For a moment,
Lu Chuan felt that the person before him,
wasn't Mu Chen,
the president of the Blacksmith Association Branch in Eastsea City,
but a full-blown pervert!
After all,
what decent person would stare at a little boy,
circling him again and again,
looking him over from every angle...
"President, could you stop staring at me like that?"
At last,
Lu Chuan spoke his mind.
He was genuinely afraid that if he kept holding it in,
he'd slap Mu Chen's head clean off!
At that, Mu Chen finally looked away.
But Lu Chuan couldn't see the slightest embarrassment on his face.
Instead, he calmly asked him several questions.
"You're nine this year?"
"Mm!"
"How many years have you been learning blacksmithing?"
"Three!"
"You can Spirit Forge?"
"Just succeeded!"
"Can I see your work?"
"Here!"
Their brief conversation,
ended with Lu Chuan's Spirit Forging piece.
Mu Chen took the Spirit-Forged Deep Sea Silver.
The moment it touched his hands,
he could tell the silver had remarkable spiritual quality.
If Spirit Forging were ranked from first to ninth grade, from highest to lowest,
the Deep Sea Silver Lu Chuan had forged was already extremely close to first-grade Spirit Forging!
That was something only a master smith who had spent years immersed in forging could achieve!
"Talent. I'm truly envious!" Mu Chen couldn't help exclaiming.
Mang Tian beside him nearly kicked him.
Because,
when it came to talent,
there were hardly any of Mu Chen's peers who could hold a candle to the old guy!
Of course,
more importantly,
Mu Chen had been beating around the bush instead of getting to the point.
It had taken Mang Tian all he had to finally decide to let Lu Chuan go!
If this dragged on any longer,
he really might regret it!
Perhaps sensing Mang Tian's impatience,
Mu Chen stopped with the preamble.
Taking Lu Chuan on as his apprentice was the most important thing now.
So,
he spoke plainly:
"Xiao Chuan, your teacher has probably already talked this over with you. So I'll be direct: are you willing to take me as your master?"
Lu Chuan: "No!"
His calm reply struck like a bolt of thunder.
The smile on Mu Chen's face froze instantly.
He stood there as if someone had cast a body-locking spell on him,
stunned in place.
As an Eight-Star Saint Smith,
he'd had countless people beg to become his apprentices,
and he'd turned them all down!
Now,
he'd offered to take someone on himself,
and the boy before him had refused!
Mu Chen stood there in a daze for a few seconds,
utterly unable to understand.
He looked at Lu Chuan in confusion, his voice full of disbelief:
"May I ask why?"
Lu Chuan answered as if it were only natural:
"Because I already have a teacher!
If I became your apprentice,
my teacher would be sad.
I don't want to make him sad,
so,
President,
I'm truly sorry to have made you come all this way for nothing!"
Lu Chuan bowed apologetically to Mu Chen,
then turned his gaze to Mang Tian.
The master and disciple met eyes,
and warmth welled up in Mang Tian's heart.
The effort he'd poured into teaching and passing on his skills had finally borne fruit!
But precisely because of that,
he had all the more reason not to keep Lu Chuan.
"You little brat, always saying such mushy things!"
"Don't act like I'm so attached to you!"
"I just wanted to use you as a stepping stone. Once you became a Saint Craftsman, I'd shamelessly pester you to teach me Soul Forging, got it?"
"Only Saint Craftsmen know Soul Forging!
The president is an Eight-Star Saint Smith.
His teaching is top-notch.
If you became his apprentice,
you'd get far more resources and connections than you would with me!
You'd also make faster progress,
and then I'd have a better shot at becoming a Saint Craftsman!
If you don't go,
how am I supposed to become a Saint Craftsman?
So,
become the president's apprentice now, understand?"
Mang Tian bellowed, cursing like a roughneck.
How could Lu Chuan fail to see the good intentions behind Mang Tian's harsh words?
He smiled at Mang Tian.
"Teacher, I know you can't bear to let me go. Stop pretending—you're not fooling anyone.
I said I'm not leaving, and I mean it. I don't care about those resources either. At worst, I'll just spend a little more time getting there!"
At Lu Chuan's words, Mang Tian didn't know whether to feel touched or angry.
"You little brat, why can't you appreciate what's good for you?
Do you know what it means for a blacksmith to advance even one step earlier?
It means your chances of becoming a Godsmith someday go up by ten percent!"
Lu Chuan grinned.
"I know!
But you taught me how to hold a hammer properly, taught me the properties of metal, taught me how to sense those properties, and paid me.
For three years, you passed on everything you knew without holding anything back.
If I switched masters just because someone stronger came along, would I even be human?"
For a moment,
sincerity was the ultimate weapon.
And the weight behind those words was still climbing?
