Seeking the Ancestors' Wisdom

"You did exactly the right thing. What the Mount Hua Sect needs most for its development now is time. We shouldn't confront the Demon Cult directly."

Yue Buqun nodded approvingly, then his expression shifted, becoming intensely grave.

"The Demon Cult is powerful. We'll avoid its cutting edge for now and speed up the excavation of Mountain City.

"Hao, pack up your equipment for forging meteoric iron as soon as possible, too, and move it into the mountain."

Drawing a deep breath, Yue Buqun decided to retreat for the time being and draw their forces in. They absolutely could not let the Demon Cult discover their ability to forge black iron or the presence of his senior and junior martial brothers, or it might seize the opportunity to launch a full-scale attack.

Although Mount Hua Academy's reputation meant the Demon Cult dared not openly attack Mount Hua, it could still strike in secret!

When the time came, who could identify attackers dressed in black with their faces covered?

Unfortunately, the Mount Hua Sect currently lacked the strength to withstand covert raids and assassinations. All they could do was hide for now.

"Has Mountain City already been excavated?"

Tian Hao was delighted. The Mountain City plan had been his suggestion.

Although martial arts existed in this world, they had yet to reach the insane level of shattering mountains and cleaving peaks. If they could hide inside the mountain, they would be safe from any outside enemy.

His inspiration had come from the Ancient Tomb Sect, whose home was a refuge Wang Chongyang had built to shelter troops.

Their Mount Hua Sect could likewise carve out a living space inside the mountain. With enough stored grain and good ventilation, they would have nothing to fear even if an army besieged them.

"How could it be done that quickly?"

Rolling his eyes at him, Yue Buqun's expression changed, and he said guiltily, "Our Mount Hua Sect's predecessors once discovered a cavern inside the mountain and converted it into a tomb. Successive sect leaders and predecessors who made great contributions to Mount Hua were all buried there.

"This time, however, we'll have to disturb our ancestors!"

Mount Hua's rock was hard to begin with. Even with the aid of internal qi and true qi, excavating a tunnel, let alone Mountain City, would be enormously difficult. Most importantly, they had no time to dig.

But now that the Demon Cult had set its sights on them, they could only disturb their ancestors.

"Don't blame yourself, Sect Leader. Everything we're doing is for the Mount Hua Sect's future. If our predecessors knew, they certainly wouldn't reproach us.

"Besides, this will give them a chance to see with their own eyes how our Mount Hua Sect rises to prosperity."

Zhao Bulu offered words of comfort. He was not particularly concerned about disturbing their ancestors.

After all, those who accomplished great things did not fuss over trifles. As long as the Mount Hua Sect could revive and flourish, any sacrifice was worthwhile.

Besides, the living had to look ahead.

"I'll go pack everything up right away. It's time to start forging black iron, too."

Beaming with delight, Tian Hao eagerly left the quiet chamber and returned to his cave to dismantle the specially constructed furnace.

To forge black iron, the temperature of the flames was crucial.

As a young man of the new era with ideals, morals, education, and discipline, he might not have been a star student at school, but he had not been a hopeless one either. He knew some physics and chemistry.

Fortunately, although this martial world's martial arts were not terribly scientific, the world as a whole followed scientific laws, much like his previous world.

That was why he had managed to put together a high-temperature furnace back then, gaining the ability to forge meteoric iron and black iron.

Now that his Embrace Origin Force had reached major mastery, and his Eagle Claw Stele-Smashing Hand had long since done the same, it was time to forge black iron.

After a flurry of work, Tian Hao left the stone cave where he had spent more than three years and moved into the cavern housing the tombs of the Mount Hua Sect's successive patriarchs.

The cavern was enormous, situated deep within Mount Hua. After passing through a long passage, the view suddenly opened onto a vast space more than a hundred zhang across.

However, numerous stone coffins stood inside the cavern, all belonging to successive Mount Hua Sect leaders and distinguished predecessors.

The coffins had been carved entirely from stone. Despite the countless years that had passed, they remained completely undamaged.

"Isn't that writing from the Warring States period?"

After accompanying Old Yue in paying respects to the Mount Hua Sect's ancestors, Tian Hao examined the spirit tablet on the stone coffin before him, rather baffled by its inscription.

It was definitely a script from the Warring States period. He had even seen one of its characters among his respected teacher Ru Zhigang's materials.

