Casting immortality in the furnace

Chapter 44 Refined Steel

"Yes, Senior Brother Peng."

Fan Zhou walked to a workstation to the side.

In the center of the workstation was an anvil. To the right of the anvil were hammers of various sizes and uses, while to the left was a pile of black iron blocks.

Next to the anvil, there was a brick furnace for refining gold and iron.

Seeing that the stove was empty, Fan Zhou scooped some charcoal from the pile of charcoal next to him and put it in.

But he looked around and couldn't find anything like pine needles or hay to start a fire.

"Senior Brother Peng, what did you use to start the fire?"

Peng Yue buried the dark red steel billet into the furnace to heat it. Hearing Fan Zhou's question, he frowned slightly. He then waved his large hand over the furnace opening, drawing out a ball of flame that burned in his palm.

Peng Yue walked to Fan Zhou's stove, threw the flame in his hand into it, and lit the charcoal inside.

"You can control flames by generating heat."

After he finished speaking, he turned around and went back to his workstation, took out the steel billet and continued forging.

Fan Zhou stroked his chin. Of course he knew that he could control flames by activating heat, but he usually used pine needles to start fires and was not used to this way of life that used internal energy.

He didn't mind, squatted down and slowly pulled the bellows to gradually increase the fire in the furnace.

Once the furnace was blazing, without Peng Yue's instruction, he picked up a piece of iron and buried it in the embers to heat it.

"Take the iron block out and forge it once it turns a bright yellow color," Peng Yue instructed again.

Fan Zhou asked疑惑地问道, "Senior Brother Peng, how do we forge it?"

"Folding and forging." Peng Yue's words were brief and his tone indifferent.

Fan Zhou could tell that he didn't really want to talk to him, so he didn't press the matter. Instead, he took the opportunity while waiting for the iron block to heat up to carefully observe how the man worked.

Peng Yue swung a square-headed hammer in one hand and used tongs to clamp the steel billet in the other. While it was still hot, he quickly hammered it on the anvil, making a clanging sound.

Once the iron block was hammered into a long, thin strip, he would flip the hammer head and use the axe-like side to cut a slit in the strip. Then he would fold it in half and continue hammering until it was fused together. He would then hammer it into a strip again, repeating this process continuously.

Fan Zhou had a general idea of ​​what was going on. Seeing that the iron block in the furnace had turned a bright yellow, he quickly used tongs to take it out, placed it on the anvil, and swung the hammer down.

With just this one touch, the red-hot iron block immediately deformed and twisted. Fan Zhou hadn't expected the iron to be so soft, so he quickly flipped it over and carefully hammered it to correct it.

After a flurry of activity, the once perfectly good iron block was now crooked and twisted from beating it. He hadn't even folded it once, yet he was already drenched in sweat, his arms ached, and his hands felt like they were about to split open.

While the iron block was being reheated, Fan Zhou took off his clothes, revealing his well-proportioned, muscular upper body, and began to observe Peng Yue's movements once more.

Unlike him, the iron block was very obedient in Peng Yue's hands. After being forged a few times, it became a neat long strip. After being folded, it turned back into an iron block. Apart from sweating, he showed no signs of fatigue.

"wrong."

Fan Zhou's gaze sharpened as he noticed that Peng Yue's body was moving along with the swing of the hammer, but the arc of his arm was not large, and he didn't seem to be using much force.

He shifted his gaze to Peng Yue's calves. With each pounding motion, Peng Yue's calf muscles were working hard, pounding like a heartbeat.

"Blacksmithing doesn't require brute force."

Seemingly sensing his gaze, Peng Yue kept his eyes fixed on the iron block in his hand, his hands moving without pausing, while he slowly explained:

"Don't grip the hammer too tightly. Relax your thumb and forefinger, and use the last three fingers to loosely grip it, opening the web between your thumb and forefinger. Then tighten your grip when you drop it."

"The body's center of gravity should be in the back, not in the front. The power should rise from the calves, be transmitted to the waist and abdomen, and then from the waist and abdomen to the arms, like cracking a whip to use a hammer."

This distributes the force across multiple points.

Fan Zhou had a sudden realization. He imitated Peng Yue's movements and began to forge according to his method. Sure enough, it became much easier.

"This way, I can allow the muscles I'm using to rest in turn, greatly relieving arm fatigue and increasing endurance."

