Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
“Strike forcefully! Quench!” Zhou Shu shouted.
Whoosh! Forty Huben Sabers pierced the tanks of cold well water simultaneously with an ear-piercing sound.
As white steam filled the air, the entire open area seemed to transform into a fairyland.
Excited cheers resounded inside the white mist.
“Brother Zhou, we’ve done it again!” Zhang Yibei shouted at the top of his lungs.
Zhou Shu had gathered Zhang Yibei and the others in the open area to forge weapons ever since Xiao Zongshui assigned the mission.
Xiao Zongshui had no objections. It didn’t matter to him where they worked as long as the results were satisfactory.
He had even arranged for drudgers to help Zhou Shu and the others in the construction of a work shed in the open area.
After learning the breathing method taught by Zhou Shu, the Forging Apprentices worked together for some time, and on the seventh day, they succeeded in forging Huben Sabers.
Although it was still difficult for them to forge independently, once they realized how powerful Zhou Shu’s breathing method was, everyone was bursting with energy and wished they could work 24 hours a day!
However, Zhou Shu was not Exploiter Xiao, and he understood the need to establish a proper work-rest balance. In addition, despite the several-day delay, accomplishing the goal of forging 3,000 Huben Sabers in three months wasn’t difficult.
Even if they only succeeded once per day, they had 40 more weapons now that 40 people were forging together.
This would be 1,200 sabers in a month. Three months for 3,000 sabers was more than enough.
And Zhou Shu hadn’t counted himself in this yet.
In addition to leading everyone to forge once a day, he would forge a Huben Saber alone when everyone was resting.
When Zhang Yibei and the others saw how skilled Zhou Shu was and how hard he worked, they were all unwilling to rest.
As a result, they spent the rest of their days, aside from six hours of sleep, forging weapons.
Thus, the weapons were forged at a speed that far exceeded Zhou Shu’s expectations.
They even finished the mission with half a month to go before the three-month deadline!
“2997, 2798, 2799, 3000!” Zhang Yibei tallied, his face filled with excitement.
“Brother Zhou, we did it!” Zhang Yibei said excitedly. “In two and a half months, we forged three thousand Huben Sabers!”
“Everyone has worked hard,” Zhou Shu said happily.
“This is all thanks to you, Brother Zhou!” Sixth Brother Wu said. “If you hadn’t taught us your family’s secret technique, how could we have accomplished all this? I feel like my forging skills have improved by at least fifty percent since I mastered your breathing method! Brother Zhou, you are a true benefactor to us!”
Forging skills determined the lives of Forging Apprentices. Improving their forging abilities would undoubtedly be extremely beneficial in their future lives.
Forging Apprentices had their own ranks as well. In the Forging Division, a highly-skilled Forging Apprentice and a rookie Forging Apprentice had different levels of treatment. Their monthly stipend might even be two times different.
Zhou Shu shook his head and said, “Don’t say such things anymore. It’s all for the sake of completing the mission.
“Brother Zhang, I’ll have to trouble you to make a trip and invite Superintendent Xiao to check the Huben Sabers.” Zhou Shu cupped his hands toward Zhang Yibei.
“No problem.” Zhang Yibei readily agreed. He used a towel to wipe the sweat off his body and strode toward Xiao Zongshui’s residence.
Sixth Brother Wu eagerly helped Zhou Shu bring over a stool. Other Forging Apprentices fanned Zhou Shu from behind.
This kind of thing had happened a couple of times in the past two months. It was futile for Zhou Shu to resist it, so he just let them be.
If someone who didn’t know the situation saw this, they would most likely assume Zhou Shu was the workshop’s superintendent.
But then again, in the eyes of Zhang Yibei, Sixth Brother Wu, and some others, Zhou Shu might have greater authority than Xiao Zongshui.
It was easy to go from frugal to extravagant. After two months, Zhou Shu had become accustomed to other people’s hospitality.
This isn’t good, not good at all… Zhou Shu shook his head. The Legendary Armament Canon emerged as a light flashed in front of his eyes.
With a thought, the book flipped to the page of the sharp standard long saber.
The content on the page was the same as before. The only change was that the number after the title had become ‘100’!
Zhou Shu had been forging Huben Sabers, which were also sharp standard long sabers, for the past two months.
As he forged, the number in the Legendary Armament Canon grew.
But no matter how hard Zhou Shu had tried, the number didn’t grow after reaching 100.
When the number reaches 100, it will stop increasing. This means that these one hundred Huben Sabers are the only ones that can profit me.
Xiao Zongshui wouldn’t be able to come over anytime soon, and Zhou Shu had little desire to converse with Sixth Brother Wu and the others. Apart from women, they didn’t talk about anything else, so Zhou Shu had nothing to talk about with them.
Thus, he began to ponder about the Legendary Armament Canon.
I don’t know which hundred of the Huben Sabers I forged will bring me profits after completing kills because they don’t have serial numbers. After these hundred are destroyed, will the remaining sabers automatically take their place?
Zhou Shu cursed in his heart. According to his initial plan, he had planned to forge a few hundred Huben Sabers. The Legendary Armament Canon would reward him with two years of cultivation after killing an enemy with a Huben Saber. With a few hundred, that would have been two times a few hundred years of cultivation.
