The grand forging square of Supreme Sword Mountain had been a place of cold, solemn exclusivity for three thousand years.
Paved with black meteoric-iron tiles and surrounded by twelve colossal, fifty-foot-tall Bronze Dragon Smelting Furnaces that belched crimson spiritual fire into the clouds. The square had previously been reserved exclusively for hereditary inner-sect swordsmiths who spent decades forging ornamental dueling rapiers for wealthy sect nobles.
By mid-morning today, however, the grand forging square was bustling with thousands of cheerful mortal carpenters, village blacksmiths, bricklayers, and apprentice cooks!
Long cedar workbenches were being set up across the central courtyard; crates of cast-iron ingots, heavy ploughshares, and kitchen seasoning jars were being unloaded from Merchant Boss Qian Duoduo’s wagons. And ten-year-old Gu Nian , at Rank 5 Early. Seven-year-old Jiang Tuntun , at Rank 5 Early, were helping the nine hundred transfer students carry fifty-ton stone anvils into neat classroom rows as easily as toy blocks!
Yet right in the center of the main forging platform, a dozen conservative old sword-forging elders—led by sixty-eight-year-old Chief Forge-Master Elder Tie. At Rank 5 Mid,—stood blocking the #1 Dragon Furnace with their arms crossed and their faces flushed crimson with stubborn pride.
“Stop! Put down those plow molds at once!”
