Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The flying swords were shining brightly after the restoration and when they were handed back to the three disciples of Lingtai Sect, the smile and excitement on their faces were brighter than the sun.
“Aaaah! This flying sword accompanied me through difficult times, I didn’t expect it to receive a second life! I’m so happy!”
“My beloved sword, it’s been tough for you! I promise I won’t damage you again!”
“Sob. It looks exactly like how it was when I got this flying sword from him…”
The smiles and excitement were soon replaced by heavy emotions. Their eyes were teary as they caressed their swords as if they were talking to family or an old friend.
Looking at the scene, Zhang Zhi felt happy. He was happy because his skills were accepted and recognized by others and of course, emotions were infectious.
Zhang Zhi suddenly remembered what his late father told him, “Being a blacksmith is a tiring job, it can’t earn a lot but when you see the smile on the customer’s face and receive their approval, everything will be worth it.”
He never understood those words until now. He originally inherited the blacksmith out of reminiscence of his parents but after he experienced what his late fate said, he fell in love with the job.
Dugu Ce looked complicated. He tried his best to make Zhang Zhi fail but it seemed like Zhang Zhi’s amazing forging skills could restore and fix all flying swords!
Zhang Zhi noticed the look on Dugu Ce. He walked over and put his hand on the shoulder, sighed, and shook his head, “Ce, I’m just being lucky here. I got some Strong Gold and other materials in store. Maybe if you try harder, you will defeat me one day.”
Dugu Ce reacted sourly at the banter. If he failed to understand Zhang Zhi’s meaning, tens of years of cultivation in him would be utterly wasted.
“Still trying to trick me into roping in more customers for you? Dream on!” Dugu Ce fiercely shook Zhang Zhi’s hand off.
“My my, I think you are misunderstanding something here. Roping in customers means I have to give you some benefits or even a commission, but I didn’t even give you a dime!” Zhang Zhi feigned a bitter look as he continued teasing Dugu Ce.
“So, you can’t say that you are roping in customers for me, the best you can say is that I tricked you.”
Dugu Ce thought Zhang Zhi would give him a reasonable explanation but when he heard the bitter banter, he got so emotional that his Foundation Building cultivation almost got affected.
He strongly believed if he continued to tangle with the blacksmith, the demons in him might take over his sanity.
He turned around and walked out. This time around, he tossed his temper out of the window and automatically shouted at the entrance, “Zhang Zhi is handsome, Zhang Zhi’s skills are awesome!”
Three times later, Dugu Ce left with a red face.
“Hahaha, I really got to give it to the advertising.”
“This is a scam shop! No matter how much you advertise or praise it, I won’t fall for it!”
“Be careful of what you say. The force behind this blacksmith might be someone terrifying.”
The passersby took pleasure in Dugu Ce’s embarrassment, they simply watched it like a show, but when one of them reminded the crowd of the potential powerful force behind the blacksmith, the atmosphere turned quiet.
The inner disciple of Lingtai Sect came to the blacksmith and advertised it twice in a day. Meaning, someone extremely powerful must be behind the blacksmith, otherwise, the inner disciple of Lingtai Sect would not advocate it repeatedly.
The passersby took it as a joke and ridiculed the situation at first before the atmosphere turned heavy. They looked at the blacksmith as if it was some kind of mountain with intimidating pressure.
Zhang Zhi did not expect this to happen.
Back in the blacksmith, the three disciples thanked Zhang Zhi before they left happily, leaving him in an idle state.
It was already the second day, Zhang Zhi counted in his heart that he had completed only half of the mission which was to restore 10 flying swords. However, he was not overly worried as he believed in the power of worth of mouth.
News and rumors about the blacksmith started to spread in Lingtai Sect.
“Hey, Junior Brother Niu, your Lightning Strike Wood flying sword somehow feels stronger, what happened?”
One of the disciples who had just come back from the training grounds asked.
Junior Brother Niu proudly said, “It’s because the owner of the blacksmith blessed it with his amazing skills!”
“Huh? Which blacksmith are we talking about?” More and more disciples gathered around curiously.
“Haven’t you heard? Zhang Zhi’s blacksmith!” Junior Brother Niu was over the top, he looked at the others as though they were lower than him.
“Junior brother, I’ll buy you lunch later, can you introduce us to the blacksmith?”
The group tried to bribe and flatter him to know more about the blacksmith.
…
At the training group, two equally matched disciples were sparring. The spar suddenly ended when one of the flying swords overpowered the other.
“Han Ling’er, you won! Your sword-controlling spell feels stronger now,” a female cultivator said in a defeated tone.
“It’s not that. It’s just that the blacksmith restored my Flying Sword Sword and made it stronger.” Han Ling’er felt happy at the victory.
“Which blacksmith are you referring to? I think it’s time I do some proper maintenance to my flying sword,” the intrigued female cultivator said.
…
Lingtai Sect’s canteen.
A group of disciples was arguing angrily.
“I think Owner Zhang’s forging skills is Lingtai Town’s No.1!”
“Stop boosting other’s morale and make us look bad! Elder Ouyang of our own Lingtai Sect is the true forging master!”
“Elder Ouyang’s forging skills are great but in terms of restoring flying swords, I think Zhang Zhi is a little better.”
Three disciples, two males, and one female supported Zhang Zhi by showing the others the flying swords that Zhang Zhi restored. The other disciples were in awe of such restoring skills but they did not want to admit it.
In the end, one of the disciples pointed at Dugu Ce who was having his meal. “Stop it! Even Senior Brother Dugu acknowledged Zhang Zhi’s skills! Ask him if you don’t believe me!”
