Forging Dagger

After this strange but harmonious breakfast, Jing Hai directly left to set up his sugar figure stall on the market while Jing Jiang stayed in the workshop to prepare the materials for the next lesson. Leaving Lei Mingxing to see off Chang Liuyun at the forge's entrance.

"Are you sure you want to go alone?"

Lei Mingxing didn't conceal the worry in her voice in the slightest, but Chang Liuyun still nodded with a somber light in his eyes.

"Yes, it's better that you stay here, I will handle that Young Master. After all, I'm not his true aim."

With these words, Chang Liuyun leaned on the simple wooden crutch Jing Jiang gave him, flashing one last glance at Lei Mingxing which she seriously returned, before stepping out.

She watched his limping figure disappear in the ever-moving crowd with unbridled frustration and annoyance in her eyes.

This d*mn arrogant young master! There were some troubles only waiting to break loose, she just knew it!

If only she could really get rid of him...

Sigh.

Weakness truly is the gravest sin you could commit in this world.

Just at that moment, Lei Mingxing heard Jing Jiang calling for her, so she hurried to join him in the workshop.

As soon as she entered, Lei Mingxing was greeted by a broadly smiling Jing Jiang and a pile of all kinds of different ores messily dumped on the counter between her furnace and Jing Jiang's.

"Today, we will try to create a dagger," Jing Jiang enthusiastically announced, "First, please pick out only the steel ores."

He motioned at the unorganized pile, expectantly watching Lei Mingxing.

Lei Mingxing didn't even bat an eye as she rummaged in the pile, only picking out the silver steel ores before presenting them to Jing Jiang.

And the latter was very satisfied with Lei Mingxing's performance.

She had identified the steel with absolute ease, not missing even the smallest piece.

He grabbed a few ores and walked over to his furnace, Lei Mingxing following obediently behind.

"We start with tempering the steel," Jing Jiang lit his furnace, "But the process is not quite the same as with iron."

The steel quickly reached an orange hue in the furnace.

"Steel is an alloy, different from iron, silver and gold which are pure metals, so we not only need to dispel the impurities that are still inside, we also need to improve the merging percentage of the different metals."

The orange glow from the steel grew more intense and the ore shrunk slightly, despite barely any impurities falling into the coals. Soon after that, Jing Jiang took the steel out of the furnace and laid it on the anvil. But he didn't stop with that ore alone, quickly grabbing another one and holding it into the furnace.

"We will repeat this process several times, because the ores we have here are relatively small."

Yet another steel ore lit up and shrunk before Jing Jiang casually put it on the anvil, not sparing it a glance in the slightest while already moving on to the next.

"This step should be completed rather quickly, you also have to keep a bit of your Qi inside the finished ores, so you will be able to combine them later. Which makes this process more about energy management and control than anything else."

Lei Mingxing watched in awe as Jing Jiang quickly refined the four pieces of steel.

The steel was still glowing bright orange when Jing Jiang put the tongs in his hands aside. He spread his fingers above the metal while closing his eyes in concentration.

Through Jing Jiang's careful manipulation, four pieces of ore seamlessly merged into one, as if there had been only one big slab of steel from the very beginning.

"The last step is to shape the blade."

He opened his eyes and grabbed one of the hammers behind him.

" This time, we have to use a hammer as well, just shaping it with your inner Qi is too difficult at this time and won't yield the best results," Jing Jiang shot the intensely focused Lei Mingxing a quick smile, "Usually, you will have to use a hammer that matches the size of whatever artifact you are making, but for today, just use the one that is the most comfortable for you."

Heeding his own advice, Jing Jiang took off a hammer from the wall and began hammering away at the steel. Not long after, a blade the length of Lei Mingxing's underarm took shape, paper-thin on the edge, gradually becoming thicker towards the middle.

Satisfied with his work, Jing Jiang hung the hammer back and grabbed the blade with his tongs, before drowning the blade in the water bucket.

"Just like that," Jing Jiang turned to face Lei Mingxing, "Now it's your turn."

His words snapped Lei Mingxing out of her trance and caused her heartbeat to quicken in nervousness, with a hint of excitement.

She also took four pieces of steel and walked in front of her own furnace.

With a flick of her hand, the ruby coal inside was ignited.

Using the pair of tongs belonging to her workspace she grabbed one of the steel ores, but she didn't begin forging just yet.

A few seconds passed as Lei Mingxing remained motionless, only closing her eyes while taking several deep breaths to calm herself. She recalled all of Jing Jiang's previous actions. Before, with a final nervous gulp, Lei Mingxing stuck the steel ore into the furnace.

The tempering of the first ore went well enough, but it still took her several minutes to get used to. The true challenge arrived with the addition of the second and third ore, as Lei Mingxing had to spread her focus and control equally between the finished ores and the ore currently in the furnace.

Lei Mingxing was already sweating buckets when she finally reached the fourth piece, but she still gritted her teeth and started working on it.

Twenty minutes passed and she had yet to complete the final piece, but she could already feel her control over the fire Qi begin to slip as her concentration dwindled.

Fortunately, she held on, completing the ore gasping for air, with the world spinning around her.

Lei Mingxing hurriedly staggered to the anvil and put the last steel ore on top, using the inner Qi inside to merge them as quickly as she could.

The moment four ores turned into one, the strain on Lei Mingxing's mind lessened significantly.

She let out the breath she had been unconsciously holding, tightly gripping the counter to steady herself.

Lei Mingxing panted as she tried to focus her spinning sight on the still blood-red glowing steel.

After resting for a short moment to catch her breath to a certain extent, Lei Mingxing felt recovered enough to continue the forging process. She grabbed a hammer before stepping in front of the steel that looked like seeping blood in her somewhat fuzzy sight.

Jing Jiang said something, but Lei Mingxing didn't even hear it as she began to swing the hammer.

Sparks flew like bloody rain but Lei Mingxing made sure to snuff them out before they could cause any harm.

The significantly smaller ore compared to Jing Jiang's began to stretch, but the blade wasn't perfectly straight.

Maybe because of Lei Mingxing's unstable state, or maybe because of her inexperience in using a hammer, the blade twisted in slight waves, and only its point was exceptionally straight and sharp.

This twisted appearance didn't take away from the dagger's threatening aura in the slightest however, rather insinuating its viciousness even further.

But Lei Mingxing had no time to think about that.

She picked the blade up with her arms trembling fiercely, sticking it into the water bucket with the last of her strength.

Steam rose and Lei Mingxing sunk to the floor, her heart pounding so fast that she feared it would directly stop in her chest.

But this sensation was overshadowed by the pure happiness of having more or less successfully completed the blade.

Small theater:

Lei Mingxing: *exhorting all of her power to forge a basic dagger for twenty yuan a day*

Chang Liuyun: *comfortably sitting at a table, separating herbs into their different parts for thirty yuan a day*

Lei Mingxing:...