43: News of Internal Skills in Chapter 43

"These weapons sell very well?"

Hu Gualing looked at Wang Dachui's mysterious expression, his heart itching with the urge to know the answer.

But no matter how much he asked, Wang Dachui remained firm, insisting that he finish Forging the sickles first.

Left with no choice, he had to return to the furnace, clamp the semi-finished iron ingot into the fire, and start pulling the bellows again.

Once the iron ingot was glowing red in the furnace, he clamped it out, placed it on the anvil, and swung the hammer until he could no longer strike it, then fed it back into the furnace.

After repeating this a full four times, the iron ingot was finally hammered into an iron sheet.

But it was still just an iron sheet, far from being a sickle.

Under Wang Dachui's guidance, Hu Gualing continued to heat the iron sheet. Once it softened, he swapped the large hammer for a small one, chiseled the sheet into four pieces, and repeated the process of feeding and heating. After repeated hammering, the four iron sheets finally took on the rudimentary shape of sickles.

At this point, Wang Dachui took over personally. He used a Songhua stone to sharpen the blades, then clamped them and submerged them in a vat of cold water.

Sizzle—

Peering through the steam rising from the Quenching, Hu Gualing looked at the iron sheet Wang Dachui was holding. "Is it done?"

"Not by a long shot!" Wang Dachui said in a muffled, booming voice. He turned and put the iron sheet back into the furnace after its cold water bath. While rotating it to ensure even heating, he explained to Hu Gualing, "That was Quenching just now. After Quenching, ironware becomes very hard, but it also becomes very brittle—it would break if dropped on the ground. So, it needs to be reheated in the furnace to soften it slightly; this is called Tempering."

Hu Gualing nodded, only half-understanding.

Finally, Wang Dachui carved out a wooden stick, inserted it into the groove chiseled at the end of the iron sheet, nailed in a thin iron nail, and handed it to Hu Gualing. "Take a look."

[Crude Sickle]: Attack 1-3, Durability 10/10

Weapon Description: This is a farming tool used for cutting grass. It looks ordinary, but it can be used as a one-handed sword or a scimitar if necessary.

Remarks: Made by Wang Dachui of Xiao Huang Village with the assistance of an apprentice, so the quality is somewhat crude.

After checking the attributes, Hu Gualing said insincerely, "Not bad, not bad." He handed the sickle back to Wang Dachui. "Now, can you tell me who the weapons in the yard are sold to?"

Wang Dachui shook his head and pointed at the other three iron sheets. "The remaining three, you do them."

Hu Gualing took a deep breath.

Fine!

Let's do this.

Sharpening, Quenching, Tempering...

Hu Gualing spent most of the day busily mimicking the steps Wang Dachui had demonstrated. Finally, he nailed wooden sticks onto all three iron sheets and held them up to admire his work—

[Inferior Sickle]: Attack 1-1, Durability 8/8

Weapon Description: This might be a farming tool used for cutting grass. It doesn't look like much.

Remarks: A practice piece by a blacksmith apprentice in Xiao Huang Village. With Wang Dachui's assistance, the finished product is barely usable.

[Inferior Sickle]: ...

Hu Gualing couldn't bear to look at them any longer. He tossed the three sickles aside and looked at Wang Dachui. "Can you tell me now?"

Wang Dachui nodded. "Actually, it's no secret. Those weapons are all sold to Merchant Caravans."

"Merchant Caravans?"

"Yeah..."

It turned out that Xiao Huang Village wasn't isolated; Merchant Caravans passed through frequently.

They would stop in Xiao Huang Village, firstly to let the team rest and reorganize, and secondly to trade.

Some caravans that encountered battles on the road would come to Wang Dachui to repair their armor and weapons, or simply to get new ones.

However, the caravans' demand for weapons had never been very high.

But for some reason, the demand for weapons from passing caravans had suddenly increased recently.

Wang Dachui was so busy he was overwhelmed, which was why he thought of recruiting an apprentice to help.

Hu Gualing curled his lip after hearing this.

And here I thought it was some big secret!

This is it?

It didn't have much to do with him anyway.

Seeing Hu Gualing's expression, Wang Dachui continued, "If you're not interested in that news, you'll definitely be interested in this next bit."

"What news?"

"The goods carried by the caravans are all sorts of strange things. Some have tea and silk, some have dried fruits and preserves, and some might even have Internal Skill manuals."

"Internal Skill manuals!" Hu Gualing's eyes widened. "How many copper coins does an Internal Skill manual cost?"

Wang Dachui thought for a moment and said, "I've seen a low-level Internal Skill called 'Qi Nourishing Technique.' The price was twenty taels of silver."

"Twenty taels?" Hu Gualing did the math. At his earning rate of three taels of silver a day, it would take him a week of not eating or drinking to earn twenty taels. His face immediately grew long.

Wang Dachui said, "Don't lose heart. Didn't I say the caravans have a high demand for weapons? As long as you work diligently and learn blacksmithing, you can forge weapons yourself to sell to the caravans!"

Hmm? Is that so?

Hu Gualing thought about it, but he couldn't help feeling that Wang Dachui was just painting a pretty picture for him.

But whatever. There wasn't a better way to make money anyway. Forging here had at least one benefit: the Materials belonged to Wang Dachui, but the experience gained was his own. It wasn't bad to just hang around for now.

At this point, Wang Dachui pointed to the side. "Alright, I've told you everything. First, take those four sickles to the Pig Keeper."

"Okay," Hu Gualing agreed readily.

The Forging room was hot and stuffy; he had wanted to leave for a long time. It was the perfect chance to go out and get some fresh air.

After putting the four sickles into his backpack, Hu Gualing stepped out of the courtyard. While walking, he received a System notification.

[Daily online goal reached, fantasy points +1]

He opened his backpack and checked the currency tab; sure enough, another fantasy point had been added.

He knew what fantasy points were for. One point could be exchanged for one tael of silver, which was a very generous benefit from the game company.

However, he hadn't used any yet.

Because there was a status bar next to the fantasy points saying he owed 15 fantasy points, which would be automatically deducted when the deadline arrived.

If he had less than 15 points, his account would be deleted.

So how could he dare to use them?

But for some reason, after entering the game today, fantasy points were being issued more frequently.

In the previous two sessions, he had only received 3 fantasy points each time, but today he had already received 5, and it wasn't even time to log off yet.

He wondered if it was because he had fainted and slept for a longer period...

In the Main God Space, Chen Mo had noticed this long ago.

When Hu Gualing first entered the game, the bloody wound on his back had really given him a fright.

So he conducted an investigation.

Only then did he discover the change in Hu Gualing—

His original Soul value of 64 had actually become 120!

He really didn't know what the guy had done in reality to cause such an earth-shaking change in his Soul.

But for Chen Mo, this was undoubtedly a pleasant surprise.

Because another group member had entered the Ascension Platform, but they were still a bit short on main god points, so he could only pretend to have them wait in the Ascension Channel for now.

But now that Hu Gualing was doing so well.

The Soul value—which is to say, main god points—he could produce daily had surged from 3 points to 6 points.

He would soon be able to let a third player in!