly felt that his sword was missing something!

After thinking for a moment, he took out his alchemical tools once more and engraved two words near the hilt of the blade—Light Shadow!

As Brady looked at the Light Shadow Blade in Fengyun's hand, a trace of admiration appeared in his eyes.

He raised the sword-testing stone he had long had someone prepare and said to Fengyun, "Little Yun, give it a slash. Let me see how good that blade of yours is."

"After all, a magic blade is still a blade. Looking good alone is not enough. Sharpness and toughness are the two most important qualities of a good blade!"

Fengyun nodded at those words, took the sword-testing stone from Brady, and placed it on the weapon rack beside them.

After calming his mind, he infused a thread of battle qi into the edge, forming the most basic protection for the blade. Then, he "slowly" slashed down at the sword-testing stone.

Clang~

Just as everyone wondered why Fengyun was moving so slowly, an abnormally crisp sound of metal striking stone rang in their ears. Then, the sword-testing stone, three cun thick, split cleanly into two!

"My heavens, he split the sword-testing stone in two with a single slash! Only the finest weapons forged by the boss can do that!"

"Who would have thought Little Yun had silently honed his forging skills to such a level? That is incredible!"

"Exactly! Even fine weapons used by military officers can only cut through one or two cun of this sword-testing stone. I really thought that kid Little Yun had nothing in his head but hammering iron!"

"Little Yun spends nearly ninety percent of his time here hammering iron. He has not put much effort into forging, and the weapons he usually makes are only at the level of an advanced blacksmith at best."

"But the moment he forged a weapon for himself, he produced such a fine piece. It seems Little Yun has been hiding his abilities all along!"

Hearing the praise from the surrounding crowd, Fengyun blushed slightly.

In terms of craftsmanship, he had only just crossed the threshold of an advanced blacksmith. There was still an entire level separating him from a first-rate blacksmith like Brady.

The reason he had been able to split the sword-testing stone with a single strike of the Light Shadow Blade was that he had unconsciously used Lifting the Light as if Heavy.

With all his strength concentrated upon the blade's edge, naturally he had cut through the sword-testing stone with ease!

But in truth, judging solely by the weapon's sharpness, the Light Shadow Blade had merely reached the standard of the ordinary weapons forged by Brady. It was still a tier below the fine weapons Brady had painstakingly forged!

Still, although the weapon was not good enough yet, it was more than sufficient for Fengyun. After chatting with everyone for a while, he happily put away the Light Shadow Blade and eventually made his way to Azure Paradise.

As he grew older, his performance became increasingly outstanding, his value rose ever higher, and his network of connections expanded. Thus, his intelligence contacts now included truly high-end places such as Azure Paradise and Heaven on Earth!

By usual custom, every time he returned from the Monster Mountain Range, he had to first report his condition to the organization at an intelligence contact.

Because of forging the blade, he had delayed his report for three days. Now that the blade was finished, he naturally had to report his situation at once. Otherwise, the organization might decide he was difficult to control and make him waste time submitting several pledges of loyalty!

However, before he could find his contact for his routine report, he spotted Lin Lei and his three brothers first!