Chapter 229 – Setting the Date For The Grand Wedding - Part 1

Li Yuan was no stranger to ultimate skills. In fact, City Toppler, Six Convergences, Cloud Piercer, and Gold Body—seventh rank blade, spear, archery, and body tempering ultimate skills respectively—had all come from his own insights.

Now, he needed to derive a new ultimate skill, the

Quickening

, from the three foundational smithing skills—

Flame Observation

,

Metal Melding

, and

Iron Listening.

This was not something he could achieve by simply allocating skill points. It required genuine comprehension. To unlock an ultimate skill, he first had to master the three preliminary skills to perfection, then rely on true insight for the breakthrough.

However, compared to understanding martial arts, comprehending weaponsmithing was a whole different level of difficulty. It was no wonder it couldn’t be widely taught; even lineage transmission was rare.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A few days later.

Master Zhu walked Li Yuan through the details one more time before planning their first live smithing session. Under normal circumstances, it would take much longer, but Li Yuan was already a sixth rank martial artist with extraordinary memory, so a handful of days was enough preparation.

“Listening to the iron means sensing what extra metals are mixed within the iron and using the hammering process to guide them to where they need to be,” Master Zhu explained. “But if you add too many types of metal, it becomes increasingly difficult to control. Sure, you might still manage an even distribution by hammering, but in reality...you’ll have lost any real mastery over the process.”

Master Zhu fell silent for a moment, then continued, “Simply spreading everything evenly is the most basic benchmark. For a true weaponsmith, uniformity alone is a sign of mediocrity.”

Li Yuan asked, “So how should they be distributed?”

“By listening,” Master Zhu replied. Then he added, “You melt each metal under high heat, smash it open with your strength, and let it flow to where it naturally needs to go.”

“What does

naturally need to go

mean?” Li Yuan pressed.

“Use your power to keep the molten metals in motion,” Master Zhu said. “During the complex collisions, they’ll each settle in a spot where they’re most stable. That point of perfect stability...that is where they belong.

“When all the metals end up precisely where they should be and don’t move any further, the weapon will start to emanate a sound...” Master Zhu lifted his left hand, fingers curled as if grasping something.

Ba-dump! Ba-dump! Ba-dump!

“A steady, powerful rhythm, like the heartbeat of an unbreakable life form. That’s what we call the Quickening.

“This process relies entirely on your focus, and it will never be the same each time. Every smithing session is uniquely complex. Only then are you considered to have truly stepped through the doorway of smithing. If you haven’t reached this threshold, you’re just a blacksmith, nothing more.

“Once you’ve crossed that door, there’s something else waiting for you in the alloy—

source blood.

Handling source blood is far more complicated than handling metal. If you can master that part, you’ll step into the realm of spirit weapons.”

At this, Master Zhu tilted his head back ever so slightly, wearing a look of rapture. “My dear son-in-law, smithing can be tremendously satisfying. Each time we successfully smith a spirit weapon, it’s like creating life with our own hands.”

Li Yuan nodded in agreement. Indeed, both puppet crafting and weaponsmithing were exceedingly intricate skills. Every time he watched his goddaughter busying herself with puppets, he felt like he was back in school, staring at the top student next to him unravel some maddeningly complex problem—day and night, utterly immersed.

Tang Nian had grown up in a family renowned for puppetry. Her parents were both puppet masters of no small skill—after all, they had produced the

Daemonheart

. Yet even with such a pedigree, she had needed over half a year, along with the aid of fasting pills, to build a sixth rank puppet successfully.

Compared to the extended duration required by puppet crafting, however, weaponsmithing placed more emphasis on moment-to-moment precision. At the same time, its margin for error was virtually nonexistent, a single wrong decision in that fleeting instant could not be undone. And since both raw materials and source blood were expensive, a single failure could deliver a serious blow to one’s reputation and confidence.

Master Zhu took out a box containing 60 different metals and led Li Yuan to the forge. “All right, start hammering.”

Li Yuan followed his instructions, selecting materials, building up the fire, melting the iron. Master Zhu worked the bellows for him.

