Qin Mu came to the blacksmith shop. Xu Shenghua had an apron tied on in front of him to keep flying sparks from burning his clothes—clothes that had once been resplendent and now looked little better than a rag for wiping tables.
He was forging a hairpin, rolling mystic gold through the press hundreds upon hundreds of times, each pass flattening it into the thinnest gold foil, folding it over, and finally hammering it into shape. A hairpin forged this way had the finest grain of all, the darling of noble ladies.
In truth, over the past month Xu Shenghua had made quite a name for himself in the blacksmith-shop circles of the capital. Quite a few Celestial Beings of the Six Harmonies Realm had come seeking him to forge spirit weapons, and many nobles sought him out for novelty items as well—hairpins, bracelets, things of that sort.
When a Celestial Being of the Six Harmonies Realm conceived a spirit weapon in their divine treasure, they needed a master smith to bring it forth, and the smith's skill mattered greatly. Xu Shenghua was clever, and he forged every kind of spirit weapon well. His techniques and divine abilities were endlessly varied, and he could always hammer out a spirit weapon that made a Six Harmonies Realm Celestial Being's heart flutter.
"Human Emperor Qin, go sit in the inner room for a bit. I'll come join you once I'm done with this hairpin."
Seeing him arrive, Xu Shenghua called into the shop, "Yanzi, the Human Emperor is here! Entertain him for me!"
Qin Mu walked into the inner room and said with a smile, "Just call me Cult Master. Calling me Human Emperor keeps reminding me that you and I are enemies."
Jing Yan came out wearing the clothes of a village girl, the gorgeous, elegant attire she had worn when she first descended from the Celestial Heavens long set aside, and carried over a pot of tea as she invited Qin Mu to sit.
The tea was coarse. Back when Xu Shenghua and Qin Mu first met, the tea he had served was the finest of the Celestial Heavens—the best tea Qin Mu had tasted to this day, called Azure Void Tea. But what was steeped now was plain, ordinary leaves.
"We're out of good tea, Cult Master Qin. Please forgive us."
Jing Yan looked abashed as she poured for him and said in a low voice, "The Azure Void Tea ran out last month."
Qin Mu took a small sip. "I'm used to coarse tea too. How did you take over this shop, anyway?"
"The young master had originally taken a house in the capital. He sold the house and bought this shop."
Jing Yan said, "Sister Yuliu couldn't stomach the hardship. She found an excuse to leave and went back to the Celestial Heavens. I'm the only one left here with the young master."
Qin Mu invited her to sit as well and said with a smile, "You're a good girl."
Xu Shenghua lifted the curtain and came in, a towel in hand. He had just washed his hands; he hung the towel behind the curtain, came to the table and sat down, poured himself a cup of tea, tipped his head back and gulped it down with a glug-glugging sound, then poured another.
Jing Yan was about to rise, but Xu Shenghua waved her down. "None of that formality. You're the lady of this smithy of ours. Sit."
Jing Yan had no choice but to sit.
A glint flickered through Qin Mu's eyes. Smiling, he asked, "Brother Xu, how have these past days been?"
Xu Shenghua sighed and shook his head. "Not great, but fulfilling. I never knew money was so hard to earn. In the Celestial Heavens I never once gave money a thought. And now I've learned exactly how much one Dafeng coin is worth! Brother Qin, you paid one Dafeng coin for ten bowls of noodles—what a waste! It would buy a hundred bowls with plenty left over!"
Qin Mu looked blank. "I honestly don't know exactly how much a Dafeng coin is worth. I'm rarely short of money. When I go out to eat, I usually just settle the bill with a Dafeng coin."
"You've never known a poor man's life."
Xu Shenghua gulped down a few more mouthfuls of tea and breathed out a long, turbid breath. "The money I've saved so far isn't enough to repay you. Give me a little more time. Two years should just about do it."
Qin Mu smiled. "It's pocket change. I'm not in a hurry—Ling'er keeps better track of it than I do. I actually came to invite you to the ceremony. The Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon is finished."
Xu Shenghua froze, then sighed. "In a little over two months you designed and forged a colossal divine cannon, while I can only forge spirit weapons for Celestial Beings in this little smithy. Fifteen days ago I sensed you lighting the furnace twice more—I suppose that was testing the cannon's mounting?"
"That's right."
Qin Mu drained his cup in one go. "The Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon was built with the strength of the entire nation. I don't charge for it—I don't lack money, and if I did charge, the emperor couldn't afford it anyway. Come, let's go take a look."
Xu Shenghua rose as well, pulled off his apron, and said to Jing Yan, "You come along too."
Jing Yan agreed, and the three of them left the smithy and headed for the outskirts of the city.
Once outside the city, they saw it from far off—a giant spirit weapon a thousand mu around. An enormous gun platform, and at the center of the platform the great eyeball had already been forged, floating at the heart of the light-gathering forks. Hundreds of Celestial Beings swarmed over the platform, busily running test after test.
The three of them walked up close, and Xu Shenghua and Jing Yan felt their hearts shake all the harder as they craned their necks at the monstrous thing. It was hard to imagine that Qin Mu had forged such a terrifying spirit weapon in barely two months!
Of course, this was no single-handed feat. It was the crystallization of the collective wisdom of nearly every master of the arts of calculation and every forging master in the State of Yankang—with Qin Mu's contribution the greatest of all.
Without Qin Mu's designs and his improvements to the forging techniques, Yankang's forging standard could never have produced such a heaven-defying treasure!
Qin Mu had pushed the forging craft of the State of Yankang forward by a good hundred years or more!
