Chapter 85: Worker

Chapter 85: Chapter 85: Worker

The third round of forging also began with nurturing the blade.

"Nurture the blade with one’s body; minor success in several years."

"Unsheathe the blade, slay one hundred. Forge it in raging fire, let it devour corpse and bone, with runes of fresh blood written inside the bones."

"When the blade is forged, use your body as its sheath, nurturing it for one hundred days."

"Then unsheathe the blade again, behead over a hundred. Repeat the cycle, until three thousand have been slain."

"On the day the Great Decomposition Saber is complete, the Hundred Ghosts will flee and Arhats will crumble."

The third round for the Great Decomposition Saber was clearly a lengthy project.

First, one had to nurture the blade with their body for several years. When it was deemed ready, they would go out and kill.

After killing 100 people, it would be forged anew. This time, the blade’s body would devour bleached bones covered in runes of fresh blood.

After completing this process, one had to again nurture the blade with their body for a hundred days.

Once the blade was sufficiently nurtured, one would go out to kill again, slaying a full hundred before forging it once more, thus entering the cycle.

For the Decomposition Saber to reach completion, a total of 3,000 people needed to be killed.

At one hundred people per round, that would take roughly eight years.

According to Chen Qi’s calculations, if some lunatic actually tried to forge this blade, it would take at least fifteen years from start to finish.

In any case, he wasn’t about to do that kind of grunt work.

This forging process was filled with the rigid spirit of a classical era artisan; it hadn’t kept up with the times at all.

Chen Qi truly looked down on it.

But he had to admit, Chen Qi was still very interested in the Great Decomposition Saber.

A Great Decomposition Saber that had completed the third round could already cleave through resentment and decompose flesh.

No matter how powerful the physical body, as long as it was made of flesh and blood, a single strike could reduce it to scattered gore.

From Chen Qi’s understanding, this attack was already on a cellular level. As long as the blade struck, all the various trace metals within the cells at the wound would be completely plundered by the blade’s magnetic field.

A few more cuts, and one would surely suffer from brittle bones and a deficiency in calcium, iron, zinc, selenium, and vitamins.

Alright, in reality, one stab was all it took for a person to be gone!

As for slaying resentment, that was perhaps related to the so-called "Blade Intent."

Anyway, according to the blueprints, once the blade was successfully forged, Blade Intent would arise on its own.

Overall, whoever invented the Great Decomposition Saber was definitely no saint. It most likely originated from some ancient Extraordinary path.

Although it took a long time, aside from the preciousness of [Source Ore], both the forging technique and the subsequent resource requirements were quite low.

It really lowered the barrier to entry for vicious latecomers, opening the floodgates for them.

Although Chen Qi looked down on the process, the same might not be true for other players.

Aside from the limitation of Source Ore, if other players could survive a few more rounds, they might actually be able to forge the Great Decomposition Saber.

At this thought, Chen Qi was suddenly alarmed.

’Holy crap, don’t tell me someone is after my Source Ore again?’

If you were to ask where in the Lanyu Kingdom Source Ore was most likely to be found, the answer would obviously be in his hands!

The previous probing at the Fadir Mine had already made it clear that the existence of the Source Ore was exposed.

’Am I being targeted again?’

The more Chen Qi thought about it, the more he felt it was true. His intuition also vaguely hinted at it.

’Is someone trying to use this blueprint to lure me into taking out the Source Ore, only to snatch it away?’

’They can dream on.’

’Let them wait!’

Not only had Chen Qi already seen through their scheme, but even if he hadn’t, he had no plans to forge the blade right now anyway.

In two days at most, his body would be fully recovered. Then, Chen Qi planned to go to the headquarters to sign up for some advanced training.

As the Lanyu Kingdom’s largest Extraordinary faction, the [Order Keepers] definitely had some deep-seated power.

Chen Qi wasn’t hoping to obtain any peerless secret manuals; just learning more information about the Awakened would be a gain.

He had been dragging his feet for so long; it was time to become part of the "King’s Alliance Army."

Otherwise, he was afraid he’d be seen as someone with a wavering stance.

