Zhang Fei and Guan Yu
"Heard the rumors and came by. Can you fix this spear for me?"
The first uninvited guest to barge into my custom forge, laid out with massive planks—he didn't look ordinary in the slightest. His rough fingers tapped on the oak table where the mangled steel spear lay, its tip crushed and shaft twisted.
I met the man's feral, beast-like gaze without flinching, my eyes fixed squarely on the broken frame of the heavy steel spearhead as I nodded.
"I'll fix it right up. I'll dismantle the shattered core completely, embed a new steel spine, and reassemble it into a spear that can handle far more brutal force than before."
My firm, unwavering response made the man's bulging ring eyes widen with interest. Soon, a thunderous, guttural laugh exploded from his thick lips, threatening to collapse the grand hall floor.
"Kahahaha! Good! I like your guts! The old blacksmiths in the market piss themselves and tremble at the sight of my face, but you don't even blink!"
The man slammed his fist on the table with a bam and bellowed.
"I'm Zhang Fei! If you hand me some weak-ass scrap iron that doesn't match my size, I'll rip out every pillar in this fancy forge of yours! Fix it tough and vicious enough to withstand my full strength!"
A chill raced down my spine, prickling my skin like static.
'Zhang Fei... Zhang Fei?'
My heart pounded wildly. Wild hair, bulging ring eyes, a beard like an enraged tiger's mane, and a physique that seemed to have burst free of human limits. In this chaotic era, with Yellow Turban remnants still lurking, only one man matched that name and look. The legendary fierce general who would later become a founding pillar of Shu, Liu Bei's sworn brother, the man called Yide—Zhang Fei!
'Am I really facing a true legend from Romance of the Three Kingdoms?'
After possessing this body, I'd only dealt with bandits and grubby caravan guards. This was my first encounter with a colossal figure from history. But I forced down my racing pulse, hid my inner turmoil perfectly, and curved my lips into a cool artisan's smile. Legend or not, right now, he was just my forge's 'first VIP customer.' This was the perfect chance to seize the collar of this massive tiger and shake it.
"You won't be disappointed. But..."
I pulled the broken spear toward me across the oak table, adding in a dry, cold voice,
"This forge doesn't churn out cheap scrap. Remaking the core to withstand your monstrous strength with top-grade steel means the repair fee is one tael of gold."
"What?!"
Zhang Fei's ring eyes nearly popped out. His beastly face twisted viciously, filling the forge with a savage aura that seemed ready to smash the table to splinters.
"One tael of gold?! You trying to rob me blind? Even the best smithies in Xu Province's markets would forge a new spear for ten silver coins! And you're asking a full tael just to fix a spearhead?!"
Ten silver coins versus one tael of gold—a tenfold insane markup.
But I didn't twitch an eyebrow in the face of his feral killing intent. Mi So-jeo had handed me this custom forge with instructions to fleece the pockets of the powerful, backed by my absolute confidence in my skills.
"Those market weapons for ten silver couldn't handle your massive strength and shattered like this, right?"
I tapped the broken spearhead's edge coldly with my finger.
"Cheap junk with half-filtered impurities can't stake your life on the battlefield. I'll dismantle this spear's broken spine entirely, forge a steel ingot compressed to extreme density through dozens of strikes, and embed it as the new core so it never breaks again. If it snaps under your power after I'm done, I'll refund your gold. How's that?"
At my provocative yet utterly confident words, Zhang Fei halted his snorting breaths and stared me down. Despite his mountain-like bulk, he was dead serious about weapons—a warrior who knew bone-deep the nightmare of a cheap blade snapping mid-battle.
"Kahahahaha!"
Zhang Fei erupted in laughter that pierced the ceiling once more.
"Fine! I like that cocky tongue of yours! But if it doesn't live up to your big talk, I won't just rip out your pillars—I'll take your arrogant head too! Remember that!"
"Make yourself comfortable in the reception room. I'll have it done soon."
As Zhang Fei plopped into a chair in the corner, thumping his feet with thuds, I hefted the heavy spear and parted the thick rhinoceros-hide curtain separating the reception from the workshop, stepping inside. The curtain fell, muffling the noise, revealing my private sanctuary with its roaring red furnace.
'Save the subspace for later.'
I could enter the subspace system through my secret side room for a faster, flawless repair, but the once-per-day stay time was reserved strictly for my own training and nighttime secret work. Besides, since ranking up to E-grade Blacksmith, my artisan senses were fully integrated into my body—I was confident I could handle this spearhead repair at a regular furnace without issue. I gripped the massive leather bellows by the furnace.
