Copper Embryo

Although I didn't expect them to reach any particularly high realm, it was still quite possible to spend money and smash them into the entry-level realm.

Once they became cultivators, the temptation of eight hundred years was no joke. It was a single step to the heavens.

All right.

It seemed this wasn't much of a temptation for this group of blacksmiths, either.

But in the end, I could take advantage of this opportunity to cultivate a resource supply that produced low-grade Spirit Rice.

That way, without leaving home to trade with others, I would have gathered the two major resources needed for cultivation.

At that moment.

Su Yu Niang kept reading while the blacksmiths worked until noon. The dormitory had been preliminarily completed.

"It's done!"

"We have a house!"

As the blacksmiths looked at the fruits of their own hard work, a deep sense of achievement welled up in their hearts.

This was the joy of the farming crowd. Unless you experienced it yourself, you couldn't understand the accomplishment of building a work brick by brick.

Next came the delightful lunchtime feast. After eating, they would go to the dormitory to experience their new home, lie down on the iron mesh for an afternoon nap, log off, and take the opportunity to eat lunch in the real world.

At noon, Jiu Cai Rong finally logged on.

He was gloomy and dispirited, no longer as lively as before.

Ning Zheng didn't know what had happened to him that he couldn't get over, so he worriedly asked several blacksmiths. They only said tactfully, "Spring has arrived, and the greenery is flourishing."

Ning Zheng's face filled with question marks.

But in the end, it didn't affect their work.

He soon led everyone into action, beginning to build a Blacksmith Shop above the dormitory.

It was called a Blacksmith Shop, but in reality it was an open-air stall. They simply moved over various forging furnaces and machines. It was very convenient, and before long, everything had been set up.

At one o'clock, work officially began!

Jiu Cai Rong even arranged a ribbon-cutting ceremony with great ceremony.

He also burned three sticks of incense and asked a player who made cakes to use mud to shape delicacies such as Roast Pig, Roast Chicken, and braised pork.

Finally, he lifted the red cloth covering the forging furnace and announced:

"Sword Forging Manor is reopening! Let's grow bigger and stronger and create new glories!"

There was really nothing novel about it. Jiu Cai Rong looked utterly listless and perfunctory, without much enthusiasm.

Mining.

Smelting.

Forging.

They began working in three waves of volunteers among the blacksmiths.

Although they started eating as soon as they entered the Blacksmith Shop.

They even gave their evaluation:

Magic Copper was soft in texture, with fine, threadlike layers. Its flavor resembled the finest ham, with a rich, distinctive taste, clearly defined layers, and a full-bodied mouthfeel.

After eating their fill, they hammered iron. Everyone was fumbling around, and the little toys forged in the Blacksmith Shop were a chaotic mess. Even the finished products were bizarre.

Some people held the little toys and gestured up and down, wearing lewd, teasing expressions as they exchanged knowing looks. Some lolis saw this and cursed them as perverts and creeps.

There was cheerful horseplay.

In their games, they chased one another around.

In short, it was filled with the unique youthfulness of young people.

If this had been the former Old Steward, he would have lashed them with a whip on the spot: "You aren't working! What are you playing at here? This isn't a place for you to flirt and court!"

But Ning Zheng turned a blind eye, continuing to cultivate, read books, and drink tea in a rocking chair in the distance, enjoying a pleasant afternoon tea.

He felt that this was how things should be.

In any case, they were paying him rather generously.

The moment he thought of the 1,500 that had been added to his account today from opening the Blacksmith Shop, delight filled his heart.

This shop was surprisingly profitable!

Moreover, if they continued like this, he probably wouldn't need to come supervise them in the future. He could cultivate peacefully at the foot of the mountain.

At sunset.

Ning Zheng cultivated alone the entire time and only went to the Blacksmith Shop before leaving.

As soon as he entered, a wave of heat struck him, accompanied by the clang-clang of metal. The place was ablaze with activity, and their roars were even more impassioned.

This left Ning Zheng somewhat baffled. Why were they so excited just from hammering iron, as if they were going into battle?

After making a round and looking over the results of their day's work, he found that they had produced something reasonably presentable.

After all, blacksmithing was easy to learn but difficult to master.

Who couldn't swing a sledgehammer?

Heat the metal red-hot, hammer it into shape, and that was basically it.

Money Boy was incredibly strong and was unexpectedly well suited for blacksmithing. Unlike the human slaves, he didn't collapse after working for a short while.

These players had genuinely put in some effort, too. They had probably begun studying basic blacksmithing techniques after logging off the previous day, and now they looked fairly competent.

Although the circle of blacksmith players was small, there was a foreign forging program of this sort that was extraordinarily popular. Quite a few people had stayed up late to binge several seasons.

Modern forging technology far surpassed that of ancient times. There was no such thing as "the older, the more advanced," or "the more purely handmade, the more likely it was to produce divine weapons."

With the help of modern machines such as Power Hammers, grinding machines, and hydraulic presses, modern people could use brute force to work miracles, completing forging processes that ancient blacksmiths would have needed dozens of days to finish.

There were also all kinds of specialized steels, such as Damascus Steel and High Carbon Steel, materials that would have been considered peerless treasures in ancient times. Even the processes of quenching and tempering had been refined through repeated scientific study.

Forging had become an art!

