The Creatures that We Are

Chestnut spilled out a string of complaints, but her expression said otherwise, “Let me tell you, Brother Tiger, I suffered a great loss for this order. I’ve never made a sword this big. My hands weren’t mine once I was done with it. You really had the strangest idea…”

She walked up to a weapon rack. There was a large weapon covered by a piece of gray cloth. At first glance, it looked like a covered coatstand.

“Are you ready, Brother Tiger?” Chestnut enthused. “It’s time to witness the miracle!”

War Tiger’s heart pounded. For so many days he had been thinking day and night about the ultimate cold weapon of his dream. The Dragonslaying Giantsword was finally going to make its debut!

He grabbed his marker and wrote on the sketchbook in large strokes: 666[1]!

Whoosh!

Chestnut lifted the gray cloth, and a Black Gold giantsword made its remarkable appearance.

It was 215 centimeters long in total, consisting of a 175-centimeter blade and a 40-centimeter hilt. The blade was 30 centimeters wide with a thickness of 2.5 centimeters. The entirety of it was pure Black Gold with no other materials.

The blade wasn’t diamond-shaped like a typical sword, but a right triangle.

War Tiger rushed up to it and inspected the weapon closely. He suddenly frowned, jotting down on his sketchbook: the blade’s not sharpened?

“There’s no need for that!” Chestnut crossed her arms proudly. “With Killing Expert, you can resonate with the weapon and create a blade aura that’s ten times fiercer than any blade. Not only is its slashing power top of the game, but so is the damage output. The only shortcoming is its weight. It’s around 250 kilos.”

“You can raise it for sure, but it’ll be difficult to use it agilely. It’ll be better if you have God of Blades or Metal. Then with perfect energy resonation with the weapon, you would be able to not only pick it up with ease, but also to enlarge and shrink it at will like the Monkey King’s staff.”

“Still, you don’t have to worry too much. Seek out Jiang Hao and Goldthread and ask Jiang Hao to enchant the sword with Goldthread’s Gravity. That would decrease its weight by two-thirds, and the effect will last half a year. It’ll cost you only 20 jinwu since you’ve been a loyal customer.”

War Tiger nodded in satisfaction. As expected of the awakener with level 6 Blacksmith. She didn’t stop at making the weapons her clients asked for; she also planned out the additional services according to each client’s needs.

War Tiger tore off another page and wrote, 10 jinwu.

“Stingy jerk!” Chestnut shot him a disapproving look. “Go make the bargain yourself. If you’re convincing enough, maybe you’ll even get the enchantment for free.”

War Tiger grinned and gave her an OK sign.

Then he wrote, box it for me.

“Do it yourself!” Chestnut grumbled. “It’s fricking heavy. I haven’t even had breakfast.”

War Tiger tapped on the sketchbook for emphasis.

He felt a little bad about it, but it had to be done. Don’t blame me for being cold, Chestnut. What if you’re the spy? What if you’ve injected the Black Gold weapon with a soul curse? Then I’ll be done, yeah?

Just in case, he would wait a week before he touched the weapon. The curse shouldn’t last that long.

War Tiger looked around and found a large wooden box in a corner. He kicked it open and pointed at it, indicating for Chestnut to place the weapon inside.

Why is War Tiger being so weird today? He wasn’t like this.

Chestnut didn’t ask. She picked up the giantsword with both hands, clenching her teeth as she moved it one step at a time. War Tiger never offered a helping hand.

Once Chestnut boxed the sword, War Tiger picked it up and held it under his armpit, turning to leave.

Chestnut’s phone rang then.

“Hello? Sister Ying, you’re here… Okay, I’ll open the door.”

Chestnut closed the doors of the smithy and walked to the entrance of the repair shop with War Tiger, rolling up the door. Light streamed in, illuminating Chen Ying’s slim figure from the back. She was wearing a blue office suit and black heels today, her hair running down her shoulders. ᚱαℕÖꞖƐＳ

Chen Ying paused. “Mr. War Tiger, why are you here?”

“Haha! I’m here to pick up my weapon, the Dragonslayer Giantsword!”

War Tiger brimmed with joy. He had been dying to share the good news. He patted on the wooden box excitedly. “Holy smoke it’s two meters long! More than 250 kilos! Insane! It’s a shame that I can’t show you right now. I’ll send you a picture later!”

Chen Ying chuckled politely. “I look forward to it.”

“Wait!” Chestnut felt shocked and wronged. “What is this, Uncle Tiger? You can talk! Why did you go all silent with me? Why, is a mere blacksmith like me not good enough to talk to a bigshot like you?”

War Tiger shut his mouth again. He turned to Chestnut with a smile and gave her a two-finger salute as a show of gratitude. Then he turned away and left.

“Hey, get back here! If you don’t explain yourself, I’ll never take another order from you!” Chestnut raged.

Chen Ying went up to her with a smile. “I have a favor to ask, Chestnut.”

Chestnut dropped the issue once War Tiger got too far from her. She turned to Chen Ying. “What is it, Sister Ying?”

Chen Ying was silent for a moment. “From now on, Chestnut, don’t call me by name, and don’t call me Sister Ying or Team Leader. Just forego addressing me altogether.”

Chen Ying didn’t go as far as War Tiger did, but she was still going to avoid physical contact and direct responses to her name.

Chestnut frowned. Why was everyone acting all weird today?

“Alright.” She didn’t ask.

Chen Ying nodded. “Let’s talk inside.”

Ten minutes later, Chestnut, having washed up, took out a bottle of milk from the fridge. Then she got Chen Ying a bottle of coffee, but she didn’t take it.

Chestnut sat down on the sofa. Chen Ying stood across from her, avoiding touching anything in this space.

Chen Ying got right to the point. “Did Green Tea seek you out before his death?”

Chestnut sighed sadly after a moment of surprise. She nodded. “Yeah, didn’t I tell you before?”

“There must be something you haven’t told me.” Chen Ying said bluntly.

Chestnut wordlessly took a gulp of her milk.

“I’ll be frank with you, Chestnut,” Chen Ying said seriously. “Green Tea was killed by Dust, the spy. According to what we know, you’re one of the prime suspects.”

“What, me?” Chestnut jumped, lowering her milk. “The others may not know it, but you should. I had no reason to kill Brother Tea. And how was I even going to do it?”

Chen Ying sighed softly. “I can’t tell you more, but you must have noticed the way others have been treating you, right?”

Chestnut was stunned for two seconds before she let out a bitter laugh. “I was wondering why no one had come to drink with me. I thought they were just busy.”

Chen Ying coaxed, “You must tell me what you know to prove your innocence, Chestnut. When did Green Tea seek you out, and what did you talk about?”

“I promised Brother Tea that I would keep it a secret.” Chestnut was hesitant.

“Green Tea’s gone, Chestnut, killed by Dust.” Chen Ying sounded pained. “Don’t you want to find Dust to avenge Green Tea?”

After a long stretch of silence, Chestnut downed her milk and crushed the carton.

“Alright, I’ll tell you.”

1. In China, 6 is a slang that means awesome/cool since the number 6, liu, is pronounced like the word that means “good”. The more 6 that’s strung together, naturally, the stronger the emphasis. ☜

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