Chapter 625

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Chapter 625: Forging the Blade

"What have you done!"

"You actually killed the dragon god!"

"This was the dragon god who has protected this land for hundreds of years!"

"Without the Dragon God, what should we do? You disrespectful demon, you…"

The angry villagers saw the dragon’s fallen body, its broken head, and its scattered flesh.

Fresh blood flowed down the mountainside, like a stream.

The girl bent down, squatting by the mountain spring on the other side, gently washing her hands, ignoring the accusations from others.

This wasn’t the first time – whenever she tried to slay a dragon, someone would always try to stop her, and she would face various troubles after the deed.

Before, there was a master with her, but now she was alone, injured and weary.

Some villagers around saw her as a young and weak girl, trying to approach her. But when they saw Longque gripping the sword stuck in the poisonous dragon’s neck, they immediately got scared, scrambling back into the crowd.

She struggled to pull out the sword, as it was stuck in the bone. When she finally managed to remove it, she noticed the blade was already very old and worn.

She felt a pang of sadness because she had only gotten this sword less than a year ago, and had been using it carefully, yet it seemed to deteriorate quickly.

"Move aside," Longque lifted the dragon’s head.

"This is our dragon god, our property, you cannot…"

"You want me to fight my way out?" Longque raised the broken sword, flicked her wrist, and the ground split open.

The crowd parted ways, some looking at her with fear, others with resentment as she walked away.

After traveling ten kilometers away, Longque found a market in a town, sold the dragon’s head for money, and extracted its gall to consume.

After resting for half an hour and regaining her strength, she pondered over the money she earned, considering whether to buy herself a new sword or some good wine for her master.

After much hesitation, she chose the latter.

Longque remembered her master saying that dragons are the embodiment of natural forces, commanding people’s awe. Some individuals, overly awed by nature, would turn into lackeys, even using the dragon’s existence to validate themselves, likening themselves to superior beings, organizing rituals, and sacrificing humans to nature, attempting to elevate the dragon into a protective deity.

Her master said that in his view, this practice was incredibly foolish, akin to primitive tribes creating totems, remarkably foolish. Dragons are nurtured by heaven and earth. Aren’t humans as well? Everyone is equally noble. If the dragon truly is incomparable, then kill it, seize its spiritual essence and longevity, absorb its cultivation, and cultivate oneself.

The dragon slayer did these things – not just killing dragons, but also destroying foolish beliefs. If dragons were worshipped as gods, he would slay them to show they were not divine. He claimed, "I am the god, not the dragon." He destroyed mountains, temples, and dragons until there was nothing left to worship.

Longque remembered how serious and noble his master looked when speaking these words. He was not dark or cruel, but shining with both divinity and humanity.

She wondered why her master wanted to do these things.

The master stayed silent for a long time, then smiled.

He said he sought revenge, to strike back at the injustices of the world in any small way he could.

He vowed to rid the world of dragons so that no one would ever see one again. He wanted people to stop fearing nature and realize that dragons were just vulnerable creatures that could be killed. This way, people could live confidently… but the dead could not witness this. Future generations would have better lives, but the departed souls, knowing in the afterlife, would be filled with distorted envy, anger, and jealousy.

If this could be achieved, he would be immensely pleased.

Although he spoke with a smile, every word seemed to be uttered through gritted teeth, filled with deep hatred.

His master had such hatred towards those who were already deceased, as if their deaths took away a part of his own life.

Longque didn’t understand.

She didn’t know if the master hated the living or the dead, or the unseen dragon.

She brought wine back to the grave.

After half a day passed, it turned dark and then light again. She didn’t feel tired, still full of energy after bathing in dragon blood and consuming dragon gall.

Returning to the grave, she dropped the wine flask, almost shattering it.

She saw the shattered jade pendant, and the emptied grave with no trace of a body.

Panicked, she followed the blood trail and found the severely wounded master in a plum blossom forest, sitting there in unprecedented weakness.

In the plum blossom forest, there were no signs of anyone else, only the master’s blood everywhere.

Longque walked over quickly and supported him, asking, "Master, what’s wrong with you?"

