The Divine Remains.
Elder Sang and Water Ghost rested on a rock, conversing in low tones, keeping Cen Qiaofu company.
Feng Yujin, the Saint Emperor of Sealing Heaven, resembled an embroiderer. After acquiring Mo Mo's last soul fragment, he finally completed stitching her soul body together.
While he was "refining" rebirth over here, Cao Erzhu had awakened at some point. He was squatting, watching him "refine" a person with a serious and pained expression.
“Reforming a physical body like this must be very painful…”
Erzhu's mutterings received no reply from Uncle Shen Yi; the latter seemed to have fallen into a deep slumber, refusing to utter another sound since the battle.
“Child, come here.”
From the rock, Elder Sang, who had been conversing with Water Ghost about something unknown, waved to Cao Erzhu from afar.
“Yes, you!”
Cao Erzhu then lowered the hand he'd pointed at himself with, hesitated, and stood up to walk over.
At this point, anyone still remaining in the Divine Remains must be Brother Xiaoshou's good friends. There shouldn't be any outsiders, right?
Even if the old man in the straw hat looked unfriendly, the middle-aged man beside him was as cold as a viper.
“Everyone here has such strong personalities…”
Cao Erzhu admired this aura that instantly conveyed immense strength, like his father's—the kind of person he aspired to be.
“Seniors.”
As he approached the rock, the two elders straightened up, and Cao Erzhu felt quite nervous.
The one in the straw hat must be an elder, seemingly several generations older than his father, old enough to be his grandfather. Water Ghost, on the other hand, was middle-aged and looked younger than his father. Perhaps he could be addressed more intimately… as 'Uncle'?
“We're hardly seniors; we're from the same era as your father, not much older than him in age. We just never managed to secure a spot among the Ten Revered Ones. Just ordinary people… Elder Sang.” Water Ghost shook his head self-deprecatingly, first introducing the old man beside him, then pointing to himself, “Call me Water Ghost.”
From the same era?
Cao Erzhu was startled. Then you… no, then you look much too old! He glanced at the man in the straw hat.
He quickly realized this was impolite and greeted them one by one with utmost courtesy:
“Uncle Water Ghost.”
“Uncle Sang.”
Uncle… Sang…
Elder Sang's mouth twitched. He shot a glare at Water Ghost, who was stifling laughter with his head turned, then decided it wasn't worth bothering with that troublemaker.
He meticulously sized up Cao Erzhu from head to toe, his gaze lingering on his thick, powerful arm muscles for a long time before a smile quickly spread across his face:
“You're from the Cao Family Blacksmith Shop?”
“Yep.”
Cao Erzhu nodded awkwardly, feeling Elder Sang's smile was a bit unsettling.
If someone saw that face unexpectedly, they might just pass out on the spot!
“How is he?” Elder Sang asked.
Cao Erzhu paused, then his mouth twisted into a bitter line. “My dad… he seems to have died…”
Elder Sang, who knew about this, waved his hand and chuckled derisively:
“Cao Yihan dislikes words; frankly, he's just too lazy to say much. He particularly hates emotional farewells that might involve sentimental parts.”
“And he especially despises seeing people crying with snot and tears… Yes, just like you are now.”
Cao Erzhu wiped a runny nose. Hearing this, he didn't know whether to wipe it off or leave it dangling on his fingers. He pulled at the corners of his mouth, baring his teeth, not daring to cry out loud, feeling utterly awkward.
This old man is quite something.
He described my dad's personality so accurately, he seems more like his son than I do.
“So, Uncle Sang, you mean Dad isn't dead?” Cao Erzhu took a big sniff, making a gulping sound as he swallowed.
Water Ghost was laughing again, his face distorted with mirth, his laughter sounding a bit like Xu Xiaoshou's. He wondered where he'd learned it.
Elder Sang himself couldn't help but laugh, waving his hand. “Speaking of which, I truly am your senior. You should just call me Senior.”
“Oh, okay, Senior Uncle Sang.”
Uncle Sang's smile froze, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes twitching so rapidly they could trap a mosquito and crush it into dust.
With a thud, Water Ghost twitched, fell off the large rock, and nearly landed on the still unconscious Cen Qiaofu.
