Keisuke first broke down his sword into its original materials since it needed to be reforged after being broken
After all preparation was completed, he first started working on the hilt
Not much was needed in order for the hilt to be completed, since it was the blade that had been broken
Kei took out the Extreme Yin Feathers and he started incorporating them onto the hilt
It was a little tiring, but thanks to his training, Kei's soul power was a lot stronger than before, so this wasn't much for him now
After incorporating the Feathers onto the hilt, he put the hilt aside and started working on the blade
Kei started breaking down the mysterious black metal
'What!?'
It was very hard
'This must be the hardest material I've ever tried to temper and mould! This might be an even more amazing material than I thought...'
Although it was hard to temper this strange material, it was not impossible. Slowly but surely Keisuke would temper the metal in order for it to become the core of the sword
And just like that 6 days passed
'Good! All that's left now is to cloak the blade core with the materials from the broken blade!'
Kei had completed the core of the sword, now, it was time for the final steps
Kei got the hilt of the sword and combined it with the newly made core of the sword made entirely out of the mysterious black metal
And then he started coating the blade core with the materials from his broken blade
After doing so, the sword was almost complete
"We can't forget about the strange engravings now can we?"
The last part was of course, engraving the weird Runes onto the swords blade
Thus, Kei started diligently engraving the Runes
'Hmm, this is easier than last time'
After half a day, Kei finished the engraving, which took away quite a lot of his soul power, however he still had more than half of it left
'FINALLY!'
Kei then swiftly grabbed the sword in his hands
And poured his Qi into it as he swung it
~wosh woosh woosh~
"So goooodddd"
It felt nice to swing a new sword after a while
The sword looked almost the same as before, except for the hilt which was now alike the wings of a crow thanks to the Extreme Yin Feathers
White blade, black hilt along with a black handle
"Hmm, this is like Yin and Yang, pretty cool. Man, who would have thought that I would be able to make such a beautiful sword?"
Kei was satisfied with his new sword
After admiring its power and beauty Kei decided to head out, so he unsealed the door of the alchemy room
~grrgrgrrrr~(door opening noises)
"You are finally done" There, waiting for him while leaning on the wall next to the door was Yang Ming
"You seem quite happy to see me, is it about time the dragons den opened?" Kei was glad to find Yang Ming right away, he needed a guide after all, he didn't know how to get to the dragon's den
"Close, but it's not quite time yet, I felt that you finished working on your sword, and by the looks of it, you succeeded... It looks good."
Yang Ming's eyes were greedy for a sword as beautiful as Kei's
"You want one too? I could make you one if you'd like" a devious smirk appeared on Kei's face
"REALLY!?-" Yang Ming's eyes sparkled
"hehehe... For the right price." Kei would obviously sell his services for a lot more than they would actually be worth
"You devil! Can't a woman just get a beautiful sword for a fair price!? I can tell by that smirk that you will rip me off!" Even if it would be overpriced, Yang Ming was willing to pay for it, its not like she didn't have enough wealth
"Well, we can talk about the price at a later date, it's not like I have enough time to make you a sword right now, how much time till the Dragons den opens? I was thinking of grabbing a bite to eat, wanna come with?"
Yang Ming calmed down
"Fuuu, fine, we have 5 hours to spare till the dragons den opens"
Yang Ming pulled Kei by the hand and smiled
"There is this famous stall that sells dumplings near here, have you heard of it?"
*Five hours later
Yang Ming was fishing at a small lake, and Keisuke was keeping her company
"Why are you fishing anyway? We already ate a lot of murim dumplings"
Yang Ming had her eyes closed out of pure frustration since Kei didn't get it
"You don't get it at all do you? I'm not trying to eat the fish, I'm just passing time with a hobby! If you didn't like fishing you didn't have to watch me... Anyway, its about time we head to the dragon's den."
Yang Ming put her fishing rod inside a spacial ring that was on her finger
"Spacial rings look so much cooler than spacial bags.."
Kei was Jealous, but he wouldn't spend a fortune to get a spacial ring when a spacial bag worked well enough for his needs
"Yep, authentic cultivator material right here. Well then, follow me, I'll lead the way to the dragon's den, its finally time."
Keisuke nodded and they both flew towards the Mount Hua sect
*a little later
Keisuke and Yang Ming were in front of the entrance of the Dragon's Den, many disciples as well as the sect leader were also there.
The entrance of the dragons den was a circular metallic door a little bigger than van size, of course it had on it the engraving of a dragon swirling around a tree and two mysterious handles
"To think that all of this would be under the throne of the sect... Is this what they call hidden in plain sight?"
