The Black-Hearted Blacksmith!

Su Ming's heart is truly black.

Star Luo Empire arrived happily, but left grumbling and cursing.

This is clearly the property of the Star Luo Empire!

The Star Luo Royal Family.

Upon hearing Star Cloud Douluo's account, Star Luo Emperor Dai Bantian was also furious.

"Cooperation is fine, but we don't need to use their equipment. Ha, I don't believe that my Royal Family's technology can't detect Rare Metal Vein and extract Rare Metal."

The reason the Blacksmith Association was able to establish such an agreement on the mining of Rare Metal was naturally due to its technology.

Techniques for exploring mineral veins and mining Rare Metal.

This is something the Star Luo Royal Family doesn't have, which is why Su Ming can so naturally take the lion's share of the profits.

In fact, Star Cloud Douluo signed this agreement with the same idea as Dai Bantian.

The agreement is signed; at worst, we can just stop cooperating with the association on mining operations in the future.

The most important thing is cooperation in other areas, such as how many Soul Master from the Star Luo Royal Family the Gengxin City Blacksmith Association can recruit at this stage, what conditions it can provide for their subsequent training, and other permissions in multiple other areas.

After cursing and swearing for a while, Dai Bantian suddenly thought of a question, looked at Star Cloud Douluo, and asked him a question.

"By the way, what are Rare Metal?"

Star Cloud Douluo's lips twitched.

"Your Majesty, Rare Metal are a new category of metal reclassified by the Blacksmith Association, distinguishing them from Ordinary Metal. The key difference lies in whether they can undergo Thousand Forgings with Spirit. According to them, some metals naturally possess extraordinary properties and can accommodate Spirituality, thus meeting the conditions for Thousand Forgings with Spirit. However, some metals have not yet developed sufficient characteristics and are not capable of bearing Spirituality."

Dai Bantian frowned and pondered for a long time before barely understanding the division.

"Are there any Rare Metal Vein among the mines controlled by the Empire?"

Star Cloud Douluo shook his head with a wry smile.

"I've already had someone investigate, but it's highly unlikely, because according to the Blacksmith Association, Rare Metal are much harder to cultivate than Ordinary Metal, making them even harder to find and mine."

He had barely finished speaking when someone came to report.

"Your Grace, Your Majesty, none of the Rare Metal listed in the inventory are found in the mines controlled by our Star Luo Empire."

Although Star Cloud Douluo had expected this, his expression was still grim.

"What about Fine Gold? There should be some in gold mines, right?"

"The annual production of Fine Gold is at most one kilogram," the official replied through gritted teeth.

Finding Fine Gold in iron ore is like finding a needle in a haystack. The Fine Gold that can be mined is only the size of a mung bean. After separating the ordinary gold ore, the amount of refined Fine Gold accumulated in a year is only about one kilogram.

Star Cloud Douluo nearly fainted.

He had expected Rare Metal to be very rare, but he hadn't imagined they would be this rare.

Su Ming told him that Zhu Jiuyang, Soul Douluo who originally possessed Grandmaster Blacksmith skills, lost more than 300 kilograms of Rare Metal from practicing Spirit Infusion to successfully Thousand Forgings with Spirit the first piece of Spiritual Metal.

Dai Bantian also learned about the loss of Rare Metal from him.

"Seize the young master?" He grabbed Star Cloud Douluo's shoulders and shook him. "You're talking to me about seizing the young master?"

"Over three hundred kilograms," Star Cloud Douluo said helplessly.

"Then where did they get the original Rare Metal?" Dai Bantian asked.

"Ahem, veins of Rare Metal metals are hard to find, but due to geological changes or some other reasons, some scattered Rare Metal can still be found. However, it is said that in order to study the Thousand Forgings with Spirit,' the Blacksmith Association has already consumed more than 70% of the Rare Metal that can be found in Gengxin City."

Dai Bantian fell silent.

