A Special Gift

Han Yuchen walked along the stone-paved streets of Nuoding City.

The sunlight was pleasant, warming him all over.

But words alone were not enough.

To make that old man Ma Xiunuo truly take action, he needed to give him something more.

A piece of physical evidence.

Perfect physical evidence that could nail down every clue.

He turned into the western part of the city, where the air began to fill with the metallic tang of iron and the smell of coal.

Clang, clang, clang.

He had reached the blacksmith's shop.

It was the same place as last time. The owner was a broad-shouldered, burly man, bare-chested as he swung his hammer.

"Boss, let me borrow your furnace and workbench." Han Yuchen walked in and tossed over several copper Soul Coins.

The owner caught the money and glanced at him.

"With that scrawny body of yours? Don't throw out your back."

Heh. Who was he looking down on?

Han Yuchen did not waste words and walked straight to the forging bench.

He picked up a pair of tongs and drew a red-hot iron ingot from the furnace.

His movements were as practiced as those of an old master who had worked the trade for decades.

The owner's hammering stopped.

He frowned at the Sickly Child.

Interesting.

Han Yuchen held the tongs in his left hand and grasped a small forging hammer with his right.

Soul Power silently flowed into the hammer.

Bang!

The first hammer blow fell.

The sound was wrong.

The owner's ears twitched sharply.

It was far too crisp.

It did not sound like iron being struck. It sounded like jade being tapped.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The hammering settled into an extremely steady rhythm, each blow following the last.

In Han Yuchen's hand, the hammer was as light as a stalk of straw.

Every strike landed with absolute precision.

A faint blue gleam, like flowing water, flashed across the hammer's face and vanished.

The compression technique of Blade of Flowing Water.

It concentrated force onto a single point to the utmost extreme.

With every strike, the impurities within the iron ingot underwent violent vibrations.

High-frequency vibrations with tremendous penetration.

Hiss, hiss—

Visible wisps of black smoke were forced out of the ingot and instantly dispersed.

At an absurd speed, the iron ingot rapidly became purer and purer, its gleam growing brighter.

The hammer in the owner's hand clattered to the floor.

His eyes bulged like brass bells.

His open mouth could have fit an egg.

What the hell kind of forging method was this?

A monster!

He was definitely a monster!

The man had forged iron his entire life, yet he had never seen anything so outrageous.

This kid was not forging iron.

He was giving the iron block a massage. He was purifying it!

Han Yuchen was completely immersed in his own rhythm.

The feeling was strange and wonderful.

Soul Power was not useful only for fighting.

It seemed that any aspect of life could make use of it.

It was like a top physics student suddenly discovering that Newton's laws could calculate the most accurate way to throw out garbage.

A dimensionality reduction strike was nothing more than this.

The ingot soon became a palm-sized block of silvery metal.

Its purity was terrifyingly high.

Under the sunlight, it was almost blinding.

Han Yuchen began shaping it.

His hammer strikes became gentle and rapid, dinging like rain striking banana leaves.

Under his hammer, the metal seemed to come alive. It was swiftly stretched, flattened, and shaped.

The outline of a leaf emerged.

Its veins were distinct, its edges sharp.

The owner had gone numb.

He stared blankly, feeling as though his entire worldview had been pinned to the ground and repeatedly rubbed raw.

A genius?

No, this was an immortal descended to the mortal world!

Before long, an exquisitely crafted leaf-shaped throwing dart lay quietly on the forging bench.

It was silver-white all over, gleaming with cold light.

Only the final step remained.

Quenching.

Han Yuchen closed his eyes, and his Spiritual Power sank into his body.

With great care, he drew upon that trace of cold, chaotic aura he had picked up last night while sensing Supervisor Xiao.

That aura was like a drop of ink, wrapped within his Spiritual Power.

Now!

He snapped his eyes open, grabbed the dart, and plunged it into the nearby cooling trough.

Hiss—

White mist rose.

That trace of evil aura was perfectly "locked" into the dart's metallic structure.

Done.

Han Yuchen picked up the dart and weighed it on his fingertip.

It felt good.

It was already a piece of high-purity refined iron.

But now, it carried the "scent" of evil.

A perfect anonymous letter of accusation.

Now, all he needed was a messenger.

He casually tossed several silver Soul Coins onto the forging bench as payment for the rental and materials.

"Thanks, Boss."

With that, he turned and left.

The owner suddenly came back to his senses. Looking at the money on the table, then at Han Yuchen's retreating back, his lips trembled.

"M-Master! Please stay! Take me as your disciple!"

His only response was Han Yuchen's departing figure waving a hand.

