Chapter 12 : Divine Weapon Creation

Chapter 12: Divine Weapon Creation

Originally, Gu Yongyeon had a different name.

However, driven solely by the determination to forge a divine sword, he changed both his surname and given name.

To Gu of Gu Yaja, the divine craftsman of Yue, to whom he was not related by a single drop of blood, and Yongyeon, the divine sword he crafted.

Gu Yongyeon was a madman obsessed with smithing.

“Tang Sewoon greets the Ten Thousand Iron Hall Hall Leader.”

“I-I greet the Hall Leader.”

When Sewoon bowed first with proper manners, Jang Il also followed awkwardly.

Not all Hall Leaders were the same within the Five Halls.

Having entered the Tang Clan through ties with the former Clan Head, Tang Eui-tae, Gu Yongyeon had become the clan’s most senior figure.

Even at over eighty years old, Gu Yongyeon was not only healthy but had a muscular body more robust than most young men.

“What brings the Young Master here?”

Gu Yongyeon spoke with his characteristically expressionless face and toneless voice.

Because of that, Sewoon could not read his emotions at all.

‘...As expected, he’s not an easy opponent.’

Tension flickered in Sewoon’s eyes.

An absolute neutral.

That was the Tang Clan’s assessment of Gu Yongyeon at this point.

As mentioned earlier, not even the Clan Head Tang Muyeol could treat him lightly.

Gu Yongyeon maintained a neutral stance in all clan matters.

In other words, he did not belong to either the Clan Head's faction or the Escort Agency faction.

More precisely, it was appropriate to say he was indifferent.

After Tang Eui-tae’s death.

Gu Yongyeon had immersed himself solely in educating the smiths of Ten Thousand Iron Hall and pursuing his lifelong ambition of forging his divine sword.

For a moment, Sewoon’s gaze calmed deeply.

‘But no one could have predicted it.’

That Gu Yongyeon, who had maintained such strict neutrality, would join the fleeing procession of the Ten Thousand Seas Escort Agency.

The hidden supporter of Tang Hoyeol.

That was Gu Yongyeon’s identity as remembered by Sewoon.

And Gu Yongyeon’s choice of Tang Hoyeol wasn’t because of Clan Head Tang Muyeol.

It was because of Sewoon—himself.

The day Gu Yongyeon left the Tang Clan.

He removed the mask he had worn for decades and revealed his emotions to Sewoon for the first time.

Without uttering a single word, Gu Yongyeon looked at him with eyes filled with intense resentment and then left.

Even now, it was bewildering to recall.

‘Because I still have no idea what mistake I made.’

Before the regression, Sewoon visited the smithy more often than the training hall due to the Heavenly Punishment.

Yet during that time, he and Gu Yongyeon had exchanged only a handful of conversations.

He had never approached warmly to build rapport, but he also had no memory of making a mistake so severe that it would leave behind such bitter resentment.

To Sewoon, it was just regrettable.

There was so much to gain by bringing Gu Yongyeon to his side.

‘...But those eyes showed no room for reconciliation.’

Resentment bordering on madness.

Looking back, the eyes Gu Yongyeon had shown him then were strikingly similar to his own reflected in the Blood Cult’s mirror.

In any case, Sewoon couldn’t reveal that he knew such a secret.

He concealed his true intentions thoroughly as he opened his mouth.

“I apologize for bothering you at this late hour, but I had a sudden idea and came to try it out.”

“I understand the Clan Head has prohibited the Young Master from leaving his quarters for seven days?”

“Even so, I believe the Clan Head will understand once he sees the finished product.”

Gu Yongyeon fell silent.

It must have been because of how hastily made Sewoon’s story sounded.

And in truth, Sewoon had spoken whatever came to mind without much thought.

‘Well, he won’t allow it anyway.’

Sewoon had long abandoned hope of being allowed to use the smithy.

There was no way to refute the Clan Head’s command.

And unlike with Tang Hoyeol, he couldn’t simply override it with his status as the Young Master.

Regrettably, it seemed he would have to turn back...

“Go ahead.”

“...Pardon?”

“I said, go ahead.”

What was this? What just happened?

Not only Sewoon, but even Jang Il looked bewildered.

Creak.

As if to show he wasn’t just speaking, Gu Yongyeon swung the smithy’s door wide open.

And it didn’t end there.

Gu Yongyeon looked Sewoon up and down and spoke softly.

“Looks like you sneaked out without bringing your equipment, so feel free to use mine over there for now.”

Sewoon and Jang Il’s eyes widened like lanterns.

That Black-Handed Craftsman Gu Yongyeon was offering his own tools?

Just as warriors cherished their weapons as their own lives, for a smith, the hammer was the same.

Especially Gu Yongyeon, who was famously sensitive about such matters throughout all of Sichuan.

There was a famous story of a noble heir who had come to commission weapons at Ten Thousand Iron Hall and had his hand smashed for touching Gu Yongyeon’s tools without permission.

Yet now he was handing them over to Sewoon so casually?

‘Why all of a sudden?’

Baffled by the unexpected kindness directed at him, Sewoon quickly began to think.

Was it because he was moved by what Sewoon said during the meeting?

Because he saw him getting deeply involved with the Murim Alliance Leader?

None of the above.

The man Sewoon had observed before his regression was not someone swayed by a single passing event.

As Sewoon puzzled over this...

“Young Master.”

“Ah, yes. Please speak, Hall Leader.”

“Well...”

