Silent Sleeve Arrow!

"Boss, can you make custom orders here?" Tang San asked, setting down the cylinder. "I'll decide the dimensions and choose the materials myself. You just need to craft it according to my specifications."

The blacksmith gave him an up-and-down look, surprise deepening in his eyes.

"Young man, do you know how to work metal?"

"A little." Tang San wasn't lying. Although he had never formally studied metalworking while at the Tang Sect, he had a far greater understanding of the properties of metals and their processing than ordinary people. Making hidden weapons was a precise craft in itself, involving materials science, mechanics, and mechanical engineering.

The blacksmith hesitated, but finally nodded. "All right. Tell me the dimensions, and I'll give it a try."

Tang San pulled a sheet of paper from his clothes. He had already drawn a sketch of the Silent Sleeve Arrow. He didn't show the complete blueprint; he only drew a few key components on the paper and marked their dimensions and tolerance requirements.

"Outer diameter of the cylinder: one cun and two fen. Inner diameter: one cun. Wall thickness: one fen. Length: six cun. The inner wall needs to be polished smooth, without any burrs. The spring wire should be half a fen thick, with a coil diameter of eight fen, and fifteen coils. The arrows..." He listed the specifications one by one, speaking calmly and professionally, nothing like a seven-year-old child.

As the blacksmith listened, his expression shifted from surprise to solemnity, then settled into the serious look of someone thinking, "This kid won't be easy to fool." He took the drawing and examined it, then picked up some scraps from the counter to check the dimensions. At last, he nodded.

"I can make it. But it won't be cheap. These little parts require fine work, so I'll have to set aside time specifically to make them for you."

"How much?"

The blacksmith did some calculations, then named a price.

Tang San counted the appropriate number of Gold Soul Coins from his purse and placed them on the counter. The blacksmith's eyes lit up at the sight of the coins, and his manner immediately grew even more solicitous.

"Come back for them in three days." The blacksmith pocketed the money, carefully folded the drawing, and tucked it into his apron.

By the time Tang San left the smithy, the sun had fully risen. Golden sunlight spilled over the stone-paved road in the western part of the city, bathing the whole street in warm hues. Nearly every shop was open. Vendors selling breakfast had set up their stoves by the roadside, and the fried dough sticks sizzled in the oil as the scent of soy milk wafted halfway down the street.

Tang San took a deep breath, bought two fried dough sticks and a bowl of soy milk from a roadside stall, and squatted there to eat before heading back.

This should have happened much sooner—he should have thought of the path of hidden weapons not long after obtaining his First Soul Ring. But one thing after another had crowded in—the entanglement with Yu Xiaogang, choosing his First Soul Ring, returning to Holy Soul Village, encountering bandits on the road—leaving him no time to sit down and think.

Now, at last, everything was back on track.

Meanwhile, in Dorm Seven, Huang Fei sat cross-legged on his bed with his eyes closed and his hands on his knees, looking as if he were "cultivating."

But in truth, he wasn't doing anything.

He was just thinking.

After returning to the academy, his days were still spent eating and sleeping, but he had taken up one new activity: studying his Martial Soul. Not cultivation, but study. Cultivation meant raising Soul Power and strengthening the body; studying meant using his brain to consider what else he could do with his Martial Soul beyond the fixed skills granted by the system.

Blue Silver Grass. No, it should be called the future Blue Silver Saint Emperor. Although its bloodline hadn't awakened yet, its foundation was already there. Ever since he absorbed the eight-hundred-and-sixty-year Vine of Life Soul Ring, his Blue Silver Grass had undergone a clear change—not in appearance, but in a way that was internal, fundamental.

Its toughness had improved. It regenerated faster. But those were merely fixed effects granted by the Soul Ring, not anything he had developed himself.

Huang Fei was pondering a question: beyond the skills awarded by the system, could he come up with some tricks of his own? For instance, since Blue Silver Grass had life-force attributes, could he use it to heal himself? Could he use it to detect nearby enemies? Could he use it to form a defensive shield?

These were things Tang San hadn't done in the original story. Not because he couldn't, but because it had never occurred to him to try. From the beginning, Yu Xiaogang had steered his Blue Silver Grass down the wrong path, toward poison and control. By the time he later awakened the Blue Silver Emperor Bloodline, it was too late to turn back.

Huang Fei was different. His Blue Silver Grass had been on the right path of life force from the start, and the age of his Soul Ring had been pushed straight to the limit. He could go farther than Tang San on this path—wider, wilder, and more untamed.

Huang Fei opened his eyes and raised his right hand.

Blue Silver Grass emerged from his palm. Its deep-green stems were thicker than before, and the faint sheen on the leaves had grown more noticeable. He tried infusing the grass with Soul Power—not the way he did when activating a Soul Skill, but slowly and gently, as if watering a plant.

The Blue Silver Grass trembled slightly, as though responding to him.

Huang Fei tried again, this time increasing the flow of Soul Power. The stems began to grow slowly, reaching from his palm to his wrist, then from his wrist to his forearm. It wasn't an aggressive burst outward, but a gentle, quiet spread, as if searching for something.

"Interesting," Huang Fei murmured.

He discovered that he could control the direction and speed of the Blue Silver Grass's growth with his Soul Power. He still couldn't make very precise adjustments, but he was on the right track. If he could develop this ability to its fullest, he might be able to make the Blue Silver Grass spread silently through the entire room, down the whole corridor, even across the entire academy without releasing a Soul Skill.

By then, his perception would cover everything.

Huang Fei withdrew the Blue Silver Grass and closed his eyes again.

No need to rush. He could take it slowly. He had plenty of time, after all—while Tang San cultivated, he could study all this.

And he didn't even have to cultivate himself.

How nice.

Three days later, Tang San collected his first batch of parts from the smithy.

The blacksmith's craftsmanship was better than he'd expected. The inside of the cylinder was polished very smoothly, with almost no resistance when he ran his fingers over it;

The spring had even tension, compressing and rebounding without a hitch;

The trigger mechanism was also just sensitive enough, clicking cleanly when pressed with no wasted travel.

Tang San checked the parts one by one, giving the blacksmith eight out of ten in his mind. The two points he deducted were for the arrows, which hadn't been polished finely enough, had insufficiently sharp tips, and had tail fins whose balance could still be improved.

But these were only the first test pieces. They were usable.

It was afternoon when he returned to Dorm Seven.

Most of the work-study students were out on the field. Only Huang Fei was in the dorm.

He was leaning against the headboard with his hands clasped behind his head and his eyes closed, and it was impossible to tell whether he was asleep or lost in thought.

Hearing the door open, he cracked one eye to glance over, then closed it again.