The heat of the forge was particularly blistering today. Even the tortoises were keeping their distance, unable to bear the heat. At the center, where the air was shimmering with the heat, were two young men working at a furious pace.

  Tink Tink Tink CLANG. Tink Tink Tink CLANG

  The rhythmic sounds of Ren’s hammer were quick and without pause. Beside him, Hua was standing with his arms outstretched, trying to keep away the worst of the heat from them and channel it back into the earth crystal they were working on.

  If Ren had to identify his most poorly planned project so far, he would have no hesitation in pointing out the forging of Bao Hua’s heavy sword. Almost from the outset, things had started to go wrong. After Hua had purchased the earth crystal ore, they had struggled to carry it back. Neither of them was strong enough to lift it alone and hadn’t thought to prepare anything to carry it. Not that an ordinary wheelbarrow would have supported the extremely dense and unwieldy chunk of ore.

  Only once they had returned and tried to smelt it did they realize that the wood they had prepared did not burn nearly hot enough to melt the ore. They had to bring in a special wood called fossil wood, which burned extra hot. That already set them behind a few days. Then they realized the heat emitted by the wood couldn’t be contained in the smelter and the formations that Ren had prepared. They couldn’t even approach the forge!

  Ren had finally splurged and bought the initial stage of a forging technique that would give him some resistance to fire and heat called the Heavenly Sword Smith Art. It was the renowned technique of the Heavenly Sword Sect and was known to be useful even to the core formation stage.

  Not one to be left behind, Hua had invested in a technique for manipulating fire qi that would help contain the heat. Between the two of them, they could finally begin forging! After the ore was refined, Ren laid out the design of the sword and explained to Hua what he needed. Then he began hammering it out. Bao Hua would have to redirect the fire qi into the metal along the proper lines to make it malleable enough. Ren’s qi would then infuse the earth crystal to carve out the channels where the qi would flow through.

  They had wasted their first attempt when they couldn’t synchronize their actions and their second when Ren realized the earth crystal needed to be cooled immediately after the channels were carved. Otherwise, the qi rushing through the new channels would cause cracks to form and ruin the sword.

  On their last attempt, they gathered and polished all they had learned before they even began. They made improvements and adjustments. After meditating to get into the right frame of mind, they began. Now, they were in the final stages. The metal had been shaped to the right dimensions. The channels had been heated by Hua and carved away by Ren. This is where things had gone wrong the last time.

  This time, as Ren carved, Hua followed up by siphoning away the excess heat from the metal. This cooled the channels enough that they settled. The two young men were at the end of their qi reserves. They were both flagging under the intense heat, and Ren’s whole body ached as each blow reverberated through him.

  “We’re almost there, Brother! Keep going even if you have to cough blood!” Ren shouted out as they worked on the final qi channels. Hua struggled to hold on but kept siphoning away the last of the heat. The moment they were done, Ren let out an excited cry. Then his head snapped towards his friend.

  Instead of falling to the ground, drained of qi, Bao Hua was standing in a daze, eyes locked on the still extremely hot metal. Waves of qi were emanating from him. Ren recognized the signs from his past experience; it was a breakthrough but partially assisted by enlightenment. When the waves slowly receded, Bao Hua’s eyes gained focus.

  “Congratulations for breaking into the 7th layer, Brother!” Ren spoke with a tired voice.

  “Than…” Unable to even finish speaking, Bao Hua fell on his back and began snoring!

  Ren couldn’t help but laugh at his antics. He went to pick up the finished sword and heaved it up with a grunt. Standing upright, the sword would reach the middle of his chest. Even with Bao Hua’s tall and muscular physique, it would be a struggle to wield, and that was without taking into account its weight. But that was exactly what Hua’s new technique called for. It would need a little work to sharpen and polish, but the Heavenly Sword Smith Art was a technique refined over ages by the best minds of the sect and could easily take care of such things.

  As he sat and meditated to recover qi, Ren thought to himself, if there was any project he learned the most from, he wouldn’t hesitate to point out this one. Learning information from books was one thing, and putting it to use was another entirely. The numerous small things he had discarded as unimportant or those that he hadn’t even considered had their importance underscored at each step.

  The information he had learned had, through painstaking effort and costly mistakes, been transformed into knowledge. Just like Bao Hua had advanced at the completion of the sword, he too had gained much. Just like the ore had been refined, so too had his qi. Now he was pushing up at the limits of the 7th layer, well ahead of his plan.

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  After recovering a little, he saw that his friend was still passed out without a care. Ren moved his aching body to finish working on the sword. And remembering his promise to himself, carefully etched in the name of the sword in small characters at the hilt. Chuckling darkly to himself, he carried them both back to Hua’s courtyard and left his friend to acquaint himself with his new weapon.

  Later that afternoon, an agitated wail echoed out.

  “Tortoise Defender??!! What’s with this stupid name? Zhao Ren, you’re courting death!”

  Ren laughed under his breath as he left on a sudden and inexplicably vital trip to the sect library.

