In Darkness Port, power and money were the only rules. Freedom and chaos would be its constant symphony of darkness.
So, how would a teenager survive in this place?
Using the words of the old civilization, many teenagers would go through a period of ‘eight-grade syndrome’. They assumed themselves as a hot-blooded hero or a cold-blooded villain who were either on the side of justice or the cause of darkness. Some were easygoing while some were depressed.
In summary, everything was a slice of color in their vivid imagination. Therefore, a teenager and Darkness Port were an interesting combination as things would surely happen when both of them come together.
Those who were on the side of justice would vow to erase the injustice in Darkness Port. On the flip side, those who were on the side of evil would want to shine like the brightest star.
The port city was the stage for a group of genius young teenagers every one of whom thought they were the protagonists of the world.
Some said that Darkness Port was actually a peaceful place. Despite crime and injustice happening every day, freedom and wildness followed. The good and the bad were an inseparable pair. They balanced each other out and became the peacekeeper of the city.
Peace was the only thing that would never change until the arrival of the group of young teenagers.
Could everything remain the same?
…
There were three strikes in a set. The first two strikes required him to be fully concentrated, and within a short amount of time, he had to refine the black iron blanks using a technique that had been almost impossible before the Purple Moon era.
As for the third and final hammer strike, all he needed to do was to pour in all his strength.
Tang Ling was serious with every hammer strike. He did not seek his best; he sought perfection.
Every clank from his hammering was different. The subtle differences were from the adjustments and alterations, including the third final strike that seemed to be easy. After a few times, he realized the key to the final strike was not about swinging down the hammer blindly but to concentrate his strength even more. He had to ensure that most of his strength landed on the blanks and did not scatter away.
By doing so, it would further tighten the enhanced strength that he recovered from the vibration. Therefore, the three hammer strikes were also important.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
Every hammer strike sounded different, and it changed for the better. In Boss Huang’s eyes, it sounded like a sweet melody. His index finger was dancing as his eyes remained closed. Like a music conductor, he wove his finger together in time with Tang Ling’s hammering.
The most beautiful power that humans could provide was the power of thought. Be it God or whatever, the power of thought was the engine that drove human civilization forward.
Tang Ling’s hammering possessed the sound of thought, hence there were changes for the better. Boss Huang was enjoying himself while Tang Ling was slowly exhausting his stamina.
A set of three strikes was already tiring enough, and as he continued for a few sets, he could sense that the energy in his body was being burned away violently.
However, he had to maintain his best form during every strike. He had to be highly focused and maintain the strength to keep him going. He panted heavily as he went on, refusing to stop. He seemed to have fallen in love with the feeling of hammering blanks because no matter how Boss Huang covered it up, he believed this was a way to train his body.
Unfortunately, he was forced to stop every few sets because his current stamina could not sustain his continuous hammering.
After six more sets of hammering, Tang Ling’s arms were so sore that it felt like his arms had left him. Still, it was not a reason for him to stop although he was truly exhausted. He relied solely on his willpower to support the last strike and squeezed every ounce of strength out of him.
The very last strike drained all his energy, and with his energy gone, his stamina could not handle the work anymore.
It was at that moment when Ding Ling waddled into the smithing room. As if she had timed it perfectly, she brought Tang Ling a tray of food. It was a glass of seaweed juice and the breakfast that he could not finish earlier.
Tang Ling’s trembling hands grabbed a mantou from the plate. Having learned his lesson, he tore only a small piece of the mantou and put it into his mouth.
Ding Ling could not help but chuckle at how careful Tang Ling was. “You’re too weak. You’d better smith more to increase your stamina. The boss once said that many people only focus on strength, speed or whatever, but the truth is that stamina is what people should be concentrating on.”
“Hmm?” Tang Ling raised a curious brow. Indeed, his mind was only fixated on strength, speed, and reflexes. He had never once thought about his stamina. Nevertheless, Ding Ling’s explanation seemed to have given him a new realization.
“Yes, stamina! The boss also said that if two men are fighting, the one who can smile in the end must be the one with the better stamina. Aside from all the veils of mystery, the essence of battle and fighting is about how to outlast your opponent, isn’t it?” Ding Ling looked at Tang Ling like she was looking at a fool. Then, she grunted before informing him that she would send lunch over in two hours. Her plump body wobbled out of the room.
Tang Ling was stunned!
Stamina! That was one of the basic attributes that he never paid close attention to! If his stamina was strong, not only could he last longer, but he might also be able to withstand a few more hits!
The smithing could also increase his stamina! This was probably the best job that he could ask for.
Somehow, Tang Ling had been brainwashed by Ding Ling’s words. He quickly finished the remaining mantou and his energy started to recover. After he was replenished, he picked up the hammer beside him.
For a whole day, the clanks in Dvesha Moha never stopped. It started at 8 in the morning and lasted till 8 in the evening. It was a full 12 hours of smithing that went far beyond the 9 hours of working time which Boss Huang had set for him.
