The reason for the difficulty was simple.
Just like Resilience, the early stages of shaping are when you can increase the Yang Fla Attribute. Once that window closes, you can only dilute it, reducing its concentration.
The step where the Yang Fla Attribute increases most significantly is during impurity removal.
Moreover, this increase only occurs when using the Gale Sun technique of Sun Breathing. Without it, there’s no enhancent.
This is where the problem arises. Using Gale Sun accelerates impurity removal to an extre degree. The result is that while the Yang Fla Attribute is obtained, the process ends before much can be accumulated.
The shaping stage faces a similar dilemma.
Because the unnad Second Form is so efficient, the shaping ti is drastically shortened.
Even if each hamr strike adds so Yang Fla Attribute, the total amount gained remains limited.
Therefore, forging a weapon with an extrely high Yang Fla Attribute...
The best opportunity lay in the impurity removal stage, where each hamr strike from Sosuke under the scorching sun could trigger an increase in Yang Fla. The difficulty of achieving this was almost unimaginable.
More importantly, if a weapon’s Yang Fla Attribute were fully charged, would it cause other problems?
Although he hadn’t yet forged such a weapon, as a swordsmith, he knew that an imbalance in a weapon’s attributes was a fatal flaw.
His mind raced, repeatedly weighing the feasibility of this approach.
His arm instinctively rose, mimicking the motion of hamring iron, but was stopped by soone the next mont.
"Hmm?"
Startled awake, he turned to see Kanae watching him intently.
Slightly embarrassed, he apologized, "Sorry, I was lost in thought."
Kanae shook her head, her voice sincere. "Sosuke is truly an extraordinary person."
Sosuke didn’t know how to respond to such praise. Then he rembered Kanae’s earlier comnt about the warm current flowing from the sword hilt.
Even Sosuke couldn’t explain this.
Normally, the Bloodforging thod, while granting weapons weightlessness and a symbiotic bond with their wielder, shouldn’t have this particular effect.
Could there be so property of the Gale Sun Hamr’s iron that he had overlooked?
"Don’t overthink it right now," Kanae’s voice suddenly whispered in his ear. Sosuke looked up to see her gazing at him with gentle concern. "I’m telling you this so you’ll be prepared when the Lord questions you. Your injuries are far from healed. You can ponder this slowly."
Sosuke nodded, but a question lingered. "Why wait for my injuries to heal? The astonishnt your Nichirin Blade could cause is beyond my imagination. Shouldn’t they be even more eager?"
Kanae nodded. "That’s true, but the Lord insists your health cos first. Even if you were to rise now, you couldn’t forge a blade in your weakened state. Everything must wait until you’ve fully recovered."
"Truly a kind soul," Sosuke smiled, though he knew this approach was the most logical.
No matter how impatient Sosuke felt, there was nothing he could do in his current state. He might as well focus on healing and address everything once he recovered. After all, forging swords was his duty.
Though this was the rational course of action, the warmth he felt from others’ understanding of his eagerness still ward his heart.
As his mind relaxed slightly, a wave of exhaustion washed over him.
"Rest well," Kanae whispered softly.
Sosuke felt a sudden, inexplicable urgency. "Could you... stay here a little longer? Just for a bit?"
Kanae chuckled softly. "Mm, I’ll stay right here."
The room fell silent again. Sosuke could sll the delicate fragrance in the air, and his previously weary spirit seed to perk up slightly.
Suddenly rembering sothing, he murmured, "I brought you rice balls..."
Kanae blinked, her gentle gaze deepening. "Thank you."
"But I didn’t expect the journey from the Swordsmith Village to take so long. They might not be edible anymore." Sosuke closed his eyes and whispered softly, "Once I recover a bit, I’ll make you fresh ones."
"Alright," Kanae replied in a soothing voice. "It’s a promise, then."
"Mm, a promise..." Sosuke’s voice grew weaker. Severely injured, his forced alertness couldn’t last. He drifted off to sleep in a hazy daze.
Sosuke had experienced a sleep beyond description, as if he had been slumbering among the clouds.
The soft, fragrant sensation brought him imnse relaxation.
Even as he drifted awake, he resisted opening his eyes.
Alas, his revitalized spirit seed unwilling to let him linger in slumber, forcing him to reluctantly open his eyes. But Kanae was no longer there.
A sudden panic seized him as he frantically searched around. Then he noticed sothing peculiar beneath his head—this wasn’t the feel of a pillow...
Turning his head, he saw... a leg?
He quickly looked up, his eyes eting Kanae’s.
Her gaze still held a hint of confusion, as if asking, "What are you looking for?"
Sosuke stared, his face flushing crimson. "G-good morning..."
Kanae tilted her head, studying him for a mont before smiling. "It’s almost dark."
This only deepened Sosuke’s embarrassnt. He chuckled awkwardly. "How could I... uh... well..."
He didn’t know how to explain it. Was it a subconscious reaction while he was asleep? Or so other reason?
Before falling asleep, one of them had been sitting beside him, while the other had been lying properly in bed. How had they ended up like this after waking up?
He couldn’t bring himself to ask such a question. Instead, he carefully, stealthily, tried to slip off Kanae’s lap.
"Slow down," Kanae said, helping him to avoid straining his wound.
Suddenly, the door swung open. Shinobu, about to enter, froze at the sight of the two of them, her eyes widening in shock.
"Y-you... you two..."
Her face burned red, her jaw dropped, and the tray in her trembling hands rattled, the dicine bottles clinking against each other.
Kanae seed flustered as well, hastily standing up. "I-I’ll go check on the kitchen. Is his al ready yet?"
Shinobu was in no state to reply.
She watched helplessly as her elder sister fled in disarray, leaving only Sosuke, who wanted to escape but couldn’t.
Shinobu’s smile suddenly turned exceptionally cruel.
"Sosuke, I’m here to change your bandages!"
Sosuke nearly burst into tears. While the lap pillow had been an indescribably wonderful experience, the murderous tone of the girl before him made it clear that everything in this world cos at a price.
A bloodcurdling scream echoed from the room. Kanae stood at the doorway, gently patting her chest.
With her other hand, she touched her flushed, burning cheeks and gazed at the room’s entrance with a pitying look before hurrying off to the kitchen.
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