Chapter 2015 - The Tigerwood Blacksmith Pavilion in Panic

The final round was now in full swing.

"Look over there! Yuan Guanghuan's materials look nothing like everyone else's!" someone exclaimed.

Spectators craned their necks throughout the crowd. They longed to cross the barriers and climb onto the platform for a closer look.

The crowd felt anxious. "How odd... Ores this rich in ice attributes will clash with the Azure Cloud Fire. Doesn't Yuan Guanghuan realize that?" He had battled through every grueling round, so losing everything to a disastrous mistake at the final hurdle would be a terrible waste.

Forge fires roared as the pavilion's five master blacksmiths unleashed their full skill. Luminous runes took shape rapidly beneath their hands before floating into the air.

Yuan Guanghuan's work drew far less attention than the earlier rounds. Neither powerful aura fluctuations nor dazzling seal formations surrounded him. His method left the crowd at a loss.

Time sped past, and the pavilion's grandmasters finished their refinement. Five flawless longswords hung in the air, each exuding terrifyingly sharp sword intent.

The ten judges on the raised platform traded puzzled looks. Yuan Guanghuan's intentions eluded them all. Had he stuck to his earlier techniques, he would have had a good chance of finishing in the top three. Now he risked coming last, a result that would destroy the Yuan Clan's remaining credibility in the regional market.

A resonant hum suddenly swelled around Yuan Guanghuan, driving the surrounding energy into violent currents. Intricate sword runes wove about his body, their forms flowing between seals and runes.

Disbelief swept through the crowd. "There are so many sword runes!" No spectator had ever seen a blacksmith conjure such a dense array in a single forging session.

"It's not their number alone! Look how solid those seals are, several times denser than the Tigerwood Blacksmith Pavilion's!" Exclamations rang throughout the arena. Astonishment even brought the ten esteemed judges to their feet.

Suffocating silence pressed down on the Tigerwood Blacksmith Pavilion's delegation. A Yuan Clan victory would send buyers from across the domain to it for their future orders. Who would turn away superior craftsmanship?

Once the final rune sank into the glowing blade, the completed sword floated above Yuan Guanghuan, releasing a clear dragon cry that rang across the heavens.

Then, an extraordinary sight followed. The other finalists' nine swords rose upright in the air, like warriors standing at attention.

All nine blades then tilted forward in unison, bowing in humble homage to Yuan Guanghuan's sword. The sight left the crowd breathless.

"They're bowing in homage?! How can that be?!" Even the Immortal Lords could not maintain their composure. A weapon fresh from the forge had commanded the instinctive submission of every other blade on the platform.

No one had time to recover before countless swords burst from the spectators' interspatial rings and soared above the arena, beyond their owners' control. Hundreds upon hundreds gathered in formation and tilted forward in homage to Yuan Guanghuan's masterpiece.

"It can't be! It's impossible!" the Tigerwood Blacksmith Pavilion's members shrieked, widening their eyes on the verge of madness.

Centuries of rivalry had made them more familiar with the Yuan Clan's blacksmithing techniques than anyone. They refused to believe the clan could create a legendary artifact like this, but the proof stood before them. Yuan Guanghuan's sword had gone beyond every known boundary of their craft.

Their faces filled with awe, the ten judges leaped down onto the forging platform and gathered around the blade.

"This is a true masterpiece!"

All ten judges came from neutral forces, with no ties to either the Tigerwood Blacksmith Pavilion or the Yuan Clan. Their neutrality ensured an impartial verdict.

No one could fake true quality. Inviting judges was a necessary formality, but even an amateur could tell a divine blade from an ordinary weapon.

Without a dissenting voice, the judges named Yuan Guanghuan champion.

The announcement drained Ran Hu of all strength, and he slumped heavily into his chair.

"We've been deceived!" The Tigerwood Blacksmith Pavilion's elders emerged from their stupor, their faces darkening as understanding dawned.

"Pavilion Master, we have to act immediately! With the Yuan Clan's victory, our clients will cancel their orders and go to them!"

A relentless buzzing filled Ran Hu's otherwise blank mind. Still reeling from defeat, he barely caught the elders' urgent warnings.

Meanwhile, excited cultivators crowded onto the platform by the hundreds to see the winning sword.

"For the next three days, anyone who orders weapons from the Yuan Clan will pay thirty percent less than our standard prices! Once those three days are over, prices return to normal," Yuan Xiangtian announced as he stepped into the center of the platform. He channeled soul energy into his voice, and it thundered across the Azure Cloud Pit, silencing the clamor.

"Thirty percent off?! That's well below the market price!" Representatives from the other sects stared in disbelief, uncertain whether they had heard correctly.

Major sects purchased thousands of weapons each year. A thirty-percent reduction would save them immense wealth and resources.

"The Seven Wonders Sect will take ten thousand longswords!" its Sect Master called out at once.

The Seven Wonders Sect was a third-tier sect whose annual needs usually amounted to only a few thousand weapons. Committing to ten thousand in a single order was extraordinarily bold.

"Don't let the Yuan Clan fool you! They cannot maintain this level of quality in mass production. If the weapons they deliver fail to match this sword, you will all have been cheated!" the Tigerwood Blacksmith Pavilion’s Grand Elder bellowed, his soul-enhanced voice drowning out the eager buyers.

