"So, young man, what did you have in mind?" Master Lei asked Li Xiang, full of enthusiasm.
Li Xiang explained his request: he wanted to use the steel to reinforce and repair the old Chopping Knives, sickles, axes, and Iron Pickaxes he had brought.
If there was enough left over, he also wanted Master Lei to forge a High-Density Blade for him. He only needed to briefly describe the length, dimensions, and shape before Master Lei understood.
And so, they began cutting the material and got straight to work.
Master Lei had an electromagnetic high-frequency induction furnace. He tossed the cut steel blocks in. Though the Rock-Breaking Rolling Blade special steel was hailed as the Rolls-Royce of steel—extremely hard with a high melting point—it quickly turned fiery red inside the furnace.
Master Lei said with no small amount of pride that he had just bought the furnace. Its performance was fantastic; it was currently the most efficient and fastest induction heating device for metal materials, not to mention low-consumption, energy-saving, and environmentally friendly.
Once it was heated, Master Lei used a pair of tongs to pull the steel block out and placed it under the power hammer for forging.
A power hammer is a type of open-die forging machine. Its compression cylinder compresses air, which is then sent through a distribution valve into a working cylinder. This drives a piston and hammer head up and down, creating a powerful striking motion. It's flexible and can be used for drawing out, upsetting, punching, shearing, forge welding, twisting, and bending, making it especially suitable for forging small- to medium-sized pieces.
As he worked the steel, Master Lei couldn't stop praising how outstanding the material was.
"Working other steels usually takes me just a few minutes, but this stuff is taking three times as long."
After forging the special steel into the desired shape, Master Lei removed the wooden handle from the old Chopping Knife. He then heated the original blade until it was red-hot and placed it under the power hammer.
Working the old iron was much simpler; he was finished in less than a minute.
Next, Master Lei used a clad-steel technique, forge-welding the new steel onto the cutting edge.
This is one of the most important techniques in Sword Forging.
Qi Jiguang recorded in his *New Book of Military Effectiveness*: "To make a waist-saber, the iron must be repeatedly refined, and the edge made of pure steel."
As Song Yingxing wrote in *The Technology of Nature*: "The most exquisite Swords have an outer layer of hundred-refined steel, with a core of soft iron for a spine. Without a steel exterior and an iron interior, they will snap the moment Power is applied."
In other words, a good Sword requires a tough, soft iron core that is heated, repeatedly forged with a great hammer, and quenched to expel impurities. Only by infusing steel into the cutting edge can it cut through iron like mud without breaking under pressure.
Li Xiang filmed the entire process on his phone, gathering footage for a short video.
Whenever there was something he didn't understand, Li Xiang would ask Master Lei.
Master Lei loved to play the role of a teacher, explaining the concepts of annealing, tempering, and quenching to Li Xiang. These were all techniques for improving the toughness, hardness, stability, and wear resistance of a blade.
The Rock-Breaking Rolling Blade special steel was exceptional. Its yield strength could reach a terrifying 1200 megapascals, whereas typical special steel was only around 600 megapascals. It could truly be called a super-steel.
But during the forging process, if one didn't master techniques like annealing, tempering, and quenching, it was still possible to end up with a piece of junk. The standards were even higher when combining it with ordinary soft iron.
Master Lei was well-equipped and highly experienced. In less than an hour, he had completely refurbished all the old tools Li Xiang had brought. There were still over fifty kilograms of the Rock-Breaking Rolling Blade special steel remaining.
The original steel block had weighed over seventy kilograms. It was dense and heavy for its size, and relatively little material had been needed to repair the old tools.
Even so, after being reinforced with the super-steel, the old tools were now significantly heavier and no longer suitable for his grandmother to use. 'But with me at home,' Li Xiang thought, 'why would Grandma need to do any heavy chores?'
"There's still a lot of this material left," Master Lei said. "Forging a High-Density Blade to the dimensions you described will probably take about ten kilograms. What do you want to make with the rest?"