“Careful, Senior Uncle Water Ghost!”
“Heh…” Bafflingly, Cao Erzhu heard a third laugh, seemingly coming from his own mind.
Elder Sang gave up struggling and said helplessly, “Your father isn't dead. He's definitely still stuck where he is because Dao Qiongcang wanted to trap him, and he was willing to be trapped.”
Cao Erzhu grew anxious, sputtering with many questions he wanted to ask, but a person only has one mouth and couldn't ask multiple questions at once.
For instance, why would Dao Qiongcang trap his father? Wasn't he considered a friend of Brother Xiaoshou?
And why would his father be willing to be trapped? He was clearly so strong, he seemed capable of getting out.
Also, why would his father, if not dead, insist on putting his head in a wine barrel, playing such a huge trick on him…
“Don't ask, it's very complicated and can't be explained quickly. I didn't call you over to clear up your confusion anyway.” Elder Sang stopped the child's impending questions.
Brother Xiaoshou's master is indeed formidable…
Cao Erzhu had a feeling of being impressed by something he didn't quite understand, thinking that Brother Xiaoshou's incredible strength must be thanks to Uncle Sang's good teaching.
He said earnestly, “Senior Uncle Sang, is there anything you need my help with?”
“Drop the 'Uncle Sang' part.” Elder Sang finally couldn't hold it in, but quickly got to the point. “You're from a blacksmith shop, so you must know how to forge, right?”
“Yep.” Cao Erzhu nodded emphatically. Forging was his old trade; he didn't just 'must know,' he was highly skilled. He had that confidence.
“Can you repair famous swords?”
“Of course… huh?”
Cao Erzhu was suddenly speechless.
What is going on? Is Brother Xiaoshou's master this erratic too?
Being good at forging, how does that connect to repairing famous swords? Are those even related?
I can eat.
My dad can eat too.
Does that mean I can compare myself to my dad?
“No…”
“Does ‘no’ mean ‘definitely no,’ or does it mean you don't know if you can?” Elder Sang leaned forward. “Have you ever forged a famous sword? Children shouldn't lie.”
Cao Erzhu was bewildered by the questions, facing intense pressure. He scratched his head, his voice trailing off:
“I don't know…”
Elder Sang said nothing more.
He extended his hand, pointing to the empty space ahead, and merely pursed his lips, the meaning clear without words.
In that instant, Cao Erzhu inexplicably saw his father's shadow in him.
Not a single extra word was spoken, just one word:
“Forge?”
Cao Erzhu was afraid he was misunderstanding. After all, this was so sudden. No neighbors were visiting, nor was this his father's suddenly cozy home. Why was he being asked to put on a show?
Water Ghost, lying on the large rock, also watched with wide-eyed curiosity.
Elder Sang smiled, choosing his tone carefully. “I want to see your specialty, little one. Show me what you've got?”
For some reason, Cao Erzhu felt as if his backside had been singed by fire, and his blood instantly heated up.
He stood ramrod straight. This was one of the few impressive skills he had to offer!
“Really forge?”
“Really forge.”
“Right here?”
“Right here!”
Cao Erzhu burst into laughter, an air of bravado settling over him. With a flourish, he produced a massive forging table and a smithing hammer from his ring, then dumped out a mountain of ore.
After everything was prepared, he set down a large stone bucket but hesitated, wondering where to get water…
“Gurgle, gurgle.”
Just then, water overflowed from the stone bucket, gushing out. Its internal energy was pure; it felt even better for quenching than the water used in his dad's blacksmith shop!
“Is that enough?”
Water Ghost squinted, smiling as he watched the child.
“More than enough!”
Cao Erzhu nodded emphatically. He felt as though something he had practiced for fifteen or twenty years, unsure if it was correct, had now been affirmed by these elders.
They were all watching him.
They all liked forging.
Liking forging means being a true man!
“I'll make what I'm best at.”
Cao Erzhu let out a loud roar, shed his upper garments, swung his large hammer, and began forging a piece of refined iron.
His movements were skilled and precise, every step honed through countless repetitions, as perfect as a mechanical puppet specialized in forging.
