Forging a saber that met Zhao Yuan's requirements was absolutely no small undertaking. Its weight alone—three hundred jin—was astonishing enough.
It had to be tempered through countless hammer blows. Only under the effects of high heat and forging pressure could the blade be shaped to the proper size.
In the smithy Li Qing ran on Chiming Street, the sound of metal being hammered had not ceased for the past several days.
He melted all three hundred jin of iron ingots into molten iron, then forged them into three iron plates weighing roughly one hundred jin each.
The three iron plates, each weighing around one hundred jin, were stacked together and heated once more at high temperatures. He hammered all three plates at once, forming the blade's body.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Under Li Qing's hammer blow after hammer blow, the red-hot iron plates gradually took on the rough shape of a blade.
Throughout the process, his movements maintained the stance of the Ancient Profound Hammer Technique from beginning to end. Every strike of the Peerless Hammer sent showers of sparks flying.
Thud! Thud!
Forging alone took Li Qing three days. During that time, he did not know how much sweat he had shed. The smithy was blazing hot, utterly devoid of the chill early spring ought to have had.
What biting spring cold? Beside a blazing forge, it was not worth mentioning.
"Phew!" Li Qing took the towel draped over his shoulder and wiped away his sweat. Once moistened, it soon dried out again under the intense heat.
"The blade body is complete. Next comes the hilt."
Saying this, Li Qing took several lengths of ox-tendon wood from the smithy.
Ox-tendon wood was exceptionally tough and was generally used to make spear shafts.
It was worth noting that the shafts of