Chapter 73: Intertwined Branches (2)
Blacksmith shops are many.
Not to mention the blacksmith shops attached to government offices, military camps, naval bases, commanderies, counties, and towns, there are the blacksmith shops located at every corner of rural marketplaces, or the blacksmith shops attached to the manors of influential families, and so forth…….
The blacksmith shop where Son Gang and Son Hwa lived was also one of those numerous blacksmith shops.
However, it was fortunate for Chui that Son Gang was a master craftsman with skills quite recognized in this mountain area.
Son Gang was a man who would not make even a single agricultural tool carelessly, and for that reason, high-quality iron was always stocked in the storehouse and high-quality tools were provided in the blacksmith shop.
Chui spoke as he sat before the dinner table Son Hwa set up for him.
“Do you have the tools for refining?”
“I have prepared everything.”
Son Gang spoke, pointing to the large furnace in the corner of the blacksmith shop.
Firewood is sufficient, and coal is also plentiful.
The chimney to vent smoke above the ceiling was also sturdy, newly plastered with lime mortar.
Bellows made of wild boar skin were neatly arranged next to the furnace.
Beside them, a cylindrical anvil and long, sturdy hammers are visible.
Other than that, there were as many as ten buckets of cold water fetched from the well.
A whetstone board worn hollow near the middle was also waiting.
Son Gang spoke.
“I will handle the mallet myself. Hwa, you adjust the fire strength well, so pump the bellows by the side.”
“Yes, leave it to me, Father.”
Son Hwa answered spiritedly.
But for some reason, instead of looking at her father who should receive the answer, she only stared at Chui in front of her as if enchanted…….
Clink-
Regardless of that, Chui ate his meal.
Millet rice served in an earthenware bowl, chili paste, some grilled unidentified small fish, and a few seasoned wild vegetables.
The dinner table of Son Gang and Son Hwa was also the same.
However, there was one difference on Chui’s dinner table.
When he dug into the rice, a large chicken egg was hidden beneath the grains of rice.
Noticing this, Son Gang smiled toward his daughter.
“Our Hwa has grown up. Seeing how you take care of another man before your father……”
“Oh, Father, please. I-It is not that…… the guest looked very tired…… so I wanted him to recover his strength quickly…….”
Son Hwa, whose face was flushed red as if she had just come out of a furnace, waved her hands.
Just then. The sound of footsteps was heard from beyond the paper sliding door.
Creak-
Hae Baek-jeong.
She, who had returned alive from the threshold of life and death, appeared with a pale complexion.
“The person who needs to recover strength is me, though?”
Hae Baek-jeong picked up the egg placed on Chui’s rice bowl and swallowed it without even chewing.
Son Hwa made a look of regret, but she did not care and smacked her lips.
“Not even a sign of hand remains in the liver. Are the tools ready?”
“Everything is prepared. Get to work.”
“So hasty.”
She grimaced and spat out blood and a few teeth.
“Follow me. Mallet, bellows.”
Son Gang and Son Hwa, who were pointed out by Hae Baek-jeong, froze stiffly.
* * *
On the walls of the blacksmith shop, things like hoes, sickles, straw cutters, hammers, picks, pitchforks, brackets, doorknobs, and hinges hung in greater numbers than weapons like swords or arrows.
Only when the heavily piled firewood had burned down by about half inside the furnace did Hae Baek-jeong finally grab the hammer.
“My father was a master of sword-casting second to none in this world.”
Hae Baek-jeong sweated as she looked inside the pot.
Molten iron was bubbling with a rumbling sound on top of the boiling iron plate.
“One day, an influential figure heard rumors of my father and made a request. He said he would bestow a thousand gold, so make him the best famous sword under heaven.”
The staff of Staff Ghost Gu Gang-ryong, the Dark Bamboo, glowed red-hot inside the furnace.
“My father rejected the request of the influential figure several times. Then, the influential figure, whose pride was hurt, threatened. He said that if father did not make the sword, he would slaughter our entire family, including my father. He said he would do the same if the quality of the sword fell short of his eye.”
The Plum Blossom Sword of Death Plum Blossom Oh Ja-woon was also gradually turning red like a plum blossom.
“My father agonized for days and nights. Can I make the best sword under heaven? Even if I make it, can I satisfy the influential figure who is crazy about swords?”
Hae Baek-jeong continued her words while dropping sweat.
“At that time, my mother said. Molten iron that has melted a human holds spirituality……”
The hotly heated iron and iron joined together.
“Ending with those words, my mother leaped into the pot. My father was so shocked that he could not even grab my mother.”
Under the mallet falling repeatedly, it was changing its appearance little by little.
“My father eventually grabbed the hammer. And using the molten iron in which mother had melted, he created a sword. That sword was indeed the finest sword under heaven.”
After melting various types of iron and pouring them, Hae Baek-jeong was grafting the end of the Dark Bamboo and the end of the Plum Blossom Sword.
“However, far from giving my father a reward, the influential figure instead murdered my father. He was afraid that my father would make such a famous sword again.”
Inside the blacksmith shop, only the sound of striking the mallet and the sound of firewood burning were noisy.
“After that, in the grief of losing mother and father, even my only brother left home. Saying he would surely kill the influential figure to avenge them.”
Crack- with a sound, the firewood split, and a new flame rose through the gap, heating the pot even hotter.
