July 3.
Before dawn, Luo Feng had already arrived at the Martial Arts Hall to train his greatly increased strength and speed.
"3,567 kg." That was Luo Feng's current punching force.
With this strength, he had, as expected, obtained a "Special Recruitment Contract" and the keys to a detached villa in Bright Moon Residential District. When he got home, he first shared the good news with his parents.
After taking care of things at home, Luo Feng went to Shi Fen's door, feeling torn and unsure how to tell him.
Luo Feng sighed helplessly and knocked lightly.
"Knock, knock, knock."
Shi Fen knew what had happened as soon as Luo Feng knocked. Smiling, he opened the door.
Luo Feng stepped into the living room and hesitated. "Well... Brother Shi...
Something unexpected came up over the past couple of days..."
Since their birthdays were extremely close, the two often called each other "big brother." They had never settled on who was the older or younger brother; which title they used depended entirely on their mood at the time.
Seeing the faint smile that never left Shi Fen's face, Luo Feng finally told him about his recent "gains"—except for the fact that he had kept his identity as a Spiritual Master.
Shi Fen played along and acted extremely surprised.
"That's great news. What are you getting worked up about? It's just that we can't be neighbors anymore. Bright Moon Residential District isn't far away. Besides, I'm not far from becoming a Martial Artist myself. It won't be long before we're neighbors again."
Hearing this, Luo Feng felt greatly relieved. He punched Shi Fen in the chest, and his face lit up with a brilliant smile once more.
"Damn, your strength has gone through the roof, and now you're going to beat me to death?" Shi Fen pretended to be hurt, grinning.
The two burst out laughing and, without a care for appearances, "tumbled into a fight."
That night, Luo Feng was so excited he couldn't sleep. He rushed into Shi Fen's house again, drafted him into helping, and started planning his War Blade. He had a million yuan in his account from Zhou Huayang's "generous gift," so he had plenty of confidence!
Shi Fen didn't mind. Most of his consciousness was in Image Space, where he was studying Basic Secret Patterns, so things happening outside wouldn't greatly affect the speed of his comprehension.
The two talked all night before they finally settled on a preliminary design for the War Blade.
Luo Feng would have liked to keep talking, but he had to go home and move.
While Shi Fen was busy moving, he ordered 200 kg of Blue Gold online, just in case the forging failed. He planned to fire up the furnace in a few days and forge Luo Feng's blade.
The 200 kg of Blue Gold cost Shi Fen 620,000 yuan, which made him wince. It wasn't the price that hurt—it was how hard it was to get.
Blue Gold was a restricted product for ordinary people.
He had used the Three Stones workshop account to buy it. As a somewhat well-known forging workshop, Three Stones had only gained permission to purchase Blue Gold at the end of April that year. Without that permission, Shi Fen wouldn't have thought of forging a weapon for Luo Feng.
Thinking about how Luo Feng was the "Child of the Plane," and how the first blade Luo Feng ever owned would come from his hands, Shi Fen felt a surge of excitement. He wouldn't share that feeling with anyone.
It was a happiness that belonged to Shi Fen alone.
Given Three Stones' current standing in the forging world, it was normally allowed to buy only 20 kg a month. To buy more Blue Gold, the unit price would have to be at least tripled, with no upper limit on the markup. On top of that, anyone wanting to purchase a large amount had to pay extra and state what it would be used for.
A use like a forging room's own work wouldn't qualify. There had to be a connection to Martial Artists for a purchase to be approved.
Shi Fen figured he wouldn't have been able to buy this much if he hadn't explained that he was forging a blade for Luo Feng. Two hundred kilograms of Blue Gold was probably the limit for someone of Luo Feng's current status.
If they were lucky, the Blue Gold left over from this forging, along with the 60 kg they had bought earlier, would let them try making Kro Alloy. That, too, was thanks to Luo Feng's "genius" status.
More accurately, the two of them were helping each other out.
Blue Gold was a wonderful metal.
It was dense and hard, and its toughness and other properties were far superior to even the finest steel. Most importantly, Blue Gold had excellent "compatibility" and "capacity." It could be combined with monster materials to further improve the metal's properties!
After years of accumulation, many forging workshops had developed their own unique methods of making Kro Alloy.
Shi Fen's Extreme Forging techniques included methods of a higher level.
But he wasn't planning to try those methods this time. If he failed to forge it in the real world, the Blue Gold would be ruined and its value would plummet. Since this was also a large item, Shi Fen couldn't afford to fail.
When Three Stones qualified to buy Blue Gold at the end of April that year,
Shi Fen had promptly decided to build another forging room.
He rented the shop next door to Three Stones and spared no expense on renovations. He tore out the original steel mezzanine, opened up all the rooms, and reinforced the building. The shop had once been divided into many rooms, but now it was one large room with a five-meter-high ceiling.
It was practically a huge warehouse!
He also brought in a professional team to convert it into a high-level forging room and bought a large quantity of tools made from ordinary Kro Alloy. From now on, the three of them—Shi Fen, his father, and his older brother—could research forging Blue Gold and Kro Alloy there.
After all that work,
the money Shi Fen had made from years of stock trading, his savings, and the savings belonging to his parents and older brother were completely depleted. They had spent more than fifty million yuan, down to the last cent.
When the forging room was finished, the family had less than thirty thousand yuan left.
Still, it wasn't enough to put them in financial ruin. After fulfilling an order, their working capital was replenished. More money flowed into Shi Fen's savings, and he continued doubling it in the stock market.
Shi Fen's forging skills made him a "human money-printing machine on a small scale."
