Chapter : 7

TL : eris81194
PR : Adrian Katastofi

“Here, take a sip of water.”

Chou Qiang stepped forward and handed a glass of water to Zhang Ping.

After Zhang Ping finished drinking, Chou Qiang smiled and said, “Not bad. I originally thought you wouldn’t be able to persevere.Looks like the school totally slept on you!. With your current performance, getting into the top three organizations is child’s play for you.”

“By the way, Uncle Qiang, everyone always refers to the Patrol Team and the Investigation Team as the top three organizations. But what’s the third organization called?” Zhang Ping looked up and couldn’t help but ask the question that had been bothering him for days.

Chou Qiang was momentarily lost for words, then shrugged and said, “I don’t know. Ren Zhu City has always referred to them as the top three. Everyone knows that besides the Patrol Team and the Investigation Team, there is a third organization, but no one knows what it’s called or what it does.”

“That’s so mysterious,” Zhang Ping said, surprised.

At first, he blamed his training tunnel vision for not knowing about the third organization. Now, it was clear: no one had a clue.

“Alright, forget about what the third organization is called. It’s probably some kind of secretive department like an assassination squad. Have you rested enough? If you have, let’s take a look at your first creation.” Chou Qiang changed the topic back to forging.

Zhang Ping nodded, got up from the ground, and focused on the mold.

He glanced at Qiu Qiang, who gestured for him to open it himself. Zhang Ping then grabbed the handle and pulled it hard. The mold slowly opened, revealing a knife that was black with silver streaks in front of them.

Silver?

Zhang Ping saw the unusual color and frowned, then looked at Qiu Qiang.

“It’s obviously a failure.”

Chou Qiang was not surprised. He smiled, stepped forward, and picked up the knife.

The knife’s shape was identical to the Ren Zhu Knife, except that the blade had many silver streaks. These streaks were unevenly distributed, lacking the aesthetic appeal of the red patterns on the Ren Zhu Knife.

He carried the knife to the testing platform, replaced the testing stone, and then swung the knife to strike.

The blade flashed, but the stone remained intact. Instead, there was a crisp sound, and the knife broke into two pieces, with the tip falling onto a nearby magnet.

“Clean it up.” Chou Qiang tossed the broken knife to Zhang Ping and then said.

Zhang Ping looked at the broken edge and found that the blade had many silver streaks intertwined with a red thread. Without any regular pattern, the entire knife resembled a tree trunk hollowed out by termites.

“It must have been the poor mixing and kneading that didn’t integrate the materials properly,” Zhang Ping thought as he examined it.

He silently reflected on his mistakes.

The main reason was the furnace being too hot.

He squatted beside the furnace, feeling like he was being roasted. If he had stayed there any longer, he might have started to smell like grilled meat.

Then there was his strength.

He was still lacking in strength, making the ‘kneading’ process very strenuous, far from being as effortless as Uncle Qiang.

After tidying up, he sat down next to Qiu Qiang.

“Rest if you’re tired.”

Seeing Zhang Ping’s exhausted face, Chou Qiang smiled and said.

When he first learned the kneading forging technique, he had fared worse than Zhang Ping, not even completing the first step. It was only under Liu Tiefeng’s pressure that he gradually mastered the technique.

Next, he gave Zhang Ping a more detailed explanation of the mistakes he made during the forging process. This was much more thorough than Zhang Ping’s self-reflection, and Zhang Ping felt he had gained a lot from it.

“By the way, Uncle Qiang, how much money did I lose from this failed forging?” Zhang Ping thought of the cost of the iron ingots and couldn’t help but ask.

Chou Qiang sighed and said, “About sixty thousand yuan.”

“…”

As soon as Zhang Ping heard this, his heart sank.

Even if he sold everything, he couldn’t cover the loss.

“Hahaha, you didn’t really believe that, did you? Don’t worry, it’s not as expensive as you think. I’ll tell you how to deal with the scrap later,” Chou Qiang laughed out loud when he saw Zhang Ping’s pale face.

But his joy was short-lived, as Liu Tiefeng’s cigarette holder landed on Qiu Qiang’s forehead, causing him to grimace in pain and clutch his head.

“Bragging Qiang, where did you drag this kid from? His talent is almost as good as Dashan’s. By the way, where is Dashan?” Liu Tiefeng asked, but as he spoke, he became confused again, his eyes drooping and looking dazed, as if he was in a trance.

Chou Qiang glanced at him, sighed lightly, and then patted Zhang Ping on the shoulder, speaking in a low voice, “Take good care of Uncle Liu for me. I have something to do, so I have to go.”

“Okay,” Zhang Ping nodded.

Chou Qiangstood up, initially intending to leave, but after thinking for a moment, he felt uneasy and gave several more instructions, speaking for over ten minutes before reluctantly leaving Iron Soul.

Inside the shop, the furnace fire was still burning fiercely.

Zhang Ping sat and rested, occasionally glancing at Liu Tiefeng.

In his past life, he had volunteered at a nursing home for a while, so he knew well how to take care of the elderly.

“Grandpa Liu, here, have some water.”

Zhang Ping got up, went behind the counter, poured a cup of water, and carefully handed it to Liu Tiefeng.

