The sound of clanging metal and fiery smoke rang through the cave.
Swing after swing Cain brought down a hammer on tempered steel.
(Now, remove the impurities. We can only use the purest material for the creation.)
With melting down the Warhammer and Yurombi, Cain had a lot of material to work with, however, this material was riddled with impurities due to time wearing on the weapons all these years. \
In the end, Cain had to remove much of it, being left with less than 20% of the original workable material.
"We don't have enough to form the weapon, it will be far too brittle...."
Cain began to give up hope, the sweat on his head trickling and evaporating before it even reached the forge.
(No, we have enough. Fold.)
"Fold?"
(Fold the steel over and over. Temper it again and again until we can't anymore.)
Cain didn't object and did as the inner voice said.
Over and over he hammered and folded. Hundreds of times, thousands of times, he folded again and again at a steady pace. Time became irrelevant, all there was was the heat of the forge.
During this process, Cain didn't realize it, but he lost control of half his body. The side of him that he lost soon had his eye turn red, and an insidious smile crept across that side of his face as it continued to hammer.
Time passed, and through the folding and hammering, the material left was not even 10% of the original material used. Yet it was enough.
Before Cain was a hardened blade a little over half a meter long. The original plan was for a much longer and thicker weapon, but even so, this blade could be considered a treasure alone for mortal blacksmiths.
Cain quickly doused it in spiritual water and finished the rest of the normal forging process.
Now, it was time for non-mortal means.
(The edge is sharpened, and the blade is ready. Now it's time to bring out its power.)
Preparations were already made near the end of the forging process, lines were interictally woven into the blade but it was not permanent, not in the way it mattered.
Cain walked into another room. It was filled with arrays and tools he previously didn't know how to use, but he did over the period he worked out how to make a 9 Lock Weapon.
Sitting down, he laid the sword before him and picked up a strange object that looked like a mix between a carving tool and a pen. He then took out a liquid and began to inscribe on the sword.
As he concentrated, Cain didn't realize it again but one of his eyes turned red and his hand changed minor parts of the seals he was inscribing.
The abnormality only lasted a moment, the changed sealing didn't rouse any suspicion. With it, the 9 locks were made and they vanished into the weapon. All that was left was the spirit that would be sealed.
Tapping his forehead, a gray spirit exited. It was a 3rd Tier Evolving Spirit, of course, it could also be called a spirit of adaptability.
This spirit's abilities were in both realms of adaptability and evolving which confused Cain at first, but over time he began to understand evolution and adaptability were the same thing. To evolve was to adapt.
The arrays around the room activated and the gray spirit remained the same. It was bound by many strange energies and was slowly being brought into the sword.
Seeping into the cold steel, the spirit did nothing, akin to a lifeless soul. Once it fully entered the sword, the 9 locks lit up and began to rotate as the inscribed lines disappeared again and the weapon began to glow with a red light.
After a few minutes, everything stopped, and the weapon was complete.
"A low-grade spiritual weapon, as of now it's only slightly more powerful than mortal weapons. What should we name it?"
The voice inside Cain's head rumbled as a single word was made out.
(Bloodletter...)
"Bloodletter it is."
Cain stood up and picked up the weapon. It was a single-edged blade with no hilt. It was simply a piece of metal, the grip to hold it was just the blunt part of the blade.
'It's uncomfortable.'
As he was leaving Cain's eyes sparkled seeing the cloak of Zhao Long's ancestor.
'It must be a spiritual object that lost its effects, it'll do.'
Cain promptly tore off some of the skeleton's cloak and wrapped it around his blade to make a makeshift hilt and used the excess fabric to wrap the weapon, hiding it in black cloth.
'Done. Time to go.'
Stepping out the door, Cain felt a wellspring of emotions.
He felt excited and happy, but he also felt guilty and depressed. But this combination left him numb, his face was emotionless and he simply went on with life like nothing happened, not happy, or sad.
Turning to close the obsidian door, he watched it shut.
"A pity we didn't find an internal harnessing method. The 9 Locks Master mentioned one near his hideout. Should we look for it?"
(No need, look next to the obsidian wall.)
Cain's eyes widened and he did as told. He stepped closer to the wall and saw a small hole, on the other end was a drop. The drop's walls were lined with glowing crystals.
"That leads to the inheritance?"
(Well it fits the criteria. No reason to not go in, we have time.)
Cain groaned and broke the wall, he then looked down to see an endless vertical tunnel of colors.
"I'm gonna die..."
He then jumped straight down.
After 5 minutes of falling, Cain crashed into an underground lake of spiritual water.
Coming back up to the surface he climbed out and threw up. He said nothing as he forced his body to stand.
He then noticed he found himself in a cave system.
(Go left and follow that route, you should find where the 9 Locks Master left from when he found the inheritance.)
"How do you know?" Cain questioned.
(Just do it.)
Cain sighed and yet again, did as he was told.
Indeed, the inner voice was right, Cain found an unnatural tunnel that dug through the rock at an angle. Cain began to make his way down this path
To pass the time, Cain asked his inner voice a question, "Why do you think the 9 Locks Master didn't take the Inheritance?"
(He did not need it. Not to mention cultivating would stop him from creating the 9 Locks Schematic. It was in his best interest to leave it for someone else. This is also the respect between two Masters. In addition, we don't know what cultivation level he was at so it might have been impossible to cultivate the technique. There are too many possibilities really.)
"I see..." Cain strangely forgot this hole in cultivation, he previously learned of.
...
Cain walked for a very long time. He almost stopped and went back but couldn't help but continue with greed starting to shine in his eyes.
Finally, he saw a light, a white light at the bottom of the colorful darkness.
Cain began to run, reaching this light.
Before him was a young man in the lotus position, with two jades in either palm. The man was dead, no breath came from him. Yet he looked alive as if he never died or aged.
Apprehensive, Cain quietly neared the man. Checking if the body truly was dead, only when he confirmed the man was dead did he let out a sigh of relief.
He then looked around to see that this place was a small room with only 2 exits, the one the 9 Locks Master made and a hole in the ceiling.
Cain's eyes finally locked onto the two jades as he made a decision and slowly reached out.