Observing Wanfa from the martial arts school servants

Chapter 57 Stacking Forging Technique

Having prepared everything, Lin Mu knocked on her aunt's door.

Third Aunt Lin Youjiao, wearing an outer robe, unlatched the door and saw Lin Mu standing at the door. Her sleepiness was immediately washed away by joy.

"Muwa? Am I dreaming?"

Lin Youjiao patted Lin Mu's arm, making a crisp sound.

"Is it true that your second uncle said you joined Changfeng Martial Arts School as an apprentice and even rented a courtyard in town?"

"It's true, I'm already a formal disciple of Changfeng Martial Arts School."

"I came here to borrow my uncle's blacksmith shop for a few days."

Third Aunt paused for a moment, then turned and called into the house, "Husband! Muwa's here!"

Uncle Zhao came out from the inner room, wearing a long gown covered in patches, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing his two thick, strong arms honed from years of swinging a hammer.

When he saw Lin Mu, he first subconsciously wiped his hands on his apron, and then his movements froze.

He remembered when Lin Mu wanted to learn blacksmithing from him, but he refused outright.

Now that Lin Mu is an apprentice at Changfeng Martial Arts School, he opened his mouth, but swallowed back the word "Muwazi" and replaced it with a more distant address.

"Young Master Lin has arrived."

"My uncle still calls me Muwazi, just like before."

Lin Mu took out a small piece of silver from his sleeve and placed it on the table. "Lend me the shop for a few days."

"Don't let anyone get close these few days, especially strangers."

Third Aunt picked up the silver and looked at it, then looked up at Lin Mu, her lips moved, but in the end she still accepted the silver.

"You can use the shop as much as you like; your uncle happens to be off work these days." She paused, then added, "Would you like your uncle to lend you a hand?"

"No need," Lin Mu said. "I can manage on my own."

After settling things off with his aunt's family, Lin Mu returned to the blacksmith's shop.

The blacksmith shop was small, with a wooden door, a stone forge, several hammers of different sizes hanging on the wall, and a small mountain of iron in the corner.

The ash in the furnace was indeed cleaned up completely, and the wooden handle of the bellows was polished to a shine.

Lin Mu looked around the shop, bolted the wooden door from the inside, and covered the windows with old cloth.

I plan to practice with the Soul-Suppressing Nails first.

He lit the fire and started the bellows.

In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the fire in the stove gradually changed from orange-red to bluish-white.

He cut a small piece of black horn hide into pieces and threw it into the iron, watching it curl up, char, and finally seep into the surface of the iron at high temperatures.

As the iron gradually turned white, he silently counted to nine breaths, then took it out and laid it on the cutting board.

The first hammer blow fell.

A spark landed on the back of his hand, burning a red dot.

He didn't stop.

The second and third hammer blows: try to create a three-quarter angle with the hammerhead the instant it contacts the iron.

The iron was spun too hard, and a crack appeared in the middle.

He threw the waste into the corner.

The second one was heated to the right temperature. During quenching, fine bubbles rose on the surface of the liquid, and a very faint dark blue line appeared on the nail.

He channeled his inner force into the nail, and the force rose less than half an inch along the grain before the nail split open from the middle.

The lines are too shallow to contain the hidden strength.

The third one had its quenching fluid readjusted.

Mix the monster's blood and the water from the icy pool in a certain ratio, then add a pinch of black iron ore sand.

This time it worked. When the nail was plunged into the liquid, a puff of white steam rose up, and dark blue patterns extended from the nail head to the tip.

The hidden force was injected, and the power condensed at the tip of the nail.

With a casual flick of his wrist, the nail sank three inches into the wooden stake, leaving a smooth edge to the hole.

But the wooden stakes still stand.

The hidden force has dissipated.

Lin Mu frowned, closed his eyes, and recalled the scene when Ye Gang forged the weapon.

When Ye Gang strikes the iron, each hammer blow rotates at a three-point angle the instant it contacts the material, grinding the hidden force into the grooves.

He added the twist to the fourth nail.

This time, he found a tiny bit of the feel for it, even the ripples on the surface of the liquid during quenching were rotating.

On the forged nail, dark blue patterns spiral from the head to the tip, like an extremely thin spiral vine.

The hidden force was injected, and the nail trembled slightly at his fingertips, like a fully drawn bowstring.

It should be successful.

