"The old man's family has been blacksmiths for generations, so he would definitely have experience. Moreover, the superpower he awakened is a hammer, and he is the best weaponsmith in Lingzhou City. He would definitely have his own experience and know-how."
"Though alloy weapons and mystic treasures are different, they are all weapons in the end and definitely have something in common."
With that thought in mind, Jiang He took out the Feral carcass and fed it to the golden eaglet and the Cloudscraper Vine. He also gave Dumbo and the Seven Bottle Gourd Brothers a pile of Orirocks so that they could cultivate at home, while he drove the sports car he had not touched for a long time to the Lingzhou City MAD, heading straight to the old blacksmith's workshop.
The old blacksmith's position in the MAD was actually quite high, and those on missions would come to him for forging weapons. Aside from having his own office and workshop, it was said that the MAD had also given him a house with an annual salary of at least a million.
It was mealtime, and the old blacksmith was holding a lunchbox in his workshop.
On the other hand, the old blacksmith was not that reserved around Jiang He, and joked as usual when they met. "Mister Jiang, what brings you here today?"
It was the same familiar tone and dialect.
Jiang He teased, "You old coward. You never called me Mister Jiang before."
"What should I call you then?"
The old blacksmith put down his lunchbox and lit himself a cigarette, asking tentatively, "Coward?"
"You should just call me by my name."
Jiang He scowled. Coward?
Go ask around — who in the world would dare to call me that?
Still, it sounded quite cordial.
Hence, Jiang He stated his intention.
The old blacksmith did a double take and exclaimed in surprise, "Asking for my experience in weaponsmithing? I don't know anything about forging weapons. To tell you the truth, although my family has been a family of blacksmiths for generations, before me, my father and my grandfather made a living by forging farm tools. Not to mention weapons, they didn't even forge kitchen knives. "
"You're being humble, old man."
Jiang He smiled. "Who in Lingzhou City doesn't know that you're a master blacksmith? It's just that your Awakened class is a little lacking, but when your superpower reaches A-class, you would be able to forge S-grade alloy weapons, and there wouldn't be many in the Hua Nation who could compare to you. "
"A-class Awakened …"
The old blacksmith flashed a pained smile. "I'm just a blacksmith, and I don't even know how to improve my superpower. When would I reach A-class?"
"This is simple."
Taking out a bottle of rank-nine Origin Fluid that improves spirit and around 1.5 catties of purple-golden sunflower seeds, Jiang He said, "Drink some Origin Fluid and munch on sunflower seeds when you're tired from forging weapons, and your spirit would improve quickly … the strength of superpowers is actually linked to your spirit, and your superpower would naturally improve when the time comes."
The old blacksmith waved his hand repeatedly, saying that this item was too valuable and that he could not accept it.
Regardless of the consequences, Jiang He stuffed the purple-golden sunflower seeds and rank-nine Origin Fluid into his hands, smiling. "You've helped me forge weapons before, so consider these items a token of my appreciation. Still, you can't keep anything from me, and you have to teach me your experience in forging weapons."
The old blacksmith had to accept it, musing to himself for a moment before saying, "The truth is that I never forged a weapon before Duan Tianhe dragged me to the Martial Arts Department (MAD). I don't really know how to design weapons even now, and most of the time, others would give me blueprints and I would forge them according to them … and I mainly rely on my superpower."
Taking out pen and paper, Jiang He began to take notes.
Blueprints?
This was possible …
Moreover, the item refiners in novels all had to forge the embryo of a mystic treasure, did they not?
Blueprints and embryos must follow the same principle.
"Aside from blueprints, the forging process is important as well. Every alloy or ore contains substantial impurities, and it is only through repeated tempering that the impurities are removed that a fine weapon could be forged."
The old man gave a simple example.
Why was it that the same A-grade alloy weapon could be sold for ten million, while some could only be sold for six million?
It was because of the forging technique. For example, the degree of impurities removed during forging, or the effect of tempering when sharpening would affect the quality of a weapon in the end.
Jiang He listened seriously, and took up his pen to make notes.
After chatting with the old man for a long time, Jiang He would ask questions about forging if he did not understand anything. When the old man saw that he was writing and pausing, he poked his head towards him and asked, "What are you writing?"
The old man could read, but not much. Moreover, Jiang He's writing was sloppy, and it was clear that he could read even less.
Nonetheless, Jiang He did not hold back and answered truthfully, "I'm very interested in item refinement, which is why I wanted to find some inspiration to create my own item refinement technique."
"Item refinement?"
"Yes. Item refinement is a term used by cultivators, but it's basically the same as forging weapons."
The old man said with a start. "You should have told me earlier. I have a secret manual of forging that my grandfather left behind, and there are many techniques recorded on it … wait a moment, I'll get it for you."
