BB | Chapter 36

Did You Give This Sword a Name?…

“It’s nothing.” Li Yaochen answered and at last cleaned up the mess, then sat back down beside Shen Canglan.

Shen Guanqi and the other two had had most of their tea knocked over by him. Li Yaochen said, “I’ll go order another one.”

“Forget it. I wasn’t that thirsty to begin with.” Shen Guanqi said, “Half a cup to toast the heavens, half a cup to toast myself. That’s a fine thing too.”

On the surface, he comforted Li Yaochen with an easy, unruffled air, but his hand reached under the table to grab his waist token and send Qin Chun a message.

[Silent at the Chessboard]: Something’s off.

[Silent at the Chessboard]: Canglan said to Daoist Li, ‘I love you to death,’ and Daoist Li visibly panicked. It was complete chaos.

[Qin Chun]: Sounds like there may be a lot of artistic embellishment, but it’s delicious. Brother Shen, you’ve had an awakening.

Shen Guanqi: “…”

He didn’t think this counted as an awakening. It was just that after Shen Canglan and Li Yaochen finished kissing, they had both become a little strange. Qin Chun, on the other hand, had suddenly opened six of his seven apertures, leaving only one still blocked, and no matter how it was explained, he was dead set on believing Shen Guanqi had fallen for someone.

Excuse him, but what was there to fall for in these two solid blocks of wood, who spent every day laughing and calling each other brother?

Shen Guanqi let out a stifled, aggrieved sigh, then heard Shen Canglan say, “Done resting? Then let’s go buy a sword!”

–

The weapon shop was in a narrow alley at the end of the street. After asking around, they found that it was even livelier than they had expected.

Cultivators paced back and forth through the small shop, and from time to time they would trigger random incidents like, “Sir, I saw this folding fan first,” or “May this humble one exchange this fan for the young lady’s name?”

Li Yaochen was unfortunate enough to be caught in one too.

He tapped the man in front of him. “Hey, you’re stepping on my foot.”

The man had a fair face and a slender build. When he looked at Li Yaochen, a flush rose over his skin. “My apologies. May I treat Daoist Friend to tea to express my remorse?”

“No tea, and no apology either.”

Li Yaochen said, “Just lift your foot. It’s still on me.”

Shen Canglan laughed loudly.

Li Yaochen looked at him helplessly and raised his brows.

This shop was enormous, at least much larger than the one at the foot of Ailü Sect’s mountain. It had three full floors, and every floor was packed with all kinds of weapons.

Many of them Shen Canglan had never seen before, ribbons, hidden weapons shaped like dried leaves, little shirts that could transform into abortive-decoction protection in an emergency.

Shen Canglan stood before a weapon with a very strange shape and read its description. “It can grow three more in a crisis…”

Shen Canglan: “…”

He had no business reading that.

Forget it. Leave.

Here, long swords instead became the most ordinary and least eye-catching weapons of all, displayed in the corner so that even people passing by gave them no glance.

Shen Canglan stepped forward and examined the swords carefully.

Every one of them was beautiful, with exquisite patterns and gleaming blades. Beside them hung a sign that read, “Handcrafted by a master smith.”

Of course, the price was equally thrilling. The cheapest sword cost five hundred copper coins, and if you wanted the package with a scabbard, hanging ornament, and engraving, it was even more expensive.

Shen Canglan liked swords. But that was before.

You Tajui really was easy to use, light in the hand, elegant in shape, and full of spirit. It could resonate faintly with Shen Canglan’s metal affinity; he could feel its joy, anger, sorrow, and delight, and You Tajui could also follow his wishes and be used at will.

Not to mention this was the sword Li Yaochen had given him, which made it especially meaningful.

Shen Canglan watched for a while, then reached out and patted Li Yaochen. “Chen-ge, which one do you like? Don’t worry about the money. Just buy the one you like!”

Li Yaochen’s gaze swept across those swords, but he did not linger on any of them. He only said, “I have another way.”

With that, he walked toward the shop assistant. After the two exchanged a few words, the assistant nodded and said to Li Yaochen, “This way.”

Then he led them toward the back.

Li Yaochen followed for two steps, then remembered Shen Canglan was still where he had been, so he looked back and lifted his chin at him, signaling for him to come along.

