What About You?

13: blacksmiths

Wei Kuo managed to make it back to his room before his younger brother woke up, so both of them were happy even if one was in ignorance. After that, breakfast went as usual with casual small talk and what would be happening that day. Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng went to swordmanship training as Jiang Fengmian and Wei Kuo headed over to the forge.

The sun was partway to its height as the two walked into the fiery place, where two of the Jiang's blacksmiths were already hard at work. "Ah, clan leader!" The two paused in their movements to greet their employer, who nodded to them in return.

"It's good to see you both," He smiled, then put a hand on Wei Kuo's back to guide him forward slightly. "I came to introduce a new blacksmith: this is Wei Zexian, courtesy name Kuo."

"I look forward to working with you," The boy smiled as he offered them a respectful bow.

"Ah," The two exchanged a brief confused look before plastering bright smiles on their faces and returning the gesture. "Yes, we look forward to working with you as well."

"Then I'll leave you to it," Jiang Fengmian patted his charge on the shoulder. "Let me know if you need anything, and I'll see you at lunch."

"Actually," Wei Kuo corrected. "You might not see me for a while, since I usually don't come out of the forge until I'm done with my pieces."

"Oh," The clan leader blinked. A frown pressed his lips downwards for a moment before he nodded. "Then I'll have someone bring you food and water. All I ask is that you eat at least twice a day, is that understood?"

"Yeah sure," He gave him a thumbs up, so with that settled, the man was on his way and Wei Kuo was now alone with the two other blacksmiths. They were staring him down as he just smiled as pleasantly as he could. "So, what's the plan?"

"So you're a blacksmith, huh?" One of them scoffed, crossing his arms. "I don't buy it."

"Is the clan leader just letting his bastard kid dabble in forging for the fun of it? How irresponsible," The other agreed, shaking his head. "Listen kid, it's better to just leave and not cause anymore trouble."

"Oh don't worry," He maintained his friendly expression. "I won't get in the way, so feel free to ignore me. That'd be best for everyone, yes?"

"Ha," The first to have spoken huffed with a smirk. "Alright, but don't go crying to your father if you get hurt."

"My father is dead," Wei Kuo suddenly had a very different and very not friendly aura around him, though he was still smiling. "So I'd appreciate it if we could leave it at that."

"Yeah, that was uncalled for Min Yan," The other looked a bit nervous, his eyes flitting between the other two.

"Eh, we'll never know who your real father is, how will we?" He didn't seem to want to give up, still displaying a patronizing smirk as he taunted the boy in front of him. "How does it feel to be a bastard child? Madame Yu probably can't stand the sight of you because you're living proof of the clan leader's affair."

"Slandering me is one thing, but saying such things about the patriarch? That's too much," Wei Kuo shook his head with a purse of his lips. His daggers thrummed, as if waiting to be unleashed. However, that was not what he had made them for.

The one he had made for human blood was Juedui. Luckily for the idiot in front of him, he wasn't the type to kill someone just for a few words. However, he was more than willing to dismember them, and so, that's what he did.

Juedui whizzed through the air with blood coating it's pitch black blade, and a chunk of flesh fell to the ground as the sword returned to its master's hand. That chunk of flesh just happened to be the man's penis.

Obviously, screams rang out, but Wei Kuo slapped a silencing charm on the wall of the forge before the sound could get far enough to alert anyone. "Y-you--"

"Save your breath," His eyes were as sharp as his words. "All I came here to do was make some stuff, but you just had to pick a fight? Not the smartest move. Now, I was pondering taking one of your fingers, but I didn't want to make it harder for you to work, not to mention this made more sense to me since this way, you wouldn't be able to make any bastards of your own," He smiled sweetly. "Isn't that great?"

The two cowering in fear realized the magnitude of their mistake: this was Wei Kuo, a mercenary with unrivaled cultivation skills. Ordinary people like them stood no chance, especially in this world where being a cultivator was everything. No one would care about this so called injustice. And so, they sucked it up, accepted their new reality, and somehow excused themselves to go take care of the bleeding.

"Wow, you feel really happy," Wei Kuo remarked as he held his sword, which was pulsing. The sword spirit must be very pleased at being used to put douches in their places. "I'm surprised you aren't disgusted, cause I sure am. You are getting a bath."

With that said, the boy got to work cleaning Juedui. He made sure to scrub it as hard as he could, until the black metal was practically sparkling. The sword spirit seemed pretty content with how clean it was as well, so after a few more scrubs to make sure there was absolutely no chance of some dick piece being left on the sword somewhere, Wei Kuo eventually returned it to its sheath. "Now that that's done," He murmured, his hands on his hips as he glanced around the forge. "Might as well take a look around so I know where everything is."

The rest of the day was spent memorizing where everything was, and so with barely any time to spare, the boy managed to make it in time for family dinner where he got some very interesting news.