Dan Chenzi

Foreword:

The affairs of the world are endless and ever-changing, and the will of Heaven is vast and inescapable.

--Luo Guanzhong

[Part 1: Misfortune Has Both Yin and Yang]

Wu Fake Doctor, disguised as Wu Xiuwen, took the Corpse Demon Soul Dissolving Sword from the Blood Jade Guanyin, wrapped it in a cloth, exchanged some polite words with several clan chiefs and priests of Black Wind Town, and dared not say more for fear of revealing his ignorance—he immediately rushed back to the Buddha Sculptor's shop.

"The baby's here! The baby's here!" Wu Xiuwen shouted.

The Buddha Sculptor was delighted, but before leaving, he repeatedly gave him instructions, fearing that Zhang Congfeng's mountain path would be difficult to traverse.

"Want some more Immortal Honey? Is there enough?"

Jiang Xueming: "That's enough, that's enough."

Buddha Sculptor: "What about provisions?"

Jiang Xueming: "That's enough."

The general manager of the Black Wind Ridge branch of the Immortals Alliance escorted Zhang Congfeng to the mountain road north of the town. After saying goodbye, he kept turning back, still worried, and spoke to the Fake Doctor again.

"Take good care of them. If you neglect this important person, I will hold you accountable!"

Wu Xiuwen nodded and bowed, replying, "Don't worry! You can rest assured!"

After finally seeing off this deity, the group headed into the mountains and found a secluded spot. Jiang Xueming instructed the heroic brothers to keep a close eye on Xiangxiang while he and Wu Xiuwen secretly studied the magical artifact.

The two found a large tree hollow, furtively unwrapped the cloth bundle, placed the sword blades inside the hollow, and kept glancing back the way they came, fearing that the Buddha Sculptor had followed them.

After walking for more than a mile along the mountain path, Xue Ming that there was no tail behind her.

Wu Xiuwen asked, "Master, what do you need this sword for?"

Jiang Xueming tapped Wu Xiuwen on the head and gave him a stern reminder.

"It's not that I want this sword for anything, but that the Buddha Sculptor can't use it for anything. The one magical weapon he loses means we have an extra life—haven't you realized? Ever since we entered Black Wind Town, our lives have no longer been our own."

"Only by tricking, robbing, or stealing these six magical treasures can your souls return to your bodies."

Wu Xiuwen was initially bewildered and didn't quite understand, but he stubbornly insisted, "That seems to make sense."

Jiang Xueming further explained, "Just this one Bodhi Peeling Tree alone has created countless painted-skin monsters that have stolen the souls of so many people. The Zhao Brothers are no match for it at all. Could Jianying and Jianxiong really bring themselves to turn several strong men into beautiful women?"

"They say that a life-or-death battle can be decided in an instant. If they can't get past this hurdle, if they can't kill the demons in their hearts, if they hesitate for even a moment, they'll be dead."

Upon careful consideration, Wu Xiuwen realized that if a villain were to approach him Wu Cheng Zhang as his adoptive father, Wu Xiuwen, even in a real, life-or-death battle, he would hesitate because of this appearance of his adoptive father and be defeated by the illusion of being raised by him.

On the contrary, it was Zhang Guiren's level of thought that surprised Xiuwen—she was neither like a doctor nor a monk at all.

"Master, you came from a military background?"

This ability to identify enemies and his strong execution allowed Wu Xiuwen to guess Zhang Congfeng's identity—his master was definitely not a doctor or sorcerer who constantly chanted "goodness, goodness" to heal the sick, save people, and eliminate demons; he was a decisive and ruthless soldier.

Jiang Xueming did not answer the question directly; instead, he focused on the magical artifact.

"Stop talking nonsense, take this!"

Wu Xiuwen was very obedient. Since the person responded to his call of "Master," he stopped asking questions out of respect for his teacher and instead inquired about the magic weapon.

"Now that we have the item, Master, what should we do? As you said, should we hold a ritual for Goddess Zhuzhu to expel evil spirits and vengeful ghosts?"

"Where would there be any wronged souls?" Jiang Xueming examined the sword's design, weighing it in his hand to test its balance. "I just made it up on the spot, betting that the Buddha Sculptor wouldn't know, taking advantage of an information gap. A person blinded by greed would never care about their subordinates; all their energy would be spent polishing Buddha statues and gilding their bodies, using their cleverness to flatter and ingratiate themselves with the Great Buddha Lingguang—misfortune has two sides, and things have two sides; if you look at them separately, you'll understand."