In her eyes, her master, who used to appear as tall as a mountain, seemed like he was about to collapse. He gently put his hand on the girl’s shoulder and said only one sentence.

"I have found it."

…

Bai Wei fell ill and it took him more than a year to recover, spending most of the time feeling very weak.

Longque traveled around to find medicinal herbs and remedies to take care of him, but he dared not venture too far away.

Throughout that year, he only did one thing – even though he was weak, he persisted in forging weapons every day.

With the special ores he had collected over the years, this time forging the weapon took a very long time.

After a year, he had only managed to create the outline of a weapon.

Even though it was just the outline, it seemed to have a spirit of its own, tempered with dragon blood.

When Longque first saw it coming out of the oven, she said something she shouldn’t have.

She said "so thin".

Then sparks flew from the oven, almost lighting her hair on fire, as if silently rebelling.

Bai Wei reluctantly stopped his work, glared at Longque, sighed and said. You can’t use this sword.

People choose the sword, and the sword chooses the person. Whether it looks pleasing at first sight determines if it’s a suitable weapon.

Since they disliked each other, this sword couldn’t willingly be used by her.

Longque honestly apologized.

Bai Wei had to put the remaining materials back into the furnace and forge a second sword. This time, he took a completely different path from the one of a Chinese sword, making it broader, thicker, larger, and heavier. It didn’t look like a single-handed sword that a woman could use, but she found it very appealing.

For the next three years, Bai Wei was only responsible for crafting weapons, while Longque went out once every few months to gather materials he specified and to explore and understand the situation in various places. She also had to meet the annual target – to slay five dragons.

In these three years, many changes have happened in different places, but not all of them were good.

Without the dragon, the balance in various places was disrupted. Many areas started to communicate and blend together again, but this also led to more conflicts. There were at least a dozen medium-sized wars in the past three years, not to mention countless small skirmishes. After the battles, there would be merging and reconstruction. Many small towns gradually merged into a whole regional kingdom.

With the dragon gone, the natural environment also changed slightly, becoming more suitable for people to live in.

Longque didn’t forget to search for the whereabouts of the ‘Only Dragon’. Over the past three years, there were occasional reports of a terrifying monster roaming the world.

Its actions were unpredictable but extremely powerful. It would attack various targets and even destroy a town, triggering several monster waves and attracting many demons to follow, almost becoming a natural disaster.

Longque tried tracking it, and there was one time they almost encountered it.

Unfortunately, they were a step too late and only saw some broken walls and ruins. Dealing with the monster waves took up a lot of time and effort, leaving no room for tracking.

Faced with this monster that harmed her master, she only thought about how to efficiently slay and destroy it.

Time passed by again, and in the blink of an eye, three years had gone by.

Longque has already grown up to be an adult, and the teacher has also entered middle age, looking a bit old but still lively.

The two of them have a teacher-student relationship, and only that, without any closer relationship.

In this difficult era, no one keeps too idealistic thoughts, or they would die faster.

She was trained by Bai Wei to be a warrior, so she doesn’t think about getting married and having children, family or no family, survival is more important.

On a hot day, Bai Wei took out two weapons from the furnace, dipped them in the blood of an ice dragon, the cold air rising. He breathed out calmly in the moonlight and said. It’s done.

There were no extraordinary scenes when the divine weapons were forged, no heavenly tribulation.

In the forging process, Bai Wei infused heavenly thunder, using fire, thunder, extreme heat and cold, aiming for indestructibility. The swords went through countless ordeals, being remade in the flames each time, the first sword endured 81 times and the second sword 72 times.

After assembling the weapons, Bai Wei gave the second sword to Longque, who was ecstatic after waiting for years.

"Teacher, let’s give it a name," she said, rolling in the grass with the sword in her arms before getting up.

"As you wish," Bai Wei thought of many names but didn’t say them out loud.

"Hmm…" Longque, not very educated, looked at the hot summer day and suddenly had an idea, "Let’s call it Big Xia Longque!"

Longque, fresh out in the hot summer.

Bai Wei glanced at his silly apprentice and quietly put away the sword, "Let’s tidy up and leave."

Longque nodded respectfully, "Yes, master."

…They were going to slay a dragon again, perhaps this would be their last journey in their lifetime.