Chapter 33 Storm
Boom!
Thunder rumbled and rain fell like beads, hitting the old trees and the eaves with a "crackling" sound.
“This is the first rain since I arrived.”
Li Yuan walked into the rain barefoot and wearing only shorts, holding a hammer and closing his eyes, feeling the wind and rain on his face.
When he first arrived, he was so thin that he was afraid of getting sick even if he wiped his body with cold water. But now, he only felt a slight chill as he let the rain wet his body.
He could feel the blood flowing through his body, making it warm and isolating him from the cold outside.
People who practice martial arts rarely get sick, not only because of their strong physiques, but also because of the blood and energy in their bodies.
"Martial arts moves vary from person to person. In a real fight, it's not just one move after another. Finding the power and exerting the power are the most important things in fighting."
In the rain, Li Yuan adjusted his breathing, held the hammer motionless, half-closed his eyes, and felt the wind and rain.
There are some tricks to practicing hammering in the rain.
In the White Ape Cloak Hammer, this is called "listening to the force"; in the Military Fighting Hammer, this is called "recognizing the force"; there is a similar saying in the Sword and Sickle Technique.
Normally, when disciples from different schools learn fighting techniques, in addition to using wooden stakes and sandbags, their fellow disciples and masters will personally teach them the moves so that they can become familiar with the strength.
More luxurious families would even pay someone to paint the "living piles".
For those who don’t have the necessary conditions, there are also ways to make do. Practicing in the rain is one of them.
boom!
At a certain moment, Li Yuan opened his eyes, and the hammer head moved, cutting through the rain curtain and moving around his body, as if to isolate all the wind and rain from him.
Being able to keep water out is one of the symbols of the White Ape Cloak Hammer's perfection.
call!
Hammer shadows interweave.
In addition to the master craftsman's hammer in his hand, Li Yuan used all his strength at this time. The tendons on his arms protruded, and they were entangled like a dragon.
He wielded a long-handled cloak hammer so tightly that the air could not penetrate it. The humming sound was heard everywhere, and there were occasional explosions.
but……
"Can't stop it, can't stop it at all!"
Li Yuan could clearly feel the wind and rain coming from all directions. His seemingly airtight hammer net was penetrated like a sieve.
The cold rain hit his whole body.
In the darkness, the wind blew and the rain fell. This was an attack that even the most skilled warrior in Gaoliu City could not defend against.
"efficient!"
Although his hair was soaked by the wind and rain, Li Yuan's eyes were bright.
For him who seriously lacked sparring experience, this rain was a timely relief!
"If my hammer can be swung so hard that even the wind and rain can't get in, how can others get in?!"
In the wind and rain, Li Yuan struck with hammer after hammer, his body like a nimble monkey, using his feet, knees, hips, shoulders, arms, and elbows at the same time, and the blood in his body was more agitated than ever before.
The fighting style of the Bingdao Fighting Hammer is far more powerful than what is recorded on the White Ape Cloak Hammer.
Although Li Yuan only pushed the variations of his first killing move to seventy-six, his endurance was greater than those blacksmiths in the forge who had more blood than him.
With the nourishment of blood and qi, physical strength and endurance are also constantly growing.
This practice lasted until the clouds dispersed and the rain stopped.
"The effect is outstanding!"
After returning to the house, drying himself and changing his clothes, Li Yuan was still full of energy. Recalling the time he practiced hammering in the rain, he felt very satisfied.
With the perfect-level hammer technique as a comparison, he made rapid progress. After this rain, he had already grasped the essence of the fighting style.
If you can stop the enemy from outside, then stop him. If you can't, the decision in a split second can determine life or death.
"Avoid the heavy and attack the light, and block the vital points first!"
……
After the rain, the sky cleared up and the air still had the smell of earth and grass.
As usual, Li Yuan was the first to arrive at the forge. He lit the fire that had been sealed overnight, and pumped the bellows. Soon, flames shot up.
"It will take at most two or three days to complete the forging method!"
Taking out the raw steel that he had made a few days ago from the corner, Li Yuan enjoyed the feeling of continuous improvement and having a direction to work hard towards.
In a forging shop, one forging is called one refining. Pig iron is refined five times to become wrought iron, one hundred times to become raw steel, and one thousand times to become wrought steel. There is even a saying that it is refined ten thousand times.
Li Yuan didn’t understand how one kind of iron could be continuously tempered, but he could only regard it as a difference between his past and present lives.
"Five-refined wrought iron can only be used to make a kitchen knife, and ten-refined wrought iron can barely be used to make weapons, but they are also low-quality. The ones sold in shops for one or two taels are of this type.
And the sharp blade..."
Li Yuan took out three pieces of refined raw steel.
Naturally, there are good and bad weapons, and the price difference between them can be ten times or even more than a hundred times.
An ordinary jade knife costs three taels of silver, but the jade knife made by Zhang Ben himself costs more than thirty taels of silver.
"One fire and a thousand hammers are needed to forge a steel. It took me seven days to forge these pieces of raw steel. This is just me. Wouldn't it take other blacksmiths more than half a month?"
Li Yuan's fingers touched the steel. His great perfection level forging skills allowed him to clearly feel the quality of these pieces of steel.
Then he stacked three pieces of steel of different qualities together, heated them red, and forged them.
boom!
……
Forging, plasticity, hammering, quenching, tempering, annealing, grinding...
With Li Yuan's endurance and advance preparation, he still managed to fight for two full days. He barely finished the fight on the second day when it was dark.
"it is good!"
Li Yuan looked up and saw that the blacksmith and helpers in the forge were still there. They looked at the long knife in his hand and cheered.
"A sharp blade! This jade knife must be a sharp blade!"
"It's only been three months? Junior Brother Li has actually forged a sharp blade!"
"A sharp blade! If you strike one, you will get one tael of silver! Junior Brother Li, please buy us a drink!"
……
Li Yuan is popular in the forging room. After all, this is the area managed by his master.
"I'll get some wine for you brothers after I get the money!"
Amidst the cheers, Li Yuan clasped his fists in response. After a while, he finally had some free time. He took out the polished knife handle and pressed it on with a "click".
【Jade Knife (Level 1)】
[The first sharp blade-class long sword made by the Lord of Arms...]
[Control conditions: None]
[Control effect: Water cannot enter]
First-order sharp blade!
"It's not as good as the jade knives that Master left in the warehouse. The difference is quite big. But where does this effect come from?"
Li Yuan felt a little heavy in his heart as he stroked the blade.
A few months ago, he believed that the various effects of the weapons he wielded were due to the weapons' successive owners.
But it was not until he joined the forging room that he discovered that even newly-forged weapons could be controlled.
"It's related to the forger, it's related to the materials, it's related to both, or?"
Master Li Dao thought about it and let it go. He never made things difficult for himself.
Playing with the first weapon he made, Li Yuan felt a little emotional, but he still cleaned up the forging room slowly.
Put what should be put away and put out the fire that should be put out.
It wasn't until he walked out of the forge that a smile appeared on his face.
This sharp blade helped him to make a breakthrough in his forging skills, and now the low-level forging hammer that he had chosen to meet the requirements to wield the Great Craftsman's Hammer could be taken off.
The sword and sickle can be controlled again, or other weapons can be chosen.
"March 28th is the Gaoliu Temple Fair. People from many nearby towns and even other counties may come. Maybe there will be good stuff there."
Li Yuan was somewhat tempted.
(End of this chapter)
