"My disciple."
Zhu Jiuyang said these words with a tone full of pride.
"He is also the pioneer of the new forging system."
Although he had initially worried that revealing this would bring danger to Su Ming, after Su Ming's persuasion, actually saying these words out loud felt incredibly satisfying to Zhu Jiuyang.
See, this is my disciple!
Yueguan narrowed his eyes.
Pioneer?
""You pioneered Spirit Metal?" Gui Mei, aside, directly exclaimed in surprise.
This news was truly shocking.
"A fluke, plus a little bit of luck." Su Ming raised his right hand, gesturing with his index finger and thumb.
"Alright, enough talk. You should already understand our association's situation. Spirit Metal can be mass-produced, the forging techniques can be taught, but only by joining our Blacksmith Association can one learn them, and only by cooperating with our Blacksmith Association can transactions related to Spirit Metal be conducted."
Zhu Jiuyang didn't let Yueguan continue asking Su Ming questions, getting straight to the point.
Yueguan sighed with emotion. "You're still as direct as ever."
He adjusted his tone and said seriously, "Cooperation is naturally not a problem. Spirit Metal benefits the entire spirit master world. Since its establishment, Spirit Hall has upheld the duty of promoting the development of the spirit master world. Now that your esteemed disciple has opened up a new forging system, beneficial to the spirit master world, our Spirit Hall will naturally provide assistance."
"However, before discussing how to cooperate, I would like to understand the current level of the forging technology."
Yueguan looked at Su Ming, with a hint of a smile, and asked, "Su Ming, right? I wonder to what stage have you perfected the forging technology?"
Zhu Jiuyang was somewhat surprised that Yueguan directly questioned Su Ming, but he did not interrupt.
"Thousand Refinement with Spirit."
"So, does that mean the Spirit Metal in my hand is already the limit of your current technology?" Yueguan took out a piece of Thousand Refined Heavy Silver.
This was what Gui Mei had obtained from Zhao Tieshan.
"Not exactly," Su Ming said.
Yueguan showed a surprised look.
In reality, he wasn't surprised; he had expected this.
"There is a higher technology beyond this?" Yueguan stared at Su Ming.
"There is a direction. My teacher and I call it Spirit Refinement, bestowing true life upon metal. For now, we haven't explored how to achieve it yet."
"Not achieved?" Yueguan showed disappointment. "Then why did you say this Spirit Metal isn't your limit?"
"Forging with a single type of rare metal, what Your Eminence holds is the peak. But beyond forging with a single rare metal, we have also discovered Spirit Alloy forged by fusing multiple types of rare metal."
Alloy?
Yueguan's interest waned.
What special use could fusing multiple metals have?
The improvement couldn't be that great.
Seeing Yueguan's expression, Su Ming knew what the other was thinking. So, he took out a piece of Thousand Refined Jade Silver.
"This is Spirit Alloy. Your Eminence can try it."
Su Ming handed the Thousand Refined Jade Silver to Yueguan.
As soon as Yueguan took the Thousand Refined Jade Silver, his expression changed immediately. He looked down at the Jade Silver in his hand, his breathing becoming rapid.
Gui Mei noticed Yueguan's change and showed curiosity.
Then, he understood why Yueguan was gaffe, because he saw with his own eyes the Thousand Refined Jade Silver in Yueguan's hand—a piece of metal—transform into a ball of light and slowly merge into Yueguan's hand.
"What do the two Eminences think?"
"Good, very good!"
Yueguan laughed heartily, very satisfied with the effect of the Spirit Alloy.
He tried to circulate his Spirit Power and could sense the presence of that piece of Thousand Refined Jade Silver within his body.
"Speak, how do you want to cooperate?"
Yueguan and Gui Mei left satisfied.
The two left Gengxin City without stopping, and their departure was without any fanfare.
