Chapter 7: Weapon Refining
Chapter 7: Weapon Refining
Tungsten Steel Powder was an extremely rare material. Every time the Merchants Association took it out, it was always sold at an inconceivable price. Furthermore, there was no market for the material. If there was ever a substitute for such a scarce material, then the high demand for Tungsten Steel Powder would dramatically decrease.
Qin Yu saw the disdain on Tie Shou’s face and his own face exposed an even stronger expression of contempt. His voice was indifferent as he asked, “Isn’t there Fire Mica, Water Crow Powder and Black Star Stone?”
Tie Shou was slightly startled. He originally thought that Qin Yu was ignorant when it came to tool refining but he didn’t expect that Qin Yu would actually know such rare materials like Fire Mica and Water Crow Powder. It seemed like this boy wasn’t a complete idiot.
However, what did he want the Black Star Stone for? Black Star Stone was a type of spirit stone and cultivators normally used it to cultivate by absorbing the spirit qi. It was not a material for tool refining.
Tie Shou was very curious. “Young Master Qin, I [1. Still referring to himself with 老朽 aka rotten old man here, but I thought it wouldn’t fit into the sentence well so I just replaced it I. Just know that whenever he speaks to Qin Yu, its always referring to himself derogatorily!] have Fire Mica and Water Crow Powder here, but not Black Star Stone. May I ask why you would need these materials?”
Wang Murong who stood next to him curiously said, “I have some Black Star Stone. However, I don’t know what Qin Gongzi would like to do with them."
“Just having it is fine. I’ll be troubling Great Master Tie to prepare these three materials for me. Let’s go to the weapons workshop.” After speaking, Qin Yu took the saber and directly walked out.
“This...” Tie Shou glanced at Wang Murong. To tell the truth, he wasn’t willing to go and prepare these materials for Qin Yu.
Tie Shou sighed helplessly and was forced to obediently prepare it.
After entering the Weapons Workshop, Qin Yu walked straight to the biggest furnace. For other furnaces, just having one strong man manage the fire would be enough but this furnace required two.
Qin Yu instructed, “Both of you over there, I’ll be troubling you for a bit. May I ask you two to tend to the biggest furnace’s fire? The bigger and stronger it is, the better.”
The two brawny men looked at Qin Yu strangely. Why was a young man who wasn’t even part of Tie Shou’s Craftsman Shop telling them what to do? The two just stood there and didn’t move. When tool refiner apprentices faced outsiders, they all seemed to have an innate arrogance to them.
“Do as he says.” At this moment, Tie Shou came over with his chief apprentice behind him. The tanned faced Mo Yu carried two materials in his arms: Fire Mica and Water Crow Powder.
The two brawny men wouldn’t dare to disobey Tie Shou’s orders. Here, Tie Shou was the emperor and whatever he wanted them to do, they would do.
“Yes, Master.” The two brawny men didn’t object and immediately went to tend to the furnace’s blaze wholeheartedly. Inside, the fire immediately began to grow and whistle fiercely, quickly raising the surrounding temperature. [2. Unrelated Note: Seriously, I always wonder how they never burn their long hair when forging in these Xianxia novels O.o]
Qin Yu looked at the flickering flames and loudly shouted, “Raise the heat!”
Due to Wang Murong’s request, Tie Shou was forced to order his men to serve Qin Yu. But he was also curious and wanted to see what exactly Qin Yu wanted to do. Could it be that Qin Yu thought the saber he refined wasn’t good enough and he could do even better? What a joke! As Luosang City’s only third-grade Tool Refiner Master, he could not tolerate such arrogance.
Qin Yu didn’t care about what they thought. He was completely focused on his own thing. The flames in the furnace were scaldingly hot and once he felt that the temperature was just right, he shouted, “Black Star Stone!”
“It’s here.” Wang Murong shook her hand and a pile of Black Star Stones immediately appeared.
Qin Yu saw how the Black Star Stone appeared out of nowhere onto Wang Murong’s hand and his eyes sharpened. He fixed his eyes on Wang Murong’s slender finger. A trace of astonishment flashed through his eyes.
A space ring?
It was something the average person could never afford. Plus, compared to the extremely rare Tungsten Steel Powder, the space ring was over a hundred times rarer and more valuable. In Luosang City, even the venerated Tie Shou didn’t have one, not to mention the Qin Family Master who was never seen with anything resembling a space ring.
Wang Murong was only a girl in her teens yet she had such a valuable object that could easily take out a pile of Black Star Stone. What kind of terrifying family background did she have? Qin Yu grew more and more curious about her background.
It wasn’t just Qin Yu, everybody standing at the side couldn’t help but swallow a gulp of saliva as their eyes exposed a thread of greed. Fortunately, they were all weak. If they were stronger, they would have directly killed her and taken it. After all, this was a cultivator’s world. The weak were prey to the strong and killing others to seize their valuables was a common occurrence.
“Qin Gongzi, is this enough?” asked Wang Murong.
“It’s enough.” Qin Yu hastily accepted the Black Star Stone and turned to throw it into the hot furnace before loudly shouting, “Add more force and make it even stronger!”
The two brawny men who were stoking the fire dripped with sweat as they frantically fanned the blaze. The flames in the furnace released a wheezing sound as it roared. The furnace slowly turned red.
