Becoming a god starting from blacksmithing

Chapter 12, Level 3: Forging

When Shen Chi left, Qingxi Town was still asleep.

He walked out of town and paused as he passed the Monument to the People's Hearts. The heart-shaped mark on his chest skipped a beat, as if he were greeting it.

The door to the wooden house was open.

Mo Chenzi pushed a roll of map over.

"It was drawn by your father. There is subterranean fire at the bottom of the valley. A stick of incense, a piece of iron—forging an instrument of promises."

"What is a vessel of promises?"

"Your father didn't say. You'll find out when you get there."

Shen Chi unfolded the map. Thirty miles east of Qingxi Town, a circle was drawn at the end—the Valley of Broken Souls.

"Your dad stood there for three days. He raised the hammer three times. Every time he raised it—he thought of you."

Shen Chi looked up. Mo Chenzi had already turned away to drink.

"The incense is on the table. Be back before dark."

Shen Chi picked up the incense, turned, and left. He reached the intersection—

"There's a hammer near the fire. Your father left it to you."

Shen Chi didn't turn around. He went down the mountain.

------

The entrance to the Valley of Broken Souls is hidden in the crevice between two rocky mountains.

The vines had sealed the crack shut, as if someone had deliberately tried to hide it.

Shen Chi split it open. Wind rushed out—hot, as if something had been burning underground for thousands of years.

He squeezed in sideways.

The canyon walls are made of black rock, which shines from the heat.

The further down you go, the hotter it gets; the stones under your feet are so hot you can feel them through your shoes.

After walking down for the time it takes to burn two incense sticks, we reached the bottom of the valley.

A dark red pool of lava. It was about three zhang (approximately 10 meters) wide. Steam rose from it, distorting the air.

There was a rocky platform by the pool. Beside the platform lay a hammer—the handle was charred, and there were dents on the charred wood from where it had been held. Next to it was a piece of iron, its color dark and dull.

He picked up the hammer. The handle was just the right thickness.

A line of small characters was engraved on the hammerhead—

"Hold fast to your promises and bring warmth to the world."

Shen Chi stared at those eight characters, and the heart-shaped mark on his chest suddenly skipped a beat.

Just as Shen Chi was engrossed in his work—

A whirlpool emerged from the lava.

A giant python poked its head out from inside.

It was three zhang long. Its scales were dark red, but had lost their luster. Several rings of chains were wrapped around its body, semi-transparent, like twisted light. Some of them were embedded in its scales and had grown into its flesh.

It was looking at him.

His gray eyes were like ashes accumulated over thousands of years. There was no anger in them—only hatred. Pure hatred, hatred that had waited too long.

Shen Chi gripped the hammer tightly.

The giant python didn't move.

It seemed to be recognizing something.

Then it spoke. The sound was like wind squeezed out from a crack in the ground.

"You... you're here to fight me too?"

Shen Chi did not answer.

The python tilted its head. The movement was slow, as if it were being pulled by chains.

"Your chest is glowing."

Shen Chi lowered his head. A layer of dark red light shone through his clothes—the heart imprint, suppressed all the way, could no longer be hidden.

He simply tore open his shirt, revealing the iron-gray pattern.

"What is this?" the giant python asked.

"Heart Imprint".

"Never heard of it."

"Now you've heard it."

The giant python was silent for a moment. Then the scales at the corner of its mouth lifted up, revealing fangs inside.

"You, like him, have a glowing heart."

"Who?"

The python did not answer.

It pounced.

Shen Chi started blacksmithing at the age of seven and could swing an 80-jin hammer at the age of twelve; he was quick-witted.

But the python was faster.

They're not even in the same league in terms of speed.

The moment the python's head rammed into him, Shen Chi dodged to the side, his hammer held horizontally to his chest to block—but it was too late. The python's head grazed the hammer and struck his left shoulder, the bone making a dull cracking sound.

Shen Chi was thrown over and rolled three times on the ground before his back hit the rock wall, and a mouthful of bloody sweetness surged up.

He stood up, supporting himself on his knees.

My left shoulder is collapsed. I can't move it.

The python didn't chase him. It just watched him get up, as if watching an insect that was impossible to kill but also impossible to win against.

"You can't beat me," it said.

"I know."

"Then why are you still hitting me?"

Shen Chi switched the hammer to his right hand. He glanced at the incense stick stuck in the crevice in the rock—only a small part of it had burned. He then glanced at the fiery pit behind the giant python—three zhang away.

He needs to cross that road.

But he couldn't get through. The giant python was blocking his way, stuck in place by its chains.

"You're blocking my way," Shen Chi said.

The giant python paused for a moment.

Then it opened its mouth.

