Ancient Strengthening Technique

AST 237 – Creation of three-foot Bluebronze sword, Challenge.

Qing Shui used the age of the medicinal herbs to determine their value. In principle, the older it was, the better it was!

Looking at the various sizes of the flowers, they were so pretty that they made people feel like touching them. However, they looked so fragile and seemed as though they would wither away the moment they were touched. Despite this, Qing Shui could feel an overwhelmingly brimming vitality from these flowers. Ordinary humans shouldn’t even have the strength to pluck them, not to mention to touch them.

After randomly looking around, Qing Shui exited his spatial realm and spent the night inside his new residence. He sank into a sleep all the way till dawn.

Following his usual routine, he circulated his Qi and started practicing his techniques. It was already late morning after he finished breakfast and Qing Shui decided to pay a visit to his blacksmith store.

Huyou was currently smithing in the blacksmith store. Upon seeing Qing Shui, he paused as he stated, “The signboard is already done according to your instructions. Let me bring it out for you to take a look.” Huyou smiled as he walked into one of the rooms.

What he took out was an exquisitely carved wooden sign board about one meter wide and long. On it, there was information about the treasured stones, gemstones, and high grade ores that were inscribed with their buy-in prices. Qing Shui was somewhat dissatisfied with the quality of the board but he still hoisted it outside the entrance.

“Are you really going to sell the sword for five million taels of silver?” Huyou inquired with a strange expression on his face.

“Yeah do it.” Qing Shui laughed.

Huyou could only laugh as he went along, putting a price tag of five million taels next to the jagged sword as he placed the jagged sword up on a shelf.

“Big brother Huyou, I was wondering if you want to learn my way of forging? Maybe it would be of immense help to you.” Qing Shui lightly said as he looked at the serious Huyou.

Huyou was puzzled. He didn’t know why this young man always treated him so well. One must know that expert-level blacksmiths were all proud and arrogant, not to mention the fact that he was neither kin nor kith with Qing Shui.

Abruptly, he thought of what Qing Shui said to him before. There must be a reason for doing what he wished to do? From that statement, Huyou could already somewhat determine the personality of Qing Shui.

Huyou stared dumbly at the smiling Qing Shui, as he muttered, “You really want to teach me?” At this moment, Huyou felt gratified in his heart, but was still as bewildered.

“Naturally. However, how much you can learn, and the extent of your comprehension of the insights I’m about to impart to you would ultimately still have to depend on you. However, before I impart the technique to you, you have to learn a Qi-circulation method first. If you don’t, the effectiveness of this technique would diminish a great deal.” After speaking, Qing Shui imparted the Qi-circulation method of Tiger’s Roar over to Huyou. Initially, he wanted to teach him the Qi-circulation method for the Bear Form, but decided otherwise as Tiger’s Roar was easier to master.

“As long as I’m able to learn high grade forging techniques, I’m willing to do anything. I have no money, no authority, and no power. I really have no idea how should I repay you.” Huyou seriously spoke.

“Hehe, just treat me as your brother, I have no other request!” Qing Shui replied just as seriously, his thoughts far away. He was thinking back to his past life. Huyou’s temperament was 80% similar to the big brother he had back in his previous world. His big brother had doted on him and treated him especially well.

That single sentence by Qing Shui caused Huyou to be completely reassured. Although he didn’t know the reason why, he knew that Qing Shui wouldn’t have malicious intents towards him in his heart.

“From today onwards, Old Hu will have an additional kin. As long as I can help you, regardless of what you want me to do, I will do my best to aid you in the future.”

“Big brother Hu, burn this after you finish studying it. You can ask me for guidance if you don’t understand. Let me temporarily take over the blacksmith store, so you would be able to learn my technique after you learn this set of Qi-circulation method.” Qing Shui smiled as he gave Huyou a piece of leather.

Huyou nodded, moving to the secondary exit at the back of the store. He took the piece of leather from Qing Shui as QIng Shui took over the forging.

At this moment, there were already customers starting to drift into the store.

“Hey look, that sword is selling for five million taels of silver!”

“What, where? Let me see!”

Initially, there were only a few customers browsing around in the blacksmith store. After seeing the price of the jagged sword, an intense discussion soon broke out and drew in the crowd.

“What a madman, this broken sword is also selling for five million taels of silver?” A sharp-toned man shouted.

“Is there something special about this sword? How can we tell just by merely seeing it, is it able to slice through iron like mud?” Another middled aged man shouted.

“Yeah, yeah. Those at the front, try the sword out.” Someone called out from the crowd. Now, the blacksmith store already had over thirty customers crowding inside it.

Finally, a person took the initiative as he grabbed the jagged sword.

“Quickly, what are you standing around so stupidly for?”

Yet another unknown voice shouted as the grabber of the sword seemed as though he woke up from a dream. However, he unexpectedly replied, “Take it, the moment you take it you will understand.”

After which, continuous sounds of surprise and urges rang out as people surged forward trying to be the next one to hold the sword.

In this world of the nine continents, bronze was usually used in the manufacturing of ornaments. There would rarely be people using it to forge weapons. Weapons forged of bronze were usually too soft. If one really did use bronze as a material for forging weapons, the weaponsmith would add a large amount of other alloys to strengthen it. However, one must also note the quantity of alloy used in comparison to the amount of bronze as the finished product may end up too hard and brittle, thus easily broken.

Thus, bronze was usually only used to forge extremely heavy items such as bronze tripods, bronze greataxe, or bronze greathammer.

