Chapter 116 – Mysterious Organization?
A mysterious organization? Teacher Wu is a member of some mysterious organization? This piece of information immediately caught Tang Wulin’s interest. Yet, did he really want to join it?
Tang Wulin was somewhat hesitant. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Wu Zhangkong, but his parents had disappeared due to a mysterious organization! Because of this, he harbored some ill feelings toward such ‘mysterious organizations’.
“Teacher Wu, what kind of organization is it? What does it do?” Tang Wulin asked.
Wu Zhangkong sternly said, “It is an organization with righteousness, equality, justice and protection as its main principles. This organization spans across all three continents. As for its name… You will only find out after passing the test.”
Tang Wulin shook his head. “Sorry, Teacher Wu, I don’t think I will join.” He had come to this decision in an instant.
Wu Zhangkong was slightly stunned. He had never expected Tang Wulin to decline in such a straightforward way.
“How can you refuse when you still haven’t completely understood what the organization is?” Wu Zhangkong curiously asked.
Tang Wulin shook his head once again. “My parents were taken by a mysterious organization and even now, I haven’t heard anything from them. So I…”
Wu Zhangkong’s face wrinkled into a frown. “Your parents? Do you have any clues?”
Tang Wulin forced out a bitter smile as he was once again forced to shake his head in denial. Apart from the one million federal coins his father had left him, he had no clues at all.
Wu Zhangkong spoke heavily, “If your parents didn’t go voluntarily, then I am certain it isn’t the organization I speak of. Regardless, you can take your time to think it over. If you change your mind and want to take the test, you will find out the organization’s name after passing the test. I am certain that once you do, you will change your mind. But if you don’t pass the test, then we don’t even need to speak of this topic any further.”
“If that’s the case, I think I can do it.” Tang Wulin no longer had any reason to decline. After all, what if Wu Zhangkong was a part of a really good organization?
Leaving Wu Zhangkong’s office, Tang Wulin did not return to his dorm and instead left the academy grounds to head for his forging workshop.
He was short on time. After listening to Wu Zhangkong’s lesson about the importance of a secondary profession, his passion for forging was rekindled and became a soaring blaze. For the sake of having battle armor in the future, he would have to persist…
Tang Wulin needed to break the second seal before he turned fifteen, so he still had five years of time left. This may seem like a long period, but after seeing the list of the four spirit items he needed, he no longer felt that he had that much time.
The four spirit items were a set, and he also wasn’t too clear on what they were. But these four items all had two words in common: ‘thousand year’. He could only imagine how much they would cost…
Forging was his greatest source of income. First, he still had to pay back his debt to the association, and then he would put all of his efforts into raising his forging ability to earn even more money. He would save the profits in preparation for buying those four spirit items in the future. After all, how could he be so lucky as to just find those four items? Purchasing them was a much more reliable method.
As the tests had revealed, the absorption of the Golden Dragon King’s soul fragment had increased his body’s coordination, control of power, strength, and speed. All of these gains would be beneficial to his forging.
The Thousand Refinements was no longer that difficult for him, so he began accepting tasks to forge all sorts of uncommon metals. In the past few days, Mang Tian had only come once to instruct him. During his visit, Mang Tian told him that he must diversify and Thousand Refine all sorts of different metals to gain a deep understanding of their characteristics. Only when he could fuse with them like he had with the Heavy Silver would he be able to take a step toward grasping the secrets of forging and thus, become a fourth rank blacksmith.
As a result, Tang Wulin accepted tasks that required him to Thousand Refine a variety of metals.
It had to be said that the reward for completed Thousand Refinements was still astonishingly high. Even a common metal that was Thousand Refined would still be worth at least 100,000 federal coins.
Even so, the most profitable Thousand Refinement tasks were worth 400,000 to 500,000 federal coins. The tasks that paid that much, however, required him to infuse the spirit into those uncommon metals, which Tang Wulin didn’t dare to attempt yet.
Despite that being the case, he had calculated that with his current task completion speed, it would take him three months at most to pay back the Blacksmith’s Association.
