Chapter 514 - Sick And Extraordinary
"....At that time, our family had obtained two of them in total. We did not know what they were used for. It just so happened that you were coming of age and we needed to find a good teacher for you. We gave one of them to Grandmaster Dai in the hope of getting him to accept you as his disciple. Grandmaster Dai gave his consent cheerfully. If this item can be so coveted by a Grandmaster, it’s definitely an extraordinary artifact. We hid the other one in our secret chamber and we didn’t dare to tell anyone about it. Subsequently, Grandmaster Dai asked us about it and we acted as if we knew nothing and told him there was only one. This item is of great importance, you must keep it by your side at all times. Before you find out what it is, don’t show it to anyone. Follow the path of [Viridescent Flower] and you will have no trouble becoming a Master. Of course, becoming a Grandmaster is an extremely arduous feat. If this artifact can assist you in doing so…."
Duanmu Huanghun had already destroyed the secret letter from his home. He had memorized every single word in the letter. His family had taken great pains to send the wooden box to him. They actually used Lu Mingxiu as a cover to send it. Rather than the Duanmu family, the Lu family was actually the family that Grandmaster Dai truly trusted.
After reading the secret letter, Duanmu Huanghun understood a lot of things.
It turned out that Grandmaster Dai had accepted him as a disciple to fulfil a transaction.
No wonder why his teacher practically did not care about him at all. His teacher always treated him differently from First Senior and Second Senior.
However, Duanmu Huanghun discovered that he wasn’t too disappointed. He understood what was going on. His teacher was unconcerned with him. Likewise, he was unconcerned with his teacher.
Duanmu Huanghun was a proud and arrogant individual. He felt that he could still progress, even if he did not have a teacher. At the end of the day, he had to find his own path for himself.
Now, he was glad that he had been "kidnapped" by Shi Xueman. It was at Central Pine Valley where he could truly relax himself. He could finally keep himself away from the internal strife in Jadeite Forest.
Now, he could spend all his energy and talents on his training.
This was the best moment of his life.
He had found his path, the path that belonged to him, the path of [Viridescent Flower].
In the bamboo forest, Duanmu Huanghun was sitting cross-legged on the ground with both his eyes tightly closed. His palms held the archaic wooden box, looking as if he was asleep.
A beautiful pattern of a viridescent flower was revolving beneath his body.
The wind was rustling and bamboo leaves were drifting through the air. However, any leaf that drifted within ten meters of Duanmu Huanghun’s body would be repelled by an invisible force.
The revolving pattern of the viridescent flower beneath Duanmu Huang’s body changed its shape every one hour.
Everyday, there would be twenty-four changes to the pattern of the viridescent flower. Every new pattern was completely different from the previous one.
After twenty days had passed, Duanmu Huanghun had created four hundred and eighty different types of [Viridescent Flower].
Duanmu family’s [Viridescent Flower] had a long history. It could be traced back to the distant Cultivation Era. The Duanmu family had a collection of more than two thousand types of [Viridescent Flower], but most of them had lost their uses by now.
Every time the pattern of the viridescent flower changed, the elemental energy around Duanmu Huanghun’s body became more concentrated.
It was as if there was an enormous archive in Duanmu Huanghun’s head. Right now, he was breaking it apart, destroying it, and rebuilding it over and over again.
This was only the beginning. This was destined to be a very long process.
Duanmu Huanghun was filled with expectation.
Lou Lan was doing his best to prepare elemental soup for everyone. Right now, the members of Sword of Lightning were in the Metal Basket Sword Pagoda that they were embarrassed of in the past. They were going through the simple sword moves that they used to mock and complain about, over and over again.
‘Nothing is more convincing than an actual battle.’
These bloody words on the wooden slab in Lemon Camping Ground were the first declaration they made to the world using swords, and it had shocked every city. They were shocked by their own powers as well. They had a new understanding of the Metal Basket Sword Pagoda and themselves.
When they had completed this process, a transformation would take place.
They did not understand what was going on. All they understood was that they could become stronger.
Because Ai Hui was injured, Gu Xuan occupied his Megrez position for the time being. It was the first time he experienced the immense pressure that Ai Hui always faced in the past. Gu Xuan wasn’t a weak individual. He did not give up easily. Like a whetstone, the pressure he faced forced him to improve every day.
Nowadays, Fishback City had sufficient resources. Every day, they would be provided with sufficient elemental soup. Everyone knew that such an environment was hard to come by in times of chaos.
Without needing to be prompted, everyone was training frantically.
There was a person beside the Metal Basket Sword Pagoda. It was Blind He.
He bore a heavy responsibility.
By building Metal Basket Sword Pagoda, he had merely completed the first phase of his task. Right now, he was trying to complete the second phase of his task.
This time around, rather than forging a gigantic sword, he was supposed to forge a sword for every member of Sword of Lightning.
Right now, everyone was using a different sword. Most of their swords had been used for a very long time. It was alright for them to use their current swords for training. However, for an actual battle, their swords would pose a problem.
Taking this issue into consideration, Ai Hui gave Blind He the task of forging a sword for everyone.
There was a total of three hundred men in Sword of Lightning. As such, three hundred swords would have to be forged for them. To prepare for the scenario where a sword might be damaged and had to be replaced, Blind He had to forge at least five hundred swords to keep some as spares.
Quantity wasn’t the main issue. The biggest problem that perplexed Blind He was to figure out what kind of sword suited the members of Sword of Lightning the best. As a weaponsmith, he had high expectations for the weapons he forged. Every weapon he made had to be top-quality.
Even though he had made the Metal Basket Sword Pagoda, he was still baffled by it. It was only until he witnessed its might during the last battle that he understood how it could be used.