Now, Qing Shui actually used bronze to forge a sword. What caused the customers to be amazed was that the amount of bronze Qing Shui used to forge this three-foot sword was double in proportion to the bronze swords other blacksmiths would forge. Not only did the bronze sword not have the ‘softness’ of using bronze as the forging base, but also the sharpness of it was unquestionable!

The method of forging used his Thousand Hammer Technique in accordance to the Bluebronze Sword blueprint that was unlocked in his memories.

As of this moment, there were even more customers participating in the discussion. The number of people got to the point where it was beyond Qing Shui’s expectations. Not only that, he also sensed that there were already some Xiantian cultivators attracted by the commotion and had stepped into his store.

“Mister, give me a real price for this sword. I’m really interested in purchasing this.” A young man looked at Qing Shui as he inquired.

“No bargaining!” Qing Shui didn’t even raise his head. There were no pauses to his hammering rhythm as he replied.

“Mister, don’t you find that five million taels of silver is too expensive?” The young man didn’t give up as he continued trying.

“Yup, that’s what I feel as well.” Qing Shui lightly responded.

“If that’s the case, could you sell it at a cheaper price?” The young man, now filled with hope, asked yet again.

“Sure, I’ll give you a discount of 10 taels of silver.” Qing Shui seriously replied. He still didn’t raise his head while his continuous hammer blows drew the gazes of the crowd.

“Are you playing a trick on me?” The young man turned grim as his earlier respectful countenance totally faded!

Qing Shui’s rhythm of his hammerblow continued uninterrupted, as a bronze light gradually glowed.

“Playing a trick on you? I don’t have the time to, and you are not worthy of me playing tricks on you anyway.” Qing Shui chortled. From the start to the end, Qing Shui didn’t even cast a single glance at the young man. Yet his senses already told him that this young man was at the 1st-level of Xiantian.

“Are you humiliating me? I want to challenge you. If you don’t dare to accept my challenge, just forget about it. After all, you are only a blacksmith.” The infuriated face of the young man gradually regained his earlier calmness.

Qing Shui remained silent, as he continued his forging. He couldn’t even be bothered to put this young man in his eyes or towards such people. Qing Shui was totally indifferent. It was akin to a rabbit stomping its paw on your feet. You couldn’t even begin to feel rage from it.

Although blacksmithing wasn’t a lowly profession, one must at least be at the Xiantian level if one wanted to forge a powerful set of armor and weapons. Usually for ordinary blacksmiths, especially those which Qing Shui had seen, cultivators would look down on them.

“Why? Are you afraid? Why are you not replying?” A true hero knows when to bow and when to resist. Adapting to circumstances is the key to survival.” The young man casted a glance towards the Bluebronze Sword as a light shone in his eyes.

“How about this, my clan shall include your store inside our protection. We won’t treat you unfairly and will definitely give you some advantages. You only need to manufacture such swords for my clan and we will have a deal. How about it?” The voice of the youth seemed to contained a hint of mocking, seemingly already prepared to take advantage of Qing Shui.

Qing Shui was speechless upon hearing the offer. If he was really an ordinary blacksmith, he would surely already be taken advantage of. Now, Qing Shui wanted to make use of this young man to boost the reputation of his blacksmith store.

“Won’t treat me unfairly and will give me some advantage? Even more than five million taels of silver per sword?” Qing Shui laughed.

“Of course not, but we can guarantee that as long as you produce swords of this quality, we can provide all sort of beauties for your enjoyment. Not only that, we have blueprints of other weapons that will enable to increase your proficiency in blacksmithing. In addition, the main point is that you would also be eligible to join my clan as a honorary member, enjoying preferential treatment.” The young man was filled to the brim with self-confidence as he explained.

Qing Shui struck down with his hammer, and this was the 999th strike. After which he swung the hammer down one more time, but to no avail. There was no additional effect which indicated that he still failed to breakthrough to the 1,000th strike. A moment later, a familiar light shone out. The newly manufactured bronze sword shone with a faint blue light, and was exceedingly good and attractive..

Qing Shui knew that the ultimate set of armor and weapons would be able to emit a 7-colored divine light. Currently, he could only manifest a faint glow of blue light. This showed that he was still extremely far away from achieving the 1-colored divine light, 2-colored divine light….and 7-colored divine light!

Qing Shui gazed at the finished product with expectation in his eyes. However, reality was cruel, and his newly created sword didn’t gain any additional properties. Still, his eyes widened with happiness as he saw the boost in attributes the sword gave.

Strength +30, Endurance +10!

Qing Shui was extremely happy because this sword gave a double attribute enhancement. After all, this was the first time he forged a sword according to the ancient blueprints. The effect was already better than what he expected.

Qing Shui extended his left hand as he swung the sword in a beautiful arc, testing it out.

The moment he swung out with the sword, Qing Shui could feel the effect of the attribute enhancements even more clearly when compared to the jagged sword.

The power of his strikes was multiplied by a rough factor of about 10 times, while the additional enhancement to his endurance gave him even more stamina to attack or defend.

“I’m satisfied. As long as there’s improvement, there’s hope!” Qing Shui happily thought.

As Qing Shui was studying his newly finished product, the number of customers in his store swelled up even more. However, the majority of them were not interested in making purchases but instead wanted to try out the mysteriousness of the jagged sword.

Most people had only heard about the divine weapons that would be able to increase one attribute. Now that one was in front of their eyes, wouldn’t that be called letting themselves down if they still didn’t test it out for themselves?

“Didn’t you challenge me earlier? I will accept your challenge.” Qing Shui indifferently gazed at the self-confident young man who was still standing by his side, and currently gazing at him with disdain.