Chapter 13: Like Old Times
Yun Che stared at the page for a long time.
The ink had already dried.
His incantation was complete.
Or at least...
Complete enough to test.
Theory meant very little in cultivation.
The body always gave the final answer.
He sat cross-legged once more.
His breathing settled into the newly synchronized rhythm.
Heartbeat.
Breath.
Ki.
All moving together.
Then, quietly, he began reciting.
"Iron is my body.
Fire is my breath.
Knowledge is the hammer that shapes my path.
Every failure becomes my teacher.
Every creation becomes my answer.
I do not seek borrowed legends.
I shall forge my own.
My heart is the furnace.
My will is the anvil.
My soul is the forge.
From these hands shall rise the future."
Nothing happened.
Yun Che wasn't disappointed.
He repeated it again.
And again.
The library remained silent except for the quiet rhythm of his breathing.
Half an hour passed.
Then...
Something shifted.
Not dramatically.
There was no explosion of Ki.
No brilliant light.
No miraculous breakthrough.
The change was subtle.
His Ki felt...
Denser.
As though each strand flowed with slightly greater purpose.
The circulation no longer wandered aimlessly through his meridians.
It felt...
More deliberate.
More stable.
Yun Che slowly opened his eyes.
"...Interesting."
He cultivated a little longer before stopping.
The improvement was nowhere near as obvious as synchronizing his heartbeat and breathing.
If the first change had increased efficiency...
This one seemed to improve quality.
It was difficult to measure.
Yet he could clearly feel that something inside him had become a little more... unified.
Still...
It wasn't working correctly.
He stood and began pacing around the room.
"Why?"
The answer didn't take long to appear.
"The mindset..."
He looked back at the notebook.
His incantation wasn't merely words.
It expressed an ideal.
Creation.
Building.
Forging.
His cultivation, however, had been performed exactly like before.
Sitting still.
Emptying his thoughts.
That contradicted the very meaning of the incantation.
"I'm cultivating like a monk..."
"...with the heart of a blacksmith."
He laughed quietly.
"No wonder it feels incomplete."
His eyes drifted toward the forge outside the library window.
The words themselves provided another clue.
My heart is the furnace.
My will is the anvil.
From these hands shall rise the future.
His hands.
His work.
His forge.
Perhaps...
The movements themselves mattered.
Master Liang cultivated while moving like falling leaves.
Shen Tianyu cultivated through fierce, mountain-like forms.
Maybe...
His own cultivation should accompany the rhythm of forging.
The lifting of the hammer.
The swing.
The strike.
Every movement reinforcing the meaning behind the incantation.
It was only a hypothesis.
But...
It was worth testing.
Yun Che left the library earlier than expected.
Instead of returning to his room...
He headed directly toward the smithy.
The forge was closed for the day.
Inside, however, Yun Jian was exactly where Yun Che expected him to be.
Repairing a damaged workbench.
"You call this resting?"
Yun Jian didn't even look up.
"I am resting."
"You're rebuilding furniture."
"It relaxes me."
"...I'm beginning to understand why Mother laughs."
Yun Jian smiled faintly.
Then he noticed the notebook tucked beneath Yun Che's arm.
"You discovered something."
Again...
It wasn't a question.
Yun Che nodded excitedly.
"I think I improved the Iron Soul Method."
The hammer stopped.
For several seconds...
The forge became completely silent.
Yun Jian slowly turned around.
"You what?"
"I only changed the synchronization between breathing and heartbeat."
"I didn't touch the rune."
"I didn't touch the circulation paths."
"I simply aligned them."
"And..."
He hesitated.
"...it increased my cultivation speed."
His father stared.
Then held out his hand.
"Show me."
Yun Che explained everything.
The observations.
Master Liang.
Shen Tianyu.
The synchronized rhythm.
His calculations.
Yun Jian listened without interrupting.
When the explanation ended...
He simply sat down.
Closed his eyes.
And began cultivating.
Unlike Yun Che...
The synchronization came almost immediately.
Years of experience made controlling his breathing effortless.
Several minutes later...
His father opened his eyes.
A look of genuine astonishment crossed his face.
"...It works."
Yun Che smiled.
