Chapter 11

“Damn!”

“This is brutal!”

“Over three hours of smashing a thousand jin of iron ore…”

“And it’s only forty copper plates?”

“Why earn money this painfully? Wouldn’t it be better to hold your girlfriend at night and sleep soundly?”

Heipi was truly a chatterbox.

After hearing about the blacksmith shop’s apprentice task from Wangchuan, his original look of envy turned into disdain. He then started waggling his eyebrows and lecturing him animatedly:

“We’re at least a group earning over ten thousand a month. We should learn how to enjoy life!”

“You work from six in the morning until ten-thirty at night—what can you even do after that?”

“Sleep alone?”

“Lie by yourself in a cold bed—this is the meaning of your life?”

“Listen to your brother. Find a girlfriend.”

“If that doesn’t work, find two!”

“It’s not like we don’t have the conditions.”

“……”

Heipi’s half-joking banter lightened the otherwise dull journey, adding a bit of laughter and ease.

Once Heipi lost interest in teasing Wangchuan, Lin Dahai finally turned his head.

“How’s your body?”

“Any soreness or swelling? If there is, that’s normal. After a few days, you’ll get used to it. No rush to pay back the money you borrowed.”

“Brother Lin, I’m fine.”

Wangchuan smiled at him.

Lin Dahai chuckled.

“Once you’re inside the mine, you won’t be so stubborn anymore.”

He assumed Wangchuan was putting on a brave front.

The group entered the mine.

Everyone returned to their original mining sections.

The Warring States Studio still occupied their usual spot near the entrance, saving time and effort.

Heipi set down his basket, spat into his palms, rubbed his hands together forcefully, grabbed his iron pickaxe, and started mining.

Lin Dahai and Old Li watched Wangchuan closely.

When they saw how easily Wangchuan slipped into rhythm, the two exchanged incredulous looks.

“Recovering this fast?”

“Worthy of someone who does fitness training.”

Inside the mine, everyone threw themselves into their own “workstations,” fully entering work mode.

The sounds of pickaxes striking ore overlapped endlessly, lively and unbroken.

Wangchuan took only two hours to fill his first basket.

Everything else had to be piled to the side for the time being.

By the time the sun climbed higher, everyone began chewing on flatbreads.

“Wangchuan, that speed of yours is impressive.”

“You’ve piled up more than I have.”

Only then did Heipi notice that, in the dim mine, the iron ore at Wangchuan’s feet was actually more than his own.

“High Strength really does make a difference.”

“So is it six points or seven points, exactly?”

“Heh.”

“Six.”

At this moment, Wangchuan could only play dumb.

People feared seeing their brothers suffer—but they feared even more seeing them drive luxury cars.

He absolutely could not disrupt the harmony between them.

After resting, they worked for several more hours.

In the midst of the monotonous digging, the ore-collection convoy finally arrived.

At the sound of bells, everyone moved quickly.

This time, with two hundred jin of iron ore, Wangchuan had to make five trips before finishing transport, earning two hundred copper plates.

Lin Dahai and the others were a little stunned.

Everyone else earned one hundred and sixty copper plates, yet this newcomer alone reached two hundred.

“Treat us!”

“Wangchuan, you have to treat us!”

Wangchuan took the opportunity to thank Lin Dahai.

“Brother Lin, it’s all thanks to your guidance.”

He then counted out one hundred and fifty-five copper plates and handed them over.

“This is for the iron pickaxe and basket. Tomorrow’s entire day of mining income will belong to Brother Lin.”

Everyone’s attention instantly shifted to Lin Dahai, filled with envy.

Lin Dahai beamed.

“Alright!”

“Since Wangchuan is being so generous, I can’t fall behind either.”

“Tonight, two flatbreads each! It’s on me!”

“Alright!” “Brother Hai is generous!”

After each person mined another hundred jin of iron ore, they returned to Blackstone Village. Lin Dahai handed out two flatbreads to everyone, Wangchuan included.

