Several days later, in the dimly lit smithy.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sound of a hammer striking iron rang out in alternating beats. Sparks flew beside the furnace, faintly illuminating the gloom.
Chu He gripped a hammer in one hand and held the iron bar connected to the blade blank in the other. His hammer fell upon the blank like raindrops.
He shaped the blade blank.
He hammered out its impurities, making the entire length of the blade more uniform.
Fire-forging, repeated hammering, quenching, tempering the edge...
The steps steadily progressed. Gone was Chu He's earlier boredom; his entire mind and body were immersed in the forging.
Afterward, Old Man Du was quite pleased with his decision. He believed Chu He was best left to his own devices—if forced to learn, he would only shirk his duties.
In truth, Chu He was doing all this for the energy.
Ever since learning that Flame-Listening Stones could yield energy, Chu He had tried every means to gather more of them. But these stones were the main ingredient in forging soul weapons, so people rarely let them go easily.
Chu He had only managed to get two Flame-Listening Stones from Old Man Du. The forging process had yielded seven energy points, and together with the three points he had obtained earlier, he had now gained ten energy points from forging.
It was even steadier than going out to hunt specters.
After putting the blade blank into the blazing fire, Chu He stared at the flames, lost in thought.
To make better use of the demonic aura inside the Flame-Listening Stones and obtain energy, he had spent the past few days—unusually for him—calmly studying all sorts of forging techniques.
He was determined to squeeze every last bit of demonic aura out of the Flame-Listening