The next morning, Tang Wulie left the house as soon as he woke up.
Just as the Tang family handled the medical work for the Qingcheng Sect's Chengdu branch, the Shi family was responsible for blacksmithing. The head of the Shi family was Master Shi, the master smith.
Master Shi was nearly seventy years old. He was small in stature and unremarkable in appearance.
However, among those who made their living under the protection of the Qingcheng Sect's Chengdu branch, no one was more famous than Master Shi. The reason was simple: skill.
Master Shi's metallurgy was unquestionably the best in Sichuan Province, and his reputation extended well beyond the province's borders.
His fame was so great that even Tang Wulie found himself trusting Master Shi's reputation over his own instincts.
'Come to think of it, there's no way Master Shi would make something poorly. I must have been mistaken.'
Tang Wulie almost turned back, but then changed his mind.
Visiting Master Shi after such a long time would be meaningful in itself.
Master Shi was a gruff blacksmith inside his forge, but outside of it, he was just an ordinary old man who would slip treats to children.
Tang Wulie had received treats from him several times during his childhood. Since he was already out, it wouldn't hurt to check on the old man's health.
Soon, Tang Wulie arrived at the forge. Numerous weapons were displayed outside the shop.
Ordinary blacksmiths worried about petty thieves stealing their wares, so they couldn't display items outside their shops.
But Master Shi's forge was within the Qingcheng Sect's compound, so there was no need to worry about thieves.
Tang Wulie looked inside the forge, intending to greet Master Shi.
However, instead of the white-haired Master Shi, he saw a man who appeared to be around thirty hammering red-hot iron.
'Who's that?'
The man inside the forge must have sensed Tang Wulie's presence, as he turned his head to look at him.
"Looking for something in particular?"
"No, I just came to pay my respects to Master Shi."
"Father? Father hasn't been well. He hasn't come to the forge since last winter."
So this was Master Shi's son.
If Master Shi hadn't been coming to the forge since last winter, then surely his son must have made the needles. The timing was quite coincidental. Could there really have been a problem with the needles?
"Then I'll just take a look around for a bit."
"Take your time looking around."
The man began swinging his hammer again. Tang Wulie watched his back for a moment, then looked at the items displayed outside.
There were some decently made pieces scattered among them, but most had crude sections here and there.
He could immediately tell they weren't made by the same person.
'The decent items were made by Master Shi, and the crude ones by his son, I suppose.'
Come to think of it, calling them crude was a bit strange. Even those crude items would be considered decent or good quality among the swords that ordinary martial artists carried around.
'I've never even hammered iron myself, yet somehow my standards have become high.'
Tang Wulie examined the displayed weapons here and there, then instead of looking at the items, he watched the blacksmith's back.
The sight of him working while dripping with sweat was familiar.
Originally, Tang Wulie knew almost nothing about blacksmithing.
He didn't know the order of operations, and he was in the dark about the tools used. But now it was different.
'That wasn't an ordinary dream, it seems. I can clearly see how a forge operates. I can even tell what work he'll do next.'
Tang Wulie was now certain. That dream must have been some kind of fateful encounter. Though it probably wouldn't help much with his future as a doctor.
His business here was roughly finished.
But Tang Wulie didn't leave the forge and quietly observed the scene.
The loud sound of hammering iron. The red-hot metal. All of it made his heart feel at peace.
How much time passed like that? The blacksmith finished forging a short blade.
He plunged the hot blade into a water basin. With a hissing sound, steam rose from the basin. Now he just had to wait for the blade to cool, then heat it once more, let it cool slowly, and finish it.
The blacksmith wiped his sweat and looked at Tang Wulie.
"Seeing as you haven't left for quite a while, you must have some other business. What brings you here?"
Tang Wulie considered making up some excuse, but decided to be honest.
Anywhere else might be different, but in a forge, he didn't want to spout insincere words.
"My father bought some needles two weeks ago."
"Needles, eh. So you must be Doctor Tang's son. Your name is... Tang Wulie, wasn't it?"
"That's right."
"I'm called Shi Zhicheng. Did your father happen to lose the needles?"
"It's not that."
"Then what's your business? If you've been waiting in the forge for this long, there must be some reason."
He hadn't really had any business. He had just been leisurely looking around because the forge's atmosphere put his mind at ease.
But since he'd started this conversation, he might as well be a bit more honest.
"Actually, I came because I wasn't satisfied with the condition of the needles my father brought home."
"What?"
He'd barely begun to speak when Shi Zhicheng cut him off.
Seeing one eyebrow shoot up crookedly, it seemed like he was saying, 'What would some doctor's kid know about metalwork?'
Shi Zhicheng snapped back as if he had no intention of hearing the rest of Tang Wulie's story.
"My skills may be inferior to my father's, that's true. But I'm not at the level where I deserve to be called a hack. I started helping with my father's work twenty years ago, and I first picked up tongs and a hammer twelve years ago."
