Patriarch Tai Tan
Tai Nuo frowned. "They didn't say where they went?"
"I really don't know."
I asked two more groups of people, and they all said the same thing.
Just as Tai Nuo was about to leave, the instructor on duty at the door heard the commotion and came out to greet him, giving him a once-over.
"Is this the Tai Nuo leader from the Strength Clan?"
"Exactly."
"Lin Chen left a message before he left." The instructor pulled a folded letter from his sleeve, "Saying that if the Tai Nuo leader of the Strength Clan came looking for him, he should hand over this letter."
Tai Nuo took it; the seal wasn't waxed, just pressed with a crease. There were two lines of text on it, the strokes stiff and the endings hooked.
He opened it with a flick of his thick finger.
The letter only had one page.
Uncle Tai Nuo:
Seeing these words is like seeing the person in person.
I don't know when I'll be back from this training trip. You don't need to wait for me to inspect the first batch of goods. You've been forging iron for half your life, you know better than I do. If you think it's acceptable, start mass production and send it directly to the market. You don't need to wait for my reply.
Lin Chen
Tai Nuo turned the letter over; the back was blank.
He flipped back and read it a second time from beginning to end, letting out a loud laugh.
"Young Master Lin is truly straightforward!"
"Master, what does this letter say...?" the two clansmen who had come with them asked, puzzled.
"It means we should make the decision ourselves." Tai Nuo folded the letter, tucked it into his robes close to his chest, and said, "Young Master Lin, do you trust my Strength Clan?"
He crouched down and pried open the box.
The boxes were neatly arranged, each compartment lined with soft cloth. The top layer contained Silent Sleeve Arrow, no more than three inches long, matte iron in color, with mechanisms hidden in the arc, and without a single burr to the touch.
He casually pulled out a Tai Nuo, weighed it in his hand, and put it down. He then pulled out another one and weighed it again.
Ten tubes were passed, and their weights were exactly the same.
He then took a Sand-Containing Shadow-Projecting reed, pinched it between two fingers, and the reed snapped open with a muffled sound in his palm, audible only to himself.
"Can."
He closed the lid of the box and stood up.
"Keep this box here and please give it to Young Master Lin. Tell him that Tai Nuo came and inspected the goods, and there are no problems."
Tai Nuo and two of his tribesmen had just returned to the valley entrance when they looked up and saw a caravan approaching, raising a cloud of yellow dust.
Seven or eight large carts, carrying a dozen or so people, their wheels rolling over gravel, creating a continuous clattering sound.
An old man sat on the first black horse. His hair and beard were already white, but his shoulders and back were as thick as a wall. One hand was on the reins, and the other hand was on the iron sheath next to the saddle.
Tai Nuo stopped.
"Oh, Dad's back."
The old man was none other than Tai Tan, the patriarch of the Strength Clan.
When the caravan reached the valley entrance, Tai Tan dismounted, his boots slamming into the ground and creating a shallow crater.
Tai Nuo quickly went to greet him, "Dad, was the trip to Gulei smooth?"
"With me personally escorting them, how could things not go smoothly?" Tai Tan tossed his whip to his men behind him. "Money and goods settled. We took a detour on the way back, which delayed us for a few days."
His gaze swept over the three men, finally settling on the bulging bundles on the shoulders of the two tribesmen.
What are you carrying?
"Father, you should rest first--"
"I asked you what you're carrying."
Tai Nuo swallowed hard, took off the bundle, and handed it over with both hands.
Tai Tan took it and peeled back the layers of cloth one by one.
Three hidden Sleeve Arrow, two spring-loaded mechanisms.
He picked up a coin, ran his fingertips along the mechanism, and his gaze darkened.
"Huh? Where did this come from?"
"The map was drawn by a young boy from Heaven Dou City, and our clan used it as a reference when we fought."
"Juvenile?"
"It's Lin Chen, the genius youth from the Heaven Dou Royal Academy."
Tai Tan held the Sleeve Arrow up to his eyes, examining its interior against the sunlight.
