Zhu Jiuyang's Identity (Please Follow!!!)

After negotiating with Ning Fengzhi, Su Ming had handled things according to the situation. Since Ning Fengzhi had come personally, his sincerity was clear, so Su Ming's side had no need for any roundabout tactics.

However, the Blacksmith Association required more consideration.

"Lou Gao is truly obsessed with forging, so he'll probably be easy to persuade. I can handle him alone without much trouble. The key issue is the renaming and the series of collaborations afterward. Lou Gao and I definitely can't handle those personally."

The collaboration with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had only established an intention during the recent negotiation. The two sides would become partners in the future, but the specifics of how they would cooperate and what that cooperation would involve still required more detailed discussions. Those were not things Su Ming was capable of handling.

"After renaming it the Blacksmith Association, there'll also be a whole series of operational matters. Lou Gao and I can't do that. We need to hand it over to someone else, and it has to be someone trustworthy."

Su Ming frowned.

"Let's call my martial brothers over first."

Zhu Jiuyang had three disciples in total. Su Ming was the third, and he had two martial brothers. The second was naturally Duan Jin, the one who had introduced him to the sect.

When Su Ming had joined at the age of seven, Duan Jin had been a Soul Elder. Three years later, Duan Jin was now Level 39.

There was no helping it. He had been stuck at Level 39 for a full year and had no idea when he would break through this bottleneck.

This was the normal pace of cultivation for a Soul Master.

As Su Ming pondered, he heard the door of the Forging Shop being knocked on again.

He opened it and was surprised to see Duan Jin.

"Martial Brother, why are you here?"

Though he asked the question, seeing Duan Jin's excited expression gave Su Ming a guess.

He stepped aside and let Duan Jin and the Senior Disciple Brother behind him enter.

Su Ming's Senior Disciple Brother was named Huo Lie, Zhu Jiuyang's first disciple. Unlike Duan Jin and Su Ming, this Senior Disciple Brother had not become Zhu Jiuyang's disciple through blacksmithing. Back then, Zhu Jiuyang had not yet become obsessed with the blacksmithing trade.

As Zhu Jiuyang became engrossed in blacksmithing, Huo Lie followed him to Gengxin City. Setting everything else aside, Gengxin City's environment alone was highly suited to his cultivation, producing the effects of Mimicry Training. This was why, even when he had initially failed to understand his teacher, he had still remained by Zhu Jiuyang's side.

Later, through an experiment, he discovered that he could also enjoy the effects of a mimicry environment while forging, and the results were even better!

Thus, Huo Lie had fallen into the world of blacksmithing alongside Zhu Jiuyang.

Zhu Jiuyang had surpassed those before him and rapidly become a Grandmaster Blacksmith. Huo Lie, on the other hand, simply enjoyed the process of hammering metal and did not care for the result. So despite forging for so many years, he was only Master Level. Yet his strength was far from weak. He was a five-ringed Soul King with Soul Power as high as Level 59, and he was only thirty-five this year, still in the prime of his life.

Like Duan Jin, he had been stuck for a long time just before a round-numbered level. Duan Jin had been stuck at Level 39 for a year, while he had been stuck at Level 59 for a full three years.

This was clearly not Huo Lie's limit, so breaking through to Level 60 within one or two years was inevitable.

Another ten years after that, he would also have an extremely high chance of breaking through to Soul Saint.

"Xiao Ming, I broke through!"

Duan Jin's first sentence after entering confirmed Su Ming's guess.

"So, Martial Brother, are you planning to obtain a Soul Spirit for your fourth ring?"

"Of course!" Duan Jin replied with great determination. "Thousand Forgings with Spirit used to be the standard for Divine Blacksmiths. Of course I want to learn it."

"Have you chosen a Soul Beast?"

"I already have a lead. It's a six-thousand-year Wild Ape, and it suits me very well. After all, I'm not Teacher. I don't need a Soul Ring with such a high age. And didn't you say that Thousand-year Soul Beasts aren't very intelligent and mostly act on instinct? As long as we beat them into submission, we can form a Soul Spirit contract with them."

Su Ming wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Martial Brother, you only heard the first half. There's no problem signing a Soul Spirit contract that way, but your purpose in absorbing a Soul Spirit is forging. With a six-thousand-year Soul Spirit, this will probably be your only opportunity. Who knows what level your Spiritual Power will need to reach before you can attempt a second Soul Spirit?"

At the Spirit Connection Realm, one could fuse with a Thousand-year Spirit Soul. Only upon reaching the Spirit Sea Realm could one fuse with another Soul Spirit.

The Spirit Sea Realm was nothing much in the future, merely a standard for the strong. Duan Jin also had the talent to become strong, but the issue was that he was a Soul Master of the Dou Yi era.

Obtaining a Soul Spirit now would benefit his future Spiritual Power growth, but he had already passed the period when physical development offered the greatest advantages.

If he had fused with a Soul Spirit before the age of ten, he could have enjoyed both the Soul Spirit's effect of making Spiritual Power easier to cultivate and the benefits of physical development. The two could stack, and one plus one would be greater than two!

Although the twenty-three-year-old Duan Jin had not yet reached his peak, he had already missed the period of greatest benefit.

"Don't worry. We've already analyzed this. Wild Apes as a species aren't very bright. After beating one into submission, it should be fairly easy to talk it into it," Huo Lie said.

Su Ming froze.

That worked too?

A six-thousand-year Wild Ape...

Fine. It might be even easier to fool than Little Gold when he had just reached a thousand years.

"Then are you two setting up the magic array yourselves, or should I go with you?"

"Do we look like people who know how to set up Soul Tool Magic Arrays?" Duan Jin asked in return.

Su Ming knew it.

"I have something else I need to resolve first."

He told his two martial brothers about the collaboration he had discussed with Ning Fengzhi.

"You really have guts," Huo Lie said. "But luckily, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect should also be wary of our teacher's identity."

Su Ming's attention was drawn to the latter half of that sentence.

"Right, Martial Brother, what's special about our teacher? You never told us before."

Huo Lie hesitated before saying, "It's not a good thing, so I didn't tell you two."

Not a good thing?

Su Ming frowned.

How could an identity that made the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect wary not be a good thing?

"Sigh, let's put it this way. Teacher's biological younger sister nearly became the Pope's Wife back then."

Mm.

Mm?

Su Ming's expression changed instantly.

The Pope's Wife?

Whose wife?

Their teacher was not that old. His younger sister would only be younger still, and among the recent Popes, there was only one who fit the conditions, right?

"Qian Xunji?" Su Ming blurted out.

Huo Lie revealed a surprised expression.

"That's him." Huo Lie further explained, "The Martial Soul inherited by Teacher's Zhu Family is Sacred Fire. For generations, they have maintained intermarriages with the Qian Family, which inherits the Angel Martial Soul."

Su Ming inwardly felt that he had just learned some huge gossip.

That bastard Qian Xunji had nearly become his teacher's brother-in-law?

Good thing it hadn't happened!

"So Teacher actually held a very high position in Spirit Hall?" Duan Jin asked.

He knew less about Spirit Hall's upper hierarchy than Su Ming did, so hearing about the Qian Family and the Zhu Family did not stir much reaction in him.

"Teacher fell out with the Qian Family and directly dissolved the marriage arrangement with them." Huo Lie gave a bitter smile. "So Teacher has nothing to do with Spirit Hall now."

Duan Jin was puzzled.

If he had nothing to do with them, what was the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect wary of?

But Su Ming understood.

He had nothing to do with them now, but that could change at any time.