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Chapter 128 - Great Xias First Weapon Forging Apprentice
Chapter 128 - Great Xias First Weapon Forging Apprentice
Chapter 128: Great Xia’s First Weapon Forging Apprentice
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
According to Zhou Shu’s understanding of purchasing power, thirty taels of silver was equivalent to tens of thousands of yuan in his previous life. This immediately made Zhang Yibei and the other apprentices excited.
They could earn tens of thousands of yuan just by working hard for ten days. Where else could they find such a good deal?
The lowest level of working people like them were least afraid of selling their lives!
Zhang Yibei took the lead and shouted, “Don’t worry, Superintendent. We will do our best!”
“This time, you will need to work together with ten workshops. Zhang Yibei, you will be in charge of allocating everyone. You must arrange everything properly. I don’t care about anything else. Within ten days, I want to see no less than five thousand Autumn Anatidae Plume Sabers!
“You have trained for so long. Let me see the effect of your training!”
“If the mission is completed well, I will reward you handsomely when it’s over!” Zhou Shu said.
There were more rewards? Zhang Yibei and the rest were even more excited.
They eagerly went to work. Zhou Shu didn’t waste any time. He went to the back courtyard of the 0th Workshop and began to forge Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Sabers!
The Forging Apprentices could make use of the manpower in ten workshops. Although they had to forge 5,000 Autumn Anatidae Plume Sabers in ten days, it was not impossible to complete this mission.
After all, if hundreds or even thousands of people worked on it, it should be no problem for them to forge 5,000 Autumn Anatidae Plume Sabers in ten days.
On the other hand, it was very difficult for Zhou Shu to forge a hundred Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Sabers in ten days!
He was alone, and no one could help him. Even if he already had more than ten Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Sabers, whether he could complete this mission or not was still up to him.
Had I known earlier, I wouldn’t have wasted my time. If I had continued forging, I could have saved up quite a number of Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Sabers.
Zhou Shu shook his head.?Forget it. No matter what, work first!
He took off his shirt, revealing his muscular upper body. He picked up his hammer and began to forge.
Zhou Shu’s Dragon Elephant Prajna Technique had already reached the eleventh level. He wasn’t far from the twelfth level.
His strength had reached a monstrous level.
The huge hammer was like an embroidery needle in his hand, and all the forging movements were precise and light.
Forging Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Sabers was already a piece of cake for him in terms of technique. The problem now was how to minimize the forging time.
Ding ding ding—
With Dragon Elephant Prajna Technique’s divine strength and the enhancement of the tenth level of the Golden Bell Shield Technique, every time Zhou Shu struck the iron, dazzling sparks shot out from the point of contact between the hammer and the iron as the iron rapidly shrank.
Under the tremendous force, the impurities in the iron were quickly removed. In a few breaths of time, an ingot of iron was completely purified.
Without anyone around, Zhou Shu went all out.
Not only had he activated the Dragon Elephant Prajna Technique and Golden Bell Shield Technique to their limits, but he had also used the Visualization of the Five Mountains’ True Form and the Heavenly Saber Art.
His divine sense covered the iron, and his saber techniques allowed him to swing the hammer more efficiently and precisely.
With every strike, his divine sense could even observe the changes in the impurities within the iron.
As such, Zhou Shu only needed an hour to complete the refinement of the 150 kilograms of iron.
He didn’t hold anything back in the forging process.
Every move was extremely precise and concise.
Even so, it took him half an hour to forge a Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Saber!
Originally, the forging method he had obtained from the Legendary Armament Canon was already the most perfect, and there was almost no possibility of improvement. A Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Saber took an hour and a half to forge. This was already Zhou Shu’s best performance.
If not for his current cultivation, it would have taken him at least an hour to forge a Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Saber!
In that case, without eating, drinking, sleeping, or resting for a day, he could forge—16 sabers!
Indeed, there were benefits to having a higher cultivation level.
After calculating this result, Zhou Shu became even more confident.
What people feared the most was not seeing hope. Once they saw hope, they would be able to erupt with limitless potential!
For the rest of the day, the clanking sound in the backyard of the 0th Workshop never stopped.
After nightfall, Zhang Yibei and the others didn’t return to the 0th Workshop to rest. In these ten days, they would also work tirelessly. It would be a joke to come back and sleep. They could just find any haystack in the workshop and rest for a while. Coming back and forth would be a waste of time.
Meanwhile, the family members of the Forging Apprentices who stayed in the 0th Workshop to do odd jobs were puzzled when they heard the clanking sounds in the backyard.
