Journey to the West: The Immortal Clan Begins by Feeding Monkeys at Five Elements Mountain

Chapter 14 Forging Iron into Steel
"One hundred and twenty jin?"

As soon as he finished speaking, even the wind seemed to pause for a moment.

This wasn't the first time Jiang Yi had heard the name Liu Family Village.

Earlier, villagers had mentioned it sporadically, saying that they lived deep in the forest at the front of the mountain.

He is not listed in the village register of Liangjie Village, and has no relatives or friends in the village.

He rarely shows his face on ordinary days, at most asking someone to buy him some firewood, rice, oil, and salt.

Jiang Yi only listened to it at the time and didn't take it to heart.

Now, when Tang the blacksmith mentions this family again, he specifically requests a steel fork weighing 120 jin (approximately 60 kg).

Those few long-unconnected strings in my heart were suddenly plucked, and with a thud, they all clicked back into place.

This weight of equipment is clearly useless for chasing badgers and rabbits, and it's not even suitable for ordinary wild boars.

Jiang Yi lowered his eyelids, a smile still lingering on his lips, but he already had a pretty good idea of ​​what was going on.

With all their savings running out, they couldn't afford to think about anything else.

Having work to do is always better than having nothing to do.

"It's done."

Jiang Yi nodded with a smile, his tone light and cheerful:
"Brother Tang, just give the order. If you need my help, just say the word."

After saying that, he stood up and patted the dust off his trousers.

Turning around and going inside, he whispered something to Liu Xiulian:

"Go lend a hand at the shop, it won't take long."

Liu Xiulian nodded, her expression calm.

Jiang Yi then followed Tang the blacksmith out of the courtyard and walked eastward along the village road.

As soon as we arrived at the old well at the edge of the village, we smelled a mixture of coking coal and rust.

The shop was small, with its door wide open. The inside was dark, but a stove fire kept it ablaze, its red glow flickering and casting intermittent light on the walls.

The moment Tang the blacksmith stepped inside, he seemed to have undergone a complete transformation.

His usual honest and simple demeanor was gone; there was a hint of malice in his eyes and brows.

Without stopping, he first added a few pieces of high-quality coke into the furnace, then vigorously pulled the bellows.

The fire then shot up with a whoosh.

He pointed to a pile of dark, heavy iron in the corner, the sound like the crack of a hammer:

"Brother, what we need to work on right now are these few pieces of clay."

Jiang Yi remained silent, only nodded, rolled up his sleeves, and joined him in moving iron.

Those iron billets were shiny black and incredibly heavy.

The two of them worked together to stuff one of the pieces into the furnace.

With a hiss, the iron was engulfed in fire, and in no time it was glowing red-hot and dazzlingly bright.

The air around the stove seemed to distort, and even breathing felt scalding.

Tang the blacksmith picked up a pair of long pliers, and Jiang Yi picked up the other end.

The two men moved with practiced ease, taking the red-hot iron block out of the furnace and placing it on the anvil.

Amidst the flying sparks, Tang the blacksmith had already changed his hammer, and with the medium hammer in hand, he began to strike.

The rhythm is extremely fast, without any hesitation or dragging, and the beat is clear and rhythmic, each strike following a set pattern.

Next, it was Jiang Yi's turn to lend a hand.

He grabbed another pair of long pliers and firmly gripped one end of the billet to prevent it from darting around under the hammer.

Tang the blacksmith shouted, and Jiang Yi started hammering in time with the chant, taking a deep breath and swinging the ridiculously large iron hammer.

boom!
A muffled thud, like the beating of a drum.

Sparks flew, carrying the smell of burnt iron into my nostrils, and a crackling sound exploded in my ears.

One hammer blow after another, not too fast, lest the texture be damaged, nor too slow, lest the heat be lost.

So all he could do was smash it evenly and steadily, putting all his strength into that shiny red iron.

The iron billet slowly stretched and deformed under the hammer.

Tang the blacksmith would stop every now and then, glance at the iron billet briefly, and then, with a clang, push it back into the furnace to continue firing. One fire after another, one hammer blow after another.

