Chapter Twenty-Three: The Tempering of Metal

Because the clay mold he made was a failure, Sun Licheng's bronze knife was exceedingly rough, the blade itself not even aligned in a straight line. Holding it in his hand and giving it a swing, Sun Licheng's brow furrowed tightly—this was utterly unusable.

Staring at the near worthless bronze knife, Sun Licheng sighed repeatedly. "What should I do? If only I could temper it somehow."

At that moment, a sudden inspiration struck him; he thought of Earth Perception—the elemental guiding force. The knowledge of the God of Magma had revealed that elemental guiding could not only sense the earth below, but as long as an object was made of earth or stone, it could even sense the composition of that object.

Sun Licheng unconsciously stroked the newly crafted bronze knife with his right hand, his mind racing. If elemental guiding could detect objects made from earth and stone, then theoretically it should be able to sense metals smelted from ore as well.

With this idea in mind, he decided to give it a try. Sun Licheng focused his attention, directing his consciousness into the knife blade.

Meanwhile, deep in Sun Licheng’s mind, the Lord of Stars curiously asked the fragment of the God of Magma, "Isn't your elemental guiding force only able to sense rocks and earth? How can it detect metal as well?"

"It shouldn’t be possible. This isn’t my domain, nor is it within the scope of earth magic," the fragment replied, scratching its head in confusion.

The Lord of Stars shook his head, knowing the fragment’s intellect was in need of replenishment, and refrained from speaking further, waiting to see what strange occurrence might unfold.

Sun Licheng was unaware that earth perception was extremely taxing. No spellcaster had ever considered using it for extended periods—there was simply no reason to waste magical power that way. He felt an object like the bronze knife appear in his mind, covered in rainbow colors and filled with unknown substances—he couldn’t distinguish any of them. As time passed, beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and dizziness crept into his mind.

"You see, I told you, elemental guiding force cannot sense metal," said the fragment of the God of Magma, turning to the Lord of Stars as he observed Sun Licheng’s exhaustion.

With a long exhale, Sun Licheng put the bronze knife aside, defeated. The experiment had failed, yielding nothing.

After a brief rest, Sun Licheng propped his chin on his arm, sitting before the bronze knife in deep thought. He couldn’t understand why, when using earth perception, he could clearly sense metal elements in the soil, but once they were refined into bronze, that ability vanished. As he pondered, inspiration flashed—he clapped his hands and exclaimed, "I've got it!"

He fetched a piece of copper ore and a piece of tin ore, placing his hands upon them and carefully sensing.

The two gods in Sun Licheng’s mind watched with curiosity, unable to fathom the purpose of his actions.

After a while, the Lord of Stars asked the fragment of the God of Magma, "Do you know what he's doing?"

The fragment shook his head helplessly.

Soon, Sun Licheng opened his eyes and withdrew his hands from the ore. After a short rest to regain his composure, he placed his hands on the bronze knife again.

At first, Sun Licheng was unable to discern the material information of the bronze knife, just as before. The two gods were somewhat disappointed. But suddenly, a torrent of information flooded into Sun Licheng’s mind.

"He actually did it? Is this still earth magic?" The two gods, shocked, exchanged glances.

In truth, Sun Licheng was able to use elemental guiding force to sense the composition of the bronze knife because he applied scientific thinking from Earth to the problem.

Though he hadn’t succeeded in perceiving the exact composition of the bronze knife, the blade appeared in his mind as a conglomerate of countless unknown substances intertwined in the shape of a knife.

Previously, spellcasters who had tried to sense metal with elemental guiding quickly abandoned the effort, unable to identify all the substances inside, and the strain of analyzing the unknown materials was overwhelming—only gods could endure such burdens.

Sun Licheng had also been frustrated at first, but then it occurred to him: since the smoke test had succeeded, it was possible to achieve perception of metal. He realized that what he needed was primarily the copper-tin alloy; the other substances could be disregarded. According to the principle of contradiction, he only needed to remove the largest obstacle.

He first sensed copper and tin ores, establishing corresponding models in his mind. When he sensed the bronze knife again, he identified the pure copper-tin alloy and constructed a microscopic model for it, ignoring the other unknown substances. The mental burden was greatly reduced. Sun Licheng’s approach resembled the design of certain specialized electronic devices on Earth—performing only specific tasks, the computational requirements for the chip were minimal, yet the results were excellent.

