"Admittedly, the Inferno Blade Shinen is extremely powerful. But power also means that the difficulty and complexity of crafting it are on an entirely different level."
"And to forge even a single one, an enormous number of blades must be sacrificed."
"To synthesize the Inferno Blade Shinen, you need six Diamond Blocks, an Ōdachi, and you must fuse the Demon Blade Crimson Sakura and the Prison Blade Samehada."
"Both Crimson Sakura and Prison Samehada must reach six thousand Honor and three thousand five hundred kills."
"As for Prison Samehada, it can only be crafted by combining Blood Blade Samehada with the Yamato."
"And those also have kill requirements."
"The Blood Blade Samehada itself must be crafted from the Demon Blade Samehada."
"And Crimson Sakura must be crafted from Demon Blade Samehada and Blood Blade Samehada."
"All of these Slash Blades involved in the process are, at minimum, demon blades. The Ōdachi is merely the most basic material."
"On top of that, every single one of them has strict kill-count and forging requirements."
"Do the math yourselves, how many top-tier Slash Blades would you have to burn just to make a single Inferno Blade Shinen?"
"And how many monsters would you have to kill?"
"Yes, this blade is truly terrifying. Calling it the strongest would not be an exaggeration."
"But it wastes far too many resources and is far too difficult to obtain."
"Conservatively speaking, you wouldn't even finish accumulating the required kill count in under a month."
"In that same time, how many excellent blades could you have made instead?"
"And even the blades used in the synthesis, Demon Blade Samehada, Demon Blade Crimson Sakura, Blood Blade Samehada, Prison Samehada…"
"Each one of those is a divine artifact on the same level as the Yamato."
"Are you really willing to sacrifice weapons you painstakingly crafted, just to give birth to a single Inferno Blade Shinen?"
Ryen paused, then spread his hands.
"Think of it in terms you can accept."
"You'd be sacrificing more than a dozen demon-god–level existences to create one being that surpasses the gods."
"Is it worth it? Yes."
"But in the short term, how could you possibly afford such a cost?"
Silence fell over the room.
The Inferno Blade Shinen truly was an unparalleled top-tier Slash Blade.
As Ryen put it, even if an ordinary person wielded it,
As long as they could swing a blade, they could wound a god.
But…
This was not something that could be crafted lightly.
No, at present, it was simply impossible.
The prerequisites were too many, too extravagant.
Right now, only Ryen possessed a Yamato, and Ei had a Demon Blade Samehada.
And then what?
Even if both were sacrificed, it still wouldn't be enough.
More importantly, everyone had seen just how powerful those two blades were.
Even if Ryen and Ei were willing to burn them,
No one else would have the heart to allow it.
"Tch… It really is insanely strong, but it's also insanely extravagant."
Lumine pouted.
"The Yamato alone is already something I'd dream about for ages. Using it as a crafting material… I'll pass."
"In the short term, don't even think about it."
"I told you, bringing it up would only cause unnecessary frustration."
Ryen shot Venti an annoyed glance. Venti scratched his head sheepishly and said nothing.
"Still, the Inferno Blade Shinen is something we must eventually craft."
"And not just one, we'll need a hundred of them."
"We just won't do it now."
"The Yamato itself is easy enough. We've been slaughtering dragons nonstop in the End, so broken Yamatos are easy to come by."
"As long as a broken Yamato has over a thousand Honor and full durability, it can be reforged into a Yamato."
"In the short term, the highest-level Slash Blade you can realistically obtain is the Yamato."
Ryen then added a reminder:
"Don't assume that just because the Yamato becomes common, it's weak."
"It's one of the few Slash Blades with passive abilities."
"You've all seen me launch straight into the sky just by swinging the Yamato, right?"
"The Yamato also has defensive capabilities, it can generate blade walls to block ranged attacks."
"Even among top-tier Slash Blades, the Yamato is still in the upper echelon."
He spread his hands again and chuckled.
"Of course, for me now, Slash Blades don't really matter anymore."
"In front of my Sword of Universal Dominion, unless it's something like Chaos-tier or an End-of-All-Things Slash Blade…"
"Nothing can really be compared."
Ryen took out his neatly organized notes and said calmly:
"Last night, I took some time to organize the current weapons."
"I've marked most of the Slash Blades already."
"Take a look yourselves and decide what you want to craft."
"And the synthesis paths I mentioned earlier are just the basics, there are many others I didn't talk about."
"There are many weapons. Explore them on your own."
"That's about it for the Slash Blade mod today."
As he led everyone upstairs, Ryen added casually:
"Next, we'll need to build more mob farms."
"Slash Blade forging relies heavily on kill counts and Soul Gauge."
"And Soul Gauge is also obtained through killing enemies."
"Mob farms will let our Slash Blades level up rapidly."
"You can arrange manpower to build them yourselves, it's simple enough that I don't need to explain."
Everyone nodded, each lost in their own thoughts about Slash Blades.
Just as they returned to the living room, Ryen heard movement from upstairs.
Ningguang came down, rubbing her eyes sleepily.
