Chapter 702 — All the Worthies Assemble
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
Beneath the cliff, He Yiyi led the women of the He family in continuing to repair the road, while Yan Jingjing helped Shen Mu control the Xuandu heavenly fire to smelt the Buddha-Essence Crimson Chromium and the Tianyin Gold.
The Buddha-Essence Crimson Chromium carried a powerful Buddha-nature; forged into a treasure, it blazed with Buddha-light. Those who refined such divine metal into weapons were, for the most part, monks. The Tianyin Gold, by contrast, was the material for forging soul implements; this divine metal could house souls and was most congenial to primal spirits, but wielding a primal weapon made from it would inevitably carry a ghostly aura.
That Lady Tianyin had needed to steal the Lord of Heaven's heavenly fire to forge her pagoda was precisely in order to burn away that deep, dense ghostly aura. But Shen Mu used the Buddha-light of the crimson chromium to neutralize the ghostly aura of the Tianyin Gold, so that he would neither resemble a monk at every turn nor summon gusts of ghostly wind whenever he wielded his weapon. He and Yan Jingjing first tested the proportions in which the two divine metals should be combined; besides neutralizing them against each other, they had to find the best balance of hardness and flexibility. After a hundred-odd trials, Shen Mu at last found the perfect ratio. He began smelting at once, hammering and refining his sword core.
Seeing him forge one flying sword after another, a most tedious process, Yan Jingjing could not help but wonder. "Brother Cowherd," she said, "I have watched you refine swords, and you can refine a flying sword until the blade flows like water and shifts at will.
If that is so, why forge them one by one? Refine the divine metal directly to the point where the sword flows like water, and would you not spare yourself the making of eight thousand flying swords?
" Shen Mu devoted himself wholly to forging the sword in his hand. "Every flying sword is stamped with different runes," he said.
"The runes within the flying sword must accord with my Mystic Body Three-Core Art, so that it fits me perfectly. That is why I must make certain that the runes on every sword are flawless .
. . " Suddenly his body trembled faintly. He stopped forging and stood staring blankly, lost in thought. Yan Jingjing watched him curiously. Shen Mu's expression gradually turned solemn, then shifted from solemnity to ease and delight, then to deep pondering; in a short while, more than a dozen expressions crossed his face.
"You are right! " Shen Mu clapped his hands and burst out laughing. "You are right! I forged the flying swords so as to refine each one to its most perfect state and stamp it precisely with the imprint of my art — but that is truly too tedious.
I can indeed simply refine a lump of divine metal and forge that lump into a sword core.
" He suddenly threw his arms around Yan Jingjing, meaning to lift her and spin her around, but gave a stifled groan — his own waist nearly snapped. Yan Jingjing was a deity of the divine realm; her body looked petite, but its true weight was terrifying. Shen Mu was still only of the Heaven-Human realm, and to think of lifting a god and spinning her around was, of course, a fool's dream.
Yan Jingjing's face reddened slightly.
She quietly circulated her power to make herself lighter, and only then could Shen Mu, carried on by his excitement, lift the girl and spin her wildly around twice. "Forging them one by one, I had to exhaust my mind considering the runes on each sword, dividing the imprint of my own art into eight thousand parts. I studied arts and calculations until I muddled myself, and forgot the simplest way. " Shen Mu set her down and paced to and fro, elated. "I will refine a single sword core .
. .
no, I will refine a single sword . . .
no, not that either — I will refine a single ball! This ball shall be my sword, my saber, all my primal weapons — that is, my Mystic Body Three-Core Art . .