Chapter 815 - Forging Sword
Chapter 815: Forging Sword
As all good things would come to an end, the five separated on their different paths. Murong Qingcheng and Ye Chen headed toward the south, soon disappearing into the horizon.
Gemlight Oceanspan was vast; traveling on the flying puppet, the two were unable to leave even after five days. In the end, they landed on a rhomboid volcanic island with a total of eleven volcanoes—two big and nine small. The volcanoes stood cone shaped, and a flickering red light could be seen at their openings, as if red hot lava would erupt at any moment.
“Our destination is still a billion li off. No need to hurry! Let’s cultivate here for a period of time. I want to try the Sword Forging Art.” If a sword artist could comprehend the Sword Forging Art, it might even deepen their understanding of sword arts.
“Sure! My understanding of martial skills is a bit low as well.” Murong Qingcheng faintly nodded. Her foundation was even higher than Ye Chen. Thus, her understanding of martial skills had begun to somewhat fall behind her cultivation base. If her understanding of martial skills were high, even the Darklight King would not have been her match. After all, demonic power was a grade above Zhen Yuan.
Thus, one began to cultivate martial skills while the other began studying the Sword Forging Art in the peace of the volcanic island.
The process of sword forging was not too complicated but required a lot of patience. Ye Chen didn’t lack in this respect, and in fact, was quite superior.
Time flew by, and three days soon passed. In this period, Ye Chen eventually got a hang on forging low grade swords, successfully forging a true low grade sword. This lower grade sword was completely ordinary, and even a bit coarse. It could only be counted amongst the inferior versions of lower grade swords. However, it held a great significance for Ye Chen: he had taken his first step in the sword forging, which was also the most important step.
He had a lot of lower grade materials in his storage rings. After the first taste of success, he completely poured himself into sword forging, forgetting everything else, including eating and sleeping, forging swords one after another. In any work, one must first build a solid foundation; otherwise, troubles were bound to arise in the future. It was precisely like the saying ‘sharpening the knife, not chopping the trees.’
Inside one of the huge volcanoes was a lava lake. Beside the lava lake was a blue-robed young man hammering away on a sword.
Peng Peng Peng Peng!
The hammer was a special lower grade hammer. One could pour energy it through strands of Zhen Yuan, allowing it to easily make subtle changes in the sword’s shape. By the rock wall of the volcano, numerous low grade sword hung in the air, flickering with distinct lights: red, green, blue, black, purple, and yellow, giving off curling mist or fog.
The attributes of a sword depended on the material used to cast it. If the metal used was of fire attribute, the resulting sword would certainly have the fire attribute as well. If the metal had wind attribute, the sword would certainly have wind attribute. Furthermore, it was also possible to mix other things with the metal such as Fire Cloud Stone, Thunder Stone, and energy crystals of the same attribute, further increasing the might of the sword.
A graceful figure descended from the volcano’s mouth; it was none other than Murong Qingcheng. She didn’t disturb Ye Chen, but walked to the swords suspended by the wall.
“So many swords in a few days?” Murong Qingcheng was a little astounded. Ye Chen’s speed of forging was becoming increasingly quicker. At the start, he took three days to forge a single sword. However, this time was decreasing increasingly. At this point, he could forge dozens of swords in a few days. This was related to him being a half-step King. If an ordinary martial artist crafted a sword, several months or even a year would not be too long.
Grabbing a fire-attributed sword, Murong Qingcheng casually swung it.
“The quality is also improving. This one almost doesn’t even reach the general standard for lower grade swords though.”
“Eh, this is a mid grade.”
“Average.”
Average!”
“Mid level!”
Amongst the swords almost nearing hundreds, most were average, and only three were at the mid level.
“Try this one.”
At this point, Ye Chen walked over and handed over the sword in his hand to Murong Qingcheng.
“Thunder attributed!” Taking the sword, Murong Qingcheng felt the thunder attributed energy within.
“Right. It’s likely because of my high insights in thunder profound and metal profound that the swords of these two attributes turn out good. This sword contains my new insights. It might even frighten you.” Ye Chen smiled.
“Really?”
Murong Qingcheng didn’t dare to pour too much demonic power in the fear of destroying the sword. With the strands of demonic power pouring in, a black lightning blossomed from the sword. Following a soft wave from her, a huge rock by the lava lake was cleaved into two.
“Destruction Sword Qi!”
Murong Qingcheng finally understood Ye Chen’s words. A mere lower grade sword arousing the Destruction Sword Qi was bound to be several folds stronger than one with ordinary sword Qi.
“Hehe, what do you think?” Ye Chen was quite excited. He felt delighted forging swords, and at the same time, was able to find gains from the process.
Murong Qingcheng’s eyes shone as well, “This sword is still a mid level one, but with the Destruction Sword Intent, even high level lower grade swords are far lacking in comparison. If this sword is distributed among sect disciples, their strength would definitely soar.”