Mang Tian opened his mouth,
his throat bobbing a few times,
but not a single word came out.
He turned away and blinked hard, his eyes stinging.
He couldn't bring himself to look at Lu Chuan again.
He was afraid—
if Lu Chuan said anything more,
his eyes would start peeing!
"All right, you two can stop getting sentimental! You're making me look like the villain tearing you apart!"
Mu Chen interrupted the endless back-and-forth between master and disciple, one telling the other to leave and the other refusing.
He turned to Lu Chuan,
patted his shoulder,
and looked at the boy with deep admiration.
"You're a fine young man.
I've lived a long time and seen plenty of people stop at nothing to climb higher.
But I've never seen anyone like you,
someone who could turn down an Eight-Star Saint Smith's offer without a second thought!
Even if that Eight-Star Saint Smith is me, it still hurts... But you've earned my respect.
So I won't take you as my apprentice either. But if you ever run into trouble with forging, you can come to me anytime.
Let's just say... we'll be friends despite our age difference."
Mu Chen chuckled.
He wasn't a rigid person.
Though he very much wanted to take Lu Chuan as his apprentice,
some things simply couldn't be forced.
Otherwise, they'd only backfire.
At Mu Chen's words,
Lu Chuan hadn't expected him to be so open-minded.
But when he remembered that Mu Chen had once been willing to be Tang Wulin's teacher alongside Mang Tian,
it made sense!
"Thank you, President!"
Lu Chuan smiled and bowed to Mu Chen again,
to express his deepest gratitude!
After all,
to receive two bows from the Golden Dragon King in a single day—
even among Soul Beasts, there was no precedent for it!
Mu Chen was the first.
If Lu Chuan ever created the Divine Realm again in the future,
just this alone would let Mu Chen walk all over the Divine Realm!
Since the president had come from far away,
they naturally couldn't treat him poorly.
Mang Tian prepared a lavish dinner.
After several rounds of drinks,
and a full spread of dishes,
Mang Tian got drunk,
and Mu Chen got drunk too.
Lu Chuan was also coaxed into drinking a little.
It was his first time drinking since he'd transmigrated.
The liquor had been brewed from Spirit Fruits
and contained a trace of spiritual power,
which couldn't be dispersed with Soul Power.
Lu Chuan had only drunk a little,
but his vision was already starting to blur.
After they got him to drink two more cups,
he was completely woozy.
When Mang Tian and Mu Chen saw that Lu Chuan had finally passed out,
they hurriedly drank two bowls of sobering soup,
and most of their drunkenness cleared in an instant.
Mang Tian set down his bowl,
wiped his mouth,
and lowered his voice to give Mu Chen a warning in advance.
He was genuinely afraid Mu Chen would lose his temper.
"Let's get one thing straight first. No matter what Xiao Chuan says, you can't fly off the handle."
Mu Chen patted his chest and declared righteously,
"Relax. Do you think I, Mu Chen, am that petty?"
At that, Mang Tian couldn't help chuckling.
"If you aren't, why did you get Xiao Chuan drunk so you could ask him again?"
Mu Chen's face flushed red at that. He really had no way to argue, and was instantly vexed.
"I just want to know the truth, all right? Stop stalling. That kid's about to really fall asleep!"
"Fine, fine. Don't rush me!"
Mang Tian soothed Mu Chen, who was on the verge of turning red with anger.
Then, without another word, he leaned closer to Lu Chuan and asked softly, "Xiao Chuan, do you really... not want to take the president as your master?"
Lu Chuan didn't even lift his eyelids. Almost by instinct, he mumbled, "N-no..."
"Why?" Mang Tian looked at Mu Chen and smiled smugly. "Wouldn't it be great to take the president as your master?"
"Sure..." Lu Chuan chuckled indistinctly. "But I just learned Spirit Forging... I'm still a long way from Alloy Forging and Soul Forging. Maybe after this, you'll work hard and break through to Saint Craftsman in one go, Teacher! Then I won't need to take the president as my master, right?"
Mang Tian was stumped, and laughed helplessly. "But what if... you don't break through?"
Lu Chuan waved a hand as if shooing away a fly. "It's fine if you don't break through... We can ask the president for guidance... We won't let him do it for nothing, either... We'll pay for lessons... I just wonder how much the president charges for a Soul Forging lesson..."
Mang Tian's eyes widened. "Charge money? You've got some nerve! If you don't become his disciple, why would the president teach you?"
Lu Chuan chuckled and blinked blearily. "He will. He already calls me his kindred spirit across generations! If he won't teach me, I'll go after his daughter! I've already asked around. The president's daughter is called Mu Xi. She's four years older than me and in the upper division at Eastsea Academy!"
Before he could finish,
Mang Tian burst out laughing,
while Mu Chen, the person in question,
had a face as black as an iron pot...