"I can say that I know up to Tier 4 materials in a good way," Yoriichi replied calmly. "I have read every text in the Xiao Clan's archives regarding metallurgy. I know the grain structure of Purple Cloud Copper, the brittleness of Ice-Vein Iron, and the flux required for Mithril."
He paused.
"However, for the method... I possess no practical experience in this life. I know the theory of folding, quenching, and tempering, but my hands have not held the hammer."
Tie Shan raised an eyebrow. "Tier 4 materials? You read all of that? Hah! Very good. That saves me from teaching you the alphabet. It will be easier for you."
Tie Shan then began to grill him.
"What is the flux for Green Wood Iron?"
"Limestone powder mixed with crushed Spirit Grass ash," Yoriichi answered instantly.
"What happens if you quench Red Flame Steel in water?"
"It cracks," Yoriichi replied. "It must be quenched in oil or beast blood to slow the cooling rate."
Tie Shan nodded, impressed. The kid wasn't lying. He was a walking encyclopedia.
"Hm. Good. You have the brain," Tie Shan leaned back, looking up at the sky. "Now... about the Flame."
The mood at the table shifted. Tie Shan's face fell slightly.
"You know, like Alchemists, we blacksmiths also use flame. It is the most important aspect," Tie Shan explained, his voice tinged with frustration. "Coal fire is dirty. It has impurities. Wood fire is not hot enough. To forge truly high-tier weapons—weapons that can channel Dou Qi without breaking—you need a pure, intense heat."
He sighed heavily, looking at his rough hands.
"If I had at least a Rank 4 Beast Flame... I wouldn't have been stuck at Tier 2 for so many years. I could purge the impurities from the Black Steel. But Beast Flames are expensive, and hunting a Rank 4 Fire Attribute Beast is suicide for me."
Just then, Xiao Bing returned to refill the teapot. Hearing his lament, she placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Oh dear," she whispered softly. "I am so sorry. I know... you are here in this small city only because of me. Because my health cannot handle the travel to the capital."
Tie Shan immediately grabbed her hand.
"No," he said firmly. "Don't blame yourself. It is a blessing to have you as my wife. I couldn't want more. Being a Tier 2 Smith with you is better than being a Tier 5 Smith alone."
Yoriichi watched them again, smiling faintly. The problem was clear: Heat. The forge needed a fire hotter than nature could provide to melt the stubborn metals.
The afternoon wore on.
Xiao Bing brought lunch—simple stir-fried vegetables and roasted pork. They ate together, with Tie Shan using chopsticks to draw diagrams of hammer strikes in the spilled sauce.
"Listen, kid," Tie Shan said around a mouthful of rice. "The sword you want... this 'Katana'. It is curved. That makes the heat distribution tricky. When we quench it, the spine must cool slower than the edge. That is how you get the curve and the hardness."
Yoriichi absorbed every word. He asked questions about air supply, about the rhythm of the bellows, about the color of the steel when it was ready.
Tie Shan answered everything enthusiastically. He had been starving for a student who could actually keep up with him.
As the sun began to dip below the horizon, casting long shadows across the yard, the lesson concluded.
"That is enough for today," Tie Shan grunted, wiping his mouth. "My throat is dry from talking."
Yoriichi stood up and bowed deeply.
"Thank you, Senior. This was... illuminating."
"Come to the Smithing Hall tomorrow at noon," Tie Shan ordered, standing up. "We will light the furnace. We will try to make your blade. But I warn you... without a Beast Flame, removing the impurities from that Black Steel will be hard labor. We might have to fold it three hundred times."
"I am not afraid of labor," Yoriichi promised.
He said his farewells to Xiao Bing, who waved from the porch, and stepped out of the gate.
The walk back to the infirmary was quiet. The stars were beginning to emerge in the darkening sky.
Yoriichi walked with his hands clasped behind his back, his mind churning.
"Heavenly Flames," Yoriichi whispered to the empty road.
Tie Shan had mentioned them briefly during their talk.
"There are Heavenly Flames," Tie Shan had said with reverence. "Natural treasures born from the earth and sky. They are very destructive, wild, and almost impossible to find. They possess intelligence. Even the top Alchemists or any creaftsman of the Jia Ma Empire dream of finding one."
Yoriichi looked at his right hand.
He stopped walking.
He closed his eyes and focused.
"Breath of the Sun."
He didn't activate his Dou Qi. Instead, he channeled the specific breathing pattern that simulated the solar energy. His blood heated up. His heart pumped with the rhythm of a solar flare.
Faintly, almost imperceptibly, the air around his hand began to distort. It wasn't a flame made of Dou Qi. It was pure, radiated heat generated by his body's immense metabolic acceleration.
"My flame..." Yoriichi thought. "It terrified demons. It burned them at a cellular level, halting their regeneration. It is the energy of the Sun."
He opened his eyes.
"Can it be controlled without a sword?"
In his previous life, he channeled this energy into the Nichirin Blade, turning it bright red. The blade acted as the medium.
"But here... if I use my breath... if I blow air into the furnace using the Breath of the Sun... can I transfer that heat to the coal?"
He theorized that he wouldn't need to absorb a Beast Flame or a Heavenly Flame into his body—a process Tie Shan described as incredibly dangerous.
"I am the flame," Yoriichi realized. "I generate it. If I can amplify the forge's fire with my breath, I can reach the temperature needed to melt the Black Steel."
A look of determination settled on his face.
"I need to try this," he murmured. "It will be okay. I won't have to rely on external power."
He resumed his walk, his steps lighter. He reached the gate of his courtyard.
Tomorrow, the Smithing Hall would witness something it had never seen before. Not a Beast Flame, not a Heavenly Flame, but the breath of a human who carried the sun in his lungs.