"Although, wait." - I stopped abruptly, turning back to them. - "It might take a little longer for your artifacts. I'll call you on this number." - I said, throwing them one of my spare phones with an unregistered SIM card. After that, I finally left, leaving them in the same silent shock.
Returning to the cave, I saw that nothing had changed during my absence. Without further ado, I began to cultivate; the second stage of the middle level was definitely not far off! The next day, we continued our journey back to Dunhuang, this time without any particular problems, reaching the city only by evening.
"Well, where do we go next?" - Zhou Ming asked with interest. - "It seems you've gathered all the necessary resources?"
"Yes, you're right, it's time to start creating artifacts." - I agreed, checking the contents of my spatial bracelet. - "So we're heading to Nanjing."
"What? Why?" - Zhou Ming said in surprise. - "Not to Shanghai?"
"No, to Nanjing." - I repeated confidently. - "A master who taught me lives there, and I can use his workshop to work."
Upon arriving at the airport, we encountered a small problem; there were no direct flights to Nanjing, only a couple of flights with layovers. Well, there was nothing to be done, and money was not a problem, so we took the nearest such flight and finally set off. The entire journey took about ten hours, so we reached our destination at dawn.
"Where now, teacher?" - Zhou Ming asked somewhat sarcastically, yawning as we disembarked from the plane.
"We'll find a hotel, you'll train, and I'll go to the master." - I said dryly.
There were no problems with accommodation in such a large city as Nanjing, so we found a place quite quickly. After saying goodbye to the girls and giving them instructions, I went to the master. Unfortunately, only Zhou Ming could train; Jiaxing Er would have to rest for about three more weeks. As for me, I was very tired after these three weeks of our travels! And now I had another three weeks of hellish work planned! Damn it!
Finding the workshop was not difficult; ringing the doorbell, I began to wait for someone to open it. I didn't have my own call sign, and it wasn't polite to intrude into someone else's home like that. The door was opened by a young boy, who looked my age and stared at me with surprise, studying me intently. I, too, examined him. He was wearing a work apron and gloves; was he sent from the forge itself?
"Uh, who are you, exactly?" - the boy asked uncertainly.
"I am Tan San, personal student of Master Tan Tao. I've returned to continue improving my skills and to fulfill a personal order." - I said in a rather polite voice.
"Ah, I see, the master is busy right now. If you don't mind, I'll call the first student, Tan Yu, he'll sort things out with you." - the boy replied, also uncertainly and with doubt in his voice. After receiving approval, he disappeared into the workshop. It's foolish to blame him for not knowing my status, but Tan Yu will come now, which will be even better.
"Oh, Jiaxing Yun, you're back. The master thought you'd forgotten your obligation to give him an artifact once a month to test your skills." - Soon the door opened, and a cheerful young man of about twenty-five appeared, whom I quickly recognized as Tan Yu.
"Yes, I'm back." - I grinned. - "I'd also like to use the workshop to create artifacts for personal use."
"Yes, of course, you're a personal student, you have the right." - Tan Yu grinned. - "Let's go, the master will definitely be glad to see you."
We went inside and immediately headed to the main workshop where Master Tan Tao himself was working. Entering, we saw him working at full blast, with about five other students actively helping him. They were clearly preparing for something big, I decided, seeing the amount of work. Powerful pulses of internal energy emanated from the master himself. He immediately noticed that we had arrived, but still finished working on an artifact and only then approached us to talk.
"Hmm… You're back." - he said, nodding his head. - "I wanted to ask, did you really sign a personal contract with the Luo family from Shanghai?" - he asked, getting straight to the point, with a slightly stern tone.
"Yes, I've already obtained all the necessary materials and am ready to start fulfilling the order." - I declared confidently. - "Or does the master think the Luo family is not worthy of me creating a custom artifact for them?"
"Exactly, they are a petty family that is not worthy of such exclusive work." - the master nodded, piercing me with his eyes. - "If you weren't such a talent, I would have kicked you out immediately and never let you near my workshop again!"
"I apologize for not consulting you, but I believe that there should be no distinction in which family artifacts are made for. - I declared confidently. - "Money is money, and I need to start somewhere. I don't want to constantly hide behind your name when looking for clients; I want to create a name for myself. Besides, any order will suffice for honing my skills, right?"
"Hmm… Alright, that sounds logical." - the master agreed, nodding his head. - "Let it go, that's a minor problem. You can take orders from whoever you want, as long as you can fulfill them. And since you said you've already obtained everything necessary, that's no longer my problem. Now there are slightly more important problems."
"Did something happen while I was gone?" - I asked, as the master was about to turn and return to work.
"Yes, you could say that. In about three weeks, my family will participate in a major tournament, where there will be an auction and something like a fair. So all the masters of my family and personal students must prepare well so as not to disgrace the family's honor. Although you are a personal student, I didn't want to bother you with this."
