Once again, Cha Ming opened the small black chest. The bloody aura, though just as potent as before, didn’t leak out from the containment. It pooled around Cha Ming, attacking his body with little success. Demon blood steel was an odd metal formed when a dead demon’s blood pooled in an area rich with a mutable ore. It took thousands of years to form, and as a result, it was in short supply.
Cha Ming lifted out the orb, which was barely bigger than a fist, straining as he did so with his suppressed body cultivation, and placed it onto his soul-alloy workbench. “Seems about the right weight,” he muttered to himself. He flicked his fingers, and an orange-gold flame roared to life in the furnace. Using his qi as fuel, he increased the temperature until it became too difficult to bear. He placed the metal brick on soul-alloy supports and continued heating it for three hours. Not only was the metal heavy, but it also had a very high heat capacity. He continued heating it until it glowed pink, after which he pulled the brick out using soul-alloy tongs and placed it on an anvil just in front of the furnace.
Cha Ming struck while the metal was hot. He summoned his middle-core-grade hammer—he’d replaced his old one long ago—and began pounding away at the metal. As he did, he used his orange-gold flame to make up the heat the metal lost to the open air while using its metal-manipulation properties to aid him as he pounded. Under his direction, the brick became longer and thinner. He continued until it reached two feet in length, after which he flattened the top and shaped it into a sharp point. It now resembled a very short sword.
Demon blood steel was difficult to work with. Not only was its melting point very high but melting it would destroy the demon blood inside it. So he pounded away at the metal, shaping it slowly but surely. Hours passed as the weapon became not a short sword, but the blade of a long spear. It had two serrated edges and a sharp point. Though such a feature might seem impractical to a normal cultivator, it was actually very useful for its intended recipient: a powerful blood master. Serrated edges drew more blood than their sharper counterparts.
Cha Ming nodded in appreciation as he transformed his spiritual hammer into its chisel hammer form. For most metals, he’d use a carving blade, but demon blood steel was both hard and tough. His heavy strikes barely left a mark in the heated metal. He had to repeat each strike with surgical precision, never straying too far lest his runic marks be ruined. He continued this way for several hours, until finally, the blade’s runework was completed.
It was dark outside by the time he finished. The same apprentice from before was done with his work but had remained behind to spectate. Though the pay was terrible for one of his position, the main benefit Cha Ming offered was allowing people to watch him work. The others in his shop either didn’t care to see or were off enjoying the few days off Cha Ming had given them. In Cha Ming’s opinion, it was their loss.
Instead of directly quenching the blade, Cha Ming placed it back on the anvil and walked over to a rack in the back. There, many long metal rods awaited their companion blades. Cha Ming reached down to the lowest rack and found what he was looking for: a shaft made of nightmare elm wood. The wood was heavy, and Cha Ming’s muscles bulged as he lifted it.
“Only a heavy, inflexible wood is suited to such a heavy spear blade,” he explained to the apprentice as he hauled it over to the bench. “Any less rigid and the shaft will bend uncontrollably during battle. Any less heavy and the weapon won’t be balanced.”
The fact that he could barely lift it didn’t matter. The weapon wasn’t for him, but for a peak-marrow-refining cultivator.
With the runework on the blade completed, Cha Ming moved on to the shaft. Instead of the chisel hammer, he turned his core-grade hammer focus into a carving knife. A core-grade hammer focus could easily accommodate three forms. He carved deft strokes into the wood, demonstrating them one at a time for the young but honest man. The runes were beyond him, but the charm Cha Ming demonstrated as he carved was not. If he could imitate Cha Ming, the boy would make great strides in his profession.
Carving the weapon’s shaft took much less time than inscribing the spear blade. Once finished, Cha Ming brought the spear blade back into the orange-gold flame and waited for it to glow pink again. “Spear weapons are often crafted as two parts: the shaft and the spearhead. This is similar to the philosophy behind crafting a sword in two parts, the hilt and the blade.”
The apprentice nodded. “The hilt can easily be replaced. The same applies to a spear shaft.”
“Yes,” Cha Ming said. “And that works great for inferior weapons. I’ve found that the best spears are crafted as a single piece, however. Strictly speaking, it can’t all be done in one piece, as the material requirements are vastly different. But the runic array can be activated as a single entity.”
Using tongs, Cha Ming connected the spear haft to the spear blade and twisted. The two parts let out a soft click as runic lines connected. Then, Cha Ming motioned to a shelf at the back. A rainbow of powder poured into
