Over the next few days I didn’t notice any other major mistakes the old man made. Honestly it was strange that he was having so much trouble with that one piece of metal considering how well everything else seemed to go for him. He was obviously more experienced than I had realized.

I was taking a bath in the river and contemplating. Maybe I should be freaking out about the fact that I was stuck in a crazy world of sects and cultivators, but for some reason I felt at peace. Simple work, good food, damn good wine, and I would never admit it out loud but the old man was good company.

I floated on my back and spit out a stream of water. Maybe it was lucky that no one was waiting for me back where I came from. My uncle was the last person left and he died over a year ago.

I got out of the water and threw on my only pair of pants. I needed to figure something out for clothing soon.

Deep breath in, Slowly out. It was always a beautiful sunset here. Perfectly framed by the trees around the river. I spread my feet to shoulder width as I sat on the boulder.

_______________________________________________

“Push out the energy through your feet.” My uncle's voice came through but I was straining too much to really pay attention.

“Straighten your back!” He barked while poking me in my spine. I flinched but didn’t drop the horse stance I had been holding the past hour. I was shaking by now but this was still just the warmup. He kept poking and prodding me until he was satisfied I was holding a proper stance.

“Alright. Knee slides let’s go. Hup. Hup.” The workout kept up almost the entire day. By the end I was drenched in sweat.

“You know all this fighting stuff isn’t very useful right?” I asked through gasps of air.

“Ha. At least you can rest easy knowing you could snap your boss in half.” My uncle's laugh almost echoed even in the small gym we were training at.

“But, honestly Henry, I know it might not come in handy, but I never want to see you get hurt. So in the worst case scenario, you need to be able to defend yourself.” The old man was a bit too serious sometimes but I didn't hate it.

“Alright, what’s rule number one of fighting?” He gave me his most serious expression.

“Don’t.” I answered with the same seriousness. We both started laughing as we got up to leave.

________________________________________________

I opened my eyes to the little river in front of me and felt peaceful. I haven't thought about my uncle very often lately. It still felt a bit fresh.

Thankfully the memory didn’t hurt today. He would have loved this place I bet.

I made my way back to the forge and saw Zhou, the guard, outside the old man’s house. I waved to him and he nodded in greeting.

“Zhou! How are ya?” I announced loudly as I approached.

“Ah- quite well, Sorry I just realized I don’t know your name.” He seemed a bit abashed by that.

“Oh right.” I started laughing a bit, I don’t think I’ve actually told anyone here my name yet.

“It’s Henry. Nice to officially meet you guard Zhou.” I stuck out my hand to shake and he looked at it a bit confused. Right, Probably a bowing culture. I stepped back and gave a mild bow. He bowed back, but he seemed to be stifling a laugh. Well it probably was funny watching some guy fumble through social interactions. I was bad at them even in my own culture.

“You as well. Though I can’t really chat, I’m just here to pick up the shovel I ordered.” Zhou spoke with a bit of a rush. I nodded.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Yeah I think I know the one I’ll go grab it.” I stepped into the little house and went towards the forge. The old man was working on a kitchen knife for one of the housewives. He didn’t seem to notice my approach. I grabbed the shovel I made the other day and took it out to the guard.

“Let me know if there are any issues.” I spoke in the most customer service friendly attitude I could muster. Zhou nodded. He was looking quizzically at the spade but simply thanked me and went on his way. I shrugged and went back inside. It was time to start on dinner.

The food was always fresh which was nice, but damn did I miss supermarkets already. Yeah, yeah, evil capitalism and whatever but holy shit were they convenient.

The simple dinner was served by the time the old man was done working and we broke open another jug of wine.

“Zhou came by and grabbed the shovel.” I said. He raised an eyebrow at first then something seemed to dawn on him.

“Did… Did he say anything?” I shook my head and swallowed the mouthful of rice. The old man nodded as he seemed to contemplate something.

“I just noticed we don’t know each other's names do we?” He looked at me with a serious expression.

