First Forge an Iron Sword

Squeak, squeak...

Yi Chen was returning to the Wooden House.

At his feet came the cries of the Miniature Ferocious Beast.

He lowered his head and looked.

The Miniature Ferocious Beast was stretching out its tiny, stubby paws, gesturing at him nonstop and occasionally pointing toward Gu Li and the others.

"No time!"

Yi Chen understood what it meant. It wanted him to take it out for a stroll as well.

Naturally, he had no interest in that.

His current task was to work hard at raising his realm and hold down The Valley.

Because his cultivation realm was the ceiling of the Flame Mountain Tribe.

Whenever the armies sent out to wage war encountered Ferocious Beasts they could not defeat, he had to deal with them all personally.

Besides that, once the various Spirit Mines were transported back and forged into longswords, he also had to begin creating a sword technique.

With a powerful sword technique in hand, he could greatly increase both his own strength and the average strength of the tribe's people.

He simply had no time to go wandering around.

Even if he had spare time, he had no interest in taking a pet out for a walk.

Even if that pet could rapidly increase its strength, possessed the ability to revive after death, had boundless prospects ahead of it, and held important research value for him, it made no difference.

If it did not listen, he would beat it until it did.

Why would there be any need to cultivate feelings?

It was that simple and straightforward.

Squeak, squeak...

Seeing that Yi Chen had refused, the Miniature Ferocious Beast trotted a few more steps and caught up to him.

It began gesturing at Yi Chen again.

From its gestures, it seemed to have given up on asking Yi Chen to walk it. Instead, it planned to follow the tribespeople out for a stroll.

"Go ahead!"

Yi Chen had no objection to that.

As long as he did not have to waste time taking it out himself.

After all, the little thing had an immortal body. It could run wild wherever it pleased.

Nor was he worried that it would run so far wild that it never came back.

During their time together, he had discovered that this Miniature Ferocious Beast seemed to be extremely fond of the aura of his Spiritual Power.

Even though it no longer needed to absorb the Spiritual Power in his Qi Sea, it still clung to his side at every moment.

And it was the irreplaceable kind of attachment.

Although the Flame Mountain Tribe's people were now almost all cultivators with Spiritual Power,

the Miniature Ferocious Beast still showed not the slightest interest in them.

Right now, it was merely because the Miniature Ferocious Beast had a restless temperament and could no longer stand being cooped up in the Wooden House for over half a month. It wanted to go out and get some air.

Squeak, squeak...

Seeing Yi Chen agree, the Miniature Ferocious Beast leaped into the air.

It immediately spread its short little legs and ran toward the tribespeople.

Just as Yi Chen had expected,

the little fellow ran back that very night and continued clinging to his side to sleep.

For the next dozen or so days, it never went out again.

Knock, knock!

Not long after breaking through to the Spirit Release Realm Sixth Level, a light knock suddenly sounded.

Yi Chen stopped cultivating and opened the door.

The High Priest stood outside.

"Tribal Chief, Luo Ge has sent someone back with word that they have encountered a powerful Ferocious Beast."

"Have someone lead the way. I'll go take a look!"

Yi Chen's interest was immediately piqued.

Dealing with the Ferocious Beasts the Four Routes Army could not handle would not only allow the Four Routes Army to expand their territory faster, but would also improve his actual combat experience.

Cultivation realm and techniques alone were far from enough.

He had to fight powerful Ferocious Beasts with all kinds of abilities and accumulate combat experience in order to ensure he had no weaknesses.

With only cultivation realm and techniques but no combat experience, it would be even easier to capsize in a gutter and be defeated by a weaker enemy.

Moreover, Ferocious Beasts with all sorts of special abilities could also bring him inspiration.

Much of the inspiration for creating the Cloud Stepping Art had come from birds and beasts.

As for whether he could kill the Ferocious Beasts Luo Ge and the others could not, given his current cultivation realm, he did not take that to heart.

Compared to them, his realm was only two minor levels higher than Luo Ge's.

Moreover, Luo Ge had one hundred and fifty tribal warriors at his side.

Logically speaking, if Luo Ge and the others could not kill a Ferocious Beast, neither should he.

But the truth was not so.

What Luo Ge and the tribespeople had learned was only a weakened version of the Cloud Stepping Art. Their speed was far inferior to that of the complete Cloud Stepping Art.

Not to mention that he was the creator of the Cloud Stepping Art. His understanding and execution of it were far beyond what ordinary people could compare with.

And speed was one of the important components of strength.

On that point alone, combined with the Flying Knife Technique, even a hundred Gu Lis or Luo Ges standing before him would be utterly vulnerable.

He could rely on his absolute advantage in speed to make it impossible for his opponents to hit him at all.

Meanwhile, he could attack them to his heart's content.

In other words, Yi Chen's current strength was at least a whole tier above the Four Routes Army.

Unless they encountered a Ferocious Beast with an enormous gap in strength, anything the Four Routes Army could not handle, he could.

"Understood!"

The High Priest immediately ordered someone to fetch the tribesman who had delivered the message.

Yi Chen swept his gaze around.

Not far away, several new warehouses for storing Spirit Mines had already been built.

Beside them, several furnaces had been set up, refining strange ores of many different colors.

"They collected Spirit Mines so quickly?"

Yi Chen was somewhat surprised.

"Reporting to the Tribal Chief, they were all picked up along the way. There are all kinds of them."

The High Priest hurriedly explained, "They are rather troublesome to smelt. Some Spirit Mines cannot be melted even after being thrown into a fire and burned continuously for days and nights."

"Try them one by one. How many kinds of Spirit Mines have been gathered so far?" Yi Chen asked casually.

It was perfectly normal for ores containing Spiritual Power to have high melting points.

Naturally, smelting them would not be easy.

But there were countless kinds of Spirit Mines. There would always be one with a suitable melting point and enough quantity to make thousands of longswords.

"There are over a dozen kinds of Spirit Mines, but only scattered pieces have been picked up. No mineral deposits have been found."

After hesitating, the High Priest added, "However, we have picked up a great deal of Iron Ore that does not contain any Spiritual Energy. It can be used to produce longswords in large quantities."

"A great deal of Iron Ore? The tribe only has a few iron weapons in total. How could you have picked up so much Iron Ore?"

Yi Chen was somewhat surprised.

"The tribe had few iron weapons because, in the past, the tribespeople did not dare to go outside. Also, Iron Ore contains many impurities, so even when they found it, they were unwilling to spend the time carrying it back."

The High Priest explained, "After all, food was the most important thing back then. Although iron weapons could increase the tribespeople's strength, they still could not cut through stronger Ferocious Beasts. In the past, everyone went out hunting together, so a few iron weapons were enough for the tribe."

"So that was it!"

Yi Chen was instantly delighted.

"Continue gathering Spirit Mines as before, but also collect Iron Ore in large quantities and arrange for people to forge it into longswords."

He immediately made the arrangements.

Iron longswords would work just as well.

Because according to his plans, Sword Qi and Sword Intent were the true priorities when it came to the power of a sword technique.

The longsword itself could also increase its power.

But it did not matter if it could not.

As long as the quality of the longsword could withstand Spiritual Power flowing through it, that would be enough.

Although the quality of an Iron Sword was not particularly good, it was entirely sufficient at this stage.

Even with his current strength at the Spirit Release Realm Sixth Level, an Iron Sword could withstand his Spiritual Power.

As for the future, it would not be too late to forge Spirit Swords of better quality, even ones with other additional effects and functions, after he had created Weapon Forging.

By that calculation, he could now begin finding time to research and create a sword technique.