A Master and Disciple Talk

Inside the bag was a strange blue pills with a golden runes etched on the outer layer, they looked really beautiful like a work of art. There was another type of pill, it was grey and just like the blue pill it had runes etched on the outer layer but these runes were instead of gold they were red. There was several dozens of them between seventy to eighty each. There was also a herb that looked like a leaf, it was blood red and you could see the massive veins that looked like they would pop out of it, there were several dozens of these leaves as well. There were two black scrolls that radiated powerful energy and a black ring with blue runes engraved on it looking very mystical. Finally there was a red dagger that had a black handle, the blade was 40 cm long.

"The blue pill is a Clear Soul Pill, it enhances the growth rate of your soul force. It is 900 times more powerful than the Soul Assembling Pill in the city. The grey pill is Deathly Flame Body Pill, it is a body enhancing pill that increases growth rate of your strength by 1000 times but it has an effect of boiling your blood until you die hence the name 'deathly'. But do not worry as the herb in the bag, the Blood Vein Leaf manages to counter that effect as it strengthens the blood in your veins and strengthens the resistance they have to the heat of the pill. You are probably wondering how we got such amazing pills when most of the great recipes have disappeared long time ago; our family managed to steal some great recipes though not the best but they helped me reach the stage I'm in this day. The two black scrolls are combat inscription scrolls, one is black gold and the other is gold. In there you have a black interspatial ring, it has an area of 1000 square meters. Finally the blood dagger, it's one of our family's artefacts that was used by the ancestor, once it absorbs enough blood it can send a red energy wave that it's gold rank so be careful with it." said Shen Hong as he told Shen Yue what each item was.

Shen Yue thanked his father and went back to his room to meditate, he would have taken some of the pills but he decided against it as he hasn't got experience with using pills and two, he needs to consult his master who is in charge of his training regime and diet.

The next morning...

Shen Yue dresses in his usual blue hanfu and headed for the Secret Treasure Pavilion on his way he met a few of his friends, Niu Wang, Li Chum and Shen Kai. They were doing their daily morning exercise of jogging 15 km.

"Do you want to join us?" asked Niu Wang, the boys stopped jogging and looked at Shen Yue. He was in charge of their regime and training.

"Nah. Continue and then do what I told you. Add 50 extra to every one of your exercises and after that take some healing pills and eat plenty of food especially meat, didn't I tell you meat is made of protein which helps muscles repair."

The boys nodded before they stood still like living statues for a minute before they jogged again like mad boys.

Shen Yue continued walking through the streets, he was greeted by many people that he met on a regular basis whenever he walks the usual route to Secret Treasure Pavilion, the people in the city have a positive view of Shen Yue now, their view was slowly changing from a not-so nice kid to an actually nice kid. Every one he met would greet him, the girls would say 'hi' and the guys would nod with respect.

Shen Yue went inside the Secret Treasure Pavilion and was greeted by the clerk.

"How's it going my little friend." smiled Han.

"Good, how's it going for you Han?"

"Nothing the usual, there's less people coming each year, the sales are going down. I wonder what master's going to do." Han was slightly anxious, he was working in the secret treasure pavilion since he was young though he wasn't Master Kang's direct disciple, but he was only taught how to forge and make inscriptions. He had a reliable income thanks to this place, him and the store have been through rough times but thanks to Master Kang they managed to remain stable.

"Just believe in master!" said Shen Yue smiling, trying to give hope.

"I know." nodded Han.

Shen Yue headed of to Master Kang's working area, that's where he is everyday. He found Master Kang hammering faster than sound, he hammered so fast that there was practically no sound. The iron that he was hammering turned to a red puddle yet still got hammered, not a single drop of the substance splashed. Master Kang was beyond human or machine capabilities and was close to divine.

"Come on in! I wanted to show you something today." Master Kang noticed Shen Yue and told him to enter which Shen Yue did."Now that all the tournament thing is settled I will teach you everything I can, starting with smithing, then inscriptions and even forging. The smithing technique I will teach you today is Infernal Tempest Hammer, it requires being able to hammer really fast, the minimum requirement for the first level is 10000 hammerings in a minute. Having a spirit flame so that you can channel its heat and flames into the hammer. And lastly having good eyesight which enables hitting the pressure points or meridians of the metal. You have reached all the minimal requirements." said a smiling Master Kang.

"There is a specific pattern of hammering that you need to know for this to succeed. Watch this and after that copy my movement, I'll be very slow." said Master Kang as he got into posture.

Master Kang started swinging his hammer, it didn't look like smithing but like a dance instead, Master Kang was hot as fire and free as the find, he could move his hammer in whichever direction he wanted to and made it look good. The hammer in his hand was steaming hot and the gas released slowly and faintly like a work of art.

Shen Yue then tried to imitate Master Kang but failed as the hammer in his hand slipped and landed on his foot and then he screamed like a cat named T*m 'ahhh', same as last time when he dropped that hammer a year ago

"Don't worry and don't try to rush, try again. Failure is a mother of success after all."

Shen Yue tried again, he channeled his spirit flame along with it and this time it worked as his hammer moved freely, steam was produced and his movement was a beautiful dance unlike that uncoordinated crap he did earlier.

Shen Yue decided to use this technique on the slab of iron that was standing there on the anvil.

Bang!

As Shen Yue started hitting the iron he managed to land thousands of strikes in a matter of seconds, loud bangs could be heard though through out the store. The iron slowly turned into a puddle of magma but it splashed and the iron suddenly got ruined as it turned black like charcoal.

"Little Yue, this smithing technique isn't easy as when you smith you communicate with the material, don't let it move a millimetre and don't let it splash as the connection is lost and the spirit of the material will see it as rudeness and degrade themselves. And yes, iron has a spirit. Everything has a spirit but no one can communicate with them."

After a few more tries and lectures Shen Yue finished his lesson in Smithing and was ready to ask Master Kang some questions.

"Master, I have these pills. Can I use them?" asked Shen Yue.

"soul pill and body pill...hmmm...You can only use that soul pill once and those body pills twice. The rest use them to nurture your flame, using too much pills will destroy your foundation that you worked over the year to create."

"Thank You Master! Another quick question. how strong are you? I heard that the demon lord fears you."

"I am strong enough to kill the demon lord. Why do you ask?"

"Can you kill the demon lord for me master? I want to take over the dark guild, not to do evil things of course, but to start building an empire around the whole existence but right now the demon lord is standing in my way."

"Fine but that will have to wait for a year as, for you will have to do something for me. You have to create a legend rank weapon within a year, if you fail then I will kill you. Simple." smiled Master Kang as he closed his eyes, this radiated a ominous aura around Kang. Shen Yue had a bead of sweat on his forehead as he scratched the back of his neck.

"Oh! Master! Tomorrow is my birthday. I hope you come tomorrow."