“It’s Henry.” I spoke between mouthfuls of food and the old man nodded.

“I am Long Fa, I’ve been a smith for over fifty years now.” He spoke meticulously, as if choosing his words as carefully as possible.

“Yet, somehow, I have never seen anyone that handles material the way you do outside the upper sects.” That gave me pause. I scratched my head and was about to speak when he cut me off.

“The type of wood I use is called iron wood. It is meant to burn at a certain temperature. The perfect temperature for forging Iron. Well normal iron that is” The simple statement threw me for a bit of a loop. It was some sort of magic wood? Then why was the fire so cold?

“The only way to increase the temperature the way you did should be with qi. Yet you simply used it and suddenly the fire was hotter than should have been possible." He watched me carefully.

I swallowed the food slowly as I thought about his words. It didn’t make much sense to me. Maybe it was part of my cheat power? My eyes lit up when I thought about that possibility, but the hope was quickly dashed.

“I can tell you don’t have any form of spiritual power yet somehow you achieved the same results.” No power, that revelation hurt a bit. On the other hand, apparently there was something.

I took a breath and pushed it to the back of my mind. Either way, I would just do what I could for now. Maybe that was the secret to surviving an isekai. To hell with these expectations I’ve been worried about. I had a chance to do some smithing. I was going to take it.

So, I shrugged at him.

The old man could put back wine like nobody’s business and I was keeping up with him lately. So we drank until deep in the night laughing about stupid things. It was nice.

_________________________________________________

Zhou was a bit put off by the silvery sheen on the shovel he had gotten from the smithy. It seemed a bit too shiny to be practical, but the old man had been forging longer than he had been alive so maybe it was some special technique.

He arrived at his home and tossed the shovel to the side. Where it stuck into the ground like a blade.

Zhou blinked at the shovel. He hadn’t thrown it hard. More like gingerly placing it on the floor yet it cleaved into the packed earth like lightning through the clouds.

He pulled it out and dropped it again. Pinching himself between motions. It seemed more like a spiritual level artifact than a farmers spade. Falling all the way till the handle was touching dirt with only the lightest touch.

The old man really outdid himself it seemed. It was extra surprising since the only material Zhou could afford was the local iron. Iron that was famous for refusing to be forged by anyone below the earth realm. That must have been an exaggeration though. There was no way the old man was some legendary sage.

Zhou decided to simply accept the graciousness and thank the old man with some extra meat next time he went hunting. He was still preoccupied with finishing the paperwork that the visiting magistrate had caused when they reported the wanderer.

That and the other, more troubling reports that had been coming in since his arrival. It seemed Henry wasn’t the only person to suddenly appear in the woods nearby. Several other villages had made similar reports of wild people appearing from seemingly nowhere.

He could feel tears beginning to well up in his eyes.

_______________________________________________

Long Fa looked at the form of the obnoxiously snoring man that had been staying with him. He was soft hearted and boisterous it seemed. A bit wild but so far harmless. They had been drinking the spiritual wine again, and somehow the man could drink as much as him.

He wasn’t one to brag but he was an earth realm cultivator. He drank special wine that could kill mortal men with only a few cups. It was honestly impressive that Hen Ri viewed it as simply delicious wine. He had put away maybe 30 years worth of spiritual energy over the past few days before Long Fa had finally noticed it.

The reason he thought the man had no power. The energy didn’t coalesce in his dantian the way it should have for a cultivator. It was the way they recognized each other and could see power levels. Yet this man seemed to act more like an aqueduct for the energy. It didn’t stay with him, rather flowing past and through. He lacked the reservoir of power that all cultivators sought. It was almost tragic. Once Long Fa had noticed it, it was almost impossible to ignore, but since he used such a broken technique it was unlikely to be fixable, especially at such an age. Tragic, truly tragic. Maybe if he had found the man as a child he could have risen to the earth realm. Now? He would simply keep him around the forge. Honestly, even if he was an arrogant drunk, at least he was funny.