After this transformation, the bronze knife in Sun Licheng’s mind changed dramatically; it became a polymer composed almost entirely of copper-tin alloy, bathed in golden light, dotted with countless dark unknown substances. For a moment, Sun Licheng felt as though he glimpsed a smaller world. Excited, he probed deeper into the blade, striving to explore its inner layers. Soon, the arrangement of the metal elements within the blade became crystal clear.

Wherever the metal elements were orderly arranged, the alloy was dense, like a military formation, appearing heavy and solid. In places where many unknown impurities were mixed in, the arrangement was chaotic and the metal elements sparse. Sun Licheng concluded that the regions with orderly metal arrangement were the hardest parts of the bronze knife, while those with excessive impurities must be quite fragile. Surprisingly, he discovered that certain unknown metal elements could actually enhance the tightness of the copper-tin arrangement, making the metal even denser.

"I wonder if I can command these metals to arrange themselves more densely?"

Withdrawing his consciousness from the bronze knife, Sun Licheng had another idea.

Driven by this thought, he began experiments immediately, focusing his mind to issue commands to the metal elements. After a while, to his delight, some metal elements visibly shifted their positions. Though the number moved was small and the range limited, it proved his idea was feasible. Encouraged, Sun Licheng started manipulating the metal elements bit by bit with his will. He ordered those elements disrupting the metal arrangement to move toward the spine of the blade, those that increased the density to move toward the edge, and directed all metal elements to arrange as tightly as possible. As his will guided them, he felt the knife’s blade tremble, as if he and the knife had merged into one.

"This is utterly unscientific! Is he still an ordinary mortal?" The two gods were stunned; they never expected that a spell requiring divine power—or at least advanced magic—could be accomplished by Sun Licheng with only the most basic spell. Overcome by surprise, they inadvertently used the internet slang Sun Licheng often spoke of from his home world.

Just as he was reveling in excitement, Sun Licheng’s mind suddenly faded; the bronze knife slipped from his control, his energy utterly drained.

A little helpless, Sun Licheng set the bronze knife aside and began meditating to recover. The meditation techniques from his homeland on Earth had exceptional restorative effects in this world, and when Sun Licheng opened his eyes again, he felt his vitality fully restored.

Looking outside the cave, night had fallen, and only the campfire within cast its warm glow. Unable to contain his excitement, Sun Licheng resumed tempering the bronze knife with his mind, even forgetting the hunger in his belly.

Three days passed before Sun Licheng set the bronze knife down with satisfaction. Through relentless mental tempering, the bronze knife had undergone a complete transformation; even its appearance was vastly different. The metallic sheen of the blade was far more dazzling, its presence heavier.

Taking the knife outside, Sun Licheng used the forge and the power of flame to heat it further. When the blade glowed red, he lifted a massive stone hammer and began forging. With each strike, the impurities concentrated on the spine—those that weakened the blade—were gradually stripped away, and the blade became straight. When the forging was done, Sun Licheng found a whetstone, poured water over it, and sharpened the bronze knife.

After this process, the bronze knife was much lighter and noticeably slimmer. When he swung it in the air, he could faintly hear the whistle of wind as the blade cut through.

To test the power of his bronze knife, Sun Licheng found a small tree, as thick as a bowl. Using all his strength, he chopped down; with a sharp crack, the tree was cleaved in two, the cut smooth to the touch. Inspecting the blade carefully, he found no damage. He realized that his tempered bronze knife was nearly as sharp as the mountain-clearing blade he had owned in his previous life.

…

That night, while Sun Licheng slept, he heard a great pack of wolves howling in the mountains. He hurriedly rose, grabbed his weapons, and rushed to the mouth of the valley.

Sun Licheng knew that aside from a few solitary wolves, there were no large packs in this area. This pack was clearly migrating from afar.

Climbing his stone wall at the valley entrance, Sun Licheng gazed out. In the distance, over thirty wolves were moving along the foothills. A tall and formidable alpha wolf stood atop a large boulder, scanning the surroundings with wary eyes. Many wolves in the pack were large, and two were as big as the alpha itself, exuding great power.

After a while, the alpha seemed to notice Sun Licheng watching from afar; it turned its head abruptly, its gaze cold and warning.

Sun Licheng watched the wolves depart, returning only after daylight. His first task upon returning home was to strengthen the valley’s defenses. He set more traps, placed spears in many locations, and no longer left carcasses outside the cave for freezing, instead storing them in the larder to prevent the scent of blood from spreading.

But would this truly keep danger at bay?

Sun Licheng knew it was impossible, and besides, he would soon leave this place, to search for fragments of the God of Magma and find his way home.