Chapter 303 - Forging Twin Serpents, First Foray into the Lotus Cult’s Beast Valley - Part 2

A few days later.

An ox cart labored up a mountain track, dragging an enormous wooden crate. The driver’s blank eyes betrayed almost no will of his own. The moment he left the crate at the designated spot, he turned the cart around and rattled off down the slope.

From the trees, Tang Nian stepped out first; Li Yuan followed soon after.

Li Yuan pried the crate open, and a wave of heat rolled out, sending white wisps curling into the frigid air.

Inside the crate, the space was nearly empty. In one corner sat a forge, bone charcoal, tongs, and other weaponsmithing tools; on a cotton pad lay several fist-sized red-black crystals.

Tang Nian’s puppets hauled out the furnace and tools.

Li Yuan vaulted into the crate and gathered up the crystals—top quality blood crystal marrow.

It was the same material he had once used to craft Gu Xuejian’s weapon. Ordinarily, a fifth rank spirit artifact only called for blood gold crystal; blood crystal marrow was far rarer. A single blood gold vein might not cough up a batch for decades, even a century.

Blood crystal marrow was twice as dense as ordinary blood crystal, which itself weighed ten times as much as iron. As for price, blood crystal was priceless against gold, and marrow was priceless against blood crystal. If you forced an exchange, 50 kg of marrow was worth at least 3,000 taels of blood gold.

Li Yuan had 300 kg in his hands, yet the volume was no bigger than 15 kg of iron. Scraping it together had taken everything he had. Half came from Qing Hancheng to ensure his loyalty. The rest was scrounged up through sheer grind and luck.

He stored it in a secret mountain cache, guarded by fearless troops and puppets. Moving it straight into the black market ghost domain had been out of the question. There was no telling how its blazing heat might react with the ghost domain’s damp chill.

Now that everything was in place, Li Yuan jogged back to the ghost domain, picked an open patch of ground that could survive a lightning strike, sat cross-legged, and settled his breathing.

The 300 kg of blood crystal marrow was enough for two spirit artifacts.

Yan Yu waited nearby, ready to supply him with Yin energy. Sheng’er had been sent away to stay with Tang Nian. It was better to be safe than sorry.

˙·٠✧🐗➶➴🏹✧٠·˙

A full day of quiet preparation passed.

Li Yuan felt mind, body, and spirit lock into peak alignment. He fired the forge. He knew every step now; his movements flowed without a hitch.

In the ghost domain’s chill, the bone charcoal flared crimson, warping the air. Unlike the Yin-wind Cliff where Master Gong had worked, the Yin energy here did not thrash wildly. Yan Yu and the three other ghosts drew it all into themselves.

Li Yuan fed in the special metals. Bare-chested, muscles knotted, eyes bright as twin suns, he watched the blood crystal marrow pool and thicken.

The moment the alloy reached the right consistency, Li Yuan snatched the Ghost Hammer from his equipment box and flicked a drop of his own source blood into the crucible.

Klang!

A clear note split the mountain silence.

Yan Yu lounged nearby, one leg crossed over the other, gaze drifting from the furnace to the man she loved. The hottest flame could not blush her skin.

Klang, klang, klang, klang!

Hammer blows fell like a sudden squall. Li Yuan never blinked, a tireless forging machine driven into a state beyond words.

Without warning, Li Yuan felt the forging process veer off course and barked, “Yan Yu!”

Yan Yu had been poised for this. Lips pursed, she began to blow out a steady stream of cold Yin energy, precise as a needle, so that the breath washed only over the glowing blade embryo and never disturbed Li Yuan or the furnace.

Now Li Yuan added in his own fuel, life-force. Blood crystal marrow could hold no more than 500 years of lifespan, so he poured in the full amount at once. Then, he chose to

defer the cost

for later.

In the blink of an eye, the young man’s black hair turned silver, whipping like a mane in the forge’s heat; wrinkles etched his brow and his bright eyes took on an unmistakable age.

Yan Yu’s jaw dropped, her mouth forming a perfect circle. Had he not warned her, she would have tackled him on the spot to stop this madness.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

She kept blowing; Li Yuan’s sweat poured.

The blade embryo churned with chaotic power. The sudden five-century vacuum in the balance of Yin and Yang called up a sky-full of heavenly thunder and a ground-swirl of baleful earth fog, both roaring toward the ghost domain.

But the moment the earth fog crossed the ghost domain’s boundary, it vanished like droplets into a river, never reaching the weapon.

The only visible result was a tickle in Yan Yu’s nose.

“Achoo!”

That single sneeze launched a dense blast of Yin energy straight at the blade.

Instantly, the heavenly thunder above lost its target and crashed about aimlessly, striking everything except the blade.

Li Yuan couldn’t spare a curse for the oddity; he simply hammered harder. Yan Yu puffed like a bellows beside him.

Time stretched.

At last the hiss of quenching rang out, and the world stilled.

Li Yuan slipped on a guard and a hilt. A long blade emerged, edge a cool azure, spine an uncanny black, with thin dark veins running down like dried blood.

Yan Yu leaned in, worried. “That blast of earth fog made my nose itch. I sneezed a lot more Yin energy into it. Did I ruin anything?”

She then stared at Li Yuan’s snowy hair. “You really did look old; I almost didn’t recognize you.”

With a thought, Li Yuan resolved the cost and restored himself. His white hair turned raven black, and his wrinkles smoothed. “Convinced now?”

“You’re amazing, Husband!” Her eyes went round with delight, then serious. “But this secret stays between us.”

Li Yuan nodded, feeling the blood bond to the blade and checking his own status window. The line that had read 2,600~6,138 now read 2,600~???.

That’s new.

He blinked.

Li Yuan probed deeper and found the weapon held a single power—the curse of the black market ghost domain.

On its own, the blade did nothing flashy, but the instant it drew blood the ghost domain’s kill-rule activated and a ghost would attack the victim, provided they were inside the ghost domain’s range.

A cut delivered elsewhere merely marked them with the curse; the moment they stepped near Cloudpeak Province, the rule would spring.

Li Yuan rubbed his temples. So the Yin-Yang vacuum, the heavenly thunder, the earth fog surge...everything had been swallowed by his wife’s Yin energy. One sneeze had filled the void; the thunder lost its lock; and even the lifespan backlash was hidden.

His lips curved into a wry smile. He had the ruler of a triple-entity ghost domain acting as a personal bellows for him. No other weaponsmith in the world was as lucky as him.

“Well?” Yan Yu’s eyes shone.

“Thanks to you, my dear. This blade is formidable.”

“Really?” She practically glowed. “Then let’s start the next one right away. You’ve still got 75 kg of blood crystal marrow left, perfect for a short blade!”

“Different settings forge different styles of spirit artifacts. I’ve still got one more to make. I’ll do it outside.” Li Yuan replied. “Yan Yu, keep an eye on things in the ghost domain.”

“Fine by me,” Yan Yu answered.