Chapter 426 (1/2)

Blacksmith

An awkward silence filled the house.

This… this…. This was a little different from what they expected.

That stance, the power, they all thought the rock would split open. In the end, the rock was just chipped off. It was a small chip too.

Duo Kang looked at the rock on the ground, then at the sword in Gongjia Heng’s hand, then turned to give Zheng Luo a look. He wanted to say something but stopped himself.

Not just Duo Kang, even Gongjia Heng himself was confused. His entire stubbly face reddened.

He wanted to show off but in the end, he just looked stupid.

“Cough, this is a peculiar rock indeed. I’ve tried a few rocks and they were all split in half easily.” How could a random rock he picked up here be so hard? The regular rocks in the forest were all broken easily! He hadn’t expected this, he might as well… might as well kill himself right there and then.

Shao Xuan was astonished. He went over to pick the rock up and looked at the chipped off corner with surprise in his eyes.

“That was impressive!” gasped Shao Xuan.

Gongjia Heng: “...”

Please don’t say that, I want to kill myself.

Shao Xuan knew what he was thinking from his expression so he explained, “That really is the most impressive sword I’ve seen. This rock is harder than other rocks. Based on the grading we use for stone racks, this rock is near the top grade type. It’s a lot harder than other rocks.” Shao Xuan pointed at another rock in the corner. “If it’s that one, it will be different.”

He had picked this rock up during the last hunt. The quality of the stone was definitely very good. It was just too small and not suitable to make into a knife so he left it there. He hadn’t expected it to become Gongjia Heng’s test rock. Gongjia Heng was just ‘lucky’.

Shao Xuan passed him another rock. To everyone else, it did not look different, similar to any rock they saw in the jungle.

“Try again,” said Shao Xuan.

This time, Gongjia Heng wasn’t so confident. However, he bore the ‘Gongjia’ family name and could not leave a bad impression like that or in the future, there would be rumours of a Gongjia man who made a sword that could not even split a rock… He would really kill himself if that happened.

He took a deep breath. Heng through the rock Shao Xuan passed to him in the air, clenched his teeth and slashed his sword. This time, he used a lot more strength.

Clang!

The rock was split in half.

When he saw this, Gongjia Heng heaved a sigh of relief but kept most of the pride to himself. Too bad, he had just embarrassed himself and had to get some of his dignity back. He had to admit what happened was a deep cut. Gongjia Heng now understood that there was a lot of room to improve. He needed to continue his research so that one day, he would be able to split that rock.

Zheng Luo was very impressed. This Xia lived up to his name. He really could split a rock in half! It was no wonder the slave masters of the great six worshipped them.

Gongjia Heng passed the sword to Shao Xuan. He stopped introducing the weapons, instead asking Shao Xuan in detail about distinguishing different grades of stone. This was for his convenience after he made swords, to test his swords. If that awkward incident happened again, all his dignity would be gone. Thank goodness this was just a tribe deep in the forest. If he were in the great six, especially King City, and this happened in front of a crowd, the consequences could have been dire.

After witnessing the sword in action, Zheng Luo and Duo Kang did not stay. They did not want to intrude on Heng and Shao Xuan’s discussion.

After Shao Xuan explained how to distinguish rocks, he asked Heng about his future plans.

“I’ll head to King City directly. I have some seniors and friends there that I need to visit. I have been gone for twenty years! I don’t know how King City looks like now,” Gongjia Heng sighed. “Some people, they were just one step away from Gongjia Mountain. Yet they died too soon, they couldn’t take even that one step after death.” The skeletons at Gongjia Valley were all filled with huge unwillingness and regret.

“The elders of my people used to say this was fate. I thought I might end up like them too, yet I did not think I would meet you, Shao Xuan.”

“I benefited a lot from this too,” said Shao Xuan.