Cracks of the Past

The moment the city lord's voice stopped, the teams split up, one of them lighting the furnace while the other went to gather the materials they needed.

Usually, it was the lower-ranking Assistant scrambling to gather the materials while the Master Artificer stayed back, but in the case of Jing Jiang and Lei Mingxing, it was Jing Jiang who joined the Assistants and Carftmen, quickly picking out the Liquid Steel among the chaotic pile of different ores and beast materials.

At the same time, Lei Mingxing was quickly refining the coals inside the furnace to fit her needs, as she would be the one to dispel the impurities from the Liquid Steel before Jing Jiang took over to forge the actual shield part of the Counter Shield.

In the meantime, Lei Mingxing would continue prepping the other components of the shield while keeping the heat in the furnace constant.

After all, Jing Jiang couldn't use Lei Mingxing's refined coals himself and there was no time for them to change them between steps, but it shouldn't be a problem.

Also, Jing Jiang could conserve his Qi for the most difficult part of the forging process this way, the embedding of the Spirit Core.

And the only step Lei Mingxing had insisted on changing up slightly from how they had originally planned it out.

The first design of the Counter Shield, and the one they had expected to follow, called for a third-rank Spirit Core, but after thinking about it, Lei Mingxing felt that this simply didn't suffice to crush Suan Bi, so she asked Jing Jiang while they were packing up the artifacts in the forge whether they could use a fourth-rank Spirit Core instead.

Of course, Jing Jiang was doubtful and refused at first but after Lei Mingxing finally voiced her concerns and assured him several times that she would be able to handle it, he agreed to her request, infected by her high risk, high reward thinking and her desire to absolutely stomp Suan Bi into the ground.

He had never realized how hot-headed and stubborn Lei Mingxing actually was, but he had to admit, he wanted the same thing as her.

Maybe even more than her.

Suan Bi had done so many unforgivable and cruel things to him and his family over the years.

The only thing that had kept Jing Jiang going the entire two decades of gradual decay, was the hope of making everything right again.

After all, the fact that his father and the forge had fallen to this degree was all due to his stupidity.

So, instead of the easier and more common third-rank Spirit Core, Jing Jiang and Lei Mingxing would bet it all on the fourth-rank Spirit Core.

But for now, Lei Mingxing was still refining the Liquid Steel.

It was a finicky metal, as it could easily slip right through your tongs if you messed up the temperature just the tiniest bit. 

This wouldn't be too much of an issue usually, it simply meant that you had wasted some materials and had to start over, but such an error could very much be fatal in a competition like this.

Error wasn't an option and Lei Mingxing knew it, concentrating even more than usual.

There was something strange however.

If you wanted the most perfect result while refining, you had to keep the temperature steady at all times.

This was an easy feat for Lei Mingxing, her refined coal was able to stay at the exact same temperature with minimal effort from her side for as long as she supplied it with even a little bit of Qi.

Essentially it had similar traits to Lilac Copper, relying more on the Qi Lei Mingxing gathered subconsciously around her than her own.

But for inexperienced artificers who didn't have the same benefits as Lei Mingxing, keeping a steady temperature could often be an issue since losing focus even for a brief moment caused the stream of Qi entering the furnace to halt, resulting in a drop in temperature.

Not by much, since furnaces were designed to preserve heat as best as they could but still.

So, the current situation was kind of strange.

Because Lei Mingxing felt like she had to supply much more Qi than normal to keep the same temperature...

Anyway, she finally finished refining the Liquid Steel after 30 very long minutes and stepped aside to switch places with Jing Jiang, determining that what she felt was probably just her nervousness.

CLANG! CLANG!

Jing Jiang immediately started hammering away, while Lei Mingxing began to skillfully continue weaving the Falling Spider silk with the Silk Brass where Jing Jiang had left off, using only the least amount of Qi needed to smoothly combine them and finish the straps.

Just as she was bout to complete the straps, Lei Mingxing felt her stomach drop.

Faster than even her mind could react, Lei Mingxing let go of the strap in her hand, leaving it to drop to the ground as she flung herself at the furnace on the ground and tightly hugged its bulbous and more importantly burning hot metal body with her arms.

The skin on her arms and neck began to burn and sear immediately, along with the fabric of her dress as she desperately transferred Qi into the furnace.

To prevent it from breaking apart any further.

Although nobody could see it, Lei Mingxing was sure of what she had felt.

The furnace's iron body was cracking and crumbling, causing the precious heat and Qi inside to escape indiscriminately.

And one thing was for sure, it wasn't long until the furnace would crack so much that he would become entirely unusable.

"Lei Mingxing! What are you doing?! Get away!" , Jing Jiang cried out in fright at Lei Mingxing's unexpected change.

He was about to throw the smithing hammer and shield in his hands aside and rip Lei Mingxing away from the furnace to prevent her from getting injured any further but Lei Mingxing hurriedly stopped him.

"NO! Finish the shield, the furnace is breaking apart!", Lei Mingxing shouted while hugging the furnace even harder, hoping to persuade Jing Jiang not to forfeit.

Her desperate cry was loud and short, but it was enough for Jing Jiang to halt his movements.

He stared at Lei Mingxing's kneeling figure, and smelled her burning flesh, making his mind a muddled mess of fear and uncertainty.

Just what should he do, he didn't want for this to happen, for someone to get injured because of him yet again!

At that moment of indecision, Jing Jiang and Lei Mingxing's eyes met.

Her dark and usually calm eyes had a pleading expression in them, desperation burning within, beseeching Jing Jiang to just hurry and finish the shield.

But beneath it all, was a deep unwillingness to just accept this situation and give up, an unbending will that felt unlike something a girl of her age should possess.

And it was this that finally touched the depths of Jing Jiang's soul.

So, ultimately, while gritting his teeth, his gaze pained, Jing Jiang's hammering resumed, striking the metal louder and faster, trying to finish the artifact just a second earlier.

Along with the sparks flying through the air because of his heavy strikes, flames of hatred and anger flashed in his eyes.

Even a fool could see that this had been a setup.

Furnaces don't break just like that.

Especially not the furnaces prepared for the competition.

So someone had to have deliberately tampered with their furnace, someone with enough influence and money to bribe the people who inspected the equipment and it was just too obvious who that someone was.

Suan Bi.

Jing Jiang didn't even need to turn around to know that the other was watching the current development with the utmost satisfaction.

Taking delight in seeing his and Lei Mingxing's plight that he was the perpetrator of.

Jing Jiang felt so angry.

Once again, Suan Bi had succeeded with his wicked plans and Jing Jiang was the fool who hadn't seen it coming even after dealing with the other for so long.

And he hated himself for it.

Hated himself for falling for it every time.

Shouldn't he have learned to be more careful after 20 years of torment?

But he was still the same old naive Jing Jiang, not having changed in the slightest since the time he fell for Suan Bi all these years ago and paid bitterly for it.