Chapter 23: The Blacksmith's Shop in Qing Shan Town

  Qingshan Town is located at the foot of a mountain called Changqing Mountain. The town has tens of thousands of people and can be considered a fairly large town, about 500 miles away from Lincheng.

  In the dead of night, there were no people on the streets in the town. The shops on both sides of the street had already closed their doors. The whole small town was quiet.

  A figure appeared at the entrance of the small town, not particularly tall or large. The shadow was stretched very long under the faint moonlight. With each step he took, his feet would make a slight thudding sound, and every footfall seemed to weigh a thousand pounds.

  Ye Chen wiped the sweat from his face. With four iron weights on his shoulders, weighing 800 catties, he had walked 500 miles and was almost exhausted to the point of collapse. Even with his strong vital energy's restorative power, he felt somewhat overwhelmed.

  "We've finally arrived at Qing Shan Town." Ye Chen let out a sigh of relief, he was really tired. His eyes scanned the signs on both sides of the street from the beginning to the end of the town, and finally saw the three words that made his heart skip a beat: "Blacksmith's Shop".

  Bang bang! Ye Chen knocked on the door and waited for a few seconds without any response.

  Bang! Bang! Bang! Ye Chen knocked again, and finally there was a sound coming from inside, filled with anger and resentment.

  "Who is it? Knocking at midnight, are you sick?"

  "Boss, I've brought a big business for you, hurry up and open the door." Ye Chen shouted from outside the door.

  "What a big deal? I'm always dealing with big deals." The people inside were grumbling, but their voices were getting closer and closer, almost at the door.

  The door creaked open, revealing a face as black as coal, with a thick beard and sideburns. At first glance, Ye Chen thought he had seen Li Kui.

  "I'm telling you, young man, what are you knocking on the door for in the middle of the night? If you want to buy arms or have something made, talk about it tomorrow. Now I, your elder, need some sleep." Seeing that the one knocking was a youth not too old, Big Black Face immediately wanted to shut the door.

  "Don't close the door yet, boss." Ye Chen stretched out his hand and casually placed it on the door panel. The big black face strained with effort, its face reddening, but the two doors remained unmoving. He was shocked in his heart, knowing he had misjudged the situation.

  "Come in." The big black face reluctantly stepped aside and let Ye Chen enter the house.

  Ye Chen walked into the blacksmith's shop, casually glanced around a few times, and saw that there were only ordinary metal-made weapons inside, which couldn't arouse his interest. He asked casually, "Boss, what should I call you?"

  "Xiong Erhei, the blacksmith shop owner, what do you want me to do? Just say it directly, don't drag things out in the middle of the night." Xiong Erhei's face was not pleasant.

  Ye Chen smiled, finding the black bear quite interesting, with a straightforward temperament. With a loud crash, he directly threw the four iron ingots on his shoulder to the ground, creating four deep pits. Looking around at the weapons in the room, he said: "Boss Bear, I want you to help me forge a large knife, five arrowheads, and a pair of arm guards."

  Ye Chen finished speaking, but for a long time, he didn't hear the other party's response. He turned his head to look over and saw that the black bear was staring blankly at the ground that had been smashed by the iron hammer, its face turning from black to purple, and its whole body began to tremble.

  "Boss Bear, it's cold outside, you should wear more clothes, look at you shivering all over, catching a cold won't be good." Ye Chen had a silly expression on his face, with a slightly shy smile.

  "He...!" Xiong Erhei felt like his head was about to smoke, being woken up in the middle of the night by someone who insisted on barging in. Who knew that as soon as he entered the room, he would smash four holes into the floor? And not only did he not apologize, but he even told Xiong Erhei to wear more clothes.

  "Go, go now, I don't want to do business with you, huh? Bullying people, is that it?" Xiong Erhei sat down on the stool and waved his hand at Ye Chen. If he didn't know that the other party wasn't simple, he might have rushed up and punched him directly, throwing Ye Chen out.

  "Boss Bear, I was just joking, you're not going to be so petty, are you?" Ye Chen's face was full of smiles as he grabbed a handful of gold coins and stretched them out in front of Xiong Erhei. Xiong Erhei's gaze suddenly froze, as if stuck on Ye Chen's hand, no, it was the gold coins, the golden light reflecting into his eyes, making his eyes shine with a golden glow.

  "Want to earn these coins?" Ye Chen said lightly, his hand shrinking back, the glittering gold light disappearing before Xiong Er's black eyes.

  "Haha...haha..." Xiong Erhei immediately stood up, scratched his head with his hand, and smiled foolishly: "Me...me too was just joking with you."

  "Is that so." Ye Chen glanced at him, "Everyone was just joking around, it's late at night and we woke up Boss Xiong, I'm really sorry in my heart, I'll leave now and come again another day."

  After finishing speaking, Ye Chen bent down and prepared to pick up the four iron weights.

  "Wait..." Xiong Erhei's face turned black with anger. He forced a smile and said: "Old man, you see it's already midnight, it's not easy for you to come here, whatever you need, just say it, I, Xiong Erhei, will definitely not hesitate, even if it means going through knife mountains and fire seas."

  "Old man? You're calling me old, am I that old?" Ye Chen despised this guy who pretended to be silly but actually had a keen eye for money, and what's with the knife mountains and fire seas...

  "Hmm... yeah, yeah... little master, I didn't make a mistake, heh heh, you see that thing, am I going to start making it for you tonight?" Xiong Erhei had a silly grin on his face, with his big black face and a mouthful of large front teeth, looking exactly like a bear.

