The days passed and Lingyun understood how much luck he had the first time he tried. He had many issues, from inscribing improperly due to spiritual power, being distracted during the implementation of the artistic conception to simply having too many small mistakes that the weapon might as well be scrapped.
He thought about it and felt he didn't make any mistake – the training he did was too difficult. It was clear why others didn't do it as meticulous as he did. This fixation would simply cost too much in training, but Lingyun didn't stop.
The results were also good: he would slowly stop making mistakes and he had more thoughts about the arrangement. The previous absolute straight feather was now also curved in the direction of the blade, which was something he couldn't have thought of initially.
After all, the correlation of the feather's shape and the lightness is gave wasn't clear to him. Now, he knew that with this, he would actually add a certain swiftness to the tip, making it easier to swing.
As for really swinging, he didn't do it with his hands. He just used a casual object control to test them on the second anvil. It was softer and one could see marks easier. Since he didn't need to use it, this was the easiest tool for him to test the weapon.
He also at one point made the plates slightly longer at the bottom to add a hilt, which he had forgotten initially. After all, cultivators can swing the swords with object control… or at least he could. He forgot that others weren't as proficient as he was.
Anyways, the days passed peacefully and he truly enjoyed weapon refining, making him more and more excited for all the runes.
Runes are part of the Dharma Lineage among the three cultivation lineages of Body, Dharma and Soul. Although the other two also use runes, their application is just like how dharma cultivators still cultivate some light body techniques and if possible, some soul or consciousness techniques. They were simply helpful tools but not the key.
Lingyun himself also wanted to cultivate the soul, especially since his soul would seemingly grow with each reincarnation, and because it was the only thing besides memories he could take with him always. In fact, he also thought of different things: there are weapons, techniques and other paths that are linked to the soul and can be taken with him.
He wondered whether it was possible to go into this direction. Although he wasn't a soul cultivator, he was very suitable to cultivate it. As for why he didn't choose to cultivate the soul… well, he was actually just helpless because he didn't have any inheritance.
But, he felt that after so many reincarnations, he would mainly focus on the dharma, and the soul could only be stronger than others and have more applications, but he wouldn't become a ghost-like being. Soul cultivators are known for giving up their body to go further in cultivation. He didn't really mind this, after all, he would reincarnate again, so he could test it out.
The only issue was that he didn't want to stay in this state forever. Anyways, with his many lives, he planned to test out many things even if he won't take the paths fully, they would enrich his repertoire. There is a reason why jack of all trades are feared when they become strong – one doesn't know how to counter them.
Well, now, he would not be a jack of all trades, but a master of all skills!
…
On a certain day two months later, Lingyun's rest day, he planned to take a walk around the mountain. Nowadays, the time he spent on refining became a bit less, and he would get more rest, so his rest day became half-rest and half free time to do what he wanted. Naturally he wouldn't jump back into refining, he knew that it was inefficient and would ruin his plans, so instead, he would usually just read something he had on him, or do other things.
As he walked to the mine, he saw many miners outside talking. He was curious why they weren't working, so he approached them.
When they saw him, they were all shocked and knelt on the ground "Greetings to the immortal master!"
Lingyun waved his hand – there was nothing about this title he could change. There was no need either, it wouldn't change the situation, so he just ignored it and asked "What's making you so unruly? Why aren't you working?"
The martial artists trembled and started begging for mercy. Lingyun frowned, so he pointed to a younger man and made him stand up, then said "You tell me."
The man stammered and trembled, but he still said in a voice that was closer to not sign language than a whisper "T-The ore… d-disappeared!"
Lingyun frowned, pressure descended from him and pressed the martial artists to the ground "I will only ask once more, tell me what happened!"
Then he pulled back the pressure. This time, no one dared to even tremble, they were quiet until a brave man looked up and said in a quiet voice, trying to hide the tremor "Immortal master, please have mercy! The ore disappeared! This happens every few weeks, we reported this before, but the other immortal masters all said that we shouldn't care about it!
We only gathered this time because more ore disappeared, we feared it might cause the dissatisfaction of the immortal master, so we planned to report it!"
Lingyun nodded when he heard it – this knowledge wasn't too foreign to him, Lingyi once said that they suspect the other side, the main lineage, would occasionally steal. At that time, he thought it was weird.
No matter what, even if you want to steal, you should look at the current supervisor. He found that there were several times in the records where the ore was reduced slightly, the notes on the side were all kinds of excuses, suspected of this and that.
At firs sight, it just looks like a few people profiting off of it, which was fine. But now, if one included the different points, then it would definitely be suspicious.
You can embezzle if you want as a supervisor, and it's not little either. Why would you have to create numerous excuses? Most people also know the limit and won't go below it. It was really inexplicable and confusing.
So, Lingyun wanted to inspect the situation. He asked the martial artists to take him to where they stored their ore. It was in an empty building, with a few carts inside. Generally, it would be stored here for a few days, before being taken weekly to the earth fire. Naturally there was more than just black iron – there was also common iron, which amounted for the most in the storage.
Lingyun looked through it and didn't understand, there was nothing implying the disappearance.
So, he simply told the martial artists to store the iron ore temporarily next to the supervisory tower every day, in an open large container. No cultivator would steal it anyways.
He could also simply command the people to directly send the ore to the fire room, but he wanted to solve the problem, not stop the symptoms. It seems many did exactly that, changing the monthly to daily, then the next would change it from daily to weekly or monthly, so it should be effective, but Lingyun wanted to do more.