Establishing a Forge Workshop

When Old Jack learned that Zhou Qing and Tang San wanted to establish a forge workshop, his first reaction was—

"Don't be ridiculous!"

Old Jack was utterly speechless. "Xiao Qing, Xiao San, I know you're clever, but why build a forge workshop? There's already a blacksmith shop in the village. Although the villagers don't dare go there themselves, they have me deliver any farm tools that need repairing."

Tang San blushed furiously, but still stated his purpose. "Well, it's actually to help my dad pull himself together..."

"That actually sounds somewhat reasonable." Old Jack was surprised. He had not expected the two little ones to think of such a method, but he still shook his head. "No, you don't know how to forge."

"I do!"

Tang San raised his right arm high. "I've seen Dad forge. I know how."

"You? Hahaha! Cough, cough!" Old Jack laughed so hard he coughed twice before managing to suppress his amusement. "You're so small. You're barely taller than a forging hammer, are you?"

"Grandpa Jack, how will you know he can't do it without trying?" Zhou Qing firmly backed Tang San up. "He's incredibly strong. He was born with supernatural strength!"

"Born with supernatural strength?"

Old Jack recalled how Tang San climbed the mountain every day to gather firewood. Looking again at Tang San's skinny... well, now fairly normal child's body, he felt it was possible.

"Then let's give it a try."

Old Jack figured he would just be indulging Zhou Qing and Tang San's play, so he brought them to his home.

Once they reached the backyard, Old Jack pointed to an iron hammer over a meter long and said to Tang San, "Xiao San, if you can lift it, I'll have people build a forge workshop near Zhou Qing's home for you."

"Alright."

Tang San immediately lifted the iron hammer. His tiny body held up that long hammer, leaving Old Jack staring with his mouth agape. "He really was born with supernatural strength!"

Yet Tang San even swung the hammer around. The effortless way he wielded it shocked Old Jack even more.

Then—

He was overjoyed!

There was no special reason for it. With such immense strength, Old Jack was certain that when Tang San awakened his Martial Soul in two years, he would definitely possess Innate Soul Power. By then, Holy Soul Village would surely produce another Soul Master!

"Good! Good! Good!"

Old Jack agreed at once and immediately went to find people to plan and build a new forge workshop beside Zhou Qing's house for Tang San.

Being able to swing a forging hammer did not mean he could forge, but Tang San was ten thousand times more sensible than that bastard Tang Hao. Even if his path as a Soul Master did not go smoothly in the future, he could return to Holy Soul Village and become a blacksmith. He would need a blacksmith shop of his own anyway, so this could be considered building one for him in advance.

The original blacksmith shop, where Tang Hao currently lived, was already dilapidated, and Tang Hao did not know how to repair it. By the time Tang San grew up, the place might have collapsed.

Building a new forge workshop would not be a waste.

As the Village Chief, Old Jack still had fairly far-sighted vision.

If Zhou Qing knew what Old Jack was thinking, he would have considered Old Jack's vision a hundred times more farsighted than Tang Hao's, who merely muddled through life day by day!

After Old Jack left happily, Zhou Qing took Tang San to find the Spirit Rhyme Turtle. Sensing their arrival, the Spirit Rhyme Turtle crawled ashore and lazily lay by the bank, waiting for Zhou Qing and Tang San's "massage."

Helplessly—

The two could only first clear away the water plants that had regrown on the Spirit Rhyme Turtle's shell, as well as the impurities stuck to it. Then they applied medicine and carefully spread it over the shell.

After finishing, Zhou Qing and Tang San entered the nearby woods.

"What are we doing here?"

Tang San and Zhou Qing each held a stick casually picked up from the roadside, using them to beat the weeds in the forest. Tang San felt a little bored.

Wasn't this just a game village children played?

They would take a random stick from the roadside, beat down weeds with it, compete in "swordsmanship" and "staff techniques," and have the time of their lives.

If the children in the village discovered so many weeds here, they would surely be ecstatic.

But Zhou Qing did not seem like the sort to enjoy that.

"I have an idea—"

Zhou Qing told Tang San about the possible connection between Holy Soul Village's Soul Saint and the Spirit Rhyme Turtle. "Perhaps the Soul Saint entered secluded cultivation to make a final breakthrough somewhere near Holy Soul Village."

"The plant growing on the Spirit Rhyme Turtle's back resembles the Soul Saint's Martial Soul?" Recalling what Old Jack had said about the Soul Saint's Martial Soul, Tang San had to admit that they really did seem similar.

Then perhaps Holy Soul Village's Soul Saint had ultimately failed while cultivating to break through to Soul Douluo, suffered qi deviation, and perished in the forest near Holy Soul Village... That was not impossible.

"That's exactly it!"

With a flick of the thin stick in his hand, Zhou Qing cut a clump of weeds cleanly in half. "If Holy Soul Village's Soul Saint truly perished near Holy Soul Village, then as juniors from Holy Soul Village, we naturally ought to let him rest in peace. We can't leave his corpse exposed in the wilderness."

"That makes sense."

Tang San nodded. He had no particular emotional reaction, since he was not familiar with Holy Soul Village's Soul Saint, who had also lived two hundred years ago. Still, he said something fair. "The dead deserve respect. They should be laid to rest."

"Exactly. Then we can collect a little funeral fee." Zhou Qing revealed a smile like a crooked merchant's, making a dark line appear across Tang San's smooth forehead.

Funeral fee?

Wasn't this grave robbing?

But on further thought, they would be helping gather the Soul Saint's remains, then taking some of the valuables he carried to support their household. It did not seem like such a big deal.

After all, he was dead. Keeping those valuables would be of no use to him, right?

Having persuaded himself internally, Tang San's initiative rose as well. The arm he used to clear away weeds became increasingly nimble.

After walking nearly two hundred meters into the forest, Zhou Qing spotted a sheer cliff over thirty meters high, covered in trailing ivy. Sharp-eyed Tang San also noticed that the ivy in one spot some distance away was more concave than elsewhere.

The two exchanged a glance and hurried over. They reached out and pressed against it, discovering that the inside was indeed hollow, then began pulling the ivy apart with force.

Moist earth, moss, and insects fell from the ivy onto them, but neither cared. After opening a small gap, they crawled inside.

The cave was darker than outside, but it was not pitch-black. On the contrary, it was much brighter than an ordinary house.

Tang San handed the three newly made Bamboo Leaf Darts to Zhou Qing, keeping two for himself, and then slowly felt his way forward along the surrounding walls.

After walking nearly twenty meters, they reached another opening. Looking inside, they saw a hollow space roughly the size of a football field.

At its center was a small lake. Looking up, they saw a natural skylight overhead. All around, stalactites hung from above, while rows of stalagmites grew from the ground near the walls.

Around the lake stood strange rocks, covered in moss, Blue Silver Grass, and small shrubs and ferns.

On the right side of the lake was a winding path leading upward along the wall. At the point where its top connected to the wall stood a small, pointed-roof castle.

It was called a castle because it really did resemble the European castles Zhou Qing had imagined. Its only shortcoming was that it was merely a little larger than Zhou Qing's house, like the Mushroom House where Spirits lived in fairy tales.

"As expected, I was right!"

Zhou Qing was thrilled. Together with Tang San, he headed toward the little house.

Following the winding path to the entrance of the "castle," Tang San was about to push the door open when Zhou Qing stopped him. "You need manners."

Then he knocked on the dusty wooden door, beneath which moss grew, and asked, "Is anyone there? If not, I'm coming in!"

Tang San: "..."

Why did Zhou Qing suddenly seem so lecherous?