Chapter 122: Hammer and Swords

I had several materials to choose from, basically, Y needs something that's comparable to his strength, and surprisingly, I have something on me that was even better than all the materials that Master Rain had stacked in his lab. Though most of the materials Master Rain had accumulated are of the celestial realm and are extremely precious, the materials were not best suited to make swords. What I had was better.

Neutron Steel, the Qi absorbing metal that once it comes in contact with Qi, it will turn thousands of times heavier. 

I wouldn't have been able to melt that material before, but now with the Heart Flame, it's a whole different story, the Heart Flame not only does it possess superior heat to any other regular flame, but it also increases the user's resistance to flame. Such as when the Poison God showcased when he fought Zhang Tian.

Even when Zhang Tian used his Hell Domain, the flames didn't cause any harm to the Poison God. And now that I'm in possession of such flame, I also benefit from the increased resistance to flames and heat in general.

I pulled the broken sword from my pouch and thought about how to use it.

This was a broad ultra-great sword, with an arm's length in width, and more than a man's height in length. Not to mention the thickness of it that was even bigger than my own thigh.

The sword was already this big and it was broken, whoever used to wield it, must have been the same size as Y, and Y is already five meters tall.

Sadly, this was only one sword, and Y needs four. So, I can't make swords that are gritty. The only choices I have left are Long Swords, short swords, and blades. But judging from the shape of the sheaths on Y's waist. These sheaths are all katana sheaths, it's normal, after all this is a 'samurai' themed puppet. It would be wrong to give it a normal sword. Though I like katanas, their shape, and their 'nobility, they are not the best swords, weapons. 

Katanas are great tools to cut, but that's it, and they're not even the best at it. A gladius or a scimitar can cut better than a katana, they are also good for stabbing, but a rapier is the king of stabs. Their only redeeming factor is their speed, I remember seeing a few characters using a single draw stroke to end lives. And with the katana's fluid design, its speed can be unmatched in the hands of a professional.

I shouldn't go against the original design, after all, the puppet has martial arts inscribed in it, and some of them will be best tuned to katanas than swords or any other blade weapon.

But how does one makes a katana, this is not something I can cheat my way into making, I'll need to understand the process first. And the best way to do so is to take all the research material I have available.

I began by looking through Master Rain's library and found several books related to sword forging, but most of these techniques required a skillful master to learn and understand from, but I'm not skilled full I'm not even worthy of being called an amateur in sword forging.

So I kept the manuals from Master Rain to the side and went to the second floor of the pagoda where there were thousands of books in the neatly organized library. Finding books on sword making wasn't difficult, they were the most numerous among all the books related to crafting in the Lord of Lord's own library.

I pulled the first manual, "Sword and Hammer." Pretty regular name, nothing too fancy, but that didn't mean that the manual's content was anything weak. The author slowly describes all the related topics of sword forging, starting from the mentality and mindset of the man who is about to pick up the hammer, to the hammer's motion, and the size of it, length and how to use it, he even lengthily describes how one attitude needs to be. Heck, in a passage the man says that if a forger is midway through his craft and felt the need to relieve himself, he is better off relieving himself while he worked, lest the product becomes faulty.

Though many would laugh at this, I found hidden insight within this passage, the meaning was that a smith cannot be disturbed and must be fully focused so not even your bowls should bother you while you work, not to mention other people. Serenity and calm are the best ways to make a proper product.

Sadly, I felt that the author's own book had some strange sentences, they feel wrong and could have been said in better ways, they are not related to the topic, but are somewhat right. It felt weird, it was like reading a run-on sentence, most of it was incomplete. It seems that the author was not a good writer. But seeing from the book's quality, it was natural.

I continued reading before I realized, that in the entirety of the book. The author had never once, not even once, described how can one make a sword.

