For the past two years, the two of them had been wandering through the streets and alleys of Gengxin City every day.
Of the three items Duke had asked them to find, they had only managed to locate one cloudy, yellowish crystal so far.
They had bought it from a street vendor in a rather unremarkable alley about a month after arriving in Gengxin City, spending just five copper soul coins.
They had initially thought it would only take a month to find one of the three items they needed.
The remaining two items were still with the same merchant, and it wouldn't take long to complete the task assigned by Duke.
However, reality proved that they had underestimated the situation.
Gengxin City, the City of Metal, had plenty of metal, if nothing else.
Regardless of whether they were large or small merchants selling metal in Gengxin City, their metal inventory was vast.
Even the itinerant vendors held a considerable amount of scrap metal, and the items displayed at their stalls changed almost daily.
This situation caused great difficulty for their search mission.
They weren't major clients making large metal purchases, capable of having merchants lay out their entire stock for them to choose from.
What's more, if the remaining two items happened to be with itinerant vendors, and they made a fuss asking them to bring out all their scrap metal for them to sift through.
One or two vendors might be manageable and could be easily fooled, but with so many vendors in Gengxin City, if they did this to each one, everyone would know something was amiss.
Therefore, the two of them could only wander through the streets and alleys of Gengxin City daily, hoping to get lucky.
They never expected that this luck would take two years.
East of Gengxin City, in an old tavern.
Brothers Old Wang and Old Li were resting with some strong liquor.
"We haven't checked the alley in the north of the city today. Let's go take a look after we finish this pot!"
"Yeah, it rained a little yesterday, and there was a rainbow this morning. Hopefully, we'll have good luck!"
...
One month later.
Heaven Dou City, Lin Clan Duke's Mansion.
"So, when you two left Gengxin City, Tang San and his group were still there."
"Reporting to Duke, the Strength Clan's carriage remained parked at the Blacksmith Association until we found all three items and prepared to leave; it never moved."
Listening to the replies of the two secret guards, Lin Rong leaned back in his armchair, contemplating Tang San's intentions.
Tang San's trip to Gengxin City could only be for two purposes: purchasing metal and recruiting Lou Gao.
He didn't go early or late, but specifically chose the months just before the meeting of the Single Attribute Four Great Clans.
It seemed that Tang San had big plans for this trip!
Facing the other three clans of the Single Attribute Four Great Clans, Tang San couldn't "persuade with reason," so was he planning to "subdue with force"?
Among the Tang Sect's hidden weapons, only three could achieve this: the Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus, the Rain of Pear Blossom Needles, and the Peacock Plume.
In this world, the only people capable of forging Deep Sea Silver were Tang Chen, Tang Xiao, and Tang Hao.
Currently, Tang Chen was lost in the Slaughter City, Tang Xiao was in seclusion at the Clear Sky Sect, and Tang Hao was injured.
Therefore, the Rain of Pear Blossom Needles could be directly ruled out among the three major hidden weapons.
As for the remaining two hidden weapons, one was the Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus, and the other was the Peacock Plume.
Tang San had the experience of personally succeeding in crafting the former in his previous life, but not the latter. Any reasonably normal person would choose the former.
"So, Tang San plans to work overtime to craft the Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus before the meeting of the Single Attribute Four Great Clans?"
"But will there be enough time?"
"With four months, just returning from Gengxin City would take at least a month."
"To create the Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus within three months, is Tang San too confident in himself, or does he trust Lou Gao too much?"
From the perspective of his own interests, Lin Rong did not want Tang San to obtain a powerful killing weapon like the Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus so early.
This was why Lin Rong had sent people ahead to acquire the three items that Ning Rongrong discovered in the original story.
Without that piece of Cold Heart Iron Essence weighing hundreds of kilograms, Gengxin City's inventory would only allow for the creation of one or two Buddha's Fury Tang Lotuses at most.
Furthermore, Tang San would surely use one of them to intimidate the other three clans of the Single Attribute Four Great Clans, leaving at most one Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus, or even none.
As for the Rain of Pear Blossom Needles, it was unthinkable without the bonus piece of Cold Heart Iron Essence.
The only place Tang San could obtain Deep Sea Silver was the place used by Sea God Island to test "Tidal Body Refining."
Lin Rong did not believe that Tang San in the original story had no interest in those Deep Sea Silver pillars.
The fact that the Rain of Pear Blossom Needles required the crafter to sacrifice their own life for quenching was something Tang San only learned after Lou Gao's sacrifice.
Before that, Tang San would have certainly wanted to forge the Rain of Pear Blossom Needles himself.
However, even Tang San, as the Sea God's inheritor, could not obtain even a sliver of Deep Sea Silver from Bo Saixi.
Let alone the current Tang San, who didn't even know what Sea God Island was.
Tang San lacked experience in crafting the Peacock Plume.
If Lou Gao had to research it alone, without Tang Xiao's assistance, it would take at least several years to produce the Peacock Plume.
With several years of buffer time, even if the Peacock Plume was successfully crafted, it would still be something within controllable limits.
"Alright, I'm aware of this matter now."
"You two did a good job on this mission. Go receive your rewards!"
Lin Rong waved his two hidden guards away, turning his gaze back to the four items before him.
First were two murky crystals, each about the size of a head.
One was purchased from Flender by a hidden guard for two hundred Gold Soul Coins, and the other was bought from a vendor in Gengxin City for five copper soul coins.
The two Crystal Clear Quartz were similar in size.
In the original work, Tang San managed to extract over twenty thousand Dragon Whisker Needles from the Crystal Clear Quartz obtained from Flender.
Now, with two Crystal Clear Quartz in hand, Lin Rong had at least forty thousand Dragon Whisker Needles.
Dragon Whisker Needles were as fine as hair and about three inches long.
They ranked eighth in the Hundred Solutions to Hidden Weapons from the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record.
The stronger the user's Soul Power, the greater the power of the Dragon Whisker Needles.
Lin Rong naturally intended to keep such a good item for himself.
Although he certainly couldn't match Tang San's accuracy, having practiced hidden weapons since childhood, why worry about accuracy if the number of Dragon Whisker Needles was sufficient!
Next, Lin Rong's gaze shifted to the Cold Heart Iron Essence and the Deep Sea Silver.
These two items were completely useless to him, but for Tang San, they were treasures that were hard to come by.
Therefore, if necessary, he could leverage Tang San's desire for these two items to control him through the ores.
As for whether Tang San would add him to the "list of those who court death," Lin Rong didn't care.
If Tang San wanted his life, he would have to see if Tang San had the ability to take it.
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