“Clang! Clang! Clang!”
Gathering materials, rough hammering, fine forging, shaping, quenching…
The long-silent Divine Remains echoed with the rhythmic, beautiful sounds of hammering iron. Elder Sang and Water Ghost gradually became engrossed.
Feng Yujin glanced back, disagreeing with the absurd pastime of these bored individuals, and continued to refine Mo Mo.
Soon, the two elders, Sang and Water, snapped out of their trance. They exchanged glances, each seeing the shock in the other's eyes.
Union of Man and Heaven!
This burly child, with his mere focused hammering, could even achieve the realm of Union of Man and Heaven!
“This talent, tsk, no wonder enlightenment comes so easily to their family.”
“No, it's not just talent. Perhaps what Kuileihan cultivated in him was precisely this focus, diligently for twenty years. His success is not without reason.” Elder Sang saw more.
Naturally, people develop specific personalities in specific environments.
He couldn't give Kuileihan's training method for Cao Erzhu a high score, but he knew it was the best he and his son could achieve in that environment.
Within discipline, he achieved perfection.
This was already quite abnormal; not everyone could cultivate such focus.
The clang of hammering continued for half a day. Cao Erzhu hammered the combined refined iron, which was the size of a millstone, into a single piece.
He didn't use an ounce of spiritual essence throughout the process, relying solely on brute force.
Even the fusion forging of the refined iron relied on the pure high temperature produced by flint—even though a lightning strike could instantly melt the refined iron.
Cao Erzhu didn't do that.
Perhaps Kuileihan didn't allow him to.
But now, with no one supervising, he had already forged the refined iron into a weapon using just a single hammer and a forging table.
“Hard hammering, then…”
Water Ghost was somewhat shocked.
There were no complicated smelting procedures; he simply used brute force to hammer the enormous iron blank into a small knife.
As for shaping, there were no additional tools involved. It all depended on the power of his hammer and his control to transform the iron block into the shape Erzhu desired.
“Speed control, power control, reaction control…”
Elder Sang murmured, his eyes gleaming. “If the iron blank were his enemy, he could restrain them with just his hammering technique. The key is that he's using this method to train his combat awareness.”
“But an iron blank has no life…” Water Ghost's gaze shifted.
Elder Sang shook his head. “An iron blank has no life, but from the uncertain variables of the first hammer strike, every subsequent rebound of the iron blank is life. And the hammering technique that controls this life is ultimately about guiding the situation… Isn't ‘guiding the situation’ the best interpretation of combat awareness?”
“Forging iron with a hammer, forging a person with iron.” Water Ghost nodded, his tone approving. “Kuileihan, he's got something.”
Uncle Sang glanced at Uncle Water Ghost.
Kuileihan's got something?
What are *you* to dare say that?
“Done!”
With the final sizzle of quenching, Cao Erzhu carefully took out the short blade, its edge progressively quenched, and handed it to the two senior uncles.
Water Ghost took it. He couldn't detect a shred of spiritual energy on it. Could it be a return to simplicity?
“What kind of knife is this?”
“A pig-slaughtering knife, my specialty, hehe.” Erzhu scratched his head.
Pig… slaughtering?
Water Ghost paused, then lifted his eyelids to look. “Literally?”
“What do you mean, literally…”
Cao Erzhu muttered, pointing at the knife. “The knives I forge are incredibly good for slaughtering pigs. Uncle Yang loves them the most… Oh, right, Uncle Yang is the town's pig butcher. All the pigs in town are his to slaughter, as are wolves, and cattle, oh, and sheep… So many, so many.”
Water Ghost was dumbfounded. So it really was just a pig-slaughtering knife, not even worthy of being called a tenth-grade spiritual artifact?
“This is by no means inferior to a tenth-grade one.”
Elder Sang took the pig-slaughtering knife. With a flick of his left hand, he produced a tenth-grade spiritual sword.
The spiritual sword struck the pig-slaughtering knife. The pig-slaughtering knife's edge rolled, and so did the spiritual sword's.
Upon closer inspection, some of the array patterns etched onto the spiritual sword's body were also damaged, clearly half-ruined.
