Night of the Broken Gliph

Hearing him, Chan Lai Faat raised his snowy white brows. “Examine a gliph weapon? Such a minor issue. Siu Ching, you’re really good at making an old man work.” 

“Of course not.” Chan Ching smiled bitterly. “I only came here after visiting many metalsmiths without getting an answer.”

“Oh, now that piques my interest.”

He walked over slowly. Despite him having a head full of white hair, he could still move around swiftly if he willed. He opened the box with a flip, releasing the burning aura of the fire forged weapon. 

“Oh?” Chan Lai Faat gasped. He reached out for the rod that Chan Ching couldn’t even move. “What a great gliph weapon!”

“Old Clan Leader, this gliph weapon was claimed to be a grade two gliph weapon. However, I can’t see any gliphs on it. May I ask why?” Chan Ching asked. 

“Hehe, there is a small hidden mechanism. Or should I say a secret.” A half palm sized gliph that looked like clouds could be seen in the middle of the long rod. It was so small it even looked cute. 

Chan Lai Faat smiled gently. Excitement washed over his face as if he was looking at some precious treasure. He held onto the rod and slowly exerted energliph into it. 

Szzz…

With the middle white cloud looking gliph as the starting point, an energliph route slowly spread across the entire rod. But the original route disappeared into nowhere. This left Chan Ching flabbergasted.

“This… without a trace.” Chan Ching watched with his mouth wide open. 

“This is the Hidden Cloud gliph, a neat little trick.”

“The Hidden Cloud Gliph?” 

Chan Lai Faat smiled gently and nodded. Admiration filled his eyes as he stared at the rod. “The Hidden Cloud gliph might only be a low-grade gliph. But it works well with many other gliphs without affecting them due to its simplicity.

“The Hidden Cloud gliph can hide other gliphs after fusing with them, and until it’s been activated by energliph, the actual gliph is barely noticeable. It’s known that influential organisations and aristocratic families add the Hidden Cloud Gliph when tattooing gliphs on their disciples.”

“However, the condition to do this is extremely high too. If one wishes to tattoo the Hidden Cloud Gliph on them, the gliphist needs to be at least of the ten-gliphic state. The existence of this gliph is widely known, but not many have actually seen it. Southary is just a city located in the remote South, and there is no ten-gliphic state gliphist here,” Chan Lai Faat said absent-mindedly as he focused on the long rod placed in front of him. After some time, he turned to look at Chan Ching. “Is the Recording Gliph Stone with you?”

Chan Ching nodded and took out a palm-sized jade.  

There were complicated gliphs on the small jade. Chan Ching grasped the jade tightly and inserted his energliph. He might not have much talent to cultivate, but he still made it to the one chambered state.

After ensuring that the Recording Gliph Stone had been activated, Chan Ching turned to Chan Lai Faat and nodded.

“I am Chan Lai Faat, the previous Clan Leader of Chan Clan, and I am now going to comment on this grade two gliph weapon in front of me,” Chan Lai Faat announced. 

Seeing how seriously Chan Lai Faat took this matter, Chan Ching was surprised. The image of Chui Yim’s arrogant face made his face twitch slightly. 

“Firstly, the main ingredient is fallen star’s stone.”' Chan Lai Faat randomly slammed the rod onto the ground, making the ground shake. His eyes shone at the force of the rod. “Preliminary estimation is that at least 300 catties of fallen star’s stone was used to make this rod.”  

Three hundred catties… How heavy must that be? Chan Ching turned as white as a sheet of paper. star’s stone was known to be very, very heavy. Let alone three hundred catties, as a one-chambered glipher; he couldn’t even lift one catty. 

It’s as if a baby is lifting an axe the size of an adult.

However, Chan Lai Faat didn’t have time to look at how pale Chan Ching was. He continued with his commentary. “Next is casting. Looking at its appearance, it should be casted with a mould, which doesn’t require great casting skills. I won’t comment much more on it, but it’s suitable for a metalsmith who isn’t good at casting but wants to try making a grade two gliph weapon.

“Let me move on to its gliph next. This gliph weapon takes on an unusual route . This can be seen from the ingredients chosen.” 

Chan Lai Faat held the centre of the rod, where the Hidden Cloud Gliph was located; with it as the centre, numerous gliph routes extended out. 

“Chan Ching, what’s the benefit of fire forging?”

“It doesn’t require much skill when carving a gliph as the first step of fire forging is refining,” hearing Chan Lai Faat calling him, Chan Ching answered. He might not be able to forge, but he still had decent knowledge, being in the Chan Clan since young. 

“By mixing the main ingredient with the ingredients needed for its gliphs and refining it, you won’t need to mix the ingredients for the gliphs when you carve it, compared to grass-refining and water-casting. Because of this refining step, it’s an entirely different forging technique.” 

“That’s right.” Chan Lai Faat nodded happily. “This master chose fallen star’s stone as the main ingredient, falling fruit and sharp tooth man-eating flower as the gliph’s ingredient.” 

“Falling Fruit?” Chan Ching asked after hearing him. “The fruit that explodes when dropped to the ground? You can use it for a gliph too?”