Delight appeared on Jiang He's face.
The old man left his workshop, and soon returned with an old, yellowed tome.
"My grandfather left this," he said, "but I'm not very literate, which is why I've only read it a few times."
Jiang He accepted the old, yellowed tome. It was actually thread-bound and had a blue cover, but there were no words on it. When he flipped to the first page, lines of neat script appeared before his eyes.
"If you want to be bitter, forge iron, sail a boat, and grind tofu?"
That was the first line, and it was a summary of the 'secret manual'.
Even in ancient times, forging iron, grinding tofu, and sailing a boat were all extremely difficult, and few young people were willing to learn those things.
"If you want to be bitter, forge iron, sail a boat, and grind tofu." Below this sentence, there were two large words in black and bold — scissors.
Jiang He: "…"
The first page recorded how to forge a pair of scissors.
Flipping through the pages, he found that aside from scissors, there were also forging methods for rakes, shovels, kettles, hoes, axes, pots, and many other farming tools.
The only thing that pleased Jiang He was that aside from daily necessities and farming tools, the last page also recorded how to forge a cleaver.
"A cleaver is actually a weapon too, and could be used as a reference …" Jiang He focused his eyes, only to find that the page said, "The cleaver is the measure of a blacksmith's craftsmanship. Don't be fooled by its mundane appearance, but there are many and complex procedures involved in forging it."
"When forging a kitchen knife, the choice of steel is very important. With good materials, a little forging, and a little polishing, it will become a good kitchen knife. With trash materials, no matter how much you temper them, in the end, it will only be a trash kitchen knife."
Jiang He appeared thoughtful after reading that.
It should be the same for forging mystic treasures.
First of all, material selection was very important.
For example, if you wanted to forge a premium-grade soul item but all the materials you could use were inferior-grade soul items, the chances of forging a premium-grade soul item would be minuscule no matter how skilled you were in item refinement.
Taking out pen and paper again, he wrote, "First step in item refinement, material selection."
Jiang He continued reading the notes on forging a cleaver.
"Perfect control over the heat must be used to forge a cleaver. This process is also known as fire boiling, and its purpose is to fuse steel and iron together perfectly. If the heat is not controlled properly, cracks would develop in the fusion of steel and iron, and the cleaver would easily break in the later stages."
Jiang He's eyes lit up.
That could be applied to item refinement as well.
Many materials, both primary and secondary, were needed to forge mystic treasures. If those materials were not fused perfectly, the mystic treasure would be scrapped after a few clashes in battle … in fact, one's own mystic energy would shatter the mystic treasure, let alone fight.
"Third step in forging a cleaver, striking a plank."
"Hmmm … striking a plank is actually the embryonic form. For example, I would need a sword if I wanted to forge a sword, and a blade if I wanted to forge a blade …" Jiang He wrote furiously.
When it came to creativity, it all came down to a flash of inspiration.
Having found inspiration from forging a cleaver, his writing became smoother and smoother, and in just a dozen minutes, he had written hundreds of words, creating half of an item refinement manual.
"Fourth step, polishing … hmmm, I don't think that's necessary."
"Fifth step … quenching?"
Jiang He was surprised.
Quenching was actually the core technique in forging a cleaver?
If something went wrong during the quenching process, it would directly affect the cleaver's lifespan and quality. If the temperature during quenching was too high, the cleaver's edge would be brittle and easily chipped.
On the other hand, if it was too soft, the blade would easily bend.
"Is that so? It seems that quenching requires a lot of attention … and here I thought that quenching is just getting a basin of cold water and directly shoving the forged weapon in to cool it down … whatever, I'll have to change that. "
"If I'm quenching a mystic treasure, I'll need a basin of cold water first, and I'll just have to throw it in and soak it after I'm done."
"Hmmm … could there be some sort of recipe for other people's quenching?"
"Then I'll have to change it again. When I quench, I'll have to add a certain proportion of salt, vinegar, soy sauce, and starch …"
Jiang He nodded in satisfaction at the quenching method he had magically modified.
As for the last part …
It was very different from forging a cleaver, because mystic treasures needed to be inscribed with arrays and runes, a step called 'enchantment'.
"I don't know how to inscribe formations and talismans for the time being. Even though I'll learn them in the future, inscribing talismans and formations on a sword is already a huge headache … I'll just have to inscribe the words' enchant 'on the embryo of the artifact, and I'll be able to achieve the same effect …"
(PS: A book by Mr. Py. Title: "I'm the Trainer". Introduction: A cute PM doujinshi written by a cute person. I, Li Wei, have money, looks, a good family background, a childhood sweetheart, and a girlfriend. I can have whatever I want.)
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