The Young Blacksmith (New Book Setting Sail, Please Bookmark!)

Huo Yuhao looked at the bracelet held out before him, then raised his head and gave Zhu Lu a deep look.

Zhu Lu did not notice the change in Huo Yuhao's expression. She glanced at Dai Huabin beside her and pushed the bracelet closer to Huo Yuhao.

"Be quick later. I might not be able to cover for you much longer."

"..."

Huo Yuhao took a deep breath, accepted the bracelet, and his voice softened considerably.

"Thank you. I'll return it the next time we meet."

In his previous life, he had been the Emotion God and was extremely sensitive to emotions. Though he had lost his Godhood now, he could still tell from someone's eyes and the emotions they gave off whether a six-year-old child was lying.

Her help was not simply about money. With a Storage Bracelet, he could pack his mother's belongings faster, and he would no longer need to carry an inconvenient bundle on his back while leaving the Duke's Mansion.

Leaving the Duke's Mansion was inevitable.

Even if he had not crippled Dai Huabin, he could not let his mother stay here any longer. Once news of his Martial Soul awakening reached the Duchess's ears, oppression was inevitable. Remaining here would only cause the events of his previous life to repeat themselves. Beating Dai Huabin had merely made the plan more urgent.

As for whether his mother would be willing to leave the Duke's Mansion, he already had a solution. This time, no matter what method he had to use—even if he had to lie—he would trick his mother into leaving this place.

Only after Huo Yuhao's figure had disappeared into the woods did Zhu Lu slowly withdraw her gaze. Looking at the pebble by her feet, she could not resist giving it a kick. To her surprise, it flew into a tree and, by sheer coincidence, bounced straight into Dai Huabin's head.

With a thud, Dai Huabin immediately convulsed as though he had been electrocuted, making his already serious injuries even worse.

Zhu Lu jumped in fright, but then she could not help laughing at the absurd scene. Much of the lingering fear in her heart faded, replaced by curiosity that continued to grow in time with her pounding heartbeat.

Who could have imagined that she had merely accompanied her mother to the Duke's Mansion, then been urged to get acquainted with this supposedly highly gifted Second Young Master, only to witness such a shocking sight firsthand?

Calling the entire battle utterly one-sided would not have been an exaggeration. A boy around her age, one who did not even have a Soul Ring, had effortlessly killed four guards. No one would believe it if they were told.

"What will he be like the next time we meet?"

Skysoul Empire.

Heaven Dou City.

After ten thousand years of change, its location had long since shifted. Yet in remembrance of the prosperity of the Heaven Dou Empire ten thousand years ago, the Skysoul Empire had retained this symbolic name for its capital.

In an inconspicuous alley somewhere in the city stood a rather shabby blacksmith shop. Its worn signboard was covered in dust, and the words "Old Tang Blacksmith Shop" could barely be made out. A few pieces of refined iron armor sat in the display cases inside, along with several swords and blades that appeared to be of fairly good quality.

A child who looked only five or six years old, with an utterly ordinary face, sat on the steps outside the shop. He stared blankly at the nearly deserted street before him.

The boy was Tang San, the God Realm's law enforcer who had just won the factional struggle in the God Realm, only to be betrayed by his beloved son-in-law and dragged into the Spatial-Temporal Turbulence to perish together.

Memories of his previous life kept surfacing in his mind. With his extraordinary wisdom and meticulous schemes, he had successfully won the power struggle against the God of Destruction. Then, because the Spatial-Temporal Turbulence that only he could vaguely sense had suddenly appeared, the other man had ultimately sacrificed himself to protect the God Realm.

With the God of Destruction and the Goddess of Life gone, the four God Realm Committee members who had seniority over him finally all left the God Realm for various reasons.

A group of dragons could not go a day without a leader. For the sake of the God Realm as a whole, he naturally had to shoulder the responsibility.

Yet just as he was about to be forced into taking full control over the affairs of the God Realm, Huo Yuhao, the Emotion God and his own son-in-law, had actually rebelled at the crucial moment and joined forces with the God of Destruction's remnants to launch a sneak attack on him!

At that thought, a vicious glint surfaced in Tang San's eyes.

"Huo Yuhao, I kindly raised you as my successor, yet you betrayed me over a Soul Beast. So ungrateful—you have earned your death!"

After merging with the memories of this body's original owner, Tang San confirmed that he had indeed been reborn on Douluo Continent. He had even returned to the period ten thousand years before he entered the Spatial-Temporal Turbulence, during the time when Huo Yuhao had been active on Douluo Continent.

Whether it was fate at work or merely coincidence, this body was also named Tang San. Once, he had heard his father muttering drunkenly in his sleep. It seemed that when his father had been young, he was often bullied by an older cousin ranked third among their generation, which was why he had given him this name. As a result, after this body's original owner had grown old enough to understand things, he had received no shortage of beatings and scoldings from his father.

His father in this life, Tang Ba, had once been a Clear Sky Sect disciple like Tang Hao. He had ranked eighth among his peers, hence the name Tang Ba. Later, however, he violated the sect rules, became a sinner of the Clear Sky Sect, had his cultivation abolished, and was ultimately expelled from the sect.

After losing his Soul Power, Tang Ba could only rely on his Haotian Hammer Martial Soul. He found work as a blacksmith in Heaven Dou City and was known as Old Ba by the local residents.

Logically speaking, someone from the Clear Sky Sect should not have been bad at blacksmithing. He might not have become wealthy, but supporting himself through his craft should have been no problem.

Naturally, the problem lay with Tang Ba himself. Though he had been expelled from the Clear Sky Sect, the arrogance of a disciple from a great Secluded Sect had not diminished in the slightest. During the first few years after opening his blacksmith shop, Tang Ba would not even glance at orders for things like farm tools. He only accepted commissions for armor and weapons.

But such items were generally purchased only by imperial armies, which had dedicated blacksmiths to handle them. Even when an occasional order leaked out, blacksmiths with connections would scramble over it. Such work would never fall to an obscure little blacksmith like him, whose shop was tucked away in the most remote corner possible.

Moreover, this was now the era of Soul Guidance Devices. The Skysoul Empire naturally prioritized Soul Guidance Devices and no longer valued armor and swords as highly as before. With demand dwindling, blacksmiths could only undercut one another relentlessly, leaving little profit in armor and weapons.

In comparison, landing an order to make a Soul Guidance Device could keep a shop fed for three years from a single job. Though blacksmiths could not create the core formations, they could make the outer shells of Soul Guidance Devices!

To catch up to the Sun Moon Empire in Soul Guidance Devices, the Three Great Empires had all poured enormous amounts of money into the field. Even a little spillover was enough to make them rich.

But as a typical conservative faction among Secluded Sects, the Clear Sky Sect despised Soul Guidance Devices to the extreme. As a Clear Sky Sect disciple, Tang Ba naturally refused to accept such orders. Whenever he occasionally went on drunken rants, he would even curse the Sun Moon Empire and Soul Guidance Devices in front of Tang San.

Just as Tang San was sorting through the original owner's six years of memories, an angry voice rang out from the shop behind him.

"Tang San! Where the hell did you run off to? Get back here and eat!"