A burst of flame shot over. It wasn't ordinary fire—it was the serpentine flame, tempered for thousands of years in the magma of the earth, its color white, igniting the air directly.

Shen Chi fell to the right, the flames grazing his back, instantly burning half of his clothes away, his skin burning with pain.

Before he could even regain his footing, the giant python's tail swept over him.

It landed squarely on his chest.

Shen Chi flew out. When he crashed into the rock wall, he heard the sound of two of his ribs breaking.

He lay on the ground, with the incense stick beside him.

The incense is burning.

One-third is done.

He used the hammer to support himself as he stood up.

The python looked at him—his ribs were broken, his left shoulder was collapsed, his back was torn and bleeding. But he was standing up.

It fell silent for a moment.

"Three years ago, a man with a hammer came by too. He watched me for three days."

"He's not as weak as you. He's very strong, strong enough to kill me."

"But he hasn't made a move yet."

"On the last day, he glanced back towards the valley entrance, then put the hammer down."

The giant python looked into Shen Chi's eyes.

He said, "I'm sorry. I still have a promise to keep. I can't die here."

Shen Chi loosened his grip on the hammer handle, then tightened it again.

"What was the promise he made?"

The python did not answer.

But Shen Chi had already guessed the answer.

------

He charged toward the giant python.

The hammer blow to the giant python was no different from a blow to an anvil—no, at least an anvil would dent, but the python's scales remained completely still. The recoil was transmitted back through the hammer handle, causing Shen Chi's tiger's mouth to split open, and blood flowed down the hammer handle.

The giant python lowered its head and bit down on the hammerhead.

Shen Chi tried to pull away, but couldn't. The giant python swung its head, slamming him and the hammer to the ground. He landed on his left rib, broken bones digging into his flesh, the pain almost making him grind his teeth to pieces.

He loosened his grip on the hammer, rolled over, and dodged the python's tail that came crashing down.

The hammer landed two zhang away.

The giant python slowly crawled over. It wasn't in a hurry. It knew this human couldn't escape.

Shen Chi lay on the ground, his eyes fixed on the chains on the giant python.

He suddenly noticed something—

Each time the giant python attacks, the chains tighten. When they reach their limit, the python's movements stiffen slightly, as if someone is pulling it from behind.

It was afraid of that chain.

Shen Chi didn't know what the chains were. But his heart was pounding wildly in his chest, as if urging him on.

He moved. He ran towards the side of the giant python.

The giant python turned and chased after him, spewing flames at him. Shen Chi dodged to the left, and the flames burned off half of his trouser leg. It spewed again, and he dodged again.

He ran three steps to cover a distance of three zhang (approximately 10 meters).

In his fourth move, he leaped forward and grabbed the chain around the python's neck with his right hand.

It's cold.

It's colder than a hundred-times-forged iron.

The chill crept up my palm, as if to freeze my entire arm. But then, my heart suddenly warmed—a dark red light surged from the lines on my chest, running down my shoulder, arm, and all the way to my palm.

laugh--

The moment the flames touched the chains, the chains changed from translucent to grayish-white, like dried mud peeling off piece by piece.

The giant python suddenly swung its head, trying to smash Shen Chi against the rock wall.

Shen Chi did not let go.

He grasped it with his left hand as well.

Two broken bones were dislocated in his arm, causing him excruciating pain that made his vision blur. But he desperately pushed the light in his chest into his palms.

The chains were peeling off faster.

One lap. Two laps.

The giant python went mad. It slammed Shen Chi to the ground, against the wall, and into the lava pool.

But he just wouldn't let go.

Blood seeped from his palm, mingling with the oath fire, and the dark red flames burned along the chains onto the giant python.

The giant python suddenly stopped moving.

It looked down at the chains binding it.

The ashes that had accumulated for three thousand years in his eyes were trembling.

It felt "warm".

A warmth I haven't felt in thousands of years.

"You—" the giant python's voice trembled slightly, "Do you know what these chains are?"

Shen Chi gritted his teeth and squeezed out a single word: "Speak."

"The Lock of Promises"

Shen Chi was taken aback.

"A broken promise becomes a lock, trapping both the speaker and the listener."

"Three thousand years ago, the desolate tide began, and he said—wait for me to return."

"I waited. He didn't come back."

The flames of vow in Shen Chi's palm were still burning. The third ring of chains broke.

"What's your name?" Shen Chi asked.

"Huowei".

"Huowei—Do you still believe in promises?"

The giant python looked into his eyes.

"I don't believe it."

Why?

"If you were promised to be trapped here for three thousand years, would you still believe it?"

"I don't know. All I know is that I came here because I promised someone something. Whether I can keep it or not is up to me."

The fourth chain broke.

Huo Wei looked at him. Then he looked at the dark red flame in his palm.

