147: Chapter 147 The Fifth Life, The Blazing Sun Illuminates the Martial Path (Ninety-Five)

The furnace fire never went out day or night, and the heat in Elder Jin's private forging workshop never ceased.

Clearly, Chu Shi did not indulge in the joy of his initial success.

After all, a top-grade magical artifact with eighteen runes was only a starting point, having barely formed a micro-circulation, and was still far from reaching the threshold of a Treasure Artifact.

Chu Shi put this first top-grade magical artifact of his life into his storage bag, his expression calm as he turned to take a new profound iron ingot from the storage rack.

He prepared to try the remaining rune combinations on the animal skin scroll, testing new structures.

In the way of weapons, all changes eventually return to the source.

True Qi conduction, sharpness, and durability are the three foundations of all weapons of slaughter.

With this as the core, Chu Shi constantly fine-tuned the arrangement logic of the eighteen to twenty-seven runes, deriving countless practical special effects suited for martial combat.

On top of the basic closed-loop runes, he superimposed sharpness-amplifying patterns, forcefully giving rise to armor-piercing characteristics, allowing the sharp blades to tear through a martial artist's protective energy and heavy armor defenses.

He embedded gravity-adjusting runes, allowing him to freely switch the weight of the blade—heavy strikes like a mountain, light slashes like the wind—creating a lethal saber style where fast and slow complemented each other.

He streamlined redundant circulation patterns, compressing the speed of True Qi eruption, and condensed the silent fast-sword characteristic—striking without a sound, making the speed and shadow hard to discern.

Relying on his own martial foundation of fire-attributed metal Qi, he attempted to integrate a minute amount of fire runes. Without needing to activate any cultivation techniques, swinging the weapon would naturally unleash scorching flames, truly achieving a blazing fire with every strike, burning the flesh and stagnating True Qi.

Not only swords and sabers, but he also explored the rune structures of various main martial weapons like spears, staffs, axes, and halberds, and even studied the methods of forging defensive gear.

Forging profound iron into armor and inscribing the triple integrated runes of durability, force redirection, and fire resistance, he cast a form-fitting treasure armor.

Shaping profound iron into boots and superimposing lightness, stability, and shock-absorption patterns, he adapted them for high-speed travel and intense combat.

For two whole months, Chu Shi immersed himself in the way of forging, grinding and hammering day and night.

Countless profound iron materials were shaped, discarded, and reshaped in his hands. The mountain-like piles of waste witnessed his terrifying progress, which was visible to the naked eye.

From a barely formed eighteen-rune entry-level top-grade magical artifact to stably forging a fully-equipped twenty-seven-rune top-grade magical artifact.

He had already polished the forging of magical artifacts corresponding to the Iron Skin Realm to the absolute limit, without a single flaw.

But the massive consumption of resources from forging eventually depleted his supplies.

Even though he was the personal disciple of Peak Master Lieyang and enjoyed the sect's top-tier free material quota, he could not sustain this high-intensity practice that disregarded all losses.

All the profound iron and cold iron in the storehouse were completely exhausted, leaving not a single scrap.

Chu Shi extinguished the furnace fire in front of him and turned to look at Shi Tie, who was on guard outside the door.

"Shi Tie."

"This disciple is here!" Shi Tie immediately bowed and entered, his attitude extremely respectful.

"Gather and categorize all the weapons and defensive gear I have forged during this period, and put them into storage bags."

Chu Shi's voice was calm and orderly.

"Then, go immediately to the External Affairs Hall of the Canglan Courtyard to find Deacon Chu Feng."

"He is my uncle. Hand over all the magical artifacts to him and give him full authority to sell them."

"Exchange all the proceeds for high-grade profound iron, refined cold iron, and the like, to supply my subsequent forging."

Hearing this, Shi Tie's heart shook, his face full of joy.

To entrust such an important matter regarding resource supply entirely to him was undoubtedly a sign of ultimate trust from Senior Brother.

He felt his blood surging and immediately nodded heavily: "This disciple will keep Senior Brother's instructions in mind and will not fail you!"

