The Blacksmith's Shop

After returning to Notting Academy, life fell back into its old rhythm.

Tang San trained, ate, and slept every day, occasionally sparring with Xiao Wu or going to the library to read.

The work-study students had grown used to their "boss's" routine.

He went out before dawn and didn't come back until dark. Once he returned, he still meditated and trained until late into the night.

Huang Fei's days, on the other hand, were a different story.

Every day, he slept until he woke naturally, went back to bed after breakfast, found a shady spot to lie down after lunch, and after dinner... kept lying down.

The work-study students had gone from astonishment at first, to numb acceptance later, to treating it as perfectly normal now. The shift in their attitudes had been so smooth that even they found it unbelievable.

Wang Sheng once asked Tang San in private, "Brother Fei... is he really okay? Sleeping all day like this, won't his Soul Power regress?"

Tang San thought it over, then answered seriously, "He's been like this since he was little. But whenever something happens, he's never let us down."

Wang Sheng nodded, still skeptical, and didn't ask again.

Xiao Wu observed Huang Fei for a few days and came to a conclusion no one could argue with: "Did he die of sleepiness in his previous life or something?"

Huang Fei was eating when he heard this assessment.

He looked up at Xiao Wu and said solemnly, "Maybe I did. That's why I have to make up for all the sleep I missed in my previous life."

Xiao Wu was so stumped by his matter-of-fact attitude that her rabbit ears nearly popped out of her ponytail.

And so the days went by, one after another.

Winter deepened in Nuoding City. A thin layer of frost formed over the practice grounds in the mornings, and every breath came out as a cloud of white mist.

The work-study students added a second blanket to their beds. Getting up in the morning went from "a little difficult" to "almost impossible," which was good news for Huang Fei—he had even more reason to stay in bed.

Tang San's Soul Power continued to grow steadily.

After absorbing his First Soul Ring, the Mysterious Heaven Skill seemed to have had some kind of bottleneck cleared. It circulated much faster than before.

He hadn't deliberately tested it, but judging by how full his Soul Power felt, he should have been close to level fifteen.

He credited it to his daily training and didn't think much more about it.

But in the midst of his training, Tang San began to consider a problem.

His methods were too limited.

Blue Silver Grass's Entangle was certainly useful, especially against the three bandits with scarred faces. The moment the vines appeared, their opponents had no chance to fight back.

But that was because those opponents had been too weak: three white-ringed Soul Masters with only eleven or twelve levels of Soul Power and virtually no combat skills. That was why Blue Silver Grass had been able to achieve such an effect.

What if he came up against a real powerhouse?

Tang San ran a Simulation in his mind.

Suppose his opponent was an agility-type Soul Master who was fast and strong. Before Blue Silver Grass's vines could wrap around them, they would already be right in front of him.

Suppose his opponent was a Power Attack System Soul Master. After the vines wrapped around them, they could simply wrench free. Given Blue Silver Grass's current toughness, it might shatter outright.

Blue Silver Grass following the Life Flow route needed time to grow.

Once it became as tough as iron and regenerated like a demon, it would indeed be powerful.

But before that day came, he needed other methods to make up for Blue Silver Grass's shortcomings.

Hidden Weapons.

Tang San thought of the Tang Sect Hidden Weapons from his previous life.

The things he had used for two lifetimes—lethal weapons that needed no Soul Power to activate, no Martial Soul to support them, and could be used by anyone.

In this world, it seemed that no one knew about Hidden Weapons.

At least, he had searched through every book about weapons in Notting Academy's library and hadn't found a single record related to Hidden Weapons.

It was a blank slate.

Tang San's heart began to race.

He didn't need to start with the complicated Hidden Weapons that required precision mechanisms and rare materials.

He needed something simple, inexpensive, and easy to make.

Silent Sleeve Arrow.

It was one of the most basic Tang Sect Hidden Weapons, and one of the easiest to make.

Its principle was simple: a metal cylinder containing a spring and a trigger mechanism, with an arrow concealed inside. Pull the trigger, and the spring shot out the arrow. Strapped to the arm and concealed beneath a sleeve, it could fire before an enemy even realized what was happening.

The materials needed to make a Silent Sleeve Arrow were a metal cylinder, a spring, an arrow, and a trigger mechanism.

He didn't have a single one of those materials on hand.

But there were blacksmith shops in Nuoding City.

As soon as Tang San thought of it, he sat up in bed.

The sky outside was not yet fully light. Dorm Seven lay in shadow, and the work-study students were still sound asleep in their beds.

He quietly got dressed and felt around beside his bed for the bag of Gold Soul Coins he had received from Spirit Hall.

He received one coin a month and had collected two months' worth. Adding the little savings he had scraped together from working in the village over the years, he should have enough to buy the materials.

As he stepped out of Dorm Seven, the morning wind hit him head-on, cold enough to make him hunch his shoulders.

The blacksmith shops in Nuoding City were clustered along a street in the west of the city, about the distance of two incense sticks' burning time from the academy.

When Tang San arrived, most of the shops had yet to open. Only the one nearest the street entrance had already removed its door panels, and the clang of hammering came from inside.

He pushed the door open, and a wave of heat mixed with the smell of rust washed over him.

The shop wasn't large. Shelves along the walls were crammed with all kinds of ironware.

Farm tools, kitchen knives, horseshoes, chains, and a few unfinished sword and knife blanks.

The furnace in the middle burned brightly. A middle-aged man with his shirt off was repeatedly hammering a red-hot piece of iron, sending sparks flying.

"Little brother, what are you looking for?" the blacksmith asked without raising his head, never stopping his work.

Tang San looked around the shop, then settled his gaze on a pile of scattered metal strips in the corner.

"Boss, do you have any ready-made metal cylinders? About this thick and this long." He showed the dimensions with his hands.

The blacksmith stopped hammering and looked up at him.

There was a hint of surprise in his gaze.

Such a young child, coming to a blacksmith shop so early in the morning to buy metal cylinders?

"Cylinders? What do you need them for?"

"To make a little something." Tang San didn't explain further.

The blacksmith didn't press him. He set down his hammer, went over to the pile of odds and ends in the corner, rummaged through it, and picked out several metal cylinders of different sizes. He tossed them onto the counter.

"These are leftover scraps from something I made before. If you want them, I'll let them go cheap. Five Copper Soul Coins each."

Tang San picked one up, weighed it in his hand, then held it up to the light to check how smooth the inside was.

Not good enough.

The inner surface was a little rough, which would interfere with the spring sliding through it.

He picked up the second one. No good either.

The third was just about usable, but a little too large.