Mysterious Heavy Iron Ore

"Not enough. I also need to choose a weapon from the storeroom."

Seeing Jia Lie Bi cut the 1,000 gold coins down to 500, Lu Ze took another route, seeking resources from the Jia Lie Family's storeroom.

"What?" Great Elder Jia Lie Nu slammed the table and rose. "You're just a branch family member! Do you really think swinging your sword once makes the Jia Lie Family your own back garden?"

Faced with the Great Elder's fury, Lu Ze did not yield an inch. He simply watched Jia Lie Bi quietly, without fear or greed.

Jia Lie Bi gave Lu Ze a long look. "You may choose a weapon from the storeroom, but only one, worth no more than 300 gold coins."

Jia Lie Bi spoke slowly, then changed tack. "The Jia Lie Family will not mistreat those who render meritorious service."

Lu Ze calculated inwardly. Three hundred gold coins, plus double the cultivation resources, would be enough to buy the first batch of materials for deriving Suction Palm from the black market.

As for choosing a weapon from the storeroom, that would depend on whether he had a chance to find a treasure.

"Deal." Lu Ze nodded decisively.

"Good." Jia Lie Bi clapped his hands, revealing a satisfied smile. "Lu Ze, you truly haven't disappointed me. As long as you serve the family well, there may yet be a place for you in the Jia Lie Family's future."

"Thank you for your guidance, Patriarch." Lu Ze cupped his hands again, an appropriately measured smile on his face, then turned and left the council hall.

Watching Lu Ze's departing figure, Jia Lie Nu could not help saying quietly,

"Patriarch, this boy is terribly ambitious and has no gratitude toward us whatsoever. Keeping him may invite disaster."

"Ambition makes him easier to control."

Jia Lie Bi picked up the cup of tea that had been brought to him and gently skimmed away the foam, a hint of mockery flashing in his eyes.

"Does he think taking those resources will let him escape the family's control? Let him take them. Let him think he has the ability to bargain with us.

"Afterward, we'll certainly arrange for him to go to the mine.

"The talented young men from Wutan City's other two families naturally won't let him off easily.

"If he dies in the mine then, everything will still belong to the family!

"A Two-Star Dou Zhe who dealt with one piece of trash thinks he can swagger around Wutan City?"

Returning to his little drafty room, Lu Ze began packing his pitifully few belongings.

A few changes of coarse cloth clothing, a spare little dagger, and the fifty gold coins hidden in a secret compartment beneath his bed-he had scraped those savings together over three years by taking food from his own mouth.

Including everything he had saved by secretly selling some low-grade herbs on the black market, and the 500 gold coins in advance payment the patriarch had just approved, his assets now reached a staggering 550 gold coins.

How could an old fox like Jia Lie Bi possibly bare his heart to me?

It's all about interests. Right now, he merely sees that I can kill enemies above my rank.

But all of this depends on staying alive. Jia Lie Shan will certainly retaliate against me, and that's exactly what Jia Lie Bi wants. After all, I'm only a branch family member!

Lu Ze put the gold coins into the money pouch he wore close to his body, his gaze clear.

Once he obtained the resources, derived Suction Palm, and raised his strength another step, he would find an excuse to leave the Jia Lie Family.

The Jia Lie Family was merely a health pack in his starter village.

Over the next few days, I'll move into the inner compound first and consolidate my cultivation stage, then prepare the materials for the derivation.

Lu Ze pushed open the door and looked at the exquisite Grade Jia courtyards in the inner compound, his gaze gradually deepening.

Early the next morning, Lu Ze stood outside Grade Jia Courtyard Three in the inner compound, carrying a shabby cloth bundle.

The gates were vermilion, with the Jia Lie Family crest carved into the lintel.

He pushed the gates open and entered an exquisite little courtyard residence with three successive sections.

Green bamboo screened the grounds, with rockeries and flowing water, and even a faint medicinal fragrance hung in the air.

Compared with his old woodshed in the outer compound, where drafts blew in from every side and rats ran rampant, this place was as different as heaven and earth.

"Young Master Lu Ze, this is your courtyard."

The steward leading the way was a thin, shriveled middle-aged man named Jia Lie Fu, a trusted subordinate of Great Elder Jia Lie Nu.

He wore a practiced, false smile, but deep in his eyes lurked a trace of undisguised contempt.

Does an orphan from a branch family deserve a Grade Jia residence?