However, Liu Tiefeng didn’t pay any attention to Zhang Ping, just kept his head down, smoking.

A few minutes later, Liu Tiefeng looked up at Zhang Ping, and said calmly, “Alright, put the cup down, that boy has already left.”

“Uh…” Zhang Ping blinked, feeling that something was off about Liu Tiefeng.

Liu Tiefeng sighed and said, “Actually, I’m not sick, and I’m quite clear-headed. Dashan has most likely met with misfortune.”

“Then why…”

Zhang Ping put the cup down on a nearby table, looking at Liu Tiefeng in surprise.

If Liu Tiefeng’s acting was too good, when he first met Liu Tiefeng, he indeed seemed to be in a daze.

“I know Dashan’s abilities very well. Qiang wants to investigate Dashan’s whereabouts, but I’m worried he might also meet with misfortune, so I have to pretend to be senile to keep him from taking risks,” Liu Tiefeng explained slowly.

Although he wanted to find out who had harmed his son, he didn’t want Chou Qiang to take risks. He had already lost one son, and he didn’t want to see his old comrade’s son lost too.

After thinking it over a bit, Zhang Ping understood why Liu Tiefeng was pretending to be sick. He couldn’t help but ask, “But what if Uncle Qiang still goes on an adventure?”

“He won’t. Once that boy has something to care about, he’ll act like a turtle and won’t easily seek death,” Liu Tiefeng said with a bitter smile.

He knew Qiu Qiang’s character better than anyone.

Although Chou Qiang usually appeared carefree, he was actually very meticulous, which was why Chou Qiang had survived till now.

He had initially opposed Chou Qiang becoming an adventurer. Although Chou Qiang had verbally agreed, he had turned around and ran off, returning later with many scars and a more mature and capable demeanor.

Since then, he knew that verbal persuasion couldn’t stop Chou Qiang from doing what he wanted to do.

So this time, he chose to pretend to be sick.

Only this way, with a burden on his mind, Chou Qiang wouldn’t easily take risks.

“Grandpa Liu, aren’t you afraid I’ll tell Uncle Qiang?” Zhang Ping couldn’t help but ask after listening.

Liu Tiefeng looked at Zhang Ping and asked, “Will you?”

“No,” Zhang Ping said.

Liu Tiefeng laughed, “Then that’s settled.”

Alright.

Zhang Ping felt completely seen through.

“But Qiang was right about one thing; you have a talent for forging. However, Qiang isn’t very good at teaching, and he’s not particularly passionate about forging, so there are many gaps in his knowledge. In the next few days, I’ll teach you the true art of dough forging,” Liu Tiefeng said seriously, exhaling a puff of smoke and looking at Zhang Ping.

This craft wasn’t considered a lost art but was fundamental to the Liu family’s unique skills.

Originally, all this had been passed on to his son, but his son had had an accident.

Liu Tiefeng couldn’t bear to see the craft die out; it was a part of humanity’s heritage. If it were lost in his generation, he would feel guilty towards his ancestors and all of humanity, so he had to find a way to pass it on.

He had initially planned to write the secret techniques into a manual, but when he saw Zhang Ping forging, he realized he had a better choice.

The next day.

Zhang Ping woke up a little after four o’clock, looking out at the scenery outside the window, and he realized that he had left the school dormitory.

When he came out of the room, he found that Liu Tiefeng had gotten up even earlier than him.

Liu Tiefeng was sitting on a chair in the living room, staring fixedly at a sword not far away. When he saw Zhang Ping come out, he finally spoke, “Alright, follow me.”

With that, he got up and went upstairs.

The third floor was Liu Dashan’s workshop, mainly used for weapon maintenance, such as embedding special materials or gemstones into weapons, replacing guards, or redesigning scabbards.

Liu Tiefeng brought Zhang Ping to the workbench and first asked Zhang Ping to fetch some flour, then directly began teaching him how to knead the dough.

This time, it was real dough!

Liu Tiefeng skillfully kneaded the dough with both hands, smiling as he said, “Actually, Qiangzi knew how to knead dough since he was a child, so he might not even realize that the foundation of the dough forging technique is real dough. But he started practicing when he was young, so he has already mastered it. As long as you have the strength, it will come naturally. But since you don’t have a foundation, you’ll have to take some shortcuts.”

As he spoke, he put many iron beads of various sizes into the dough and quickly kneaded them together. In the end, the dough and iron beads fused into one, making it impossible to tell from the outside that the dough contained a large number of iron beads.

“Now it’s your turn. Put on the blindfold first, then knead all the iron beads out of the dough,” Liu Tiefeng said, stepping aside and looking at Zhang Ping.

Zhang Ping nodded, and after putting on the blindfold, he pressed his hands onto the dough. He found that the dough was very firm, clearly indicating that Liu Tiefeng had made the dough’s texture as close as possible to forging materials.

He carefully kneaded the dough and found that with the blindfold on, the texture of the dough became very distinct. He quickly separated the iron beads from the dough.

However, this process was not entirely precise.

Some small pieces of dough surprisingly felt similar to the iron beads.

He didn’t know how Liu Tiefeng had achieved this, but it certainly caused him quite a bit of trouble.