Lingyun went on to write the other two inscriptions. Light Weight can be written in the middle of the blade with no issue. It was in the form of a feather, the rachis went through the whole sword while several barbs went left and right. The runes for the feather couldn't be stacked like durability, instead, the main rune itself was written very largely.
The inscription began with the shaft, then gradually the barbs and finally the runes had to be added. The feather body was the outer carrier of the runes, just like the squares of the durability rune. The runes were basically of the wind element.
For Lingyun, imagination wasn't difficult. He just thought of one time he saw a feather fall from a bird, the slow fall, the way it swayed in the air… the runes were written like the patters of a feather, from far away one really couldn't see them.
This time, there was no issue either.
Lastly, he went to the blade edge. To refine the sharp edge, one has to write in a curvature with the bow being towards the edge. The carrier of the runes were ) shaped lines, and one had to write on the right side, symbolising the sharpening of a weapon. The element here was gold, a sub-element of earth, commonly used for sharp weapons.
Here, Lingyun simply thought of the time he watched a video of a sword cutting a piece of bamboo extremely neatly.
This time, he had to write several runes, the middle rune was fine but he mad three mistakes, two at the bottom and one near the tip, which resulted in the tip not being sharp. Fortunately, this was a blade weapon supposed to swipe, not stab, so the quality of this weapon wasn't too bad.
The three inscriptions were finally finished! Lingyun breathed out in relief. Then he looked outside and saw that it was already past evening, nearly night. He smiled, a single sword took him so long, it seems his estimations were a bit optimistic.
'Well, the rest can just be kept for later. For now, let's focus on making the one plate sword until I can make it perfectly without any mistake.'
Afterward, he went back in and took out some ink from his spatial bag. It was the ink of a low-grade gold beast, the iron eating boar. These beasts were barely able to enter the first-grade low-stage, they would constantly eat mortal iron, so their blood combined the gold element and spiritual power to become a special blood that can be used by refiners to give the final touch – hiding the inscriptions.
Lingyun took out several bottles and poured them into a large vertical pool standing on the side. Then, he took his sword and put it in. This final touch could also add to the sharp blade rune while gradually creating an outer layer of black-gold over the sword, effectively hiding the inscriptions, which are also the weak points of the weapon.
After finishing a hard day, he stopped caring about this any longer and went back. His body and mind were exhausted, he had to go sleep. Although he planned a whole day as a break, this didn't mean he would not sleep. It was essential to sleep.
The next day, when he went there, he saw the young Lingyi in front of the earth fire room, seemingly waiting for him.
Lingyun came forward and asked "What's the matter?" they would be staying together on this mountain for a long time, he didn't want to continue bothering with useless manners.
Lingyi only bowed slightly and said "Elder brother, I would like to buy the ore I refine directly from now on."
"Oh? I thought u didn't want to." He said this a few days ago, but only now he replied, so naturally Lingyun was curious what changed his mind.
"Well, I messaged my parents and asked them how much I could refine. After all, no matter how many contribution points I get by working for the family, it's far from enough to buy everything. Well, they said this is a good opportunity and I should take it. They will pay for all my expenses this time."
Lingyun nodded in understanding. His own position was higher so he could basically pay for all the iron he took, and if not, then his grandfather would automatically add the little bit of contribution points on top of it. He could also understand the "good opportunity".
It's not else but the use of second-hand connections. After all, even if others wanted, they might not be able to buy the ore directly. There are other refines that need it. They might say "only young people need it", but in fact, from the inheritance, one can see that black iron is essential. There are only two black iron mines in the possession of the family, a larger one and this.
The larger one is basically fully booked, it produces four times this one's output, but there are too many, so a few refiners always try to supplement by taking from this small mine. Well, now, they can basically forget it.
As for the output, in theory, it would be enough to create a thousand black iron swords yearly, but no one really does this. There are simply not enough customers, and even if there were, there are many better alternatives than the black iron sword.
The natural way is to use the black iron for different things – all higher weapons would exponentially require a lot more black iron. This is a low-grade resource, to create mid and high grade resources, it has to be stacked a lot until it can be used.
Lingyun took out a note book while thinking of this, opened a blank page, then took out a small brush and asked "How much do you want to use?"
Lingyi said "I wonder if 100 kilograms are fine?" although the split was said to be 70-30, he still didn't want to be presumptuous and actually take that much. Instead, he took half.
Lingyun smiled and said "In fact, the 70-30 split is for later, when my refining efficiency is better. For now, let's just split it in the middle. Next year, I will take 10% more, and the year after another 10% more."
Naturally this delighted Lingyi and he agreed on the spot. As for Lingyun, he just knew that he would craft three plates instead of the previous 6 when Lingyi didn't take a split at all. In the end, he could refine 4-5, which is closer to the initial estimate. This wasn't bad for him though, since he couldn't really refine everything anyways.
From now on, he would spend more time contemplating the runes anyways.
Once he was fully sure of the next runes, he could start stacking two plates, which is six runes. His current estimate is that it will take at least half a year before he started – until then, two or three plates weekly would be more than he needed.
Lingyun was happy to have found a rhythm, even if he would continuously change it, he preferred this over the constant seclusion where he just sits around, doing nothing.