Wu Xiuwen: "The bodies in Mu Family Village have all been disposed of, but if too much time passes, the Buddha Sculptor will definitely find out. After all, eight farmers are missing. These people had families in Black Wind Town, and they suddenly vanished without a trace. How can we cover up this lie?"

"Then it won't be a perfect ending." Jiang Xueming was resolute and calm. "He has to die before he realizes something is wrong."

Upon hearing this, Wu Xiuwen was astonished and horrified.

--I never expected that the master I had come to know would deal with these gods and monsters in such a ruthless and violent way.

When Zhang Congfeng killed Yu Zhen Daxian at first, Wu Xiuwen saw it clearly; the whole process was as easy and effortless as slaughtering chickens and dogs.

Today, to deal with the authority of this sect protected by the Six Treasures, to oppose over a thousand households, and to fight to the death against a mountain tyrant, Master merely said—

"--Trick him first; by the time he realizes what's happening, he'll be close to death."

Xiuwen naturally lacked the ability and courage. As a mortal, he could hardly imagine the thought process of immortals, and he had no concept of how immortals would fight each other.

"It has thirty-three vertebrae, just as the Buddha Sculptor described." Xue Ming could see the basic structure of the sword, from the spine to the tip, the waxed thread and guard, the wooden nails and the hilt material were all clearly visible. "Within this heavy sword, which is about the width of a palm, lies the lifeblood of the Hundred Eyes Great King."

Xiuwen pressed on, "Master, are you going to use this magic weapon to kill Baimu?"

Jiang Xueming: "No, I can't do that."

Wu Xiuwen pressed urgently, "Why?"

"I wouldn't dare use it," Jiang Xueming said honestly. "If one day I were to give you my most treasured weapon, would you dare use it against me?"

Wu Xiuwen understood. "Then I really wouldn't dare."

Having said this, Xue Ming carefully sheathed his sword, wrapped it back into a cloth bag, and began climbing up the banyan tree.

Upon reaching the top of the tree, Wu Xiuwen searched for his mentor's whereabouts below. He then saw a blurry figure leaping and darting among the treetops before disappearing into the vast forest.

Half an hour passed, and Xiuwen grew impatient, wondering when Zhang Congfeng would return—his master was so mysterious, refusing to say anything openly.

Just as he was about to search for it, he saw a shadow fall between the trees.

When Jiang Xueming returned, he was covered in mud and had scarlet sores on his face. He had been poisoned by the miasma curse. After the rain stopped, the miasma in the mountains became more and more concentrated. He tested the poison on himself and did not take the Immortal Honey. He wanted to test the concentration of the Vita Imprint between the foothills of Black Wind Ridge. As a result, it was not much worse than the Spirit Calamity environment he encountered during his conquest.

Wu Xiuwen said repeatedly, "Master! Drink your medicine quickly! Drink your medicine quickly!"

Xue Ming didn't respond. He opened the gourd and took a small sip. The swelling from his cheek to his neck gradually subsided, leaving behind some flakes of skin and scabs. Once that area was healed, he didn't drink any more.

Before Wu Xiuwen could urge him, Jiang Xueming took a large, dark package from under his arm. The package was his divine robe. When he opened the knot, it was full of dark sand and gravel.

Wu Xiuwen: "Master? What is this?"

Jiang Xueming silent and continued working.

He didn't like to explain anything, so he told his brothers to continue waiting, and he made some witty remarks to Xiangxiang to comfort her.

He walked to the edge of the bushes to select materials, dismantled the trunks of several large trees, and then called forth the Fragrant Dream.

The steel cat emerged from Xue Ming's body, and Wu Xiuwen was immediately terrified.

He already possessed psychic abilities and psychic vision, so he could naturally see this majestic and imposing tiger.

"A deity? A deity!"

"Ugh! What kind of deity is this!" Fragrant Dream and Xue Ming said disdainfully, "You've taken on another student? Is this kid reliable?"

Jiang Xueming tidied the firewood. "Let's get to work!"

Fragrant Dream's arms transformed into a blower, drying firewood on a sun-scorched rock platform, binding the firewood together with tender branches, and using it as fuel in batches.

Xue Ming forcefully tossed the black sand from the cloth bag, and the head, arms, and half of the torso of Fragrant Dream made a cracking sound, immediately turning into a large funnel, from which grayish-white muddy water dripped from the cat's belly. This was considered the removal of impurities.