He followed Peng Yue's instructions and hammered the iron block for a while, finally managing to turn it into a regular iron bar. Then he folded it in half and hammered it again, finally combining the two iron bars into one.

This can be considered a folding and forging process.

"There's been progress."

Fan Zhou's face lit up with joy, and he banged on the door for a while longer.

But when he was folding and forging the iron for the second time, he discovered that cracks had appeared on the iron block.

"What happened?"

Fan Zhou squatted down and took a closer look. He noticed four irregular cracks on the side of the iron block.

He flipped to the other side, where several cracks had already appeared.

These are the marks left by folding the iron block in half.

"Didn't you play well?"

Fan Zhou frowned. He had thought that the folded iron block had fused together, but it seemed that neither of the two folding and forging processes had been completed properly.

He turned to look at Peng Yue and said nervously:

"Senior Brother Peng, is it possible to repair the crack on the side of the iron block?"

Peng Yue didn't even look at it, and asked calmly:

Do you know why it cracked?

"I don't know," Fan Zhou shook his head.

"Because the temperature was too low during forging, the force of the hammer was uneven, and the impurities in the iron block were not completely removed, so the two layers of material cannot be perfectly fused together."

Peng Yue said calmly.

He only looked at his own iron block from beginning to end, but he was fully aware of Fan Zhou's problems.

"What should we do with this piece of iron?" Fan Zhou asked.

"Throw it aside and wait to be reworked," Peng Yue said.

"oh."

Disheartened, Fan Zhou buried the piece of scrap iron in a sand bucket to cool it down, and then took another piece of iron and put it in the furnace to heat it up.

Taking advantage of the break, Peng Yue instructed again:

"As the saying goes, 'strike while the iron is hot.' If you hit the iron block hard when it cools down, it will crack. So you must pay attention to the color change of the iron block and not let the temperature drop."

"I'll remember that, Senior Brother Peng," Fan Zhou replied earnestly.

Peng Yue finished forging the steel billet in his hand and set it aside to cool temporarily.

During a break, he picked up a piece of polished steel and handed it to Fan Zhou.

"This piece of refined steel is the final product you are forging."

Fan Zhou's expression brightened, and he quickly took it.

This piece of steel was polished to a gleaming shine, and its entire surface was covered with fine water ripple patterns.

At first glance, it resembles a gently flowing river, full of vitality.

Even someone like Fan Zhou, who knew nothing about forging, could see its beauty at a glance.

"If it were forged into a sword, how sharp would it be?" Fan Zhou couldn't help but ask.

Peng Yue smiled, a hint of pride in his eyes:

"Refined steel can be forged into swords that can easily cut through metal and iron."

Fan Zhou asked in surprise, "Could this steel have been forged by Senior Brother Peng?"

"No, this piece of steel was forged by Senior Brother Han."

Peng Yue looked somewhat embarrassed and said, "I can only reach the seventy-two refinements now, which is still a long way from the hundred refinements."

"Senior Brother Han?"

Fan Zhou asked in surprise, "Is it Senior Brother Han Jiangyue?"

"Oh, you know him?" Peng Yue looked surprised.

"Yes, he even led us in the work when we were clearing the land," Fan Zhou explained.

He looked at the exquisite steel sheet in his hand and said enviously:

"Senior Brother Han is capable of forging hundred-times-refined steel; he must already be a first-rate swordsmith?"

Peng Yue nodded, a hint of longing in his eyes:

"Senior Brother Han passed the sword-forging trial last year and was accepted as a disciple by the sword-forging master of Wuxiang Peak."

"He came with Uncle Qin when we were clearing land in Langdang Mountain Market, saying he would only go back after he had mastered the 'Soft Touch' technique."

"What kind of sword is 'Raozhirou'?" Fan Zhou asked疑惑地.

"The 'softness around the finger' is a sword with extremely high resilience. You can bend the tip of the sword to the hilt with your fingers, and when you let go, the blade will immediately spring back without trembling at all."

Perhaps because Fan Zhou also knew Han Jiangyue, Peng Yue became noticeably more talkative.

"Besides the Hundred-Refined Sword and the Soft Finger Sword, there are also the Three-Foot Water Sword and the Startling Swan Sword, which are all assessment options for the sword-forging trial."

"As long as you can forge one of them, you can be promoted from a forging apprentice to a sword-making clerk and be accepted as a disciple by a master swordsmith."