What a joke. I still have to go to school.

Nuoding City's commercial street bustled with people.

Han Yuchen put away the dart, shoved his hands into his pockets, and wandered around as if nothing had happened.

He was waiting.

Waiting for a perfect "chance encounter."

According to his sparse memories, Ma Xiunuo's granddaughter, Sisi, loved shopping.

Especially at a newly opened jewelry shop in town.

Sure enough.

After walking only a few steps, the corners of Han Yuchen's lips lifted slightly.

The target had appeared.

Several girls chattered as they emerged from the entrance of an elegantly decorated jewelry store.

At their head was a girl in a pale yellow dress, her hair tied into playful twin ponytails.

It was Sisi.

Han Yuchen unhurriedly stepped out from an alley beside the shop.

He calculated the distance, his walking speed, and the blind spot in her line of sight.

Now.

He shifted his steps as though he had not been watching where he was going.

"Ah!"

A startled cry rang out.

The two of them "accidentally" collided head-on.

A faint, fragrant breeze wafted toward him.

Han Yuchen conveniently staggered back two steps, his body swaying.

His face instantly turned "pale." He clutched his chest and began coughing violently.

"Cough, cough... cough..."

The actor in him had awakened.

His hand loosened, and the carefully crafted leaf-shaped dart "accidentally" fell to the ground.

Clink.

It made a crisp sound.

Sisi had been a little annoyed and was about to curse whoever had failed to watch where they were going.

Then she looked up and saw Han Yuchen's face clearly.

It was that Sickly Child.

Looking at him now, he seemed as though a gust of wind could blow him apart.

Sisi felt a little concerned.

"Hey, Sickly Child, are you okay?"

She bent down and casually picked up the dart from the ground.

"Wow!"

When she saw what she held, her eyes lit up at once.

"So pretty! What is this?"

The dart shimmered with an enchanting sheen beneath the sunlight, its leaf-vein patterns so exquisite that it hardly seemed mortal.

It was both cool and beautiful.

It perfectly matched a young girl's tastes.

Han Yuchen took the dart, smiled "weakly," then handed it back to her.

"Keep it. Consider it an apology."

Sisi froze, her cheeks warming slightly.

"Huh? Th-this... I couldn't possibly."

"Take it." Han Yuchen's smile was gentle and harmless, carrying just the right amount of apology.

"But there's something strange about it."

His abrupt change in tone successfully stirred the girl's curiosity.

"Strange?"

"Mm. I refined it from a strange black stone. It always feels a little chilly."

Han Yuchen gave her a "serious" warning.

"You'd better not keep it close to your body. Take it home and let your grandfather have a look. He has seen many things, so perhaps he'll know what kind of special material it is."

A carefully crafted line.

He had given her a gift, explained its origin, and pointed out its unusual "chilliness."

Most importantly, he had slipped in the words "let your grandfather have a look" without leaving a trace.

A young girl's thoughts were simple.

A handsome boy.

An accidental bump.

A gift that was both cool and pretty.

And a mysterious request.

In Sisi's little head, an eighty-episode idol drama had already begun playing.

How could she possibly suspect anything?

"Mm! Okay!"

She happily accepted the throwing knife, clutching it tightly in her hand, her cheeks rosy.

"Then... thank you."

Her voice was soft, a little embarrassed.

"As repayment, next time—next time, I'll take you to the most fun place outside the city!"

Han Yuchen smiled and nodded.

"Sure."

His goal achieved, it was time to slip away.

He coughed twice again, pretending to be unwell.

"I still have something to do. I'll head back to the academy first."

"Ah? Oh, okay, hurry back and rest!" Sisi said quickly.

Han Yuchen politely took his leave and turned to go.

Keeping his merits and fame well hidden.

After he left, Sisi's female companions immediately crowded around her.

"Sisi, who was that sickly little handsome guy?"

"Wow, he's so nice to you! He even gave you a gift!"

"The way he looked at you was so gentle!"

Sisi blushed even harder at their words, her heart sweet as honey.

She lowered her head to look at the leaf-shaped throwing knife in her hand, liking it more the longer she looked.

She also kept remembering Han Yuchen's words.

"Let your grandfather take a look."

That's right!

Something this precious had to be brought to Grandpa to show off!

Han Yuchen walked along the road back to the academy.

He turned around and glanced at the spired building of the Spirit Hall branch in the distance.

An imperceptible smile curved his lips.

The bait had already been cast.

Supervisor Xiao. Ma Xiunuo.

It was time for them to make their move in this game.

Now, he only needed to wait quietly.

Wait for that startled big fish to take the bait.