But if Ren Yijue could be so easily satisfied, he would not be Ren Yijue.
After resting against Qian Xuelang’s knees for some time, he said, “There are some things I no longer need to ask, but Ren still wants an answer. Does… does the Jade Beauty not find my thoughts contemptible?”
“You’re simply trying to survive, and hoping that other people will treat you a little better,” Qian Xuelang said. “There’s nothing contemptible about that.”
“Is that so?” Ren Yijue whispered.
An intoxicating smile blossomed across his face. Suddenly he became a Ren Yijue who was remarkably easy to satisfy. Before today, he had never imagined that so little could be enough to appease him.
“If you want to rest, we can talk about it tomorrow,” Qian Xuelang said.
His earlier unconsciousness had been rest enough. Right now Ren Yijue wanted to know what had happened. Though he had already guessed that Wei Wenfeng had caused the calamity of the past several days, he still did not know the details. He shook his head. “No need. Better to explain it sooner. Otherwise it will weigh on my mind.”
“Very well.” Qian Xuelang nodded. “Get up and straighten yourself out. I’ll call Wei Wenfeng back in.”
Soon all three gathered in the main hall. Abandoned Blades Residence was nothing like the lavish, refined City Lord’s Manor in Dongxun City. Everywhere reflected a forgemaster’s preference for simplicity and utility.
They sat on three bamboo chairs around a round table. Wei Wenfeng fetched another pot of refreshingly cool well water for them to drink.
Qian Xuelang brought the sword case inside. He could still feel grief seeping from it, though the sensation was much diminished. Anyone without exceptionally high cultivation would probably notice nothing.
“There was never any monster or evil spirit, only Wei Wenfeng and the sword inside this case. During forging, the sword was tainted by Wei Wenfeng’s emotional poisons and began releasing sorrowful qi. Yet its fundamental nature is righteous, and it is a formidable weapon for slaying demons, even more so than Honglu. When it sensed the vast demonic qi inside Ren Yijue, it brought Wei Wenfeng here to exterminate it.”
Qian Xuelang gave a concise account from beginning to end, ensuring both men understood what had happened.
Ren Yijue’s heart stirred. “Senior Wei, such an extraordinary divine weapon… may I ask where you obtained the wondrous metal used to forge it?”
No one understood the domineering, violent demonic qi inside Ren Yijue better than he did. As a child he had relied on You Pingsheng sending true essence into him; once he was old enough, he began circulating his own power to keep it suppressed. In all those years, never once had he encountered anything that provoked his demonic qi to recoil so fearfully.
A sword that could trigger such a violent backlash before they had even come face to face was not a divine weapon in name alone. It was a genuine artifact of gods and immortals.
Had the sword been a relic of antiquity, that might have made sense. But Wei Wenfeng had forged it after sealing his furnace. There must be a reason no one yet knew.
Ren Yijue was not underestimating Wei Wenfeng’s skill. It was simply that forging a divine artifact required the convergence of Heaven’s timing, earthly conditions, and human effort. How could such a thing appear without anyone noticing?
The sword must have been completed only recently, yet the talkative waiter at the eatery had said nothing about any unusual signs. That was decidedly strange.
Wei Wenfeng, who had forged the divine sword, displayed no joy or pride. Instead, he looked wistful and distant.
“He gave it to me.”
Though he was answering Ren Yijue’s question, his eyes were fixed upon Qian Xuelang.
The answer might have sounded cryptic, but to all three of them it was perfectly clear.
He Tianjun.
“Before the Demon-Extermination War, he came to see me,” Wei Wenfeng said. “I don’t know where he found that extraordinary piece of metal, but it was truly excellent material. He gave it to me and told me to forge myself a sword from it after everything was over.”
“Forge yourself a sword…” Qian Xuelang murmured, closing his eyes. “So that was why it became tainted by your three poisons…”
Whenever Wei Wenfeng took out the metal, he would inevitably think of Master. A forgemaster’s grief-laden determination to destroy the Heavenly Demon, fused with the clear qi of immortal bones, would naturally produce a divine weapon for slaying demons.
There was no longer any need to ask. Wei Wenfeng knew nothing of the plan.
A flash of pain crossed Wei Wenfeng’s eyes, mixed with something almost like contentment. His expression was so complicated that even Ren Yijue could not interpret it fully. He only felt that the forgemaster’s affection for He Tianjun could never be captured in a thousand words.