All of this book was only related to the swordsmith's whereabout, mentality, spiritual peace, and small showcasing of how to use and choose one's hammer. Seeing this book's quality, and comparing it to the rest, this book was old, wrinkled, and didn't look like it was made of good quality paper. Whoever made this, was poor. And it seems that he didn't gain a lot of recognition, compared to the well-decorated and polished books, this one was suffering a lot. But why is it in the Lord of Lord's pagoda? After all, from all I've seen in this pagoda, the Lord of Lords only chooses the best materials and treasures to place in his library, and this book was placed among some of the so-called 'divine' smithing manuals as the tag on the shelf was.

"This is what they call never judge a book by its cover, I mean, many would think that the materials inside this book are nothing of value, but this mere process and patience, also the great dedication the author of this book had given to make this. This is an actual treasure."

I read the book again and again and familiarized myself with what it was speaking off, I even mimicked the hammering motion, and the meditation steps needed, I memorized everything in the book and once I was satisfied with my understanding of this book, I slowly placed it back among the top shelves. 

I then continued reading through the other books and realized how precious the first one was. All of these books immediately started on how to forge and the quality of materials and the different forging techniques. Nine thousand folds this, seven heat metal that, spinning molten technique something they were all talking about how their forging methods were unparalleled but with memorizing the first book I noticed a few flaws in each and every book.

But I wasn't too complacent to call them unworthy of learning, I still memorized the techniques and continued on. I felt like a robot, as I continued reading through the various methods of forging but wasn't impressed with any of them.

Until I found another book, "Sword and Hammer, 2"

This book however was of far better quality than the first volume. I began reading it and I felt myself smiling, this was like finding your favorite show had a sequel that you never knew about, and I was enjoying the read. With the sole exception of my slight displeasure of the writer's quality of writing and his bad habit of doing run-on sentences that mean nothing.

This time the book focused greatly on the forge. The way it should be organized to help access the tools, and the specific things needed inside it, how they should be placed, and how they should be treated and maintained. Amazingly, it was pretty similar to what the Lord of Lords' own crafting chamber had.

I continued reading and began learning about Quenching, though this should be a later stage, the book straight up jumped to quenching instead of talking about hammering the steel and heat regulation.

But I didn't mind, I read about the quenching technique the book had and found that he was actually mixing cold and heat to quench metals, this would heavily impact the end result. 

Then grinding, sanding, and polishing, this was natural and every book had its own technique, but the one here was rather simple.

After finishing the second book, I continued reading through the rest and found yet another volume.

The third Hammer and Sword.

Looking at it, this one was far more compact, it had many details about fixing swords, how to use heat to fix cracks, and maintain the sword in good shape. But after reading the whole book I was still vexed. The poor book's writing quality has once again been showcased here with run-on sentences that mean nothing.

This author had an amazing understanding of sword-smithing, but he never ever once described how to make a sword. I was getting irritated.

Once I finished all the books, I didn't find the fourth volume. I was pretty annoyed, though the many other techniques sounded pretty amazing, for some reason, I was pulled to this simple down-to-earth book.

But without the final book, there was no way for me to understand how this works. This incomplete work would only serve as to improve one's quality and won't help forge swords.

Just as I was about to give up, and switch to Master Rain's collection in hope of finding a better technique, my eyes were affixed to the last sentence in Hammer and Swords.

***

…For forging Swords is like seeking the hidden words of heaven, only when one has all before them can they realize the importance of such secrets.

***

This again. A run-on sentence that means absolutely nothing. But for some reason, I have a feeling that it actually is important.

I read through it time and time again until revelation finally hit me.

"Oh my god!" I cried as I pulled the rest of the other books.

I began writing down all the add-on sentences that didn't mean anything and finally found the last volume.

The last volume was actually written in separate sentences, it was hidden in plain sight, among the books. And linking all the run-on sentences together…I ended up re-writing the forging technique!

And looking at the content, I was shocked, this technique, wait what was the idiom...euh right, if it claimed to be second under heaven...none would dare claim first!