Li Xiang thought for a moment before replying, "How about we make the High-Density Blade even bigger? Thicker, longer, and wider—let's make it thirty kilograms. With what's left, forge a kitchen knife and a Three-pronged Steel Fork. I'll take home any remaining material."
'That way, if anything gets damaged in the future, I'll have extra material for repairs.'
Master Lei rubbed his ears, thinking he'd misheard. He quickly sought confirmation. "Young man, are you sure you want a thirty-kilogram High-Density Blade? You mean thirty *kilograms*, not thirty *jin*? You don't want to wear yourself out before you even get any work done."
'Thirty kilograms? For manual labor? How many times could a normal person even swing that? What if he throws out his back? The cost would far outweigh the benefit.'
'Even fifteen kilograms—no, even ten—would be too heavy,' Master Lei thought. 'A blade for work is perfectly fine at three or four kilograms. A normal Chopping Knife is only one or two. Smaller ones don't even weigh a full *jin*.'
Li Xiang just smiled faintly. "It's fine. I can handle it." 'If it were just for work, of course I wouldn't use a blade this heavy. But my Cultivation Technique is special—for me, work *is* Cultivation. This blade is for strength training, so it naturally needs to be heavier. But there's no need to explain that to an outsider.'
Master Lei shook his head vigorously, clearly unconvinced.
So Li Xiang took a deep breath, picked up the remaining fifty-odd-kilogram block of steel, and started tossing it from hand to hand. Then he began swinging it around with just one hand. Damn! Master Lei was completely floored.
'Now that I've reached the Tier One Extraordinary Realm,' he thought, 'a thirty-kilogram weapon—no, Chopping Knife—is just barely adequate. As my Realm increases, I'll be able to wield even heavier ones.'
Thirty kilograms, or sixty *jin*, was about the same weight as Lu Zhishen's Zen Staff.
Of course, Lu Zhishen's Zen Staff was made of wrought iron, whereas this was super-steel. Since it was much denser, it was also smaller in size.
Master Lei never imagined that Li Xiang, who didn't look particularly brawny, possessed such incredible strength. He stopped arguing and simply forged an all-steel High-Density Blade to his specifications.
Even the handle was made of steel.
'I'll wrap the handle in hemp rope when I get back to keep it from slipping.'
Once the quenching was complete, Master Lei used a modern V-grind to put an edge on the blade. When he finished, a light scrape against a Sharpening Stone produced a clear, melodious ring like a dragon's cry that lingered in the air.
"A fine blade!"
Li Xiang took it, testing its weight in his hand, and was also extremely satisfied. 'With a High-Density Blade of this exceptional quality, I won't have to worry about the edge rolling or chipping when I'm cutting bamboo. I'll be able to fell a stalk with a single strike!'
The Three-pronged Steel Fork and the kitchen knife didn't require much steel. One weighed five kilograms, and the other a mere 500 grams.
The main reason was that his grandmother would be using the kitchen knife. Besides, it was just for chopping vegetables, so it didn't need to be too heavy.
'And as for chopping bones, what kind of bone could this High-Density Blade possibly fail to cut?'
Since Li Xiang had been recommended by an acquaintance, Master Lei gave him a discount, charging only five hundred yuan for the labor since Li Xiang had provided his own materials.
Master Lei also gave him a green carbon Sharpening Stone as a gift.
Li Xiang then found a nearby store and bought a cutting machine, a chainsaw, an electric drill, wire, and nails. After that, he stopped by the wet market to buy ten *jin* of pork ribs before riding his little tricycle home. 'If I don't head back now, it'll be dark soon.'
"A single trip to the county town costs so much money. The financial pressure is immense!" Li Xiang hoped to save more. Only with money could he stockpile enough supplies. 'When the Apocalypse comes, resources—especially food—will be the most precious thing of all.'
That night, after he got back, he started editing the video on his phone. 'Whatever,' he decided. 'I'll just post the first one and see what happens.'