The emperor and the assembled civil and military officials had all arrived, along with the high and mighty of the capital and common folk besides, gathered to watch the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon light its furnace and fire. Even the Village Chief, the Qingyou Hermit, and the others had hurried here to await the great cannon's first shot.
"Furnace check normal! No cracks detected!" a Ministry of Works official called out at the top of his voice.
"Formation patterns check normal! No breaks detected!"
"Runes check normal!"
"Gun carriage check normal!"
"Light-gathering forks check normal!"
"Divine eye check normal!"
...
Voice after voice rang out. Shan Youxin looked toward Qin Mu, and Qin Mu nodded. Shan Youxin called out, "Furnace one, light up! Strength test—full power!"
A moment later an herbalist beside the furnace cried, "Furnace one at full power—test normal!"
"Furnace two, ignite and test!"
"Furnace two at full power—test normal!"
...
Watching this testing procedure, Xu Shenghua stood utterly stunned and murmured, "Cult Master Qin, when will I ever reach your level in the forging craft? My little smithy really is terribly shabby..."
Qin Mu consoled him. "Don't worry. Everyone climbs up step by step. I've had my down-and-out days too."
"Really?" Xu Shenghua asked doubtfully.
Qin Mu considered for a moment, then shook his head. "No. Not long after I left the village, I was already famous across the world."
Xu Shenghua fell silent, and after a while said, "Cult Master Qin, if you comfort people like this, sooner or later someone will beat you to death."
"Still, back in the village, I started swinging a blacksmith's hammer at age five, and learned to draft designs under Grandpa Deaf."
Qin Mu's expression stayed calm. "You've only just picked up a hammer. You have no idea how much sweat I've put in these ten years."
Xu Shenghua nodded. "So the Overlord Body's achievements don't come from idling either. I stand corrected."
At last, all fifty-six furnaces fired at full power. Every rune on the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon's base lit up, every formation sprang to life, and the enormous gun platform slowly rose into the air. Waves of terrifying power burst forth, setting space itself trembling.
The energy within the fifty-six furnaces surged madly toward the light-gathering forks, and passing through the two forks it became four thick beams of light that bored into the great divine eye at the center.
From within the divine eye came the sound of gears turning, faster and faster—and then suddenly the sound was gone. The eighty-zhang divine eye seemed to turn incorporeal on the spot. Every formation pattern inside it activated, and the mystic gold, mystic iron, divine gold, and divine materials that made up the eye all vanished, replaced by an eyeball bathed in cleansing divine light.
A closed eye.
Rrrrumble.
The enormous eye rotated on the gun platform, the wind of its turning frightening enough, and the throb pulsing from within was more terrifying still—even the powerhouses of Cult Master rank present felt their hearts quail again and again.
"Cult Master Qin!"
Shan Youxin stood on the platform and bowed to Qin Mu. "The Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon is fully prepared!"
Qin Mu rose to his full height and said to Emperor Yanfeng, "Your Majesty, if you please!"
Emperor Yanfeng drew a long breath and rose through the air with all his civil and military officials to the platform. He said gravely, "Supervisor Qin, after two months of your toil, this shot should be fired by your hand!"
Qin Mu assented. Shan Youxin brought forth a jade plate in both hands, and as Qin Mu channeled his vital qi, the plate at once burst forth with dazzling light. The light spread into a screen of radiance three feet across, showing the surrounding scenery.
Qin Mu gently turned the screen of light projected from the jade plate, and the divine eye of the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon rotated slowly with it. He adjusted its bearing until it pointed at the sky.
He tapped the jade plate. The great eye snapped open all at once, and a pillar of light tore through the vault of heaven. The sky quivered violently, then ripped apart—everyone saw a black scar appear across the heavens, slicing the sky in two, while the pillar of light had already vanished without a trace!
A moment later, a thunderous roar came rolling in from beyond the sky, like ten thousand thunders sounding at once, shaking heaven and earth!
A vast rift had opened in the sky. Within the rift was nothing at all, and only after who knew how long did the rift begin slowly to heal.
Xu Shenghua's heart sank lower and lower. In the Celestial Heavens, no one could take this shot—not even his revered teacher, the Jade Lord, not even the other three of the Four Lords. None of them could withstand the cannon-light of the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon.
This weapon was no longer a weapon of the mortal world!
It was a god-slaying weapon!
"My money was not spent in vain..."
Emperor Yanfeng gazed up at the slowly healing sky and murmured, "State Preceptor, what a pity you're not here. You didn't get to see this."
Out on the grasslands, the State Preceptor of Yankang was leading the great army back toward Yankang. He abruptly lifted his head and saw the scar across the sky, and his heart shuddered violently. "Cult Master Qin, at last you have forged a god-slaying weapon..."
On the platform, Qin Mu dispersed his vital qi. The light screen cast by the jade plate faded away, the furnaces began to go out one by one, the formations slowly wound down, and the enormous Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon began to descend gently from the air.
Qin Mu looked up at the sky and murmured to himself, "It's called the Sun-Shooting Divine Cannon, after all. Shouldn't we put a shot into the sun?"
Everyone around shivered through several cold chills at once. Emperor Yanfeng hastily snatched the jade plate back out of his hands and barked, "Supervisor Qin, if you snuff out the sun with one shot, how are my common people supposed to live?! Your thinking is far too dangerous—I ought to have your head!"
Among the officials, one upright courtier quickly said, "Your Majesty, a sovereign's word is no jest!"
Emperor Yanfeng turned to look at him, then waved a hand. "I was jesting. Can't you even tell? What use are you to me? Retire to your hometown. And my dear Qin—how does this jade plate work?"