Chapter 260: Forging the Sword

Han Li gently extended his palm, and the piece of Langxi Cloudstone in his hand slowly flew into the silver flames, wrapped in a stream of immortal spiritual power.

The silver flames flickered a few times, enveloping the fist-sized white stone and slowly burning it.

However, as time passed drop by drop, the white stone remained in its original state without any change.

Han Li's expression remained unchanged. He formed a hand seal with one hand, and a chanting sound echoed from his mouth.

Suddenly, rings of red light lit up around the fire pit built of black stones, and ancient-looking runes emerged, leaping up and down incessantly.

After the runes lit up, the silver flames in the pit surged upward, and a layer of red light enveloped the silver glow. The change in firepower was not obvious, but a strange fluctuation appeared within.

With the appearance of this fluctuation, the Langxi Cloudstone finally underwent a slight change.

After emitting a series of "sizzling" sounds, it gradually melted within the silver flames, dripping out drops of waxy, milky-white liquid that floated leisurely in the flames.

An extremely rich scent of sandalwood instantly filled the entire secret chamber.

Seeing this, Han Li abruptly withdrew his extended hand, and the completely melted Langxi Cloudstone liquid flew out of the flames under the wrap of his immortal spiritual power.

His other hand reached over, already holding a black stone bottle covered with fiery red patterns, which caught the Langxi Stone liquid.

As the milky-white stone liquid flowed into the bottle mouth, a ring of runes immediately lit up on the stone bottle, and the entire bottle became as scorching hot as a red-hot iron block.

Han Li's hand was covered with a layer of green light. After sealing the bottle mouth, he placed it aside on a stone table.

Then, with another wave of his hand, a piece of Huwen Fine Gold floated up and fell onto the fire pit.

This time, he did not form a hand seal to activate the formation on the fire pit. Instead, he turned and walked to a half-foot-high stone platform in the center of the cave, sat down cross-legged, and let the silver flames of the Essence Flame Firebird refine the fine gold on their own.

Under the scorching blaze, the petal-like patterns on the surface of the Huwen Fine Gold lit up with a red-gold light, reflecting against the silver flames, but showed no sign of melting.

Han Li only glanced at it, then closed his eyes and began to regulate his breath, paying no further attention.

Seven days and seven nights later.

In the fire pit, the silver flames still blazed fiercely. The seemingly indestructible fine gold had completely turned red, like a piece of melting ice, with drops of golden molten liquid falling down.

Below it was placed a black stone bottle twice as large as before, catching every drop of the golden molten liquid.

After another full day, the piece of Huwen Fine Gold was completely melted.

Han Li opened his eyes, stepped forward, put away the black stone bottle, then took another piece of Huwen Fine Gold through the air and cast it into the fire pit...

Three months later.

In the cave, Han Li stood beside the fire pit, holding a beast-skin book in one hand, frowning slightly as he focused on reading, while his other hand gestured back and forth in the air.

On the stone platform beside him, thousands of yellow paper sheets were piled messily, each covered with crisscrossing, extremely strange and twisted lines.

The lower the paper sheets, the thicker and more chaotic the lines; the closer to the top, the finer and more delicate the lines appeared.

On the top four paper sheets, the drawn lines were already very fine and dense, looking like four large round flowers, extremely exquisite.

In the only empty space at the upper left corner of the stone platform piled with papers, there were a dozen or so goose-neck bottles of various sizes and materials, containing all the spiritual liquids needed for forging the sword.

During this period, aside from refining various spiritual liquids, Han Li spent most of his time studying the Molten Gold Sword Forging Art recorded in the beast-skin book and practicing drawing the formation runes described in the book on paper.

Although he had drawn them thousands of times, he was still not satisfied with the runes he could currently produce, feeling that something was lacking in some way, so he had been delaying the actual forging.

After a moment, a "snap" sound was heard.

Han Li closed the book, shut his eyes tightly, and stood still as if lost in thought. Only his right middle and index fingers, pressed together, moved in small arcs at his side, as if practicing drawing runes in the air.

After an unknown amount of time, as if struck by a sudden inspiration, his eyes snapped open. He turned and quickly walked to the fire pit.

He pressed his two fingers together, and a bright golden light shone on his hand. Layers of golden scales rose up, covering the two fingers.

He bent down, half-crouching by the fire pit, and thrust his two fingers downward, straight into the rock on the left side of the fire pit.

With his eyes closed and mind focused, all distractions gone, he felt the spiritual intent contained in the runes in his mind. Immortal spiritual power flowed from his fingertips, carving on the rock.

At first, his fingers moved extremely slowly, taking a long time to move a mere inch. But gradually, the speed increased, and by the end, his strokes were like a dragon and snake, flowing smoothly as he completed an entire rune pattern.

