A Glorious Return

"Wood Plant City" is a mansion with a considerable area in the south of the city.

"Knock knock knock—"

Carrying wind and snow, Ling Yi raised his hand and knocked on the tall and wide door.

"Who is it?" a weak voice rang out.

At the same time, the heavy door was pulled open from the inside, and a young man's head peeked out.

Upon seeing the young man, Ling Yi immediately greeted him with a smile and asked, "Ah Lai, is your master home?"

Upon hearing the voice, the young man called Ah Lai opened his eyes wide, his drowsiness instantly vanishing. Seeing Ling Yi's face clearly, he exclaimed with delight, "Young Master Yi is back—?!"

This is the master's most valued disciple, even his last disciple!

Old Master Jin is now nearly eighty years old. Although he is Soul Master and his body is still strong enough from years of wielding an iron hammer, he is no longer young and no longer has the energy to teach new disciples.

Even Ling Yi, this youngest disciple, was only accepted as the thirteenth personal disciple because his talent was indeed exceptionally high.

In the early stages, he was taught by his fifth disciple, Wang Meng, and others. Later, when the disciples had nothing left to teach, he, as the master, personally began to teach him.

Since Young Master Yi graduated early from the Green Leaf Junior Soul Master Academy three years ago and went to Cold Wind City, he has not been seen since, except for sending a letter back every two or three months.

To be honest, not only did Old Master Jin often mention him, but even Ah Lai, a servant of the Jin family, missed Young Master Yi, who spoke so kindly and was always smiling.

After all, such a warm and welcoming master is something that can be found nowhere else in the entire "Wood Plant City".

Overjoyed, Ah Lai flung the door open, ignoring the biting wind and snowflakes rushing in, and with a smile that squinted his eyes, quickly replied:

"Yes, yes, sir is home. It's been snowing heavily for days on end, so he hasn't gone out at all."

"It's good that you're here~"

Ling Yi said with a smile, and walked in the door amidst Ah Lai's warm welcome.

As they walked, Ling Yi pulled his left hand on his shoulder, shifting the basket on his back to his side. He reached inside with his right hand, pulled out a palm-sized oilcloth paper package, and handed it to Ah Lai: "Here, this is something I brought back from ' Cold Wind City.' It's a kind of dried fruit called frozen autumn pear. Tiantian and sour, tastes quite good. Let your child try it—"

After saying that, without giving Ah Lai a chance to refuse, she stuffed the object into Ah Lai's arms and walked slowly toward the main hall in the central courtyard.

Looking at Ling Yi's familiar smiling face and his receding figure after passing by him, Ah Lai suddenly felt that the heavy snow was not so cold anymore.

He called out softly from behind, "Hey—! Thank you Young Master Yi—!"

Ling Yi didn't turn around, but simply raised his hand and waved it behind him.

"What?! You... Ah Yi... you've become... Blacksmith —?!?!"

In the main hall of the Jin family mansion, the Old Master Jin, dressed in a fur coat and cotton-padded clothes, sat imposingly in the main seat. Beneath his pair of strong, white eyebrows, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets, and the small teapot in his hand was nearly crushed by his uncontrolled force.

Seeing the old man's incredulous expression, Ling Yi smiled and stepped forward, taking the small teapot from the old man's hand, which had spilled most of its tea due to trembling, and placed it on the table.

While adding water to the kettle on the small stove beside him, he said with a smile, "Yes, Master, didn't the letter I sent you before say that Senior Brother Lou Gao temporarily stopped his travels more than half a year ago and stayed at the Cold Wind Grand Camp to teach me forging hand in hand—"

"Now I have not only learned the complete set of the 81 moves of the Chaotic Cloak Hammer Technique, but also, under the guidance of Senior Brother Lou Gao, I have mastered several special alloy smelting processes that require less forging force, and I am already able to forge weapons and armor of the Thousand Refinement level—"

Sitting in the large chair, Old Master Jin was in a daze. He mechanically took the small teapot that Ling Yi handed him with both hands, subconsciously brought the spout to his lips, took a sip of warm tea, and felt the warm flow from his mouth, down his throat, and into his stomach before slowly coming back to his senses.

Seeing Ling Yi remain calm and composed throughout, Old Master Jin's face visibly lit up with joy, and he burst into laughter. "Good! Hahaha—! Excellent—! That's wonderful—!!"

It could be said that Old Master Jin was even happier than Ling Yi himself when Ling Yi became Blacksmith.

Before Ling Yi, the old man had taken in twelve personal disciples, and countless other apprentices, both named and unnamed. However, since he returned to the Water Wood Duchy, more than forty years have passed, and not a single disciple has become Blacksmith.

Even his eldest apprentice, Zhang Tie, who has followed him the longest and studied with him for the longest time, is now nearly fifty years old and is still wasting his time as a senior blacksmith.

The other direct disciples, the strongest ones who could forge weapons, some like the fifth disciple Wang Meng and the eldest disciple Zhang Tie, could forge eight hundred weapons, while the weaker ones, such as the ninth disciple, could only barely reach six hundred.

"Wood Plant City" is too small, and "Water Wood Duchy" is also too small!

The demand for armor and weapons of Five Hundred Refinement or higher in the entire duchy is not small. However, instead of transporting raw ore for domestic blacksmiths to forge, many forces within the duchy will directly purchase finished products from the neighboring [Heaven Dou Empire].

Only a few local Soul Master Soul Master their families, along with the official government of the principality, would entrust their orders for weapons and armor to various high-level blacksmiths within the country for forging.

However, these Blacksmith may have already taken large orders with low requirements from other people, and they are too busy to handle them all. They have to turn away the business that comes their way, which leads to a decrease in the retention rate of repeat customers.

In this vicious cycle, the experience that Old Master Jin's disciples can gain in creating high-quality works is always limited, making it even more difficult for them to make progress.

Unlike Ling Yi, who had the backing of the [Jin Geng Blacksmith Shop] from the beginning and whose own skills were not bad, they were able to obtain enough materials to practice from their fifth senior brother Wang Meng and their master, Old Master Jin.

Later, when they arrived at the Cold Wind Grand Camp, the army also consumed a lot of various weapons. Backed by the Duchy's military, the raw materials were always guaranteed. As long as the weapons and armor made by Ling Yi were of good quality, no one in the army would object to Ling Yi's large-scale use of various metal materials.

It's important to know that materials such as metal ores and high-combustion coke all require money to purchase.

Blacksmithing has never been a wealthy profession in the Douluo Continent!

All of Old Master Jin's disciples are his own flesh and blood. Master Jin also has his own children and clansmen, so he cannot fully support any one disciple by spending money to increase their training in forging skills.

Therefore, when Ling Yi proposed to join the military three years ago, the old man was initially shocked, but he was persuaded by Ling Yi's explanation that he could use the military's abundant logistical support to hone his skills.

Now, only three years have passed, and Ling Yi has already become Blacksmith?!

While Ling Yi's exceptional talent and Lou Gao's hands-on guidance as Grandmaster Blacksmith played a part, the ample logistical support from the Cold Wind Grand Camp was also a major factor in his success!

Thinking about it this way, Old Master Jin's mind began to stir.

It seems like sending disciples to the military logistics department for training would be a very promising venture?