"There are two maids in the courtyard for the rough work, and someone will deliver your meals every day."

Jia Lie Fu pointed toward the side rooms, his tone indifferent.

"However, Young Master Lu Ze, maintaining a Grade Jia courtyard isn't cheap. Twenty gold coins must be deducted from your resource allowance every month. Those are the family rules. I'm sure you understand?"

Lu Ze glanced at him without speaking.

The twenty-gold-coin maintenance fee was plainly that old bastard Jia Lie Nu's way of making things unpleasant for him.

Of his monthly allowance of fifty gold coins, twenty would be deducted, leaving only thirty in his hands.

"I understand." Lu Ze nodded, his tone as flat as though he were discussing some trivial matter.

"Lead the way. To the storeroom."

Jia Lie Fu froze briefly, not expecting Lu Ze to be so agreeable.

He had prepared a bellyful of barbed remarks, but now they were stuck in his throat, leaving him somewhat uncomfortable instead.

"Young Master Lu Ze, please follow me."

The Jia Lie Family's storeroom stood deep within the inner compound, a three-story building constructed from thick, heavy blocks of bluestone.

As the heavy iron doors swung open, a smell of medicinal herbs mixed with stone rushed toward them.

"The patriarch instructed that Young Master Lu Ze may choose one weapon worth no more than 300 gold coins on the first floor."

Jia Lie Fu stood to one side, his hands tucked into his sleeves, speaking with a smile that never reached his eyes.

That old bastard Jia Lie Bi clearly doesn't intend to give me anything good.

Ignoring his barbed manner, Lu Ze began browsing the first floor on his own.

He walked slowly, his gaze sweeping over the rows of blades and swords gleaming coldly along the walls.

Suddenly, Lu Ze's gaze stopped at a cluttered corner in the deepest part of the storeroom.

There lay a grayish-black stone roughly the size of a human head, pitted and utterly lusterless.

It had been carelessly shoved beneath the bottom of a battered wooden rack to serve as a support.

Lu Ze's pupils contracted slightly. Mysterious heavy iron ore.

This ore was not particularly precious on the Dou Qi Continent, because it could neither be used to forge weapons nor serve as medicine. Its only characteristic was its weight.

To an ordinary blacksmith, it was hard, heavy, and impossible to work-a piece of scrap as tasteless to eat as it was regrettable to discard.

But to Lu Ze, this piece of scrap was an important tool for cultivating Suction Palm, and even a core material for deriving [Suction Palm]!

Lu Ze suppressed the excitement in his heart, his expression betraying nothing.

He turned back toward the weapons section and drew a longsword inlaid with a blue gemstone.

"This sword looks good. What grade is it?"

Jia Lie Fu glanced at it, a trace of disdain flashing in his eyes.

"That is the Emerald Water Sword, Yellow Tier High Rank, worth 260 gold coins. Young Master Lu Ze, you have excellent taste!"

Hmph, a flashy but useless piece of junk! Jia Lie Fu had already decided how to report this to Great Elder Jia Lie Nu.

That trash Lu Ze actually picked an even more worthless sword out of all the family's treasures.

Lu Ze slid the Emerald Water Sword into its sheath and said casually, "I'll take this one, then."

Then, as though something had suddenly occurred to him, he pointed at the grayish-black stone supporting the rack in the corner.

"That stone looks pretty hard. You don't mind if I borrow it as a whetstone for a few days, do you?"

Jia Lie Fu followed his finger, froze for a moment, and nearly laughed aloud. That worthless stone, which had been propping things up for who knew how many years, as a whetstone?

"You must be joking, Young Master Lu Ze. That stone isn't worth anything. If you want it, simply take it."

Jia Lie Fu waved a hand, not even bothering to register it.

"Thank you, then."

Without any change in expression, Lu Ze walked over and lifted the lump of mysterious heavy iron ore, which weighed a full hundred jin, with one hand, as easily as if it were an ordinary stone.

He strode out of the storeroom. Watching his departing figure, Jia Lie Fu shook his head and sneered under his breath. "He spent 260 gold coins on a showpiece and took a worthless stone along for a whetstone. Hmph, what a fool."

Back in Grade Jia Courtyard Three, Lu Ze shut the door and set the mysterious heavy iron ore on the table.

The hundred-jin lump of ore struck the red sandalwood tabletop with a tremendous, muffled thud.

"Its gravity attribute is strong. The quality is even better than I expected."