  After Bao Hua spent a few days refining and getting accustomed to the heavy sword, he invited Ren and Mei Ling on a hunt. Mei Ling declined because she was busy attending lectures on healing and working alongside healers to learn acupuncture. But by the gleam in her eye, Ren suspected those acupuncture needles wouldn’t only be used to heal. As for him, Ren decided to join in, if only to see his creation in action.

  If it weren’t for the fact that he didn’t exactly have a prize to give, he would have set up another challenge. He had already come up with the formation puzzle to dazzle and confuse senses. It was an advanced formation skill that involved merging different formations. Still, he wanted to take a look at the beast tides he had been hearing so much about.

  As they travelled to the border of the southern mountains, he wondered how many beasts would even be left. The cultivators of the sect had been hunting extensively in that region for many months now. Surely the beasts of the region were depleted? Half a day from what was previously the border, Ren realized how wrong he was.

  From his vantage point he could see large crowds of cultivators behind fortifications, but the number of beasts charging the defenses was even greater. He could see where some elders had set up a large defensive formation with a few openings for the beasts to enter. A way to direct the flow but not to stop them entirely. Even more amazing was how a small town's worth of temporary buildings had been set up. A number of disciples had set up temporary processing stations to harvest and store the large number of beasts slain every day.

  As they approached the camp, two peak qi gathering realm disciples guarded the gate at the rear. They explained the rules to all who entered. They were handed a jade slip each and told,

  “These camp tokens count as both identification and act as a record of the beasts slain, which earns you points. That way, you don’t have to worry about harvesting everything. A portion of each beast you kill will go to the sect, and the rest will be left on the exchange stele at the center of camp. You can trade for whatever you want with the points you earn.”

  The other guard continued on in a bored tone, “There is also a record of performance, and those who earn the most points will earn special awards.”

  Even from the gate, they could see the two large structures in the distance at what must be the center of the camp. Ren focused on gathering more information about what had been happening. It was one thing to hear about it while safe in the sect but another to be on the frontlines. Curious where all the beasts were coming from, Ren finally got his answer when one haughty-looking senior sister said,

  “You underestimate how vast these mountains really are. The beasts you see here are but a single hair on the back of an ox. The east side we enter from is the smallest. The western mountains are so huge that even a cultivator on a flying sword would take months to cross. The southern mountains could spew out crazed beasts for months on their own, but the beasts from the other regions have also entered the fray.”

  Despite her frequent scoffs and how she turned her nose up, she still gave the two of them all the necessary information.

  “Just stick to this outer ring. Little outer sect disciples like you would be crushed if you attempted to head further in. If you walk by the riverside, you will eventually get wet.”

  That’s when Ren finally saw the seniors’ robes were slightly different and of nicer quality. It only then occurred to him this was an inner sect disciple! He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at her demeanor. Her surly attitude was in complete contrast with her sincere advice. She wasn’t at all what he imagined when he pictured the lofty inner sect disciples. He immediately clasped his hands and thanked her.

  “Thanks to senior sister for her guidance! I am Zhao Ren, and this is Bao Hua. May I ask your name?”

  “It’s Chuhuan. Now stop bothering me and go earn some points! All the high-value beasts in this wave will be gone soon. Hmph” She scoffed a final time before turning sharply and leaving. Ren thought he saw a self-satisfied smile on her face but couldn’t be sure.

  They asked around and got mostly the same information from others. They took a brief glance at the exchange stele and the strife stele, which recorded the best 100 performers. The sheer number of entries took his breath away. He felt he could find almost anything he desired, so long as what he desired came from a spirit beast. He compared the exchange costs with the strife stele and saw that even those near the bottom could earn a lot!

  They decided to stop beating around the bush and finally went to take a post at one of the less occupied openings where the waves of spirit beasts crashed against the defenses. Ren was getting nervous as the sounds and smells of the battlefield started to dominate his senses. He had hunted a few times, on his own and with Hua, but this was nothing like before. That was him taking the initiative, hunting prey, or setting traps.

  Here he would have to face down one beast after another. The waves of beasts ebbed and flowed, but if he calculated right, he would be completely before even one wave was over. Still, Ren was determined to do his best, and lured by the items on the exchange stele, Ren drew his bronze grass sword and stood beside Bao Hua, who had drawn the Tortoise Defender, as they waited for an opening.

  Before them, the roars of beasts and cultivators alike were deafening. Hearing the savage sounds of battles where even cultivators could lose their lives, a thought occurred to Ren. If this tide of beasts was to find its way to the world outside the sect, even a kingdom could be destroyed. That naturally led him to think about how many times such threats were held back while he was the one unaware and others gave their lives in defense.

  Just then, a disciple fell back, gaping wounds across his chest, his sword falling to the ground with a clang that echoed over the din. Ren shook his head to rid himself of distracting thoughts but couldn't ignore the sense of responsibility that now draped itself on his shoulders. He and Bao Hua looked at each other, nodded, and stepped forward.