Homemade Equipment

That afternoon, at the Blacksmith Shop.

"Now this is rare. You're planning to forge an iron bar?"

"More or less. Uncle San, give me a hand?"

"Heh, you sure know how to put a guy to work."

Shi San saw Jiang Jiu, who'd been completely absorbed in refining Iron Essence, trying his hand at something else. Curious, he came over to ask, only to get roped into the job.

"Talk about extravagant." Seeing the materials in the furnace, Shi San couldn't help but remark.

Inside was more than ten kilograms of pure Iron Essence billets. Sold on the market, they'd fetch over a hundred Gold Soul Coins.

"When did you save up so much Iron Essence?"

"Over the past six months. It's what I had left after finishing the orders."

Jiang Jiu worked the bellows with all his might. Even with his boss standing right there, he freely admitted to his "rat" behavior.

In a way, this was an unwritten rule among the veteran blacksmiths at the shop: as long as you finished the required work, you could keep whatever materials you saved for yourself—as long as you kept it quiet.

The materials Tang San used to forge his Hidden Weapons had mostly come from the same source.

"So you've been studying Pig Iron casting with a plan in mind, too." Shi San wasn't angry. He expertly tapped the iron.

The Iron Essence Jiang Jiu supplied was top quality. Shi San would make far more from it than Jiang Jiu could earn by keeping these scraps for himself.

The materials here in the Douluo Continent were downright peculiar.

A large chunk of Pig Iron contained a small amount of Iron Essence, but after being forged over and over, even Pig Iron full of impurities would turn into Iron Essence. The finished piece was much smaller, but its price went up.

That was the craft behind making money.

Ordinary blacksmiths didn't usually rely on this method to make a living. It took time and effort, and if your skills weren't good enough, you wouldn't get as much Iron Essence out of the metal as you expected. Forging weapons and working them into shape was more profitable.

"Just a little hard-earned money. You'd really take that, Uncle San?"

"What nonsense. I do this myself, don't I?"

Even if blacksmiths didn't mainly make money by forging Iron Essence, weapons still required it. Someone had to do the work, and since Iron Essence was in such short supply, most blacksmiths had no choice but to pitch in.

"What do you need this bar to be like?" Shi San asked.

"Good flexibility, straight, and able to bear a lot of weight."

"It's not a weapon?"

"If I told you it was a clothes-drying pole, Uncle San, would you believe me?"

"Then you must have some pretty heavy clothes."

They chatted idly as Shi San worked. He happened to have nothing else to do, and drawing out and forging this ten-odd kilograms of Iron Essence was pure enjoyment.

The weapons he usually forged never used such pure materials.

"How long?"

"About two meters."

As questions and answers passed between them, a two-meter-long bar slowly took shape.

Shi San was every bit the old blacksmith his family had raised him to be. The bar was perfectly straight.

After quenching and tempering, he found a place to rest.

"I've spent the whole afternoon working for you."

He'd said he'd lend a hand, but in the end, he'd done all the work.

"Uncle San, the capable should do more." Jiang Jiu handed him a cup of tea.

Once the final knurling was done, the first step in his grand barbell-making project would be complete.

For the highest-quality strength training, a barbell was the best option for Jiang Jiu right now.

Unlike endurance training such as running, bodyweight strength training had its limits. Training relative strength with Soul Power boosting him wasn't much of an advantage, either.

And with weighted training, he couldn't exactly strap a bamboo basket full of rocks to his back and get started.

A barbell would make things much easier. He could just go hard on the three main lifts, and it would be easier to create a progressive-overload training plan.

The only problem was figuring out how to make a barbell by hand.

Without modern manufacturing, it was hard to guarantee the bar's strength, flexibility, and weight-bearing capacity.

If the craftsmanship fell short, he'd have to make up for it with materials.

Jiang Jiu could only hope that the Iron Essence he'd painstakingly refined hammer by hammer would hold up, and not snap while he was training.

It was a fantasy-world material, after all, wasn't it?

He'd refined it with his own hands, one hammer blow at a time.

As for the weight plates, Pig Iron would do.

Jiang Jiu wasn't extravagant enough to make even the plates out of refined iron. Once the weight added up, that would get far too expensive.

By the time they'd finished the knurling that increased friction and prevented slipping, it was almost time for dinner.

"Thanks, Uncle San."

Jiang Jiu was very satisfied with the bar. He could make the remaining adjustments at home.

"All right, all right. Let's eat."

Shi San and the other blacksmiths started drinking together. He didn't mention a word about the labor cost.

With someone else, he'd have charged at least a little. The forging might have looked easy for him, but the labor cost for hammering out more than ten kilograms of Iron Essence would've been anything but cheap.

"Xiao Jiu, is this ale really that good?" Xiao Wu asked curiously.

At the very least, it smelled pretty good.

"If you want to try it, I'll take you for a drink sometime. Just not now."

"Oh." Xiao Wu nodded obediently.

Before they knew it, all the meat from her bowl had ended up in Jiang Jiu's.

Jiang Jiu didn't say anything. He made sure Xiao Wu got all the nutrition she needed at breakfast and lunch in the cafeteria's second-floor dining hall every day.

As for Jiang Jiu, he was increasing his own portions.

You had to eat a lot to train hard, and he was getting more than enough exercise every day anyway.

At that moment, Jiang Jiu looked at Tang San beside him.

"What I mentioned at noon—moving nearby and becoming our neighbor. Have you thought it over?"

"Can I really do blacksmithing there?" Tang San was clearly tempted.

Most of his Hidden Weapon work involved making parts at the Blacksmith Shop, then assembling them after he got back to Nuoding Academy.

Boss Shi San turned a blind eye to him making parts from leftover scraps, but having his own private space to forge Hidden Weapons would be far more convenient.

"Uncle San recommended you. Why would I lie?"

"Mm. I'll ask him later, then."

After dinner, the three of them said their goodbyes. Tang San returned to the academy on his own, while Jiang Jiu and Xiao Wu headed toward their new home.

Xiao Wu bounced along the way, full of energy.

Every so often, she tapped the iron bar slung across Jiang Jiu's back and asked, "Xiao Jiu, are you planning to practice staff techniques?"

"You'll find out when we get home."

"Home, hehe."

Saying "home" really did feel different from saying "dorm."

Once they arrived, Jiang Jiu set the bar down, and he and Xiao Wu started tidying up the rooms.

The house was actually quite large, with a spacious courtyard. It was big enough for an entire family.

Still, quite naturally, the two of them slept in the same room, in the same bed.

Xiao Wu didn't even glance at the other rooms. Looking at the bare walls around them, she decided she'd decorate the place properly later.

They'd already given the place a basic clean that morning. Once the bed was made and their toiletries were set out, they were pretty much done.

"I still need to make a rack."

There was no way he could just leave the newly made barbell bar lying around.

"So what's the right form supposed to look like?"

Jiang Jiu gripped the unloaded fifteen-kilogram bar.

He had the equipment now, but he still needed to study the bar path. After all, up until now, he'd only ever worked out vicariously.