“I still do not know news of my brother. I cannot know whether he is dead or alive. In the first place, the only ones who knew who the enemy was were my parents and my brother, the three of them, so I cannot even make inquiries.”
Hae Baek-jeong exhaled a long breath to cool the iron.
“I was young then, and I knew nothing. This fact was also told to me by the master who raised me.”
Eventually, she turned back to Chui, who was sitting next to her, and spoke.
“Perhaps my master knew. That his remaining lifespan was not much. Is that not why he sent me outside the mountain fortress? So that I would not die in vain in the battle for the position of Union Master……”
It seemed there was such a backstory behind Hae Baek-jeong chasing Chui.
But Chui’s voice was cold enough to make even the flames subside.
“I have no interest in the political fights of water bandits and the like.”
“Yes, you are right. You must think, what kind of emotional appeal is this from those who merely suck the blood of innocent people.”
Hae Baek-jeong nodded at Chui’s reply.
“You might not believe it, but in truth, the Yangtze River Water Bandit Union was originally not a vicious group like it is now.”
“…….”
“At least when my master was in the position of Union Master, it was so. We plundered the escort goods of corrupt officials to distribute to the hungry, and became the backing of poor fishermen…… we were, so to speak, a group like righteous bandits.”
“…….”
“But after master lay on the sickbed, everything changed. My senior brother Zi and senior brother Chou above me tried to carry on master’s will…… but the senior brothers below them were the problem.”
Ending her words, she turned back to the father and daughter Son Gang and Son Hwa who were next to her.
“I am sorry to you all as well. Because the factions trying to join the Yangtze River Water Bandit Union caused harm.”
“Not at all. Since we survived safely like this, it is fine.”
Son Gang smiled while hammering.
Son Hwa also nodded while pumping the bellows.
Hae Baek-jeong’s gaze directed back to the furnace.
“So I can never forgive. Senior Brother In, who is eyeing the position of Union Master by taking advantage of master’s absence. I intend to make him pay the price for corrupting the significance of the Yangtze River Water Bandit Union’s existence. Surely.”
There was one more reason why she was angry at the Tiger Butcher.
“And master has not yet revealed the identity of the enemy to me. He said he would tell me after I train more to become strong in both body and mind. If Senior Brother In, no, that guy Tiger Butcher really assassinated master…… I will never be able to know the identity of the enemy.”
Hae Baek-jeong’s voice wavered hotly like bubbling molten iron.
However.
“You talk too much. Just do your work properly.”
Chui did not have much interest in Hae Baek-jeong’s words.
He only made this and that correction.
Hae Baek-jeong was also nettled by Chui’s behavior of constantly ignoring her.
“Hey. Are you going to keep telling me to do this and that? In the blacksmith shop, the blacksmith is king.”
“If you cannot do it properly, you die. That is the only reason I kept you alive.”
“Do not pressure me. Melting is relatively easy, but solidifying is much harder. If I am pressured, my fingertips might tremble and the result might come out bad.”
At Hae Baek-jeong’s words, Chui quickly shut his mouth.
As if to appeal her own value, she began to express how difficult the work she was doing currently was.
“Have you ever seen intertwined branches in the mountains?”
Intertwined branches.
It means that two trees that sprouted in different places touch each other and stick together like a single tree.
Chui nodded his head.
“I think I have seen them a few times.”
“Among those intertwined branches you saw, how many ordinary trees were around them?”
“…….”
“What I am trying to make now is precisely such a thing. Understood? How slim the possibility of success is?”
When Chui shut his mouth, Hae Baek-jeong turned her head with a triumphant expression.
Eventually, she approached the pot from which white steam was soaring.
Snip-
Hae Baek-jeong’s hair, which was already short, became even shorter.
Flutter…
She cut off her hair and shook it into the pot.
Then she bit her thumb and dropped droplets of blood together.
Bubble bubble bubble bubble…
The boiling inside the pot grew even more intense.
Black steam with a pungent smell filled the entire blacksmith shop, and in the middle of it, a red light like a plum blossom began to slowly spread.
Afterward, Hae Baek-jeong made the father and daughter Son Gang and Son Hwa go outside the blacksmith shop.
And later, she kicked out Chui as well.
Son Gang spoke, looking back at the blacksmith shop from which the sound of hammering was heard.
“The skill of the blacksmith can indeed be called divine. Every single one of them was a technique I have seen for the first time in my life.”
“…….”
Hearing Son Gang’s words, Chui decided to believe in Hae Baek-jeong a bit more.
The three of them waited for a few more days after that.
Inside the blacksmith shop, the sound of hammering echoed continuously.
During that time, Chui went up the mountain and caught roe deer and wild boars, Son Gang prepared them, and Son Hwa boiled soup with the carved meat.
Hae Baek-jeong inside the blacksmith shop opened the door only when she took the meals placed in front of the door.
Except for that moment, no one could look inside.
When exactly about three weeks had passed.
Creak……
The door of the blacksmith shop opened.
Hae Baek-jeong’s complexion looked even worse than when she first came here.
“Come in.”
She gestured with a pale face.
She looked like a ghost calling a companion to go to the underworld.
“I made it as you ordered. Check it.”
Hearing Hae Baek-jeong’s words, Chui stood up from the veranda.
Eventually, the staff and sword fused into a new appearance entered his eyes.
“……!”
It was exactly the same appearance that had caused Chui to be called the Spear Ghost in his past life.
Unrivaled Spear Ghost