Chapter 297 — Heaven-Bestowed Divine Edge

Two days later, Fan Yunxiao sailed back from Yongzhou, carrying the materials Shen Mu needed for forging his swords. The Directorate Foundry in Fangzhou was busy once more.

Forging the sword blanks was not troublesome—it was only the initial shaping of the sword's form. Even so, each blank had to be forged a thousand times, tempered and cast over and over.

The finished blank had a flat, rod-like blade. To grind it into a sword still required Shen Mu's own hand, a thousand hammer blows and a hundred refinements.

Shen Mu hefted one of the blanks, and his expression turned somewhat grim. Si Yunxiang stepped up and asked with feigned concern, "Cult Leader, what is it?"

"A bit heavy."

Shen Mu said sullenly, "It seems two or three times heavier than I imagined. One sword weighs three hundred catties. Once forged into a sword pellet, eight thousand swords..."

Si Yunxiang burst out laughing. "The Cult Leader asked for the finest materials, so of course it will be heavier. The edge material used this time is better than that of the swords the emperor bestows on first-rank ministers—heavier, keener, harder to forge! The greatest craft appears unhewn. The Cult Leader need only hurl the sword pellet at them, without executing a single sword move, and it will be enough to crush a great swath of them to death."

Shen Mu said with a black face, "That is, if I can throw it at all. Eight thousand swords..."

Si Yunxiang was beside herself with glee. "I have heard that when a treasure is forged to the utmost, its weight follows the heart, light or heavy as one wills. The Cult Leader is a great master of treasure forging—surely you can bring the sword pellet to that stage!"

Shen Mu turned and walked off carrying the blank, muttering incomprehensible things—something about "a hundred forgings, a hundred tempers, and the divine craft is born," something about "my strength uproots mountains."

Si Yunxiang blinked, her heart greatly eased.

In the Directorate Foundry, Shan Youxin would have liked to stay and observe Shen Mu's sword forging, but the Crown Prince Ling Yushu still had other provinces to visit on affairs of state. He had no choice but to order disciples of the Heavenly Craft Hall to come and help, while he himself and the officials of the Ministry of Works followed Ling Yushu to the next province.

With the Heavenly Craft Hall disciples to assist him, Shen Mu's sword forging was not slow. Yet to forge all eight thousand swords and make them fit perfectly with the form of his own primordial weapon was still a vast undertaking.

Especially since the heavenly treasures Si Yunxiang had sent were of such fine quality that forging them to shrink and grow at will was exceedingly laborious. Shen Mu kept imprinting the primordial weapon, and had to strike various marks into the sword bodies as well. After several months he had worn himself thin.

Ling Yuxiu and Si Yunxiang stayed to help as well. The two women learned a great many forging techniques from Shen Mu, and added some fine materials to their own Nine-Dragon Weapon and Thousand-Silk Sword, raising them a grade.

Shen Mu forged seven thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine swords. The last sword was the mother sword within the sword pellet; it had to be made of the finest material, or it could not command the other daughter swords.

To forge the mother sword, Shen Mu taxed his wits to the utmost. He had set aside the finest material—a metal he had never seen before, a lump only the size of a fist, and a lump that size weighed ten thousand catties. Si Yunxiang said it was a thing that had flown down from beyond the heavens.

But this lump of metal was only enough to forge the blade and body of the sword; it was not enough for a complete mother sword.

Shen Mu took the broken sword from his Taotie Pouch. This broken sword too had come from the Golden Palace of Loulan; because Si Yunxiang had seen that the blade was broken, she had not extorted this one as well.

Holding the unknown metal in one hand and the broken sword in the other, Shen Mu made to compare them—when suddenly, with a ringing zheng, the broken sword and the lump of unknown metal drew toward each other and clashed together!

This turn of events was beyond Shen Mu's expectations. The broken sword blazed with light, and golden radiance streamed from the fist-sized lump of metal as well, as though streams of swords flew through the air, circling in great rings that enclosed Shen Mu at their center. The dazzling colors lit the Directorate Foundry through and through, and the radiance shot out through its doors and windows, exceedingly brilliant!

Ding, ding, ding—the sound came without cease. The light given off by the metal circled ring after ring and clashed against the broken sword's edge, and each impact numbed Shen Mu's arm.

How many times the light from the metal struck, no one could count. Suddenly the lump of metal fell to the ground, and with a clatter it crumbled to ash and scattered everywhere.

But the broken sword in Shen Mu's hand shone resplendent—how could it still be called a broken sword?

This broken sword had absorbed the metal essence of that lump, grown out a blade, and been made new!

Upon the sword body, strange patterns like dragons and like serpents writhed. The patterns brightened, then dimmed again, but Shen Mu had still seen the two words the patterns formed.

"Wuyou!"