Bombarding Cultivators with Cluster Artillery

He didn’t hire any assistants, Jiang Ding settled down in the Sword Casting Manor.

Whoosh!

The Talisman Sword was unsheathed and coated with a layer of Baiyuan Liquid, quietly floating near him, gathering a large amount of sunlight and the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth to temper itself.

Jiang Ding closed his eyes and sensed for a moment.

For many days, the tempering of the Talisman Sword had never stopped, and now it was nearing the limit of the first level of the ”Great Sun Sword Cultivation Method”, and it was estimated that in six or seven more days, it would be perfected, allowing the second level of wooden sword cultivation to begin.

This was also the reason he was looking for a place to settle down as cultivating the wooden sword required planting a seed fused with the talisman seed and waiting for it to take root, sprout, grow branches, and become lush with leaves, at which point the wooden sword would be fully developed.

He glanced at the Heavenly Sound Stone inside the Ancestor Temple of the Jindao School.

It was still there, and so was the man in the black robe quietly cultivating by the Blood Pool.

”Good, I’d like to see just how much Life Energy a Qi Practitioner has, and how long he can sit quietly in one place.”

With a cold laugh, Jiang Ding closed his eyes, the Eaglet Internal Force circulated within his body, continuing to nurture the Eight Extraordinary Meridians.

At the current pace, it would take another ninety days to achieve the Eaglet Large Circle of Vital Energy.

After cultivating for four to five hours and feeling somewhat tired, Jiang Ding left the manor, found a charcoal-selling shop, ordered three carts of charcoal for backup, and sporadically purchased ores, iron felts, fire tongs, hammers, and the like, instructing the shopkeeper to deliver them to the Sword Casting Manor.

Yes, he was intending to continue the business of the Sword Casting Manor.

There were several reasons for this, the first being to avoid drawing attention. The Sword Casting Manor was located in a bustling area, and it was conspicuous for the owner not to have a proper job to do on a daily basis. There was no need to make money, just having something to do was enough.

The second was the most important reason. The third layer of the ”Great Sun Sword Cultivation Method” involved the iron sword, which required the wooden sword to be merged into a sword embryo fashioned from Taiqing Spirit Iron and Magic Arts-Breaking Immortal Gold, along with a large amount of precious materials, and the construction of even more complex Array Patterns.

Similarly, he planned to commission the Central Array Spirit Computer for a guarantee, exchanging part of the Taiqing Spirit Iron for Magic Arts-Breaking Immortal Gold and a large amount of precious auxiliary minerals, and to entrust a Nascent Soul level Master Refiner to forge the sword embryo.

There was no choice, only the power of a Nascent Soul level could handle Taiqing Spirit Iron.

As for the issue of trust, he wouldn’t trust any Cultivator before such treasures, but he would trust the Central Array Spirit Computer, built over generations by the painstaking efforts of many sages.

History had proven it. There had been times when Nascent Soul Cultivators, for various reasons, attempted to claim Xianmen Sect for their own, demanding and taking as they pleased and causing huge upheaval within the Sect, resulting in the death of countless Cultivators and mortals.

But in the end, they were all suppressed and killed by the Central Array Spirit Computer in conjunction with forces from all walks of society, and the upheaval was quelled.

The Central Array Spirit Computer could be trusted.

Besides, the Sword of Dao Foundation could be constantly refined and grown, and each advancement required the covering of the previous Array Patterns with higher-tier Array Patterns.

Therefore, mastering the art of sword forging was essential, and he needed to start preparing in advance.

Jiang Ding, with several carts loaded with various goods, drove through the long-unopened gates of the Sword Casting Manor, drawing curious gazes from many passersby in the vicinity.

”Manager Liu, the charcoal has been unloaded, do you need anything else?”

One assistant pointed to the neatly stacked charcoal beside the furnace, the meaning was very clear.

”No, that’s all, thank you, young brother.”

After settling the delivery and charcoal costs, Jiang Ding sent away the helpers and was just about to start practicing the rudimentary forging techniques when a pale scholar came to visit.

