"You're right. Battlefields and famous ministers and generals really are the places most likely to yield Five-Metal Essence. It's far more convenient than mining in the deep mountains."
A group of Senior Martial Brothers crowded around Shen Le, each chiming in over the next. From time to time, someone even raised his sword to show Shen Le:
"My sword was picked up from the Changping Ancient Battlefield. I dug through mud for three whole years for this sword, killing at least five or six fierce ghosts and zombies every day!"
"This sword of mine was passed down by the sect. They say it was found in the Great Han's armory... Not Gaozu's Snake-Slaying Sword! It really isn't! But it was kept very close to it!"
"This sword of mine came from Julu... There were layer upon layer of burial grounds, and it was impossible to tell which round of fighting they belonged to. I buried at least two thousand corpses and got so practiced at earth-moving spells that—
"Then one day, after I'd buried a corpse, I turned around and saw it there, quietly waiting for me. Fate—it was all fate!"
He pointed downward, and the earth immediately sank into a large pit, seven chi long, three chi wide, and five chi deep. The Senior Martial Brothers around him burst into laughter:
"Very good, very good—a perfectly proper grave for a coffin!"
"Just lower the coffin in and fill it up. No adjustments needed at all!"
"But did you really buy two thousand coffins? Where'd you get the money? Rob some rich household?"
"What are you talking about? Later on, I just wrapped them in reed mats. There was no way I had that many coffins—no matter how rich you are, you can't buy two thousand coffins all at once!"