Years later, in any tavern.

The establishment was crowded with people, all drinking, singing, and celebrating another day of life. That tavern was one of the favorite spots for mercenaries, and after a dangerous mission, they would usually spend the entire night drinking there.

At one of the tables in the tavern, four people were staring seriously at the fifth person sitting there. Finally, after long seconds of silence, one of them spoke: "Are you saying that a young master from the Li clan has hired us?"
"Shh, speak lower. What if someone overhears us?" the person being stared at by the other four, the leader of that group of mercenaries, spoke in a low tone, fearing that someone might listen to their conversation. His name was Hu Tao, and he was a very experienced mercenary who, after much effort, had reached the pinnacle of the Body Tempera realm (the first cultivation realm).
"... But, yes. He said he found a map that leads to the tomb of the swordsman Azure, and he wants us to retrieve his legacy," Hu Tao began explaining all the details about the mission.
According to him, one of the young masters of the Li clan (a respected clan in that region) had met with Hu Tao to discuss a recent discovery of his. The young master Li had discovered a map that supposedly led to the tomb of a notorious (almost legendary) swordsman, who became famous for his grand achievements. The most famous feat of the swordsman Azure was when he saved a kingdom from a great calamity; they say that with a single stroke, he had cut through all the clouds in the sky that day, thus giving the name to the manual invented by the swordsman Azure; the Cloud Cutter Sword manual.
"So what do you all think?" Hu Tao asked after explaining all the details, even the most minute (though not so minor) details. He looked expectantly at his colleagues, barely able to contain his excitement about undertaking this mission.
"... Are you sure he's trustworthy? This is very serious information; I don't think he would want others to know about it so easily," one of the persons spoke, obviously unconvinced with Hu Tao's plans and seemingly nervous about this mission.
"Relax, Long Ming. You know I have a good eye for things, and I'm quite experienced. So you don't need to worry; I wouldn't be talking about this mission if I didn't trust our employer," Hu Tao calmly replied to Long Ming's doubts.
Long Ming continued to stare into Hu Tao's eyes for long seconds before looking away and sighing in agreement.
It had been approximately four years since Long Ming had left his village. Over that time, he had traveled to numerous places, living for a long time as a hermit, traveling from city to city, discovering countless new things, and earning money through hunting. After a few weeks, Long Ming decided to start working as a mercenary, undertaking missions offered by the Mercenary Guild (a prestigious organization of mercenaries).
That was when Long Ming met Hu Tao and joined his group, the Feng Gou. After so many years, they had faced numerous dangerous situations and overcome them all bravely, so inevitably Long Ming trusted Hu Tao's decisions fully. However, his instincts told him that something could happen on this mission. Nevertheless, observing his leader's unwavering confidence, Long Ming decided to support him in this.
"Alright, if you're confident about this mission, then you'll have my support too," he affirmed. All four nodded in agreement and decided to prepare for this mission.
After chatting until they were all sleepy, they bid farewell and returned to their homes.
As he left the tavern, however, Long Ming looked at one of his colleagues, a beautiful woman named Lin Fei, and said, "Fei'er, you can go home first. I need to talk to Gao Ting about something."
"Visiting the old man? I'll come with you; it's been a while since I've seen him!" she said, with a big smile of anticipation.
Lin Fei was a young mercenary, roughly the same age as Long Ming, who had started working as a mercenary when she was about twelve years old, after running away from home. When Long Ming joined the group, he quickly became friends with her. And after so many years, Lin Fei became the most important person to Long Ming, as well as the person he trusted the most.
Seeing no reason to refuse, he let her accompany him to Gao Ting's house. Gao Ting was a very skilled and humble blacksmith who had always helped Long Ming.
After walking for a few minutes, enjoying the gentle breeze of the night, they soon arrived at a small commercial building where, on its facade, was written: "Gao's Forge."
"Old man, it's me!" Long Ming knocked three times on the door to call Gao Ting, who should be sleeping at that hour.
A few minutes later, Long Ming could hear footsteps coming from inside the building, along with some occasional grumbling. Soon, he heard the sound of the latch on the door moving, and the next moment, the door opened with a creak.
Shortly after, an old man appeared on the other side of the door and began to grumble, "tsc, why didn't you come earlier, boy? Don't you know that at my age I need plenty of sleep?" Despite his grumbling, he approached Long Ming and greeted him with a handshake while looking happily at him.
"I see you've returned in one piece again, that's good," he commented as he observed Long Ming. Gao Ting was the first person Long Ming had met when he arrived in that town and had acted as a father figure to Long Ming over the years. Needless to say, Gao Ting was always worried about his health after each mission, so Long Ming always visited Gao Ting when he returned from a mission.
"Oh! My daughter, did you come to greet your father too?" right after checking that Long Ming seemed healthy, Gao Ting looked to the side and jumped in surprise, then a big smile appeared on his face as he approached Lin Fei to hug her.
"Hehe, of course, I came to visit you, old man!" she said excitedly as she returned Gao Ting's hug.
"Come in, come in. I have some medicinal herbs; I'll make tea for the three of us," Gao Ting said as he led them inside the building.
"No need, old man, I just came here to—"
"To see that new weapon of yours, right? But we can talk about that later; first, accompany this old man while we have tea. I want to hear about your trip..." after these words, Long Ming decided to accept the cup of tea.
After a few minutes, Gao Ting returned with three cups and a pot full of hot water. He asked the duo to sit in three chairs facing a round table and served the three cups of tea.
"Come on, tell me everything," Gao Ting said expectantly, so Lin Fei began to narrate their journey in great detail, occasionally interrupted by Long Ming to add more information or present his point of view, and thus, the trio continued talking for almost an hour.
"Old man, show me how my new weapon turned out. It's quite late already," after they finished talking, Long Ming said, eager to return home soon. He was feeling quite tired, and most importantly, eager to see the outcome of his request to Gao Ting.