”I have the pleasure of meeting Brother Liu.”

The young scholar looked honest and seemed to be of ill health.

He brought some pastries with him and said with cupped hands, ”My surname is Zhang, and my given name is Zihou. I am the owner of the nearby Golden Jade Bookstore. Hearing that a new neighbor has moved in, I came to pay a visit.”

Distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors.

In societies with almost no legal system or social security like feudal societies, mutual assistance between neighbors is an important supplement. Even for villains notorious for their deeds, many still pay great attention to their relationships with neighbors.

”Good to see you, Brother Zhang.”

Jiang Ding was taken aback and welcomed the visitor, apologizing, ”I’ve just moved in and don’t have anything. I’m sorry for the state of things, Brother Zhang.”

This was indeed an oversight. He had no requirements for food, clothing, shelter, and transportation, thus he hadn’t made any purchases. He couldn’t even offer tea to guests.

”I wouldn’t dare. Brother Liu is busy with many matters. I came especially to make your acquaintance. Let us gather another day.”

Zhang Zihou left a gift and said goodbye.

After seeing the visitor off, Jiang Ding closed the main gate and went to the location where swords were forged at the Sword Casting Manor. He reflected on the content of ”The Complete Ancient Technique for Inner Energy Artifact Refining” which he found yesterday at the Xianmen Library.

Generally, an Inner Qi martial artist can only forge a ’Half Magic Tool’ with amplification of Inner Qi power, carrying different attributes such as water and fire. There is no comparison with a true Magic Tool.

The principle is to repeatedly hammer and in doing so, extract Spirit Metal from spirit ore by hammering out natural Formation Path patterns within the metal—commonly Sharp Gold Array, Water Condensation Formation, Thick Earth Formation, and other basic Five Elements Formation Methods.

The success rate is extremely low.

Any Jianghu person who can forge a Half Magic Tool can call themselves a Master Swordsmith, which is enough to become a sect’s treasured divine weapon, very rare and a massive waste.

The main issue is that these master swordsmiths do not understand the principles of formations. They can only sense with experience the patterns emerging from the tool embryo under the hammer’s impact, adjusting the hammering until a pattern similar to what their ancestors have been pursuing appears. That’s when they stop.

Then they perform a large blood sacrifice with livestock to activate the pattern similar to that discovered by their ancestors and hope against hope for a successful outcome.

For many master swordsmiths, their life’s biggest pursuit is to forge a sect-treasuring divine weapon, to have their name etched in history.

All major artifact refining sects have similar inheritances - differing levels of skill, but none able to escape these limitations.

”The first step is to crush and smelt the iron ore, to refine crude iron...”

Jiang Ding came to a pile of iron ore and selected a few pieces of good quality to place on an iron felt mat, but he did not reach for the hammer.

Clang!

He drew his sword and slashed!

Three iron ores were cut in half, with sword Qi leaving trails like webbing across the cut surface, turning each piece of ore into something resembling a honeycomb.

”The sword Qi is still not fine enough to slice the iron ore into granules with one strike.”

Jiang Ding mused to himself, and with another slash, the iron ore broke into bead-sized chunks.

After observing and adjusting for a few minutes, he slashed again.

...

He slashed over a hundred times but still hadn’t achieved the goal of turning ore to dust with one strike.

Jiang Ding was not in a hurry. He finished two hours of sword training for the day, sat down cross-legged, continued to nurture and refine the major and minor branches of the eight extraordinary meridians, and partially used his mental focus to control the Talisman Sword floating in the air, drawing in Great Sun Essence and Heavenly Earth Spiritual Qi with the Great Sun Gathering Spirit Formation to refine the sword body.

It wasn’t until one or two o’clock in the afternoon that he returned to his room, checked his phone for a while, and prepared to go to sleep.

”The express delivery from Xiandu Beidou University Affiliated Biological Research Centre has arrived at Qianyang Collection Centre and will be delivered to your hands tomorrow.”

The notification that popped up on the Rongshu Express APP brought a smile to Jiang Ding’s face.