Chapter 523: Secret

When he just approached, Wei Xiao Bei felt a blast of cold air from the metallic hall.

The scholar stood still and raised a badge of authority. The cold air immediately dissipated. Soon after, the scholar walked in front and Wei Xiao Bei followed behind.

At the center of the hall was a workshop that almost occupied the entire area.

There were more than a hundred furnaces that were erected inside the hall. In front of every furnace was a different sized anvil with an Underworld Guardian at the side, brandishing hammers and beating out impurities of the metal.

Some of the metal had already turned into the shapes of swords, spearheads, armor, and many other pieces of equipment.

The scholar recommended Wei Xiao Bei to the person in charge of the place and bid farewell.

The person in charge of the place was an incredibly buff Underworld Guardian. Although he was an Underworld Guardian, he did not look like it from his appearance. He was not that different from a normal person, apart from his stiff expression.

Naturally, having a stiff expression did not mean that one was an idiot.

After realizing that Wei Xiao Bei was Lord Shing Wong’s valuable guest, the person in charge did not dare neglect him. He immediately brought Wei Xiao Bei to the site and guided him around to observe manufacturing processes.

According to him, the Shing Wong Temple’s manufacturing methods were not too low quality, but it could not be helped that the manufactured tools were coarse, thus they could make equipment for the Yin soldiers use only.

According to him, they used Yin flames to melt Yin iron ores. After removing most of the impurities, they became coarse Yin iron. Then the Yin iron would immediately be forged by the Underworld Guardians to remove most impurities, turning it into Yin steel. In the end, the Yin steel would be used to forge weapons and armor.

The entire process was almost the same as traditional smithing arts in the real world.

However, from Wei Xiao Bei’s observation, the way the Shing Wong Temple smithed was different from the real world.

Let alone other things, just the hammer of the Underworld Guardians alone were different. Every time they struck, the hammer would let out runes that glowed white, causing the impurities in the metal to decrease.

If they did not have this hammer, they might not be able to get rid of the impurities no matter how much they hit.

After circling the hall once, the person in charge brought Wei Xiao Bei to a vacant Yin furnace.

This vacant Yin furnace was the smallest one in the entire hall. Even the anvil and hammer were small.

There was no doubt that this was used by beginners.

The person in charge explained it as so.

Originally, this Yin furnace and anvil was used to forge arrowheads.

In the Shing Wong Temple’s workshop, the arrowheads used by the Underworld Guardians were the easiest to forge.

The person in charge placed all responsibility on himself to demonstrate things to Wei Xiao Bei and not leave him to his own.

He taught Wei Xiao Bei how to start the Yin furnace, how to activate the rune of the hammer, etc.

After a few demonstrations, the person in charge had created a decent amount of arrowheads.

Wei Xiao Bei was already itching to try it.

With his learning attribute, learning everything was not hard. Although it was not transformed into a skill, he had already memorized the procedures off by heart.

The first step of activating the furnace was easy. The Yin furnace was using the Yin flames from the underground Yin flame ley lines. The only thing that needed to be done was to press a switch and the Yin furnace would automatically link up with the ley lines.

Afterward, Wei Xiao Bei tossed in the ore. The ore could not be found in the real world and was probably only found in places with high concentrations of Yin energy like the Shing Wong Temple.

In less than half an hour, the ore inside the furnace had completely melted. The impurities inside had been reduced by around 80%, becoming soft metal that emitted Yin energy.

Naturally, just looking at the glow of the metal, one would think the temperature was high.

However, once it was pulled out of the furnace and placed on an anvil, Wei Xiao Bei realized that the Yin energy the metal was emitting was extremely cold!

It carried a bone-piercing coldness that made Wei Xiao Bei’s body a bit uncomfortable.

On the contrary, the Underworld Guardians appeared to enjoy the coldness.

Next was hammering. The hammer in Wei Xiao Bei’s hand might have looked small, but when he grabbed it, he almost dropped it due to how heavy it was.

After an estimate, the hammer was around 200 kilograms.

With his current strength attribute, holding the hammer in his hands was not a problem. He could even easily brandish a one-ton hammer.

It’s light, yet heavy!

This was the feeling that Wei Xiao Bei was getting from the hammer.

After striking down with the hammer a few times, he looked at the Underworld Guardians who appeared to be easily carrying something heavy. Only then did he come to a realization.

The hammer was indeed around 200 kilograms, but in truth, what was used to raise the hammer was not physical strength, but mental strength!

To be more accurate, the moment he raised the hammer, his soul had been the exerting effort.