Was there someone else working in the backyard besides the superintendent?
Why was this clanking sound coming non-stop day and night?
It wasn’t that they found the sound of metal striking annoying. They lived in a forging workshop, so how could they not be used to the sound of metal striking?
Out of curiosity, they only discussed it in private. They didn’t dare to approach the backyard, nor did they have the right to.
Several days passed in the blink of an eye.
The hammering continued in the 0th Workshop.
If someone entered the back courtyard of the 0th Workshop at this time, they would see a young man with a scraggly beard. His upper body was bare, and his eyes were focused on forging weapons.
After several days without sleep or rest, Zhou Shu didn’t seem to have changed much. Other than his beard growing a bit longer, he didn’t appear any more tired than a few days ago.
Unknowingly, Zhou Shu’s current physique had already far surpassed that of ordinary people.
The Dragon Elephant Prajna Technique allowed him to possess an abnormal amount of divine strength, while the Golden Bell Shield Technique had completely transformed his body.
According to the Legendary Armament Canon’s description, once one mastered the Golden Bell Shield Technique, one could attain an invincible body.
Bodhidharma, who had created this technique, was invincible against punches and kicks of various experts, swords, fire, and water. He could survive without eating or sleeping for five hundred days. He was even able to remain unscathed after consuming poison.
In comparison, Zhou Shu had only stayed awake for a few days. It was like child’s play.
Of course, he had only cultivated the Golden Bell Shield Technique to the tenth level. He was still very far from mastering the twelfth level.
However, this was enough for him to accomplish his goal.
On the seventh day, Zhou Shu had eighty-three Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Sabers.
Although theoretically, he could forge sixteen Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Sabers a day, humans were not machines after all. He had worked too quickly, and the effect was that the supply of iron couldn’t keep up…
Therefore, on average, he could only forge ten or so Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Swords a day.
This speed was twice as fast as the forging speed he displayed in front of others. But it didn’t matter. No one knew how he forged them anyway.
When the goods were delivered, he would only need to tell Yin Wuyou that he had already forged a batch of Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Sabers in advance. After all, no one could prove that these Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Sabers were forged within ten days.
There were still three days left, and Zhou Shu only had seventeen more Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Sabers to forge. Time was no longer as tight as before.
Zhou Shu took a few sips of water.
Just as he was about to continue forging, he suddenly saw a barrage of messages.
[You receive a reward of five years of cultivation because the Huben Saber you forged effectively completed a kill!]
[You receive a reward of seven years of cultivation because the Huben Saber you forged effectively completed a kill!]
…
[The Hundred Refinements Ring Pommel Saber you forged effectively completed a kill. The Heavenly Saber Art has improved by 3%!]
…
[The Horse Slaying Saber you forged effectively completed a kill. The Golden Bell Shield Technique has improved by 1%!]
…
The barrage of messages flashed past in front of Zhou Shu’s eyes, and waves of energy surged into his body.
This had happened several times in the past few days.
But his Dragon Elephant Prajna Technique and Golden Bell Shield Technique had yet to break through to the next level.
Zhou Shu was already close to mastering the Dragon Elephant Prajna Technique and the Golden Bell Shield Technique. At this time, it was extremely hard to level them up.
It’s getting harder and harder to improve my cultivation level. I wonder if I can master these two techniques before the war on the southern border ends.
Zhou Shu pondered.
Once the war on the southern border ended, the Horse Slaying Sabers and the Hundred Refinements Ring Pommel Sabers would have fewer opportunities to kill enemies.
However, this was not something he could control.
The only thing he could control was forging more weapons. If the weapons were damaged, he would replenish them in time.
After thinking for a while, Zhou Shu continued to forge Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Sabers.
Three days passed in a flash. On the third day at noon, Zhou Shu finally finished forging the last Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Saber.
With a thought, the Legendary Armament Canon appeared in front of him, and he flipped to the page of the Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Saber.
The number after the Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Saber had increased to 100.
He had filled up the slots of the Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Saber!
Zhou Shu was overjoyed. Suddenly, the pages in the Legendary Armament Canon flipped. With a rustling sound, the Legendary Armament Canon flipped to a blank page.
It was like an invisible brush was rapidly moving across the page. Zhou Shu’s eyes grew brighter and brighter. It was like a weapon was dancing in his pupils.
…
“Zhou Shu, why did you call me here?” Yin Wuyou asked Zhou Shu while standing in the open area of the 0th Workshop.