Its shape was exactly the same as the pattern drawn on one of the four sheets of paper, but magnified several times, extending from the stone platform down to the ground, with most of it carved into the floor.

After finishing the first array diagram, Han Li paused for a moment, then slowly exhaled and went to the right side of the fire pit, continuing to concentrate on carving...

After a while, Han Li straightened up and slowly opened his eyes. He saw that the array diagrams around the fire pit were all completed. Although positioned differently, they were interconnected, forming a cohesive whole full of spiritual intent.

He nodded in satisfaction, rubbed his hands together, and the Essence Flame Firebird flashed out from his body, flew into the fire pit, and transformed into a patch of silver flames, burning fiercely.

As the silver flames lit up, the entire cave began to grow hot.

Han Li waved his hand, and a series of green lights shot out with a rustling sound. After circling in mid-air, the green light faded, revealing seventy-two Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, suspended neatly in front of him. The sword bodies flickered with green light, emitting a trembling hum.

"Go!"

Han Li shouted softly and waved his sleeve forcefully.

All the Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords immediately swept backward and retreated into the fire pit behind.

A sharp whistling sound came from the silver flames, and the blazing silver flames surged out, instantly engulfing the seventy-two Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords.

Han Li then sat down cross-legged, formed a strange hand seal with two fingers, and began to chant silently.

As the chanting continued, the array carved around the fire pit emitted a buzzing sound. Four thick golden beams shot up obliquely from the surroundings, converging at the center of the fire pit, forming a golden light curtain that enveloped the Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords and the Essence Flame Firebird.

After a moment, Han Li spread his ten fingers, bent them slightly in front of him, and hooked them upward.

The sound of corks popping rang out simultaneously. Various colored spiritual liquids flew out from the dozen or so goose-neck bottles and surged into the golden light curtain.

Through the golden light curtain, Han Li could clearly see the molten Huwen Fine Gold dispersing on its own, covering the Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords, completely wrapping each one.

Following that, the other several spiritual liquids also divided into seventy-two portions, merging drop by drop into the Huwen Fine Gold molten liquid wrapped around the Cloudswarm Swords.

Seeing this, Han Li closed his eyes again, released his divine sense, and cast his mind into the golden light curtain.

The golden light curtain trembled slightly, and its surface shone brightly, instantly turning into a five-colored hue.

At the same time, the seventy-two Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords began to emit bursts of light, as if adorned with rainbows, becoming dazzling and colorful.

After an hour like this, Han Li opened his eyes again. Opening his mouth, a stream of Nascent Flame spewed out, striking the five-colored light curtain without any obstruction, merging directly with the silver flames.

"Whoosh..."

The two flames combined, instantly surging upward, forming a pillar of flame that enveloped all the Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords.

At that moment, a sudden change occurred!

A dozen or so flying swords seemed unable to withstand the scorching of the combined flames, struggling wildly, emitting sword qi that cut in all directions.

Seeing this, Han Li's vast divine sense surged forth, instantly establishing a close connection with each flying sword, suppressing them immediately.

"I didn't expect some stubborn sword essence hadn't fully merged, hiding so deep..." Han Li sighed softly, but felt somewhat fortunate inside.

Fortunately, this sword essence acted up now. If it had happened during a battle, even a momentary loss of control over the Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords could have caused irreparable consequences.

In the flames, on the Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords wrapped in various spiritual liquids, clumps of unmerged sword essence overflowed from the sword bodies and shattered directly.

However, the spiritual power converted from them was not lost, but reabsorbed by the flying swords.

Seeing this, Han Li did not relax at all. He still carefully controlled the fusion of the Nascent Flame and the silver flames, continuously burning the seventy-two flying swords. The rainbow colors on the swords gradually faded and became blurred...

After a full forty-nine days.

Inside the golden light curtain above the fire pit, the seventy-two flying swords were as white as jade, as transparent as ice, looking almost translucent.

Compared to before, the blades of all the flying swords seemed to have lengthened by an inch, and the edges had widened considerably.

Han Li looked expressionlessly at the somewhat unfamiliar Bamboo Cloudswarm Swords and waved his hand again.

The cork of the last black stone bottle on the stone platform flew off by itself. The milky-white spiritual liquid inside rose leisurely, entered the golden light curtain, divided into seventy-two drops, and fell onto each flying sword.

"Drip..."

This soft sound was like spring rain, like a spiritual spring splashing, like a withered tree meeting spring.

All the flying swords trembled simultaneously, then the spiritual patterns on their surfaces suddenly lit up, and golden light blazed. Countless golden lightning threads shot out, interweaving with each other like a small forest of lightning, continuously crackling.

If not for the outer golden light curtain blocking them, these lightning bolts would have overflowed and blown the entire cave to pieces.