The remaining black sand powder was iron sand that Xue Ming had drawn from the river using a magnet.

Fragrant Dream spread its legs again, its eight sharp claws digging a pit in the sunlight. The big cat's head inhaled and exhaled, becoming a wind tunnel that blew clouds and mist. The iron armor twisted and deformed, instantly creating a forge with a small anvil.

Berloberg's blade gleamed with a dark red light. He picked up a handful of withered leaves and put them into the furnace, where flames lit up and gradually reached a temperature of nearly a thousand degrees.

[Part ②: Swords of Male and Female]

Jiang Xueming used what was available, carefully carving a mold for the Soul Dissolving Sword from a handful of red clay in Black Wind Ridge. Since the clay wasn't dense enough, he repeatedly tamped and hammered it, his skill in crafting and forging weapons reaching a level of unparalleled mastery. The sound of his fists and palms striking the clay mold was astonishing, making Wu Xiuwen's heart pound in rhythm with the sound.

Finally, all the iron filings were poured into the mold, the lid was pressed down, and then the iron filings were allowed to melt. In about forty minutes, a sword blank was cast.

"Master, you're making a fake sword?" Wu Xiuwen finally figured it out and asked in surprise, "How can you make it look so real?"

"Don't rush." Jiang Xueming snapped his fingers, and Fragrant Dream transformed back to its original form from the casting platform.

He and Hunwei examined the fake item closely together and discussed their crafting experience.

"SD, take a look at this iron billet; it's shrinking quite a bit due to heat."

The steel giant replied, "It's alright, the carbon content isn't high. It'll definitely shrink when it's heated after casting."

Jiang Xueming: "I left room for heat shrinkage material when I made the mold - if you do further refinement, grinding, and cutting, there will always be defects."

Steel Cat: "Shampooing, shall I try it first?"

Jiang Xueming: "Okay. I'll go find some river sand. You refine it into glass, then break it into glass beads in the crusher before spraying."

"How many objectives do you want?" Fragrant Dream asked.

Jiang Xueming: "I'll do a rough spray with 120 grit, fix the mold line, cold forge the edges of the hilt, and then do a fine spray with 500 grit."

Wu Xiuwen listened from the side, completely bewildered. His master's avatar was actually speaking on its own initiative? And even chatting with his master about weapon crafting techniques?

Fragrant Dream transformed into a furnace once more, producing the raw materials needed for industrial steelmaking. Air vents and inlets appeared between the iron helmet and breastplate, pursing out a stream of crystal-clear fine sand.

The sword blank was sandblasted and polished, and the original pitted marks became smooth. Then, Zhang Congfeng used stones of different hardness to tap and hammer it, gradually cutting away the excess edges and corners, and it gradually took the shape of the Corpse Demon Soul Dissolving Sword.

"Almost there." Xue Ming weighed the sword hilt in his hand, feeling the balance of the entire sword. He instructed Fragrant Dream to continue sandblasting and polishing, and the broad, heavy sword began to gleam with a slightly oily sheen.

Finally, Xue Ming used Berloberg to engrave the lines, casually pulled Wu Xiuwen over, cut open his arm, and drained more than 200 milliliters of blood to use as dye.

The scorching hot blade left engravings on the counterfeit sword, mimicking the spine pattern of the genuine article in relief, and the crimson blood was baked until it turned the original a golden-brown and black.

Finally, the divine robe was reused to make a thick cotton rope that was waxed and used to make the sword hilt. Holes were drilled in the rope, two nails were hammered in, and then the wood from the banyan tree was dried, smoked, and blackened to make the sword pommel.

Mission accomplished.

Jiang Xueming took out the original item and handed it to Xiuwen along with the counterfeit.

"Xiuwen, you weigh these two swords and take a look."

Wu Xiuwen wielded two swords, but his frail body made it impossible for him to lift the heavy blades. He staggered, frantically leaning on his swords for support, his confidence wavering.

In the blink of an eye, he could no longer recognize the weapon in his hand.

"Huh? Hey! Hey! Master! Which one is real?"

Xue Ming took the real sword from Wu Xiuwen and said, "This one is real."

Wu Xiuwen asked curiously, "How can you tell the difference?"

"Only I know what I've done." Jiang Xueming rarely showed such an ambiguous and sly smile, "You don't have that skill, neither does the Hundred Eyes Great King, and the Buddha Sculptor certainly doesn't."