It was something that could understandably be taken as offensive. Since Tang Wulie had no intention of getting into a fight with Shi Zhicheng, he didn't hesitate to apologize.
"I didn't mean that you were an unskilled blacksmith. I'm sorry if it sounded offensive."
However, the anger in Shi Zhicheng's expression didn't soften. Tang Wulie's words had touched a sore spot in Shi Zhicheng's heart.
'Does anyone think I want to be worse than my father?'
When he first inherited the forge, Shi Zhicheng had been confident.
He felt like he could immediately follow in his father's footsteps and spread his name far and wide. He thought he'd become a craftsman to whom martial arts masters would bow their heads, begging him to make just one sword.
But over the past six months, no one had given high praise to Shi Zhicheng's work.
Those with some influence in the Qingcheng Sect's Chengdu branch openly compared Shi Zhicheng's skills to those of the previous Master Shi.
Even the newcomers to the branch weren't much different. While pretending otherwise on the surface, they would rummage through the forge's swords looking for the previous Master Shi's work.
What made Shi Zhicheng even angrier was the discernment of those who rummaged through the swords.
Ninety-nine out of a hundred couldn't even tell what made a good sword.
These novices would make dissatisfied faces if he said a sword made by his father was made by him, and would be delighted if he said a sword he made was made by his father.
To them, whether it was a good sword didn't matter. They just wanted to obtain and show off items made by famous, skilled craftsmen.
Every time he dealt with such people, resentment built up in Shi Zhicheng's chest.
Shi Zhicheng looked Tang Wulie up and down. Clean-cut appearance and pale hands.
Yes, pale hands. Not full of calluses like Shi Zhicheng's hands, with no iron rust stuck under the fingernails. A guy who clearly not only knew nothing about forge work, but had never even held a hammer.
Suddenly, a thought crossed Shi Zhicheng's mind.
'This guy isn't even a martial artist.'
No matter how excellent a craftsman might be, when martial artists frowned, he had to bow his head first. One wrong word and if they drew their swords, who knew what might happen.
But Tang Wulie was different. The Shi and Tang families were in roughly the same position, and Shi Zhicheng was even a bit older.
Of course, Tang Wulie had politely apologized, but wrong was wrong. There was no law saying Shi Zhicheng had to accept the apology.
A small smile appeared on Shi Zhicheng's lips. It looked generous at first glance, but was somewhat sinister.
"No need to talk like that. It's true that I'm lacking compared to my father."
"But you're still young, aren't you? In time, you'll be able to surpass Master Shi. Don't they say the student surpasses the master?"
"I appreciate the sentiment. But lately I've been feeling a bit lost. I'm not sure exactly where or how I'm lacking."
"Is that so?"
"But fortunately, a customer who can distinguish between good and bad items has come. I've got a great opportunity here, haven't I?"
Tang Wulie sensed a strange atmosphere. However, Shi Zhicheng didn't give Tang Wulie a chance to speak and continued with his own words.
"Since such a discerning customer has come, you should be able to tell me where my shortcomings are, right?"
"I'm not sure what you're getting at."
"It's nothing big. Just point out my shortcomings with that excellent eye of yours. But I need to be sure about your discernment first. Just wait a moment."
Shi Zhicheng went outside and returned with an armful of weapons. Then he went out again and brought another armful.
Shi Zhicheng spread the weapons he'd brought on the floor and said:
"Most of the items currently in the forge were made by me. That's natural since Father stopped working six months ago. But not all of Father's items have been sold. Not everyone has as good an eye as you do."
Shi Zhicheng pointed at the weapons on the floor with his finger.
"Let's see just how good our Doctor Tang Wulie's eye really is. Then we'll know whether you really know what you're talking about, or if you're just complaining without knowing anything."
"What do you want?"
"Find the swords that my father made among these items. Father's name is known far beyond Sichuan Province, while I'm just a kid barely scraping by, so there's a big difference in skill. That should make them easy to spot, right?"
Tang Wulie glanced at Shi Zhicheng. Shi Zhicheng was grinning as he looked at Tang Wulie.
He seemed to think it was obvious that Tang Wulie wouldn't get the right answer. Tang Wulie sighed and replied:
'Right. I'm an easy target.'
Actually, Tang Wulie was just as annoyed. He knew he'd misspoken first. But hadn't he immediately admitted his mistake and apologized? No matter how he thought about it, this wasn't something for Shi Zhicheng to get so worked up and confrontational about.
When Tang Wulie didn't answer immediately, Shi Zhicheng mocked him.
"What's wrong? Didn't you just say the needles I made were shoddy?"
At this level of mockery, any thought of backing down completely disappeared. Tang Wulie sighed.
"...I'll take a look."
Tang Wulie looked at the swords spread on the floor. There were about twenty of them.
Since they were made for the training of lay disciples, their forms were quite similar. The blades weren't even sharpened. He must have deliberately brought only similar-looking items.
However, Tang Wulie stopped examining the swords and frowned. He could clearly see through Shi Zhicheng's shallow trick.