Coincidentally, on the very day Chen Qi’s body recovered, he unexpectedly received another call from Plum Blossom 10.

Chen Qi had assumed she was calling to urge him to head to headquarters as soon as possible, but he never expected that she would be asking him about someone.

"How much do you know about Yu Hongwu, the master of the Red Falcon Sect?"

The moment Plum Blossom 10 spoke, Chen Qi was a little stunned.

’What in the world happened?’

’Did that old codger Yu Hongwu get into trouble?’

Chen Qi really wanted to say that he wasn’t familiar with that old fox, but considering the existence of the Kingdom Intelligence Organization, he still answered truthfully.

"I had one transaction with the Red Falcon Sect, but it only involved learning their Fighting Technique. I don’t know much about their internal affairs."

"Yu Hongwu seems very formidable to me. To prevent him from disrupting the Kingdom’s order, I’ve had people secretly monitoring him."

"But just as I was leaving Talin City, the guy mysteriously disappeared."

Chen Qi’s words were reasonable and well-founded, without a drop of embellishment.

He really didn’t have much of a connection to Yu Hongwu.

"Just two days ago, two of our members from the [Order Keepers] were killed."

"It’s still unclear who did it, but Yu Hongwu was present at the crime scene."

"Don’t worry, we’re well aware that this has nothing to do with you."

"We just need you to provide some detailed intelligence on the Red Falcon Sect."

Plum Blossom 10’s tone was a bit somber. In just half a month, four Order Keepers had died, which was a significant blow to her.

"Two more members were killed?"

"Don’t you worry. I guarantee I’ll investigate the Red Falcon Sect from top to bottom. I’ll send the intelligence over right away."

"I’ll come to headquarters myself this time!"

It was difficult to describe Chen Qi’s current mood. He wasn’t surprised at all that players had died.

What was surprising was that Yu Hongwu was involved, and that two Order Keepers had died tragically together.

’Could that guy have broken through to the Grandmaster realm?’

If not, an ordinary Grandmaster Level Martial Artist wouldn’t necessarily be able to kill two players.

They might even run into someone with a slightly unusual ability and find themselves completely countered.

Of course, the most likely possibility was that someone else was the killer, and Yu Hongwu just happened to be there.

Headquarters probably leaned toward this conclusion as well; otherwise, the Red Falcon Sect would have already been wiped out and had their assets seized.

But the information this incident revealed was that Yu Hongwu’s disappearance was definitely not that simple.

"You’re coming to headquarters?"

"That’s good news. Headquarters is very short-staffed right now, and there’s a big problem coming up."

"I only just found out myself that the situation outside the Kingdom isn’t so optimistic either."

Hearing that Chen Qi was finally willing to "clock in and work," Plum Blossom 10’s tone immediately became joyful.

Although he didn’t know what the big problem was, Chen Qi instantly had a bad feeling. He was being conscripted, and he had even delivered himself to their doorstep.

’But the situation outside the Kingdom isn’t optimistic... what does that mean?’

’It can’t be that the Eight-Nation Alliance is about to invade the Lanyu Kingdom, can it?’

According to the information Chen Qi had gathered, ever since the Lanyu Kingdom switched from a presidential system to a Monarchy, its relations with several neighboring small countries had deteriorated sharply.

If not for the restrictions of various treaties, they would have probably sent troops to intervene long ago.

Even so, the Lanyu Kingdom had been under economic sanctions for over a decade.

Even now, diplomatic relations were extremely cold, and the Lanyu Kingdom was clearly isolated among the surrounding small nations.

The big problem Plum Blossom 10 mentioned was perhaps related to this.

Unfortunately, no matter how Chen Qi probed, Plum Blossom 10 just said, "I’ll give you the details after you arrive." She was clearly afraid he would run away!

There was no helping it. Chen Qi could only hit the road to his new job, driving to the Royal Capital.

But Chen Qi had already made up his mind. If there weren’t good pay and various benefits, then they could only blame him for slacking off on the job.

This so-called problem wasn’t necessarily without opportunity. After all, it’s easiest to fish in muddy waters!