CHAPTER 73: DORMANT FRAGMENT OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Chapter 73: Dormant fragment of consciousness

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Over the millennia since then, the artifact had chosen a new bearer every few generations,

someone who showed a certain kind of talent, whether it was in cultivation, martial arts, or one of the many secondary professions.

Thanks to this connection, every so often, someone with extraordinary talent would be born into the Han family, marked by the artifact’s own consciousness.

This continued for countless generations, until thirty five years ago, when a new descendant was born and chosen by the weapon’s consciousness.

Everyone believed that this child would go on to develop immense talent in cultivation, or maybe in blacksmithing, the family’s main trade,

but it soon became clear that none of those things were going to happen.

The descendant turned out to have no special talent at all, and so the opportunity to be chosen by the weapon was wasted in that generation.

Along with it, the hopes of the Han family were shattered.

For the first time in millennia, their lineage would produce no genius, despite being chosen by the weapon’s consciousness.

This inevitably led to all kinds of conflict within the family, and when it became clear that, even now as a fully grown man, he still hadn’t developed any talent, he ended up being cast aside by his own blood.

Things looked bad, though not completely hopeless,

he was despised, blamed for having been born, and accused of stealing a once in a generation opportunity.

But that descendant didn’t seem to care much about any of it.

He simply focused on forging, pushing forward despite his limited talent, and eventually reached the peak of the Expert rank,

a solid achievement elsewhere, but within a family of smiths, it was nothing more than average.

Zhu Rong figured that was the reason he had left the family behind and focused on building his own life, eventually settling down here for good.

In his previous life, Zhu Rong had many doubts about the weapon’s supposed consciousness that had supposedly been passed down through the Han family.

After all, a weapon of that level would never have chosen to remain in a family that, at the time, was just a bunch of ordinary people.

But in this life, things were different.

He could feel it, the strong presence of that soul consciousness.

He could tell from the faint fluctuations that it was most likely dormant, probably trying to recover from the damage it had taken.

’She’d definitely love to examine this,’ he thought, as the image of a certain elf popped into his mind.

Many people thought those old legends about weapons descending from the heavens were fake, but he knew the truth,

he knew those weapons had truly existed.

After all, in his past life, he had managed to get his hands on a fragment of one.

He knew how powerful they had once been, so it didn’t surprise him to see that one of their consciousnesses had managed to survive until now.

It was clear to him now that the talent Old Han was supposed to have had had actually been suppressed by the weapon itself.

Instead of triggering his growth, it had ended up becoming the thing that held him back.

Zhu Rong could only shake his head, thinking about how fate had a habit of playing cruel tricks,

tricks that had often cost people their lives.

Han Tiezang, of course, wasn’t aware of any of this, nor did he have the time to think about it right now.

His mind was still caught on the words Zhu Rong had spoken,

"A Grandmaster Smith?"

For a long time now, he had hit a bottleneck, one he simply couldn’t overcome, no matter how hard he tried.

He had long since given up hope and had resigned himself to what he had now.

Zhu Rong could somewhat understand how he felt, he himself had often been stuck, not only in cultivation but in various professions as well.

But even so, he had never stopped pushing forward.

One way or another, he had always managed to take that next step, eventually reaching the peak of his profession,

at least as far as the mortal realm was concerned.

If it hadn’t been for that incident that brought him to where he was now,

he sometimes wondered if he might’ve finally been able to push further, both in cultivation and craft.

The rank of Saint Smith had always been a myth, and as far as he knew, no one in his era had ever managed to reach it.

And yet, by the end of his life, he had.

That fact alone had been enough to show him that there was no such thing as a true limit,

the only real limit was the one a person placed on themselves.

He had no intention of limiting himself, and in this life, he would continue down his path until he surpassed every existing peak, and even the ones yet to exist.

He planned to make the most of this second chance at life.

"Kid, you know you shouldn’t joke about things like that," Han Tiezhang said.

"If it were actually possible for me to reach that level, I wouldn’t still be stuck where I am now, don’t you think?"

"Don’t take the Grandmaster rank lightly, it’s far beyond what either of us can even imagine.

Maybe you have a shot at reaching it someday, but me?

My path ended a long time ago," he said, shaking his head and choosing to dismiss the Zhu Rong’s words.

Zhu Rong didn’t bother arguing, there was no need.

He stood up and said,

"Maybe. But let me try something. After that, you can judge for yourself if it’s possible or not."

Han Tiezhang looked confused, but eventually decided to go along with it and see what the other had in mind.

Zhu Rong nodded, and under the older man’s puzzled gaze, placed two fingers on his forehead.

Before Han Tiezang could even react, a slight jolt pulsed out from Zhu Rong’s fingertip and struck his forehead.

In an instant, Han Tiezhang’s eyes glazed over as a torrent of information began flooding his mind.

At first, it was all strange and incomprehensible,

but soon, as if drawn by some invisible force, the knowledge began to take shape,

and before long, everything started making sense.

These weren’t memories, nor were they techniques.

They were concepts, core principles Zhu Rong had learned over his many centuries of experience.

Concepts that would normally take decades, if not centuries, for an ordinary smith to fully grasp.

They were, in essence, the key to taking the next step forward.

Han Tiezhang, still confused by what had just happened, was stunned for a moment.

Then his awareness snapped back, and he shot to his feet, eyes wide, staring at the young man in front of him.

He had no idea what the hell the other had just done,

but somehow, that mental blockage he had always felt... was simply gone.

In its place was pure clarity, nothing else.

He could already feel his thoughts racing, ideas and insights forming that he never even thought possible before.

For the first time in ages, he felt like he could move forward again,

one more step along the long path of his craft.

Though he wasn’t sure what exactly Zhu Rong had done, he had a feeling...

’Did he... already reach that level?’