The deliveryman nodded and crouched down to unload the goods.
Saina glanced at the labels on the boxes, confirmed there was nothing extra, then waved him away.
Elena sat beside a low table in the corner of the woodshed, charcoal pencil in hand and a newly opened material consumption ledger spread before her. Every time Su Li took a portion of material from the preparation area, she made an entry.
"No. 3 refined iron ingot, one jin and four liang."
Su Li ignored her.
The furnace had already been pushed to the softening point of fourth-tier refined iron.
He fed the mithril ingot into the flames and set it beside the refined iron. Under the intense heat, both metals began to seep a faint silvery sheen, while a thin flowing layer of aether formed across their surfaces.
The Sword Spirit Root accelerated within his body, aether pouring through his arms and down the hammer's handle into the metal.
The first hammer blow fell.
Clang.
The crisp ring of metal echoed through the woodshed. The first fusion line appeared along the boundary between the mithril and refined iron.
Talia's eyes traced that line. "The fusion angle is two degrees to the left. Do you want to correct it?"
"No." Su Li's hammer had already delivered its second strike. "Those two degrees are space reserved for the wood core."
Talia's lips moved, but she swallowed the rest of her words.
The forging entered its middle stage.
The blank had taken shape, and the fusion of refined iron and mithril had stabilized. Su Li picked up the active wood core from beside the anvil, gripped it with iron tongs, and guided it toward the recessed slot left at the center of the blank.
The instant the wood core touched the metal, something went