"The mechanism is hidden three inches in, yet it can fire continuously without jamming." He flicked his fingertip, causing the spring to spring open and close again. "The rifling isn't exposed; it's leveled by counterweights?"
Tai Nuo was taken aback. "He said rifling is too labor-intensive, and it's not cost-effective to do it in batches, so we'll use counterweights to tide us over for now."
Tai Tan lowered the Sleeve Arrow.
That's true.
He looked up. "Lin Chen, the genius of Heaven Dou City, I remember he was only a teenager, right?"
"Um, thirteen or fourteen years old, I guess."
Tai Tan spread the iron artifacts out in his palm, weighed them in his hand, and said, "Before I left, I heard a rumor that he was taken away by Senior Dugu for training?"
"Yes, he was later taken in as a personal disciple by Senior Dugu, a unique case."
Tai Tan's hand paused for a moment.
"Poison Douluo's personal disciple?"
"Yes, Father, but I just came back from the academy and heard that he went with Senior Dugu again."
"Okay, continue." Tai Tan pushed the ironware towards Tai Nuo. "Start from the beginning, how you met, how you cooperated, don't skip a single word."
Tai Nuo rubbed his hands together and recounted the whole story from beginning to end.
How did they meet? How were the profits split discussed? How were the blueprints for the three types of Hidden Weapon handed over— the Sleeve Arrow, the Sand-Containing Shadow-Projecting, and the Flying God Claw— handled? How did the clan start the forge? How was the first batch of goods shipped out?
"Father, you didn't see those blueprints. They're even more detailed than our clan's blueprints, specifying down to the exact number of inches the reed springs rebound!"
Tai Tan picked up the remaining spring, pinched and released it with two fingers, and flicked it back and forth three times.
Where are the grappling hooks of the Flying God Claw?
"We made twenty sets." Tai Nuo perked up. "The rope is made of three strands of twisted cowhide soaked in oil, and the hook has three claws and barbs. I personally hung it up to test it—it didn't wobble at all when suspended from a 400-pound load."
"Twenty sets, how many were wasted?"
"Four pairs were ruined." Tai Nuo scratched his head. "The first three pairs had cracks in the claw edges during quenching, and the fourth pair had uneven wear in the rope grooves."
Tai Tan tossed the spring back onto the cloth. "Sixteen out of twenty sets turned out like this. It's not shameful that the first batch is like this."
"Is there anything else?"
Tai Nuo scratched the back of his head and hesitated for a moment.
"Have."
"Explain."
He also taught me a set of hammer techniques.
Tai Tan raised an eyebrow. "Hammer technique?"
"Yeah, it's like that, because..." Tai Nuo scratched his head, seemingly a little embarrassed to speak.
"If you utter another word, I'll beat you to death."
"Hey, Dad, it was when Young Master Lin first came here that he sparred with that kid Tai Long. After all, it's rumored that Lin Chen is the number one genius teenager in Heaven Dou, so I wanted to see for myself."
Get to the point!
"I noticed that Young Master Lin's movements were strangely light and graceful, and he also had a precise technique for deflecting force, so I asked if this method of deflecting force could be used in forging. Then he taught me a forging hammer technique called the Chaotic Cloak Hammer."
Tai Tan stared at him for a couple of moments, then suddenly turned and walked into the valley.
"Take me to see it."
In Iron Hammer Valley, a row of forging sheds stretched along the mountainside, the bellows whirring and the furnace fires casting a red glow on half of the stone wall.
Tai Tan walked ahead, his pace slowing as he went further in.
In the third shed, four experienced craftsmen were shirtless, sweat streaming down their backs. One of them was swinging a sledgehammer, hammering a piece of iron that had been heated to a white-hot color.
when--
When the first hammer blow landed, the iron billet merely trembled.
The second hammer fell, landing only half an inch off target, but with a greater force.
The third hammer blow, the fourth hammer blow. The hammer shadows chased each other, each blow pressing down on the residual force of the previous one, causing the iron billet to extend to both sides little by little, sparks flying up like a small burst of gold dust.