Wudang: Legends Of Qi Earth 91 Forge Ii : Sabers & Swords

[Blacksmiths built the modern age, they built civilization and they built the glory of man kind. We take pride in our hands, in our ability to forge greatness out of small and very useless rocks, but we also forge death, and that is where our failures lie. What we do best is make death, build death, create avenues for death to reign supreme. The weapons we've made has torn our world apart, and it will tear many more worlds apart too.

We blacksmiths are heralds of chaos and destruction, of death and pain, and this will be a stigma and sin all blacksmiths will carry for all time...not unless we learn to forge lives just as we've forged death, to forge worlds just as we've forged their demise. Sometimes it's a mindset and a choice, but all blacksmiths must strive for one thing to reach the Pinnacle, and that's to one day forge life.]

OLMGAR SORROWSTONE; LAST DWARVEN KING OF PANDERHAR MOUTAINS: THE LOST WORLD OF NORKIN

There was a port with a metal plate on it, the plate itself was a quarter of a meter in diameter and it was placed there for the injection of Qi. Alex placed his hands on it and began to feed his Qi and Spirit energy into the portable forge in steady streams. Though calling it a portable forge might be a Longshot seeing as it was quite large, however it was still miles better than an entire smithy or forging room, also quite expensive too.

But none the less it was actually much harder to build than a smithy or a forging room, the only advantage is that, with the help of a spatial ring, you could take it wherever you please, forging on the go. Alex knew that apart from the quality of energy aka Qi being inserted, the blacksmith has to have enough to last a while. Basically forging was a test of endurance, and in this particular case not of physical stamina but of energy.

Alex took a deep breath as the fire mask spread allover his face, his hair turned reddish orange and even grew longer, his eyes turned red but developed double rings with one of it being green. And then a streak of green appeared on his hair, immediately creating flames that were as green as gra.s.s, and billowed in ferocity like summer wind. Alex sent streams of WindFire into another port where flames were to be fed to the POF (portable Omni-directional forge).

As if waking up from a deep slumber, the forge itself began to glow with green of WindFire. Alex then quickly took of the fire mask as he returned his hand back to the plate in front of him. This was where the most important part of it came into play, Alex began to let just his Qi and Spirit energy into the forge, his breathes even and slow as he closed his eyes to focus, his awareness and willpower sinking into it.

The flames began to melt the ores together, at first there was a bit of Resistance between the Mythril and Silver steel, it was completely out of Alex's expectations, because it actually looked like both ores were actively fighting each other, trying to resist from coming together. And by this point they had already been fully melted, but it was like asking oil and water to mix. Alex furrowed his brows as he decided to take more active role, using both his qi and spirit energy he tired getting them to mix, but they fought him, even going as far as pus.h.i.+ng his awareness back.

It didn't take long for Alex to realize that both ores were of a different energy nature, hence it was practically impossible for them to get mixed up, it was frustrating, but at this point there was no turning back, Alex knew if he would back out now, though he would be able to save some of the materials, a lot of their bulk and efficiency would be lost, not to mention the expenditure of energy. But even if he wanted to give up he couldn't, because it was at that point he noticed something.

The WindFire was licking at the edge of both molten ores, and it was actually refining them into one single, brand new ore. Alex had previously placed his focus on the center of both materials, and he was using his energies to facilitate their combination, completely forgetting that in a forge, it was the flames work to do any sort of combination of refining, so Alex sent his streams of energy into the port that housed and fed the flames, s.h.i.+fting his awareness from the entire themselves to the flames, and right then and there, Alex achieved something that even though someone else has achieved, they had to work for years upon end and more often than not without a proper result.

Alex's spirit energy and Qi had created the (Wind Fire) flames, though the flames were born from a technique, it was fueled by both spirit energy and Qi, with Qi being the breath and vital energy of the world, and spirit being the breath and vital energy of the unseen world, of the supernatural. Spirit energy translated into the mortal realm is Mana, a more refined an physical aspect of the energy that could create wonders both spiritual and physical.

