The next morning dawned bright and early.
Yao Bin came to wake Tang Jian, informing him that Master Chen Guang was opening the furnace today and needed his assistance.
The two arrived at the Grand Hall of Sword Forging and waited for a moment before Chen Guang, now dressed in a short-sleeved brown robe, walked in from outside the hall.
He glanced at Tang Jian, still clad in his long robes, and a hint of displeasure flashed in his eyes. "Since you've worked with iron before, how could you not know to change into suitable clothing?" he said.
Upon hearing this, Yao Bin merely gave Tang Jian a look, his lips curling slightly upward without saying a word.
"The manor didn't prepare any for me beforehand, and I came in haste, so I didn't have any clothes to change into," Tang Jian replied, looking down and smiling bitterly.
"Just observe from the side today and don't help with anything. If you have any questions, ask Yao Bin later," Chen Guang said, his expression softening slightly as he spoke in a calm tone.
"Yes," Tang Jian responded promptly.
Upon hearing Tang Jian's response, Chen Guang no longer looked at him and nodded to Yao Bin.
The latter immediately turned and walked towards the fire pit, picking up a long iron hook from the side and using it to pull the circular iron plate inside the pit aside.
A scraping sound accompanied the movement, and a visible wave of heat rushed out from beneath the fire pit.
Chen Guang took a red square box from a wooden shelf, scooped up some fire essence powder, and threw it into the fire pit.
A loud "boom" echoed through the air!
A even hotter blast of air shot up, followed immediately by a crimson light shining from within the fire pit.
Tang Jian stepped forward to look and saw rolling crimson magma erupting from the underground fire well, flowing into the fire pit.
It filled the pit perfectly, neither too much nor too little, without spilling over even a little bit.
At this point, Yao Bin had already clamped the stone cup containing the melting materials with an iron tong and placed it over the fire pit.
Chen Guang began measuring various materials from the wooden shelf and putting them into the stone cup, his eyes bright and focused, just as he was when carving and awakening the sword.
...
As time ticked away, half a day had quickly passed.
"Clang, clang, clang!"
Inside the grand hall, Yao Bin, sweating profusely, clamped a roughly sword-shaped iron embryo onto the forging table. Beside him, Chen Guang gripped a black hammer, continuously pounding it with relentless force.
His clothes were also soaked, making him look as if he had just been pulled out of the water.
Tang Jian stood aside, merely observing, but he couldn't help but look at the middle-aged swordsmith with new respect.
Judging from the fluctuations of magical power emanating from Chen Guang, he should be at least a cultivator at the sixth level of the Qi Refining stage, possibly even at the seventh or eighth level.
Speaking of which, Tang Jian himself was originally only at the fifth level of the Qi Refining stage, so he couldn't accurately judge.
For an ordinary swordsmith, the sword embryo at this point would already be usable, and there would be no need to continue pounding. However, Chen Guang was different. He was obsessed with finding the optimal degree of hammering and refused to stop.
Just then, Tang Jian's gaze suddenly shifted, and a crisp "snap" sounded in his ears!
The already formed sword embryo, due to excessive hammering, finally cracked.
Seeing this, Yao Bin's expression turned anxious, and his hand trembled slightly, his eyes filled with regret.
"Close the furnace."
Chen Guang's expression remained unchanged as he picked up the broken sword embryo and examined it closely.
"The amount of blended crystal powder was still a bit too little, lacking toughness. Even if it were forcibly awakened, it would be hard to truly reach the level of a mid-grade magical sword," he murmured, looking at the patterns on the broken end.
After saying this, he took out a cyan notebook and a charcoal pencil from his chest and began writing on the forging table.
"Alright, clean up a bit," Chen Guang said to Yao Bin after a moment, putting away the notebook.
With that, he turned and left the hall, heading towards the small building.
Tang Jian went to the ebony shelf to help clean up the remaining materials. However, as soon as his hand touched the box containing the fire essence, he was sharply stopped by Yao Bin:
"Don't touch that! Just clean up the ashes in the fire pit. I'll take care of those things."
After saying this, Yao Bin quickly moved, blocking Tang Jian from accessing the boxes.
Tang Jian smiled indifferently, picked up an iron rod beside the fire pit, and began cleaning the cooled and stuck magma residue on the walls inside.
After finishing the cleanup, Yao Bin had also finished packing up the materials.
"Take that failed sword embryo to your room," Yao Bin instructed, glancing at Tang Jian.
Tang Jian bent down, picked up the failed sword embryo, and carried it out of the hall.
As soon as they stepped out, Yao Bin immediately locked the door and turned towards the storage annex.
Tang Jian glanced at him and also turned in the direction of the annex.
Due to previous incidents, Chen Guang's impression of Tang Jian seemed to be unfavorable. Coupled with the fact that Yao Bin had joined before Tang Jian, Chen Guang still primarily relied on Yao Bin's assistance during sword forging, rarely letting Tang Jian participate.
Tang Jian didn't really care about this. Instead, while observing attentively from the side, he had more time to reflect on his past shortcomings.
After comparing, he realized that what he had previously thought were skillful techniques were actually useless for sword forging.
During his sword forging process, he often considered more about how to make the forging easier to succeed. However, Chen Guang was different. He strived to perfect every step of the forging process, ensuring that the forged magical swords were more durable, sharper, and more convenient to use.
For this reason, he would even design the length and weight of the magical swords according to the different people who came to the sword shop, being extremely cautious during the inscription and awakening process, striving to make the forged swords perfectly suited to the users.
It was precisely because of this that the success rate of Chen Guang's magical swords was not very high, even lower than Tang Jian's.
Even so, people still came to the Yan Family Sword Shop in an endless stream to seek swords.