Chapter 161 — Forging the Sword Blank

The Zhong Sun Fire surged abruptly, as though a ladle of hot oil had been flung onto it; the flames leapt upward in a violent rush, and their momentum soared with them.

Zuo Yi tensed. The most critical moment had arrived.

The wildly swelling Zhong Sun Fire flickered and roiled like some hideous beast, its cold, savage breath spreading in all directions. Even Zuo Jin's meridians were caught in the backwash, stinging as though pricked by needles.

Su quickly withdrew her spiritual power. At this juncture it could no longer aid Zuo Yan; it would only distract him.

She opened her eyes and saw Zuo Yan seated cross-legged before her, trembling faintly all over, a fine white frost upon his brow and wisps of white vapor drifting from him.

What a vicious cold fire!

Su was secretly startled, and she watched Zuo Yan with some anxiety. If this fusion failed, forging the sword blank would certainly come to nothing.

Zuo Jin's heart hung suspended as well. He had done all that could be done; what remained was to leave it to fate.

As time passed, the violent Zhong Sun Fire gradually quieted, its swollen flames shrinking back little by little until at last they settled into stability.

A new Zhong Sun Fire had taken shape!

The Zhong Sun Fire before him was transformed beyond recognition. For one thing, its body was about a third larger than before, but the greatest change lay in its structure. The old Zhong Sun Fire had been milky white,

but the Zhong Sun Fire of now, to his astonishment, had separated into layers — and three layers at that.

The outermost was the same milky white flame as before, the middle a deep crimson, and what startled Zuo Yan most was the black flame at the very core. Though it was no more than a thread, it could easily be

distinguished. The three layers stood sharply apart, clear at a glance.

The white flame was the Zhong Sun Fire; the deep crimson was the molten-earth fire refined from the Blazing Fire Pill; and what was that thread of black flame at the very center?

Zuo Yin was curious.

Only after probing it did he understand. That extremely fine thread of black flame was in fact the toxin he had contracted when refining the Ink Lotus Seed last time! Had it not been for this mutation, he would never have noticed that his fire

seed harbored a thread of such vicious poison. What surprised him even more was that the toxin too could become flame!

The new flame differed enormously from the former Zhong Sun Fire; controlling it felt entirely different.

The cold, sinister aura was greatly reduced, yet the shift between ice and fire was smooth and effortless. What Zuo Yan could not fathom was what use the thread of black flame at the core might have. Among these three layers

of flame, the Zhong Sun Fire ranked lowest, next came the molten-earth fire, and highest of all was this black flame he did not yet fully understand. On reflection, Zuo Yan thought it only natural: this thread of black flame had been obtained by refining a

fourth-grade Ink Lotus Seed — and a fourth-grade Ink Lotus Seed at that!

The Zhong Sun Fire was merely a second-grade fire seed.

He was in no hurry, slowly exploring the new flame. This was an entirely new fire seed, one not even recorded in the Chapters of the Yin Fire Pearl. That meant Zuo Yan would have to grope his way through it alone.

Immersed in his exploration of the new fire seed, Zuo Yan forgot the passage of time.

Su noticed that Zuo Jin's body had grown calm again and the white frost on his brow had vanished, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing that Zuo Yan seemed to have entered meditation, she did not press him, but simply sat cross-legged nearby to recover her spiritual power. She had

waited so long already; a few more days scarcely mattered.

Zuo You sat thus for three days.

When he opened his eyes again, beyond the weariness in them there was a gleam of spirit he could hardly conceal.

Su's heart was greatly set at ease.

After another day, Zuo Yan, restored to his peak condition, was at last ready to begin forging the sword blank.

Zuo Heng had not let Su watch; the presence of another would easily disturb him. He entered a quiet chamber where all the materials he required had long since been laid out, along with a small pile of crystal stones for Zuo

Mo to recover his spiritual power.

Zuo Yan chuckled to himself and gratefully accepted the pile of crystals. From now until the forging succeeded, he would remain in the quiet chamber. Su herself would stand guard outside, sword in hand.

He took out a jade slip. On it were recorded the talisman arrays to be inscribed upon each sword blank, as well as the method for forging the blanks. The method itself was nothing remarkable; Zuo Sui glanced over it

and understood at once.

His mind was quickly drawn to the four talisman arrays.

These were four arrays he had never seen before, and that alone was enough to fill him with interest. To allow the forger to complete the work smoothly, the jade slip described the four arrays in exhaustive detail.

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When he finished reading, Zuo Yi could not help drawing a sharp breath.

Fourth-grade talisman arrays!

Four entirely different fourth-grade talisman arrays!

Only now did he understand why Su had been unable to find anyone to forge the sword blanks. Each blank required a fourth-grade talisman array inscribed upon it — four blanks, four different fourth-grade arrays.

And moreover...

There existed a wondrous connection among the four arrays.

Zuo Yan, who had thought himself fully prepared, now discovered that forging the sword blanks was even harder than he had imagined — far harder!

He shook his head helplessly. He had taken this job at a terrible loss! At this level of difficulty he could have named any price and gouged Su for all she was worth. Zuo Yan deeply regretted losing such a golden opportunity, especially

since he was now penniless.

His attention returned to the arrays. The first step was to comprehend these four arrays.

If he could not understand the arrays, how could he inscribe them upon a sword blank that was none too large?

Had this been before the Sword Trial Assembly, he would have slapped his rear and walked away; four entirely different fourth-grade arrays were utterly beyond his reach. But Zuo Yan, having just strengthened his fire seed and been baptized by the Kunlun Talisman

Array initiation jade slip, found his confidence at its most explosive, its very peak.

He decided to take on the challenge!

Following the explanations in the jade slip, he began to fathom the four arrays. Only now could one see how greatly the Kunlun jade slip had helped him! Having fully comprehended the Kunlun jade slip, Zuo Yan's vision and thinking had risen

by several levels.

Fourth-grade arrays naturally contained no small number of obscure and difficult points, and these were four different fourth-grade arrays besides.

Yet Zuo Yan, by main force, in five days, worked out the rough shape of all four arrays bit by bit.

The moment the four arrays lay clear before him, his heart swelled with an indescribable sense of accomplishment; all his fatigue vanished, and he felt so elated he wanted to throw back his head and howl at the sky.

Zuo Yan did not adopt the double-linked four-revolution fire formation that Lin Qian had suggested; he intended to take this very opportunity to test his new fire seed.

It wasn't his own material anyway, he thought with careless indifference.

Four pieces of cold magnetite were set before Zuo Yan. When he had cut the cold magnetite last time, the pieces had come out uneven in size. To him, however, that was no great problem.

He laid a spirit-gathering formation around him and sat within it, the Five-Color Pagoda floating before him. The pagoda could greatly enhance his control over the five elements, and control of fire was naturally among them.