He then hammered it a few more times with a clang.
It wasn't the pig-slaughtering knife that broke; it was the tenth-grade spiritual sword.
Cao Erzhu's expression turned sour, a little dejected, because Uncle Sang had ruined the pig-slaughtering knife he had worked so hard to forge in just a few breaths.
“You…”
“My apologies, I used it for a test without your permission.” Elder Sang gave him a wry, apologetic smile.
Cao Erzhu quickly waved his hands, a bit flustered. “It's fine, it's fine. Uncle Sang, you can just play with it.”
Elder Sang ran his hand over the pig-slaughtering knife, whose entire edge was rolled, gazing at it intently, lost in thought.
The pig-slaughtering knife was one foot long, the length of a forearm, and a palm's width, slightly larger than a normal pig-slaughtering knife, as if custom-made for a special individual.
“Besides Uncle Yang, who else ordered knives or other weapons from your blacksmith shop?”
“Very few…”
Cao Erzhu scratched the back of his head, recalling. “The town's demand wasn't for high-quality items. Later, I could easily fulfill them, so there wasn't anything special besides the large quantity.”
Erzhu knew Uncle Sang would surely ask about the special ones. Finally, he added, “But Dad would occasionally give me some special orders. He always met certain customers when I wasn't aware.”
Customers…
Elder Sang smiled, not asking further about the “special orders.”
He could tell with a thought that Cao Erzhu's explanation would be troublesome, and he probably wouldn't understand it anyway.
And most likely, this was when Kuileihan truly trained Cao Erzhu. He went straight to the point and asked:
“Do you use the Divine Punishment and Tribulation?”
Cao Erzhu opened his mouth in surprise, as if seeing a divine being. “I do use it…”
“Not at full power?”
Cao Erzhu's eyes widened like brass bells, as if he'd seen a ghost. “Dad said to forge using the method of cultivating the Divine Punishment and Tribulation, but not to release the Divine Punishment and Tribulation…”
Water Ghost looked at Cao Erzhu, then at Elder Sang, stroking his chin with interest. *Are they putting on a show for me?*
Elder Sang seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. He chuckled softly, glanced back at Water Ghost, and finally said:
“So, all the knives and other artifacts you forged using spiritual essence while cultivating the Divine Punishment and Tribulation—none of them ever succeeded, and your dad just took them away beforehand?”
“Perhaps you were stuck at the final step, and just when you thought it was almost done, he would step in and negate your efforts?”
Clang!
The iron hammer hit the ground.
Cao Erzhu's hands suddenly retracted to his ribs. He recoiled fearfully, like a startled clumsy bear.
His mouth opened into an “O” shape. He felt a surge of energy shoot from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head, unable to restrain it any longer. Waving his hands, he roared out:
“Are kings, dukes, generals, and chancellors born of a special lineage?!”
Not far away, Feng Yujin's hand trembled, almost ruining Mo Mo's physical body during refinement. He turned his head in disbelief.
Just forging iron, why so dramatic?
At the forging table, Elder Sang, looking smug, and Water Ghost, with an expression of watching a good show, were equally stunned.
After they both swallowed with difficulty, Water Ghost couldn't help but speak first:
“Who taught you that phrase?”
“Brother Xiaoshou.”
“I mean, who taught you to use it *like that*?”
“Brother Xiaoshou.”
Xu Xiaoshou, are you insane?
Water Ghost felt Xu Xiaoshou wasn't that kind of person. Was he messing with the kid? If his dad found out…
“‘Are kings, dukes, generals, and chancellors born of a special lineage?’ is not for expressing shock.” Elder Sang muttered under his breath, then changed the topic:
“Can you reforge a completed item?”
In Cao Erzhu's eyes, Uncle Sang was already a divine being even more formidable than Dao Qiongcang, the Heavenly Mystery Sorcerer.
He was simply a person easily swayed by profound words from others.
Brother Xiaoshou did it, and Brother Xiaoshou's master did too.
Of course, this didn't mean he was so easily impressed that he'd be swayed by just anyone. It was because they were truly formidable!
“Yes!”
Erzhu felt that the senior was going to test him.
Of course, he could. After twenty years of forging, what couldn't he do?
