Sapphire Hammer Memory Stone

Sipping the tea that the old man's wife had placed in front of him, Hong Zhao waited patiently for Lang Xinyue's explanation. Lang Yi looked at the two children as if they were aliens. Usually children at such an age would just be learning the basics of cultivation. Yet here sat two insanely strong children who were at least fifty years younger than her and her husband, yet they still could not compare. She looked at her near sixty years of cultivating and chastised herself for being so laxed in her training.

As the old lady wallowed in her regrets, Hong Zhao began to become impatient. After he had asked for an explanation when Lang Xinyue pleaded for him to stay, the old man took him to his home and sat him down at his table and asked his wife to make them tea. After he introduced Lang Yi, he disappeared into another room within his estate. Hong Zhao had been counting the minutes as he waited for the old man, wondering if doing so was worth it. When he was about to get up to ask what the hold up was, Ren Cai put a hand on his leg. When he looked at her, she only picked her cup up and took a sip of the fragrant tea and kept her eyes shut.

"Found it!" The old man's voice called out as he ran out of the other room with something small in his fist. When he got to the table and sat down in front of the two, he placed the item on the table and stared at it. "If you two help this village, I promise that this will be yours." He dropped his hand away from the table. In it's place was a small sapphire hammer pendant.

Picking up the small pendant, Hong Zhao examined it. "The craftsmanship is quite remarkable. The silver wiring around the sapphire head is exquisite." He looked up at the man thoughtfully. "But what exactly am I supposed to do with this?"

"The man who made this pendant was an expert spiritual blacksmith named Lang Feng. He was my great grandfather, and that is his memory stone."

Hong Zhao cocked his head to the side as he examined it once more. He had no idea what a memory stone was, but from the weight of the man's words, it was something worth it's weight in gold. "Give me that!" Ren Cai took it from Hong Zhao, leaving him with a startled expression. Ren Cai looked it over with awe. "This is a memory stone?"

"It has Lang Feng's long hours within the smithy within the stone. Hundreds of years of experience if you could believe it. The man learned at an age just a little younger than you two and spent years within his workshop. He only took enough time out of his work to eat, sleep and conceive my grandfather." The old man chuckled lightly. "That little pendant will go for thousands of gold, if not qi stones." He looked at Hong Zhao thoughtfully. "Or you could use it, if you have the elemental qi of fire."

"Elemental qi?" Hong Zhao remembered Li Wuhan who had both the flame and earth elemental qi. He knew that Lan wasn't able to figure out just what his was. "Do you know how to test for what kind of elemental qi someone has?"

"You have the fire elemental qi, and nothing else so far as I can see."

"And how would you know that?" Hong Zhao raised his eyebrow as he looked at the older man.

"It takes one with the fire elemental qi to see it within another." Lang Xinyue explained. "No one of a different affinity could tell someone what elemental qi they have." He guessed at Hong Zhao's skepticism. "If you stay long enough, I might be able to show you how to refine elemental qi, though it would be so much easier if you were in the disciple rank or higher."

"Why is that?" Hong Zhao schooled his features but allowed himself to be excited in his mind. If he could learn to control the elemental qi of fire, it would also open up more opportunities for new skills. If he could master blacksmithing, maybe he could bring some of the weaponry from his old world to this one. If he could, not many could guard against things they knew nothing about.

"After breaking through to the disciple rank, one can use their gathered qi to create elemental qi. It takes only an instant, and requires little effort on the cultivator's part. They need only access their elemental gate within their dantian."

"Elemental gate?" Hong Zhao thought of any changes that might have occurred after he had broken through. With all of the training they had been going through, as well as the enemy cultivators who were constantly sent, he hadn't had much time to examine his dantian.

"It's nothing you have to worry about right now. Long ago Li Xiao had blocked our cultivation to a mere student rank. Even if you wanted to open your elemental gate, the ability to do so was lost a thousand years ago."

Hong Zhao nodded at Lang Xinyue's words. He kept his outer appearance that of a young boy learning from his elder, but on the inside he was counting the seconds before he finished with his lecture so he could call out for Lan. If anyone had an explanation, it would be his strange master.

"Even with that being said, we still have enough mastery over qi to have a single drop of potential leak through the elemental gate per hour or so, if you know how to look for it. With this, I might be able to teach you to forge, if only just a little. I'm no master myself, you see."

"I would be honored to learn, if you are willing to teach me." Hong Zhao bowed slightly to the old man.

"Then you are willing to stay and help the village?" Lang Xinyue stared at him with a fevered gaze.

Hong Zhao thought for a moment. He needed to get to Yuan City to find Yeng Feng. Yet, he also needed to learn a trade within this world. If he had to choose any that he would wish to learn, it would be blacksmithing. He still remembered many of the weapons he had used in his previous life. If he learned the inner workings of the trade, he might be able to make something like what he once knew. It would be quite handy to have a few collapsible blades. If his ring were ever taken, he would need a few weapons stashed away on him, just in case.

His mind was made up. The gains for staying far outweighed the loss in time. He nodded to Lang Xinyue. "I can stay for no more than a month, but I can also come back after we see my father." It was a pretty lousy excuse for an explanation on his part, but he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the old man nod back to him.

"Then it's a deal. Your room and board is on us until you leave." Lang Xinyue smiled, even as his wife scowled at him.

"Actually, I'd say the room and board was on the cultivators who just ran away." Hong Zhao chuckled lightly as he looked at his cup of tea.