Soon, the iron had melted into a glaringly bright red. Li Yuan stood, hammer in hand, eyes steady as lightning. Focused entirely on the metal embryo, he raised his hammer with textbook form, bringing it down precisely where it needed to land.

Meanwhile, Master Zhu picked out a small piece of grayish-white metal from the box and dropped it into the molten iron.

“This is tiger iron,” he said. “Pure tiger iron is softer than regular iron, but even a hint of impurities can make it hard and brittle. Mixed in, though, it can enhance the overall hardness of the alloy.”

Li Yuan did his best to ignore the clang of iron and the ring of his own hammer, concentrating instead on the subtle sound of that single piece of tiger iron. He had studied its tonal qualities, patterns, and the relevant forging skills beforehand with Master Zhu.

Without pausing, Master Zhu fished out another dark metal from the box and let it slip into the molten mix.

Master Zhu continued, “This is dark gold. It’s considerably heavier than iron and, when blended in, removes iron’s brittleness and gives it resistance against corrosion.”

The addition of this second metal still felt manageable to Li Yuan. But soon, Master Zhu tossed in a third, then a fourth, then a fifth...

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

By the time he got to the tenth metal, Li Yuan was already feeling overwhelmed. Master Zhu didn’t stop. When he reached the 15th metal, Li Yuan’s mind went completely blank, filled with nothing but a dizzying hum.

In the end, Master Zhu threw in all 55 remaining metals from the box. Li Yuan’s brain had long since given out, yet he continued forging, determined to finish the job even if he couldn’t possibly get it perfect.

When he was done hammering, the molten glow of the iron had faded away. Still gripping the hammer, Li Yuan kept pounding for several hundred more strikes to cold-forge the metal, then carefully quenched it. Wisps of bluish steam rose from the surface. Master Zhu took one glance and said, “Getting this far on your first try isn’t bad at all.

“From here on, we’ll repeat this process until you can clearly discern each of these 60 metals and guide them to their rightful place, creating the overall Quickening.”

Li Yuan nodded.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

Autumn leaves scattered, their yellow drifting on the wind. The young man continued hammering iron. Sweat and focus wove together in his tireless efforts.

Two months flashed by.

Light snow fell like salt, dusting the mountains and rivers white. Li Yuan’s long hair was tied back, his lean, muscular frame dense with compact strength. Snowflakes landed on him and melted away as if touching hot iron, dissolving into puffs of faint steam. He still stood there, forging steel.

Watching his son-in-law’s unwavering dedication, Master Zhu felt a growing sense of unease, tempered by a nagging sense that something was off. Normally, he wouldn’t worry. The Quickening was something that took a long time to grasp.

However, Li Yuan was no ordinary student. He was a prodigy, the sort of person who had leapt from no forging experience to the doorstep of the Quickening in just four months. That kind of genius, by all rights, should have had an easier time breaking through.

Another two months passed.

Deep winter arrived, with snowflakes drifting down like goose feathers.

On this particular day, Li Yuan finally set down his hammer. He looked at the newly quenched blade resting in the water, an indescribable pride stirring within him. Lifting it carefully in his hands, he studied the gleaming surface. It was already a finer blade than his old Dragon-Fanged Spear. With a proper hilt, it would be among the best weapons at the seventh rank. If he had owned such a blade back then, his strength would have soared even higher.

“Father-in-law!” Li Yuan called out. He had relied on nothing but his own efforts to grasp the Quickening this time, yet curiously, his skill list didn’t show a new entry for it.

Master Zhu took the blade, ran his fingers along the edge, and muttered, “Six months... Well, I suppose that’s still...fine.”

Hearing the half-hearted tone, Li Yuan laughed. A slight setback was nothing. So he had taken a bit longer than expected—he had all the time in the world.

Master Zhu added, “But that’s only one success. You need to succeed every time. Back to the forge.”

That didn’t surprise Li Yuan. It likely explained why a Quickening skill hadn’t yet appeared in his skill list.

Another two months raced by.