Whoooosh!Whish! The heavy, explosive pumping powered by my strength 12 and stamina 54. The charcoal inside blazed furiously, spewing intense white heat.
I detached the twisted spearhead from the shaft, clamped it in tongs, and shoved it deep into the furnace. Then I pulled a premium steel ingot—stocked generously in the forge by Mi So-jeo—from under the workbench and tossed it in too.
Ten minutes of heating. The dense iron glowed blue on the surface, then deep cherry-red, softening like molten candy at the perfect moment.
"Hup!"
I snatched the crushed spearhead and heated ingot with tongs, stacking them on the silver steel anvil. Then I drew the hefty D+ grade iron hammer from my back—crafted to my hand's structure and strike dynamics.
Claaang!! The first strike tore through the forge's heavy air. A clear, bone-rattling explosion unlike any common hammer. The hammerhead's condensed mass slammed the hot metal, all recoil absorbed by the oak handle's wedge—no wasted force. One hundred percent of the impact poured into the iron on the anvil.
Clang!Claaang!Clang!! The hammer danced madly. I split the spearhead's cracks wide, wedged the fresh premium steel into the hollow spine, and hammered relentlessly, forcing the two masses to fuse into one flawless grain under heat and crushing pressure. Sparks rained like fire, sweat dripped from my jaw, hissing into steam on the anvil. But a thick grin of creation's thrill curved my lips.
Even without subspace buffs, my eyes pierced the steel's surface, reading the carbon lattice and iron grain like glass. A millimeter off in the strike point meant fatal durability flaws. I twisted the hammer angle freely, compressing density inward, sharpening the blade huge, vicious, and heavy to match Zhang Fei's massive frame.
How much time passed? As the spearhead's form perfected and the metal cooled to dull red, I delivered the final, weight-loaded strike to hone the edge with exquisite precision.
Claaang! With the finishing ring, I plunged the spearhead not into the clear water vat, but straight into the thick pig-fat oil quench beside the anvil. Toughness against breaking mattered more than mere sharpness. Oil quenching for supreme hardness and elasticity.
Hiiiisss!! Acrid smoke billowed as the oil boiled like lava, white steam exploding upward. As it cleared and I lifted the tongs, there gleamed a massive, heavy steel spearhead, dark and murderous as ink—worlds apart from the twisted scrap before. I drove the cooled head firmly back onto the thick oak shaft, nailing it secure.
"Excellent."
I muttered admiration to myself, roughly wiping the weapon with a towel, when—
Creak! The front door to the reception room thudded open again. Not Zhang Fei's beastly growl, but a calm, profoundly resonant voice—solemn, crushing the listener's heart—echoed from beyond the hide curtain.
"Yide. Still bullying merchants and causing trouble? I warned you from You Province, yet you never learn to curb that reckless fire of yours."
"Ah, brother! Brother Guan Yu! What brings you all the way here? Trouble? Don't say such harsh words! I'm not here to beat anyone today—I came to fix my beloved spear after hearing rumors of a smith who handles iron like magic!"
'Brother Guan Yu?!'
My oil-smeared hands froze mid-wipe. After Zhang Fei, now the Three Kingdoms' supreme warrior god, incarnation of loyalty—Guan Yu himself—in my forge. I took a deep breath, steadying my pounding heart, hefted the finished steel spear in one hand, parted the curtain, and stepped into the reception.
"Repair's done."
As my voice rang out and I entered, my gaze locked naturally on the towering man beside Zhang Fei.
His height matched or slightly exceeded Zhang Fei's, but his aura was utterly different. Where Zhang Fei was uncontrollable wildfire, this man was an unfathomable, silent abyss-sea. A dignified crimson face tinged with red aura, long beard flowing softly to his chest like wind-swept silk. Behind him, wrapped in cloth yet unmistakable, loomed the heavy form of the Green Dragon Crescent Blade.
Guan Yu half-lowered his long, phoenix-slit eyes, scanning me coolly. No arrogance, but a warrior's chill pierced my lungs.
"Oho! Finally done? Let me see!"
Unable to wait, Zhang Fei lunged like a beast and snatched the spear from my hand. As the hefty steel met his pot-lid grip, his bulging eyes widened to tears.
"......!"
Speechless, Zhang Fei regripped it one-handed and swung viciously at the empty air in the cramped reception.
Whoooosh!! Boom! A gruesome whoosh like exploding gunpowder rattled the forge windows.
"Kahahahahaha!!!"
Zhang Fei roared with mad laughter that shook the room.
"Incredible! Unbelievable! Heavier weight distribution than when I bought it, and it doesn't budge no matter how I try to bend it! You poured fresh steel right into the spearhead's core! Not even worth one tael of gold—this is a masterpiece!"