Forging Immortality: The Undying Blacksmith

Chapter 75: Savage Tiger?

Chongning County, Xisha Street.

This place was less a street and more a squalid alleyway paved with packed yellow mud. Li Qing couldn’t imagine the quagmire this road would become after a downpour. Even Cuishan Village back on Xiaocui Ridge wasn’t this primitive—at least its paths were laid with gravel.

His master had been a man of passion in his youth, storming the magistrate’s office and beating the man half to death.

If the Wuli Army hadn’t taken a liking to his forging skills, he would have faced the executioner’s axe come autumn.

These were the stories he’d heard from He Baosheng. Attacking an imperial official was a capital crime anywhere in the realm.

Back then, however, Master Gu had already made a name for himself by forging the Nine Dragon Halberd, a weapon that was nothing short of divine. Unfortunately, his fame hadn’t yet reached its peak; he was considered a master craftsman, but not yet a divine one.

Today, the Nine Dragon Halberd was a weapon of considerable renown in the martial world. But its owner was an elusive figure, rarely seen, so its fame paled in comparison to the demonic blade, Red Lotus, or the Xuanwu Spear.

Halfway down the alley, Li Qing finally found the home of his master’s descendants.

It was a dilapidated, tile-roofed hovel, its wooden door riddled with cracks and gaps. According to He Baosheng, Master Gu’s descendant had followed in his father’s footsteps, working as a blacksmith on this very street, but he was barely scraping by.

“Is Master Gu Yu at home?”

Li Qing considered knocking but decided against it. He had a feeling that anything more than a gentle tap would bring the whole door crashing down.

A moment later, the door creaked open. A disheveled, middle-aged man emerged, his eyes wary.

“I am. Who are you? Here for some smithing work?”

Before Li Qing could state his purpose, a little boy caked in so much dirt he looked like a mud sprite darted out from behind the door, brandishing a tree branch. “Who goes there?”

The boy had barely gotten the words out before he was frozen in place by a tiger’s roar.

“ROAR!”

A tiger cub the size of a large hound crouched at Li Qing’s feet, a low growl rumbling in its chest as it bared its fangs. The fierce display was enough to scare the little boy witless.

Thud!

The boy plopped onto his backside, the branch clattering to the ground. Tears welled in his eyes, but he bit his lip and refused to cry out. A tough little kid, Li Qing thought, just as one would expect from Master Gu’s line.

“You brat, get back inside!” Gu Yu snapped, his face a mask of shock as he stared at the tiger. He punctuated the order by nudging his son back into the house with his foot.

Li Qing frowned and sent the cub tumbling with a swift kick, knocking it into a pile of junk by the wall and out of sight.

“My apologies, Master Gu. I mean no harm. I just need something made,” Li Qing said, deciding to hold back his true purpose. He wanted to see for himself just how dire their situation was.

At the mention of business, Gu Yu’s face instantly brightened. “Oh, something to be forged! Honored guest, please, come in. What can I make for you?”

Li Qing stepped inside, his eyes sweeping the cramped interior. They landed on a mining pick in the corner. “I need a pickaxe,” he said without hesitation. “About this big should do. How long will it take?”

“One moment, honored guest. I can have it ready for you before dark.”

With that, Gu Yu set about rekindling his furnace.

A blacksmith’s forge was typically kept hot day and night. The cold furnace told Li Qing everything he needed to know: business was beyond bleak.

As his master’s son took up a familiar but unrefined stance, Li Qing gave a slight nod. He could see faint echoes of the Gu Xuan Hammer Technique in the man’s posture, but the foundation was weak and the form sloppy. It seemed Master Gu had been taken by the Wuli Army before he could pass on his complete art. As for why he hadn’t left a manual for his son, Li Qing could only guess—perhaps to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.

With this in mind, Li Qing asked casually, “Besides pickaxes, what else can you forge? Do you make weapons?”

The question made Gu Yu’s expression shift. He lowered his voice. “Honored guest, for… certain reasons, the authorities forbid me from forging blades. The punishment is severe if I’m caught.”

“I see. Just a casual question,” Li Qing said with a nod.

As the furnace slowly heated up, Gu Yu began to work. To Li Qing’s expert eye, the man’s technique was unremarkable. He was an ordinary craftsman, nothing more; he had not inherited his father’s true skill.

He was halfway through shaping the head of the pickaxe when a ruffian’s grating voice echoed from the doorway.

