They cannot explain their own technical process of turning iron into "near-steel", so they come down to the realm of the occult.
In ancient times, many divine weapons were circulated, such as the Zhanlu sword and the fish intestine sword, which condensed the exquisite casting technology and wisdom of the ancients. According to legend, when the ancients forged swords, they would complete the sacrifice with the "living sacrifice sword furnace", such as the Gan General Sword and the Mo Evil Sword.
Cast with the "Sword of the Living Man", the cadre will and Mo Evil leave a poignant love story. Legend has it that Gan General and Mo Xieben were a couple who spent their lives pursuing the casting of a pair of world-famous swords. They forged famous swords on the orders of the King of Chu, and after many attempts failed, and then Mo Evil looked at her husband as a general, and every day she frowned at the sword furnace, she remembered the legend that the ancient "living sacrifice sword furnace" could be named a sword, and then took advantage of her husband's lack of preparation, jumped into the sword furnace, and finally made two sharp swords born. In honor of his wife, Gan will take the names of the two swords as Gan General Mo Evil.
In the example of the living sacrifice sword, in addition to the cadre general and Mo Evil, there are also two divine weapons that are also produced by the living sacrifice. According to "Wu Yue Chunqiu. According to the Inner Biography of Lu Lu, a sword caster coveted rewards, and in order to forge a divine soldier, he killed two sons to sacrifice Wu Hong and Hu Ji. However, he was mixed into the ordinary Wu hook, so he shouted the names of his two sons: "Wu Hong, Hu Ji, I am here, the king does not know the god of Ru", and the two divine soldiers automatically flew out and stuck to his chest.
Most of these kinds of stories are just legends, and in fact, in ancient times, there were indeed many sword casters who would "sacrifice the sword furnace of the living" when casting swords, which was a very cruel way. Now that a society that values science, it seems that this approach is full of blindness. But is the sword forged in this way really strong and durable?
In ancient times, science and technology were not developed, and the ancients would attribute what they could not understand to the field of occultism. They believe that all things in heaven and earth are spiritual, and the best weapons made of metal should also have spirituality. However, sacrifice is an eternal and unchanging habit in the folk, and the ancients naturally sacrificed for "spirituality" when forging swords. The sword caster hoped that the sacrifice would make the sword casting process smooth. After all, the ancient high-temperature smelting technology was not advanced, and casting swords was prone to accidents. Therefore, ancient sword casters believed that the assistance of living sacrifices when casting swords could not only reduce safety risks, but also make the sword come out, rich in the unique "spirituality" of people. The sword, which is rich in human spirituality, will be more convenient to use.
From a scientific point of view, the above view is undoubtedly not valid. But the living sacrifice sword can indeed make the baked sword strong and durable. Because when the ancient sword casters forged swords, there was no high-temperature furnace today, they just used the temperature of charcoal burning to burn the metal. Most of the weapons and tools used by the ancients were forged. The melting point temperature of iron is as high as 1500 degrees Celsius, so it is obvious that the temperature of charcoal combustion alone cannot reach the melting point of iron. Because the body stores a lot of fat, it is converted into a high concentration of fat after being roasted at high temperatures. These greases are high-temperature accelerants, which make the furnace heat higher than the melting point of iron.
To forge a strong and durable weapon or appliance, the key point is quenching. High-temperature quenching can remove impurities contained in metals, and weapons and utensils that have been repeatedly quenched at high temperatures will become strong and durable. This is also the case with ancient blacksmiths who repeatedly hammered iron billets. In addition, when casting swords, there is another advantage of "living sacrifice swords", that is, human blood contains a large amount of carbon, and the carbon in the blood will quickly produce carbon molecules under high temperature combustion. Carbon molecules fuse with high-temperature melted iron to produce a chemical reaction.
This chemical reaction will transform the iron material into a metal material that is close to steel. Steel is not only strong and durable compared to iron, but also not easy to rust. The sword forged with the sacrifice of the living is also more durable, which is why it has become a divine weapon among the ancient people. From this point of view, the legend of the ancient sword casters using living sacrifices to obtain divine weapons is not entirely unreasonable, but they cannot explain their technical process of turning iron into steel.
Why, then, did the ancients not sacrifice animals, but to sacrifice the sword furnace with living people? The ancients probably used animal sacrifice sword furnaces to replace living people, but they would think that people are more spiritual than animals, so the swords that the living sacrifices are more durable and sharp than those sacrificed by animals. From a scientific point of view, the reason for this result is that human bone contains a large number of trace elements, much more than animals, such as calcium, phosphorus, iron. In addition, the human blood also contains a large amount of salt. It is important to know that these trace elements are able to help the metal remove impurities, while salts can increase the temperature of the furnace fire.
Later, due to the improvement of production level, pig iron could be melted without "sacrificial swords", but there were also cases of "living people sacrificing swords".