"The Blacksmith Association's technology should be reliable. It's said that they've already found three ore veins, and the preliminary work for mining has been completed. There shouldn't be a shortage of Rare Metal for quite some time to come."

Dai Bantian fell silent again.

So, even if you have the skills of Blacksmith, you won't have the materials to practice without relying on the Blacksmith Association, right?

"That's understandable, but why should the Spirit Hall take 20%?"

"The cooperation between the Spirit Hall and the Blacksmith Association is mostly based on guarantees. Blacksmith certification is combined with Martial Soul Certificate, making the two one. Blacksmith can obtain certain rights in all areas that the Blacksmith Spirit Hall can influence."

Star Cloud Douluo gave a wry smile and recounted everything he knew.

"There's also the identification of Spiritual Metal. Although the Blacksmith Association is the professional one, the Spirit Hall is the most authoritative in the field of Soul Master, so Spiritual Metal have been authorized for identification by the Spirit Hall."

"Currently, there are only a limited number of Blacksmith 'Thousand Forgings with Spirit,' and the Rare Metal they can produce is also limited. Therefore, in theory, every piece of Rare Metal can be numbered."

"If we get all this sorted out, the value of Spiritual Metal auctioned off in various places in the future."

Dai Bantian he felt like he was about to vomit blood.

The Spirit Hall really didn't contribute anything!

"Actually, this 20% can be seen as the Spirit Hall taking it from the Blacksmith Association. Originally, the Blacksmith Association should have received 70%," Star Cloud Douluo weakly reminded him.

Is that another way to interpret it?

Dai Bantian raised an eyebrow.

That's definitely much easier to accept.

I'm not going to criticize the Spirit Hall anymore.

"Damn it, the black-hearted Blacksmith Association!"

They're offering some lousy technology and trying to steal 70% of the market share!

The mineral veins within the Star Luo Empire territory are our assets to begin with!

Achoo!

Su Ming rubbed his nose.

"Which cutie is talking about me?"

Su Ming had no idea how Dai Bantian was cursing him inside the Star Luo Royal Family, but he had anticipated it during the negotiations.

Heartless?

That's correct.

Creating a ruthless persona is the fastest way to elevate Blacksmith's prestige.

At least soon these forces will acknowledge the nobility of Blacksmith, because every Blacksmith is forged from Rare Metal.

What are Rare Metal?

Valuable items!

It may even replace gold as a more valuable hard currency.

"The cooperation with the Star Luo Royal Family has been finalized. The next step is the Heaven Dou Royal Family. I wonder if Uncle Ning will be able to proactively inform the Heaven Dou Royal Family."

Su Ming repeated it to himself and began today's task.

The threat posed by Tang Hao was too obvious; he needed to prepare a way to protect himself.

The Invincible Shield from before hasn't been used yet, but it can only block Tang Hao's first, not very powerful, strike at most.

"Even the Battle Armor isn't enough. My cultivation level isn't high enough. Even with the Trinity and the fusion of the One-word Battle Armor, I'm still far from being able to survive against Tang Hao."

"We still need to rely on the teacher. Eight-Ring Soul Douluo, with a set of... uh... a low-end version of Two-word Battle Armor, would be roughly equivalent to the combat power of Titled Douluo."

In the Dou San, Two-word Battle Armor was generally used by Soul Emperor and Soul Saint, while powerful Battle Armor Master would create Three-word Battle Armor when they reached the Soul Saint.

However, Su Ming simply had no way of creating Three-word Battle Armor.

He couldn't even create Two-word Battle Armor.

I can only make a low-end version of the Two-word Battle Armor.

What?

The low-end version of the Two-word Battle Armor paired with the Soul Douluo set offers limited boosts; it's impossible to increase the level by a major increment.

That must mean the teacher wasn't working hard enough.

Just kidding, of course.

Su Ming was improving Zhu Jiuyang's strength for his own safety, so he had to consider the possibility that his teacher might not be up to the task.

Hmm, one more chapter. Ugh, my hands hurt from typing. I won't update during the day after I finish chapter ten.