"The Blacksmith Association's ambition is so obvious, and you just agreed like that? They plan to establish association branches in Suotuo City, Heaven Dou City, and Star Luo City. Only after gaining a foothold will they build an association in our Spirit City."
"So what if they have ambition? No matter what, the Blacksmith Association is an organization that provides technology, different from our Spirit Hall."
Yueguan wasn't concerned at all about the question Gui Mei raised.
Even if the Blacksmith Association guarded against Spirit Hall, not wanting to be annexed, and even if Spirit Hall ultimately didn't manage to annex the Blacksmith Association, it wouldn't hinder their coexistence.
Their natures were different, so there would naturally be no so-called entanglement.
And once the Blacksmith Association began to change in nature, becoming a violent organization, then Spirit Hall would certainly not sit idly by. At that time, not just Spirit Hall, but other forces wouldn't allow the Blacksmith Association to deteriorate like that.
"Moreover—" Yueguan sneered, "Spirit Hall's foundation of spirit masters far surpasses any other spirit master organization. Our voice within the Blacksmith Association will grow heavier and heavier."
Even if they invested later, as the association spread and blossomed all over the continent, this trend was inevitable.
This was Spirit Hall's most natural advantage.
"Cooperation with Spirit Hall was much easier than expected." Su Ming breathed a sigh of relief.
Zhu Jiuyang explained to Su Ming with a smile.
What he said was very similar to Yueguan's words.
Regarding this, Su Ming neither agreed nor disagreed.
To be honest, he hadn't considered such a distant future.
Because he felt that by such a distant future, he would definitely be invincible, and who owned the Blacksmith Association wouldn't need to be debated.
Spread out?
If the Blacksmith Association could manage to establish the three branches he envisioned, that would already be fast.
How long does it take to train a single blacksmith?
This all requires time to evolve.
"By the way, that Ning Tianya seems to have had an epiphany after the incident the day before yesterday. This morning, he succeeded in the Thousand Refinement of ordinary metal," Zhu Jiuyang said.
"He achieved Thousand Refinement? Then teach him all the Spirit Infusion techniques. Will you do it, teacher, or shall I?"
"Let Little Gold teach him. It will help him consolidate."
"Alright."
"The Star Luo Royal Family is moving too slowly. They still haven't sent anyone."
Su Ming was getting impatient, wanting to quickly resolve the matters of various cooperations and begin the next step of 'research'.
Tang Hao's appearance had cast a shadow over his heart, making him feel severely insecure.
Three days later, the Star Luo Royal Family representative arrived in Gengxin City and finalized cooperation with the Blacksmith Association. The Empire would cooperate with the association in searching for rare metal veins within its borders.
Regarding the distribution of the rare metals, the Blacksmith Association would take a fifty percent share. The remaining fifty percent would be divided as follows: twenty percent for the Star Luo Empire, twenty percent for Spirit Hall, and ten percent for the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan.
The rare metals obtained by the association would naturally be used for training blacksmiths within the association. Taking fifty percent was beyond doubt, as it would eventually flow back into the hands of the various factions anyway.
However, Spirit Hall and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan each getting a portion infuriated the Star Luo representative.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan declared they would provide all the funds. Mainly, during the negotiations, Su Ming, on the association's side, tacitly agreed to the demand raised by Chen Xin. The Star Luo representative's pleas and arguments were useless.
One reason was the killing intent Tang Hao had revealed. This was too great a deterrent for Su Ming; he felt insecure. Although he had plans for the next step, he needed time for 'research'. During this period, he lacked bodyguards, so he needed Chen Xin to remain at the association.
As for the other reason, it was naturally the previous agreement he had with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan: ten percent of all rare metals obtained by the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan had to be given to him.
Although the initial agreement between Su Ming and Ning Fengzhi was that ten percent of the rare metals purchased by the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan belonged to him, since this foundation existed between them, Su Ming smoothly reached a new agreement with Chen Xin: ten percent of these mined/acquired rare metals would also unconditionally belong to him.
(End of Chapter)