159: Hammering and Refining, the Thousand Refinement Treasure Embryo
Master Lin watched as Lu Qing’s heavy hammer struck down.
Under the enormous force, the glowing red iron bar, in an instant, sparked as it was compressed and collapsed, turning into an iron disk.
Then Lu Qing folded it and struck down with another heavy blow, hammering it back into an iron disk once again.
In this manner, Lu Qing swung his hammer, one strike following another.
The iron bar, like dough, was easily flattened by his blows.
But Master Lin and his disciples understood that it wasn’t that the iron bar was as soft as dough, but rather that Lu Qing’s strength was truly astonishing.
Each swing could easily flatten the iron bar.
What was most crucial, Master Lin and his followers noticed, was that Lu Qing was not just blindly pounding with brute force.
Instead, each hammer strike contained various changes and was just enough to reach the limit of the iron bar, squeezing out the impurities within, yet not so powerful as to break the metal.
“One strike, one refinement, how is this possible?”
Watching Lu Qing swing the heavy hammer as if it were light as a feather, strike after strike, Master Lin had already begun to stare blankly, muttering to himself in a trance.
His heart was filled with an indescribable shock.
He had never thought that forging an iron billet could be done in such a manner.
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Each hammer strike was a refinement, a technique of forging that seemed magical, something that even the true Casting Great Masters he had seen could not achieve.
Yet it was happening, vividly, right before his eyes.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
In the backyard of Zhu Xin Workshop, Lu Qing continued swinging his heavy hammer, each blow releasing a colossal force that shook the entire backyard.
Everyone, captivated by the display of power and beauty, lost themselves in the moment.
Housekeeper Wei was no exception.
Possibly because of his higher cultivation, he was even more capable of appreciating just how terrifying Lu Qing’s Hammer Skill was.
He estimated that even with his realm at the Great Success of the Internal Organ Realm, he feared he might not be able to withstand a few blows from Lu Qing.
In this way, Lu Qing continued to hammer tirelessly for more than an hour.
Suddenly, he felt something, stopped folding and hammering, and began shaping the iron bar in his hands.
Gradually, the iron bar he held began to change shape, forming the outline of a sword.
Clang!
With another strike, amidst a shower of sparks, Lu Qing finally stopped hammering, and put the sword embryo that had taken shape into cool water.
Sss!
Under the mist of steam, Lu Qing took out the sword embryo, gazing at it intently.
A rich red light emerged from the surface of the sword embryo.
[Thousand-refined Sword Mold: A sword embryo formed through repeated folding and hammering, having reached the level of Thousand Refinement.]
[Only through a thousand hammerings and a hundred refinements can one create a finished piece, a sword embryo of Thousand Refinement level has the potential to become a Magic Artifact.]
[Limited by the material, this sword embryo has reached its limit; continuing to hammer and fold it will not improve its quality.]
Indeed.
After seeing the information on the sword embryo, Lu Qing came to a realization.
While hammering before, he had already sensed it.
He felt that the iron bar had reached its limit, and continuing to fold and hammer would be meaningless.
It seems that Mortal Iron, after all, is just Mortal Iron and cannot be endlessly folded and hammered to improve its quality.
Thousand Refinement level was already the utmost quality for these iron bars.
“Lu, Young Master Lu, may this old man have a look at this sword embryo?”
At this moment, Master Lin asked with a trembling voice.
His eyes were filled with hope.
“Of course you may.”
Lu Qing casually passed the sword embryo to the older master craftsman.
Master Lin reverently took the sword embryo in both hands and scrutinized it closely.
This time, his apprentices could no longer bother with the proprieties of master and disciple; they all crowded around to inspect the sword embryo.
The sword embryo that Lu Qing had forged this time was slightly smaller than the last one because he had hammered out all the impurities within it.
Of course, that was not what Master Lin and his apprentices were paying attention to.
Their first order of business was to examine the patterns on the sword embryo.