Chapter 60: Materials, Demonstration and Question
Mo Feng's eyes shined as he scanned over the materials that the Sage had just dropped on the ground.
"... So that's why you've been missing lately? Hehe... I smell something good."
A blacksmith's senses were always fine-tuned when it came to expensive materials.
It wasn't anything innate or a trained ability, it was just something that appeared after decades of experience using the best materials within their lands.
They could easily notice when they were in the presence of prime goods.
And when Mo Yangling rushed headfirst into his forge, Mo Feng's blacksmith senses were tingling.
"Amitabha, I told you I'd go and look for some things, didn't I? I also told the King that, but he still made such a huge mess in my absence..."
The Blacksmith couldn't help but shake his head as he heard of their King's foolishness. But it wasn't anything new to him, he knew that Kings were like regular men, prone to stupidity and failure too.
Of course, most of the population believed the royal families to be of a different breed, but any cultivator old enough knew it wasn't the case.
Hell, Mo Feng had been present when the current King Guo Zhu had taken the crown after a bloody struggle with the other princes of his generation.
The amount of mistakes that were made and the amount of blood that was shed still stuck with the Blacksmith.
It was actually through those bloody conflicts that Mo Feng realized he was simply not made for battles.
He found his passion in forging... And money. And thankfully for him, those two went hand in hand.
Over a century, Mo Feng gained enough experience to know that what the monk had brought him smelled like pure money.
'That rinky dink bag... It seems to hold the remains of a powerful beast's core. Just from the residual Origin Energy within it, I can tell that it was stronger than me in life...'
The Blacksmith assumed the blade was also a part of that same beast from the Origin Energy it exuded.
Of course, the Beast Core was slowly losing its power due to the shoddy storage it was contained within, but it was still immensely valuable.
'Such a powerful core would only fade away after a few decades anyway. This one seems to be pretty fresh still.'
"You've really gone above and beyond... At this point, any weapon you want, I will make it. And I'll turn it into a treasure even if I have to use my most precious auxiliary materials."
The old Blacksmith wasn't exactly doing it for free either, he was going to get paid a fortune for the 'Praying Instruments' that Mo Yangling requested.
But when seeing the quality of the materials brought before him, his pride as a blacksmith wouldn't allow him to make and deliver the best.
If he could have his name on a masterpiece wielded by a Sage, then he was sure that the Forging Community Worldwide would even bestow upon him a 4-star rating.
An exalted title that was only reserved for the best within the Great Empire.
Mo Feng had come a long way. From a forging apprentice to a 1-Star Blacksmith, then to a 3-Star Blacksmith, all in the span of around 100 years.
His skill and talent were decent, but more than all, his passion for his craft was what drove him.
Mo Feng's trained eye already judged and analyzed all of the materials in front of him. He could already see himself creating something worthy of being called a 'Masterpiece'. A true relic.
But there was still something else amongst the things that the Sage had brought.
He felt like he was looking at priceless treasures, but his senses were still going haywire elsewhere. A strange aura was coming from something else... Something other than the beast core and the blade.
It felt more... Primal.
"Old Man Feng, the materials I've brought are nice and all... But the thing that interests me most is these 'things'..."
The Monk smiled as he slowly reached for and shook off the vines from around the large blade.
He held up the thorny vines, uncaring of the way the seemingly indestructible thorns dug into his leathery palm.
Mo Feng's gaze seemed to shake slightly as he eyed the Throns, his mouth trembled as he started circling around the Monk and looking at the strange vine from different angles.
"What... Where did you get this?"
"From the Depths of the Chen Luo Forest... They are something else I tell you." The monk smiled as he gripped the thorns harder. They pierced his palm in different places, causing blood to spill all over.
Mo Feng's eyes widened when seeing the young man's actions!
"Hey, be careful! Don't stain my floor with your blood!" Of course, he wasn't all that concerned for Mo Yangling himself.
The old man realized that the Sage was likely one of the strongest figures in their Kingdom at that point.
Still, the old blacksmith's unease was quite visible on his features as he made eye contact with the monk.
'I still remember a while back when he wasn't much more than a naive young man... What the hell happened?'
Mo Yangling just shook his head, slowly turning towards the horse-sized blade to his side and raising his other palm towards it.
"Amitabha, a little showcase, to give you some perspective..."
The monk immediately stuck the blade into the ground and then pushed his palm into it.
The floor creaked, and the edge of the blade seemed to bend and crack.
The monk's fingers dug into the blade like hot knives through butter, his nails cracking through it in an instant as he ripped out a chunk of the blade.
The monk then moved the still-sharp bits towards his palm, before crushing the chunk to pieces in his hand.
"My palms are the toughest part of my body, more durable than even my skeleton..." Mo Yangling muttered as he opened up his leathery palm and showcased it to the old man.
And much to Mo Feng's surprise, it was pristine. Not even a scratch on his skin.
The durability of his palms was something he had observed not long after he had cultivated for the first time.
But only during training did he notice just how different they were from even the rest of his skin. His entire body was tough, but his palms were always seemingly a level above that.
Of course, he was not able to fully block the Bladed Caterpillar's Origin Energy Charged blades, but now that it was just a ripped-out blade, they felt more brittle.
'This brat... He really became a monster, huh? Were external cultivators always this formidable?'
Mo Feng nodded when seeing the monk's palm, for a moment he felt unsure why the Sage would even need additional weapons...
But he knew better than anyone that a good relic could make the difference between life and death.
He just needed to make sure that he constructed a weapon good enough to make a difference.
Still, one important question remained...
"... What beast did you take this from?"
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Heyoo, hope you liked the two chapters :)) Took me a while to write, holiday season is something that has me away from the computer a lot lately. I still want to try and put out chapters for you all though. Thanks for all the support!
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