"Thank you both for your trust in the Order, I will do my best as the judge in this case to bring the case to a resolution that you both can find acceptable.
As I inform everyone who comes before me each of you will take turns presenting their side of things for me to get a clearer picture of the situation. I may also invite experts on the matter to provide additional information for my sake but also for yours.
When I have deemed I have gathered sufficient information I will then pass my ruling which will take immediate effect unless stated otherwise.
Well then, Tan Delun I think we should start with you first before we end with Wen Yingjie's testimony.
The floor is now yours," Yang gently said as he motioned for Tan Delun to begin.
"Thank…. You…. Judge… Yang Qing," Tan Delun said as his voice trembled. He had spent all his life behind the forge holding conversation with the refining materials but when it came to talking to people other than the regulars of the shop he usually struggled with new customers. It has been this way ever since he was a young kid and him being here in an unfamiliar setting set those feelings of nervousness into overdrive. The otherworldly beauties Mao Yunru and Luo Meili didn't make the situation any easier either in fact, one might argue they added fire into the easily nervous Tan Delun.
Yang Qing and the rest noticed all this and couldn't help but find Tan Delun's current state amusing. Mao Yunru tried to offer a comforting smile to him which only turned his skin redder than the furnace he was around in day in and day out.
"Ahem," Yang Qing gently coughed to force Tan Delun out of his stupor.
"Hehehe," Tan Delun nervously laughed as he rubbed his sweaty palms on his robes.
"As I said earlier my name is Tan Delun the 17th generation master of the falling meteors blacksmith shop however the shop is still under the leadership of my father Tan Ping the 16th generational master.
From our records, Master Wen Yingjie commissioned a custom-made saber from our shop. The order was made 9 months ago and it was my father who took up that commission. I already handed a copy of that record to elder sister Luo Meili.
As you can see from the record Master Wen Yingjie provided the materials he wanted for the saber to be made of. From the record, my dad also accepted some of those materials as payment for the commission of the job. The materials were; violet dusk metal, faceted oak, baleful jewel, orange frost deer horn, obsidian wyrms scale, a dangkang's tusk, and lastly falling aurora jade which was to be the main body of the saber.
All these are top grade sky rank ingredients and it was the reason my father accepted payment in the form of ingredients instead of spirit stones. After 3 months which is 6 months ago from today, my dad successfully crafted the saber which adopted the look of a willow leaf saber as you can see," Tan Delun explained. The moment he started talking shop all his earlier nervousness seemed to have vanished into thin air.
Luo Meili had handed the saber to Yang Qing for his examination as Tan Delun was explaining the details of the records which had been stored in the white jade talisman with the case details.
Yang Qing couldn't help but admire the saber in his hand. It was 44 inches long. It was sheathed in a black scabbard that had been decorated with images of golden vines with tiny leaves. Just from the workmanship of the blade's hilt which was pure white with some hint of orange most likely made from the orange frost deer horn and the scabbard he could tell the person who did this work poured his heart and soul into it.
He gently unsheathed the saber and was greeted with a smoothened, slender gently curving blade. It looked to be made of pure glass rather than metal. The blade was cloudy white with golden flashes of light flowing around the blade like something swimming from cloud to cloud. The blade's edge seemed blunt but a faint almost imperceptible thin violet coating wrapped itself onto the edge of the blade.
Yang Qing slid his slender finger across the blade as if to taste its sharpness which drew shocked looks from Wen Yingjie and Tan Delun. They both had seen firsthand how sharp that blade was. It could tear through low-grade sky rank metals or even an early-stage core formation expert as though it was cutting through butter. That was without even taking into account the violet coating that was as a result of the violet dusk metal used in the forging. It had deeply corrosive and destructive properties. If an early-stage core formation expert was cut by a weapon made from that metal even without considering the attacker's qi they would be left with an injury that would require months of seclusion to heal.
Even Wen Yingjie a peak core formation expert wasn't confident of passing his hand through the edge of the blade without risk of injury. The torn flesh they expected to see happen to Yang Qing never happened but what greeted them was a sight they wouldn't forget. Everywhere Yang Qing's finger passed sparks would be produced. It seemed like his finger was sharpening the blade with every movement.
"What an excellent blade even I'm tempted to have it in my arsenal. Yi Jie, here. I will be needing your expertise on this case." Yang Qing said as he sheathed the blade and tossed it to Yi Jie whose face briefly lit up when he caught sight of the saber before it went back to normal.
"Continue Owner Tan Delun," said Yang Qing.
It took a moment before Tan Delun collected his thoughts together and broke free from the waves of thoughts he was in from Yang Qing's brief display.
"Yes, as I said my dad finished the saber in three months and master Wen Yingjie was called to pick it up. He examined it with my dad and found it to have no issues and was more than pleased with it as he even gave my dad a few more materials as a token of thanks. He went his way after that and my dad went into closed-door cultivation that very day. He had reaped an enormous harvest from crafting that saber which gave him enough insights that he felt the barriers leading to the palace realm thin. My father has been stuck at the peak of core formation realm for almost a century that he almost gave up ever touching the palace realm in his lifetime. So when the opportunity came knocking he dropped everything else to the back burner and focused on breaking through.
He didn't give even the Thundercrane royal family a notice that he will be in seclusion and left all these troubles to me," Tan Delun said in an aggrieved expression towards the end.
"He has been in seclusion ever since then and this is the sixth month running. Master Wen Yingjie came back three months ago saying there was a problem with the saber but my father wasn't available to address the issue. The shop is handled by the two of us and he is the only one capable of making sky-rank weapons. So solving an issue affecting a sky-rank weapon is out of my pay grade.
I informed Wen Yingjie about my father's current situation which he was kind enough to understand and decided to wait for him to come out of his seclusion but we never expected even after three months he would still be shut in and we can't very well interrupt him as he is at a critical stage. Wen Yingjie was rather pressed on time with his matters and I couldn't help in as much as I wanted to so we decided to use an intermediary we could trust which was when we settled on the Order.
Judge Yang Qing we therefore humbly seek your guidance and help in this matter as I have nowhere to turn to with my dad out of commission and me being too inexperienced to handle the matter on my own," Tan Delun said as he bowed in humility.
Yang Qing couldn't help but sympathize with the young lad. He was thrown into the fire without time to even prepare or legs to stand on. Striving to ensure the legacy your predecessors spent their blood, sweat, and tears building doesn't collapse with you isn't an easy thing especially on someone as young as Tang Delun who was just a foundation realm expert now standing in at the helm of what is basically a top rank 4 organization with a widespread reputation especially among the core formation experts and other big shots and no one to turn to for help other than yourself. It would not be an easy burden to bear.
Wen Yingjie at the side couldn't help but sigh at this. If it was any other time he would have patiently waited even a year but he had a time-sensitive matter that he had to deal with at all costs and to increase his odds of success he needed a top-grade sky rank weapon at the very least.
