“Please.” Long Qiyun passed through the gate, crossed the patio and came to the main hall. He motioned for Fang Qiu and He Gaoming to sit down and then told the servants to serve tea before he sat down next to Fang Qiu.
Fang Qiu nodded and smiled discreetly.
Long Qiyun lived up to his name as the head of the Long family. The main hall had a host’s seat, which was a level higher than that of the ordinary guests. However, Long Qiyun deliberately sat next to Fang Qiu, which left a very good impression on him.
He would certainly respect the people who showed him respect.
Fang Qiu cupped his hands and then asked, “Sorry to disturb you, Mr. Long. The reason why I came to visit you is because I want to get your consent to let me forge a sword by myself. Of course, I will not participate in the whole forging process. I just need to make the final touches before you finish casting the sword.”
“Hmm?” Long Qiyun’s face immediately darkened when he heard what he said.
“Mr. John Doe, I treated you with courtesy. Why are you looking down on me like that?”
Long Qiyun stood up, narrowed his eyes at Fang Qiu, and said, “Since you’ve come to my family, you can ask me for any weapons. But since you seem to despise my family’s craftsmanship, or are very confident of your own forging skills, why then did you come to my family home? In that case, please forgive the Long family for not being able to entertain you!”
Long Qiyun turned around and looked as though he was sending his guest off.
Fang Qiu did not expect that his words would cause Long Qiyun to fly into a rage.
However, he immediately understood what Long Qiyun meant.
Long Qiyun was the head of the Long family and his craftsmanship had been passed down from generation to generation. As the head of the family, he naturally had absolute confidence in his craft.
Therefore, Fang Qiu’s proposal was an insult in Long Qiyun’s eyes!
Especially his request to complete the final touches on the basis of his casting. Wasn’t it obvious that he looked down on him?
Fang Qiu got up in a hurry after realizing that he had been so rude when the man treated him with such courtesy. He immediately apologized, “I’m sorry. It’s all my fault. I did not mean that.”
Fang Qiu explained wryly.
Because he was wearing a mask, Long Qiyun could not see his expression at all. He could only hear Fang Qiu’s apology from his tone.
“What do you mean exactly?” Long Qiyun turned his head to look at Fang Qiu. His anger had not quite dissipated yet.
Fang Qiu thought for a moment and said, “Let’s do it this way. Master, please forge a sword and let me observe the whole process while casting. Is that okay?”
After thinking for a while, Fang Qiu had asked others to cast a sword while he would personally make the finishing touches. It was too disrespectful.
Based on this point, it was impossible to cooperate with him.
Fang Qiu could only make this kind of request. He wanted to see how he cast the sword and see if he could imitate it.
It was not a big deal. When it was almost time, he could use his tools to have a try.
There should be no problem with that.
If he didn’t do it on the basis of his casting, Mr. Long would not think that he was looking down on him.
Long Qiyun’s face lit up slightly when he heard Fang Qiu’s request. He thought for a moment before nodding and saying, “This… Alright.”
The mysterious man’s current position in Wulin was prominent and also attracted a lot of attention.
It would be good for the reputation of the Long Family if John Doe used the sword that had been cast by the Long Family.
John Doe’s strength was too intimidating!
He was also afraid that John Doe would be angry. If John Doe really became furious and made a fuss in their family home, what should they do?
It was a known fact that there were many people who had been killed and disabled by John Doe, some of whom were from major families.
“However, it’s not that easy to get our Long family’s sword.”
Even as he agreed, Long Qiyun proudly raised his head and said, “If you want me to forge a sword for you, I can do it. But it would be at the cost of five hundred thousand, not a single cent less.”
“No problem.” Fang Qiu immediately nodded in agreement.
“In addition, you must spread the news that you are using the Longquan Sword in Wulin.”
Long Qiyun issued another condition.
Fang Qiu nodded and asked, “Okay. When shall we start?”
“Now, please follow me.” Long Qiyun responded and led Fang Qiu and He Gaoming through the main hall and arrived at the backyard.
It was a courtyard that looked old.
The courtyard was similar to the quadrangle courtyard in the capital city.
This courtyard was not for people to live in, but for forging.
It was an antique iron-forging shop.
All kinds of materials were available!
“Over here.” Just as Fang Qiu thought that Long Qiyun was about to take off his clothes and start to light the fire and cast the iron to forge a sword, Long Qiyun walked into the forging room and called out to Fang Qiu.
Fang Qiu and He Gaoming went up.
When he walked next to Long Qiyun, he saw Long Qiyun pressing his hand on the wall in front of him. The grating sound of the machine immediately sounded beneath his feet.
“Crack, crack…” The place where the three of them were standing began to descend slowly.
Taking a closer look, Fang Qiu realized that this was not the surface, but a large lift.
Soon, the lift descended to the bottom.
Fang Qiu turned to have a look and was immediately stunned.
This was a very wide space, similar to a large-scale company’s workshop. Maybe it was originally a workshop.
In the workshop, Fang Qiu saw machines and machine tools!