"It does?"
"It does."
Yun Jian circulated his Ki again to confirm.
The result remained the same.
"It isn't revolutionary."
"But..."
He looked at his son with undisguised pride.
"...it's real."
"I'd estimate around ten percent."
"Perhaps a little more."
He laughed quietly.
"I've been cultivating this method for over twenty years."
"And I never questioned something so simple."
Yun Che shrugged.
"I only copied what better cultivation methods already do."
"I didn't invent the idea."
"I merely applied it."
Yun Jian nodded slowly.
"And that's exactly why research matters."
He rested a large hand on Yun Che's shoulder.
"Most people only look at what they don't have."
"You looked carefully at what you already possessed."
"There's a difference."
He shook his head with a smile.
"I've always told you that you're strange."
"I meant it as a compliment."
Yun Che then turned to another page.
"There's something else."
"The incantation."
He explained his experiment.
The subtle improvement.
His suspicion that it wasn't functioning correctly.
Yun Jian read the words slowly.
When he reached the final line, he chuckled.
"From these hands shall rise the future."
He looked at Yun Che.
"You wrote this?"
"I did."
"It sounds dramatic."
"I may have been influenced by too many stories."
"I don't know what that means."
"It's probably for the best."
His father laughed.
"I like it."
"You do?"
"It suits you."
He handed the notebook back.
"The problem isn't the words."
"I think you're right."
"The problem is the meaning."
He looked around the forge.
"If your cultivation is about creating..."
"Then why are you sitting still?"
Yun Che's eyes widened.
"That's exactly what I thought!"
Yun Jian nodded.
"When I forge..."
"My breathing changes naturally."
"My heartbeat follows the hammer."
"My thoughts become completely focused."
"For those few hours..."
"There is only the metal."
He smiled.
"Perhaps..."
"Your cultivation should begin there."
The two of them immediately started discussing possibilities.
Should the hammer rise during inhalation?
Should the strike coincide with the heartbeat?
Would every completed strike reinforce the mindset of creation?
Could ordinary forging become cultivation?
Ideas flowed faster than either of them could write.
Hours passed unnoticed.
Neither realized the sun had begun to set.
Yun Mei eventually opened the forge door and folded her arms.
"I had a feeling."
The two blacksmiths looked up simultaneously.
"Dinner's ready."
"We're almost finished."
"You said that an hour ago."
Yun Ren peeked inside and grinned.
"...They're doing it again."
Yun Mei smiled knowingly.
"What again?"
"The two of them."
He pointed at the scattered blueprints and notebooks.
"They've gone back to being father and son inventors."
Yun Jian and Yun Che exchanged a glance.
Without realizing it...
They had.
For the first time since their disagreement about sects and adventure...
They weren't arguing.
They weren't proving anything.
They were simply sitting together, discussing impossible ideas and trying to make them possible.
Just like old times.
--------------------------
Discovering a possibility was one thing.
Proving it consistently was another.
The forge became quiet once more.
Yun Jian heated a bar of iron until it glowed orange.
Yun Che stood beside another anvil.
Neither was trying to make a sword.
Tonight...
The forge itself had become a laboratory.
Inhale.
Heartbeat.
Raise the hammer.
"Iron is my body..."
The hammer descended.
CLANG!
The vibration travelled through Yun Che's arms.
Again.
Inhale.
Heartbeat.
"Fire is my breath..."
CLANG!
The rhythm immediately broke.
His breathing slipped.
The Ki circulation faltered.
"...Again."
Across the forge, Yun Jian encountered the same problem.
"The strike came too early."
"Try slowing your breathing."
"You try shortening yours."
The two blacksmiths continued correcting one another.
Minutes became an hour.
The floor gradually filled with bent pieces of metal that had never been intended to become anything.
Each represented another failed attempt.
Then...
Yun Che felt it.
His Ki suddenly flowed with unusual smoothness.
The hammer felt lighter.
The circulation became noticeably stronger.
His eyes widened.
"I've got it!"
Yun Jian immediately stopped.
"How much?"
"I think..."
"...around five percent."
Before he could celebrate, the rhythm collapsed.
The sensation vanished.
Yun Che sighed.
