Chapter Eighty-Nine: Homemade Weapons

When they came out of the main hall, the setting sun had already washed the sky in a vivid blaze of crimson. In the afterglow, Sword-Hiding Manor looked even more beautiful, and even more hushed.

Like that stirring yet mournful episode in Dynasty, some past event can be beautiful and still heartbreaking at the same time.

The three of them seemed to carry a certain heaviness in their hearts and spoke little.

It was not until they reached the gates that Qi Shiqi finally said, after a moment’s thought, “Brother Wu, what is your opinion on the ambush that claimed eight of my manor’s disciples?”

Zhang He gave a slight nod to himself. He had known it all along. Qi Shiqi might appear to be nothing more than a refined man of letters, but he was by no means a mere poseur. Whatever ability he had was hidden from plain sight.

Zhang He said, “According to what Young Master has said, those eight disciples were killed on the way back after completing a mission in Ezhou?”

Qi Shiqi nodded. “I know those eight men. They were all first-rebirth level, and they had almost no enemies. The killer wore a black veil, and after they were slain, the system did not even identify who had killed them. It was clearly the work of a master from the evil path.”

Zhang He suddenly said, “Today, Young Master showed me three famed swords, and I was truly treated to a feast for the eyes. I also believe Young Master is an honest and upright gentleman. I only did not expect that you really had only those three treasured blades in your possession. In any case, thank you for your kindness, and thank you as well for your help last time at Peony Tower.”

He had been asked a serious question, yet he suddenly veered off onto some unrelated matter. Zhong Shuman, standing nearby, listened in complete confusion. Zhang He’s leap from one thought to another was not something ordinary people could easily follow.

To his surprise, Qi Shiqi only smiled faintly and clasped his hands. “You flatter me, Brother Wu. Then let us part here today. I have already arranged everything for you after you descend the mountain. The manor steward will escort the two of you down.”

“Many thanks!” Zhang He and Zhong Shuman said together, both bowing their hands.

The Fat Mantis did not know when he had appeared again. He still wore what looked like a broad smile, but his manner was clearly much more courteous than when they had arrived. “This way, please. Both of you, this way.”

Zhang He glanced at him, and a question arose in his mind.

From what he had seen before, the Fat Mantis was clearly no weakling. So just how formidable was Manor Lord Qi Shiqi in truth? And the manor’s former “Ghost Shadow Crossing the Sky” — what kind of unimaginable figure had that been?

Zhang He suddenly felt that the matters he had encountered during this trip to Sword-Hiding Manor were not as simple as they seemed. Somehow, faint and obscure threads appeared to connect them all. Had he, without realizing it, become entangled in yet another quest?

But he no longer had the leisure to think further. The bustling settlement at the foot of the mountain had already come into view, and it bore a distinctive, pleasant name: Xie Family Relay.

The Fat Mantis had already explained, “Yes, this Xie Family Relay was named for the Divine Sword Manor. The most renowned smiths of the southern regions gather here, and in gratitude for the protection given by Divine Sword Manor and Sword-Hiding Manor, the place took the Xie family name.”

The Fat Mantis was right. Under the night sky, Xie Family Relay was not only brilliantly lit, but even livelier and more prosperous than it had been by day.

The needs of players of every sort were all catered for. After making a round through the area, Zhang He first hired a player courier to deliver a batch of glowing grass to the Fairy of the Zither, and then sold all the excess materials and gear from the Golden Buddha Mountain expedition to merchants buying by the roadside, earning a total of twelve taels of gold.

For Zhang He’s current savings, that sum was not much. Still, he did not seek out any illicit channel. Xie Family Relay had a vast flow of money, and even one hundred taels of gold would not buy much cash in hand. Besides, he was now in urgent need of finding a famous master smith, and this was precisely the time to spend money.

In a quaint little courtyard by a quiet stream at the foot of the mountain, under the Fat Mantis’s introduction, Zhang He finally met the player called Bai Jiaren.

Only then did Zhang He learn that Bai Jiaren was one of the most renowned master smiths in all of Xie Family Relay. On ordinary days, he simply did not meet outsiders or receive visitors. If Qi Shiqi had not sent word in advance and if the Fat Mantis himself had not come to make the introduction, Zhang He and Zhong Shuman would never have set foot beyond the threshold of that courtyard.

In the imagination of most players, master smiths were usually old men in plain blue hemp robes, hale and sharp-eyed, with an air of ancient simplicity and profound learning. But Bai Jiaren was clearly nothing like that. He looked no different from an ordinary player, young and unremarkable, his clothes somewhat worn, though the emblem on his arm revealed his rank: grandmaster-level master smith.

Bai Jiaren’s opening words were blunt and unkind. “Let me be clear: if you want common weapons and equipment, go to the market outside. Don’t bring them here and waste my time.”

Zhang He smiled faintly and was not disappointed. He had always understood that people with great ability often had equally great tempers.

But when the Heaven-Outside Divine Iron was placed in Bai Jiaren’s hands, Bai Jiaren fell briefly silent. It was a long while before he said, “This is merely an auxiliary material. It would be a waste to use it for synthesis.”

At those words, the smile on Zhang He’s face deepened. He knew he had not come to the wrong person.

The forging system in Dynasty was itself an enormously vast and intricate structure. The knowledge within it was no less profound than that required for any combat profession, and a player who truly mastered it was as valuable and famous as those martial experts at the sixth or seventh rebirth stage.