Looking at Ryen, she forced herself awake.
"How long was I asleep? I didn't delay anything, did I?"
Ryen smiled and shook his head.
"Not long. I already gave them a general overview of the basics of Slash Blades."
"If you're curious, you can look through my notes later."
Ningguang sat down beside him and leaned lazily against his shoulder.
"Forget it. I'm not particularly interested in Slash Blades, and I don't know how to use swords anyway."
"We'll just let the blade-smiths mass-produce them later."
Venti immediately looked serious.
"No! Even if you can't use them, you can't not have them!"
"Ryen just talked about so many absurdly powerful Slash Blades."
"Like the Inferno Blade Shinen, one strike could injure the old man at full power!"
"And Slash Blades don't even require refined technique. Even waving them casually can raise your combat rating!"
Ningguang raised an eyebrow and smiled.
"Is that so? That does sound impressive. But I'm still not interested."
"I'm not good at close combat. The Witchery mod will be far more useful to me."
"Besides, I have Ryen, and soon we'll have resident blade-smiths."
"If I ever want a Slash Blade, I can just tell Ryen, or have the smiths make one for me."
Venti fell silent.
For some reason, he felt emotionally damaged.
"Oh, right, this is for you."
Ryen clapped his hands and suddenly pulled out a stack of Bedrock, handing it to Ningguang.
Ever since he'd been rewarded with the ability to obtain ten Bedrock per day, Ryen never missed a day.
Over time, he had accumulated several stacks, though he rarely used them.
Handing it over, he warned her:
"I won't repeat how dangerous this stuff is. Be careful when you use it."
"Don't worry," Ningguang replied calmly.
"My staff is equipped with an Annihilation Beam. Even if something goes wrong, I can erase the Bedrock."
Only then did Ryen nod in satisfaction.
Jean looked at Ningguang in confusion.
"What are you planning to do with Bedrock?"
"Combine it with Levitation Stones and create a meteor that I can summon at any time."
"One that falls from the sky, is indestructible, and cannot be stopped."
Ningguang replied with a light smile.
"I've wanted to do this for a long time."
"Back when we fought Osial, I had contingency plans involving the Jade Chamber falling from high altitude to crush him."
"Even if it's unnecessary now, I've calculated it, the damage from something of that size and height would be immense."
"It would probably rival Zhongli's Planet Befall."
"But the Jade Chamber is now my home with Ryen, and it houses many important structures."
"I can't bear to drop it."
"So I'll just make something specifically for smashing."
"When I need it, I'll simply call down divine judgment from the heavens."
"After all, Bedrock doesn't break."
Everyone looked at Ningguang with complicated expressions.
They were genuinely stunned by her scale of thinking.
But when you thought about it,
A Bedrock meteor really would surpass Planet Befall.
No elemental energy cost, enormous damage, reusable, and completely indestructible.
Imagining Ningguang in future battles, repeatedly summoning Bedrock meteors to crush enemies,
Magnificent.
"Bedrock… what exactly is that?"
Kujou Sara asked curiously.
Ningguang explained:
"It's a unique block in this world, usually serving as the fundamental support of the world itself."
"In an absolute sense, it's indestructible and immovable."
"Even the Heavenly Principles can't damage it."
"Of course, it can be destroyed by an Annihilation Beam or a Naga's charge."
"But aside from that, we haven't found any other way to break it."
Kujou Sara was astonished.
"So powerful… wouldn't this be the perfect material for defensive fortifications?"
"In theory, yes."
Ryen shook his head.
"But Bedrock is extremely scarce."
"I can only obtain ten pieces per day."
"As for the natural Bedrock in this world…"
"There's plenty of it, but as I said, it can't be mined or dismantled."
"So placing Bedrock must be done carefully."
"If you put it in the wrong place, it's there forever."
"And if you use an Annihilation Beam on it, nothing will be left behind."
Kujou Sara sighed regretfully.
"What a pity… If we had more Bedrock, so many projects would be perfect."
Still, she now fully understood the terror of a Bedrock meteor.
That thing,
Simply cannot be destroyed.
Whoever gets hit is utterly doomed.
"I've studied Bedrock before,"
Albedo said softly.
"Based on my observations, it has no internal density space whatsoever."
"In essence, it's a condensed manifestation of laws."
"A physical embodiment of the Law of Solidity."
"That Bedrock block is still in my laboratory."
"I can't dismantle it, and it takes up quite a bit of space…"
He rubbed his temple with a headache.
"If I'd known, I wouldn't have placed it there…"
"If it's a hassle, just erase it with an Annihilation Beam," Ryen suggested casually.
Albedo smiled bitterly.
"I'll pass. If I do that, my entire laboratory might disappear."
After chatting and laughing for a while, footsteps from the Millelith sounded outside.
Ryen checked the time, it was about right.
The Millelith were arriving with the daily material delivery.
He stood up happily.
"Let's go. The Millelith brought more good stuff."
"I'm guessing there's another batch of Witchery specialty ores this time."
As he spoke, Ryen turned to Albedo, paused, and teased:
"Looks like you're about to get busy again."