Ye Chen faintly nodded, “Just what I was thinking. Sword Forging Art is extremely valuable for sects, and even more so are the swords forged by me.”
Lower grade swords held no value for Ye Chen, but that wasn’t the case for Sky Cloud Sect and Ye family disciples. After all, their strength was not enough, and they couldn’t wield mid-grade or upper grade swords. Not to mention the fact that they wouldn’t be able to bring out the artifact’s full power, solely relying on the fact that ‘treasure becomes the source of a calamity’, they would be in grave danger. One must have the strength for possessing a treasure after all.
Murong Qingcheng smiled, “My Murong Clan has a lot of disciples as well. Leave some for me when the time comes.” How could buying lower grade swords be compared to the swords forged by Ye Chen that were infused with Destruction Sword Intent?
“Rest assured, it just means more materials!” Giving his consent, Ye Chen continued, “I also intend to infuse the Immortal Sword Intent. You know the might of the Immortal Sword Intent.”
“Right, Immortal Sword Intent is actually your fundamental sword intent.”
How could Murong Qingcheng not know about the Immortal Sword Intent? It took five hundred years for the Immortal Sword Intent left by Battle King to disperse. If he could infuse it in the sword, not only would it increase the sword Qi’s richness to newfound heights, it would also make the sword itself sturdier. Although it might not beat Destruction Sword Intent in terms of might, as far as forging sword went, it was definitely superior.
After chatting with Ye Chen for a few more moments, Murong Qingcheng left the volcano to continue her own cultivation while he immersed himself in forging swords once more.
Just like that, a month passed by. Within this month, Ye Chen cast a full seven hundred swords. As his forging mastery increased several times, the swords forged were still at least mid level ones even if he occasionally slipped up. Moreover, as far as thunder attributed and fire attributed lower grade swords were concerned, his swords were of highest level amongst lower grade artifacts.
Creak!
Holding the recently forged sword, Ye Chen slashed at the lava lake across. Sword Qi frantically swept through the lava lake, creating a huge crater.
“This might…it’s even higher than ordinary mid grade swords.” A smile appeared on Ye Chen’s face. He could imagine Ye family disciples and Sky Cloud Sect disciples holding the lower grade swords crafted by him.
The flowers of an orchid could never understand the concept of tenacity. If Ye Chen had not gone through so many dangers, he would not have matured to his current state. Holding the sword forged by him would be their fortune.
“My lower grade Sword Forging Art is already firm. However, my objective is still far off. Once I reach perfection—forging all supreme level lower grade swords—I can finally begin with mid grade swords!”
In fact, Ye Chen could already start forging mid grade swords. However, he was not in a hurry. He wished to reach the perfection in lower grade swords first, then perfection in mid grade sword, and so on. In this manner, he would have some hope of forging his own supreme grade sword someday.
Otherwise, would it not be the case that every person who knew Sword Forging Art could forge a supreme grade sword. It was far from being that straightforward. Ye Chen did not have full confidence, and the road of sword forging was still far from being covered.
In the following half a month, Ye Chen advanced at a lightning fast speed. Not only all the swords he forged were best among the lower grade swords, the number of swords forged also far surpassed the previous month, reaching nine hundred. Half of them contained the Destruction Sword Intent and half Immortal Sword Intent, creating two brands.
In fact, if a sword forging master was present, he would certainly be dumbstruck by Ye Chen’s progress.
To forge sixteen-seventeen hundred swords was too exaggerated even for a half-step King. Even one-third of this achievement would have been pretty good for a normal half-step King. He could already be considered a legendary low-grade sword forger. Only heavens knew how high his skill in forging swords was.
Ye Chen was also faintly aware that his achievements during this half a month were a little exaggerated. He believed that it was due to his experiences with Battle King, Iron Sword King, Dual Sword King, Immortal Sword Intent, Destruction Sword Intent, and Slaughter Sword Intent, allowing him to add his own insights in the process of sword forging. Thus, he was able to attain this state.
Even another genius of sword dao would not able to get such results.
Of course, the primary reason he was able to forge sixteen-seventeen swords in a month was because all the swords were low grade. Replacing them with mid grade swords, this number would have shrunk by several times. Same was the case for upper grade swords and half-supreme grade swords. As for supreme grade swords, it would be commendable if he could forge one in several months, given that he could even forge one.
In the following half a month, he forged nine hundred swords, and during the next half, he forged twelve hundred swords, forging a total of almost three thousand swords.
“Lower grade materials are used up, leaving two thousand eight hundred and eighty swords. Not bad!” Looking at numerous and densely packed swords hanging by the volcanic wall, Ye Chen let out a deep breath. The study of sword forging was like burning money. Ten thousand lower grade materials were equivalent to dozens of millions of low grade spirit stones, or ten thousand upper grade spirit stones. How could an ordinary low grade sect be willing spend so much wealth?
Therefore, even if they had the knowledge of creating low grade swords, their forging masters could generally forge mid level lower grade swords only.