Even though Yin Wenbin strongly doubted the existence of the so-called Heavenly Forging Technique, he did not argue with it because the Nascent Soul Patriarch acknowledged it.
He grunted coldly and said, “No matter what kind of inheritance technique you have, you won’t win against me!”
He then took a vat of water out from his pouch for quenching. The water in the vat was crystal clear and it was glowing blue.
The Golden Core experts were having a heated discussion before they were silenced by the vat of water.
A moment later, the Golden Core experts lost it and squealed in shock.
“Holy sh*t! It’s the Spirit-Gathering Immortal Water! It’s even better than Rootless Immortal Water!”
“I heard the eastern domain only has two spirit fountains that produce Spirit-Gathering Immortal Water and they were dried out for hundreds of years now! How did he get that much for quenching?”
“He’s using the water for quenching? My gosh, what a waste! I really want a sip!”
The Golden Core experts reacted strongly to the water. If Yin Wenbin was not a disciple from Heavenly Soldier Pavilion, they would have snatched the vat away.
The water was much more useful to them than epic-tier spirit stones or immortal stones because of their cultivation level.
Yin Wenbin smiled out of delight. He finally gained a little respect from the bumpkins. He said with a grin, “Since everyone knows about the Spirit-Gathering Immortal Water, I’ll skip the explanation. As the saying goes, the best horse deserves the best saddle and the best shoes, so it’s only natural that I quench the best sword with the best water…”
A little pause later, he looked at Zhang Zhi. “Owner Zhang, what kind of water are you using to quench the sword?”
Yin Wenbin then looked at Zhang Zhi’s quenching pool. He shook his head and scoffed in silence because the water in the quenching pool was dull and plain, it did not have any signs of energy or liveliness.
On second thought, it only made sense because Lingtai Town was located in a rural area, Zhang Zhi could never get his hands on the best water for quenching.
Being the best was lonely sometimes, so Yin Wenbin thought.
Zhang Zhi did not answer Yin Wenbin. The water in his quenching pool was the water extracted from the melted Five-Color Stone! Comparing it with Spirit-Gathering Immortal Water would be an insult to its value. Therefore Zhang Zhi refused to answer and if he had to give a comment, it would be ” Spirit-Gathering ImmortalWater is garbage!”
Yin Wenbin took Zhang Zhi’s silence as a sign of inferiority, which made him happy. It was a sign of Heavenly Soldier Pavilion destroying the blacksmith in a rural town!
“Owner Zhang, if you get down on your knees and beg me, I might lend you some Spirit-Gathering Immortal Water for quenching.” Yin Wenbin teased. Even if Zhang Zhi would beg, he would never lend others his water.
The man was just trying to tease Zhang Zhi.
Yin Wenbin picked up the burning red blade and put it inside the vat of Spirit-Gathering Immortal Water using Heavenly Soldier Pavilion’s special technique. The moment the burning red blade touched the water, steam burst out with a loud sizzle and an unusual aroma filled the air.
The Golden Core experts were intoxicated by the aroma in the air, it was actually the steam from Spirit-Gathering Immortal Water. Even if they could not get a sip, sniffing some would help them to ease the bottleneck in their cultivation.
The Grand Elder found the Golden Core experts’ reaction embarrassing. He grunted and used his aura to disperse the steam in the blacksmith.
The Golden Core experts were embarrassed when they regained their senses.
Yin Wenbin noticed the look on their faces and he shook his head with a grin. “Lingtai Sect is nothing special either!”
Then, he looked at Zhang Zhi.
Zhang Zhi’s hearth was able to turn the blade red hot in a blink of an eye, but this time, he spent quite some time heating the blade and despite the incredible heat, the blade did not melt, which was strange.
He was able to control the Samadhi True Fire at will and he did not have to worry about overheating the blade and melting it. The reason why he heated the blade longer this time was because he was trying to change a certain characteristic of the Jade Iron.
A while later, Zhang Zhi took the jade flying sword out and tossed it into the quenching pool.
Both of them were at the final stage of forging. The others were starting to recall the entire forging process from the start.
Even though Zhang Zhi had a few surprises, Yin Wenbin’s forging was like art! Be it forging or quenching, every move that he made was beautiful and pleasant to look at.
The Golden Core experts were Zhang Zhi’s allies but they had to admit that Yin Wenbin from Heavenly Soldier Pavilion was indeed skillful and, seemingly, a better blacksmith.
Yin Wenbin felt proud when he noticed the admiring gaze from the tiny crowd. The difference between Yin Wenbin, a blacksmith from Heavenly Soldier Pavilion, and Zhang Zhi, a normal blacksmith, was like a soldier trained by the imperial government and a voluntary civilian soldier. It was uncomparable!
After the quenching, Yin Wenbin grunted as he took his sword out. “Everyone, please close your eyes.”
Why? The Golden Core experts did not understand and were irritated by his tone.
They questioned him loudly, “Why should we close our eyes? You don’t want us to see your flying sword?”
Yin Wenbin chuckled but did not explain himself. He pulled the sword out from the vat of immortal water and it was so shiny that it looked like the sun. The blinding scene forced the Golden Core experts to tear up and turn away.
“Holy sh*t! It’s so blinding!”
The Golden Core experts blocked the light using their hands. They were curious about Yin Wenbin’s sword but they could not look at it at all.
Only the Grand Elder, a Nascent Soul Patriarch, was able to look at the blinding sword with his naked eyes. Even though the Grand Elder disliked Yin Wenbin’s personality, he had to say that the sword Yin Wenbin forged was perfect.
One thing worth noting was that Yin Wenbin forged his sword in a rhombus shape. It was less nimble and sharp but it probably has the toughest structure.
The Grand Elder knew that Yin Wenbin forged the sword only to defeat Zhang Zhi and neglected the true usage of a high-tier sword. It was the only imperfection in the perfect sword.
