Synchronous Progress

Lou Gao and Tai Tan had not been in contact for many years. He had only heard a little about the Clear Sky Sect going into seclusion back then.

He only knew that the former vassals of the Clear Sky Sect had scattered like monkeys when the tree fell, each going their separate way.

As for where Tai Tan had led the Strength Clan to settle after relocating, Lou Gao had no idea.

Moreover, that old bastard Tai Tan had not contacted him all these years. Lou Gao had thought Tai Tan had unfortunately perished in that upheaval long ago!

Tai Tan had known Lou Gao for many years and understood the character and habits of this dead fat man before him perfectly well.

Therefore, when Lou Gao asked that question, Tai Tan knew exactly what he was thinking just by looking at his expression. His old face immediately darkened as he answered in a muffled voice:

"Heaven Dou Imperial Capital, Heaven Dou City."

"Heaven Dou City?" After receiving the answer, Lou Gao turned to his eldest disciple again and said:

"Si Long, if you run into any trouble you cannot resolve in the future, go to Heaven Dou City and find Vice President Tai Tan. Understand?"

Then, without waiting for Si Long's response, he began dismissing him.

"Alright, this old man still has matters to attend to. You may leave first!"

"Yes, Master. This disciple understands."

The moment Si Long's figure disappeared from the forging room, Lou Gao impatiently crowded before Tang San, staring at him with shining eyes.

"Boy Tang, this old man has already agreed to join your whatever-it-is Tang Sect. Aren't you going to take out those stronger hidden weapons you mentioned?"

Lou Gao's appearance made the smile on Tang San's face deepen. His tone remained calm and unhurried, giving him the air of someone firmly in control.

"Senior, I am the Tang Sect Master. Since you have joined the Tang Sect, calling me Boy Tang seems somewhat inappropriate, does it not?"

After saying that, Tang San saw that Lou Gao was still unable to swallow his pride. He took a roll of blueprints from his Soul Tool, unfolded one corner, and waved it before Lou Gao's eyes before immediately putting it away.

As expected, Lou Gao was instantly drawn in by that fleeting glimpse of the blueprint.

Seeing Tang San put the blueprint away, Lou Gao silently cursed him as a little fox, then promptly cast aside his pride and said ingratiatingly:

"Sect Master, this disciple has already joined the great Tang Sect. Could you take out that blueprint from earlier and let this disciple look at it once more? Even one glance would do!"

A stick followed by a sweet date.

At this moment, Tang San instinctively grasped the art of managing subordinates. He decided it was time to give Lou Gao a little reward.

"Senior is a master craftsman. There is no need for you to start as a disciple. From this moment onward, I appoint you as the Forging Elder of the Tang Sect."

As he spoke, Tang San took out the blueprint from before and handed it to Lou Gao.

"This is the forging blueprint for the Tang Sect's foremost mechanical hidden weapon—the Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus."

"The Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus possesses extraordinarily high destructive power. I am absolutely confident that even a Titled Douluo struck by it would either die or be crippled!"

As Tang San spoke, an intense fervor bloomed in his eyes. Compared to the fervor in Lou Gao's eyes, his was merely one part less pure and nine parts more ambitious.

Crafting a Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus required two most crucial materials: Cold Iron Iron Mother and Super Concentrated Gunpowder.

Tang San had already memorized the formula for Super Concentrated Gunpowder. He was confident that he could find the ingredients from the formula in this foreign world and successfully prepare it.

Meanwhile, Lou Gao's skill had also earned Tang San's approval through the small portion he had displayed.

Therefore, as long as they obtained a sufficient quantity of Cold Iron Iron Mother, Tang San was confident that Lou Gao could successfully craft the Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus under his guidance.

Beside him, Lou Gao was completely absorbed in studying the Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus blueprint. He had utterly shut out the outside world, and the construction diagrams were all that remained in his eyes.

Who knew how much time had passed before Lou Gao finally set down the blueprint with lingering reluctance and said to Tang San, who was drowsing in the seat beside him:

"Sect Master, the design of this Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus is truly an exquisite work of heaven."

"As for the two materials needed to make the Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus, this Super Concentrated Gunpowder is something this old man does not understand very well."

"But as for that so-called Cold Iron Iron Mother, see if this is the stuff."

As he spoke, Lou Gao took out a fist-sized piece of pitch-black ore.

A faint chill emanated from the ore's surface. Caught off guard by that icy aura, Tang San's drowsiness instantly vanished.

Having only just awakened, Tang San had not heard what Lou Gao said. Stimulated by the ore, he instinctively placed one hand on the sleeve arrow around his other wrist, while his Purple Demon Eye began to circulate.

"This is..."

The ore before his eyes made Tang San freeze. Then he cried out loudly:

"Cold Iron Iron Mother! This is Cold Iron Iron Mother!"

However, once Tang San saw the amount of ore before him clearly, the surprise in his heart immediately turned into profound disappointment.

"Too little, far too little. This tiny amount of Cold Iron Iron Mother is not even enough to make one Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus, let alone more."

Rather than diminishing, the excitement on Lou Gao's face only grew as he heard Tang San's words.

"So Cold Heart Iron Essence truly is the Cold Iron Iron Mother recorded in the blueprint. This old man had wondered at the time—was there really a metal in this world that even I did not know about?"

"Thinking about it now, perhaps this item is simply extremely ancient. Back then, Cold Heart Iron Essence was not called by that name, but Cold Iron Iron Mother."

"Now that we have confirmed this is indeed Cold Iron Iron Mother, Sect Master need not worry."

"Although there is not much Cold Heart Iron Essence in all of Gengxin City, if this old man searches for it in his own name, finding four or five kilograms should not be a problem."

"Together with this piece from my collection, it should be enough Cold Iron Iron Mother to make two Buddha's Fury Tang Lotuses."

At these words, light returned to Tang San's colorless eyes, and exhilaration filled his entire body.

Four or five kilograms of Cold Iron Iron Mother—even accounting for losses during the crafting process—would indeed be enough to make two Buddha's Fury Tang Lotuses.

Moreover, as the city of metals, Gengxin City might well have more Cold Iron Iron Mother, perhaps even the legendary Deep Sea Silver.

Since Xuan Iron was called Black Veined Iron here, and Cold Iron Iron Mother was called Cold Heart Iron Essence, what would Deep Sea Silver be called?

On the streets of Gengxin City.

Two burly men walked through the streets with their arms around each other's shoulders, conversing in low voices.

"Old Wang, tell me, when will these days of ours finally come to an end?"

"Hard to say. When Duke assigned us this task, he never said how long it would last. So, Old Li, all we can do is keep waiting."

"Yeah, that's all we can do."

Two years ago, Lin Rong had sent them to Gengxin City to search for several items:

A murky yellow crystal the size of a human head.

A piece of ore one meter in diameter, pitch-black in color and giving off a chill.

And an ordinary gray stone only one-third the size of the black ore, sold in the same shop as the black ore and given away as a buy-one-get-one-free bonus with that black ore.

Lin Rong had especially instructed them to prioritize street stalls, then small shops, and only lastly large stores.

Because in the original work, all three items had been bought for less than two Gold Soul Coins.

The two shopkeepers had even thought they were the ones making a profit.

Aside from Deep Sea Silver, both Crystal Clear Quartz and Cold Heart Iron Essence were precious metals with recorded descriptions, yet those two shopkeepers had failed to recognize them.

For people to be so blind to treasure, the possibility of it being a large shop was exceedingly small.