As Keisuke was philosophising he took a look around to see that other than the door, everything else seemed naturally formed as a cave, this space was also wide enough to hold in all the disciples and still have room to spare
As Kei was daydreaming, the sect Master got ready to make an announcement
"It is almost time to open the Dragon's Den, I already said most of the things I needed to say during the end of the Annual Tournament, so for now I'll just explain to the newcomers how the Dragons Den works so listen up"
Master Ming cleared his throat before continuing to speak
"Inside the Dragons den is highly condensed spiritual Qi, in fact it gets so condensed that it turns to liquid in the middle parts of the cave forming a lake, that is to say, the further in you cultivate the better the effect, but most of you won't be able to handle that kind of pressure, so you will be cultivating on the outer edges, this spiritual Qi not only advances your cultivation base but also your spiritual power, well that's all, I wish you all a successful cultivation session"
"I shall unseal the door now"
With that, Master Ming started pouring his Qi into the circular metallic door in order to unseal it
And after a significant amount of Qi went in, the door emanated a few runes around the door and they soon disappeared
Master Ming grabbed the doors handles and pulled it to the side, making a lot of rock scraping sounds
"!"
Kei was surprised as a sudden wave of Qi flowed through the now opened circular metallic door
"Now then, quickly head in everyone! Time is ticking!" Master Ming announced as he got out of the doors way
~stepstepstepstep~
Most disciples rushed in right away, but Kei and Yang Ming waited until the disciples weren't in the way
"Hooo? To think that we had the same idea"
Behind the two appeared Da Zhan as well as Zhan Liu
"You... You aren't going to attack me while we are alone in there right?"
Keisuke asked Da Zhan
"Come on, that's too cliché, I won't do that, look man, I underestimated you, and what you said may actually be true, maybe the person I have a problem with is just me, I can see now that I was being a duce. I apologise, I hope that you will forgive my rudeness"
Da Zhan's words were sincere
Kei smiled and spoke
"It's not like you killed my family, you were just a bit of a prick, so you went to a psychologist as I suggested ey? I accept the apology for your words"
Yang Ming stepped forward and added
"Its great to see that you are turning over a new leaf Da Zhan, let's work together for the future of the Mount Hua sect. We are not enemies, we have a similar goal after all"
"Yes" Da Zhan was a little reluctant, after all he had always looked down on everyone other than the sect leader
Thankfully humans can change by reviewing their wrongs
Yang Ming announced
"Hey look! The way is cleared! Let's head in"
The 4 of them then quickly stepped inside of the Dragons den
"This..!"
Keisuke was left speechless and with his mouth slightly agape
It was a naturally formed circular cave much larger than the one they had been previously in,
And, just as Master Ming announced a giant lake made of condensed Qi was in the middle,
The lake was cyan and sparkled beautifully, it also seemed to glow
"Don't let your jaw touch the ground, the real beauty of this place is the increase of cultivation speed"
Yang Ming told Keisuke as she started walking towards the lake
Surrounding the lake were many fellow disciples sitting in lotus positions cultivating, some were closer to the lake, others further away, while some even stepped onto the liquid Qi
Yang Ming, Da Zhan, Zhan Liu and Keisuke started heading toward the lake,
Soon they reached the lake
And Kei could feel the pressure it was emanating
"I see, it isn't too bad, why are all of these guys this far out, why not head further in?"
Zhan Liu quickly explained
"These disciples aren't as strong as us, this pressure may be too much for them already, you shouldn't hold them to our standards, they only started cultivating 2-3 years ago, and it might feel ok now, but as we go further towards the middle of the lake, we will feel extreme pressure as well."
Keisuke was a little embarrassed as he was reminded of the difference in strength between the realms
"Right..."
The 4 of them then stepped onto the water
"!"
The pressure went up several fold just by stepping on the water, but it was still bearable
After 10 steps
"This is as far as I can go, well, I'll start cultivating here then"
Yang Ming was the first to stop
"I will stop here as well, you two go on"
Zhan Liu stopped a step ahead of Yang Ming
Leaving only Keisuke and Da Zhan to continue
Keisuke was constantly using his cultivation technique which helped in relieving the pressure the lake was emanating, but even without it, he could still press on
"Well then, see you in a few days"
Kei told the two as he left with Da Zhan to step deeper into the center of the lake
10 more steps ahead, the pressure was much harsher than before
"You can still keep going!?"
Da Zhan was extremely surprised, how could a golden core mid stage come this far
"Well, I've almost reached my limit, what about you?"
"Me too."
They walked 2 more steps
"This is it for me, damn it, I wanted to make it to the middle."
Keisuke stopped and took a lotus position as he started to cultivate
The middle of the lake was not too far away from were Kei stopped, but he couldn't go any further
"You wish, I'll be the one to make it there instead." Da Zhan announced this and started moving forward
Taking 5 more steps ahead, and then stopped.
He had made it to the middle of the lake
As Kei was cultivating and absorbing the lake's Qi he noticed an exponential increase to his cultivation speed
'Amazing, I might even breakthrough to the peak of golden core like this.'
And then he felt something else as well
'What!?'
His soul power was increasing at a much faster rate as he absorbed the Qi of the lake
'Heheheheeh, no way. Like this I'll be able to breakthrough to Soul Rank 5 even sooner as well!'
'Hehehehee'
*To be continued