Gu You had no intention of taking on excessive responsibilities. Besides, he had already taken advantage of calling the division commander "Uncle Xu." If a Blood God Battalion commander gave you that level of respect, you had to return the favor with full sincerity.
"This is simple," said Xu Weitao with a chuckle. "I'll find you a place. There's a perfect location just behind the corps' mecha hangars. A few days ago, during the beast tide response, my battle armor got severely damaged. I might need a full reforge. Can you take a look?"
A flash of light shimmered over his right shoulder. Xu Weitao reached over with his left hand, and with another burst of light, an armor piece appeared—an obsidian-colored shoulder pauldron.
Gu You had noticed earlier that Xu Weitao's right shoulder was a bit stiff. It seemed this was the reason—injury from battling abyssal creatures.
The moment he took the armor piece, Gu You gasped softly.
Three-word battle armor was forged from soul-refined metal. The leap from two-word to three-word armor was no small feat—it was a qualitative transformation. Even among Saint Blacksmiths, the number of soul refiners capable of making three-word armor was drastically fewer—ten times rarer, at least.
Soul-refined metal was unique—it held its own spiritual consciousness and life force. It could self-repair minor damages to a significant degree. So most wear and tear wasn't a big deal. But this shoulder piece was not suffering from mere wear—it was truly damaged.
A single deep gash split the shoulder plate nearly in half. Worse, at the edges of the break, tiny strands of grey-white energy writhed like living worms, constantly corroding the metal and preventing any healing.
Gu You's scalp tingled just looking at it.
'What kind of power could do something like this?'
He was shocked but already thinking about how to repair it. The armor itself couldn't recover, and even soul power couldn't trigger its self-repair. That meant it was likely beyond recovery—unless...
Unless the restorative force could overpower the corruptive energy. Only by overwhelming the invader could the armor regenerate.
After pondering for a moment, Gu You's eyes lit up.
He stepped to his forging table, laid the armor piece down, and didn't pick up his forging hammers. Instead, he touched his forehead, summoning his Golden Dragon Spear.
Xu Weitao's eyes sparkled. "That's a fine weapon!"
He had seen the Golden Dragon Spear in the footage, but now that he was seeing it in person, it felt different—sharper, more refined, and somehow alive. Just looking at it gave off a faint sense of slicing pain.
Gu You gently pressed the tip of the spear against the shoulder plate.
In an instant, a golden light pulsed from the spear. The gray threads of corruptive energy trembled violently—then surged into the spear like rivers rushing into the sea. One by one, they vanished into the weapon's gleam.
A tremor passed through Gu You's body.
He felt a surge of powerful energy rush through him from the spear, invigorating his spirit and causing the dragon core in his chest to glow brilliantly.
'Just that small amount of energy was this strong? It feels almost as potent as when I absorbed that Ba'an.'
With the invasive energy gone, a faint white glow began to spread across the damaged shoulder plate. Slowly but steadily, the cracked seam began to close.
Gu You picked up the armor and walked back to Xu Weitao.
"Uncle Xu, it should be good now."
Xu Weitao had watched the whole process. His face was full of disbelief.
"How did you do that? That wasn't forging... That was the power of the Abyssal Hundred-Legged Puppet King from the 101st layer. I struggled for days to purge that energy from my body. You just erased it like that?"
Gu You gave a wry smile.
"I can't heal people. Not living beings, anyway. My spear only works on metal. If I stabbed someone with it, it would suck out their life force—it'd be more dangerous than the Hundred-Legged King's power."
Xu Weitao nodded, eyes filled with a strange light. The more he saw of Gu You, the more impressed he became.
No wonder the Blood God Battalion had recruited him so quickly. If only he'd acted sooner—maybe they wouldn't have had the chance.
"I was planning to rebuild that pauldron from scratch. A piece of soul-refined metal like that would cost at least twenty thousand merit points. I'll give you that much."
Gu You shook his head.
"No need, Uncle Xu. I barely did anything. Just a simple press of my spear. Don't worry about merit points."
Xu Weitao's tone hardened.
"That won't do. Fair is fair. What's owed must be paid. You being able to solve it easily is your skill—but I can't take advantage of you. If I don't pay, it would feel like I'm cheating you. So stop arguing. Just accept it. And in the future, when I need some forging work, make sure to put me first in line. I've got ambitions too. I'm aiming for Four-Word Battle Armor. Who knows—by then, you might already be a Divine Blacksmith."
With that, he insisted on transferring twenty thousand merit points to Gu You's Blood God Ring before leaving.
Long Yuxue didn't leave. She stayed behind, watching Gu You with a peculiar expression.
Gu You held out his Blood God Ring toward her.
"Come on, take half. You can't use it to raise your rank, but you can still trade it for some nice items."
"You don't have to give it to me," she said. "That was your work."
"I know," Gu You replied with a grin. "But remember what Uncle Xu said—fair is fair. You helped me get this forging lab up and running. Without your backing, I wouldn't even be here. So don't be shy, boss lady. Time to split the loot."
Hearing the words "boss lady," Long Yuxue's face flushed red, but she didn't stop him from transferring the merit points. She only murmured, "If you ever need merit points, let me know."
"I will. I need to upgrade my workshop soon anyway. By the way, did you register for the Federation Challenge?"
Long Yuxue nodded.
"I did. Most of the corps' members who meet the qualifications have signed up. Anyone above the five-ring level is allowed, and the challenge is open. I'd say most of the real action in the Western Division will come from our corps. There aren't many cities in this zone."
"You're participating too?" she asked.
"Yeah, I signed up."
"You…"
(End of Chapter)
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