He set the nail aside.

Next, using the same method and the same heat, several more were forged in succession.

The spiral-patterned soul-suppressing nails were placed side by side on the corner of the cutting board, while the pile of discarded nails in the corner of the wall was stacked haphazardly into a small heap.

For every piece that failed during forging, he would squat in front of the furnace and dissect the reasons for the failure from beginning to end.

The uneven seepage of demon blood indicates an incorrect quenching liquid ratio.

The lines were crooked and distorted because my wrist trembled when I dipped it into the liquid.

If the force applied at the turning angle is too light or too heavy, the breathing becomes disordered at the moment of contact between the hammer and the surface.

Disassemble and reforge, then disassemble again if it fails during forging.

The pamphlet changed around dusk.

[Stacking Forging Skill 23/100]

He felt the time was right.

So he took out the five fine iron bars from the wooden box and placed them side by side on the chopping board.

The refined iron was nearly half as heavy as ordinary iron, and its dark gray surface gleamed coldly in the furnace fire.

He picked out the longest and straightest one and weighed it.

Seven feet two inches, a little over thirty pounds, just right.

The spear of a martial artist specializing in internal strength must be forged as a single piece, not pieced together, because the joints will become the starting point of cracks when internal strength is infused.

He put the iron into the furnace.

After about half an hour, the refined iron turned completely white, and a thin layer of flowing luster appeared on its surface.

He took out the fine iron and laid it on the cutting board.

The black horn cowhide powder hissed and rose a plume of white smoke from the refined iron bar, the burnt smell making his throat tight.

He held his breath and swung the hammer.

The entire anvil vibrated when the first hammer fell, and the recoil from the hammer handle surged up the arm through the web of the hand.

Refined iron is more than twice as hard as ordinary iron, so when struck with the same force, it deforms by more than half.

He increased the hammer force, and with each strike, the hammerhead would rotate at a three-point angle the moment it touched the iron, grinding the demon blood powder into the surface of the iron.

As the iron material was hammered, it gradually turned from whitish to dark red, and very faint, fine dark blue lines began to emerge from the ordinary iron color on the surface.

The pattern was initially messy, haphazard, like strands of hair blown about by the wind.

He took a breath and continued hammering, one blow after another.

The lines gradually straightened along the direction of the hammer's angle, as if straightened one by one by an invisible hand from beginning to end.

The texture is only visible on the surface, while the inner texture remains unchanged.

We have to start over.

He put the refined iron back into the furnace, heated it until it turned white, and then forged it again.

This time, he increased the proportion of earth dragon blood in the quenching liquid by 10%, allowing the iron to absorb more demon blood during quenching.

He took it out, forged it, put it back in the furnace, took it out again, forged it again—exhausted, he put the hammer on the anvil and leaned against the furnace wall, panting heavily.

My hand was numb from the impact, and my knuckles cracked when I released the hammer handle, which I had been gripping for too long.

When he had rested enough and picked up the iron again, the refined iron bar was no longer the same as before.

Dark blue veins extend from the surface into the iron core, layer upon layer, like the dense annual rings on the cross-section of an old tree.

He held the rough blank up to his eyes and looked at it in the light of the furnace fire—the pattern was spiral, spiraling from the tail of the spear all the way to the tip.

He recalled the scene of Ye Gang being quenched.

When the quenching liquid creates a vortex, it is not stirred, but rather the iron billet is inserted obliquely against the wall of the tank, and the texture extends naturally by the rotation of the liquid surface itself.

Insert at a 45-degree angle.

Enter liquid.

With a hiss, the vortex that rose on the surface of the liquid pulled the dark blue pattern outwards, extending the pattern from the iron core to the surface and then swirling back from the surface to the iron core.

For a fleeting moment, Lin Mu felt as if the patterns on the gun had come alive, winding across its surface like a giant python.

He gritted his teeth, steadied the gun, and kept the angle unchanged.

Bubbles surged from the surface of the gun blank, and dark red liquid splashed onto the edge of the tank, before the surface suddenly calmed down.

The patterns on the surface of the spear blank have completely changed—clear as if carved by a knife, layer upon layer, with spiraling dark blue patterns climbing from the tail of the spear to the tip, and horizontal lines as fine as hair connecting the patterns.

The lines at the tip of the spear suddenly tightened, twisting into a tiny, dark blue-green gleam.

Gun completed.