Early the next morning, as the sun just peeked over the horizon, a commotion arose from the street, mixed with a few familiar voices, filtering through the door cracks into Martin's ears.
Martin opened the door to see many neighbors and acquaintances gathered at the street entrance.
Several neighbors were on the street, filled with righteous indignation, as if discussing something important.
"These pirates are truly bastards! They don't even let us have peace at night, waking me up! I need to demand compensation from them!"
The florist roared in public.
"Compensation? Talking sense to pirates? Are you trying to die?"
Susan loudly reminded him.
A farmer said in a low voice, "Last night, I was coming home late after drinking and heard cannon fire. I saw a Marine ship; it seems the Marines drove them away."
"The entire East Blue hasn't been peaceful lately. You still have the nerve to go out drinking at night. If something happens another day, don't drag us down with you."
Susan pursed her lips, a look of disdain on her face.
Martin listened carefully and roughly understood that the Marines and pirates had clashed last night, exchanging cannon fire. No wonder the cannon fire was so deafening.
He could also sense that the atmosphere was very tense; the neighbors all seemed a bit panicked.
Presumably, this cannon battle was too close to Orange Town, which would make the residents lose their sense of security.
"Martin, as a former Marine Lieutenant Martin, what do you think about this?"
Yor suddenly looked at Martin.
Goodness, why does it feel like asking, 'What do you think, Yuanfang?'
"First, tell me what you think."
Martin looked at the few people. It was clear that these neighbors already had a countermeasure, so he threw the question back at them.
"My opinion is, if something unexpected happens, I hope everyone can help each other out, so we're not defenseless when danger strikes."
"That's right. If pirates enter the town to burn, kill, and loot, we'll have each other's backs."
"Agreed. If someone shouts, we'll all come out to meet them."
Everyone nodded, immediately reaching a consensus: for now, they wouldn't go out at night, and if one family was in trouble, the surrounding neighbors, upon hearing a cry for help, would come to their aid.
After all, if they truly encountered pirates, no one could remain aloof.
Although everyone usually minds their own business, in a crisis, it's better to stick together.
In such a chaotic environment, mutual help was the best choice, especially since they had known each other for so many years.
After this incident, the prices of various daily necessities in Orange Town skyrocketed, almost doubling, and the cost of some special food ingredients also surged.
This made many ordinary town residents, who were already not wealthy, cry out in distress.
Martin was glad about the decision he had made. He always bought things in large quantities to ensure he had enough, buying enough at once. The various foods he bought last time were enough for his family to eat for two months.
He figured the Marines would definitely not sit idly by and estimated that the problem could be resolved within a month.
For nearly a month afterward, Martin basically didn't leave his house. Even during the day, he stayed home, either enjoying time with Robin or forging swords and practicing his sword techniques, living a leisurely and content life.
Besides teaching the children to read, Robin would also return home early. In their leisure time, the two would read books or newspapers together, enjoying their time alone.
As expected, the shelling incident made the town somewhat jittery, but under the deterrence of the Marines, no pirates dared to attack the town. It turned out to be a false alarm, and the matter gradually faded from memory.
That night, the cold moon hung in the sky, silent.
Robin was already asleep. Martin, full of vigor, put on his clothes and went to his workshop, beginning to attempt to forge an Excellent Quick Blade.
Over the past month, he could clearly feel his forging skills improving daily. The success rate for ordinary Good Swords had already exceeded ninety percent, and the time required had shortened to three hours per sword.
The production rate of fine quality items was also continuously increasing. As long as he was willing to spend time forging, the probability of producing fine quality items was higher. Now, the success rate for fine quality items was sixty to seventy percent.
Therefore, he decided to challenge the more complex Excellent Quick Blade.
To forge an Excellent Quick Blade, one must use high-quality steel ingots, preferably jade steel.
jade steel was too expensive, and ordinary towns like Orange Town didn't sell it. The only piece of jade steel he had was used to forge the Zanpakuto Senbonzakura, so he decided to try forging an Excellent Quick Blade with ordinary Steel Body.
Although the difficulty was high, Martin felt he should give it a try, or attempt to forge an Excellent Quick Blade using the forging method for Senbonzakura, even if it meant wasting some blood, especially since he had succeeded in forging Senbonzakura on his first attempt.
Clearing his mind and cutting off distracting thoughts, Martin held the hammer and began forging based on the Zanpakuto pattern in his mind.
The forging blueprint of the Zanpakuto Senbonzakura was as if branded into his mind, with no details overlooked.
Practice makes perfect. Martin's forging proficiency and technique had improved significantly this time, but a problem arose in the final step of the forging process.
Bang!
As the reddish iron, shaped like a blade, trembled slightly, it shattered the moment the hammer fell, turning into a ball of crimson flame and vanishing into thin air. The first blade completely exploded.
Each time he sprinkled blood, wanting to shape it with the last few hammer blows, the unformed blade would always break, or even the steel material would shatter into several pieces.
Followed by the second, third, fourth…
"Failed again. This ordinary steel material simply cannot withstand it."
Looking at the fragments in front of him, Martin couldn't help but stretch.
The difficulty of this Excellent Quick Blade was too high, and his success rate was very low, but he wouldn't give up because of that.
As the clanging of hammers resounded, forging began again.
It wasn't until the eighth attempt that he barely succeeded once. Although it was barely made, the quality was not great, only reaching the level of an ordinary Good Sword, and it was far from the grade of Senbonzakura's Zanpakuto.
It seems he can only forge one Zanpakuto. So, is a Zanpakuto mostly unique?
By this time, the sky was already bright. Unbeknownst to him, Martin had been forging swords for an entire night.
"Finally, it's done, but it's incredibly difficult to forge an Excellent Quick Blade using ordinary steel."
"Even using the Zanpakuto's forging method doesn't work very well. It looks like I must acquire jade steel to proceed with the next attempt."
"It's simply a waste of my blood."
Martin stretched, feeling his blood circulation was not smooth and that he needed some extra exercise.
He picked up the slightly failed blade and observed it carefully, finding a previously unseen blood-colored pattern on the blade. Although dull, it was very sinister, like a bloody crack.
Why does it look a bit like a demonic blade?
Martin assembled the blade, preparing to test it, but a knocking sound came from the direction of the workshop door.
"Is anyone there? Is Mr. Martin in? I've come to request a sword!"
A loud voice shouted.
Requesting a sword?
Business is here!