Homemade Contraptions

In the afternoon, at the Blacksmith Shop.

"Rare sight. Are you looking to forge an iron rod?"

"Something like that. Uncle San, care to lend a hand?"

"Heh, you brat really knows how to put people to work."

Seeing Jiang Jiu, who had been obsessed with refining Iron Essence, suddenly playing with something else, Shi San curiously leaned in to ask, only to be immediately pressed into service.

"Extravagant." Upon seeing the materials in the furnace, Shi San couldn't help but exclaim.

Inside were over a dozen kilograms of pure Iron Essence blanks; if sold, they would fetch over a hundred Gold Soul Coins.

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

"Just over the last half-year, whatever was left over after fulfilling the orders."

Jiang Jiu pulled the bellows vigorously, openly admitting to his "pilfering" behavior even in front of his boss.

In a sense, this was an unspoken rule among veteran blacksmiths: as long as the assigned tasks were completed, whatever materials were saved could be kept for oneself, provided one kept it quiet.

The materials Tang San used for his hidden weapons were mostly acquired in this exact manner.

"So your intensive study of raw iron forging was all part of the plan." Shi San naturally wasn't angry; he skillfully tapped the iron.

The Iron Essence Jiang Jiu handed over to him was of excellent quality, and compared to what Jiang Jiu saved for himself, he earned even more.

The materials on the Douluo Continent were quite peculiar.

A large chunk of raw iron contained a small portion of Iron Essence, but after continuous forging, the impurity-heavy raw iron would convert into Iron Essence. Although the volume decreased significantly, the value skyrocketed.

This craft was the very principle of making money.

However, ordinary blacksmiths didn't rely on this as their main source of income; it was time-consuming and labor-intensive. If one's technique wasn't up to par, the amount of Iron Essence produced wouldn't be worth the effort compared to forging and processing weapons.

"A bit of hard-earned money, is it worth your time, Uncle San?"

"What kind of nonsense is that? Don't I do the same thing?"

Although they didn't rely on forging Iron Essence as their primary income, Iron Essence was essential for crafting weapons, so someone still had to do it. In fact, because Iron Essence was in such short supply, most master blacksmiths were forced to do it.

"What are your requirements for this rod?" Shi San asked.

"High toughness, straight, and strong load-bearing capacity."

"It's not for a weapon?"

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

"Then your clothes must be quite heavy."

As the two chatted idly, Shi San had nothing else to do, and forging these twenty kilograms of Iron Essence into a long rod was a pure pleasure.

The weapons he usually forged didn't use such pure materials.

"How long?"

"About two meters."

Amidst their back-and-forth questions and answers, a two-meter-long rod gradually took shape.

Shi San was truly a veteran blacksmith with a family legacy; the straightness of the rod was flawless.

After quenching and tempering were complete, he found a spot to rest.

"I spent the whole afternoon working for you."

He had been told to "lend a hand," but he ended up doing all the work.

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

Once the final knurling was finished, the first step of his grand barbell-making project was complete.

If he wanted to pursue the highest quality strength training, a barbell was the best choice for Jiang Jiu right now.

Unlike endurance training like running, bodyweight strength training had its limitations, and with the addition of soul power, it wasn't advantageous for relative strength training.

And for weighted training, he couldn't just carry a bamboo basket filled with rocks.

Having a set of barbells would make things much easier; he could just go hard on the three main compound lifts, and it would be easier to formulate a progressive overload training plan.

The only problem was how to hand-craft a set of barbells.

Without modern industrial processes, the quality of the barbell bar—such as its strength, toughness, and load-bearing capacity—was hard to guarantee.

If the craftsmanship wasn't enough, he would make up for it with materials.

Jiang Jiu only hoped that the Iron Essence he had pinned his hopes on would hold up and not snap during his workouts.

It could be considered a fantasy material, right?

After all, it was refined hammer blow by hammer blow.

As for the weight plates, he would just use raw iron.

Jiang Jiu wasn't extravagant enough to use refined iron for the plates; that would be far too expensive once the weight added up.

With the knurling for friction and grip finished, it was just about time for dinner.

"Uncle San, thank you."

Jiang Jiu was very satisfied with the long rod; he could slowly modify the rest once he got home.

"Alright, alright, go eat."

Shi San and the other blacksmiths began to drink, completely ignoring the topic of processing fees.

If it were an outsider, he would have had to charge a fee; even though it looked effortless for him to forge, the labor cost for hammering over a dozen kilograms of Iron Essence would certainly not have been cheap.

"Xiao Jiu, is this ale really that good?" Xiao Wu asked with some curiosity.

Regardless of anything else, the aroma of the wine was quite pleasant.

"If you want to drink it, I'll take you when you're older, but not right now."

"Oh." Xiao Wu nodded obediently.

Without realizing it, all the meat in her bowl had been transferred into Jiang Jiu's.

Jiang Jiu didn't say much; he made sure Xiao Wu had enough nutrition for breakfast and lunch on the second floor of the cafeteria every day.

As for Jiang Jiu himself, he simply increased his own intake.

You have to eat a lot to train hard, and in any case, his daily exercise volume was more than enough.

At this moment, Jiang Jiu looked toward Tang San at his side.

"About what we mentioned at noon, moving near us to be neighbors, have you considered it?"

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

His development of hidden weapons mainly involved forging parts in a blacksmith shop and then assembling them back at Nuoding Academy.

Although Boss Shi San turned a blind eye to him using scraps to forge parts, having a private space to cast hidden weapons would be far more convenient.

"Uncle San recommended it, so how could it be fake?"

"Hmm, then I'll ask about it later."

After dinner, the three parted ways. Tang San returned to the academy alone, while Jiang Jiu and Xiao Wu headed toward their new home.

Xiao Wu skipped and hopped the entire way, full of energy.

Every now and then, she tapped the iron rod Jiang Jiu carried on his back and asked, "Xiao Jiu, are you planning to practice staff techniques?"

"You'll know when we get home."

"Home, hehe."

The feeling of saying "home" was truly different from saying "dormitory."

Upon arriving home, Jiang Jiu set the rod aside and first tidied up the room with Xiao Wu.

The house was actually quite large and came with a decent-sized courtyard, enough to house a whole family.

Naturally, however, the two of them still slept in the same room, on the same bed.

Xiao Wu didn't even glance at the other rooms; she looked at the bare walls and planned to decorate them properly later.

Since they had already done a general cleaning in the morning, the bed was made, the toiletries were ready, and everything was basically set.

"I still need to build a rack."

Leaving the newly forged barbell bar just lying there wasn't a long-term solution.

"So, what is the correct form?"

The fifteen-kilogram empty bar was gripped firmly in Jiang Jiu's hands.

He had the equipment now, but he still needed to study the lines of force; after all, he had only ever done "cloud fitness" before.