"Why, master?" - I asked with slight dissatisfaction, and at the same time began to put two and two together. One family for body tempering lives in Nanjing, the master and Tan Yu use it for forging, and his family is participating in a major tournament around the same time that the old man asked me to participate in the tournament of the three families. This indicates that the Tan family is almost certainly the second family I know with body tempering techniques. It's just that asking directly about it would be very foolish, so let's leave this question for now. At least I can ask the old man when we meet.
"It's none of your business, my family's secrets." - the master cut off dryly. - "But if you want to participate and get up to twenty percent profit from the sales of your artifacts at the tournament, you can make them and show them to Tan Yu. If he decides they won't disgrace the Tan family, they will be exhibited at the tournament."
"Thank you, Master. Also, can I create artifacts for personal use?" - I clarified, just in case.
"Yes, no one has touched your workshop without you, they haven't even wiped the dust, good luck." - the master replied, waving his hand.
"Well, thank you. I'll find it myself." - I replied, also turning and leaving the main workshop.
"Jiaxing Yun, if you need any help, come to me." - Tan Yu said, following me out. - "Although I'm also busy preparing for the tournament, I can spare a couple of junior or main students to help you. I think if you want to participate in the tournament, you'll have a lot of work."
"Perhaps you're right." - I agreed, nodding and considering my future actions and work. - "If it's not too much trouble, could you spare me a couple of junior students?"
"Okay, maybe one more main student? They can't forge much, but they should be able to make other parts of the artifact." - Tan Yu suggested, with a worried look.
"No, I don't want to entrust too much work to other people yet." - I politely refused, still planning to complete all my artifacts myself. Other people can only spoil everything.
"I understand, I'll try to find those who agree to work with you, after all, you're not well-known, even rumors about you are not widely spread among the junior students." - Tan Yu agreed. - "They'll come to your workshop in an hour at the latest."
"Okay." - I waved my hand and headed to my own workshop, which was only for personal students.
Thanks to my photographic memory, I found it easily. A forge, a workbench, and a cabinet for various tools and materials. The dust hadn't been wiped, although it couldn't have accumulated so much in three weeks to be noticeable or bother me. I needed to make a lot of quite complex artifacts in just three weeks! I didn't even feel like starting work, especially seeing the abandoned workshop. However, pulling myself together, I started by choosing the materials; the furnace could be lit later.
First, I needed ice and earth steel for Luo Sun's armor, shield, and sword, as well as fire steel, for Zhou Ming's sword. I planned to make artifacts for my new assistants later; I had special plans for them. I also decided to make an artifact for the old man from the thorns of a spiky wolf, for which I also needed ordinary magical steel. When I finished laying out all the necessary ingots on the workbench and looked at them with a pleasant feeling, there was a knock at the door. At the threshold stood two young guys, in work aprons and gloves. One was familiar to me; he was the one who met me when I came to the workshop, an interesting coincidence. They looked at me with interest and peered into my workshop. The guy who met me was a rather modest fellow, while the second was slightly defiant and was a year, possibly, older than me; it would be fun to work with them.
"My name is Lu Feng, and this is Lu Xiao. We are junior students of Master Tan Tao, the first student Tan Yu sent us to you, saying that you are the second student." - the cocky guy began to speak with a slight contempt and disappointment in his voice. - "I thought the second student wouldn't be so young; do you even know the basics?"
"Ha, you're brave." - I grinned, not paying much attention to his words. In general, if you add up all the time I've lived, even in my past life I was older than him, and now I should be around thirty-two… Yeah, I'm an old man, which means I'm even older than Tan Yue…
"As I am, so what should we do?" - Lu Feng asked, pulling me out of a slight fit of thoughtful nostalgia.
"Do you know how to light a furnace?" - I asked, sizing them up with a scrutinizing gaze.
"Naturally." - Lu Feng replied defiantly, while Lu Xiao stood silently on the side.
"Well, then start lighting it; I'll use all four fires." - I said, returning to the workbench, taking two crucibles for melting.
"Are you going to melt two blanks at once?" - Lu Feng asked, approaching the furnace.
"No, the maximum possible for melting, all five." - I said, taking two more crucibles that didn't immediately fit in my hands. I made this decision because of the speed I needed. The furnace had five holes for melting and one with an open flame for forging. Melting five blanks at once is very difficult, but I don't have much time, so I'll have to push myself. I also planned to simultaneously make five artifacts; fortunately for everyone, the ones I had in mind had different melting and forging times, so I should be able to handle it.
"Are you completely stupid? Even the master and the first student rarely melt five blanks at once!" - Lu Feng objected, with clear insight and distrust, but continued to heat the furnace.
"You'll see what I'm capable of." - I grinned. - "The main thing is that you don't let me down at the critical moment." - I added, taking all the necessary materials from my spatial bracelet and laying them out with the metal in the crucibles: armor of the earth and ice armadillo, panda bones, scorpion chitin, and wolf thorns.