Training

"Come on, have some water first."

Qiu Qiang stepped forward and handed Zhang Ping a cup of water.

Only after Zhang Ping finished drinking did he smile and say, "Not bad. I originally thought you wouldn't be able to hold out, but it looks like the school misjudged you. With your current performance, getting into the Big Three will be more than easy."

"By the way, Uncle Qiang, everyone keeps calling the Patrol Team and the Investigation Team the Big Three organizations, but what's the third organization called?" Zhang Ping looked up and finally asked the question he had been holding in for days.

Qiu Qiang froze for a moment, then spread his hands. "No idea. Anyway, Pearl City has always called them that. Everyone calls them the Big Three, and everyone knows there's another organization besides the Patrol Team and Investigation Team, but nobody knows what it's called or what it does."

"That's so strange." Zhang Ping was surprised.

He had originally thought the previous owner of this body had only cared about training and had no interest in trivial information like that, which was why he didn't know what the third organization of the Big Three was.

Only now did he realize it. Good grief, nobody knew.

"All right, forget about what the third organization is called. It's probably some secret department like an assassination unit. Have you rested enough? If you have, come see what your first work turned out like." Qiu Qiang did not continue the topic and steered the conversation back to forging.

Zhang Ping nodded, rose from the ground, and looked at the mold.

He glanced at Qiu Qiang, who gestured for him to open it himself. Zhang Ping reached out, gripped the switch, and gave it a hard pull. The mold slowly opened, revealing a black-and-silver blade before them.

Silver?

Seeing that the color was wrong, Zhang Ping frowned slightly and looked at Qiu Qiang.

"It really failed."

Qiu Qiang was not surprised. He smiled and stepped forward to pick up the blade.

The blade looked no different from a Pearl Blade. The only difference was that its body was covered in countless silver threads. Those threads were unevenly distributed and possessed none of the beauty of the Pearl Blade's red patterns.

Holding the blade, he walked to the testing bench, replaced the test stone, then raised the blade and chopped down.

The blade flashed. The stone did not crack. Instead, the blade rang sharply and snapped in two, its tip eventually landing on a large magnet nearby.

"Clean it up." Qiu Qiang tossed the broken blade to Zhang Ping and said.

Zhang Ping looked at the fracture and found that the inside of the blade was also filled with silver threads. The threads were tangled with red filaments, and because there was no pattern to them, the entire blade resembled a tree trunk hollowed out by termites.

I probably messed up while stirring and kneading. I didn't truly fuse the materials together, Zhang Ping thought as he looked at it.

He silently reviewed his mistakes.

The main problem was that the furnace had been too hot.

Squatting beside it, he felt like a roast pig. If he had stayed there any longer, he might have started smelling like grilled meat.

Then there was his strength.

His strength was still lacking by quite a bit, so the "kneading dough" process had been extremely strenuous for him. He was nowhere near as effortless as Uncle Qiang.

After tidying everything up, he walked over and sat beside Qiu Qiang.

Seeing Zhang Ping's exhausted face, Qiu Qiang smiled and spoke.

When he had first learned the Dough-Kneading Forging Technique, he had done even worse than Zhang Ping. He had not even completed the first step. Later, only under Liu Tiefeng's coercion had he gradually mastered the trick. Next, he gave Zhang Ping a more detailed explanation of the mistakes he had made during the forging process. It was far more thorough than Zhang Ping's own review. After listening and comparing it to what he had just done, Zhang Ping indeed gained a great deal.

"By the way, Uncle Qiang, how much did I lose from that failed forging attempt?" Thinking of the price of iron ingots, Zhang Ping could not help asking.

Qiu Qiang sighed. "About sixty thousand."

"..."

Zhang Ping's heart turned cold at once.

He could not repay that loss even if he sold himself.

"Hahahaha, you didn't really believe that, did you? Don't worry, it isn't as expensive as you think. Once there's more scrap, I'll tell you how to deal with it." Seeing Zhang Ping's pale face, Qiu Qiang burst out laughing.

But his joy quickly turned to sorrow when Liu Tiefeng's pipe landed on his forehead. He immediately grimaced and clutched his head.

"Braggart Qiang, where did you snatch this kid from? His talent is almost on par with Dashan's. Right, where did Dashan go?" Liu Tiefeng asked, but as he spoke, his mind grew muddled again. His eyes drooped, and he sank into confusion, looking as though he were spacing out.

Qiu Qiang took one look, sighed softly, then patted Zhang Ping's shoulder and said in a low voice, "Help me take care of Uncle Liu. I have something to do, so I'm leaving first."

"Mm." Zhang Ping nodded.

Qiu Qiang stood up and was about to head out, but after thinking it over, he still could not relax. So he gave many more instructions, talking for more than ten minutes before reluctantly leaving Soul of Iron.

The furnace fire still burned fiercely in the shop.

Zhang Ping sat and rested, glancing at Liu Tiefeng from time to time.

In his previous life, he had volunteered at a nursing home for a while, so he knew very well how to care for the elderly.

"Grandpa Liu, come, have some water."

Zhang Ping got up, went behind the counter, poured a cup of water, and carefully handed it to Liu Tiefeng.