Gu Yongyeon hesitated, his lips parting and closing repeatedly.

Even at a glance, his feelings looked complicated.

Sewoon waited quietly for an answer.

“...I will take the child.”

“Hiccup!”

Suddenly, when the focus turned to him, Jang Il was so shocked he even hiccuped.

Sewoon noticed that the other party had abruptly changed the subject but pretended not to notice.

There was no need to ruin the situation out of idle curiosity.

He decided to accept the other party’s kindness for now and figure out the reason behind the change in attitude later.

“Uh, yes, yes. Rather than making you wait alone late at night, I think it’s better to go back together with you now, Hall Leader.”

Jang Il had the expression of someone whose world had just collapsed.

Shortly after Jang Il, feeling utterly betrayed, returned to the clan with Gu Yongyeon, his eyes brimming with moisture.

Sewoon entered the smithy.

“Hmm.”

The smithy’s characteristic heat and acrid scent stung his nose.

The complicated feelings stirred up by Gu Yongyeon calmed down.

It felt like returning to a place of rest after a long journey.

‘I suppose it’s inevitable.’

Although he had spent countless years smithing as a slave to the Blood Cult, Sewoon still considered his essence to be that of a blacksmith.

Passing rows of furnaces and anvils, he came upon a section where weapons were on display.

Low grade, medium grade, high grade.

The weapons were categorized by quality.

The more he looked, the more Sewoon’s brow furrowed.

“Hmm, were the smiths of Ten Thousand Iron Hall only this competent?”

The situation was worse than expected.

Even the weapons classified as high grade were, by Sewoon’s standards, not even worthy of being scrapped.

There was once a saying that all weapons used by sects south of the Yangtze River came from the Tang Clan—such was the golden age of Ten Thousand Iron Hall.

Now, it was barely maintaining its existence through Gu Yongyeon’s connections.

It was bitter but unavoidable.

‘In my previous life, they eventually recovered that level of skill, but only because I desperately taught them. Now that all of that process has vanished, I have to start again from scratch.’

And that new beginning would be today.

“Is this something the Hall Leader made?”

Arriving at Gu Yongyeon’s station, a sword that appeared recently forged was lying there.

Sewoon picked up the sword and inspected it.

“Well, it’s definitely good enough to be called a master’s work.”

Tolerable without frowning—just barely.

Though excellent by most standards, to Sewoon, who had once been called a divine craftsman before regression, it felt like watching a granddaughter’s clumsy tricks.

Crack—he loosened up with a loud popping of his bones and approached the anvil.

Swish.

Sewoon picked up Gu Yongyeon’s hammer.

It was still warm and heavy, its heat not yet faded.

“Well then, let’s begin.”

Sewoon lowered his posture and swung the hammer toward the anvil.

Clang!

A clear hammering sound rang through the smithy.

Hwaaaah!

The ambient qi floating in the air flowed into Sewoon’s entire meridians.

The qi, evenly distributed throughout his body earlier, activated, bringing vitality all over.

Sewoon’s Golden Bridle Movement Technique manifested.

Though he was hammering an empty anvil with no material placed on it.

Hwaaaah!

The change was immediately visible.

The blazing qi, as if alive, coursed through all his meridians.

Soon it flowed into the hammer he held.

Into the bellows beneath his feet.

Into the burning furnace.

Qi began to seep into everything his hands touched.

This phenomenon occurred when the Golden Bridle Movement Technique reached the level of Five-Tenths Mastery.

And.

The Golden Bridle Movement Technique, at the level of Five-Tenths Mastery, granted a special ability.

‘Forge the main weapon through Divine Weapon Creation.’

That was the skill of Divine Weapon Creation he used to craft the Ten Demonic Weapons before regression.

The reason Sewoon had come to Ten Thousand Iron Hall this late at night was to craft a weapon for himself.

He had managed to deal with Lee Hoseong using the training dagger he had on him, but the formidable enemies of the Blood Cult he would face in the future could not be fought with such low-quality weapons.

There was a saying in the martial world that once one reached a certain realm, the strength of the weapon no longer mattered to the warrior.

‘Utter nonsense.’

That was something said only by those who had never laid eyes on a true divine or demonic weapon in their life.

For there were certainly divine weapons in the world that transcended even the power of the martial artist.

‘Even if I’m gone, the Blood Cult will still create and collect dreadful cursed and demonic weapons from all over the Central Plains.’

Though they were inferior to the Ten Demonic Weapons he had once crafted, some demonic weapons possessed abilities that were even more horrifying and vile.

And the only things that could destroy such weapons were divine weapons of equal or superior grade.

Even now, the Invisible Dagger lying dormant in his upper dantian was such an item.

‘The Invisible Dagger must be kept hidden as my ultimate trump card.’

Therefore, the weapon Sewoon was about to create—as referred to earlier as his main weapon—

Would be the primary weapon he used until he retrieved the Invisible Dagger.

He couldn’t be more grateful.

The material he had been worrying about, not knowing how to obtain it without the Blood Cult’s help, had come to him of its own accord.

Swish.

Sewoon stopped hammering and picked up the material.

Divine Weapon Creation through the Golden Bridle Movement Technique began by imbuing the blacksmith’s willpower into the metal.

—Tang Sewoon. Atone with your life!

Sewoon recalled the woman who had once handed over this demonic weapon in the past.

Sizzle!

And threw ‘Wave Moon’, the item he had received from the Murim Alliance Leader, into the blazing furnace.