"I lost it."
His father laughed.
"Good."
"What do you mean good?"
"It means you're close enough to lose it."
"If you were completely wrong..."
"There'd be nothing to lose."
Yun Che blinked.
That... actually made sense.
The experiments continued.
Sometimes the improvement dropped to only two percent.
Sometimes nothing happened at all.
Occasionally the rhythm felt wonderful...
Until one mistimed heartbeat caused everything to fall apart.
Neither became discouraged.
Instead, they wrote everything down.
Breathing intervals.
Hammer speed.
Mental focus.
Even foot placement.
The forge slowly filled with notes instead of weapons.
As the evening wore on...
The movements gradually became natural.
Yun Che no longer forced the rhythm.
He simply...
Forged.
The words of the incantation echoed quietly in his mind.
Iron is my body.
The hammer rose.
Fire is my breath.
It fell.
Knowledge is the hammer that shapes my path.
His breathing and heartbeat became one.
His focus narrowed until nothing existed except the glowing steel before him.
He wasn't merely striking metal.
He was creating.
Improving.
Building.
When he finally stopped...
He immediately sensed the difference.
"It stabilized."
Yun Jian looked over.
"How much?"
Yun Che circulated his Ki carefully before answering.
"...Another ten percent."
This time...
The feeling didn't disappear.
It remained.
Stable.
Reliable.
His father quickly repeated the process using the same rhythm.
Several minutes later, he nodded slowly.
"I can feel it too."
"How much?"
"...Around seven percent."
Yun Che frowned thoughtfully.
"Less than mine."
Yun Jian wasn't disappointed.
"In fact..."
He smiled.
"That's exactly what I expected."
He pointed toward the notebook.
"This is your vision."
"Your incantation."
"Your understanding."
"I understand the words."
"But..."
"I don't understand them as deeply as you do."
He tapped the line:
"From these hands shall rise the future."
"You've spent years dreaming about inventions."
"Machines."
"Armor."
"Things I can't even imagine."
"When you recite these words..."
"You believe every one of them."
"I understand them."
"You live them."
Yun Che slowly nodded.
That explanation felt right.
"If I want others to use this method..."
"I'll have to explain the philosophy behind it."
"The meaning."
"Not just the words."
"Exactly."
Yun Jian's smile gradually widened.
Then...
Without warning...
He burst into laughter.
"It actually worked!"
Yun Che laughed with him.
"We really improved it!"
"A common cultivation method!"
"By twenty percent!"
Father and son stared at each other for a heartbeat.
Then both threw their arms into the air.
"Yes!"
"Hahaha!"
They grabbed each other's shoulders.
Then hugged tightly.
Neither cared how ridiculous they looked.
For generations...
The Yun family had accepted the Iron Soul Method exactly as it was.
Tonight...
They had taken the first genuine step toward making it better.
Not by finding an ancient treasure.
Not by buying an expensive manual.
But through thought.
Experiment.
And persistence.
"Yeah!"
"We actually did it!"
The celebration lasted exactly five more seconds.
"...Yeah, yeah."
A familiar voice interrupted them.
Both turned toward the forge entrance.
Yun Ren stood there with his arms folded, watching the pair with an expression somewhere between amusement and disbelief.
"So..."
He said slowly.
"...are you two finished celebrating your grand scientific breakthrough?"
Neither answered.
Yun Ren sighed dramatically.
"Mother sent me."
"She says dinner has been ready for quite some time."
Yun Jian rubbed the back of his neck.
"...We lost track of time."
"So I noticed."
Yun Ren pointed toward the house.
"And she also said..."
He cleared his throat, imitating Yun Mei almost perfectly.
"If those two don't come inside this instant..."
"...I'll feed all the food to the beasts, and they can explain to their empty stomachs why research was more important than dinner."
Yun Che's eyes widened.
"She wouldn't."
Yun Ren grinned.
"You know Mother."
"...She absolutely would."
Father and son exchanged a glance.
Without another word...
Both sprinted toward the house.
Yun Ren watched them run and couldn't help laughing.
"Amazing."
"The two greatest researchers in Mistforge..."
"...still know exactly when not to test Mother's patience."