However, Liu Tiefeng ignored Zhang Ping and simply kept his head lowered as he smoked.

Several minutes later, Liu Tiefeng looked up at Zhang Ping and said calmly, "All right, put the cup down. That kid has already gone far away."

"Uh..." Zhang Ping blinked, feeling that something was off about Liu Tiefeng.

Liu Tiefeng sighed. "All right, I'm not actually sick. I know perfectly well that Dashan most likely met with misfortune."

"Then you..."

Zhang Ping set the cup on a nearby table and looked at Liu Tiefeng in surprise.

The main reason was that Liu Tiefeng's acting had been too convincing. When Zhang Ping first met him, Liu Tiefeng had truly seemed senile.

"I know Dashan's strength very well. Qiangzi wants to investigate Dashan's whereabouts, but I'm worried he might also meet with misfortune, so I had no choice but to pretend to be foolish and keep him from having time to take risks," Liu Tiefeng said slowly.

Although he desperately wanted to know who had killed his son, he did not want Qiu Qiang to put himself in danger. He had already lost one son, so he was even less willing to see his old comrade's son die as well.

After thinking it over, Zhang Ping understood why Liu Tiefeng had pretended to be ill. He could not help asking, "Then Uncle Qiang won't take risks now?"

"He won't. Once that kid has something on his mind, he's like a turtle. He won't easily go looking for death." Liu Tiefeng smiled bitterly.

He understood Qiu Qiang's personality better than anyone.

Although Qiu Qiang usually seemed carefree and boorish, his mind was actually extremely delicate. That was also why Qiu Qiang had survived until now.

Back then, Liu Tiefeng had opposed Qiu Qiang becoming an adventurer. Qiu Qiang agreed verbally, then ran off the moment he turned around. By the time he returned, he was covered in injuries, but he had also become more mature and capable.

From then on, Liu Tiefeng knew that verbal persuasion could not stop Qiu Qiang from doing what he wanted.

So this time, he chose to pretend to be ill.

Only in that way would Qiu Qiang, burdened with worries, not recklessly take risks.

"Grandpa Liu, aren't you afraid I'll tell Uncle Qiang?" Zhang Ping could not help asking after hearing that.

Liu Tiefeng looked at Zhang Ping and asked, "Would you?"

"I wouldn't," Zhang Ping said.

Liu Tiefeng smiled. "There you have it."

All right.

Zhang Ping felt as though he had been completely seen through.

"But Qiangzi was right about one thing. You have a great deal of talent in forging. Still, Qiangzi isn't very good at teaching, and he isn't particularly dedicated to forging either, so there are quite a few gaps in what he taught you. Over the next few days, I'll teach you the real Dough-Kneading Forging Technique." Liu Tiefeng exhaled a puff of smoke and looked at Zhang Ping seriously.

This craft was not exactly some top-secret art, but it was the foundation of the Liu family's unique techniques.

Originally, he had passed everything down to his son, but his son had met with disaster.

Liu Tiefeng naturally could not bear to let the craft be lost. This was part of humanity's heritage. If it vanished in his generation, he would betray his ancestors and all mankind, so he had to find every possible way to pass it on.

Originally, he had planned to write the secret method into a manual, but when Zhang Ping had been forging just now, he realized he had a better choice.

The next day.

Zhang Ping got up shortly after four. Looking at the scenery outside the window, he realized that he had already left the school dormitory.

When he came out of his room, he discovered that Liu Tiefeng had risen even earlier than he had.

Liu Tiefeng sat in a chair in the living room, staring fixedly at a sword in the distance. Only when he saw Zhang Ping come out did he say, "All right, come with me."

With that, he got up and went upstairs.

The third floor was Liu Dashan's workshop, mainly used for weapon modification, such as inlaying special materials or gemstones into weapons, replacing guards, and redesigning knife sheaths and sword scabbards.

Liu Tiefeng brought Zhang Ping to the workbench, had him fetch flour, and then directly taught him how to knead dough.

This time, they were really kneading dough!

Liu Tiefeng skillfully kneaded the dough with both hands and smiled. "Qiangzi actually learned to knead dough when he was young, so he may not have realized that the foundation of the Dough-Kneading Forging Technique is actual dough kneading. But he started practicing as a child, so he had already mastered it to perfection. As long as his strength kept up, everything naturally fell into place. You don't have that foundation, so you can only take a shortcut."

As he spoke, he placed many iron beads of varying sizes into the dough and rapidly kneaded it. In the end, the dough and iron beads fused together, and from the outside, there was no sign that the dough concealed a large number of iron beads.

"Now you try. Put on the blindfold first, then knead out every iron bead in the dough." Liu Tiefeng stepped aside and looked at Zhang Ping.

Zhang Ping nodded. After putting on the blindfold, he pressed both hands onto the dough and found it very firm. Clearly, Liu Tiefeng had done his best to make the dough feel like forging materials.

He carefully kneaded the dough. After putting on the blindfold, its texture became exceptionally clear to him, and he quickly separated the iron beads from it.

But the process was not completely accurate.

Some tiny pieces of dough actually felt similar to iron beads.

He did not know how Liu Tiefeng had achieved that, but it truly caused him considerable trouble.