Materials for Crafting a One-Word Battle Armor

Wu Changkong's words clearly caught Shui Bing'er off guard.

Once she came to her senses, she said shyly, "Since when were we together? Don't talk nonsense."

Wu Changkong chuckled quietly beside her, taking in her reaction.

At that moment, Gu Qingbo handed Wu Changkong a cup of sour plum juice.

"Brother Changkong, have some sour plum juice. It'll cut the grease."

Wu Changkong paused, then accepted it and took a sip.

The sweet, sour, icy drink washed away much of the greasy aftertaste the hotpot had left in his mouth.

"Okay, thanks, Xiaobo."

Then Xue Wu suggested, "It's still early. Let's go for a walk, settle our food, and look around."

"It's the first day of school. We can't just go back and sleep right after eating."

Everyone agreed with the suggestion.

So, instead of heading straight back to the academy, the group of five began strolling around nearby.

The night market was even livelier than it had been at dusk.

All the lanterns along both sides of the river had been lit.

Shui Bing'er walked in front of Wu Changkong, always keeping more than half a step between them.

When they passed a jewelry stall, Shui Yue'er and Xue Wu stopped at the same time.

It was a wooden cart covered with all kinds of small accessories.

The vendor was a woman in her twenties. Seeing several girls gather around, she immediately greeted them warmly.

"Take a look, little sisters. These were all handmade by old craftsmen, and every piece is unique."

Shui Yue'er picked up a pair of tiny silver bell earrings and held them beside her ears. Then she turned to Shui Bing'er. "Sis, do these look good?"

"They're not bad."

Shui Bing'er answered without even raising her head, but she bent down before the stall herself, her gaze settling on a simple silver hairpin.

After buying jewelry, they went to buy food.

They bought everything from stinky tofu and grilled skewers to ice jelly and candied hawthorns.

Wu Changkong was beginning to wonder whether they had actually eaten their fill.

They claimed they were walking to digest their food, yet they still kept buying things to eat along the way.

Besides being stunned by the four girls' spending habits and appetites, Wu Changkong also felt gazes coming from every direction.

Some came from passing men. Their eyes lingered over the four beautiful girls before unanimously landing on the only man following behind them, filled with envy and jealousy.

Why did this guy get to have all four to himself?

Wu Changkong remained utterly unfazed.

That was, until his gaze swept over a shop by the roadside and his steps suddenly stopped.

It was an iron ore shop. Several wooden racks stood inside, displaying samples of different ores and metals.

The shop was brightly lit, while the clanging of hammering drifted from the forge in the back.

And Wu Changkong's eyes were fixed on the ores on those wooden racks.

Shui Bing'er, who was holding stinky tofu and had been about to offer him some, saw him stop and asked, "Changkong, what's wrong?"

The others turned around as well.

With half a candied hawthorn in her mouth, Shui Yue'er asked, "Why did you stop?"

"I want to go in and take a look."

"Huh? You want to buy iron?"

"Yes. I need to forge some things, so I want to see whether they have suitable materials."

"You can keep looking around. I'll catch up with you in a little while."

"Why keep looking around?" Xue Wu waved a hand and strode over to his side. "Let's go in together."

"I've never been inside a blacksmith's shop in my life. This is a good chance to broaden my horizons."

"Besides, if you go in alone, what if they mistake you for a thief and throw you out?"

Wu Changkong smiled helplessly. It might be better if you didn't go in with me.

"Then let's go together."

The group entered. The lighting inside was dimmer than outside, and the air was filled with the mixed smell of coal smoke and rust.

The outer room was the display area. Racks against the walls were packed with various iron tools, while several baskets of raw ore and iron blocks were piled on the floor.

Walking through the outer room, they could see the forge through a half-open wooden door.

The furnace burned bright red, the bellows wheezed loudly, and a burly figure could vaguely be seen swinging a hammer before an anvil.

"Hello, do you have a moment?" Wu Changkong called.

Before long, a bare-chested burly man lifted the curtain and walked out.

He was around forty and heavily built.

When he saw who was standing at the entrance, he was clearly taken aback.

"Kids, this isn't a place to play."

"Iron tools are sharp, and ore is heavy and dirty. You students shouldn't wander around here. Go play outside."

"No, sir, I came to look at iron ore."

Hearing that, the bald man lowered his head and gave the boy before him another look.

"You're interested in iron too, kid?"

"Yes." Wu Changkong nodded. "I'm studying at Skywater Academy right now, and I need some special materials to make something, so I wanted to see whether you have suitable metal here."

The bald man was skeptical. A delicate-looking child actually liked iron ore?

"Then come in and have a look."

"The ore is piled against the wall in the back courtyard. The things on these racks are all samples."

"What kind of material do you want? Tell me, and I'll get it for you from the back."

"Alright. I'll see what you have first."

With that, Wu Changkong walked over to the racks.

All sorts of metal ingots and raw ore were arranged neatly by category, including common refined iron and pig iron.

Wu Changkong narrowed his eyes.

He stepped up to the rack and reached out with his right hand, touching a silver metal ingot.

Its surface was smooth and cold to the touch.

He flicked the ingot with a finger, producing a crisp, lingering ring.

Sinking Silver.

He silently recited the name in his heart.

This metal was extremely malleable. A single hammer strike could spread it over three times the area of ordinary iron without cracking.

More importantly, it had an excellent amplification effect on Soul Power conduction, making it an exceptional material for the hand and leg plates of a one-word battle armor.

In his previous life, he had seen piles of Sinking Silver ingots in Shrek Academy's forging room. Every piece had been strictly numbered and registered, and only approved students could claim them for use.

Yet now, an ingot of Sinking Silver—something that would make any blacksmith twenty thousand years later light up with excitement—had been casually placed on an old wooden rack in a roadside blacksmith's shop.

His fingers moved away from the Sinking Silver and settled on a darker metal ingot beside it.

The surface of this ingot was covered in patterns, like naturally formed wind-worn markings.

Demon Silver.

Its elemental affinity ranked among the top three of all conventional metals, and it had an extremely strong resonance effect with ice, fire, lightning, and wind attribute Soul Power.

Battle armor components made from Demon Silver could greatly enhance the power of an elemental Soul Master's soul skills. Quite a bit of Demon Silver had been incorporated into his one-word battle armor in his previous life.

His gaze continued searching across the rack, and he soon locked onto a third target.

It was a grayish-white metal ingot with a rough surface. It looked utterly unremarkable, even somewhat shabby beside the other gleaming ores.