strictlysupreme Chapter 212 The Swordsmith
Chapter 212 The Swordsmith
boom!
An unnatural, loud noise emanated from the dark forest beneath the black night sky, as if trying to awaken the slumbering earth.
Niu Dadan and Xiaoyi were both thrown away by the impact, and the wind whipped up dust that was blown in all directions.
Even Sun Ruolan, who had transformed into a giant, staggered back several steps.
This was only the situation around the "explosion." At the center of the explosion, the bellies of two overlapping giant bodies were ripped open, and Lin Fan was kneeling at the bottom of the crater.
This was Lin Fan's plan. Now that he knew the crux of the matter, he was going to gamble everything he could to completely resolve these two troubles in one fell swoop. Just like he had done before, he would throw all the chips in front of him and decide the outcome in one fell swoop.
Fortunately, his gamble paid off; the two blue orbs of light flickered like broken fluorescent lights, from which a viscous blue liquid oozed out.
The giant had completely lost all signs of movement, and the rest of the people got up from the ground and lay down on the edge of the pit to look down.
Sun Ruolan also returned to her original figure and casually found a piece of cloth to drape over her body.
The knight, who had kept his distance from the beginning, now wiped the sweat from his brow with lingering fear and continued to observe what would happen next from behind a tree.
Lin Fan desperately wanted to finish off the two dazzling orbs of light in front of him, but he simply couldn't muster any strength. His all-out attack left him unable to even lift a finger.
"Oh no! You all need to get away from here..."
The moment Lin Fan saw the two orbs of light approaching each other, he instinctively felt something was wrong, but he only had time to shout out.
The knight heard Lin Fan's voice abruptly stop, and the giant hole in the giant's body emitted a brilliant blue light before suddenly disappearing completely.
He opened his mouth wide in surprise and didn't know what to do.
After the blue light faded, the entire forest returned to silence, and the two giants lay there, their bodies seemingly no different from each other.
He waited for a full quarter of an hour, until nothing else happened, before the knight mustered the courage to go forward and check.
Upon closer inspection, he was terrified. From a distance, the giant looked no different, but upon closer inspection, he could see that most of its body had been hollowed out!
From his initial perspective, the giant's body appeared to be almost intact, but upon closer inspection, it was revealed to be just a thin layer. It was as if a giant sphere had carved out the entire space, including the soil on the ground.
"What, what's going on!" the knight exclaimed in shock and confusion, but no one answered his question.
He swore it was the most bizarre thing he had ever seen in his life, followed by those two towering mechanical giants.
……
Lin Fan touched his head and found his hand covered in blood. Fortunately, the bleeding wasn't heavy; he just felt very dizzy.
He got up from a pile of wood chips and saw that he had many more splinters stuck in his body, and one in his head.
It is said that the brain has no sense of pain, so does that mean that if a splinter gets stuck in the brain, you won't feel anything?
Lost in thought, Lin Fan didn't pull the splinter off his head.
"Where am I?" Looking at the dark and damp surroundings, Lin Fan asked the air.
He sat down and caught his breath. The Soul-Suppressing Pearl absorbed the pain, leaving only a tingling, slightly itchy sensation where the splinter had been stuck.
My head is itchy; is it because a brain is growing in?
He got up and sat up, panting. As an older man, Lin Fan always remembered that he shouldn't stand up suddenly when getting up in the middle of the night, otherwise he might suffer a stroke and die.
Oh, I still have something stuck in my head. If I have a brain hemorrhage, could I still save myself by stabbing it again?
Lost in thought, Lin Fan finally stood up.
The place he was in resembled a storage room, piled high with various broken objects of unknown purpose, such as a rusty sword hilt, a piece of charred wood, and a pile of broken porcelain shards.
He brushed the dust off his clothes and was about to push open the door to see where he was when he suddenly remembered something and turned to look at the pile of mechanical giant remains behind him. Apart from wood chips, the only intact things were many splinters and nails of various sizes.
Lin Fan pushed open the door, gripping a wooden splinter about three fingers thick.
The light from the ever-burning lamp outside made him squint slightly.
Ding ding ding.
A soft clanging sound rang out, and Lin Fan walked in the direction of the sound.
The swordsmith stood on an overturned wooden box, his hammer striking the black crane spirit wood on the iron table.
Lin Fan patiently watched as he pounded the wood with his strong arms until it turned red, then put it into the cool water with ice cubes floating on it.
呲!
The red color faded from the wood, returning it to its original black.
The swordsmith took the wood back to the iron table, raised the hammer as if to continue hammering, but then put it down and looked at Lin Fan beside him.
"Hey old codger with a splinter stuck in your head, where did you come from?"
Lin Fan was taken aback when he heard the title, but he immediately realized that he was now a robust old man with half-white hair and wrinkles on his face like ravines.
His clothes were torn, revealing muscles underneath that lacked elasticity but were even more robust.
He calmly cupped his hands and said, "I wandered into this place by mistake and just wanted to ask for directions. I didn't want to disturb you since you're busy."
Upon hearing this, the swordsmith's expression softened. He hated people who interrupted him while he was forging iron, but those who were willing to wait patiently made him feel much better.
He didn't answer Lin Fan's question but instead examined the wooden splinter in Lin Fan's hand. "Let me see it."
Taking the wooden splinter from Lin Fan, the middle-aged blacksmith, who resembled a dwarf, snorted disdainfully, "What a waste of good material, to be made into such a cheap, makeshift thing."
boom!
A strange noise suddenly rang out outside, shattering the silence of the night.
Lin Fan flipped his hand, and the Iron Elephant was already in his grasp.
"It's alright. Mojusi Temple is not a peaceful place. This is just an everyday occurrence."
"Master, you said this is Moju Temple?" Lin Fan asked in surprise.
The swordsmith didn't answer him, but instead stared intently at the sword in Lin Fan's hand. "This is the Iron Elephant, the sword I forged! Haha, this is a true masterpiece!"
Upon hearing this, Lin Fan gripped his sword tighter and quietly distanced himself from the person in front of him.
"Tsk." The swordsmith clicked his tongue slightly upon seeing this. "You've done your fair share of murder and robbery, haven't you?"
Lin Fan was slightly taken aback, wondering where this came from. He had always considered himself a good person. But after a moment's recollection, it seemed that almost everything he owned had indeed been salvaged from corpses.
I picked it up because nobody else wanted it; this is mine.
Lin Fan couldn't bring himself to say it openly. His face flushed slightly at being called out.
The swordsmith smiled triumphantly, “That’s how you cultivators are. You always think your things are of dubious origin. You become wary as soon as you hear something like ‘This used to be mine’ or ‘I made this.’”
"You're overthinking it. I'm just a swordsmith. I made the sword, and after I finished, I sold it. Money and goods settled. Who ends up in its hands is none of my business. I'm just feeling sentimental when I see it."
"But if you don't mind, could you let me touch this sword again? After all, this is the only time I've ever used a whole thousand-year-old crane spirit wood to forge a sword."