The forging system was divided mainly into three parts: synthesis, forging, and crafting.

Take Zhang He’s secondary profession as an example: he could choose one of these paths as his cultivation route.

Synthesis was the simplest. For instance, if you had two peach-wood swords in your hands, you could hand them to an NPC or a professional smith and, after paying a small fee, synthesize them into a short wooden sword. Two short wooden swords could become one long wooden sword, and two long wooden swords could become one green wooden sword. Although the weapons differed in attributes, the differences were not great. The system would take the average of the two weapons’ attribute totals and proceed from there. The higher the synthesis, the stronger the attributes, and the greater the total cost.

Of course, synthesis was not without its drawbacks. Its weakness lay in quality.

For example, once your wooden sword was synthesized to a certain point, you would need auxiliary materials. After those materials were infused, the quality would change. A ironwood sword, for instance, contained both iron and wood, so its attributes would naturally rise. The ironwood sword used by Ghost Shadow Crossing the Sky against He Ri Jun Lai was based on this principle.

But if you grew greedy and kept synthesizing and infusing recklessly, a sword might end up containing all sorts of ingredients — wood, stone, iron, copper, and so on. The weapon would then display multiple different attribute effects. On the other hand, that would mean it was cluttered rather than refined, abundant rather than pure, and in the end it would become a failed item with little practical effect.

The synthesis system mainly catered to the majority of mainstream players, especially novices with little money. So long as you had patience and energy to buy up scraps and collect discarded items, the attributes of your weapons and equipment could be raised little by little. After all, there was not much technical difficulty involved.

Forging, however, was much more complicated. Its first requirement was a blueprint. Without a blueprint, no amount of forging skill or rank would matter.

Obtaining a blueprint was itself extremely difficult. For example, the Deer-Cutting Blade had not yet been assembled by anyone in Dynasty even after three years. The difficulty of that quest was enough to make ordinary players hesitate before even trying.

Once you obtained the blueprint, you still needed the proper materials and a master smith of the required level. If these conditions were not met, then forget failure — you would not even have the qualification to open the blueprint.

Yet the advantage of forging over synthesis was that forged equipment had excellent quality and pure attributes. After auxiliary materials were infused, the change in quality was not like synthesis, where the chance of failure was extremely high. Instead, it could undergo a qualitative leap. That was why players in Dynasty with even a little wealth and understanding would choose the forging route.

The last type, crafting, was the most complex, and also the most seductive. As the name suggested, it required the player to make the item personally. There had to be materials, methods, and blueprints to back it up. On the surface, it seemed no different from forging, but in truth it was not. Crafted weapons and equipment were capable of growth, and their growth had no limit. The only problem was that making a normal piece of equipment was easy, but turning it into something truly valuable was unimaginably difficult. The hardship and cost involved were almost beyond what any human being could bear.

Crafted equipment also required blueprints. If you had none, you could devise one yourself. When an item was first made, its starting attributes were usually very low. If you wanted it to grow and level up, you would need not only money, materials, blueprints, and a master smith of the appropriate rank, but also — and most importantly — your own knowledge and experience.

Take Zhang He’s Flowing Cloud Saber for example. Its initial attributes were:

Precious-tier. Required level: 25. Strength requirement: 40 points. Attack power: 80 points. Bonus: Strength +15 points, 10 percent chance to trigger a critical strike, 3 percent chance to trigger a perfect strike.

Any player with equipment experience could see the problems at a glance. For instance, if you wanted to upgrade its attack power, you needed to infuse auxiliary materials. But you could not simply pour in something too high-grade. After all, this was a precious-tier weapon for level 25. If you used extremely premium auxiliary materials such as deep-blue quartz, millennial cold iron, or demonic realm copper, the attack power would certainly rise sharply — but afterward, the weapon would have very little room left to grow. If you later wanted to upgrade it again, you would need even higher-grade auxiliary materials. If, instead, you infused low-grade materials, nothing would change, and you would merely waste your money.

Or take its bonus attributes. Precious-tier equipment displayed yellow coloration, and its total attributes theoretically followed the principle of “base attributes times 1.5 plus two lower-tier attributes.” If you forcibly upgraded it into something like “Bonus: Strength +15 points, 10 percent chance to trigger a critical strike, 3 percent chance to trigger a perfect strike, Courage +5 points,” then the added “Courage +5 points” would in fact violate the logic of the equipment system. It would not be impossible to use, but the weapon’s growth path would already have gone astray. Any further upgrading would require a completely different approach. If you upgraded it wrongly, it would have no real meaning; you would only be wasting your time and sweat. That was why players with real understanding did not take reckless risks lightly.

Thus, the crafting system required players to accumulate extensive in-game experience. Every step demanded careful, cautious thought, and every upgrade had to be precise and reasonable. In short, one had to plan boldly and scientifically, upgrading with just the right balance, not making a mess of things.

By rights, a self-made weapon should have been the most dazzling and powerful of all. Yet in the three years since Dynasty began, countless players had stumbled on this path, battered bloody and broken, only to end with nothing to show for it. That was why so few dared to spend large sums of money and use top-quality materials to craft items by hand.

Still, even knowing the tiger mountain was perilous, there were always a few unruly young men who insisted on going there anyway. Zhang He said, word by word, “I want to use this auxiliary material to craft a weapon.”

The moment he said it, Bai Jiaren narrowed his eyes, and a flicker of interest appeared in his gaze as he looked at Zhang He.