Moreover, this small piece of meteoric iron wasn't ordinary, but the highest quality Nine Heavens Mysterious Iron among them, worth a hundred times more. An absolute treasure of immense value.
If Xiaoyao could obtain this treasure, it could only be called lucky.
This small piece of Nine Heavens Mysterious Iron wasn't independent, but had been knocked off from a large piece. When the meteor fell to earth, it became small fragments that flew into crystal ore, then quietly remained for tens of thousands of years.
That large piece had already been taken to make weapons. Among the top ten on the Weapon Rankings, three were made from this mysterious iron. The dream of everyone.
Only peerless experts possessed such weapons. Of course, through historical changes, two of these three weapons, like some weapons on the Weapon Rankings, had already lost their traces and were somewhere unknown on the continent.
Perhaps they still had chances to appear, perhaps they would never appear again.
But even so, the Weapon Rankings would still keep these weapons' names and wouldn't delete them. The Weapon Rankings wasn't like the Heavenly Rankings of those experts, no one would argue seriously about weapons unless they were confident of possessing better weapons than the top ten.
But this situation had an even lower probability than a God-level expert appearing.
After all, people were born every day with new people constantly replacing old ones, but these good things became less with each use.
Back to the main point, though obtaining this small stone was lucky, if using normal sword forging methods, it definitely couldn't be completed because this amount was only enough to forge a dagger, and that would require mixing in other materials.
Simply put, the quantity wasn't enough, more was needed to manufacture weapons. Therefore, either wait to gather more materials or sell this.
Xiaoyao believed he couldn't encounter the same thing again and wouldn't waste it by selling, so he decided to use extraordinary methods to forge a weapon.
Using this Nine Heavens Mysterious Iron as one material while adding others would allow forging a weapon. Though doing this would make sword smiths curse him as a spendthrift who was wasting natural treasures, especially with Xiaoyao being just a small servant doing the forging, that made it seem even more wasteful.
If it were a master craftsman, though they couldn't create the best, with Nine Heavens Mysterious Iron as material, even just a small piece, they'd be confident of forging weapons that could make the Weapon Rankings, just much inferior to the top ones.
Because of this, generally people wouldn't use Nine Heavens Mysterious Iron as auxiliary adjustment materials.
Xiaoyao didn't think he had to forge the best, being able to create something above Weapon Rankings level was fine. Also, he didn't seek for his weapon to have maximum killing power, but it would definitely be the most resilient, never breaking or being damaged.
Of course, not seeking maximum killing power didn't mean killing power would be small.
There was another point, Xiaoyao didn't think weapons made entirely of the same material were best. Even with the best materials, he felt adding different things might be better than pure ones.
"Young Miss, what are you doing? I'm still forging swords!" When being dragged by the Young Miss, Xiaoyao immediately said and firmly refused to leave with her.
"You want to forge swords? Forge your sister's sword, quickly come with me," The Young Miss glared at Xiaoyao with an attitude of 'you must go whether you want to or not.'
"Right, I'm forging sword for your sister. I recently got some materials and plan to forge a better sword for my boss." Xiaoyao had nothing to hide from the Young Miss because this communication method worked easily with her.
At this moment, Xiaoyao wasn't afraid others would know he was here specifically to forge a sword rather than just helping as everyone imagined, because they wouldn't hear his explanation.
No matter which area of the sword workshop, the noise was very loud. In such a noisy environment, no one would notice the Young Miss's arrival, and even if they did, they wouldn't hear what she and Xiaoyao were saying.
Even with Xiaoyao and the Young Miss face-to-face like this, speaking was somewhat difficult. Though martial artists had sensitive ears, this wasn't because sounds were small but because it was too noisy. In such environments, being more sensitive made it even harder to hear clearly.
Near Xiaoyao, there were basically no people. Generally very few people stayed near furnaces, one person watching the fire was enough.
"...Can't you step away for a bit? Or have someone else do it?" the Young Miss said helplessly.
"No! I must personally handle this entire process, otherwise if something goes wrong, I won't have materials to forge a second one," Xiaoyao immediately shook his head.
The Young Miss frowned and said: "Then just stop for a while and continue when you return."
Asking Xiaoyao to stop wasn't because the Young Miss was ignorant, but because she knew the sword forging process. Though it needed to continue, it didn't need to be continuous, it could pause for a while.
Xiaoyao shook his head: "Young Miss, the materials haven't come out of the furnace yet. I'm not hammering and forging. I can only leave after the materials come out and the sword blank takes shape.”
"That's simple enough. When did you put it in, and when can you take it out?" The Young Miss was relieved. Her business was tonight, still far from now. In her understanding, smelting time wouldn't exceed one day.