Throughout the whole day, while Boss Huang was enjoying the clanks from Tang Ling’s smithing, six clients visited the store, but he rejected five of them. Only one of the six successfully made a deal with him. It was as if any more deals would affect his enjoyment of the melodious clanks.
“It’s so tiring.” Boss Huang stretched tiredly as he watched Ding Dong closed the door. She then took a piece of cloth and wanted to clean the already clean storefront.
“You’ve sat down for a whole day. How tired can you be?” Ding Dong might be small, but her movements were unusually agile. In a few blinks, the traditional rack from ancient Huaxia was clean. In fact, it was so clean that it almost started to shine. Her speed was inhumane as if by just blowing a few breaths, the rack had been cleaned over a hundred times.
Boss Huang got used to the unusual cleaning speed. His Ding Ling and Ding Dong had never been normal anyway. He was not upset by Ding Dong’s disdain either. Instead, he smiled and prolonged his tone to say, “How can I not be tired? I closed a deal today! It’s tiring for me since sometimes I don’t even make one deal in a whole month. There are only less than a hundred clients who visit Dvesha Moha throughout the year and I’m very picky about my clients. Not everyone is worthy of quality goods from Dvesha Moha.”
Ding Dong got bored of her boss’s boasting, so she continued cleaning the place while rolling her eyes at him.
Boss Huang then gasped in surprise as he looked towards the smithing room and muttered to himself, “Is this kid a fortune star? Six people came and one made a deal with me! Hmm, I’ll go have a look at him. It’s been 12 straight hours now. Please don’t die of exhaustion. It’s not easy to get a fortune star…” With his hands behind his back, he slowly walked into the smithing room.
Ding Dong looked up at Boss Huang’s back and grumbled, “Just admit it. You’re worried. What’s with the excuse? It’s strange, Tang Ling has only been here for a day. Why is the boss so concerned about him? Before the boy arrived, didn’t he say Tang Ling that is all trouble and that he hates trouble?”
With that in mind, Ding Dong recalled how Tang Ling had eaten his breakfast that morning and she chuckled unconsciously. Factoring in the fact that he was able to smith ceaselessly for 12 hours, his fondness for Tang Ling grew.
As for how her boss thought of the boy? Whatever, no one could see through the boss’s thoughts anyway.
“Tsk, tsk tsk. Are you stupid or what? There are just five black iron blanks and you still haven’t finished all of them after 12 hours?” Clicking his tongue in disdain, Boss Huang looked askance at Tang Ling who was still concentrated on smithing.
Tang Ling’s shirt was drenched as if he had just come up from the sea.
Not everyone could bear the heat in the smithing room, but according to Boss Huang’s rules, no cooler was allowed, not even the slightest breeze. He said it would affect the steadiness of everything.
The steadiness of everything? What was that? Only God knew! Boss Huang was a masochist who loved torturing himself in the heat, so Tang Ling had to work in such an environment.
Turning a deaf ear to Boss Huang’s mockery, Tang Ling was fully focused on smithing. It had been 12 hours since he started and he had already tasted the benefits of smithing, a lot of them, to be exact. Not only could he train his body, merge his strength together and increase his stamina, but his spirit also got stronger. He never had such an experience back in the Hope Barrier!
Do note that back in the Hope Barrier, even if he shortened his sleep to a minimum level, he still could not achieve such a high efficiency training which granted him an all-rounded power-up. The hammer moveset was magical, to say the least.
“Tsk tsk tsk, are you too shy to answer me?” Boss Huang slightly blew on his smoking pipe, so the fire in his pipe got a little stronger. He seized the moment and took a long puff. The smoke then came out from his nose. “You’ve really set up a record for yourself. Even the stupidest fool can finish refining the five blanks in four to five hours.”
Despite having been 12 hours, Tang Ling had only refined four out of five of the black iron blanks. Beside his feet were a stack of shiny silver blanks.
The last one that he was hammering already started to turn silver, so he might be able to finish it within another half an hour.
In front of him was an empty plate. He finished the breakfast from earlier, and as for lunch, Ding Ling served him a piece of grilled fish and a plate of fried scallops that looked like gourds. Swiftly, he ate everything clean.
Since he was so concentrated on smithing, he did not even know how the food tasted. All he knew was that the lunch packed more energy than his breakfast. He was already at his limit. Even if dinner was served, he could not eat anymore, but before the smithing, he thought he would have to spend two days to digest the breakfast alone.
Much to Tang Ling’s thrill, his growth in the past 12 hours was outrageous! Compared to that possibility, Boss Huang’s mockery was nothing. He accepted the fact that he was stupid and that maybe he had no talent in smithing.
However, Tang Ling had no idea that Boss Huang was just making things up. In Boss Huang’s eyes, geniuses were treated as common men. For a newbie who had just started the hammering technique, being able to refine a single blank within 24 hours was already considered an amazing achievement.
Boss Huang, however, would never tell him that.
