parentshiftbook Chapter 11, Level 3 - Iron Heart
Chapter 11, Level 3 - Iron Heart
Shen Chi barely slept a wink all night.
The knife lay close to his body, its coolness brushing against his skin, occasionally reminding him of the carriage.
He listened all night, but there was no sound.
The next morning, I looked around the shop—the street was just like any other day. The carriage seemed to have vanished into thin air.
A-Zhu said Mo Huaizhou's light was still trembling. He patted A-Zhu's head; it was time to go to the cabin.
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Wooden cabins in the mountains.
Mo Chenzi sat at the table, with a yellowed piece of paper in front of him. It was covered with writing, and Shen Chi only saw it clearly when he got closer—the writing wasn't done with ink, but rather branded on with a red-hot iron.
Three lines.
First challenge: Iron Heart – Break an iron blank with bare hands; if the heart is not broken, the iron will break on its own.
The second challenge: Casting a vessel – with a stick of incense, a vessel of promises is cast.
The third stage: Enlightenment – Before the Monument to Human Hearts, one recounts the promises made.
Mo Chenzi pointed to the paper: "Do you recognize this handwriting?"
Shen Chi recognized it. It was his father's brushwork again—that habitual pause, that never-ending little hook.
"Written by my dad?"
"He left this behind back then. He said that when his son comes, he should follow this path. Only after he has completed this path will he be considered my disciple, Mo Chenzi."
Shen Chi stared at the three lines of text.
"The first challenge."
Mo Chenzi turned and went into the wooden house. When he came out again, he was carrying a piece of iron ingot, which he placed on a tree stump. The surface of the iron ingot gleamed with a cold, frost-like grayish-white light.
"Hundred-Refined Cold Iron. I brought it from Tian Shu City when I was young. The Yan Sheng Pavilion used it to forge the Heart-Locking Nail."
Shen Chi reached out and touched it. The cold air seeped into the bones of his fingers, and when he withdrew his hand, his fingertips were already numb.
It was hard. He'd been a blacksmith for so long, he'd seen all kinds of iron. But this piece of iron was wrong—it felt like the weight of an entire mountain had been pressed into it.
"Smash it with your bare hands." Mo Chenzi pointed to his chest. "You can use that thing of yours."
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Shen Chi stood in front of the tree stump, staring at the piece of cold iron.
He closed his eyes. He emptied his mind. He waited.
There was nothing on his chest.
Thinking of my father's words—it's useless.
He took out the small knife and stroked the four characters "The Heart Cannot Be Locked"—but it was no use.
The knife was cold. My chest was cold too.
He opened his eyes and looked at his hands. Yesterday he could still summon the Oath Fire, but today it was gone. The more he thought about it, the more anxious he became, and the more anxious he became, the more trapped he felt, as if a stone was lodged in his chest.
"What's the rush?" Mo Chenzi's voice was not loud.
Shen Chi ignored him.
He stared back at the piece of cold iron.
"If the heart doesn't break, the iron will."
I repeated it three times to myself. I still don't understand.
But he agreed to come. He agreed to fight. He agreed to get through this.
You have to keep your promises.
My chest suddenly felt hot.
Shen Chi suddenly arched his back, his whole body trembling—but his right hand had already pressed against the cold iron, his five fingers clenched.
The burning sensation didn't trickle down his arm like it did yesterday. It was trapped in his chest, burning hotter and hotter, until sweat beaded on his forehead and his back was soaked through. He felt that if he didn't open that door soon, he would be burned through from the inside.
But I can't open it.
The mark of the heart struggled beneath the skin, thrashing about, but could not be broken through.
Shen Chi gritted his teeth and pressed his forehead against the cold iron.
His forehead was cold. His chest was burning. He was stuck in the middle.
Just then, a very thin wisp of dark red light seeped from the wound on his tiger's mouth.
As thin as a hair, it trembled in the blood droplet before landing on the cold iron.
A pinhead-sized dent instantly appeared on the surface of the cold iron.
Shen Chi felt as if the door to his chest had been kicked open—everything that had been blocked burst out with a bang.
A dark red light seeped from his wounds and palms, like blood, but brighter than blood, turning his entire hand into a translucent dark red.
He gripped the cold iron.
For the first time, I felt the iron "retreating." Like a living creature encountering something it fears, it shrinks to both sides.
Tighten your five fingers.
Click.
A crack appeared on the side of the cold iron. And another one.
Shen Chi gripped it with both hands and snapped it open with force. Cracks spread like a spider web, and it shattered into pieces that fell to his feet, each piece bearing a dark red burn mark.
Mo Chenzi picked up a piece and looked at it.
"Hundred-times-forged cold iron, the material used by the Yansheng Pavilion to forge the Heart-Locking Nails."
He looked at Shen Chi's hands, which were covered in blood.
"You can break it with your bare hands—that means your heart is harder than their nails."
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Shen Chi sat on the steps of the wooden house, and Mo Chenzi bandaged him with old strips of cloth.
"Alright." He clapped his hands.
Shen Chi glanced at the rough bandage. He didn't say anything, "When is the second stage?"
"What's the rush? Let's talk about it when your hand is healed."
Mo Chenzi sat down, poured himself a bowl of wine, and took a sip.
"The Yansheng Pavilion uses this kind of Hundred-Refined Cold Iron to forge Heart-Locking Nails. What do Heart-Locking Nails lock? They lock the fire in people's hearts that refuses to go out."
He paused.
"But do you know that the Yansheng Pavilion is not a monolithic entity?"
Shen Chi turned his head.
"Back when I was in Tian Shu City, there was a young woman in the Enforcement Hall named Su Qingyan. She didn't use heart-locking nails or any instruments of torture to interrogate people. She just took three pages of questions and asked them one by one. After two days and two nights of questioning, the person knelt down on his own and confessed all his accomplices."
Mo Chenzi took another sip.
"Your father once told me—if the Yansheng Pavilion can still be saved, it probably lies in people like this."
Shen Chi asked, "Where is she now?"
Mo Chenzi paused.
"Still in Tian Shu City, I suppose. Maybe it's still the same person from back then. Maybe not."
He put the lid on the wine jug.
"People change when they stay in this place for a long time."
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It was getting dark when Shen Chi descended the mountain.
His mind replayed Mo Chenzi's words. Su Qingyan. A person in the Yansheng Pavilion who doesn't need the Heart-Locking Nail. Are there really people like that in this world?
As he approached the town entrance, he saw Old Chen.
Old Chen stood under the locust tree by the roadside, his face creased with sweat, and it was unclear how long he had been standing there. Upon seeing Shen Chi, he quickly approached, his voice low and his face pale.
"The Shen family boy."
"What's wrong?"
"That black carriage from yesterday—" Old Chen swallowed hard, "stopped in the mayor's backyard."
Shen Chi paused in his steps.
"The mayor's house was locked this morning, and no one came out. I just passed by and peeked through the crack in the door... There was no sound at all in the yard."
A black carriage. Parked in the mayor's backyard. Less than two hundred steps from the blacksmith's shop.
Shen Chi inexplicably recalled the name Mo Chenzi had mentioned—Su Qingyan.
Tian Shu City. Yan Sheng Pavilion. A person who doesn't need to use the Heart-Locking Nail to interrogate others.
What's her connection to the mayor's black car?
He didn't know. But he knew one thing—
The carriage didn't leave last night.
It's just two hundred paces away.