Dugu Ce was venting his anger by eating. He was eating his meal all by himself until he realized he was surrounded by his juniors with a blistering gaze.
He thought his charms were overflowing and attracted his juniors’ admiration. He wiped the soup off his mouth and sat up straight. “I know you admire me a lot. Well then, I’ll show you…”
However, the juniors shook their heads repeatedly and said, “Senior Brother Dugu, is Zhang Zhi really that skilled?”
Dugu Ce’s smile froze. ‘What the hell?’
“Of course he’s good, otherwise Senior Brother Dugu wouldn’t recommend us to Zhang Zhi’s blacksmith and get our flying swords fixed.”
“Besides, when Senior Brother Dugu left the blacksmith, he even shouted ‘Zhang Zhi is handsome, Zhang Zhi’s skills are awesome!”
“Senior Brother Dugu, tell them, are Zhang Zhi’s skills the best?”
Dugu Ce’s mental state was in a crisis. He had a difficult time using his ‘utmost willpower’ to suppress and dissolve the grudge he had with the blacksmith, yet the juniors went up to him and asked him about Zhang Zhi’s skills.
If the three juniors, who Zhang Zhi helped restore their swords, were not here, Dugu Ce would give everything he got in discrediting Zhang Zhi but unfortunately, the three of them saw him shouting the embarrassing words in public. He could not simply defame or discredit Zhang Zhi in front of his juniors anymore.
Dugu Ce held his grudge back and said with gnashing teeth, “Good, great, awesome!”
In his mind, all those praises meant differently, he would definitely beat Zhang Zhi to death if he could.
Some of the juniors then left happily after getting the word from Dugu Ce but some refused to accept it.
“Even Senior Brother Dugu praised the blacksmith? I’ll have to meet his blacksmith myself, I’ll see whether Zhang Zhi is better than Elder Ouyang!”
…
On the third day, Zhang Zhi opened the blacksmith as usual and it started off with a boring morning. Just when he was dozing off, a group of people came to his shop with an intimidating matter.
Before he could react to the situation, the group brought their flying swords and spirit stones out, “Owner, restoration please!”
Zhang Zhi noticed several familiar faces among them and immediately knew what happened. The new customers were recommended by the previous customers.
He smiled and took their spirit stones. He then started to look at the flying swords that required treatment but at first glance, he was stunned.
The flying swords looked fine, even the system’s analysis showed that they were perfectly normal, so why would they want him to restore them?
“Your flying swords don’t need any restoration,” Zhang Zhi said honestly since he did not want to lie to his customers.
“Owner Zhang, we knew our flying swords are fine but after you restored their flying swords, their flying swords got stronger, so please, just do something about it! Hammer it or whatever!”
“I want to have a look as well! Just polish it or sharpen it, I want to see whether who is better, you or Elder Ouyang!”
…
Everyone had their separate intentions, which rendered Zhang Zhi speechless.
However, it would be a waste if he did not take the payment, so he asked the system about the details of the mission. The system answered him that flying swords maintenance, clearing blemishes, and fixing flaws were also considered a type of restoration.
Bigger flaws included natural flaws that occurred during forging; smaller flaws included the scratches on the blade or hilt.
Fixing those flaws were considered a part of sword maintenance, so the system included it into the mission. Zhang Zhi was more than happy to do it.
However, he decided to live up to his conscience while doing business, he worked on the sword maintenance wholeheartedly even though they looked entirely fine. After all, his restoration skill could really boost the abilities of the flying swords and bring them to new heights.
The hammering and polishing took an hour but it took him half a day to complete the sword maintenance for five flying swords.
Throughout the maintenance process, none of the Lingtai Sect disciples left because they were captivated by the electrifying forging process. They could watch it for a whole day, some of them even started to compare Zhang Zhi and Elder Ouyang in their hearts.
They dared not jump to conclusions and say that Zhang Zhi’s forging skills were better but Elder Ouyang’s forging was not as sparkling.
When Zhang Zhi returned all the flying swords to the disciples, a chime rang in his head. He knew he had completed the rookie mission.
The group took their flying swords and sized up every inch of them. The more they looked at the swords, the more astonished they were. They thought their flying swords were already well maintained, so they did not expect them to achieve perfection after Zhang Zhi’s maintenance.
The blade was as shining as a mirror. As a low-tier artifact, it was void of a single flaw, not even a mid-tier artifact could achieve such perfection. More importantly, the hammering boosted the flying swords to new heights.
Such godly workmanship!
Zhang Zhi smiled at the group’s astonishment. As a blacksmith, captivating his customer’s heart with his skills was the most satisfying moment, but he did not have the time to savor the satisfaction for the day.
He quickly sent his consciousness into the Forging System and accepted the mission reward.
“Acquired forging skill, Flying Sword Refinement (Low-tier Artifact); Cultivation leveled up by 1 rank.”
After the system’s notification, Zhang Zhi’s body felt lighter. He had easily achieved the intermediate stage of Qi Refining and even though it was just a minor increase, the path of cultivation required a step by step improvement.
There were even cases where one got stuck at a bottleneck for the entire life.
If others found out that Zhang Zhi spent less than three days and ascended to the intermediate stage of Qi Refining from a mortal, jealousy would kill them.
As for Flying Sword Refinement, the skill was also implemented into his brain.
“My refinement skill can even rank up an artifact? Is this a sign of me getting rich?!” muttered Zhang Zhi after the initial surprise.