"You are a keeper of the promise. In three thousand years, there is still such a keeper of the promise with pure blood in this world."

Fifth lap. Last lap.

The chains all broke.

The grayish-white substance crashed to the ground, shattered into dust, and scattered.

Huowei's body suddenly felt lighter. It raised its head, and the firelight from the lava pool illuminated its dark red scales, where the wounds inflicted by the chains were healing at a visible speed.

"Do you know why you were able to break these chains?" Huo Wei's voice changed. It was no longer the hoarse voice squeezed out from the cracks, but carried a kind of... relieved calm.

"Because of my sworn fire?" Shen Chi gasped for breath.

"Yes and no."

"The Oath Fire is the power of promises. But with your current cultivation level, it cannot burn through this three-thousand-year-old lock. Unless—you are the descendant of the person who made me wait for three thousand years."

Shen Chi was stunned.

Huowei slowly opened its mouth. A seven-colored light shimmered within, and a crystal the size of a jujube floated out, suspended in mid-air. Inside the crystal were nine halos of light, swirling in circles like a beating heart.

"This 'Nine-Turn Heart-Mending Stone' is what he left with me back then."

He said, "If I don't come back, leave it to my descendants."

"Three thousand years have passed. I don't know if he stopped the desolate tide. But you are his descendant, and I return you to you, thus finally settling this promise."

Shen Chi reached out his hand.

The seven-colored light entered his heart, and the iron-gray pattern on his chest suddenly brightened—becoming smooth and translucent.

The Nine-Turn Heart-Mending Stone moved through the patterns, and with each turn, the heart imprint brightened a little more. The broken ribs, the sunken left shoulder, the wound on the back—all the shattered places were heating up, as if countless scalding hot threads were stitching them together.

Huowei looked at him.

"You're not the same person you were three years ago."

"He's strong, but he carries too much on his shoulders. You're much weaker than him, but you don't have as many burdens in your heart."

"That's why you dare to fight to the death."

Shen Chi didn't speak. He looked down at the incense stick.

It has burned to its limit.

One incense stick's time has passed.

But he still put the dark iron into the fire.

clang--

A shallow dent was left on the iron. A line appeared at the edge of the dent.

It's exactly the same as the pattern on his heart.

He smashed it again. A second blow. A third blow.

No matter how hard he hammered, the iron remained the same piece of iron. With each strike, the grooves deepened, but the iron never took shape.

Shen Chi stared at the pattern and suddenly understood something.

It's not that iron can't be shaped.

The promise in his heart wasn't enough.

Iron follows the will of the heart. He's not heavy enough.

------

Before Huowei sank into the lava, it uttered its last words.

"Tian Shu City. That's where he went."

"If you want to know what the Wasteland Tide is, and why your clan bears the mark of the Promise—go there."

The lava flowed together. No trace remained.

------

Mo Chenzi was waiting for him at the entrance of the valley.

The old man leaned against a pine tree, holding a gourd of wine in his hand, his eyes half-closed. When he saw Shen Chi come out—covered in wounds, his clothes burned to shreds, clutching that still unshaped piece of iron in his hand—he narrowed his eyes.

"Your father passed away back then too."

Shen Chi stopped.

"He promised your mother he would watch you grow up." Mo Chenzi's voice was very soft. "He couldn't die until he fulfilled that promise."

"He left the hammer by the fire. He left the iron. He drew the map for you."

"He's not betting on your ability to defeat that giant python. He's betting on—that the spirit in your heart is purer than his was back then."

Mo Chenzi patted Shen Chi on the shoulder.

"You finished what your father didn't finish."

Shen Chi gripped the piece of iron tightly.

He didn't say anything.

------

By the time we got back to Qingxi Town, it was completely dark.

At the shop entrance, Ah Zhu waited for him with an oil lamp lit.

When she saw Shen Chi walking over, his clothes tattered, she was first startled, then her eyes widened suddenly.

"Brother Shen Chi, your light is so bright."

Shen Chi lowered his head. Beneath his clothes, the heart imprint was still faintly beating.

"Have any strangers been here?"

"Yes. They came from the mayor's house."

Shen Chi's heart tightened suddenly.

"When?"

"As the sun was setting, the man stood at the door, not coming in, but glancing into the shop."

"and then?"

"He said something strange—telling Shen Chi that I'll be waiting for him in Tian Shu City."

Shen Chi suddenly turned his head and looked in the direction of the town mayor's house.

The entire courtyard was shrouded in darkness. It was a darkness of utter emptiness.

There was no breathing. No heartbeat. No human presence.

Shen Chi gripped the iron in his hand tightly.

On that piece of iron, the pattern exactly the same as the heart imprint was pulsating along with the heart imprint.