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Spring comes late to the mountains, but it has finally arrived.
A layer of fuzzy green shoots sprouted from the open space in front of the stone house, emerging from beneath the old fallen leaves and moss, fine and dense, like a piece of shattered porcelain that had been accidentally overturned and pieced back together. The stream had risen a bit, and the sound of its flow was deeper than in winter, carrying the vitality of melting snow. The water droplets splashing as it gurgled across the stone surface occasionally flashed tiny rainbows in the rising sun.
Long Tieshan built a makeshift workbench on the side of the stone house. Two thick wooden stakes served as legs, and a flat stone slab he had brought from the foot of the mountain rested on top. Next to it were a small anvil and a bucket of old iron scrap bought from the Soul Hunting Town at the foot of the mountain. He hadn't seriously forged iron in many years, but his movements with the hammer were still smooth—the inertia in his wrists was still there, and he could find the precise angle of the hammer blows through muscle memory. Every morning, he sat on the sunny open space beside the stone house, the hammer rising and falling, turning the few pieces of old iron scrap into various small parts—iron sheets for repairing door latches, rivets for mending pots, and new teeth for fire tongs. The sounds echoed crisply and briefly between the mountain walls, like an old bell being struck again.
During breaks in his cultivation Long Tian would walk over and squat down beside him to watch for a while. Long Tieshan knew he was there but wouldn't look up; he would simply turn the iron piece in his hand and continue hammering. One day, he placed a red-hot iron bar on the anvil, hammered it a couple of times, then stopped and handed the tongs to Long Tian: "You try it."
Long Tian took the pliers and gripped the iron bar, weighing it in his right hand with the hammer. Long Tieshan pointed out the wrist strength and hammer angle. Long Tian's first hammer blow went astray, leaving a dent on the side of the iron bar. The second blow was more accurate, and the third blow began to find its rhythm. With repeated hammering, the iron bar slowly deformed, transforming from a rough blank into a uniform thin sheet, the burrs on the edges neatly concealed. Long Tieshan removed the sheet from the pliers and examined it against the light. The edges were neat, and although there were still a few shallow hammer marks on the surface, it was already a usable piece of material.
"It works." He put the iron plate aside, glanced back at Long Tian, and said, "The force used in blacksmithing is different from that used in Soul Skill. Soul Skill emphasize instantaneous bursts of power, while blacksmithing emphasizes continuous and even force. Each strike must be of the same temperature and intensity as the previous one; even a slight increase or decrease will result in an uneven shape. It's similar to practicing turning Closed Circuit."
Long Tian put down the hammer and stretched his fingers, which had ached from gripping it so tightly. Long Tieshan's words lingered in his mind, not immediately, but rather remained there for a moment, like a piece of iron heated on an anvil, waiting for the hammer to fall. When he went back to practice Closed Circuit, he adjusted the rhythm of each turn to be more even, no longer relying on instantaneous acceleration to rush through the corners, but allowing his breath to flow smoothly through each arc. Yu Jin, observing from the side, noticed the change after a round. "Your breath doesn't tremble when you're on the curves anymore."
"As Uncle Tie Shan said," Long Tian rubbed his burning palms after finishing his practice, "When forging iron, every strike must be of the same temperature and intensity."
Yu Jin didn't ask any further questions, but during the next round of Qi synergy, he adjusted his own source output to a more uniform flow rate. After the two adjusted in sync, the passage time of the Closed Circuit was not shortened, but the stability of the passage improved. The resonance between the Origin Return Pearl and the core left a longer aftershock at the circuit closure than before. The crystal on the table was simultaneously drawn by the auras of both, continuously emitting a warm, grayish-white halo. The sharp edges on its surface became more rounded after a long period of resonance, like a pebble polished by a stream for many years.