Then, he acted swiftly, and in just a moment, he stored away the dozens of top-grade weapons, treasure armors, and combat boots displayed in the workshop one by one.

After packing up, he hurriedly rushed to the outer sect's Canglan Courtyard.

Canglan Courtyard, External Affairs Hall office.

Deacon Chu Feng was sitting at his desk handling sect chores. Dressed in a deacon's green robe, his aura was steady, and his cultivation at the peak of the Copper Bone Realm was restrained within his body, carrying the natural majesty of a superior.

Seeing the Utility Disciple rushing in, he frowned slightly and was about to scold him.

But after hearing Shi Tie's purpose, his face was instantly filled with astonishment and anxiety.

In his understanding, Chu Shi was a once-in-a-millennium martial prodigy of the Chu family.

With peerless natural talent and rapid progress in cultivation, he should have been concentrating on bitter cultivation to break through to higher martial realms, surely becoming the mainstay of the Chu family and even the Great Sun Holy Land in the future.

Why would he abandon such a clear path to the peak of martial arts to forge iron and weapons in the back mountain workshop?

Even if he was learning the craft from Elder Jin, in his view, it was putting the cart before the horse and wasting his talent!

In his anxiety, Deacon Chu Feng immediately stood up: "Absurd!"

"Lead the way quickly! I will go to the back mountain with you. I must persuade Ah Shi to turn back and focus on martial arts!"

Seeing this, Shi Tie quickly took a step forward to bow and stop him, saying sincerely:

"Deacon Chu, you need not worry!"

"This disciple has followed Senior Brother Chu for a long time and knows some of the inside story."

"Senior Brother is now at the peak of the Iron Skin Realm, and his apprenticeship to Elder Jin to focus on forging this time was personally arranged by the Peak Master."

"It is to consolidate his martial foundation and assist in his subsequent realm breakthroughs, definitely not wasting his cultivation!"

A single word woke him from his dream.

Deacon Chu Feng's steps suddenly stopped.

As a cultivator at the peak of the Copper Bone Realm who had deeply cultivated the martial path for many years, he naturally knew that the Iron Skin Realm was a critical stage for laying a solid physical foundation.

At the same time, some special martial paths did indeed require the assistance of forging to consolidate one's foundation and smoothly transform into a special Copper Bone.

"So that's how it is!"

The anxiety in Deacon Chu Feng's eyes completely dissipated, replaced by endless emotion and relief, with only admiration left in his heart:

"As expected of the Qilin son of my Chu family, planning far ahead with a vision and scope far exceeding ordinary people!"

He suppressed the excitement in his heart, sat down slowly, and then spoke heartily:

"Since it is the Peak Master's arrangement, then I can rest easy. I will take on this matter and will definitely handle it properly for Ah Shi."

However, in his heart, he had already assumed that since Chu Shi had only been learning forging for two or three months, he would at most produce a few crude medium or high-grade magical artifacts, which were not worth mentioning.

He had even secretly made up his mind: since his nephew was cultivating bitterly for his martial foundation, he must not lack resources!

Even if he had to exhaust his own savings of many years and mobilize all of the Chu family's connections and contribution points in the Holy Land, he would scrape together a massive amount of profound iron for Chu Shi to practice with.

Thinking of this, he casually took the storage bag handed over by Shi Tie and checked it carelessly.

In the next instant!

Deacon Chu Feng's aura suddenly froze, his pupils shrank violently, the composure on his face instantly shattered, and his whole body froze on the spot.

Inside the storage bag, various weapons and defensive gear were densely displayed.

Without exception, they were all top-grade magical artifacts with restrained patterns and heavy auras!

From entry-level eighteen-rune ones, standard twenty-one-rune ones, to fully-equipped twenty-seven-rune ones—sabers, spears, swords, staffs, combat boots, and treasure armors—the categories were complete, and everything was there.

Each piece was perfectly structured and fully integrated, representing top-tier forged products that far exceeded the level of ordinary blacksmiths!

Deacon Chu Feng stared dead at the dazzling array of top-grade magical artifacts in the bag, his throat bobbing, his voice trembling with disbelief:

"These... are all of these personally forged by Shier over these past two and a half months?"