38. It’s Not Good to Kick Something
“Clang—clang—clang!”
The final stages of the weapon’s repair were at hand.
The remaining quenching and polishing didn’t require spiritual arts, and these were tasks Leng Yuli was already familiar with, so she worked with ease.
Finally, after cleaning the blade with oil, she picked up a clean cloth and wiped it down. With each swipe, the sword’s brilliance was revealed.
Even without direct sunlight, it gleamed, its silver blade sharp and menacing, the aura of a mid-grade spiritual artifact replacing its former decay.
A perfect repair… truly a masterful perfect repair.
To show this wasn’t just for show, Leng Yuli even took a strand of her own hair and placed it on the blade’s edge.
The hair, almost invisible and falling slowly, was sliced in two without any resistance.
This was beyond just “cutting iron like mud”!
The sword’s quality stunned everyone.
This fluid forging technique was unheard of, and the repaired weapon was even better than before.
“Any other problems!?” Leng Yuli handed the sword back to the dumbfounded black-clad man. “If you have any other requests, just say them all at once. It’s troublesome to fix things one by one.”
“This…” The man looked at the renewed sword. He felt it was even stronger than the standard-issue mid-grade spiritual artifacts from Haifeng Hall.
This girl’s forging skills… were truly on another level, practically a high-grade blacksmith.
…How was this possible? Could it be that the Leng family’s blacksmiths used a different method, a secret technique known only to their inner disciples?
Seeing his silence, Leng Yuli asked again, “Anything else?”
“No… nothing.” The man couldn’t find any evidence of cheating. This sword was entirely Leng Yuli’s work.
Although disappointed, he didn’t say anything more and turned to leave.
However…
Miss Gong suddenly spoke.
“Wait a moment, Young Master Liang.” Gong Yiling looked at the man who had stopped. “Ah Leng only promised to repair the broken parts of your sword for free. Improving its quality and fixing its hidden flaws were not part of the deal.”
“Otherwise, anyone could just bring their sword here for a free upgrade. Ah Leng is too kind to refuse, and if she did, it might cause some gossip.”
As she spoke, Miss Gong was thinking…
This guy, after embarrassing Leng Yuli, thought he could just walk away with a perfectly repaired sword?
There was no such thing as a free lunch.
The black-clad man frowned but couldn’t refute her words.
He couldn’t just say, It’s your fault for being so skilled. You’re a capable person, so you should do more work.
“Then what do you want?”
“The matter of payment, of course.” Miss Gong said, “I’ve thought about it. Upgrading a low-grade spiritual artifact to a mid-grade one, with the potential to reach high-grade… how much do you think you should pay?”
The man thought for a moment and offered half the price of forging a new mid-grade spiritual artifact. “Fifty high-grade spirit crystals.”
This was a reasonable market price, but Miss Gong wasn’t interested.
“It’s not that we don’t want the spirit crystals,” she said, stroking her veiled chin. “But you know Ah Leng is a blacksmith. These spirit crystals are useless to her.”
“So?” The black-clad man sensed something was amiss.
“So,” Gong Yiling chuckled. “Ah Leng wants… an equivalent value of high-grade Luminous Stones.”
His heart skipped a beat, and he almost cursed.
An ordinary person wouldn’t know what this was, only those with connections to blacksmiths.
High-grade Luminous Stones, colloquially known as “Rich Man’s Grinding Stones,” were exactly that—grinding stones.
However, their polishing effect was exceptional, and they wouldn’t harm the user’s fingers, even emitting a unique fragrance. They were a precious treasure for female blacksmiths.
Although not ridiculously expensive—after all, they were just grinding stones—they were incredibly rare.
And even if you found them in a trading house, you might have to compete with some rich fool who didn’t know the value of money.
If he went to a mine to search for them, their hardness was absurd.
After all, something that could grind anything had to be incredibly tough itself.
So, either he had to spend days digging in a mine, or he had to outsmart some nouveau riche at a trading house.
Neither was easy, and for someone of his status, it was quite demeaning.
“What’s wrong, Young Master Liang?” Gong Yiling looked at the silent man. “You agreed so quickly. Surely you can get a few grinding stones, right? Right?”
When it came to teasing and sarcasm, Miss Gong was undefeated.
“Ahem…” The man could only swallow his pride. “A few grinding stones, I’ll go and buy them now.”
“Thank you, Young Master.”
Watching his retreating figure, Miss Gong couldn’t help but laugh.
All the nearby grinding stones had already been bought up by her people before she even came here. So, he only had one option.
But just as she was secretly rejoicing, Leng Yuli, who had been standing beside her, suddenly called her name softly. “Youyuan.”
“Ah, what is it?”
When Gong Yiling turned around, the girl was already close, hugging her tightly and chuckling. “Thank you.”
The girl’s embrace was a bit… unfamiliar, but then, she smiled back.
“A simple ‘thank you’ is not enough. After all, I taught you how to forge. Call me ‘Master.'”
“Never.”