Through repeated twisting, repeated hammering, folding, and other techniques, one could give the finished product naturally formed, extraordinarily gorgeous patterns. Through specific forging sequences and methods, one could produce Twist Pattern, Feather Pattern, Water Drop Pattern, and Rose Pattern, beautiful and resplendent like a starry night.

Every forging session was like opening a blind box, filled with anticipation for the pattern!

But after coming here, they discovered that many modern forging techniques couldn't be used, leaving many of them able to forge only with the most primitive method of swinging a sledgehammer.

In just one afternoon, the blacksmiths were already suffering bitterly and complaining nonstop. A group of technically minded, hands-on nerds had begun researching ways to slack off, gathering around to discuss how to create the three major machines: a Power Hammer, grinding machine, and hydraulic press.

Their plan was to find blueprints for such machines outside the game, then find a friend who specialized in mechanical design to help them devise a plan suited to local conditions.

If they didn't get auxiliary tools up and running, when would they?

After all, humans were creatures that relied on their brains. Without tools, how were they any different from beasts? A modernized blacksmith shop, or even a semi-automated DIY production line, was their future.

Before long, a group of people had squatted around a table in the distance and begun drawing blueprints for various parts. The lines were dense, and they discussed things frantically, spraying spittle everywhere.

At that moment, Jiu Cai Rong also brought over several players' proudest creations.

A Copper Hammer, a Bronze Sword, a Copper Knife, and a Copper Bow.

They looked a little rough.

But Ning Zheng didn't have particularly high expectations. The first step in forging a magical artifact was shaping it and producing an embryo.

As for firearms?

They had thought of making those first, but after getting started, they discovered that the idea was beautiful, while the reality was cruel. The various parts were so precise that making them entirely by hand was pure torture.

"Huh?"

Ning Zheng picked up a Bronze Sword with a distinctly different style and examined it.

What was this thing?

Had these blacksmiths really forged it?

On the bronze blade, strands of gorgeous, fluffy, delicate feathers had seeped into the ancient-bronze-colored sword body. They were as fine as silk, and its refined, otherworldly elegance made it resemble a sword carried by an immortal. It was breathtakingly beautiful!

Even Ning Zheng, an ignorant blacksmith, was instantly dazzled on the spot.

Only after a moment did he recover. Seeing the delighted looks of the surrounding players, he offered his approval: "This Bronze Sword is unexpectedly quite good."

He had never seen such magnificent technique before. Even the Demon People in the Mountain Villa couldn't do it.

Fortunately, he had merely been muddling through and putting on an act for them. If he had demonstrated his forging skills himself, it would have been far too embarrassing.

"I forged it." A player named Dao Jiujiu hurried forward to claim credit. "My family has been blacksmiths for four generations. My father used to forge farm tools in our village."

"This is called Feather Pattern. It wasn't carved on by hand. It was created through folding and repeated hammering with a certain technique during the forging process. Fortunately, Magic Copper is very soft, so it's easy to fold and hammer repeatedly, and polishing it is simple too. If the material were hard and there were no forging press to help, it would take several days just to finish."

Clearly, he was a genuine blacksmithing enthusiast in real life who had been drawn over by the blacksmithing game.

Speaking of which, this game was rather ridiculous.

A whole group of people had produced only one genuine blacksmithing enthusiast.

But he was a technical nerd and wasn't very good with words, so two socially overpowered players had stolen his thunder, though one of them had inexplicably turned socially anxious.

"Work hard, kid." Ning Zheng patted Dao Jiujiu on the shoulder. "I'll remember you."

In the old Mountain Villa, this skill would have earned him the position of a first-class slave. He would have been allowed at least two meals a day and suffered at most one lash. If he had possessed blacksmithing skills like this before, how could he have run away so quickly?

"I will." Dao Jiujiu was deeply moved, his fighting spirit blazing.

"Now that's the spirit. Keep it up." Ning Zheng was somewhat gratified. There were still some normal people among them. If only there were more diligent little blacksmiths like this.

"You only shape it, and cultivators can really use it?" Jiu Cai Rong came over as well. To be honest, he was terrible with his hands. After working all afternoon, the things he had forged were ugly beyond description.

"Of course. You've read the records too."

Ning Zheng nodded and set down the Bronze Sword. "That's the advantage of the material. Magic Copper is essentially a reservoir for spiritual energy. Even if you just took a copper ingot, stored spiritual energy in it, and activated it during battle, you could use it to smack people. Its shape isn't important."

Jiu Cai Rong understood.

There was no difference between Magic Copper shaped like a brick and Magic Copper shaped like a sword.

Using the crude embryo to store energy and smash people with it was like using a priceless treasure as firewood.

"Then how are we supposed to forge it?" Jiu Cai Rong asked curiously.

"I've read books. Magical artifacts come with spells such as fireballs, shields, lightness, stone skin, and clairvoyance that can be activated several times a day. Isn't that the foundation of a magical artifact?"

Ning Zheng shook his head and said regretfully, "That's not something you can aspire to at present. Even during the Mountain Villa's heyday, our Mountain Villa only exported batches of rough magical-artifact embryos. Apart from the few Artifact Refiners, no one could refine a genuine finished magical artifact."

"Unfortunately, those few Artifact Refiners were all killed before."

That was right.

Ning Zheng had cursed the Mountain Villa's several Artifact Refiners to death, but they had deserved it.