“I joked at the time that if it was a present for me, why was he making me forge it myself?” A rare smile touched Wei Wenfeng’s face. He lowered his head and stared into the cold water in his cup, slipping back into a beautiful, illusory recollection. “He said to me: Because you’re the greatest forgemaster in the world.”
Unlike Wei Wenfeng, Qian Xuelang felt an icy chill rise from beneath the earth, race through his spine, and climb the back of his head. He nearly trembled from head to foot.
Because you’re the greatest forgemaster in the world.
Master… Master…
Ren Yijue was deeply moved by Wei Wenfeng’s devotion. He also understood why Qian Xuelang had been so protective of the great forgemaster. Why add more suffering to a man whose heart was already broken?
He sighed inwardly and turned toward Qian Xuelang. But the Jade Beauty’s face had turned deathly pale. Rather than hearing a tragic love story, he looked as though he had witnessed something dreadful.
Knowing Qian Xuelang’s ability to remain unmoved even if a mountain collapsed before him, Ren Yijue could hardly imagine what in those words could frighten him. Unless…
Unless that extraordinary metal wasn’t entirely a gift.
“May I ask when this sword was completed?” Ren Yijue asked without showing what he thought.
Wei Wenfeng looked at him appreciatively. “I know what you’re asking. In fact, I was just about to tell Xuelang.”
“To tell you the truth, I began forging it sixty years ago, but it was only eighteen days ago that the sword was finally finished.” Wei Wenfeng frowned. “Yet… it’s strange. A sword of such power should cause an extraordinary manifestation when it leaves the forge, but nothing happened. I noticed nothing unusual at the time, though perhaps I’d already lost my mind. Looking back now, I keep feeling that the sword had already been completed long ago. All my subsequent attempts at forging were merely polishing it.”
Qian Xuelang remained silent.
“Did he… did he ever tell you anything?” Wei Wenfeng hesitated much more visibly now. “Xuelang, did he give you some other instruction?”
Everything had moved beyond Wei Wenfeng’s control. He had begun to suspect that the gift carried another intention, one He Tianjun had been unable to explain openly at the time for various reasons.
Even knowing that He Tianjun had always been such a man, Wei Wenfeng could not help feeling a little forlorn.
Qian Xuelang’s voice was stiff. “No. But… I know why…”
Just as expected. Ren Yijue raised an eyebrow and took a sip of cold water.
He was intensely curious how Immortal Lord He, dead for sixty years, had managed to leave behind a plan like this.
“But do you truly want to know?” Qian Xuelang asked.
His expression was habitually cool. Now that he looked grave and earnest, he inspired both reverence and unease.
Wei Wenfeng was baffled. A terrible premonition rose in him. “What do you mean? Why are you asking whether I want to know?” He sprang up and grasped Qian Xuelang’s wrist, his face dark. “Xuelang, what exactly are you hiding from me?”
Qian Xuelang did not mind the gesture. He simply asked the question on his mind. “First tell me this. After the lightning tribulation, when you forged the sword again, did you notice anything different?”
Wei Wenfeng’s grip loosened slightly. He nodded. “Yes, it changed. Thunder is a thing of utmost yang force. When it strikes metal, it resembles heavenly fire refining iron. If the metal survives that tempering, its quality naturally improves. The sword certainly changed tremendously. But so what? Such events may be rare, but they’re hardly unheard of.”
“So even that was within Master’s calculations,” Qian Xuelang whispered.
This time Qian Xuelang rose outright and paced several steps. For someone of his cool, restrained temperament to find words so difficult could only mean an earthshaking secret lay behind them.
Ren Yijue could still maintain his composure, but Wei Wenfeng was frantic with worry. He knew the matter had to be closely connected to He Tianjun. Every moment of delay felt like endless torment, stretched across a thousand years.
He rose too and seized Qian Xuelang.
“What is going on?”
While He Tianjun was alive, Wei Wenfeng and Qian Xuelang had not been especially close. After his death, however, Wei Wenfeng had treasured Qian Xuelang as though he were a precious child of his own, never once treating him so roughly.
Qian Xuelang’s expression settled into calm restraint, concealing almost everything. “Do you really want to know? You won’t regret it?”
“I will not.”
Qian Xuelang’s voice grew as detached as it had been when he first descended the mountain. “Very well. I’ll explain everything from the beginning. But first, there’s something else I must tell you.”
“Go on,” Wei Wenfeng said.
“The Heavenly Demon has been reborn.” Qian Xuelang paused, then briefly and clearly recounted all that had happened on their journey.
