The Shop

After they ate, they naturally went strolling along the commercial street.

Xiao Wu could never get tired of shopping, no matter how many times she went.

Zhu Zhuqing also showed a rare burst of enthusiasm. She might have been cold, but she was still a girl who liked dressing up—or, more precisely, one with excellent habits when it came to maintaining her appearance.

The three girls chattered away up ahead. Ning Rongrong and Xiao Wu did most of the talking, with Zhu Zhuqing occasionally answering a couple of times. But judging by how accurately she picked up the conversation, she was clearly listening closely.

Once the conversation turned to clothes and accessories, it really was different. They suddenly felt like close sisters who had known each other for ages.

Jiang Jiu and Tang San trailed behind.

If it had been Dai Mubai, Ma Hongjun, and the others, they probably would have talked about nothing but women. But no matter how Jiang Jiu and Tang San's conversation went, it always came back to forging.

They planned to find some time to visit a Blacksmith Shop and buy things like a furnace first.

They hadn't brought over the equipment they'd used in Nuoding City.

Tang San's Storage Soul Tool wasn't small, but the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges' unique design meant it had twenty-four separate spaces, each one cubic meter in size. It wasn't very convenient for carrying large objects.

Besides, buying new equipment wasn't expensive.

A new place called for a new beginning.

Jiang Jiu, for instance, planned to experiment with other metals.

Pig iron's greatest advantage was that it was cheap, and you could get plenty of it.

At the same time, as the most common metal, it had its limitations—though perhaps those limitations lay with Jiang Jiu.

For six years, Jiang Jiu had focused on refining pig iron as he forged.

At first, he'd needed to hammer away at it over and over to purify the pig iron into Iron Essence. Later, he could handle the whole process with ease.

After that, he'd pursued perfection even further. The quality of the Iron Essence he refined had left Tang San astonished and full of praise.

But it still wasn't enough. Jiang Jiu wasn't satisfied. He always felt something was missing, so he kept studying and hammering away.

Then, one day, a piece of top-grade Iron Essence shattered.

Part of it was the heartbreak. The piece he'd smashed had cost a fortune, and it hadn't simply broken apart—the metal's internal structure had been destroyed. It was completely ruined.

But at the same time, Jiang Jiu realized that pig iron, and even Iron Essence, had its limits.

Endless purification, repeated quenching, thousands upon thousands of strikes—Iron Essence simply couldn't withstand that kind of pressure.

The saying that a true master smith was one who could forge divine weapons from ordinary materials was just a beautiful wish.

Unless you were a born master smith, how could someone working their way up step by step ever reach that level without building up experience using precious materials?

In short, Jiang Jiu wanted to experiment with rare metals.

Unfortunately, rare metals were still far too expensive.

A small amount wouldn't be enough to play around with. Buy a little more—say, a hundred pounds—and even the cheapest rare metal would leave Jiang Jiu bankrupt. The expensive ones, like Adamantine, cost tens of thousands of Gold Soul Coins for that much. That was the price of another Storage Soul Tool.

He was still too poor, so Jiang Jiu could only try playing around with other metals instead.

If he wasn't mistaken, those metals wouldn't be much better than Iron Essence when it came to withstanding the limits of forging pressure.

Rare metals were still overwhelmingly superior.

It was a real pain to be held back by the materials.

His strength training lacked a Barbell Bar sturdy enough to withstand thousands, even tens of thousands of pounds.

As for forging, Jiang Jiu had a vague sense that he was beginning to glimpse the way. The fact that he'd hammered Iron Essence until it shattered was proof of that. If he could get his hands on some rare metal to study, he might actually reach the threshold of Thousand Refinement.

He really had to start eating the rich.

"Xiao Jiu, look, look at that sign!" Xiao Wu ran over to Jiang Jiu as if she'd spotted something.

Jiang Jiu looked in the direction Xiao Wu was pointing. Wasn't that Flender's shop? Its sign looked completely different from the ones on the neighboring shops.

Wait, how had they ended up here? Weren't they on the busiest stretch of the commercial street earlier?

Jiang Jiu had only been mechanically following Xiao Wu and the others, without paying much attention to where they were going.

"Who uses a third-grade Spirit Hall warrant as their shop sign? I don't know whether to say he's gutsy or something else." Ning Rongrong looked at the sign and felt that the world was full of wonders.

"Shall we go in and take a look?" Xiao Wu suggested.

The group entered the shop.

When Tang San saw the interior, his eyes narrowed. He'd been lagging behind, but now he hurried toward a corner.

Someone else was faster, though.

"Shopkeeper, how much for this worthless crystal?"

Ning Rongrong casually played with the crystal in her hand. It was filled with a great many dark-yellow impurities.

She didn't know exactly what it was, but she had a feeling the worthless crystal was quite valuable.

The Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda's ability to appraise treasures was simply too overpowered, especially since Ning Rongrong had Innate Soul Power of rank nine and her Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda was of excellent quality.

"One thousand Gold Soul Coins."

Tang San smiled ruefully and stepped back. He couldn't really afford that price.

As for Ning Rongrong, she didn't react at all when she heard the shopkeeper quote such an outrageous price.

"I'll buy it."

A mere thousand Gold Soul Coins was nothing to her.

From a reclining chair inside the shop, Flender got up in surprise.

He could see that the girl was bedecked in jewels and was clearly either rich or noble, which was why he'd quoted her an astronomical price. He hadn't expected he'd still underestimated the wealthy.

"Two thousand." He still had to make the most of it.

Ning Rongrong frowned. "Two thousand is fine, but don't raise the price again. Otherwise, I won't buy it."

Two thousand Gold Soul Coins was still cheap to her, but she didn't like being taken for a fool.

Honestly, the price had already exceeded what she'd estimated the crystal was worth. She was only buying it anyway to indulge her own desire to find a bargain.

Flender made no comment.

It wasn't often that he went three years without a sale and then made enough in one go to last another three.

But, well, young girls really were prone to impulsive decisions.

Flender couldn't help feeling conflicted.

Tang San was even more helpless. He, too, had come to understand the woes of being short on money, just like Jiang Jiu. The money he'd earned in Nuoding City was nowhere near enough.

It was top-quality Crystal Board! He had no idea how many Dragon Whisker Needles he could make from the Hair Gold inside it.

In the end, Flender decided to give in.

There was nothing he could do. He could tell the girl wasn't all that interested in the crystal.

She wasn't interested, yet she could still casually throw around two thousand Gold Soul Coins. Damn rich people.

But the unremarkable young man beside her had a fiery look in his eyes.

Suddenly, Flender's eyes widened.

"Where did you get that belt?" He stared at Tang San's waist.

"My teacher gave it to me. Do you recognize it?" Tang San hadn't expected to get dragged into this, but when Flender mentioned the belt, could it have something to do with Grandmaster?

"Ah."

Flender was now even more conflicted.

On one side was Xiaogang's disciple; on the other, two thousand shining Gold Soul Coins. Was this some kind of punishment sent to torment him?