However, the competition was still ongoing. Yin Wenbin’s decision of forging a rhombus-shaped sword increased his winning rate by a lot.
With that in mind, the Grand Elder looked at Zhang Zhi, he wanted to know what kind of sword Zhang Zhi had forged.
Amid the blinding light from Yin Wenbin’s sword, Zhang Zhi slowly took his sword out from the quenching pool.
The sword glowed in dark green and it felt lackluster when compared to the strong light of Yin Wenbin’s sword.
The Grand Elder was a little disappointed. In common situations, the glow of an artifact would determine its strength and power.
However, when Zhang Zhi took the sword hilt out of the pool, the green light shone strongly, at least it painted the rear workstation green and even replaced the white light.
The Grand Elder nodded, at least Zhang Zhi’s sword could now rival Yin Wenbin’s sword.
With the green light mitigating the white light, the Golden Core experts were able to open their eyes as it was less blinding now. They were in awe when they saw the different lights fighting each other in the blacksmith.
“Grand Elder, the green and white lights are so pronounced yet they feel like fire and water, constantly fighting each other,” asked one of the cultivators.
Light was supposed to merge, it should not reject another light source so brazenly.
The Grand Elder said, “The appearance of a powerful weapon is accompanied with its own aura. Having two powerful weapons under the same roof is too much, neither side is giving in.”
The cultivators were in shock.
“So does it mean that the swords’ lights are already fighting before Owner Zhang and Yin Wenbin fight?”
“If either one of the lights wins here, does it mean that the winner is a better blacksmith?”
“I somehow feel like the green light is weaker.”
Yin Wenbin cackled. “The green light is not just weaker, it’s going to lose!”
Then, Yin Wenbin did something to his sword and it flew up. The sword shone even brighter and strongly devoured the green light.
The green light was on the verge of disappearing and everyone started to get nervous.
Zhang Zhi’s sword lost to Yin Wenbin’s sword already?
“No, wait a minute! Zhang Zhi hasn’t even pulled his sword out of the water!” said the Grand Elder.
It was then that Zhang Zhi pulled the entire sword out and it shocked even the Grand Elder.
It was the perfect sword but before the Grand Elder could praise it, a blinding green light exploded from the sword like a gushing geyser. The invasive white light was defeated immediately and retreated, as if it was a mouse running away from a cat.
However, the white light had nowhere else to run, it was devoured by the green light whole and the green light did not stop there. It shone beyond the blacksmith and lit up the night of Lingtai Town.
Everything was hidden from the dark for a while.
The green light shone for a long while before it returned to normal. The cultivators were tearing up and had a difficult time opening their eyes.
“Holy mother of god! Everything is green now!”
“You can still see green? I can’t see anything at all!”
“Wang, why is your head green?!”
A longer while later, the cultivators finally regained their sight but with a hint of green. Then, one of them noticed the Grand Elder was looking at Zhang Zhi passionately.
They were in awe of the Grand Elder’s ability to see amid the blinding green light.
“The Grand Elder is really impressive! He didn’t even blink in front of the green light! Awesome!”
“Grand Elder, you are awesome!”
The cultivators cheered and praised and the Grand Elder stroked his beard with a chuckle. “Wang, cultivate harder and when you reach Nascent Soul, you will be able to do this as well.”
The Grand Elder was talking to a pillar and even tried to tap the pillar’s shoulder.
The cultivator named Wang was surprised. “Uhm, Grand Elder, I’m here.”
“Of course I know you are there!” The Grand Elder turned around to a garbage can.
“Haha, Wang, you are an old man yourself, why are you playing hide and seek with me?”
All the cultivators were speechless. The Grand Elder did not look at the green light, he was actually blinded by it!
Then, Yin Wenbin too regained his sight. He endured the discomfort in his eyes, he looked at his own sword and then at Zhang Zhi’s sword. He muttered out of disbelief, “How is this possible…”
Both swords were high-tier artifacts but Zhang Zhi’s sword aura was so powerful that it destroyed Yin Wenbin’s sword aura.
One thing worth noting was Yin Wenbin used three different kinds of precious materials to forge his sword and every single one of them was better than the Jade Iron. His Spirit-Gathering Immortal Water was countless times better than Zhang Zhi’s plain water!
On top of that, the technique that Yin Wenbin used was the culmination of countless generations of blacksmith knowledge taught in Heavenly Soldier Pavilion, it was known as the best forging technique in the eastern domain.
Despite that, the sword he forged failed to overpower the jade sword, in fact it was completely defeated.
Zhang Zhi walked to the counter with his sword.
“Everything is possible with Heavenly Forging Technique!”
Since the Grand Elder gave Zhang Zhi a cover for his system, Zhang Zhi simply used it to explain the situation.
“The Heavenly Forging Technique. Once mastered, it can turn a plain material into a divine artifact.”
The Grand Elder took a step forward and said, “Am I right, Zhang.”
The cultivator in front of the Grand Elder was shaking. “Uhm… Grand Elder, I’m Wang.”
…
Heavenly Forging Technique could turn the normal into the divine? Was there really such technique?
Yin Wenbin was deeply shaken but he refused to accept it. He bellowed, “So what? The competition is about the flying sword’s integrity, not the glow’s intensity! I will never lose!”
Based on the glow’s intensity, the victor has already been decided but competition was about the flying sword’s integrity, not the glow’s intensity.
The cultivators found Yin Wenbin’s argument shameless but they did not say anything, it was the criteria of the competition after all.
They felt bad for Zhang Zhi. Even though Zhang Zhi was able to forge the perfect artifact to defeat Yin Wenbin, it was difficult for him to win the competition.
Without the spiritual power buff, Jade Iron was too fragile.