Therefore, she felt Xiaoyao would definitely finish by evening and wouldn't delay her business.
"Eight-fifteen tonight!" Xiaoyao replied. What a coincidence. Xiaoyao would finish today after exactly seven days and nights.
Actually, Xiaoyao didn't come early and leave late every day, he simply never left this sword workshop. He ate and slept entirely by the furnace to watch the fire, maintaining specific temperatures to perfectly fuse the Nine Heavens Mysterious Iron with other materials.
Among these materials were many special ones no worse than Nine Heavens Mysterious Iron, just unnoticed by people or unusable by anyone.
Because of this many-day persistence, Xiaoyao absolutely wouldn't leave here. Even for the Young Miss, he had to wait until completely finishing this smelting.
"What? That's too late. Can it be earlier?" the Young Miss asked.
"No," Xiaoyao shook his head.
"Then have someone else watch for you," the Young Miss said. She felt unimportant matters could be left to others.
"No! I still need to personally cast it later. There's only this much material, no waste allowed!" Xiaoyao shook his head in reply.
"That's too late..." the Young Miss said somewhat depressedly. She wouldn't force Xiaoyao to do anything, even without Guxing as a reason.
If Xiaoyao weren't doing serious work, she'd directly drag him away.
"What do you have going on? Can't it be another day?" Xiaoyao looked at the Young Miss and asked.
The Young Miss shook her head: "Today is Lantern Festival. After today it's next year..."
"Lantern Festival? You want to play with flower lanterns? Then what do you need me for?" Xiaoyao was very puzzled. "Accompany you? That's not appropriate."
"Get lost! Who wants you to accompany me? If anyone accompanies me, it should be Nangong Su," the Young Miss replied irritably.
"Nangong Su? Oh, I understand. You want to date Miss Nangong Third, but what does this have to do with me? You want me to go be a lantern?" Xiaoyao understood. The Young Miss also wanted to "meet someone at dusk."
"Of course it's related to you. I still need your help with something. I feel only you can accomplish this! Also, what does 'be a lantern' mean?" the Young Miss said, while not understanding the term "lantern."
"Be a bright light. When dating, you need darkness and don't like brightness..." Xiaoyao replied.
"..." The Young Miss was silent for a while, quickly understanding Xiaoyao's meaning and giving him an annoyed look.
"I don't want you to be a lantern either, but I must have you come see the lanterns, otherwise how would I know what answers are inside them!"
"??" Xiaoyao was momentarily confused but quickly understood: "Oh, so that's it! You want me to help you guess lantern riddles! Young Miss, you should call the tutors for this. They're best at this, and they're the ones who set the questions. The Mo family has them."
Finally, Xiaoyao didn't forget to remind her that the Mo family had tutors and even a specialized Mo family school.
"I know. I originally thought that too, but I don't know why, I feel you're the most capable!" the Young Miss looked at Xiaoyao, not knowing why she had such a strange feeling.
"Young Miss, you think too highly of me!!" Xiaoyao was startled, then said with a light laugh.
"I just have faith in you. Others might know how to solve riddles but would still get stumped, but I feel you won't. You know all sorts of random things!! So bringing you along can't be wrong," the Young Miss said with a smile, patting Xiaoyao's shoulder.
"..." Xiaoyao threw some charcoal into the furnace to maintain temperature, then said: "Then wait until evening. Eight-fifteen, just getting started!"
When Xiaoyao said this, generally people would think it was about right and quite satisfactory, but the Young Miss wasn't satisfied, very unsatisfied!!
Only because—
"Damn, who are you trying to fool, kid!! Eight-fifteen is just getting started, but you'll just be finishing here. After preparing and going over, it'll be past nine. That's close to ending!!"
"Eh, right! How didn't I think of that?" Xiaoyao seemed to just realize this problem and patted his forehead.
"You're still pretending with me, kid!! I'm telling you, you must be there tonight, even if it's ending, you must go!! Hmph!!" The Young Miss glared at Xiaoyao, then turned and left.
Xiaoyao watched for a while, then very indifferently continued working. He wouldn't let his mood change because of the Young Miss's business, nor would it affect what he was doing.
(End of Chapter)
In traditional Chinese Lantern Festival customs, lanterns are associated with romantic meetings and guessing riddles. A couple might stroll under the lanterns together — it’s symbolic of romance and intimacy.
When Xiaoyao says “be a lantern,” he’s teasingly implying that he’d just be standing there like a glowing decoration while the real date happens — acting as background or a third wheel while the Young Miss meets with her actual love interest, Nangong Su.
("Be a bright light. When dating, you need darkness and don't like brightness…”)
Meaning, romance thrives in privacy, and if he, as a "lantern," were there, he’d just be shining awkward light on their date, ruining the mood.