Tang Wulin was now accepting and completing two Thousand Refinement tasks each week.
Moreover, he practiced forging two to three nights each week as it helped him circulate his soul power and improve his control over it. In fact, it even refined his spiritual power a bit, so the time he spent on forging wasn’t wasted at all.
Not only was he completing his final task today, but he was also going to hand in the finished products and accept a new week’s worth of tasks.
Aluminium purification, Thousand Refinements!
This was the simplest Thousand Refinements task. After accepting it, Tang Wulin discovered that although it was easy to Thousand Refine Aluminium, sensing the mysteries hidden within was no easy project!
Compared to ordinary steel, aluminium possessed the hardness of steel while also possessing its own resilience. With this combination of hardness and resilience, Tang Wulin could gradually sense the changes and mysteries within the metal as he Thousand Refined it. After the Thousand Refinements was completed, the aluminium’s hardness and resilience increased substantially, as if it had completely transformed. It could be said that this was an uncommon metal that experienced the greatest change after being Thousand Refined.
Tang Wulin could vaguely hear the words of Grandmaster Cen Yue echoing within his mind: ‘Thousand Refined aluminium is the most commonly used metal for making purple battle armor.’
It was because of these words that Tang Wulin possessed such great interest in aluminium. With aluminium being so cheap, wouldn’t he be able to forge his own battle armor in the future?
Lately, he had been accepting many aluminium forging tasks and was now beginning to gain the ability to feel the inner changes of the aluminium as he forged it. There was never a shortage of Thousand Refined aluminium tasks, so by relying on the powerful Stacked Hammers effect of his Heavy Silver hammers, his output rate was simply outrageous, and he had no need to worry about making a mistake.
Tang Wulin had a slight feeling that if he was able to gain an even deeper understanding of the essence of aluminium, of its breath of life and its character, then he would make another breakthrough on the path of forging.
☀
Today’s forging finished without a hitch, and as he looked at the brilliantly shining Thousand Refined aluminium in front of him, he couldn’t help but crack a knowing smile.
Mang Tian had once told Tang Wulin that just by relying on his perception and innate divine strength, he was already on the threshold of becoming a fourth ranked blacksmith. After all, Tang Wulin was able to bring about simple special effects in uncommon Thousand Refined metals.
Yet, the gap between his current level and a true, fourth ranked blacksmith was by no means small. In order to advance to the fourth rank from the third rank, it required an accumulation of experience. Also, reaching the fourth rank wasn’t necessarily a good thing if one’s foundation was not firm enough. This was the reason Mang Tian wanted him to understand the inner properties of all of the uncommon metals on the market and to be able to Thousand Refine them completely before attempting the fourth rank test.
Having learned from Mang Tian for over three years now, Tang Wulin’s foundations were definitely sturdy. Now he was improving his comprehension of metals in the third and fourth ranks in order to better prepare himself for Spirit Forging in the future. If he were to actually enter the Spirit Forging realm, he would then be considered to truly be one of the federation’s elites.
Just what sort of level was Spirit Forging? Was it to understand the spirit of the metal? Or was it to bestow spirit into the metal?
Di, di, di. Tang Wulin’s soul communicator rang as soon as he turned it on.
“Teacher Mang Tian,” Tang Wulin respectfully said.
“If you’re free right now, then come to the Blacksmith’s Association.” Mang Tian’s deep voice rang out.
“I was just getting ready to head over there. Teacher, are you at the association right now?” Tang Wulin asked in surprise as he hadn’t seen Mang Tian these past few days.
“En. Come then. I’m waiting for you in the president’s office.” Tang Wulin heard a trace of loneliness in Mang Tian’s voice.
He didn’t dare delay and quickly packed up the finished products for his accepted tasks. He quickly left the workshop and headed straight for the association.
The association was nearby, so he arrived in only a few minutes.
He then rode the elevator all the way to the top floor.
Inside of Mu Chen’s office were Mu Chen and Mang Tian. The two were seated across from one another, but Mu Chen had a serene expression while Mang Tian had a slight frown.