The two of them stared at the bowing Jian for a while until the man broke the silence.
"Oh, I've always wanted a junior brother, hahaha....I gues my wish came true" said the man with a toothy grin. He looked like a human faced lion with his hair like a mane; even his smile seemed wild " My name is Sun Lei, the third son of the Sun merchant family of the northern Mao Kingdom. I'm pleased to meet you to junior brother Jian."
The man smiled as he greeted Jian back, the young woman immediately followed with her introduction."I'm also pleased to meet you junior brother Jian. My family name is Fu and my given name is Shu."
The woman radiated an aura of grace that made Jian fixated on her. Fortunately or unfortunately for Jian Sun Lei patted his shoulder and whispered something in his ear." I know she is stunning, but you should show some restraint as her junior brother....what say you?"
Jian looked at Sun Lei and noded. He was just accepted as as a disciple by Gao, so he didn't want to gain the ire of neither of his seniors and just smiled and nodded his head.
"Good, now that you've introduced yourself then we will be getting to the good stuff." said Gao as he got up and got a hammer from the side. It's shape like that of a normal blacksmithing hammer, but in it were etched some strange flame patterns. They seemed to flow all around the metal part of the hammer like a thin film, making the hammer look like it was burning.
"Jian, you are now my disciple, even though an official one, but as a master I've got to teach something to you...so you better be observing really good. I'm going to show you the blacksmithing technique I use , the 'Blazing Strike'.
Now observe!"
"Ye..yes..." fumbled to answered Jian as it was such an unexpected turn. From a somewhat strained introduction straight into a demonstration of a forging technique. These techniques weren't like wild grass that grew everywhere, they were like a hundred year ginseng that could only be found by chance. Jian had seen several of the people here using their Qi in some way to assist in their forging and had asked them about it. He had been told that it was the bread and butter of a real blacksmith, one who could forge weapons cultivators could use. He had also been told not to stare to much at them as it was considered rude.
"Now watch carefully, I'm only going to show it to you once." as he said that Gao got an an ingot from the side and put it on the forge. Sun Lei and Fu Shu immediately manned the bellows and pumped fresh air into it making the temperature in the forge immediately raise and a heatwave hit Jian, but he opened his eyes wide. He didn't want to miss anything about this moment.
Less than three minutes passed and Gao moved once again, Jian maybe though it was to turn the ingot over, but he did something he didn't expect. He quickly took the ingot from the forge, and put it on the anvil before he began to hit it with a hammer.
'...this, what is he doing? The ingot it's not hot enough to work with yet.' Jian was left speechless by Gao's actions. It was like he was watching a novice blacksmith who didn't know about the best temperature to continue to work with the metal, but he still didn't speak. Gao of course didn't care what Jian thought about him as he continued to strike the metal, and as expected in less than twenty strikes the metal begun to cool of to a temperature not optimal for working, but that's when it got interesting.
"Siiiiii...." Gao's posture and demeanor suddenly changed as he breathed hard though his nose and the air around moved. Jian's brows shoot up as it seemed like several thin tornadoes were entering Gao's nose. It looked like he was manipulating the air ,but he would soon know that looking was different from staring.
*Bamm*
"Aghh...
The hammer hit the ingot once again, and a wave of heat and light radiated at the point of contact between the ingot and the hammer. Jian was a little surprised by this , and he took a step back. He did that just in time as another wave radiated, then another and another.....every hit on the ingot made a shockwave, but the real shock was that Gao wasn't stopping. He hammered and hammered at the ingot until it became the shape of a sword, and it was all in one go.
"Heh...your face says it all. I was also surprised when I saw Master Gao use the 'Blazing Strike ' for the first time. It's quite the formidable forging technique if I do say so myself. It is said that the creator of this technique could forged weapons only by using the free roaming Fire Qi." quipped Sun Lei as Gao quenched the sword in a vat of liquid. His senior sister on the other hand was fully focused on the movements of their master and completely ignored Jian.
Jian on the other hand thought that it was to be expected. The technique made it able to cut the time pf forging a weapon by at least half. He as someone who had forged weapons many times before knew the irritation when the metal got to cold to work with. ' Guess that I won't have such a problem again.'