First Meeting with Mu Xi

On the top floor of the Blacksmith Association.

Mu Chen sat quietly behind his desk, his expression so calm it was almost indifferent.

He had not paid much attention to the so-called "connection" visiting today. In truth, he had hardly given the matter a thought.

After all, given Leng Yaozhu's status, as long as the child was not hopeless, Mu Chen would probably take him in and give him a chance to learn forging—even if he showed only a trace of talent.

Whether the child achieved anything or how far he went was another matter. Mu Chen had no intention of troubling himself over it.

"A Level 98 Super Douluo personally asked someone to make the introduction. I have to do her this favor, no matter what."

Mu Chen murmured with a faint sigh, "I only hope the child has some talent for forging. Someone a Super Douluo noticed and recommended shouldn't be too mediocre."

Even so, Mu Chen had little confidence in whether Li Qingyue actually had any talent.

The path of forging was nowhere near as simple as outsiders imagined.

It could roughly be divided into two aspects.

The first was one's Martial Soul: an innate strength-type Martial Soul, for instance, a hammer-type one, or a powerful fire-attribute Martial Soul.

All of these provided a tremendous boost to forging, and the benefit was direct.

The second aspect was the study of theory and knowledge.

Someone who mastered forging techniques, experience, and theory quickly and thoroughly could gain a considerable advantage as well.

Having a gift in either aspect was enough to be called talented, perhaps even a young prodigy.

And someone gifted in neither could still learn forging.

It would simply be far harder, and improving their forging skills would be harder still.

In short, truly learning to forge well was no easy task.

Mu Chen thought as he idly wrote something down.

Just then, someone knocked on the door, and Yang Wenhao's voice came from outside.

Mu Chen fell silent for a moment before slowly saying, "Come in."

The door opened, and four figures entered one after another.

Yang Wenhao led the way.

The moment he stepped inside, he saw his teacher, Mu Chen. He bowed respectfully, his manner exceptionally humble.

Yet Mu Chen's gaze did not fall on Yang Wenhao, not even for an instant.

It went straight past him to the people behind him.

The first person Mu Chen ruled out was Leng Xiaoyue.

The woman looked to be at least twenty or thirty. She was clearly too old to be the youngster who had come to learn forging.

Behind Leng Xiaoyue stood two girls.

The girl on the left had long, pale-gold hair, bright black eyes, delicate cheeks, and a finely shaped nose.

Her eyes were large and round, framed by long lashes. She was so strikingly pretty and adorable that even Mu Chen's eyes lit up.

Beside the blonde girl stood a girl with silver hair and purple eyes.

Both were beautiful in their own ways.

But judged purely by the delicacy of their features, the blonde girl on the left had the edge.

Leng Yaozhu's message had said to look for the prettiest one, so he ought to choose the blonde girl on the left.

Yet the girl on the right had short hair and looked more like a boy. Mu Chen hesitated.

Seeing his uncertainty, Li Qingyue blinked. He could roughly guess what Mu Chen was thinking.

He did not want the misunderstanding to continue.

So Li Qingyue calmly stepped forward and offered Mu Chen his hand.

"Hello, Senior Mu Chen. I'm Li Qingyue. Senior Leng sent me, and I suppose you could call me her junior."

He paused, sounding a little embarrassed. "Also, I'm a boy."

Mu Chen felt embarrassed too. His eyes went instinctively to Li Qingyue's outstretched hand.

The fingers were fair and slender. Though the nails had been trimmed, they still held a faint, lustrous sheen. The hand looked almost too exquisite to be real.

Then Mu Chen met the boy's steady, resolute gaze and finally collected himself. He reached out with his broad, rough hand and shook Li Qingyue's firmly.

"Good! Pleased to meet you. I'm Mu Chen."

He laughed heartily. "I know why you're here, so let's not waste time. Come with me."

With that, Mu Chen turned and led Li Qingyue toward the forging room outside.

It was Mu Chen's private forging room.

At his current level, though, he rarely used it himself. Sometimes ten days or half a month passed without it being opened once.

He pushed open the door, and they went in, one after the other.

Leng Xiaoyue and Na'er followed behind them.

Yang Wenhao waited respectfully at the entrance and did not go in.

Mu Chen took out a piece of metal, set it gently on the Forging Table, and pointed to it.

"Don't think about anything else. Just hit it. Hit it however you want, any way you feel like."

His instructions were blunt.

Li Qingyue looked at the metal, parted his lips slightly, then nodded with some hesitation.

But just as he was about to take the beginner's Forging Hammer Mu Chen offered him, someone kicked the door open with a bang.

It happened without warning.

Zheng Tianren appeared in the doorway, looking helpless.

"Mu Xi, this is a new apprentice Master's taken in. Don't go in and cause trouble. He really isn't up to anything in there."

Exasperation filled Zheng Tianren's voice.

Before he could finish, a girl with long golden hair and bright orange eyes strode in.

She folded her arms across her somewhat flat chest and swept a haughty gaze over the room.

She looked first at her father and glared at him fiercely.

Then her gaze shifted and landed on Li Qingyue almost at once.

The boy before her was, quite simply, almost unfairly good-looking.

Even Mu Xi's expression softened without her realizing it when she got her first clear look at him.

Li Qingyue was studying Mu Xi too.

Just then, the Goddess Illustration System chimed in Li Qingyue's mind with a check-in notification.

[Day one check-in for Mu Xi successful. Check-in reward obtained: God-Level Forging Potential, granting an understanding of forging and crafting ability far beyond that of ordinary people.]

The notification echoed through his mind.

The girl before him, meanwhile, was still staring at him blankly.

Their eyes met, and for a moment, the atmosphere turned strangely awkward.