Each time it's put into the furnace, it's for no other reason than to thoroughly and evenly heat the iron.

The impurities inside are forced out bit by bit, leaving only the strongest iron.

Jiang Yi remained silent, simply hammering away amidst the iron and fire.

Before long, his clothes were soaked through and clung to his body, and his arms started to ache and go numb.

But the hammer cannot stop; if it stops, things will fall apart and the rhythm will be disrupted.

They continued like this from dawn till dusk, the shadows outside the shop growing longer and shorter, shorter and longer.

It wasn't until the sun was setting that they finally managed to wrap things up.

All day long, they only managed to break into one piece.

Seeing that he looked a little tired, Tang the blacksmith didn't urge him. Instead, he packed his things while calculating the accounts on his fingers.

"This blank was originally pig iron, weighing fifty catties. After being tempered five times and ten times, and the slag was removed, it was considered ten-times-tempered steel, with a net weight of no more than fifteen catties."

He paused, patted the black ash off his hands, and said with a hint of smugness in his voice:

"This stuff is difficult to make, and it's really expensive. One pound of ten-refined steel costs five hundred coins on the market."

He grinned as he spoke.

"Just this 120 jin of forged steel, in terms of both materials and workmanship, would cost at least 60 or 70 taels of silver."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yi nodded inwardly.

Tang the blacksmith was right; this business was indeed a big one.

After a long day, feeling as if his body had been dismantled and pieced back together, Jiang Yi returned home with unsteady steps.

My stomach had been growling for a while, so I devoured three large bowls of white rice in one go, eating until I was completely full before finally stopping.

Before resting, he didn't forget to remind Xiulian:
"Tomorrow morning, boil a few eggs and stew some bone broth. I need to nourish myself properly."

Without exchanging pleasantries, he took off his clothes, lay down on the bed, and began to practice his breathing technique.

It's like soaking your whole body in a warm spring, and the soreness gradually melts away.

From that day on, for the next two weeks, Jiang Yi went to the Tang family's blacksmith shop every day.

After a bowl of bone broth and two eggs in the morning, I would start swinging the hammer.

The sledgehammer, once in Jiang Yi's hands, seemed to have acquired a temper, wielding a fierce and powerful force, its rise and fall accompanied by the sound of air being blown through the wind.

At first, Tang the blacksmith would occasionally slack off, thinking that this young man didn't know how to conserve his energy and would probably collapse in three days.

To everyone's surprise, after a few days, Jiang Yi not only didn't get out of breath, but actually felt even more energetic.

Tang the blacksmith observed this and couldn't help but marvel:
"His physique is as strong as a calf. If he had entered my trade a few years earlier, becoming a master craftsman wouldn't have been a pipe dream!"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yi only smiled and remained silent, rolled up his sleeves, and brought the hammer down again.

One piece of pig iron after another was put into the furnace, and then emerged from the furnace with a red glow.

After being tempered by Jiang Yi's fire hammer a hundred times, it was transformed into inch by inch of translucent refined steel.

Then, Tang the blacksmith worked on it, gradually shaping it into the prototype of a steel fork.

Once the steel fork was finished, it was placed in the center of the shop.

It was half a zhang long, as thick as a child's arm, with a cold, menacing light, and as heavy as an iron tombstone.

Jiang Yi looked at the thing, still feeling a bit uneasy.

Such a thing is so powerful that ordinary people would have a hard time even lifting it, let alone using it.

It's called a weapon, but it's more like a household talisman.

Or it could be a talisman placed in a temple to ward off evil spirits.

Jiang Yi tried to grip the fork handle and used his arms to slowly lift it up.

It could barely be swung, but it was far from being "used".

This weight would intimidate even ordinary martial arts practitioners; those who could use it against enemies would be either wild bulls or monsters.

And that Liu family village, which dares to live alone deep in the mountains, now wants to commission such weapons.

The Mountain Guardian is indeed extraordinary.

(End of this chapter)