  Ye Chen was speechless, pulled over a stool and sat down, saying in a nonchalant tone: "Big Black Bear, don't pretend to be sophisticated in front of me. Take a look at these materials, can you smelt them?"

  "Alright, alright." Xiong Erhei replied with a string of nods, his heart bursting with joy. The gold coins, so many gold coins were within his grasp. It was as if a great fortune had fallen from the sky. Hehe, he squatted down to look at the iron ingot on the ground, and suddenly seemed to have thought of something. He turned his head to look at Ye Chen, his face full of confusion, "Young master, what is 'acting like a thirteen'?"

  Ye Chen: “......”

  Looking at Xiong Erhei's silly face, I almost choked.

  "Hmm..." Seeing Ye Chen's speechless and stunned expression, Xiong Er Hei scratched his big black head, dryly chuckled twice, and stopped asking questions, lowering his head to examine the material of those iron ingots.

  "Huh? So heavy?" Xiong Erhei exclaimed, lifting an iron ingot and examining it from all sides. His face showed surprise as he said, "Isn't this the thing that white-clothed big brother made here half a year ago?"

  "White-clothed gentleman?" Ye Chen was slightly startled and said, "Is it that he looks to be around thirty years old, with a clear and refined face, standing there giving people a feeling of being as solid as a mountain?"

  "Right, right, it's this kind of old man, young master you..." Xiong Er He scratched his head, looking at Ye Chen with a puzzled gaze.

  "This iron ingot was given to me by him, and I couldn't tell what material it's made of. Since you were the one who smelted and refined it before, I suppose making a weapon out of it shouldn't be a problem." Ye Chen had been harboring doubts in his heart; he had long discovered that the iron ingot was stamped with the two characters "Qing Shan", which is why he thought of coming to Qing Shan Town. He couldn't forge weapons in Lin Cheng, or else once the several big families and the City Lord's Manor found out about it, things would get complicated."

  But what puzzled him was why his father Ye Wentian wanted to come to this Qing Shan Town to refine these iron ingots, and why not in Lin Cheng?

  "Little master, this iron ingot was originally brought by that white-robed gentleman as a material. If it were an ordinary blacksmith's shop, there would be no way to smelt this kind of dark meteoric iron. This meteoric iron is ten times harder than refined steel, and in our mundane world, it can be considered a divine material."

  "Really? Then how did you smelt it in the first place?" Ye Chen was shocked, never expecting that the material of the black iron ingot was actually meteoric iron, and ordinary people would find it extremely difficult to smelt.

  "Haha... " Xiong Er Hei smiled foolishly, then with a proud expression, said: "My ancestors were famous smelting masters, leaving behind some magical potions. As long as you add this potion, melting this black meteorite won't be difficult."

  Ye Chen nodded, so that's how it was. He couldn't tell that this black bear's ancestors were actually famous forging masters. At this moment, he also understood why his father Ye Wentian wanted to come to Qing Shan Town to forge, because Lin Cheng simply couldn't melt the Black Meteorite Iron.

  "Black bear, these four pieces of black meteoric iron should be enough to forge a large knife, five arrowheads and a pair of wrist guards, right?" Ye Chen said.

  "Enough, enough, it's not going to be finished, even if the big knife is made with pure black meteoric iron, I have some dark iron here, and when the time comes, I'll melt a bit of black meteoric iron to make the knife handle, wrist guard and arrow fletching won't use much material anyway, besides, the arrow fletching can't be made with pure black meteoric iron, right?"

  Ye Chen thought for a few seconds and said: "So how much Black Meteorite do you think is left?"

  "There should be about one and a half piles left." Xiong Erhei said, looking at the black meteorite on the ground.

  "So much?" Ye Chen rubbed his chin, and surprisingly, there was still so much left. After thinking for a moment, he said: "Use the remaining materials to make two pairs of wrist guards and one pair of fingerless fist protectors, with one pair of wrist guards being in a female style."

  "Hey, young master, when do you want the goods?" Xiong Erhei's face was flushed with excitement. With so many meteorite equipment being made, he could make a huge profit and not have to work for years.

  "When do you estimate all these things can be done?" Ye Chen asked back.

  "It was originally going to take a month." Xiong Erhei chuckled, "However, if you're willing to pay 1,000 gold coins, I'll work day and night and finish it in twenty days."

  "A thousand gold coins?"

  "Haha, I'm not a lion who opens his mouth wide, that ancestral medicine of mine, even if you spend gold coins, you can't buy it."

  Ye Chen's eyebrows jumped, and he said: "Two thousand gold coins, completed within fifteen days. Half a month later, I will come directly to collect it. Also, you must remember that this matter cannot be known by anyone. If someone asks about it in the future, you must keep it confidential."

  Ye Chen finished speaking and directly threw a bag containing one thousand gold coins to Xiong Erhei, saying: "Pay half of the fee first, I'll give you the remaining one thousand gold coins when I take the equipment."

  "Alright, alright." Xiong Erhei's eyes nearly popped out as he held the bag containing 1,000 gold coins. He quickly tucked it into his bosom, patted his chest and vowed: "I'll definitely complete it within half a month, I guarantee you'll be satisfied."

  "Alright, half a month later, I'll come to pick it up at midnight. By the way, the knife blade is 60 cm long and 10 cm wide, the handle is 90 cm long, and each arrow feather is 1 meter long, you can take care of the rest yourself."

  Ye Chen stated his own requirements and then turned to leave amidst Xiong Erhei's nodding in agreement.

  Out of Qing Shan Town, Ye Chen picked up his pace and ran quickly. Every step he took made only a faint sound, like a ghost in the dark night.