You could think of Qi as the hard aspect of power and spirit energy as the soft aspect, Mana is a combination of the two, capable of doing things like divining a location or calling down a meteor from the sky. And Alex had access to the two most primal source of energy, you could say Qi represented life and spirit death, but not necessarily.

The flames born from their combination drew from his inherent connection to the wind element, and the flames of his Eastern sword of summer skills, though Alex had no idea what kind of power or effects (Wind Fire) might have, all he knew how was that it was helping him forge weapons for his friends.

It took a little more than 30 minutes for both the silver steel and Mythril to be completely combined together, creating an entirely new kind of mineral/metal.

Alex could feel the durability, strength and something extra within the molten ore currently filling two spots within the forge. There was more to it, but right now All Alex could do was feed the flames spirit and Qi in a perfect equilibrium while the forge proceeded to bring his designs to life.

Everything required a balance, even forging, so Alex focused on feeding the flames, using a five second rhythm. His spirit energy was not as much as his Qi, so for ever five unit of Qi, there was a single unit of spirit energy, Alex really wished there was a way he could accurately calculate the amount of Qi and Spirit energy he was spending, so that he could properly pace himself, however all he had to rely on was instincts, and thankfully it was working for him.

Once the thirty minute mark was reached, both blades already had their shapes, but there was a final step to be taken. They had to be hammered to remove further impurities, and flooded with both Qi and Spirit to make the ending swords susceptible to the energies or any kind that resembled them. Alex walked to the other end of the portable forge, Khan scrambling from his position on Alex's shoulder to his head, still fervently watching the entire process.

There was a hammer placed on the side which had advanced inscriptions/wards on them, all intricately connected to make an exquisite array. Alex had no idea what sort of Array that was, but it would help in tempering the blades. The first one was Yun Fao's Autumn Dao, it was being suspended by residual energy from the forge, this was Alex could pound every inch of the blade without it laying on any surface or being held by clamps that would leave some areas uneven.

Hammering was a typical blacksmith action, however there were methods to it. And quite frankly, this was the topic Alex paid attention to the most when he was studying, because this was the most crucial part. Alex spread his legs, and then took a deep breath, simultaneously reciting the (Wudang Heart Sutra) and moving all of the Qi and Spirit in his body, creating a chaotic yet somewhat harmonic flux. The he breathed out, and the hammer fell.

*Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!*

Breathe, hit, breathe, hit. Rhythm and air, spirit and vitality, energy and physique and unbidden stream of energy lighting up the hammer. From the very moment the first sound was heard, Alex was lost; all he could see was the red hot saber in front of him, and the hammer that fell on it. It was like the most primal of sounds, like a G.o.d creating a new world, forging it from the metal of the universe, one that ran on the streams of power that governed that which could be seen and that which could not.

Alex was so lost in his hammering, infusing his energies into the blade that he lost track of time, he was even unaware when the forge retracted the Saber and replaced it with the rapier, Alex just kept on hitting them, experiencing a feeling the likes of which he had never experienced before. Because he ended up feeling like he wasn't forging blades, he was forging himself.

As the hammer fell and the energies converged on the blades, so to do they bang at his insides. Refining his body and energy, his meridians glowed with the green yin-yang symbols, sending streams of energy through his body and absorbing them from the air, a constant cycle that saw Alex's Dantian growing ever larger and he easily steeped into the fourth level of the open Dantian realm. The Qi in his Dantian became compressed as at the top of it, right at the place where Qi streamed in, a pill was formed, greenish blue and white, each blending into each other in the form of Yin-Yang symbol.

Alex had only set out to forge weapons for his friends, but he had Advanced in cultivation and understanding, and even more so his cultivation technique the (Wudang Heart Sutra) had entered it's second stage.....(Inner Pill).