To compile a perfect dictionary, his teacher Ru Zhigang had previously collected all the major scripts, ancient and modern, including some from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. That was why he recognized a few characters.

"This predecessor was indeed from the Warring States period. Our Mount Hua Sect has a long heritage, traceable as far back as the pre-Qin era. Back then, wandering swordsmen gathered on Mount Hua to compare swordsmanship and discuss the Way, gradually forming what became today's Mount Hua Sect.

"Unfortunately, the Mount Hua Sect has suffered a troubled fate and endured repeated calamities. Much of the heritage our predecessors left behind has been lost.

"Of the Mount Hua Nine Arts from several decades ago, only the Violet Mist Skill and Primal Chaos Skill descended from the Qi Refining Art of the pre-Qin era, and both were badly incomplete. Although our predecessors filled in the gaps, their original essence was long gone."

Yue Buqun sighed deeply. Every visit here filled him with pride and regret: pride in the Mount Hua Sect's long history, and regret that they had failed to preserve their predecessors' martial legacy.

"So that's how it was!"

Tian Hao nodded in understanding. He found that explanation quite convincing.

Although many fan novels portrayed the Mount Hua Sect as a branch of the Quanzhen Sect, Master Jin's books had never explicitly stated that.

Moreover, neither the Mount Hua Sect in The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber nor the one in The Smiling, Proud Wanderer had any obvious connection to the Quanzhen Sect. Their martial arts did not match, and even those two versions of Mount Hua differed completely from each other.

Besides, this was a real world. The Quanzhen Sect was still doing perfectly well within the Jin Kingdom's borders.

Furthermore, even in his previous world, the lineage the Quanzhen Sect had established on Mount Hua was actually called Huashan Dao. It was a Taoist religious order, not a martial arts sect.

"Master, do you think our predecessors might have taken their own teachings into their graves? I've heard people in ancient times were pretty fond of burial goods."

A bold idea suddenly sprang into Tian Hao's mind. He glanced around and spoke in a low voice.

Since so much of the Mount Hua Sect's former heritage had been lost, why not seek wisdom directly from their ancestors? They might just gain something!

Yue Buqun fell silent. Suddenly, he felt like an utter fool.

Their heritage had indeed suffered many losses, but if the living no longer possessed it, they could ask their deceased predecessors!

For instance, he had once considered making two copies after recovering the Bixie Sword Manual or the Sunflower Manual, putting one in his ancestor Yue Su's coffin and the other in his master's.

He had even thought of taking the Sunflower Manual into his own grave when his time came, to personally show it to his ancestors.

If he could have such thoughts, why couldn't his predecessors?

As for whether doing this would offend their ancestors...

Surely their predecessors would understand. After all, everything they were doing was for the Mount Hua Sect's revival and prosperity!

Seeing that Old Yue was indeed tempted, Tian Hao said no more. He trusted Old Yue to handle the matter properly.

"Master, I'll go make some more coke. We'll probably be using quite a lot of it soon."

Finding an excuse to leave the burial cavern, Tian Hao prepared to produce more coke to keep in reserve.

Making coke was simple: he only needed to heat coal inside a large sealed iron barrel. As a bonus, he could obtain some coal tar to make carbon bricks.

Forging black iron required extremely high temperatures, probably around three thousand degrees.

That was also the main reason meteoric iron was plentiful in this world while black iron was exceedingly rare.

In this ancient setting, producing temperatures of three thousand degrees was far too difficult-practically impossible.

In his previous world, however, never mind three thousand degrees; they could produce temperatures of six thousand degrees.

With limited resources, though, he had incorporated part of a blast furnace's design, hot-blast technology, and pure-oxygen combustion. By combining several approaches, he had finally raised the flame temperature to around three thousand degrees, meeting the requirement for forging black iron.

To build a furnace capable of withstanding such heat, ordinary fireclay bricks clearly would not do. He needed carbon bricks, which could endure temperatures above three thousand degrees.

Of course, the furnace itself could not reach three thousand degrees. Only the core combustion zone could do that; the outer areas reached merely two thousand-odd degrees.

Fortunately, the raw materials for making carbon bricks were easy to find. The manufacturing process was just somewhat difficult, and the yield a little low.

But that did not matter. He did not need many anyway.