Reforging meant taking a completed weapon that had flaws in its craftsmanship or was damaged in battle, putting it back in the furnace for re-forging, and striving for perfection.
This was not difficult. Cao Erzhu had practiced it countless times.
His gaze fell on the pig-slaughtering knife with the rolled edge. He was eager to try and craved praise.
Elder Sang smiled and shook his head, putting away the pig-slaughtering knife with the rolled edge. “Not that kind.”
He picked up the broken body of the tenth-grade spiritual sword, holding the sword in pieces. “It's this kind.”
Cao Erzhu opened his mouth, a little troubled. “This, I…”
“You can't?”
“Ah, no, it's not that I can't…”
“Haven't tried?”
“Well, it's not that I haven't tried…”
“Haven't succeeded, so you lack the confidence, afraid you're bragging?”
“Ah! Yes!”
Cao Erzhu experienced a peculiar pleasure, as if an indescribable discomfort had been perfectly articulated, though this pleasure quickly turned back into discomfort.
He mumbled, “It's not that I lack confidence…”
He was about to take the broken tenth-grade spiritual sword, intending to prove himself, and his father too.
Elder Sang flicked his hand, recalling the broken sword, then with a backhand, pulled out another sword. “Not that one, this one.”
Cao Erzhu's gaze was instantly drawn to it.
The sword was exquisitely beautiful. It was three feet one inch long, entirely jade-white, with a layer of golden scales shimmering on its blade, so translucent it seemed to have two layers of color, supremely gorgeous.
Its guard resembled white ivory, curving slightly upwards on both sides. The design was very bold yet didn't compromise the guard's function, showing that the sword-caster had a wildly imaginative but practical mind.
Whether in terms of forging craftsmanship or the spiritual aura of its refinement, this sword could be called perfect.
“Perfection” in Cao Erzhu's eyes!
Elder Sang glanced at him, and seeing his reaction, said with a smile:
“Elephant Dragon. Originally a sixth-grade spiritual sword. After being reforged, it successfully ascended to first grade.”
What?
Water Ghost was utterly shocked.
Cao Erzhu's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
He had never successfully forged or reforged a spiritual artifact, but he knew the theory, even if he lacked practical experience.
Weapons that required reforging generally had flaws. If handled by a master, their grade could be preserved.
If exceptional, it might ascend from lower sixth-grade to upper sixth-grade.
To transcend a grade, even just one, indicated that the sword was exceptionally sentient, and the sword-caster's skill was masterful, with no errors occurring during the reforging process.
But…
Jumping two grades—Cao Erzhu had never even heard of such a thing.
Let alone jumping from a sixth-grade Grandmaster spiritual sword directly to a first-grade spiritual sword, thereby qualifying it to become a renowned sword?
Was Uncle Sang joking?
A third-grade King's Blade.
Above that, second and first grades, depended entirely on the sentience of the spiritual artifact's spirit.
Swords of this caliber, if nurtured by fame, all had the potential to become renowned swords.
Of course, just potential.
Starmoon Singer never gained renown even until its demise, instead being kept hidden by its master.
Green Dwelling was famous throughout the world, but its ultimate fate was also to break, falling into the Sword Burial Mound, where it was forgotten.
And this 'Elephant Dragon'…
He had never even heard of it!
Elder Sang clearly wasn't finished. After a deliberate pause, he continued:
“When he was among the Ten Revered Ones, Kuileihan fully comprehended divine thought. Later, the Eight Revered Adepts sought comprehension, and Cao used Elephant Dragon to guide them, saying: ‘Paths diverge, seeking is futile. Thought resides in this sword; success or failure lies with Heaven.’”
“The Eight Revered Adepts observed Elephant Dragon; Elephant Dragon became useless, falling to tenth-grade.”
“The Eight Revered Adepts observed Elephant Dragon again; Elephant Dragon gained sentience, returning to sixth-grade.”
“Kuileihan then reforged Elephant Dragon; Elephant Dragon rose to third-grade. This sword was gifted to the Eight Revered Adepts, and later came into my possession.”
“Twenty years later, Elephant Dragon reached first-grade.”
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