The furnace was specially designed for high temperatures, so there wasn’t a need to worry about it melting.
Qin Yu saw that the two were running out of strength and once again loudly yelled, “Switch for someone else!”
Two other brawny men came up to replace them and continued to fan the blaze
The Black Star Stone slowly melted under the high temperature of the furnace, becoming jet black. The Black Star Stone wasn’t exactly a stone, but a meteorite that fell from the heavens. It wasn’t gold, iron, or dirt. A normal person would think that it would be impossible to turn it into the mysterious substance[2. TL Note: The ** were in raws, so I’m not quite sure what they mean either. But we replaced it with “mysterious substance.”] and that the Black Star Stone would just directly turn into ash. Tie Shou also thought this would happen because to him, it was just Black Star Stone, a type of rock. Only now did he discover that the Black Star Stone could liquefy.
Qin Yu wasn’t a Tool Refiner Master, so how did he know that Black Star Stone could be liquefied? At that moment, everyone grew more and more surprised by Qin Yu.
After the Black Star Stone became completely liquefied, Qin Yu shouted loudly, “Bring the Fire Mica and Water Crow Powder!”
Mo Yu who had been waiting at the side for a long time now immediately stepped forward with the Fire Mica and Water Crow Powder.
Qin Yu took the case Mo Yu offered and threw the two materials into the furnace.
Seeing Qin Yu’s actions, Tie Shou’s startled expression changed. He couldn’t help but stomp in anxiety and in spite of his image, he shouted, “Stop! Fire Mica and Water Crow Powder are completely incompatible! If those two are placed together at high temperatures, it’ll trigger a huge explosion! You...!”
“Boom*
Tie Shou’s words were too slow. Plus, Qin Yu wasn’t paying any attention toward him. The two objects directly fell into the furnace which immediately released a succession of bangs and booms.
“Miss, quickly leave! Everybody, get out of the way!” Tie Shou shouted as he pulled Wang Murong far away to leave. When the other men heard his shout and the series of explosions, they ran off even faster than hares.“
In a flash, everybody around the furnace ran away except for Qin Yu who was just standing there. His expression was shocked as he watched them run away in all four directions. The hell? Isn’t this way too ridiculous? It’s just a few explosion sounds! Did you really need to run so far?
Qin Yu didn’t bother with them and after a moment of shock, he focused his attention on the constant explosions as the molten bubbles boiled.
After the furnace’s fire stopped being tended to, the temperature of the furnace decreased little by little. The three materials inside the furnace continued fusing together, turning into a sticky, dense mysterious substance. [3. Again, ** was in raws so we replaced it with “mysterious substance.”]. The bubbles slowly faded away along with the explosions until only the furnace’s rumbling remained.
After the three materials fused together, it created a chemical reaction and something bizarre happened inside the furnace. It was originally a black mysterious substance but now it suddenly turned into a faint red. The faint red turned more and more vibrant as the black gradually faded. Finally, the mysterious substance’s color turned completely red.
Qin Yu watched as the mysterious substance in the furnace change colors until it completely became the color of blood. He took the saber in his right hand and extended his left. Suddenly, he sliced his wrist; a thin, red line immediately appeared as watery blood poured out. The dripping of his blood could be heard as it fell into the furnace.
Originally, the mysterious substance inside the furnace had a color that barely resembled blood and wasn’t even a real blood red color. After Qin Yu dropped his blood into the mixture, the smell filled the air. Now, there was a person’s real blood inside.
After enough blood had been dropped in, Qin Yu pulled back his hand and simultaneously dropped the saber into the dense, blood-colored mysterious substance. A hissing sound followed.
The sticky, dense, and boiling mysterious substance touched the ice-cold saber and immediately began to assimilate with it.
Qin Yu waited a moment before he quickly used the specialized tongs to take the sabor’s hilt and stir it inside the furnace. Afterward, he took it out and placed it on the iron, allowing it to cool slightly before he picked up the hammer with his other hand. Clanging sounds echoed as he forged the metal.
Seeing this, everyone was stunned, especially Tie Shou who was an expert in forging. Like everyone else, his entire face was filled with disbelief as he stepped forward, completely forgetting about their embarrassing display of running away earlier.
Wang Murong’s beautiful eyes held a different kind of luster to them. Qin Yu, was he really able to refine tools? Based on Tie Shou’s facial expression, she was able to confirm it.
Maybe it wasn’t the same in other areas but in Luosang City, if Tie Shou claimed he was second, nobody else would dare to claim they were first. That’s why he had always been aloof and arrogant in Luosang City, never placing anybody in his eyes.
But now, he was staring at Qin Yu’s proficient actions rigidly. That precise hammering technique, that perfect control of strength... What the hell? Even he couldn’t achieve such perfection!
This, this...! Since when did Luosang City possess such a monstrous tool refiner ah? How could he be so shameless as to say he was Luosang City’s number one tool refiner, now?
Disregarding the comparison of their skills, just from how he fused together Fire Mica and Water Crow Powder—two supposedly incompatible materials—was already enough to determine he was inferior to Qin Yu.
Was he a Tool Refiner Master? No, he must be at a level higher than a Tool Refiner Master.
At this moment, Tie Shou was completely shaken [4. Unrelated TL Comment: You have no idea how much I wanted to write shook here oof]. He just stood there stupidly as he watched Qin Yu’s movements.