Chapter 626 - Master!
Before, he had been learning and looking for ways to cast a sword. Now, he had almost mastered the method of sword casting, and no longer needed to worry that he wasn’t proficient in it. Thus, Fang Qiu could finally take things easy and work on how to make a sword with the vision of a guru!
Admittedly, it was just a small change. After all, casting a sword was indeed serious work, and Fang Qiu wasn’t sure if the change would cause any problems. So, he could only take it slow. He decided to check out the effect before getting to the complete change.
Having built the mold, Fang Qiu had officially started to cast the sword!
Next to him, Long Qiyun was soon flabbergasted when he saw that Fang Qiu was already in the place to cast a sword.
It was not because Fang Qiu’s technique was any brilliant.
On the contrary, it was because Fang Qiu’s technique was too lame.
“Why is his technique the same as a regular blacksmith’s? He simply hammers it again and again, without any sense of beauty, and it doesn’t feel like leveraging strength at all.”
“Anyway, his control of strength is quite good.”
Long Qiyun commented in his mind.
He didn’t say it out loud.
Because he was not stupid.
He didn’t say it was because he didn’t want to bring up the casting technique, for his casting technique was the Long family’s technique. He could teach his disciples everything he knew, except for the ancestral casting technique of the Long family.
Hence, though he had noticed that Fang Qiu’s hammering skill was not good, he could only turn a blind eye to it and didn’t care to correct him at all.
Shortly, the fourth sword was cast.
Fang Qiu grabbed it and waved, feeling its power, and then smiled.
“The aura is in the sixth class!”
Moreover, the aura was more powerful than that in the ordinary sixth class.
It should be noted that Fang Qiu’s sixth-class cultivation was totally different from that of other sixth-class cultivators!
What was more, in terms of quality, the sword was indeed a good one.
“Head Long, what do you think of this sword?”
Fang Qiu handed the sword to Long Qiyun with a smile.
Long Qiyun didn’t respond.
He took the sword and observed it carefully.
The longer Long Qiyun observed, the more staggered he was.
The quality of this sword was even better than that of the previous one. It was almost as good as the Newborn Moon Sword he had cast!
“Not bad, not bad.”
Impressed as he was, Long Qiyun still kept his face straight.
Fang Qiu smiled.
Putting down the sword, he began to work on the second one.
Long Qiyun, who had sworn that he would only observe Fang Qiu casting one sword, didn’t leave. Instead, he stayed in the workshop and watch Fang Qiu casting the second sword.
When Fang Qiu’s second sword was cast, Long Qiyun was completely stupefied!
“Holy cow!”
Long Qiyun was astounded when Fang Qiu handed him the second sword he had cast, as he realized that the quality of the second sword that Fang Qiu just cast was even higher than the Newborn Moon Sword that he had made!
“How, how is this possible?”
“Am I not the most talented one?”
“Everyone says that I’m the most talented. I think so myself!”
“How could this be?”
“Isn’t the quality of the Newborn Moon Sword infinitely close to the best one can get? How could he cast a sword even better than my Newborn Moon Sword?”
“How can anyone be more brilliant than me in the field of casting swords?”
Long Qiyun’s heart was filled with shock.
The shock that Fang Qiu gave him was too much.
Because the swords Fang Qiu cast were getting better and better. From yesterday to the present, he had produced merely five swords in total. But the last one was already even finer than the Newborn Moon Sword he had cast!
“Even if he continues, there’s no more room for him to make more progress, is there?” Long Qiyun speculated.
As it turned out, when Fang Qiu cast the third sword that day, Long Qiyun completely shelved his pride.
Looking at Fang Qiu, his eyes became evasive.
“Head Long, could you take a look at this sword of mine?”
Fang Qiu handed the sword to Long Qiyun.
Long Qiyun was a bit panic-stricken. Still, he was very keen to take the sword and began to study it.
He looked at the blade, the body of the sword, and observed every detail of the sword.
Long Qiyun was dumbfounded.
“How could this be?”
“How is this possible?”
“How could he be so strong?”
“How could the quality of this sword be so high?”
“Can I cast such a high-quality sword?”
“No, I can’t.”
“Even I can’t do it!”
Long Qiyun was on the verge of bursting into tears as he stared at the sword.
Beside him, Fang Qiu and He Gaoming were both confused.
Why did Long Qiyun get so sorrowful when examining a sword?
Just when the master and the disciple were at a loss...
“Swoosh!”
Long Qiyun suddenly put down the long sword and then squatted down. He wrapped his arms around Fang Qiu’s thigh and called out, “Master!”
“Huh?”
He Gaoming was stunned.
What was going on?
How could the head of the Long family behave like this?
Although he knew that it had something to do with sword casting, He Gaoming couldn’t see any difference between these two swords. In his opinion, even if Fang Qiu’s sword casting skill had improved very quickly, as the head of the Long family, Long Qiyun shouldn’t have made such a big reaction.
Also, wasn’t this Long Qiyun still quite proud earlier?
Fang Qiu was also overwhelmed.
“Head Long, what are you doing?”
Fang Qiu looked with embarrassment at Long Qiyun, who was clinging tightly to his thigh. He didn’t know whether to pull him away by force or not. That was just awkward.
“I want to take you as my master. I want to learn how to cast a sword from you,” Long Qiyun remarked.
