Chapter 325: Nine Heaven’s Devouring Blood Metal
Cou Ling looked at the sword as it greedily absorbed one drop of silver blood after another. She kept the sword underneath the flow of blood for a good two seconds before she removed it, picked up her hammer, and started hammering it as though the blood had been the fire and the stone was her anvil.
Bang, bang, bang! The loud noise sounded out as the hammer landed on the sword and sweat poured down from the woman’s forehead. Drop after drop landed on the altar causing it to sizzle. The hot steam drifted upwards, yet although this steam made it harder to see what she was doing, she did not give up.
Once more the sword ended up under Hui Yue’s arm drinking more and more blood. The color of the blood turned increasingly silver, and currently, it was shining with an intense light, and small currents of electricity could be seen within.
At this point, Hui Yue had already withstood three of the nine lightning bolts, yet Hui Yue had to gnash his teeth together as he got ready for the fourth. His Wu Wei was used up, and his Qi and Spiritual energy were drained along with the beast core which also no longer had any strength left.
Seeing that the fourth lightning bolt was coming his way, Hui Yue summoned the very last drop of all his energy and surrounded himself with his elemental strength causing a multicolored shield to appeared in front of him. Some areas of the shield were silver like the Metal element while other parts were red like Fire, one was yellow like the Earth, and a small green hue could be seen deep within. The only color which was not present was the blue Water element.
Deep within Hui Yue’s middle dantian, above the spiritual energy sea, were the four flames which rotated around themselves. They spun so strongly that parts of the elemental energy were being released into the body, and it was exactly this energy that Hui Yue had summoned.
The fourth lightning bolt landed on him, and Hui Yue felt the world go black as he collapsed to the ground. The moment he landed the small metal item that had attracted the lightning bolts slipped from his hands. As Cou Ling watched the sky, she saw how the bolts fell on the massive stones in front of them.
Although Hui Yue was currently unconscious and the lightning bolts no longer struck on top of the young man, her job was far from finished; therefore, she once again started to hammer on the sword which had absorbed massive amounts of blood. After hammering it to the her best of her ability, the sword quickly took shape. The sword turned silvery. It no longer had the black color from before, and even the hilt started shining once more as all the rust was removed by the Nine Heaven’s Devouring Blood Metal.
While Cou Ling worked hard on the sword, she glanced at the unconscious Hui Yue and called out, “Wei, quickly pick up the kid and give him some medicinal pills!” And within moments the young man who had tagged along instantly picked up the unconscious Hui Yue and dragged him away from the blacksmith. After fiddling with a storage stone, he picked out various medicinal pills, elixirs, and pastes for the young man.
The paste was smeared on the charcoaled forehead of Hui Yue first after which he started smearing it over the rest of his body. This helped cool him down and heal the burn marks that appeared after being repeatedly hit by the heavenly lightning. As soon as the paste was smeared on the burned areas on his body, the elixirs were picked up, and a few medicinal herbs were crushed and mixed into the elixir which was then fed to the unconscious young man.
Hammering the sword took a long half hour before it was impossible for Cou Ling to continue any further. She then left the sword on the altar before moving towards the two young men. The lightning subsided almost at the same time Hui Yue fell unconscious, and the blue sky had returned. Now a warm breeze was gently blowing over the land as the blacksmith sighed deeply. The Nine Heaven’s Blood Forging was in no way something to joke about, and in the entire Taiyang Kingdom, she was the only one who had succeeded in creating something from this ancient forging method.
Seeing that the young man had managed to get through four of the nine lightning bolts, she could not help but praise him in her heart as she knew how difficult it was to take on just one lightning bolt.
“How is he doing?” She asked curiously as she looked at the young man in front of her, and Fang Wei looked at her as he shrugged, “I think that these remedies should work quite well. I assume that he will be able to wake up in a few days and then after another few days he can return to his peak. After that then we should be able to continue.”
Hearing this made Cou Ling happy. She feared that she would have spent an entire month or longer at this godforsaken place which always left her heart quivering with fear, but because of the young man’s strength it was clear that they could get it over with soon. For the first time since she had left Muchuan City, a smile appeared on her lips.
“Keep an eye on the young boy, I’ll go and get some food for us,” She said happily as she dashed away from the desolate area towards a lush forest which they had traveled through earlier. It took her an hour to reach the forest and another hour to catch enough animals to return and cook a delicious meal.
Feeling that things were going the right way, Cou Ling could not help but smile. She had been paid a heavy fee to create this weapon for the young man, and at the same time, he had proven to be strong enough to actually make it somewhat easy to forge the sword.