"Tsk, anxious as always, huh? Alright, wait for me in the courtyard while I fetch your new weapon," Gao Ting grumbled a bit but went to his workshop, while Long Ming and Lin Fei headed to the house's courtyard.

The courtyard was located at the back of the building and was quite spacious, measuring seven meters in length and five meters in width. In the courtyard, near the door, was a small balcony with a table and some chairs, and in front of this balcony was a tree two meters tall and a small wooden dummy with several cuts and cracks.

A few seconds later, Gao Ting returned holding an object about 1.6 meters long wrapped in a long cloth. Seeing this, Long Ming approached him, with an obvious smile on his face and eyes full of anticipation.

"Here, I confess it was quite challenging to finish this weapon. But, I confess, it was a bit fun... do you want me to explain the technical part or will you test it right away?" Gao Ting commented, noticing Long Ming's obvious excitement.

After a brief thank you, Long Ming took the object and unwrapped it, revealing a polearm with two blades at both ends, similar to a spear but with two blades. Both blades were about 50 cm long and were fixed at the two ends of its handle, which was approximately 60 cm long. In Gao Ting's opinion, this was quite an odd weapon and he couldn't see it being functional in the hands of an ordinary fighter; he had even thought about rejecting the creation of this weapon, but after listening to Long Ming's explanations, he ended up accepting it.

"I had to make some changes to make it more practical, but I think you'll still be able to perform your acrobatics without much effort," after saying these words to Long Ming, the young man went to the center of the courtyard and began to handle his new weapon, spinning it a few times, making some cuts, and after some more tests, decided to attack the dummy.

Standing about three meters from the dummy, Long Ming took a step forward, quickly getting in front of the dummy and attacking it with a diagonal cut. Then, he took another step forward and made another cut before stepping back a few paces and using one of the blade's tips to gain momentum and leap to a considerable height, ending up above the dummy, and then stabbed down at the top of the dummy as if to split it in half. However, when his weapon touched the dummy's wood, it was repelled, and taking advantage of the repulsion force, Long Ming pushed himself up a bit more and landed a few meters away.

He then proceeded to attack the dummy from various angles, using diagonal, horizontal, and vertical cuts, sometimes spinning his weapon and cutting with both ends. After a few repetitions of these movements, he decided to be more daring and started to perform jumps with his new weapon, attacking in the air, and even including kicks and punches, as if it were some kind of unpredictable but beautiful dance.

Despite this, for some reason, the dummy remained intact, and whenever his weapon collided with it, a translucent yellow layer covered it, repelling his attacks.

After three minutes, Long Ming stopped attacking and approached Gao Ting and Lin Fei, who were sitting on a chair on the balcony, they continued to talk about various things, mainly about the neighborhood events, while having more cups of tea.

"So, did you like your new toy, boy?" Gao Ting asked, noticing Long Ming's approach and his satisfied smile.

"Of course, it's exactly as I imagined it, in fact, I would say it's even better," replied Long Ming as he approached a chair, then looked at Lin Fei and asked, "what did you think?"

"You seemed quite happy doing those spins and acrobatics. Why didn't you become a dancer instead of a mercenary? Honestly, you have a talent for these things," she replied provocatively.

"Have you decided on the name of your weapon yet, boy?" Gao Ting asked curiously afterward, as the idea had been entirely Long Ming's (with him only adjusting some parts to make it more efficient, besides making it), he left the naming entirely to Long Ming.

"Hmm, because it has two blades and is made of a bluish steel, I think I'll call it the Blue Steel Twinblade," Long Ming replied, somewhat proud of his name, as he left the Twinblade leaning against a wall and picked up his teacup.

"... you have a terrible sense for names. But alright, since the weapon is yours."

The three of them then continued to talk for some more time before the duo bid farewell to Gao Ting and went home to sleep. Before they left, however, Gao Ting handed over a box with a strap to carry it on the shoulder, to store the Twinblade, making it easier to transport.

Upon arriving home, they stored their belongings before going to sleep. Hu Tao had agreed that they would travel to the tomb of the swordsman Azure in a week; so they decided to make the most of this vacation week.