"O Main God! Iron sand selection, smelting iron in a blast furnace... the thousand-fold forging method?..."
After a moment of "forging blades on paper," victory and defeat, superiority and inferiority, had separated themselves. The Kingdom blacksmith Matsushita Tessuke's expression changed, and his momentum instantly shrank by a great margin. Yet in front of the old artisan Tetta Mune-yoshi, he still refused to concede. Staring hard at the other man's severed arm, he kept shouting.
"You keep talking about layer upon layer of thousand-fold forging, annealing and quenching, Yamashiro School secret teachings... Can you really forge, or can you only talk with your mouth?... Why don't we build an earthen furnace by the river and each forge a short blade, and see what skills both sides have?!..."
"Ha! You junior, still running your mouth!..."
The instant he heard about raising a furnace and forging iron, Tetta Mune-yoshi's heart gave a thump. With this one old arm of his, how could he truly forge a blade anymore? But his face remained full of confidence, and he did not even glance at Matsushita Tessuke.
After thinking for a moment, Tetta Mune-yoshi turned directly around, faced Zuwaro, who was listening patiently, and bowed in salute. Then he took a yellowed scroll of illustrations from his robes.
"Noble golden chieftain! The secret teachings of my Yamashiro School are not lightly shown to others... But since this is alms given for Buddha, and I am far from the Yamashiro School, then all those things of the past have scattered like smoke and clouds... This old man will surely empty his bag and teach the apprentices the chieftain arranges!... Here is a scroll of blade-forging illustrations, drawn by my own hand in earlier years. I am willing to offer it to the Great Chieftain! Please look at