Although Wei Xiao Bei could not fully ascertain this, he was 50% sure of it.

After swinging the hammer and striking the metal a few times, Wei Xiao Bei could feel himself slowly starting to get dizzy.

There was no doubt that this was a sign of having overused his mental strength.

You are reading story The City of Terror at novel35.com

Wei Xiao Bei did not dare neglect this. He immediately placed down the hammer and took out barbecued meat that could restore his mental strength from his storage bracelet and ate it.

After supplementing his mental strength, Wei Xiao Bei continued to strike with his hammer.

After every few strikes, he would need to eat.

What Wei Xiao Bei could not help but be surprised by were the Underworld Guardians who continued to strike tens of times without getting tired.

 Could it be that their souls were stronger?

He could not help but shake his head.

The Underworld Guardians were only 1-Star Creatures at most and were basically Soul-Type Creatures. Because they were only souls, their souls shouldn’t have been firmer than Wei Xiao Bei’s, to the contrary, their’s should’ve been significantly less than his.

It should be a matter of skill then?

After replenishing himself with food, he did not hurry to pick up the hammer. He tried to recall the person in charge hitting the soft metal and replayed it tens of times in his head.

Soon, Wei Xiao Bei once again picked up the hammer and struck the soft metal.

This time, the number of times he could hit the metal had increased by a bit. After ten times, his head began to feel tired.

Just like that, every time he rested, Wei Xiao Bei’s skill in striking the metal increased. Soon he began to be able to match the Underworld Guardians in striking the metal.

As time passed, Wei Xiao Bei began to be able to hit more and more times. In the end, he could maintain roughly 500 strikes which were a lot than the Underworld Guardians.

There was no doubt that the benefit from increasing the firmness of his soul was ten times that of the Underworld Guardians.

After striking every 50 times, the volume of the soft metal would shrink by 0.1%. This was the result of getting rid of the impurities in the metal.

Soon, the soft metal did not give off any more sparks, causing him to change the way he hammered.

In the end, the soft metal had turned into more than 20 arrowheads. Although they were visibly coarse, he had reached the standard requirement.

At this time, Wei Xiao Bei opened his eyes and looked at the arrowhead.

Name: Yin Arrowhead (Normal)

Description: This arrowhead was forged from Yin ore. Because it hasn’t been etherealized, there are no effects.

…..

 No effects?

Wei Xiao Bei could not help but rub his eyes, but the information did not change at all.

Is something missing? 

Wei Xiao Bei could not help but look around.

At this moment, the Underworld Guardian beside him had just finished a spearhead. Afterward, the underworld guardian took the bottle gourd from his waist and poured the contents into his mouth. Then he sprayed the spearhead fiercely, causing white mist to surround the spearhead. In an instant, the spearhead absorbed the mist.

 Activate Enlightenment!

Wei Xiao Bei’s gaze landed on the spearhead.

Name: Yin Spearhead (High Quality)

Description: This spearhead was forged from Yin ore. After being etherealized, it deals special damage to the soul and possesses Yin Energy Damage.

Effect 1: Special Damage to the Soul. Deals 30% damage to the soul.

Effect 2: Yin Energy Damage. All attacked have additional damage from Yin energy. 

……

Wei Xiao Bei immediately moved his gaze to the bottle mist.

Name: Spirit Water (Normal)

Description: This item is created from souls. Allows weapons to etherealize.

……

So it was like that!

After looking at the status panel, Wei Xiao Bei immediately came to an understanding.

Previously, when the Underworld Guardians were spurting white mist on the weapons, he had thought that they were spurting wine on it.

In movies and television, there were scenes of blacksmiths spurting wine on the iron to make it harden by quenching, allowing the weapon to be of better quality.

 Spirit Water? Using souls to create?

Wei Xiao Bei understood the principle.

Afterward, Wei Xiao Bei went to the person in charge to ask for some Spirit Water, and to ask how to make it while he was there.

The person in charge did not hide anything. He not only gave Wei Xiao Bei Spirit Water, but he also described how Spirit Water was made.

It appeared that the Shing Wong Temple’s Spirit Water was made from mentally confused ghosts.

The mentally confused ghosts were basically transformed by Lord Shing Wong from soul fragments left behind between heaven and earth. They were a kind of puppet, an extremely Second-Rate Soul.

Destroying the soul and mixing it in water would create Spirit Water.

Naturally, this was not the only kind of spirit water that existed. This one was only the lowest quality of Spirit Water. If a higher-level spirit was caught and turned into Spirit Water, then it was possible to make rare quality weapons with it.