He Gaoming was shocked.
“Didn’t they say that they were all handcrafted?” Fang Qiu asked with a confused look.
Long Qiyun cast both of them a look of disdain and said, “Handcrafted? What era is it now? How can a purely handcrafted sword have such precision? All walks of life need to keep pace with the times!”
The two were speechless.
The machine was behind Long Qiyun.
Long Qiyun started the machine without saying a word.
“This is for burning iron and steel!” Long Qiyun said as he pointed at the iron smelting machine.
Fang Qiu understood.
Soon, molten iron came out.
Long Qiyun used a mold to catch the molten iron, condensing it into a cuboid.
“This is the sword mold!”
After Long Qiyun wore insulation gloves and used tools to carry it to form, it was still a red rectangular iron.
When they heard this, Fang Qiu and He Gaoming were both stunned.
They could not believe it.
Was this considered a mold for the sword?
“This is a crude mold.”
Long Qiyun seemed to sense that the two were confused and said, “Before science and technology are so advanced, we call this ‘infused iron water’. Under normal circumstances, the crude mold has a square shape and a rectangular shape. The short sword and the thick crude mold are square, while the long sword’s crude mold is rectangular.”
Both Fang Qiu and He Gaoming nodded.
They had never been involved in forging, so they did not know much about the forging process.
When the crude mold was completed, Long Qiyun immediately started to cast it.
Long Qiyun lifted the mold and placed it in the fire. He waited until it was completely red before lifting it out to be manually pounded!
With one hand holding the sword mold and the other holding the hammer, he hit it repeatedly.
After pounding on it for a long time, Long Qiyun then placed the mold into the water next to him and then its temperature dropped.
“Sizzle, sizzle…” Because the mold was still hot, the water boiled as soon as the sword was thrust into it. Of course, it was only in a small area.
“This is the water breakthrough.”
Long Qiyun said, “The ancestor of our family was Ouye Zi during the Spring and Autumn Period. When he made a sword, he only used the water from the Sword Lake in our city. Only in this way can we create the best swords.”
“This water?” He Gaoming asked.
“That’s right.” Long Qiyun replied. He then placed the sword mold that had made the water break through in the furnace, burned it till it was red again and then pounded it again.
This was the second time that it had a water breakthrough.
Then he did for the third time.
After the pounding, just when Fang Qiu and He Gaoming thought that they were going to see the water breakthrough for the third time, Long Qiyun put the sword mold, which was very close to the sword shape, into a big bucket containing oil.
“After seeing the water breakthrough twice, it’s time to mix it in the oil.”
“The oil is used to make the sword more flexible!”
Long Qiyun used another total of twenty-eight processes, such as milling and rasping, burnishing, polishing, inlaying, quenching, grinding steel and so on.
Fang Qiu had been observing all this while.
Fang Qiu noticed that although Long Qiyun had explained every step when casting a sword, each step was purely the most basic step. Even the other smithies would follow this procedure, not to mention the Long family.
That was to say, Long Qiyun’s explanation was useless.
The only thing that was useful was his forging cultivation methods!
That was the truth.
It was the cultivation method!
Fang Qiu noticed that this cultivation method was very difficult to imitate. If he wanted to learn it, he had to first learn his cultivation method. And even if he learned it, he also had to be precise about the time, location, strength and the most suitable time to forge the sword.
This was not something that could be learned by a single cultivation method. It required years of experience to accomplish it!
In the blink of an eye, more than three hours had passed.
It was early in the morning!
The first sword was finally successfully forged!
“Phew…” Long Qiyun seemed as if he was about to pass out with the sword in hand.
The long sword in his hand shone with a dazzling cold light.
“This sword was cast from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. Let’s call it Ziyue!”
Long Qiyun murmured as he looked at the sword.
Fang Qiu and He Gaoming’s faces twitched at the same time.
Long Qiyun’s gaze was full of tenderness as he looked at the long sword in his hand as if he was looking at his lover.
He didn’t think much about it.
Fang Qiu stepped forward and took the long sword from Long Qiyun’s hand.
He carefully sensed it.
“Good sword!” Fang Qiu secretly exclaimed that this sword was definitely better than the sword in Elder Yi’s hand.
Reaching out, he touched it and closed his eyes.
He used the Absolute Touch!
Fang Qiu found that his Absolute Touch could not feel the structure and thickness inside the sword.
He was a little surprised.
Fang Qiu immediately tried to channel his internal Qi into the sword and then directly used the Divine Consciousness, like searching for the terrain. He carefully explored it and was actually able to detect the lines and various details inside the sword.
Thinking of this, Fang Qiu immediately opened his eyes and said in surprise, “With these details and lines, what else do I need to do? As long as I cast the sword and create the same details and lines, that will be enough, right? It’s really a good sword!”
Long Qiyun said proudly, “Of course. Our Long family’s forging crafts are unparalleled in the world, do you dare say that you’ll be the one to complete the last step? Now you know that the sword I cast by myself is the best!”