Returning to the desolate area that housed the stone altar, Cou Ling was incredibly shocked when she saw that the young man, whom they had expected to be unconscious for a longer period of time, was awake. He was seated with his eyes open, and although his skin still had burn marks all over, he did not seem as though it was uncomfortable. If anything, he looked slightly comfortable as he leaned against a boulder with a blanket resting over his legs and a mug of steaming tea in his hand.
In front of him was a bonfire, and by the bonfire’s side was Fang Wei. Fang Wei was heating a jug of water to which he had added some medicinal herbs and tea leaves. Although he was greatly shocked the moment he saw that Hui Yue opened his eyes, he took his job as a nurse incredibly important as he was given this task by Cou Ling. He ensured that Hui Yue’s skin had the paste smeared on the wounds and that he drank the medicine which would help him regain strength.
Seeing Cou Ling return, Fang Wei smiled a proud smile at her as he used his hand to point towards Hui Yue. “My medicinal skills are far better than what you would expect,” He said with pride evident in his voice. “Just as you left this fellow opened his eyes. Although his body is in severe pain, he is healing at an astonishing pace. I never knew my medicine were this strong before.
Looking at the excited young man and the calm youngster who was leaning against the stone, the blacksmith was completely astonished. It should not be possible for this young man to be up, let alone open his eyes.
Narrowing her own eyes, Cou Ling moved closer. Her mouth tightened, and her fingers were itching to put pressure on the burn marks to see whether or not the young man would scream in pain. Much like she had done before.
Yet looking at this young man, she found that the burn marks were already subsiding slowly, vanishing and leaving his white skin as perfect as it had been before. Gnashing her teeth, Cou Ling could not help but mumble, “It must be because of his mixed blood. He truly is a freak of nature.”
A shiver ran down her spine as she looked into those fathomless deep eyes. Fear welled up within her as she finally understood that this young man in front of her was truly dangerous. He was not only skilled at controlling his energy enough to defend himself against four heavenly lightning bolts, but he also managed to return from his unconsciousness much swifter than she had expected.
Feeling the fear within her clashing against her entire being the woman no longer sprouted an air of arrogance around her; instead, she humbly sat down by the fire and started cooking the food she had managed to hunt down in the nearby forest.
“I’ve heard about you before,” She suddenly said as she, with an experienced hand, started to butcher the prey. “Everyone who supports Zhan Weisheng knows about you since the Ma family decided to wrist themselves from the merchants to support you.”
“When I heard that even Gao Yan and his Black Lion decided to support you, I was quite astonished. Your faction sprouted out of nowhere, and suddenly everyone looked at you with both vigilance and admiration.”
“A couple of days after the banquet a lot of gossip had spread amongst the citizens of Muchuan City. This rumor said that although you looked different, it was likely that this appearance was not from having mixed blood.”
Pausing for a moment, Cou Ling looked at the calm Hui Yue and heaved a sigh before she continued, “I have lived in Muchuan City for a long time. Far longer than you would guess and yet I have never heard about someone looking like you and not being of mixed blood.”
“I have to admit that I did actually look down on you, but now you’ve surprised me time and time again. So much so that I’m actually quite curious about you,” She continued as her eyes twinkled with curiosity and her entire being was focused on Hui Yue.
After the final sentence, Cou Ling spoke no more, and Hui Yue had to consider how to answer. Eventually, he shook his head dejectedly. “I don’t know what I am,” He said with a sad voice. “Both my parents were human, but I cannot deny that I am also a beast. It really is quite complicated.” He continued as he shrugged his shoulders.
“If you don’t want to tell me about it, you can just say so,” Cou Ling pouted. “There is no reason for you to lie about it.”
Hearing the words the blacksmith spoke Hui Yue could do nothing but smile wryly. He had told the truth, yet it was really not simple. Even he himself was incapable of determining whether or not he was a beast or a human. Was he a half beast half human? A human with a beast inside? Or had he turned into a beast the moment he had formed a beast core? There were so many questions yet no answers. Even this young man was depressed about it.
“I guess she will believe me later,” Hui Yue said while accepting the cooked meat he was passed. Looking up he saw a wide array of stars, and a gentle smile played on his lips as he wondered what the Laws were doing now that they had found a new world to move through. The first Law he had met was the young boy who controlled the starry sky. With a creaking sound, Hui Yue move his body from the comfortable position resting against the stone to sitting with his legs crossed. Although he was injured there was no way he would waste a night of cultivation, so when he reached the right position his eyes shut and the essence of the heavens and the earth in the surrounding world started to churn around as it was drawn towards Hui Yu who absorbed it all.