……………
Time continued to fly by. Outside of the training chamber life was continuously moving on, the warmth from the earth was gradually declining as the first signs of winter could be felt.
Zilan remained holed up and isolated. Every moment of every day, he was doing something that facilitated his advancement and training. A lonely lifestyle that many would rather not have but one a cultivator like Zilan not only appreciated but loved.
Throughout the weeks, his strength as well as his proficiency in [Rain Drizzle], [Rain Storm] and [Ki] gradually improved. Compared to when he first begun, his abilities had grown exponentially. In fact, just a few days ago he had broken through to the Intermediate phase of the Low Level Soul-compression stage.
Despite his satisfaction with his training, there were still some things that troubled Zilan as well as things that he had yet to do. Prime among them was the fact that he was still unaware of what the grey blur that entered his body was. He had now amassed two of those odd things however, he was no closer to understanding them or even locating them.
The other thing that bothered him was his inability to keep progress of all his technique training at the same level. Right at this moment his proficiency in [Rain Storm] was without a shadow of a doubt ahead of his [Rain Drizzle] training.
Why was this so? Well, Zilan wasn’t sure however, something told him that staying cooped up in a training chamber and going over theory after theory was not the best way to understand [Rain Drizzle] in a short amount of time. Having said that, the way in which he used the technique now was many times better than his previous method of utilisation. Of course, one aspect that played a significant role in the progress disparity was Zilan’s successful cheating when it came to the earlier parts of his [Rain Storm] training.
“I guess it’s time to wrap up.” Seeing that Winter was almost upon the Alchemy Association he decided to start concluding his secluded cultivation. Before he could do that however, a promise he made needed to be fulfilled.
“Time to make Kifo his sword.” Smiled Zilan.
Usually, when one was crafting a sword there were many things that needed to be prepared beforehand. Granted most of these things had something to do with collecting data from the one who’ll use the sword so as to produce the best product. However, certain tools of the trade were a must-use for every crafter. Zilan as you may have guessed was anything but usual.
This mostly had to do with the fact that he had already lost count as to how many times he had scanned Kifo with his eyes. If he was to say he knew Kifo better than anyone else in the world, the only person who would dare refute the statement would be Kifo himself.
The other factor that played a part in Zilan’s crafting methods was that he would not be crafting a spirit tool which also meant that he would not need to use the same tools as Spirit Masters.
Why wasn’t he crafting a Spirit tool? Long story short, he was confident that in the near future he would be able to do much, much better thus he wanted to save the experience of creating his first Spirit weapon for when he could produce a truly Legendary weapon. He even already had something in mind, only that many difficult steps needed to be completed before he could even dream of turning his idea into reality.
“Are you done?” he suddenly asked.
“Hmph!” Snorted Hihi.
A newly sharpened katana-looking weapon flew out from the Cloud Inheritance Palace and floated before Zilan, prompting a smile. He contentedly observed the flame-red blade, praising Hihi’s commitment to following instructions.
“You did well.”
“Obviously. Don’t go back on your promise when the time comes.” Replied a clearly unhappy Hihi. As a genius Dragon his arrogance was also at a level that one could not belittle so for him to actually strip of some of his scales for someone else to use in crafting a weapon was not easy.
“Don’t worry, I won’t. But you should also know that for what you’re asking this isn’t going to be enough.”
“Peh, fine, I’ll give you more.”
Zilan smiled when he heard that. Although he was also a Dragon, his scales which were also rare treasures could not compare to the brilliance of Hihi’s. A thought he would never voice lest Hihi’s head grow any bigger.
The reason he valued the scales was not just because Hihi was currently stronger than him which automatically equalled stronger scales. No, what truly interested Zilan was that Hihi being a soul king, his scales possessed certain illusionary yet real attributes that made it a magnificent raw material for crafting of all sorts of things.
Needless to say, as Hihi was a huge Dragon in his physical form, a quarter of a scale was more than enough for Zilan. However, him being Zilan he wanted to give his best effort for Kifo which is why he instructed Hihi to compress one full scale into the shape of a special blade and a scabbard. The rest of the job, which involved building upon this extremely sturdy foundation, he would handle.
Looking at the hovering blade, Zilan couldn’t help but tremble in excitement. Going by conventional thought a crafter would imbue a weapon with qualities that would enhance the user’s strong points. In Kifo’s case, it was Darkness.
Zilan fortunately was not so narrow minded. He had an idea and that was to make a sword that would help train Kifo’s Darkness attribute in a round-about way.
He wanted to infuse the blade with the laws of light specifically the ones that were extremely pure/dealt with purification. In this way Kifo could train his [Corrosion]. The more he corrupted the light in the blade, the stronger his ability as well as his sword would become. Of course, if he did not have such a durable material i.e. Hihi’s scales, he would never even attempt to create a weapon so tedious in its production process.
Having said that, before he could actually infuse the laws of [Light] into the weapon he had a few steps to go through first.
Cleansing the blade so that the Dragon aura remains but Hihi’s disappears. Turning the physical blade into something that will easily ‘bond’ with Kifo. And finally, inscribing the blade with a set of runes and inscriptions that would allow it to not only seal the laws of [Light] within the blade but also allow Kifo to freely control the blade as if an additional limb.
Only after these steps were completed would he be able to start infusing the blade with the Laws.