Tsk.

How could anyone even lift their chin so handsomely?

Shen Canglan looked at his brother admiringly, gathered up the other three who had been wandering around, and followed Li Yaochen to the back door.

Beyond the back door was a courtyard. In it, several burly men with muscular builds were bare to the waist, forging iron and sweating all over.

While hammering away, they were still chatting. “Haha, what’s wrong with being rough? My wife gets knocked over by me every night and still–”

Shen Canglan didn’t hear the rest. Li Yaochen had covered his ears.

He blinked at Li Yaochen, and Li Yaochen immediately let go, coughing hard twice.

The talk in the back courtyard stopped, and everyone looked over. The leader asked, “Who’s there? No entry for闲人.”

The shop assistant explained, “This customer wants to forge a sword himself.”

Shen Canglan turned to look at Li Yaochen.

Li Yaochen said, “I asked already. If we provide the materials ourselves and just borrow the furnace, it only costs one hundred. That’s very cheap.”

Shen Canglan asked, “Chen-ge, you know blacksmithing too?”

“You Tajui was forged by me.” Li Yaochen said.

Shen Canglan looked down at You Tajui hanging at his waist, then back at Li Yaochen, and the admiration in his eyes deepened at once.

Li Yaochen said with easy composure, “It’s actually not hard.”

Shen Canglan waved a hand. “That’s just your modesty, Chen-ge! I never thought you had such a skill. You’re truly a dragon and phoenix among men, a hero among men, a king among men!”

Li Yaochen: “?”

A king among men?

He almost laughed and quickly turned away. Then he heard Shen Guanqi talking to Shen Canglan.

Shen Guanqi said, “A lot of my herbs were grown by me personally, and a lot of the children were delivered by me personally too. Why have you never praised me like that?”

Sui Qing joined in the fun as well. “A lot of the books in my house were printed by me personally too.”

Shen Canglan said helplessly, “Then all of you are kings among men.”

Li Yaochen: “…”

In the end, he couldn’t help laughing out loud.

At the auction earlier, he had won a curved blade, and the material was excellent. He had originally planned to leave it for Shen Canglan as a secondary weapon, but Shen Canglan wasn’t used to using it, so it was just right to melt it down now.

He had also obtained some materials in those strange rooms. Though they couldn’t compare to the celestial iron he had used to forge You Tajui, they were more than enough.

Melting the materials was fine enough, but forging iron required divine sense. Using his divine sense, Li Yaochen guided the scalding molten metal and slowly outlined the shape of a sword.

The demand on divine sense was extremely high. Li Yaochen soon broke out in sweat, and the damp strands of hair at his temples stuck to his cheeks before trailing down along his jaw.

Shen Canglan held a handkerchief and stepped forward to wipe away his sweat and fan him, saying, “Chen-ge, if you can’t manage it, take your clothes off. Let everyone admire your figure too.”

Really, he mainly wanted to admire it, but Shen Canglan was too embarrassed to say that out loud.

Li Yaochen, however, said, “No need.”

[Host, are you actually shy?] The System sounded very surprised.

Li Yaochen frowned. “Who is shy?”

[Then it must mean the host doesn’t want your body seen by anyone other than your iron buddy.] The System was talking nonsense.

Li Yaochen said, “Shut up.”

–

Li Yaochen busied himself for a very long time. By the time the sun had set and Shen Guanqi and the others had gone to eat dinner and returned, his sword had only just taken shape.

“Next is infusing spiritual energy.” Li Yaochen flicked his ponytail and said to Shen Canglan, “I left some dark patterns on the sword. If I pour spiritual energy into it and add a few thoughts as well, the sword will handle even better.”

This was something Shen Canglan had learned in Ailü Sect too.

What Li Yaochen called those “thoughts” was, as Ye Xuezhu had put it at the time: “Hold in your heart the thought that you absolutely must find a good dao companion. If you pour that thought in, it can attract peach blossoms.”

Shen Canglan could not see the scene inside the furnace, but when Li Yaochen began channeling spiritual energy into it, his heart still thudded twice hard.

He said, “I’ll do it.”