Spring arrived in the mountains, and peach blossoms bloomed in wave after wave.

Once again, Li Yuan quenched a newly finished blade, cradling it in his hands for a closer look. This time, at long last, a new entry flashed in his skill list—

NEW! Ultimate Skill - Quickening - Rank 7 (1/1)

Setting down his hammer, he went straight to Master Zhu. “Father-in-law, I’ve mastered it now.”

Master Zhu stared, then hesitated, stopped, and hesitated again, until finally he spoke with forced composure, “So... you studied smithing before this, right?”

Li Yuan smiled awkwardly. He could tell his father-in-law doubted him, suspecting that he’d only claimed to start from scratch, when in truth he must have hidden some background to master ninth, eighth, and now seventh rank weaponsmithing skills in just four months.

He said only, “You’ll see soon enough, Father-in-law.”

Master Zhu nodded. “I’ve already taught you my prized skills, and you’ve admitted everything. So, yes, let’s see what you do next.”

In reality, once a person had fully mastered Flame Observation, Metal Melding, and Iron Listening, the final step—grasping the Quickening—usually took around four months. After all, fully mastering the three foundational skills already implied a remarkable natural talent.

When Master Zhu first discovered the Quickening, he’d managed it in 56 days, without anyone to guide him. Li Yuan, however, had spent six months despite having Master Zhu’s teaching. It was only natural that Master Zhu was skeptical.

After pondering all this, Master Zhu got up and said, “Starting today, I’ll teach you how to commune with the metal...in other words Spirit-Metal Resonance. Once you’ve gotten a foothold in that, you can marry Huayin. After that, I’ll teach you the rest.”

“Thank you.”

“Communing with the metal requires two new elements, beyond the Quickening. First, the main forging material changes from ordinary metals to a special alloy made from blood gold crystals. Referred to simply as blood crystals, they’re found only near certain large meat fields. But not every meat field can produce them. This likely depends on the presence of a ghost domain nearby...”

Master Zhu continued, “As for how that works, I don’t really know the specifics. I only know that if there’s a ghost domain nearby producing soul iron crystals, then any meat field in the area is certain to have blood gold crystals. If it doesn’t, then there simply aren’t any.

“Fortunately, our Silkfloss Province has plenty of them,” he said.

Li Yuan asked, “Are they in that fourth rank meat field behind the third gate of the city stronghold?”

Master Zhu shook his head. “They come from Bliss Prefecture. It’s a rather peculiar place. There’s a fourth rank meat field there, but it’s completely enclosed by the ghost domain called Happyland. That means you can’t harvest the meat. However, around the outskirts of the prefecture, there’s a major vein of blood gold crystal, as well as a major vein of soul iron crystal. Both veins are under the control of the Holy Tree Temple.

“Anyway, we’ve strayed from the point. Achieving Spirit-Metal Resonance takes two steps. First, you have to adapt from forging iron to forging blood crystals. Second, you have to learn how to hear the source blood.

“That second step is extremely difficult because you’ll only get one chance—you have no practice runs. All source blood comes from fifth rank powerhouses, and if you fail, the chance is gone. For now, let’s start with the first step.”

With that, Master Zhu took out a piece of blood crystal—a strange metal with a crimson hue that, in sunlight, showed a faint crystalline shimmer. Even just holding it, Li Yuan could see the mountain breeze above it distorting into ripples of heat, as if it were a piece of freshly boiled meat straight out of the pot.

Master Zhu’s expression grew serious. “You’ll need a much hotter flame to melt blood crystals, which requires bone charcoal—white charcoal is best, black charcoal is second-rate. We’ll just use the black charcoal for now.”

As he spoke, he tended the furnace, explaining the properties of blood crystals. Compared to forging iron, working with blood crystals was far more challenging. The main reason was that blood crystals cooled much more quickly once molten, meaning a weaponsmith had to complete the Quickening process in a fraction of the usual time.

It was like taking an already difficult exam and having the time limit cut from an hour down to 30 minutes. To top it off, the exam might be slightly harder too.