Once the initial shock wore off, the Tigerwood Black Pavilion's officials immediately began casting doubt on the offer.

"He has a point there... What if their bulk orders don't come anywhere close to this quality?"

A weapon that could command homage from a thousand swords was exceptionally rare. Mass-producing such perfection consistently was widely considered impossible.

Hesitation spread through the crowd. Forging a single masterpiece in a tournament was one thing, but sustaining that standard across tens of thousands of weapons was another entirely.

"Everyone, rest assured. I personally guarantee that our bulk orders will meet the standards we've established," Yuan Xiangtian declared, his confidence unshaken.

Bulk forging would naturally produce weapons slightly inferior to an individually forged masterpiece. Liu Wuxie's techniques nevertheless ensured that even the Yuan Clan's ordinary output would far surpass the Tigerwood Blacksmith Pavilion's best. With a thirty-percent discount on top of that, no buyer could reasonably complain.

Victory also gave the Yuan Clan exclusive rights to harvest Azure Cloud Truefire from the pit's core. Drawing that pristine underground fire into its furnaces would further raise production quality, easily offsetting the slight decline from forging in bulk.

Better artifacts at a fraction of the usual cost made the Yuan Clan the obvious choice.

Yuan Xiangtian had already secured vast quantities of raw materials for half the market price. A thirty-percent discount would still leave the clan earning enormous profits on every order.

The Tigerwood Blacksmith Pavilion had trapped itself with its own purchases. Having paid twice the usual price for its materials, it needed to sell its weapons at full price merely to break even. Any discount would prevent it from recovering its production costs.

"Pavilion Master, if we have to, we can cut our prices by forty percent and fight the Yuan Clan to the bitter end!" an elder proposed. His aim was to drag their rival into a prolonged price war.

"We wouldn't even get our capital back! Have you forgotten that we borrowed two hundred million immortal stones from the Kabiya Guild to pay for those materials?" the elder responsible for purchases interjected, his face draining to a deathly pallor.

Without recovering their investment, they could not repay the guild. Defaulting would cost them most of their blacksmithing workshops.

The surrounding elders staggered, barely able to stand. A debt of two hundred million immortal stones to the Kabiya Guild!

Winning the tournament would have allowed the Tigerwood Blacksmith Pavilion to repay the loan with ease. Profitable orders would have flooded in and cleared the debt within a month. Instead, the Yuan Clan had taken the championship and undercut the Tigerwood Blacksmith Pavilion's prices, stripping it of its prestige and more than half its clients.

The Tigerwood Blacksmith Pavilion held no advantage, whether it lowered prices to compete or tried to outlast its rival.

"What can we do now? We need to find a way out!" an elder urged frantically.

Representatives of various forces scrambled to sign contracts with the Yuan Clan. Its production schedule was booked for months.

"Stay calm. What does it matter if they've accepted all those orders? Have they got the materials to fulfill them?" the Grand Elder asked as he regained his composure.

The Tigerwood Blacksmith Pavilion already had every available stock of fire-attribute ore. Yuan Clan would owe its clients compensation twice the contract value if they missed the deadlines.

The other elders nodded with relief, their anxiety ebbing. "The Grand Elder is right! They'll have to buy their materials from us to fill those orders. When they come asking, we can sell them our stock for twice the market price!"

Ran Hu alone remained grim and silent. A sinking feeling warned him that matters wouldn't be so simple. They had missed something crucial.

"Will your clan be able to secure enough materials to fulfill these orders, Patriarch Yuan? I heard the Qian, Fu, and Shen Clans sold their entire stock to the Tigerwood Blacksmith Pavilion," an Immortal King asked.

Concern over the Yuan Clan's supplies extended beyond the Tigerwood Blacksmith Pavilion's elders.

"All of you witnessed our forging earlier," Yuan Xiangtian replied calmly, lifting Yuan Guanghuan's winning sword for everyone to see. He sent immortal energy through the hilt, drawing a hum from the blade as light from several elements pulsed through it. "Our improved technique no longer restricts us to using fire-attribute forging materials. Combining other attributes yields an even better result."

The revelation struck like a thunderclap. At last, the crowd saw what the Tigerwood Blacksmith Pavilion had overlooked.

Someone asked in realisation, "Patriarch Yuan... are you saying you've already purchased materials from other clans?"

The Qian, Fu, and Shen Clans controlled the fire-attribute ores best suited to withstand the Azure Cloud Fire. With the Yuan Clan's new technique, that monopoly had become useless, opening the market to other mining forces.

"Days ago, we signed long-term supply agreements with several other clans. Our material supplies are fully secured," Yuan Xiangtian assured them.

The Yuan Clan's pavilion was filled with eager buyers, while the Tigerwood Blacksmith Pavilion lay deserted.

"Damn it all! Liu Wuxie must be behind this! Everything began going wrong after he arrived in Azure Cloud City. The Yuan Clan could never have laid such a flawless trap by itself!" an elder roared as realisation dawned.

Standing nearby, Pan Rengui heard every word. He imagined the Mountain Guardian Sect suffering the same carefully planned destruction, and his face turned ashen.

He slipped into a quiet corner at once and took out a Communication Talisman. With urgency mounting, he reported the events in Azure Cloud City to his Sect Master so they could decide their next move.