These few days, he had been staying around the Metal Basket Sword Pagoda to get a feel of how it operate and how the members trained.
After observing quietly for a few days straight, a rough idea began to form in his mind.
He returned to the furnace and started the forging process.
He sprayed the White Cluster Flames over a piece of metal. Like an ice cube, the piece of metal melted into a puddle of molten metallic liquid easily. He then started to add various materials into it. His movements were fluid like water, graceful and beautiful. Every time he added in a material, an elemental energy ripple of a different color would streak across the surface of the molten liquid. Colorful elemental energy ripples began to gather and intertwine on the surface of the molten liquid. Eventually, gorgeous and dazzling elemental energy ripples were formed.
Blind He was very focused. The faint glow from the eyes on his palms engulfed the molten metal. Every change taking place in the molten metal was under his control.
The elemental energy ripples on the surface of the molten metal continuously undulated.
The glow released by the eyes on his palms suddenly turned cold as a layer of frost appeared on the surface of the molten metal. The molten metal had solidified into an ingot. The gorgeous and dazzling elemental energy ripples looked as if they were frozen on the surface of the ingot, creating extremely beautiful patterns.
Blind He did not stop. He picked up the snow lava that he had prepared earlier and poured it over the metal ingot.
Sizzle.
A loud and clear sizzle resounded through the air when wisps of white-colored, scorching flames rose from the metal ingot. Densely-packed cracks began to appear on the surface of the metal ingot.
Blind He picked up a iron hammer and hammered the metal ingot. The surface of the metal ingot was as crispy as a biscuit. Very soon, its surface broke down and revealed a silvery white metal within it.
It was a silvery-white, half-transparent metal ingot that resembled a silvery-white crystal. Soft and thin flower petals were frozen within the metal ingot. They were formed layer upon layer, looking extremely beautiful.
The petal-shaped patterns contained glittering silver powder, which made the metal ingot dazzle when it was placed under the sun.
A satisfied look appeared on Blind He’s face as he muttered, "Pearblossom Dazzling Silver. From today onwards, you are called Pearblossom Dazzling Silver. I have no regrets in my life anymore, I have no regrets in my life anymore!"
The snow-white petals in the metal ingot resembled pear blossoms.
Luckily Ai Hui did not have the time to care about him, otherwise he would have come up with another ugly name for it again, like "White Cluster Flames". If that were to happen, Blind He would vomit blood.
Blind He was very emotional. Up to now, this metal ingot had the highest grade among all the metal ingots he had ever created. It was every weaponsmith’s dream to be able to create his own material, name it, and leave his mark on history.
He had no choice but to admit that, even though Ai Hui was lacking in his ability to name things, his White Cluster Flames and snow lava were remarkable inventions.
Without these two powerful tools, he would not have been able to create Pearblossom Dazzling Silver.
Due to his excitement from creating Pearblossom Dazzling Silver, Blind He no longer felt tired and began to forge the swords. He already had a rough idea of the sword’s design in his mind. The success in creating the Pearblossom Dazzling Silver implied that the most difficult problem had already been solved.
Very soon, he forged the first sword. He furrowed his eyebrows and destroyed it.
He destroyed the second one as well.
It was as if he wasn’t getting tired at all. He continued to forge the swords one by one. However, he was satisfied with none of them.
The rush of excitement he’d felt earlier had disappeared. The consecutive failures added on to his fatigue.
He stopped and sat beside the furnace in a daze.
Without Blind He noticing it, night had descended. The stars in the night sky gave off a bright glow while the night breeze blew silently.
"He Wei, here is your elemental soup," Lou Lan said as he sent a bowl of elemental soup to He Wei.
Blind He returned to his senses and took over the bowl of elemental soup. A smile appeared on his cold face. "Thank you, Lou Lan."
"There’s no need to thank me, He Wei. In the future, Lou Lan wants to learn weapon forging from He Wei," Lou Lan said.
"No problem," Blind He agreed immediately. As he was drinking the elemental soup, he asked casually, "Lou Lan, why do you want to learn weapon forging?"
Lou Lan tilted his head and thought for a while before he answered, "So I can make money. In the past, Lou Lan and Ai Hui used to forge weapons to make money."
Blind He burst into laughter. He did not remind Lou Lan that Ai Hui was so poor now that he was only left with money. The snow lava that Central Pine Valley had accumulated was like a mountain of gold now. Even when the prices of various resources had soared, Central Pine Valley was able to maintain an abundance of resources. Central Pine Valley was no longer that poor valley in the past.
"Lou Lan has to work hard then," Blind He smiled and said.
Lou Lan nodded his head forcefully and replied, "Lou Lan will definitely learn from He Wei seriously."
After drinking the delicious elemental soup and hearing Lou Lan’s cheerful voice, Blind He felt that the fatigue in his body had disappeared without a trace.
When Lou Lan saw Blind He had gone into deep thought again, he did not disturb him and left silently.
Before Blind He had concluded his thought process, he discovered where his problem was: He did not abandon the usual weaponsmiths’ train of thought.
Whenever one wanted to forge a weapon, he or she would first consider the issues of how to stimulate elemental energy and how to channel them. However, this train of thought was not suitable for Sword of Lightning.
The sword moves that the members of Sword of Lightning executed were very simple. These moves did not need to take into consideration elemental energy. What did the members need the most? After observing them for several days, Blind He clearly knew the answer to this question. It was synchronization!
Synchronization was the key factor to Sword of Lightning’s might.
This was the biggest difference between Sword of Lightning and other combat divisions. Never before had he seen a combat division that downplayed individual capabilities and emphasized teamwork to such an extreme extent.
It was a sick and extraordinary concept!
It was only right for such a sick and extraordinary combat division to have a sick and extraordinary weapon!
Blind He was overwhelmed with emotions.