As the days passed and spring deepened, Yu Jin's Fourth Ring Yu Jin ring suddenly took full shape during a meditation one morning. Without warning—he sat cross-legged on the open ground as usual, circulating his inner energy. The Fourth Ring ring, which had been brewing for a long time, completed its final sealing during continuous tempering, condensing from a misty outline into a complete ring with a tangible luster. All four Soul Ring lit up simultaneously beneath his feet, their gold and black hues intertwining and flowing with gray and white, vibrating and resonating with the five Soul Ring in Long Tian's dantian, separated by a few steps. Yu Jin opened his eyes, looked down at the new ring beneath his feet, remained silent for a few moments, then opened his palm to look at the nearly still, continuously rotating gold and black light within. He put away the Soul Ring, stood up, walked to the stream, squatted down to wash his hands, and when he returned to Long Tian, his gaze held not much surprise, but rather a sense of confirmation that "it has finally grown."
Long Tian squatted at the doorway, watching him. He looked at the man whose fingers were still wet with the stream water, whose lips held a smile he himself was unaware of, and whose eyes, once filled with a golden-black Yu Jin, had now burned into the Yu Jin of a whole lamp. He calculated in his mind that about four months had passed since he carried this man out of the dark room.
In four months, he went from a emaciated body curled up in an iron cage to Soul Master with four rings formed. He didn't say the exact number, but he watched the entire journey Yu Jin took from the stream back to the present.
That afternoon, Long Tieshan forged the last piece of old iron into a small iron pot, about the size of a palm. The rim was round and even, and the bottom was flat and stable. He quenched it with water, dried it, and placed it on the stove in the stone house, saying, "I'll use it to cook porridge next time." Long Tian squatted by the stove, watching the small iron pot gleam with a bluish-gray sheen in the reflection of the fire. He reached out and touched the rim of the pot with the back of his finger; it was cool, and the surface was smooth and dense.
That night, Shen Mo returned from the foot of the mountain. When he entered the stone house, his cloak was covered with willow catkins and fallen leaves, and his expression was normal. However, he paused for a moment when he took off his cloak after entering the house. Long Tian noticed that pause and his gaze fell on his fingers— Shen Mo was missing one of the old copper rings he always wore on his left ring finger, with a slightly darker ring mark at the base of the finger.
"Meng Changyuan's restocking list has arrived." Shen Mo sat down at the table and got straight to the point, "The three-month forecast period has been shortened. He's secured a supply line from a private mine in the Northern Territory. That mine produces a type of Ore Core Stone that can replace crystals. Although its purity isn't as high as yours, it's enough to power a low-end Reverse Fusion Device. At his speed, he can rebuild a working machine within two months."
The room fell silent for a moment. Long Tieshan paused as he added firewood to the stove, the branches hanging in mid-air without falling.
Shen Mo showed the ring mark on his left hand to the person at the table. "The copper ring was given to a middleman in the ore vein in exchange for the arrival time of their next batch of Ore Core Stone —twenty-five days later. Before arrival, the Ore Core Stone will be stored at the Northern Border transit station. If this shipment can be intercepted before then, Meng Changyuan's restocking period will be extended by at least three months."
Long Tian took the crystal out of his pocket and placed it on the table. The grayish-white halo on the crystal's surface reflected the faces of the people at the table, drawing soft outlines in the shadows. He looked at the crystal, then at the Yu Jin, and finally at his father. Long Tieshan finally put the piece of firewood in his hand into the furnace. Flames rolled up from the tip of the dry wood and engulfed it, casting a flickering warm light on the walls of the room. Shen Mo gestured the location of the mine transfer station on the table, and the group gathered again in the circle of firelight, using the dark table as a map to meticulously plan the route to the Northern Border.
The newly made small iron pot sat on the stove, its surface still gleaming with the bluish-gray luster left by quenching. This gleam overlapped with the warm light emanating from the burning firewood in the stove, creating a small, warm patch of light in the corner of the stone house. No one paid it any special attention; it simply sat there quietly, waiting to be used someday.