The question posed by the old man stumped everyone present, including me and Shaylin. However, there was someone who disagreed - an older woman sitting across from the old man.
The middle-aged woman dressed plainly with average looks and spoke in a local dialect that indicated she was likely a tour guide familiar with Mount Modu. She was probably taking shelter from the rain at this moment.
Upon hearing the old man's words and seeing that no one could answer his question, the older woman said to him: "Old sir, isn't this matter simple? Those ancient swords all have spirits and require blood sacrifices to succeed. This is a very basic principle."
After hearing her response, the old man chuckled and said: "This explanation is too superstitious. A sword is just a sword; how can it have any spirit? Your explanation is far-fetched and misses the point."
The older woman retorted: "Then what do you think it is?"
"I'll give you a scientific explanation," replied the old man as he closed his fan.
"Scientific explanation? Ha ha! These things are just legends; how can there be any scientific explanations? Don't try to fool us," scoffed the older woman who didn't believe that he could provide such an explanation.
"My master is a professor at Zhejiang University and also an academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences whose research includes metallurgy. His answer must be scientific so you don't need to doubt it," interjected a young person next to him revealing his identity as they spoke up for him.
Unexpectedly, this old man turned out to be a professor which immediately earned respect from everyone present who stared at him in awe waiting for his scientific explanation.
"Heh heh... Let me explain scientifically about sacrificing oneself for swords," smiled the old man as he closed his fan before looking at everyone around him saying: "You should all know that before the Han Dynasty, and at the latest during the Three Kingdoms period, most of the weapons used by ancient people were made of bronze. Do you know why?"
Everyone shook their heads as they didn't study these things in their free time.
"This is mainly because bronze has a lower melting point than iron which only requires about 1000 degrees Celsius to melt. After forming, it's also more durable and sturdy compared to other metals so before the Han Dynasty, most metal products were made of bronze," explained the old man who paused for a moment before continuing: "As we all know, copper reserves in nature are much less than iron elements by an unknown number of times. Moreover, after forming into tools or weapons, both weight and hardness are stronger with iron compared to copper but why didn't people use iron back then? The reason was that its melting point was higher at around 1500 degrees Celsius while prior to the Han Dynasty due to low metallurgical technology especially using charcoal instead of coke as fuel which limited temperature limits making it impossible for them to melt iron let alone make any tools."
"Iron was called 'evil gold' in ancient times since it was difficult to melt. Many swordsmiths encountered difficulties when casting swords from this evil gold leading them towards sacrificing themselves for swords. Some sacrifices involved animal offerings while others involved human hair and flesh; however, the cruelest method required human sacrifice," continued the old man who took a sip from his tea before saying: "Sacrificing oneself for swords isn't just a legend but has scientific reasoning behind it. As we all know our bodies consist mostly of organic matter where carbon hydrogen oxygen are major components that can be burned resulting in high temperatures being reached within our body itself so-called self-immolation thus achieving temperatures necessary for smelting iron."
"Ah... I see now," said everyone present upon hearing what he had said with admiration evident on their faces.
And," the old professor continued when he saw everyone's attention, "everyone should know that pure iron has limited hardness and toughness. The truly hard iron products are actually made of steel. Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon, so in ancient times, people who practiced the ritual of suicide by sword inadvertently created steel alloys because the main component of organic matter is carbon. In this way, they surpassed their time and produced swords made of steel ahead of schedule. Naturally, these were much more powerful than bronze swords if the ratio of iron to carbon was reasonable. A properly proportioned steel sword can reach a very sharp and hard level that can easily cut through so-called bronze swords. For people at that time, it was a rare treasure. That's why there were so many legends about divine swords in ancient times like Gan Jiang Mo Ye Sword, Ancestral Sword or Red Sky Sword; those swords may be just like kitchen knives we use today but they were considered as artifacts back then."
"Oh, I see now! This is really informative." The old professor's speech made everyone nod their heads with excitement.
However, there were also unhappy people among them - one being an unsatisfied middle-aged woman.
"Old man," she said disapprovingly to the professor after his explanation ended,"you make sense but this makes all those exciting legends meaningless! I still believe those divine swords have souls; things cannot be as simple as you say."
"Heheh," chuckled the old man in response to her comment."We must believe in science."
"If you believe in science then why did you come here to Mount Modu? This place is where Gan Jiang Mo Ye forged his legendary sword! If what happened here seems foolish to your eyes then why bother coming?" retorted the middle-aged woman.
Hearing this remark from her,the old man laughed again saying: "Miss,you won't believe me but I came here not to visit as a tourist but for scientific research."
"Scientific research? What is there to study here?" Everyone was puzzled by his words.
"You can look up at the top of Mount Modu," said the old professor, pointing outside with his folding fan. "The peak of Mount Modu has lightning all year round and is called Thunder Pool. Do you know why this happens? This mountain isn't big or high, so why does it have more lightning than other places?
Isn't it simple? It's because the Ganjiang and Mo Ye swords transformed into a dragon and were placed in the sword pool. The dragon comes from the clouds, while the tiger comes from the wind. The dragon wants to soar through the clouds and ride on mist to fly high in the sky, so naturally there will be more lightning." The local auntie gave another "reasonable" explanation.
Hearing this, the old professor smiled helplessly and said: "Sister, you are wrong again. There is a scientific explanation for this lightning. We cannot believe in superstition."
The old professor's words caught my attention, so I couldn't help but squeeze forward and look at him: "Old sir, do you know what's going on with lightning on Mount Modu? Can you tell us?"
"The young can teach me! Little friend, you are very eager to learn," hearing my words, the old professor looked at me and then spoke slowly: "Mount Modu is one of China's four major thunderstorm areas with many flashes of lightning at its peak. Whenever it rains or winds blow here - as long as there is lightning - it always strikes first at its peak. Do you all know why? Is it really caused by Yin-Yang dual swords transforming into real dragons? Or is it just some kind of coincidence? Hehe...to tell everyone honestly, actually there is a simple reason behind this phenomenon; mainly because Mount Modu is a gold mine.