Nuoding Academy officially opened.
The mornings usually had two classes: one on cultural knowledge and one on Martial Souls.
Jiang Jiu stopped going after attending just once.
It wasn't that he had simply given up on studying.
Rather, traditional lectures had to cater to the vast majority of students, so they moved slowly and were inefficient—nowhere near as effective as self-study.
Every afternoon was set aside for independent cultivation. Work-study students had to do their assigned cleaning jobs around the academy then, so the students in Dorm Seven only gathered to cultivate in the evenings, hoping to make up for the time they'd missed that afternoon.
Students who weren't work-study students could cultivate both in the afternoon and evening, but few at Nuoding Academy actually stuck to that schedule. At their age, those who could resist the urge to play were bound to be few and far between.
As a work-study student, Jiang Jiu had to clean the garden south of the athletic field every afternoon.
It was supposed to be a job for three, but Tang San and Xiao Wu had both taken off.
Still, cleaning alone wasn't too bad. He picked up the bigger pieces of trash while jogging in the mornings, then planned his route and swept through the garden in the afternoon. It didn't take long.
What did bother him was the occasional crowd of onlookers.
Some people even got up early just to watch him run. He had no idea where they'd heard about it.
There were girls and boys alike.
A bunch of precocious little brats.
Fortunately, they were few and far between, and barely affected Jiang Jiu's daily life.
Aside from these minor distractions, Jiang Jiu had also begun his plan to settle in at the Nuoding Blacksmith Shop.
The shop was actually very close to Nuoding Academy. He'd only needed to ask at one of the shops outside the academy to find it.
He and Xiao Wu hadn't seen it when they'd gone out before because it wasn't on the same road.
His attempt to get hired as an apprentice at the blacksmith shop had gone less than smoothly.
Jiang Jiu's face had opened all kinds of doors for him, but blacksmithing was the exception.
When he'd learned the trade in his village, the blacksmith there had known him well and trusted that he wasn't the sort to slack off or shy away from hard work.
Fortunately, Jiang Jiu had anticipated this and brought his own Forging Hammer.
How much strength he had, and how much work he could do, would be clear after one try.
"It's hard to imagine a handsome little fellow like you came from a poor family," said Shi San, the blacksmith shop's owner with a sigh.
Jiang Jiu wanted to explain the concept of winning the genetic lottery, but on second thought, he let it go. If he got the chance to forge pig iron, that would be enough.
"Uncle San, I have free time in the mornings for the next few days, but after that I'll probably come in the afternoons most of the time. Could you be flexible with me?"
"No problem. Whenever you come, there'll be a meal for you, and your pay will be the same," Shi San agreed cheerfully.
Once Jiang Jiu had crossed the threshold and entered the domain, his good looks naturally came into play again.
Even in a dull job like blacksmithing, simply looking up and seeing someone like Jiang Jiu could put a person in a better mood.
Good-looking people got treated better far too easily.
"Then thank you, Uncle San."
Jiang Jiu had been hired as an apprentice. Usually, an apprentice started out doing odd jobs, carrying tea and water, and only got to try forging pig iron after some time, with their master's approval.
But Shi San himself would be training him.
"Jiang Jiu, I'll call you Xiao Jiu. I just took a look at your work. The blacksmith who taught you the basics did a good job. You've got a solid foundation and understand all the fundamentals. All that's left is practice."
"Your job now is to swing that hammer with all your might. A thousand hammer blows, a hundred refinements. You're not just forging the iron in the furnace—you're forging yourself."
"I've got everything ready for you. The rest depends on how far you can go."
"Clang! Clang! Clang!" The hammer kept striking the iron block, and Jiang Jiu's blacksmithing career officially began.
By the time the morning was over, Jiang Jiu stayed at the blacksmith shop for lunch.
As mentioned before, if he came in the morning, they provided breakfast and lunch; if he came in the afternoon, they provided lunch and dinner; and if he stayed the whole day, all three meals were included.
After watching Jiang Jiu for a whole morning, Shi San had grown even more fond of him.
"Xiao Jiu, someone as focused and dedicated as you will succeed at anything. What made you decide to come work as a blacksmith at our shop?" Shi San was eating from the communal pot with the other blacksmiths and apprentices. He chatted as he ate.
"Uncle San, have you ever heard of a divine craftsman?"
"You're not thinking of forging divine weapons, are you, kid? What an ambitious dream!" Shi San hadn't expected that kind of answer.
"I'll do my best."
"Ha! You really are our kind of fellow."
Blacksmiths did hard, physical work, so they ate food heavy with oil and salt. And when they drank and chatted, they bragged and shot the breeze. Otherwise, what was the point?
Jiang Jiu shook his head and declined the wheat liquor Shi San offered. Shi San was treating him like one of their own now. He'd stopped thinking about Jiang Jiu's age and appearance and simply assumed that someone like him could drink—and drink deep.
How much truth was there in Jiang Jiu's words?
Was he really interested in the profession of blacksmithing?
Well, forging was interesting enough. Being a blacksmith, not so much.
In other words, his interest was driven by curiosity and need, not by a desire to make it his profession.
Put plainly, he'd forge when he wanted to and wouldn't touch a hammer when he didn't.
Jiang Jiu had two reasons for coming to this blacksmith shop.
The first was naturally to lure Tang San here and wait for him to show up.
Tang San was more likely to let his true nature show at the blacksmith shop. The two of them were the only ones their age there, so they could get to know each other much more easily than at Nuoding Academy.
The second was that Jiang Jiu was curious whether he could achieve Thousand Refinement, or even Spirit Refinement, in the timeline of Douluo I. Anything beyond that was out of the question.
A gentleman's nature is no different from anyone else's; he simply knows how to make use of things.
Though he was stuck with the Soft Bone Rabbit Martial Soul, Jiang Jiu wouldn't forget the importance of weapons and equipment.
As a modern person, the style of combat he admired most was long-range bombardment, from beyond the enemy's reach.
Since that wasn't possible, since he lacked the means, he could take another path and arm himself to the teeth.
What was the foundation of good weapons and equipment? Materials!
On Douluo Continent, blacksmithing was the high road to mastering materials.
There was nothing wrong with scavenging ready-made items or semi-finished products, but rare metals forged by hand were undoubtedly more competitive.
Still, rare metals seemed scarce in the Douluo I timeline, and Spirit Refinement felt like a dream too distant to reach.
But what if he could do it? He had to give it a try.
Even if he failed, becoming Tang San's dedicated supplier of Iron Essence would still be a path forward, wouldn't it?
Tang San focused most of his energy on making Hidden Weapons. When it came to refining metal materials, he only needed to make enough for himself. Jiang Jiu, on the other hand, was more likely to devote time and effort to studying that craft.
Wouldn't Hidden Weapons made from better materials be closer to works of art?
As for Spirit Refinement...
"I think it has something to do with spiritual power..."
"I can't give up Charm. I need to reach level twenty as soon as possible."
All in all, cultivating Soul Power was still Jiang Jiu's one and only main quest.
Using Soul Power to forge metal counted as a way of cultivating it, too.
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