“You’re the head of the Long family after all. Why don’t you stand up first?” Fang Qiu said awkwardly.
At his words, Long Qiyun released his grip. He got up, grabbed Fang Qiu’s arm, and said with mortification, “I’m really sorry. I was too excited just now and lost control of myself. I believe you won’t tell anyone about it, will you?”
“Sure not. You have my word,” Fang Qiu said with a wry smile.
“No, no, neither will I.”
He Gaoming held back his giggles and kept shaking his head and waving his hand.
“Actually, you can’t blame me.”
Long Qiyun spoke with a rare seriousness, “It’s all because of the sword you just cast. Its quality is way too good. It’s even better than the Newborn Moon Sword I cast. With my skills, I can hardly make a sword of such high quality. Therefore, please accept me as your disciple and teach me how to cast swords!”
“Well... I can’t teach you that.”
Fang Qiu hurriedly shook his head and said, “In fact, you are much better than me when it comes to casting swords. It’s just because your martial arts realm is not that high. If you want to improve your skill of casting sword, you must improve your martial arts realm. When you’re in the same realm as I am, your sword casting skill will be much better than mine.”
Indeed, Fang Qiu was telling the truth.
Long Qiyun’s casting technique was the one that had been passed down in the Long family for thousands of years. It was absolutely not just ordinary powerful. And what Fang Qiu did was nothing more than wild hammering.
When Long Qiyun heard these words, he said, “In fact... that’s also what I think.”
After thinking for a short while, Long Qiyun suddenly smiled again. He looked at Fang Qiu with a grin and said, “Master, since I need to improve my martial art realm in order to progress in sword casting, then I don’t need you to teach me sword casting. Instead, help me improve my strength. That 500,000 bucks the sword had sold for is a gift from your disciple!”
As he spoke, Long Qiyun’s gaze sorted of freaked Fang Qiu out.
The strength of his family members was never very strong.
After all, his family had all focused on casting skills generations after generations.
When it came to Long Qiyun’s time, as the family head, his strength had only reached the fourth class.
Long Qiyun wanted to increase his own strength as well, but he just did not know how!
Today, he finally met an expert.
How could he let this opportunity slip away?
By his side, He Gaoming kept nodding.
Looking at Long Qiyun, he thought to himself, “Kid, you’ve found the right person. I’ve never seen anyone who can help others raise their level so quickly. In this world, when it comes to helping people raise their level, if my master says he is the second-best, no one else dares to claim that he is the top one!”
“I won’t accept you.”
In the face of Long Qiyun’s apprenticing request, Fang Qiu simply shook his head and said, “However, I can give you some advice.”
“That’s great.”
Long Qiyun immediately laughed heartily.
He didn’t really want to be apprenticed to Fang Qiu. As the head of the family, he was not stupid.
The mysterious man, John Doe, had made himself so many enemies in Wulin. If he really became his disciple, his Long Family would be in danger all the time.
It would be fine if his family was just an ordinary family that had nothing to do with the martial arts world. However, the Long family happened to be a family famous for making weapons for the martial arts world.
What was more, the Long family had been neutral in Wulin for a long time and never targeted anyone. Therefore, although their strength was not outstanding, it still got to thrive for thousands of years.
But once he took Fang Qiu as his master, it would mean that the Long family had taken sides and so it would be doomed.
In fact, Long Qiyun just said that to acquire some instruction of the mysterious man, John Doe.
It had been widely known on the martial arts online forum that and who got the instruction of the mysterious man, who would make a breakthrough.
Thus, to obtain the teaching of the figure that could convert a fool into a talent, he was afraid that he wouldn’t succeed if he didn’t resort to some tricks!
After that, Fang Qiu continued to cast more swords.
Long Qiyun still stayed here to observe.
He made the fourth sword, the fifth...
With each sword he cast, Fang Qiu perfected his skill, and the quality of the swords he cast was getting better and better.
By his side, Long Qiyun was about to go crazy as he looked at those swords!
How could the quality of these swords be improved anymore?
One day later.
At Fang Qiu’s urging, Long Qiyun left with his mouth agape.
He looked quite lost as if he had been hit by a huge blow.
That day, Fang Qiu cast a total of eight swords.
Of course, that did not include the three he cast as a practice from last night.
The eight swords were all built with the sixth-class aura.
Having cast so many swords, Fang Qiu’s proficiency in sword casting had also picked up a lot.
Still, he hurried up and continued casting. In addition to casting, he had to make these swords carry an aura stronger than that of the sixth class!
When night fell, He Gaoming couldn’t stand it anymore. After saying goodbye to Fang Qiu, he stealthily took the best one among the eight swords made by Fang Qiu and went out. He said he was going to rest, but in fact, he was going to show it off.
In the workshop, Fang Qiu took a short break.
During the rest, he fetched the Newborn Moon Sword and brandished it for a while. Soon, he was in a place where he and the sword had become one. But soon he found that the Newborn Moon Sword carried no aura at all.
“How come it has none?”
Fang Qiu was puzzled.
However, after giving it a thought, he figured it out.
When Long Qiyun cast the sword, he did not run his internal Qi throughout the process, so this sword was not affected by his aura when it was made.
In other words—
This was a secret that even the most famous family in the sword casting business did not know!