Shi Fen didn't care much about the stock market anymore. Making money there took a lot of effort. Even someone as extraordinarily clever as Shi Fen would have to spend a great deal of time to make more than fifty million yuan again. Once he forged Kro Alloy or Blue Gold cold weapons, they would make money much faster than the stock market. Besides, he was now devoting all his energy to comprehending Basic Secret Patterns. Stock trading was just "recreation."
Since he couldn't keep an eye on the stock market all the time, Shi Fen had made very little from trading lately. But even the smallest amount was still money.
After moving to Bright Moon Residential District, Luo Feng went to the Martial Arts Hall every day to train. The rest of the time, he was "a homebody." He often went back to the old house, and before long, he became the neighbors' favorite subject for gossip.
"I heard Luo Feng's move to Bright Moon Residential District was a lie. Luo Hua rented a big house somewhere. What was the point of showing off? Now he's going home every day."
"What are you talking about? I heard something happened to their family. Luo Hua's investment failed, and they had to go into hiding to dodge their debts..."
"Huh? That really happened? Tell me more..."
Shi Fen scoffed at the gossip and couldn't be bothered to pay it any attention.
Seven days later, two people who both demanded perfection designed a War Blade that was a work of art.
When Luo Feng saw the final design, he felt they had gone overboard. He wondered if Shi Fen could even make a War Blade of such artistic quality. And even if he did manage to make it, Luo Feng worried it would be all show and no substance.
In short, he was conflicted.
Seeing how confident Shi Fen looked, Luo Feng felt too embarrassed to say anything. He could only grit his teeth and wait.
July 21, morning.
After more than ten days of waiting, the 200 kg of Blue Gold finally arrived at the workshop.
Shi Fen knew it was arriving that day and had been waiting at the workshop since early morning to receive it himself. After carrying the Blue Gold into the forging room, he called Luo Feng.
"Luo Feng, the Blue Gold's here. Come to the forging room now. If things go well, you'll be taking your blade home today!"
"Okay! I'm on my way."
Luo Feng hung up and sprinted all the way to the Three Stones workshop.
When Luo Feng arrived, Shi Fen was busy preparing for the forging.
"Hey, why didn't you wait for me before starting? Didn't I say I wanted to record the whole process?" Seeing that Shi Fen had already started forging, Luo Feng panicked. He pulled out his phone and fumbled to open the camera.
Shi Fen glanced at Luo Feng's phone and complained helplessly, "Tch, cutting Blue Gold into pieces doesn't count as forging. If you're going to count that, you might as well start recording from the Blue Gold smelting stage. You've got plenty of strength—you can hold your phone up the whole time."
"Uh..." Luo Feng realized that his "uninformed comment" had annoyed an expert. He was too embarrassed to say anything, and didn't know whether to lower the hand holding his phone or keep it raised.
Seeing Luo Feng stuck in an awkward position after being rebuked, Shi Fen continued, "Just keep recording. It'll be over soon anyway."
"Uh, all right."
Luo Feng didn't dare offend his "master forger." After replying, he stood obediently beside Shi Fen and filmed without saying another word.
Shi Fen cut the 200 kg metal block into ten pieces of equal size. Each small block weighed exactly 20 kg and was about the size of one and a half adult male fists.
"Blue Gold really is something. I've gone through three saw blades already, and it's only been a little while. If I mess up today, I'll take a huge loss!" Hearing Shi Fen mutter to himself, Luo Feng grew nervous. He followed Shi Fen around, constantly changing his filming angle.
Shi Fen picked up six of the blocks and placed them in the Heating Furnace. With a casual swipe across the control screen, he set the furnace to its maximum temperature.
While the metal heated, Shi Fen started putting on a special Heat-Insulation Suit. Seeing Luo Feng point the camera at him, he couldn't help laughing. "You're not much of a cameraman, are you? You're filming other people getting dressed, too?"
Luo Feng laughed. "It's a real recording of a master forger at work!" He didn't make any effort to turn the camera away, filming Shi Fen in a flurry of shots. Only when Shi Fen had fully put on the Heat-Insulation Suit did he point the camera at the Heating Furnace.
Shi Fen rolled his eyes helplessly and ignored Luo Feng, carefully adjusting his protective suit.
Blue Gold had to be heated to nearly 6,000 degrees before it could be forged.
With his current strength, which was "below" that of a Quasi-Fighter, he absolutely couldn't withstand heat of that intensity. The suit was essential as a disguise. In the forging about to begin, he would use the methods of a weak forger.
If he was putting on a show, he might as well do it properly.
After all, he was "weak" right now and couldn't hammer a very large piece of metal. He could only work on small pieces.
Before long, all six pieces of metal inside the furnace had turned a dazzling gold. Just looking at them was enough to imagine how terrifyingly hot they were.
Shi Fen walked up to the furnace and shouted to Luo Feng from inside the suit, "Stay back, brother! I'm starting!"
Luo Feng immediately retreated, taking care to keep his phone steady as he did. He backed away three or four meters before Shi Fen felt safe enough to open the furnace door.
As soon as the furnace door opened, a terrifying wave of heat surged out.
The ventilation system in the forging room detected the rising temperature and immediately switched on its exhaust fans. Large amounts of hot air were sucked out, and fresh air flowed in as the room quickly returned to normal temperature.
Luo Feng held up his phone from a distance. When he felt the heat, his heart jumped, and he immediately backed away a few more steps. He could feel the terrifying heat from that far away; it was easy to imagine how much worse it was next to the furnace.
A temperature of 6,000 degrees Celsius—that was the temperature of the Sun's surface!
With his current strength, Luo Feng felt he would turn to ash if he stood any closer.
Wearing the Heat-Insulation Suit, Shi Fen could barely feel the heat outside. Inside the suit, the greatest source of heat was actually his own body. With this expensive suit, Shi Fen could do whatever he wanted.
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