Everyone logged out happily.

Lin Dahai repeated a few familiar reminders to Wangchuan before logging out himself.

Wangchuan, meanwhile, took his iron ore to the blacksmith shop to accept the next task.

Chen Feng, Heitan, and Wangchuan stood before Blacksmith Sun.

Today, Blacksmith Sun assigned the three of them a new task.

“The crushed iron ore has all been fed into the clay kiln. After a full day of high-temperature smelting, it should be ready to condense into molten iron.”

“Your task is to forge the refined molten iron I give you into Hundredfold Steel.”

“Do you accept the Hundredfold Steel task?”

“Each piece of refined molten iron must be folded and forged one hundred times. A total of fifty pieces.”

“Task reward: two hundred copper plates.”

All three accepted the task.

Chen Feng and Heitan looked bitter and gloomy.

Wangchuan, however, looked curious.

“Brother Feng, Brother Hei, the reward for this task is high. Why do you two look so unhappy? Is there something I should know?”

Heitan explained with a pained expression.

“The Hundredfold Steel task is not only exhausting, its cycle is ridiculously long. And if the forging isn’t done properly, your reward gets deducted. In the end, what you actually earn is far less than yesterday’s task.”

Chen Feng nodded grimly.

“Each piece of refined iron has to be hammered at least a hundred times, then folded. That means forging just one piece of Hundredfold Steel takes ten thousand strikes.”

“Think about how difficult that is.”

“The last time we forged Hundredfold Steel, we tried handing it in after fifty folds. Master saw through it immediately. More than half of the two hundred copper plates were deducted. We not only failed to earn money, we also wasted seven or eight days.”

“Every half month, there’s one Hundredfold Steel task. If you don’t complete it, you can’t enter the next cycle.”

“So we cut corners and turned it in anyway. At least that way, we could move on to the next task and still make some money.”

Heitan finished explaining.

Wangchuan no longer even showed a toothache-like grimace.

One piece of Hundredfold Steel required ten thousand hammer strikes.

Forging fifty pieces meant five hundred thousand strikes.

Why not just use a stamping machine?

They were treating people like machines.

Complaints aside, if they wanted to avoid being expelled from the blacksmith shop and keep this source of income, the three of them could only prepare quickly.

The forging tables and furnaces were set up.

Blacksmith Sun personally handled sealing and processing the refined molten iron, placing rectangular blocks one by one onto the forging tables. He then began instructing Wangchuan.

“Wangchuan, I’ll demonstrate once. Watch every movement carefully, remember every word I say, and then do exactly the same.”

Blacksmith Sun deliberately slowed his actions. As he placed the glowing, red-hot refined molten iron from the casting vessel onto the forging table, he said:

“When refined iron is completely liquid, do not strike it. It will splatter and injure you and others.”

“Wait for a few breaths, then begin—like this!”

Using a small hammer in one hand, he smashed down hard onto the square block of refined iron. Sparks flew in all directions.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

Blacksmith Sun paid no attention to the sparks at all. His hammering was fast and rhythmic. In less than a minute, he completed one hundred strikes.

He then clamped the oddly shaped, nearly solidified iron block into a nearby water barrel, rapidly cooling and solidifying it. Finally, he tossed it back into the high-temperature furnace, his voice ringing clearly:

“When the iron block is red-hot, you must fold it. Front and back, one hundred strikes.”

“Then quench it in water to solidify, quickly release impurities, and return it to the furnace for further smelting.”

“The window of time when red-hot iron remains workable is very short. You must complete one hundred strikes in the shortest possible time. Otherwise, you’ll waste far more time and effort than it’s worth.”

Before Blacksmith Sun, Chen Feng and Heitan executed every movement with meticulous precision.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!!

Under the combination of extreme heat and intense hammering, the two quickly became drenched in sweat. Their skin flushed red, and every muscle in their bodies trembled.