“Old Gu! This hoe you made me last month is garbage! Look, it’s already loose after just a few uses!”

A shirtless young man swaggered in and tossed a hoe onto the floor.

“How can that be?” Gu Yu said, looking at the tool. “With normal use, it shouldn’t have loosened so quickly.”

The ruffian gave the hoe a kick, and sure enough, the joint where the wooden handle met the metal head wobbled.

“See for yourself! I’ve barely used it, and it’s already falling apart! How am I supposed to till my fields with this piece of junk?” he sneered. “Thanks to you, I’m behind on my planting. Pay up. Two taels of silver for my trouble!”

The color drained from Gu Yu’s face. He knew perfectly well this local thug was just here to extort him.

“This… Feng Jin, please, wait. I’ll forge you a new one, free of charge. But two taels is too much! I only charged you two qian for it in the first place.”

The ruffian, Feng Jin, scoffed. “A new one? My planting is already delayed, what good is that now? What if the next one breaks too? My family’s harvest is ruined because of your shoddy work. You’re going to pay. Now hand over the money, or I’ll drag you down to the magistrate’s office myself!”

At the mention of the authorities, Gu Yu grew even paler, beads of sweat forming on his brow.

Just then, Li Qing bent down and picked up the hoe. He ran a thumb along the blade.

“This hoe didn’t loosen from normal use,” he said softly. “The blade is nicked from heavy impacts, and the handle here at the joint is splintered from the shock. Someone’s been using this on rocks. If you want compensation, you should ask the person who broke it.”

Hearing Li Qing’s assessment, Gu Yu wiped the sweat from his forehead, a look of gratitude in his eyes.

Feng Jin’s face flushed with anger. “Who the hell are you? That hoe’s been in my house this whole time! Who else could’ve broken it? Are you saying I did it myself?”

Li Qing didn’t even spare him a glance. He tossed the hoe back to the man. “I wouldn’t know about that,” he said coolly. “All I know is, this has nothing to do with the blacksmith’s skill.”

“Fine! So you’ve found yourself some muscle, have you, Old Gu? You just wait!”

The ruffian hefted the hoe, clearly intending to teach Li Qing a lesson. But one look at Li Qing’s towering frame told him he was outmatched. He decided to go find some friends and come back to settle the score.

He hadn’t taken a single step out the door when a terrifying roar erupted behind him.

“ROAR!”

The sheer force of the sound vibrated through the very air, making the flimsy walls of the hovel tremble.

Feng Jin was blasted by the roar. The color drained from his face, his legs turned to jelly, and a violent tremor ran through his body.

The tiger cub darted back into the room. It shook its massive head, and for a moment, it already carried a hint of the terrifying presence of a full-grown tiger.

This time, Li Qing didn’t scold it. He simply let it rub against his leg.

Feng Jin’s eyes traveled up from the tiger at Li Qing’s feet, finally locking with a gaze as cold and sharp as winter frost. A rumor he’d heard earlier that day suddenly clicked into place.

The bandits outside the city… slaughtered, almost to a man, by a young fellow who’d walked into town with a tiger.

Hiss!

Feng Jin sucked in a sharp, ragged breath, his heart turning to ice. He stammered, “You… you’re the one they call… the Savage Tiger… You’re the one who killed all those bandits?”

Li Qing raised an eyebrow, still processing the nickname, when Feng Jin dropped to his knees.

“Sir! Spare me! I shouldn’t have tried to extort him! I was blind not to recognize you!”

He knelt fast. Pathetically fast, Li Qing thought, a flicker of amusement crossing his mind. Still, he maintained his cold mask. “Get out.”

Without a second thought, Feng Jin scrambled to his feet and fled for his life.

When Li Qing turned back, however, Gu Yu’s expression had soured. He looked at Li Qing with a complicated mix of fear and awe. “So you’re the one they’re all talking about… the Savage Tiger. The man who kills without remorse.”

Kills without remorse? Savage Tiger?

What kind of ridiculous moniker was that?

A dark look settled on Li Qing’s face. He disliked the nickname immensely. It must have been spread by the bandits who’d escaped. He suddenly felt an urge to track them down and have a serious discussion.

Why give him such an awful name? It had the distinct ring of a short-lived villain, the type some self-righteous hero would eliminate for a bit of fame. What if someone decided to “deal with him” one day just for the reputation? The thought alone was infuriating.