This is a modern technological standard, a steelmaking process that is several generations ahead of its time.

If we disregard psionic properties and consider only the material strength of the steel itself, this fake is far more robust than the original. This is because, in the purification and refinement process, neither the Buddha Sculptor nor Judas possessed the precise spiritual power of Fragrant Dream.

This Corpse Demon Soul Dissolving Sword is even inferior to an iron bar produced on an industrial assembly line. Its blade has many forging marks, and the internal stress of the material is bizarre and varied. The distribution of ferrite structure is far less uniform than that of a pot of molten iron in a steel mill.

Replicating its appearance was far too easy for Jiang Xueming. In the face of modern industry, all ancient forging techniques for cold weapons had to be rendered obsolete—otherwise, why wasn't the homogeneous armor steel used in tanks forged by "master swordsmiths" using ancient methods?

"Wonderful!" Upon seeing this skill of creating artifacts out of thin Wu Xiuwen, the rat-faced doctor's fake skin bulged into a ball of laughter, his features contorted. "Can this precious tree be made into a fake?"

"I can't make it." Xue Ming said honestly, "I don't even know where this strange thing with its wood veneer and glass base came from."

Steel is easy to deal with, but the wood of the Bodhi Peeling Tree feels and looks like glass. Among its crystal-clear, blood-red branches, there are also many white, tender buds that resemble neural networks.

It is also unbreakable and indestructible, and can be transformed into a flexible rubber whip that instantly pierces the skin and flesh when it strikes a person. For Xue Ming, it is simply impossible to create such a replica in a short period of time, as the materials are not even available.

Asking Fragrant Dream to do the delicate work of glassblowing, and to make sandwich glass exactly like this ever-changing textured and shaped treasure tree, would be too much of a challenge for the steel giant cat.

"I made this fake sword to protect the real one. If the demon takes the female one, it won't work on the male one—but why did you ask me to make a fake tree? Do you want to keep the real tree?" Xue Ming asked.

Wu Xiuwen replied guiltily, "It has magical transformations. That's what I was thinking."

"It's not yours, Xiuwen," Jiang Xueming immediately corrected him. "Even if you like treasures, you shouldn't look for them outside. The real treasure is in your heart."

That being said, Wu Xiuwen was still somewhat unconvinced.

He understood his master's teachings. In Xiuwen's eyes, this armored tiger Fragrant Dream was the "treasure in his heart" that his master had mentioned. It was like a furnace in an alchemy room, a good helper that could exhale ethereal mist and blow the Samadhi Fire.

But wasn't Master making counterfeits to keep the genuine article? When it comes to crooked ways, Master is much more capable—Xiuwen thought to himself.

After packing up their treasures, the group set off again. Having witnessed the divine magic, Wu Xiuwen didn't bring up the matter of the Bodhi Peeling Tree again.

The mountain path of Black Wind Ridge was rugged. Following the winding path, we crossed rivers and streams until we reached a wild temple. There, we were greeted by a temple keeper. We walked from day to night, and just as the sun was setting, Xue Ming saw the temple's archway.

The plaque above the pavilion bears a welcoming inscription, indicating the owner's identity.

The memorial reads:

"May the Water Virtue Star Lord Danchen, enjoy boundless blessings."

"The Yu Zhen Golden Wood Virtue Star Lord possesses boundless supernatural powers."

There is a horizontal scroll.

"The land of the four directions."

Wu Xiuwen whispered a suggestion to Jiang Xueming.

"Master, this Four Earth God Temple is the outpost of Black Wind Ridge. The disciples of Hundred Eyes Great King and Pearl Fairy are stationed here, including Yuzhenzi, Dan Chenzi, Fire Wu Daoist Jin Xu, Water Virtue Star Lord, and Wood Virtue Star Lord. Rat-Faced Doctor is one of them, with the Daoist name Jin Xu. He connects the human and demon realms, relaying messages and carrying out tasks for King Hundred Eyes and Buddha Sculptor, with the intention of bringing wealth and treasures."

A strong demon with a tiger's face and a human body, wearing a black robe and with brown hair, stood in front of the deserted temple to greet guests.

It was elegant and dignified, with its arms outstretched as if to embrace the guests, displaying great enthusiasm.

"I am a disciple of the Hundred Eyes Great King —my Daoist name Dan Chenzi. Which one is Zhang Guiren?"