Perhaps because he was a metal-affinity cultivator himself, he was naturally closer to weapons. At that moment, he even felt an inexplicable connection with the blank sword inside the furnace.

Li Yaochen glanced at him and said nothing more, simply handing him the tongs.

Shen Canglan took them.

The pale golden spiritual energy flowed steadily into the furnace. Shen Canglan wrapped the blade in it, and the spiritual energy slowly seeped inward.

This sword would be the one his brother used from now on. If possible, it would even accompany his brother all the way to ascension.

Shen Canglan hoped his brother would be invincible in battle, suffer no injuries, and cultivate smoothly.

He poured those thoughts in together with the spiritual energy, and the sword body seemed to answer faintly. Even the You Tajui at his waist began to tremble slightly as well.

Li Yaochen looked at You Tajui, surprise flickering across his face.

Shen Canglan had already given him too many surprises, and this was no exception.

When You Tajui was forged, several mighty experts had said it had the makings of a sword king. That was because the material used to forge You Tajui, celestial iron, had a human nature to it, gradually coming into harmony with its master’s will and growing together with its master.

And this so-called “spiritual nature” was not the same as the kind in this world where some swords suddenly awakened consciousness and ran off to elope with other swords.

The sword he was forging did not use that kind of material, yet after Shen Canglan took hold of it, it resonated with You Tajui.

How had he done it? How was it done?

Li Yaochen only felt like laughing, because he was happy. He was sincerely happy for Shen Canglan.

However, this task consumed far more spiritual energy than Shen Canglan had expected. Fortunately, just the day before he had already experienced what it felt like for the spiritual energy in his dantian to be completely emptied, so he was quite familiar with this kind of bodily exhaustion. Before his legs even went weak, he called out to Li Yaochen, “Chen-ge, save my handsome face–”

Li Yaochen caught him at once, then very skillfully grabbed his arm and swung him onto his back.

Shen Canglan clung to his brother’s back. “Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing? Chen-ge, you said you’d carry me home. Hey, isn’t that a bit much? How can I possibly accept this?”

Li Yaochen: “…”

He laughed. “Yes. I was going to carry you anyway. Just lie there and rest.”

Shen Canglan grinned and rested his head on Li Yaochen’s shoulder. His bangs pressed against Li Yaochen’s side face. Li Yaochen thought it was a little itchy, but he did not want to turn his head away.

Shen Guanqi somehow found a sunflower head from somewhere.

He had a wood-affinity spiritual root, which let him stimulate plants. After he brushed his hand over the sunflower head, sunflower seeds slowly grew out of the once-empty head.

He and Sui Qing, along with Ning Dong, then gathered behind them and started cracking sunflower seeds.

Ning Dong flicked away the shells and asked Shen Guanqi, “You’re carrying him around and piggybacking him every day. You really aren’t dating?”

Shen Guanqi tugged at the corners of his mouth in a stiff laugh. “Haha. Don’t ask me.”

Li Yaochen pulled the sword from the furnace and immersed it in oil for quenching. When he took it out again, Shen Canglan only felt a flash of cold brilliance sweep past his eyes.

He looked more closely.

Li Yaochen’s new sword was very similar in appearance to You Tajui, slender and silver-white, only upon closer inspection did a faint golden sheen shimmer over its surface. The tip of the blade was especially dazzling. In any case, no one would want to be stabbed by such a sword.

Those smithing masters also crowded over, tapping this place and touching that place, but after they touched it, their expressions went from excitement at first to disappointment. “…No love thread at all. At this rate, you won’t attract peach blossoms.”

Li Yaochen: “…”

Shen Canglan suddenly remembered something and asked Li Yaochen, “Chen-ge, did you give this sword a name?”

Li Yaochen said, “Not yet.”

After a pause, he asked, “You want to name it?”

Shen Canglan leaned close to Li Yaochen’s ear. “Actually, when I was little, I gave myself a name, and I still really like it to this day.”

He said rather shyly, “It’s called Huangfu Lengshang. What do you think, Chen-ge?”

“Good name.” Li Yaochen said, “Then from now on, it’ll be called Huangfu Lengshang.”

Shen Canglan’s lips curved in delight, but for some reason, from the You Tajui at his waist, he felt a wave of sorrow, like a fox grieving the rabbit’s death.