1520 Forging a Weapon
Xia Fan was startled after hearing Traveling Buddha’s words. The fact that Hidden Wind had demonstrated Law Power to Traveling Buddha also meant Hidden Wind was someone who possessed Law Power!
“What’s his Law Power?” Xia Fan asked, curious.
Traveling Buddha answered, “The Law of Wind. It’s a type of power that has dominion over the air. A casual flick of his hand and a formless blade will shoot forth, powerful enough to split a boulder weighing several tons right down the middle. His combat strength is extremely impressive.”
Xia Fan glanced away. If what Traveling Buddha had said was true, then the Law of Wind might be an extremely powerful ability. However, he could not understand why Hidden Wind would show his Law Power to Traveling Buddha for no apparent reason.
Traveling Buddha appeared to be somewhat frustrated. He laid down on the bed and gazed at the ceiling while saying, “Actually, it wasn’t Hidden Wind who wanted to show it to me, but Hidden Water who bugged him to teach me Law Power. Hidden Wind was overwhelmed, and reluctantly agreed.”
!!
Xia Fan chuckled. He finally understood. Hidden Water was completely besotted with Traveling Buddha, which was why she got her grandfather to teach him Law Power. The saying that women were very extroverted was no lie!
“So what do you think?” Xia Fan asked.
Traveling Buddha shrugged, “It’s precisely because I don’t know, which is why I’m discussing this with you. Logically speaking, learning this Law Power isn’t a bad thing, but I still suspect that things won’t be as simple as that. Me and Hidden Water are unrelated to each other, so why would she get her grandfather to teach this to me?”
He is a complete dunce!, Xia Fan thought to himself.
But given Traveling Buddha’s personality, forcing him would be useless. Thus, Xia Fan decided to attack it from another angle. He told TB how beneficial it would be for him to understand Law Power, and since he was not going to be at a loss, there was no need to think too much about it. Since Hidden Wind was willing to teach Traveling Buddha his Law Power, then it would do well for him to grasp this opportunity.
In the end, Traveling Buddha reluctantly agreed. From tomorrow onward, he would head to Hidden Water’s home and that way he would have the opportunity to learn a Law Power. As for whether he would successfully acquire it, or if there would be any developments between him and Hidden Water, that would be none of Xia Fan’s business. After all, everything depended on fate!
—
After Traveling Buddha made his decision, he left Xia Fan’s room to rest, while Xia Fan continued to study the crystal purification method. Seeing that there was no one else in the room, Bright Pearl came out and stood on Xia Fan’s shoulder, watching Xia Fan experiment with the Cosmic Iron.
Experiments usually meant mostly failures, and success was a fluke. But under Xia Fan’s tireless experimentation, he finally made a few discoveries.
First, Cosmic Iron did indeed have the peculiar ability to absorb the crystals’ energy, but in the process of absorbing the energy, the Cosmic Iron was not able to discern between good or bad energy. As long as it was beast energy, it would just absorb it all.
Even stranger was when Xia Fan took out a pure energy crystal to compare, the Cosmic Iron would remain inert, almost as if it was only interested in beast energy!.
“How could there be such a weird phenomena?” Pearl blinked, confused.
Xia Fan shrugged, “How would I know? This is the first time I’ve encountered Cosmic Iron as well!”
His experiments had also demonstrated that Cosmic Iron would absorb beast energy at a very slow rate. Only by doing some additional improvements to it would he be able to hasten the absorption rate.
——
Thus, early the next morning, Xia Fan left Dragon Dou’s residence and headed to a forge in the city.
The business at the forge could only be described as bleak. A father and son duo ran it, the building’s front was their shop front, while the foundry was behind them. The products were very crude, and only servants who had no social standing of any sort would choose to purchase their work. No descendant from the Four Great Clans would ever take a step inside.
Since ancient times, people from poor backgrounds always had difficulty earning money, and this shop had poor business precisely because of their low standing.
Xia Fan greeted the owner and after strolling around the foundry once, he decided that it was well equipped and sufficient for his needs, despite the tools being slightly older.
“Boss, I would like to borrow your foundry to work with a little. Quote me a price,” Xia Fan spoke to a stout middle-aged man.
The man frowned and set a fairly decent price . Xia Fan did not waste any time considering and readily agreed.
Whether it was living in God Metropolis or The City of the Four Kings, money was not important, but credit points were. Through working for the Four Great Clans, the credit points that one could earn could then be used in exchange for daily necessities.
Xia Fan and Traveling Buddha were the two most important bodyguards of the local tyrant’s foolish son, so naturally their income was better than decent. Xia Fan paid the credit points required, then ordered the boss to have the door shut tight. He warned them not to enter aside from special circumstances, and the boss of course acquiesced since he was about to earn quite a hefty sum from Xia Fan.
—
After the doors were closed behind him, Pearl cheekily came out, intent on witnessing just what Xia Fan was doing.
Xia Fan remarked, “I learned this refinement technique from the Disasters before. I intend to use the Cosmic Iron to forge two weapons. Since I have no other use for it aside from the pendants that I’ve already made, and the crystals are toxic, I have no desire to ingest them.”
Pearl did not mind. To this little dragon, while Cosmic Iron was very precious, it was nothing especially rare. She had been with Skywings for such a long time that she had seen all sorts of wondrous objects. She was not against watching Xia Fan play around with Cosmic Iron and make weapons out of it.
To put it simply, refinement meant purifying. A cruder method would be to heat up metal until it turned red, so as to remove the dross through repeated hammering and working the metal.
But the secret technique that Xia Fan was using right now focused on feeling; though he would also be hammering away, the biggest difference between a human and a machine was that the former was something that could feel, and a high ranking warrior had their divine sense!
Xia Fan completely relaxed himself, directed his divine sense into the Cosmic Iron, and began hammering away. This method of refining metal seemed simple, but it actually contained complex principles within it. How to hammer and at what frequency and speed, as well as the angle: everything was decided by one’s divine sense!
Just like there was a formless power holding onto Xia Fan’s hands, this technique of forging with one’s divine sense was a secret technique that Xia Fan had inherited. Though it was not extremely profound, it was very useful. Plenty of artificers had once learned it, and it was rather popular.
Nevertheless, others using it was one thing, but Xia Fan’s method was another!
After all, he was a speedster, able to hammer a thousand times in one second! This was not something others could achieve, and under Xia Fan’s hands, the forging of the metal through this artificer’s secret technique would have its own unique characteristics, no matter the quality or property.
Forging was by no means Xia Fan’s main profession, but more like a side hobby. Adding to the fact that Xia Fan had always had higher requirements for his weapons, even though his speed was far greater than others, he still spent two whole days before he was done!
—
Two days later, Xia Fan came away with two blades that could not be called any more than normal. There was no ingenuity to their designs, and their quality was in no way comparable to the expensive Styx metal.
After he was done with the blades, Xia Fan took out a case and placed them inside, together with the Beast crystals from before. He planned to let the blades absorb the crystals’ energy. As for how much they managed to absorb, and just what sort of things they would end up turning into, Xia Fan did not bother putting much thought into it.
In his mind, this was nothing more than an experiment, and given his skill at forging, what manner of powerful divine blade could he end up forging, anyway? There was no such thing as free lunch in this world, after all!
Xia Fan closed the case with a bang and said to the dozing Pearl, “I’m finally done! Let’s go and see what Traveling Buddha’s up to!”