14. Leng Yuli
The inner chamber, surprisingly, wasn’t filled with exquisite artifacts, but with a pile of scrap metal.
Gong Yiling picked up a broken sword, its fractured state strangely familiar.
It reminded her of the three pots she had destroyed.
“Who did this?”
She couldn’t help but ask. “Such a distinctive way of breaking things.”
“Ahem…” Shui Qianqiu coughed awkwardly. “That’s not important. I wanted to ask you something.”
“What is it?”
“The forging technique you used… is it the legendary 160 Great Hammer?”
This…
She hadn’t expected him to recognize it.
Daoist Daman had sealed himself away for over a millennium. His techniques and masterpieces were long lost, especially this one with its bizarre name.
It wasn’t even mentioned in the novel.
Should she admit it or not?
“I don’t know.” Gong Yiling said casually, “It’s an ancestral technique, without a fixed name.”
“Is that so…” Leng Qianqiu said, “May I ask your name, young lady?”
“Lü Youyuan.”
She had gotten quite used to this fake name.
“Then, Miss Lü, could you… demonstrate that process again? Of course, there will be compensation.”
“What compensation? Money? Or artifacts?”
Leng Qianqiu had been wondering what to offer her. After all, one didn’t casually reveal their ancestral techniques.
But… this girl was so direct.
“Whatever you want.”
“Then thirty high-grade spirit crystals.”
“Thirty high-grade spirit crystals?” Leng Qianqiu was taken aback.
That was a considerable sum, though for a master blacksmith like him, it was only the value of one or two of his works.
“Alright. Then please…”
“Wait!”
Suddenly, a voice came from the back room.
A girl with long, azure hair.
Her hair was tied in a high ponytail, making her look sharp and capable. She wore a practical outfit, and the grime on her face couldn’t conceal her delicate features. Her clothes were soaked with sweat, highlighting her curvy figure.
But the most striking thing was her eyes, a deep blue filled with a special kind of determination and suspicion.
The determination was inherent, but the suspicion… was clearly directed at her.
“What scammer is this? Does she think my grandfather is a fool!?” she roared at Gong Yiling.
Well, well.
Since leaving the Pear Blossom Blood Orchid Palace, she had scammed her way through life, her lies outnumbering her truths by a factor of five or six.
But while her truths were dismissed as lies, her lies were taken as gospel.
This was the first time someone had called her a scammer to her face.
Excellent!
“Don’t be rude!” Leng Qianqiu immediately chided the girl. “Her technique might be able to help you. How can you call her a scammer?”
“Who asks for so many spirit crystals for a mere demonstration?”
The girl walked right up to Gong Yiling, her chest almost touching hers, her face flushed with anger. “Listen up, I don’t know where you heard about this, but don’t think you can scam my grandfather with your outrageous demands.”
“And just so you know, even without anyone’s help, I will never marry that bastard, never!”
With that, she grabbed some of the scrap metal and stormed out.
As she turned the corner, Gong Yiling thought she saw her wipe away a tear.
Was she… crying?
But what was this about marriage? She was completely lost.
“Elder, what was that…?”
“I’m so sorry!” Leng Qianqiu sighed. “It’s my fault for spoiling Yuli. She’s becoming more and more unruly.”
Leng… Yuli…?
The name sounded familiar, but Gong Yiling couldn’t place it.
“So, was there some misunderstanding?” Gong Yiling shrugged. “What was that about marriage…?”
“Sigh…”
The renowned blacksmith, usually so full of vigor, suddenly seemed to age ten years.
The story was indeed quite sad.
The Leng family, a renowned blacksmithing clan, should have reached its peak with a master like Leng Qianqiu. But his son, Leng Aofeng, overshadowed by his father’s fame, chose to venture into the auction house business instead.
However, being an ambitious man, he started with high-risk, high-reward ventures.
And naturally, he was scammed into near bankruptcy by a group of old swindlers, owing one of the Daoist sects tens of millions of taels.
Leng Aofeng couldn’t possibly repay such a debt, so he was given two options.
One was to marry off his daughter to someone from the Daoist sect and give up sixty percent of his auction house’s shares in exchange for halving the debt, the rest to be paid back slowly.
The other was to seek help from the Leng family.
But tens of millions of taels was an exorbitant sum, even for the Leng family. Even Leng Qianqiu couldn’t force them to pay.
However, out of respect for him, the family made a compromise. If his granddaughter, Leng Yuli, could prove herself to be a talented blacksmith, they would help pay the debt.
And that’s why Leng Qianqiu brought her to Qian Yue Academy for special training.
“Judging by Miss Leng’s reaction…” Gong Yiling recalled the pile of scrap metal and stroked her chin. “Her forging path… doesn’t seem to be going well.”
“About that…” Leng Qianqiu shook his head. “Forging requires a fusion of man and artifact, a shaping of the mind. One needs to have some understanding of spiritual arts to complete the process.”
“But Yuli is a one-in-a-million Martial Artist of the Mind’s Eye, naturally inept at spiritual arts. So, despite her immense strength, she can’t forge anything.”
A Martial Artist of the Mind’s Eye… a rare talent indeed.
Their martial arts were an extension of their mind, allowing them to comprehend any technique, but they were completely inept at spiritual arts.
That was… I didn’t know whether to call it lucky or unlucky… wait!?
Gong Yiling’s eyes suddenly lit up.
She finally remembered where she had heard that name.
“Elder, that Daoist sect… is it Shenqi Daoist Mountain?”
“It… it is?”
“And the person Leng Yuli is supposed to marry… is it Yin Wuzong?”
“Yes…”
No wonder it sounded so familiar. It was them.
