For the past two years, the two of them had been wandering the streets and alleys of Gengxin City every day.
The three items the Duke had asked them to find had, so far, only resulted in finding the yellowish, murky crystal.
They had purchased it for five copper soul coins from a vendor in a very inconspicuous street, just a month after arriving in Gengxin City.
At first, they thought finding the three items would be a simple task. In just one month, they had already found one item, and the remaining two were still in the hands of the same vendor. They thought they would finish the Duke's mission soon.
However, as time passed, they realized they had greatly underestimated the task.
Gengxin City, known as the "City of Metals," was home to a vast number of metal vendors. Whether large or small, these vendors had massive inventories of metal. Even the mobile street vendors had plenty of scrap metal, with their stalls changing items almost every day.
This made their search difficult.
They weren't large-scale metal buyers who could demand all the vendors' stock to inspect. Moreover, if the remaining two items happened to be with mobile vendors, and they went around making a spectacle of asking vendors to show all their scrap metals, it wouldn't take long before someone suspected something. If they kept this up, it would be obvious they had something to hide.
So, every day, they wandered the streets and alleys of Gengxin City, hoping for luck.
Unexpectedly, two years had passed before they realized that their luck hadn't improved.
East of Gengxin City, at an old tavern.
Old Wang and Old Li, the two brothers, were drinking strong liquor and taking a break.
"That alley on the north side of the city, we still haven't checked it. Once we finish this bottle, we'll go take a look!"
"Yeah, it rained a little yesterday, and there was a rainbow this morning. Maybe we'll have some good luck!"
...
One month later.
Tian Dou City, Duke Lin's Mansion.
"So, you're saying that when you two left Gengxin City, Tang San and his group were still there, not leaving?"
"Yes, Duke. The carriage of the Li clan has been parked at the Blacksmith Association the entire time. It hasn't moved at all, even when we were about to leave after finding all three items."
Upon hearing this report from his two hidden guards, Lin Rong leaned back in his chair, pondering Tang San's intentions.
Tang San had gone to Gengxin City for two things: to purchase metal and to recruit Lou Gao.
He didn't go early or late but arrived just a few months before the meeting of the Four Single-Attribute Clans.
It seemed that Tang San had big plans for this trip!
Against the other three clans of the Four Single-Attribute Clans, Tang San couldn't persuade them through reasoning, so was he planning to use force instead?
As for the Tang Sect's hidden weapons, there were only three that could achieve this: Buddha's Wrath Tang Lotus, Storm Pear Blossom Needles, and Peacock Feather.
In the current world, the only people capable of forging Deep Sea Silver were Tang Chen, Tang Xiao, and Tang Hao.
However, Tang Chen had fallen in the Killing City, Tang Xiao had secluded himself in the Haotian Clan, and Tang Hao was injured.
So, among the three hidden weapons, the Storm Pear Blossom Needles could be ruled out.
The remaining two weapons were the Buddha's Wrath Tang Lotus, and the Peacock Feather.
Tang San had successfully forged the Buddha's Wrath Tang Lotus in his past life, but he had no experience with the Peacock Feather, and any normal person would choose the former.
"So, Tang San plans to rush to make the Buddha's Wrath Tang Lotus before the meeting of the Four Single-Attribute Clans?"
"But is there enough time?"
"Even if it only takes about a month to get back from Gengxin City, it would take at least that long."
"Can he make the Buddha's Wrath Tang Lotus in just three months? Does he have too much confidence in himself or too much trust in Lou Gao?"
From Lin Rong's point of view, he didn't want Tang San to get his hands on such a powerful weapon so soon.
That's why Lin Rong had sent people ahead to acquire the three items that would appear in the original story, discovered by Ning Rongrong.
Without that several-hundred-kilogram chunk of Cold Heart Iron Essence, Gengxin City's stock of this material wouldn't even be enough to make more than one or two Buddha's Wrath Tang Lotus.
And one of them would be used to intimidate the other clans, leaving Tang San with little or no spare time.
As for the Storm Pear Blossom Needles, that would be impossible without the chunk of Cold Heart Iron Essence that came as a bonus.
The only way Tang San could obtain Deep Sea Silver was at Sea God Island, where the "Tidal Body Refining" trials took place.
Lin Rong didn't believe that Tang San had any plans to use those Deep Sea Silver pillars in the original story.
The fact that Tang San learned about the need to sacrifice one's life to forge the Storm Pear Blossom Needles was something he only found out after Lou Gao's sacrifice. Before that, Tang San had surely hoped to forge the Storm Pear Blossom Needles himself.
But as the Sea God's heir, Tang San never even managed to acquire any Deep Sea Silver from Poseidon.
Let alone now, when Tang San didn't even know about Sea God Island.
As for the Peacock Feather, Tang San had no experience in forging it.
Relying only on Lou Gao and without the help of Tang Xiao, it would take years of research to make the Peacock Feather.
With several years of buffer time, even if the Peacock Feather were successfully made, it would still be within Lin Rong's control.
"Alright, I understand now."
"You two did a good job on this mission. Go and claim your reward!"
Lin Rong waved his hand, signaling the two hidden guards to leave, then turned his attention back to the four items before him.
First, there were two chunks of Murky Crystal, about the size of a human head.
One had been purchased from Flanders for two hundred gold soul coins, and the other from a vendor in Gengxin City for five copper soul coins.
The two Board Crystal Agates were similar in size.
In the original story, Tang San was able to extract over twenty thousand Dragon Whisker Needles from Flanders' Board Crystal Agate.
Now, Lin Rong had two of them, guaranteeing at least forty thousand Dragon Whisker Needles.
The Dragon Whisker Needle was as fine as a hair and about three inches long. It ranked eighth in the Mystical Treasures of Hidden Weapons.
The more powerful the user's soul power, the more potent the Dragon Whisker Needle became.
Such a treasure was naturally something Lin Rong would keep for himself.
Although his accuracy might not match Tang San, who had trained in hidden weapons from a young age, with enough Dragon Whisker Needles, who would care about precision?
Next, Lin Rong's gaze fell upon the Cold Heart Iron Essence and Deep Sea Silver.
These two materials were essentially useless to him, but were priceless treasures for Tang San.
Therefore, if necessary, Lin Rong could use Tang San's thirst for these materials to manipulate him and force him to retrieve the mineral ores.
As for whether Tang San would include him in a "death list," Lin Rong wasn't concerned.
If Tang San wanted his life, it would depend on whether he could take it.