But now, the Legendary Armament Canon had an upper limit.
Even if 100 sabers completed kills at the same time, he would only gain 200 years of cultivation.
If anyone could hear what he was thinking, they would curse out loud.
It was 200 years of cultivation, yet he used the word ‘only’?
Other people had to work hard to cultivate for 200 years, but he would obtain it in the blink of an eye. Yet he still wasn’t satisfied?
However, Zhou Shu was genuinely unsatisfied; 200 years of cultivation was really not much.
He calculated carefully and realized that if he wanted to reach the tenth level of the Dragon Elephant Prajna Technique, he would need more than 2,000 years of cultivation!
And this was only the tenth level. The eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth levels required thousands of years of cultivation.
In comparison, 200 years of cultivation was truly insufficient.
Zhou Shu now roughly understood that his cultivation speed affected the number of cultivation years he would be rewarded with. Two years of cultivation sounded like a lot, but it was actually insignificant.
After all, his body didn’t have much aptitude.
The King of the Golden Wheel cultivated the tenth level of this Dragon Elephant Prajna Technique. Did he really cultivate for more than two thousand years?
This body’s aptitude is too poor. Others can cultivate a thousand years of cultivation in a few decades.
Therefore, he wouldn’t be fooled. He wouldn’t think that having 1,000 years of cultivation meant being invincible.
This was a world of elite martial arts. Splitting mountains and severing rivers were ordinary skills. Even if he mastered the thirteenth level of the Dragon Elephant Prajna Technique, he might not be considered an expert.
Thus, keeping a low profile was the way to go.
In any case, he was just a blacksmith, and it was unlikely that he would encounter any experts…
Zhou Shu was still contemplating when the Legendary Armament Canon began to move, though there was no wind.
After flipping through countless pages, a light flashed before his eyes. An invisible pen seemed to be writing on a blank page.
This is… Zhou Shu was ecstatic. He had seen something similar before. He had gotten the forging formula for the sharp standard long saber at the time.
Am I going to obtain a new weapon forging formula now?
The contents of the page appeared very quickly, and a lifelike long saber formed in front of Zhou Shu in an instant.
The blade was long and narrow, with a thick back. A flat ring was at the head of the saber.
[Hundred Refinements Ring Pommel Saber!]
The title appeared, and the name of the saber was ‘Hundred Refinements Ring Pommel’!
Zhou Shu had heard of the ring pommel saber in his previous life.
The ring pommel saber was also known as the Han saber. It was the pioneer of Chinese battle sabers, and it was the world’s most advanced and lethal close combat weapon back then.
The ring pommel saber had a length of over a meter. The saber’s thick and narrow blade exuded an unprecedented murderous aura, and its thick back could easily withstand violent slashes.
It was not an overstatement to say that the ring pommel saber was responsible for the Han Dynasty’s might. The Xiongnu were defeated by the ring pommel saber, giving the Han Dynasty the confidence to ‘kill whoever offends the mighty nation of China, however far away’.
This Hundred Refinements Ring Pommel Saber was not the same as the Han saber in Zhou Shu’s previous life. But he could tell that it was much stronger than a standard long saber.
At the same time, its forging difficulty had also gone up a notch compared to that of sharp standard long sabers. The name ‘Hundred Refinements’ hinted at the difficulty of forging it.
Is it because the quota for the sharp standard saber has been filled, so a new weapon has appeared? Zhou Shu wasn’t worried about the difficulty of forging the Hundred Refinements Ring Pommel Saber. When the name ‘Hundred Refinements Ring Pommel Saber’ appeared, the method of forging it automatically sprung to his mind.
Even his muscles were affected by a special power. It was as if he had already forged countless Hundred Refinements Ring Pommel Sabers, and his body had developed muscle memory.
Without even trying, Zhou Shu was certain that if he just started, he would be able to forge a Hundred Refinements Ring Pommel Saber!
Does this mean that the next weapon will appear after I finish forging 100 Hundred Refinements Ring Pommel Sabers? The sharp standard long blade brought me the Dragon Elephant Prajna Technique. What will the Hundred Refinements Ring Pommel Saber bring me? Zhou Shu felt his hands itch. He wished he could make a Hundred Refinements Ring Pommel Saber right away.
Sadly, this was not the right time. Furthermore, even if he forged one, he might not be able to use it to complete any kills.
… Unless he was willing to give Xiao Zongshui the Hundred Refinements Ring Pommel Saber and let him sell it to the military.
This was impossible. Not to mention that Exploiter Xiao would try to take advantage of him, Zhou Shu wouldn’t be able to explain the origin of the Hundred Refinements Ring Pommel Saber.
A sharp standard long saber could be said to have been developed in a burst of inspiration. But the Hundred Refinements Ring Pommel Saber was a brand-new weapon and certainly not something an apprentice could develop.
I’m not in a hurry to forge a Hundred Refinements Ring Pommel Saber. I’ll consider it when I’m stronger…
“Superintendent Xiao is here!” Zhang Yibei’s voice sounded from afar, returning Zhou Shu to reality.