“Grand Minister, have you forgotten our agreement?” Zhou Shu laughed. “Tomorrow is the tenth day. I invited you here today to inspect the goods.
“Fortunately, the mission of forging the Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Sabers and Autumn Anatidae Plume Sabers has been completed!”
Zhou Shu pointed at the pile of boxes in the open area.
“Grand Minister, once you’ve inspected them, I will get people to transport them away!”
“Did you really do it?” Yin Wuyou was surprised. “How did you do it?”
“Is it difficult?” Zhou Shu said lightly. “Our 0th Workshop originally had some reserves, and we’ve been working tirelessly for the past ten days. It would be strange if we couldn’t complete it.”
“There are a total of one hundred Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Sabers and six thousand Autumn Anatidae Plume Sabers here.”
Zhang Yibei and the other Forging Apprentices had exceeded their quota. Within ten days, they had forged close to six thousand Autumn Anatidae Plume Saber.
Zhou Shu had mixed the hundred Autumn Anatidae Plume Sabers he had forged into the pile. There were actually more than six thousand of them, but Zhou Shu didn’t care if there were a few more.
Yin Wuyou’s mouth opened slightly, and she gave Zhou Shu a thumbs up. “You’ve worked hard!”
“To serve the people,” Zhou Shu said casually.
Yin Wuyou was puzzled.
Zhou Shu laughed. “Grand Minister, how is the formation of the You Prefecture Army and the Bing Prefecture Army? When are these weapons going to be given to them?”
“It’s almost time,” Yin Wuyou replied. “If nothing unexpected happens, the Standard Armament Manual will be released tomorrow. Once the news is out, His Majesty will personally hold an oath ceremony. At that time, the Autumn Anatidae Plume Sabers and the Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Sabers will be bestowed to the You Prefecture Army and the Bing Prefecture Army.
“You don’t have to worry about these things. There’s something you should be more concerned about.” Yin Wuyou raised her head slightly, appearing pleased.
“What is it?”
“You’re already a county baron. There are some people you should get to know, “Yin Wuyou said. “Coincidentally, your baron’s mansion has also been renovated. I’ve prepared a banquet for you when you officially move into the mansion.
“I’ve already prepared the invitation list for you. Just send the invitations out when the time comes.”
Yin Wuyou tried her best to appear expressionless as she continued, “I’ll get Haitang and the steward of my residence to handle the rest of the matters for you. What you need to do is to properly tidy yourself up…”
Zhou Shu was confused.
A banquet?
Don’t you think it’s a bit out of place to talk about this in this workshop?
Come to think of it. You are the princess and the grand minister of the Forging Division. Are you very free?
Do you even do such things?
Zhou Shu thought about it and understood what Yin Wuyou meant.
He was no longer the superintendent of a small workshop. Strictly speaking, he was considered quite a figure in the capital.
A county baron, a ninth-rank martial artist, and a genius Forging Apprentice, if this was made known to others, it would scare some people.
However, he had been promoted too quickly, and he basically had no dealings with the high officials and experts of the capital.
Yin Wuyou wanted to help him expand his connections.
Zhou Shu didn’t reject her. These were all his future potential customers.
When he became a Forging Master, he would have to rely on these people to buy his weapons.
Since there was such an opportunity, he should broaden their horizons.
Zhou Shu rubbed his chin in thought.
Since I already have the title of a genius Forging Apprentice, then in terms of forging, aren’t I too low profile?
Yes, just like that, keep a low-profile life and work in a high-profile manner!
Zhou Shu would never admit that it felt good to be in the limelight…
“Grand Minister, I’m not familiar with these people. If I invite them, will they come?” Zhou Shu asked.
“They will.” Yin Wuyou glanced at him.?Doesn’t he know that he’s already a popular person in the capital? Many people want to befriend him, but they can’t find the opportunity.
Being a county baron was not a big deal. A ninth-rank martial artist at his age could only be said to be not bad. However, Great Xia’s number one Forging Apprentice was not just for show. The Huben Saber, Hundred Refinements Ring Pommel Saber, and Horse Slaying Saber were all famous on the southern border. Although the Spring Embroidered Saber, Autumn Anatidae Plume Saber, and Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Saber were not famous, they were not weak either.
Yin Wuyou just didn’t know the word ‘potential stock’. Otherwise, she would definitely label Zhou Shu as one. Zhou Shu was a potential stock right now.. If others didn’t take this opportunity to make friends with him now, it would be too late when he became a Forging Master.