“So Cui Xuanchan still remembers me… That was thoughtful of him.” Wei Wenfeng considered the news. It was not that he lacked concern; he was simply more anxious to hear what Qian Xuelang would say next. “And then?”
Just then lightning flashed across the night sky and thunder rolled. A heavy rain seemed imminent.
With the thunder sounding overhead, all three looked outside and felt their hearts lurch.
“Master’s cultivation was complete. Only one final trial separated him from immortality. In terms of cultivation alone, he was already the equal of an immortal,” Qian Xuelang began, taking a deep breath. “His body had developed immortal bones, and he was only waiting to pass that final trial and face the lightning tribulation. You knew this.”
That final threshold was an immortal cultivator’s trial. Except for the person undergoing it, no one knew its exact nature. It might be as vast as a disaster affecting all living beings or as personal as a trial of the heart involving love.
Because their cultivation allowed them to communicate with Heaven and Earth, would-be immortals might glimpse the Heavenly Mandate when opportunity arose. Yet the fate they saw did not necessarily offer guidance. It might lead them into an even deeper mystery.
When Qian Xuelang saw Ren Yijue while in seclusion, for instance, it was a revelation from Heaven. What it was intended to tell him, however, remained for him to comprehend.
“I knew,” Wei Wenfeng said.
The foreboding in his heart grew steadily stronger. The words lightning tribulation stirred memories from that year that he could never erase. To avoid showing anything that might alarm Qian Xuelang, he clenched both hands and listened in silence.
“Before the Demon-Extermination War, Master performed a divination and received a sign of great calamity,” Qian Xuelang said. “I don’t know what he saw in the Heavenly Mandate, but I think he may have known the Heavenly Demon would be reborn. More than that… Ren Cangming’s misfortune may well have happened for the same reason.”
Wei Wenfeng clenched his hands tighter. A faint metallic taste rose in his mouth. “Continue.”
Ren Yijue’s expression changed slightly.
“Master once told me that if you asked for his body, I should give it to you and not argue. I think he had already begun arranging matters for his own death. From what you’ve told me, he may even have foreseen that lightning tribulation and found some means to conceal it from Heaven and delay its arrival. I don’t know what he did, but the punishment did indeed fall according to his wishes, years after his death.”
A rumble shook the clouds. Lightning tore through them and turned the three men’s faces stark white.
Wei Wenfeng’s heart seemed to miss a beat.
In the lightning, Qian Xuelang’s eyes shone clearer than ever. “Whether you forged the sword blank or not, you would have treasured that extraordinary metal because it reminded you of him. Master must have altered the metal somehow as well. That day, the heavenly tribulation not only shattered his immortal bones, it also refined the metal he had given you. Within the heavenly fire, the two fused and were forged anew.”
At this point, his meaning could scarcely have been clearer. Yet Wei Wenfeng swayed, his face expressionless. “Continue.”
Though the affair had little to do with him, Ren Yijue found his face twisting as he listened. He had once thought Qian Xuelang hard-hearted as iron, but compared with Immortal Lord He… the Jade Beauty was practically gentle and compassionate.
“An immortal… even one already dead, offering himself as a sacrifice to the sword. That sacrifice fused with the forgemaster’s hatred of demons, and in the end produced a weapon capable of destroying them.”
“The sword was not completed eighteen days ago. It was born during that heavenly tribulation years ago. The signs of its birth were simply concealed by the tribulation itself.”
“Your intuition was correct, Wei Wenfeng. You forged its shape and sword intent, allowing it to emerge fully transformed.”
“But the sword blank had already been formed by Master in the thunder and fire of that heavenly punishment.”
A sharp crack rang out amid the sudden downpour. The bamboo chair beneath Wei Wenfeng collapsed into pieces that scattered across the floor. He slowly stood, his eyes red and his face frightening.
“You’re lying!”
He said it word by word, then flew into a rage. Perhaps the pain in his heart was too extreme, for he began laughing instead, shaking all over. “Ha, ha, ha… Because you’re the greatest forgemaster in the world! Because I’m the greatest forgemaster in the world! So that’s what it meant… so that’s what it meant!”
He pressed one hand to his face as the world spun and staggered two steps backward; his blood and qi surged, a bloody tang rising into his mouth and nose as his vision darkened in waves.
“No… no… you’re lying to me! You’re lying!”
He rushed into the curtain of rain, his distant voice half sob and half howl.
“He Tianjun!”