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墨書 Inktalez
From then on, Liu Guanfeng and the Five Boys became good friends with Little Black, the legendary beast. The Five Boys continued to practice their martial arts techniques every morning and mining skills in the afternoon. This routine lasted for nearly two weeks, and by the second week, Liu Guanfeng and the Five had already ensured they completed three mining tasks every day. During this time, the amount of iron ore at the deep pool gradually increased.
Time passed quickly, and before they knew it, Liu Guanfeng, Bao Rui, and the other six had been at the Four Sacred Islands for two weeks. During this period, Liu Guanfeng and Bai Hu learned five forms of the Heavenly Gang Spear Technique and one form of the Earthly Destruction Hammer Technique. The others also made significant progress, each immersed in the wonders of martial arts.
The only one who did not learn martial arts, Dai, also made great strides. According to Dai himself, he could now hide so well that ordinary Yinming Ghost Leopards could not find him unless three guard-level Ghost Leopards were dispatched to capture him. Bai Hu was very pleased with Dai's performance and remarked that Dai was naturally suited to be an assassin.
One afternoon, after two weeks had passed, the Five were preparing to go back to mining after their break. They had gradually gotten used to the mining work over these two weeks. To Liu Guanfeng's surprise, the physical strength gained from mining training was increasing much faster than doing push-ups or pull-ups.
When the Five arrived at the deep pool and saw Xuanwu, they cupped their fists and said, "Master, we are going to mine."
Xuanwu opened his eyes at that moment and said, "You don't need to mine today. Starting from today, you can learn blacksmithing. These ores should be enough for you all for a while."
Liu Guanfeng and the others seemed unable to believe their ears; no one expected happiness would come so quickly. However, when they learned about blacksmithing, their excitement faded.
Liu Guanfeng and the others stood in front of Xuanwu with smiles, ready to hear their master's next instructions: "Listen carefully. Do you see the iron rack beside you? There are five large hammers in total. The three largest are for Xiaofeng, Copper Bull, and Iron Bull. The slightly smaller one is for Bao Rui, and the smallest is for Dai. Go ahead and get your hammers."
Liu Guanfeng and the Five cheerfully approached the iron rack and reached for their hammers. However, when they held them in their hands, their expressions changed. Liu Guanfeng thought to himself, "Am I really supposed to use this hammer for blacksmithing? Did Master prepare the wrong hammer for me? Why is it so heavy?"
Seeing that the children were standing still with their hammers instead of coming forward, Xuanwu asked, "Why aren’t you coming over after picking up your hammers?"
Liu Guanfeng looked at his master with a bitter face: "Xuanwu Master, why is this hammer so heavy? We can barely lift it."
Xuanwu smiled slightly: "What's wrong? You can't get used to such a light hammer? How can you learn blacksmithing if you can't handle it? Let me show you my hammer."
Xuanwu raised a claw in the sky, and a massive hammer appeared before several people. With a slight withdrawal of power, the hammer fell to the ground, creating a large pit, with even the hammerhead disappearing from sight.
Looking at the hammer in front of them, Liu Guanfeng and the others swallowed hard: Is this a hammer meant for humans? I doubt anyone besides Xuanwu Master, this freak, could lift it. Liu Guanfeng thought as he gazed at the hammer.
“Xuanwu Master, may I ask how much this hammer weighs?” Liu Guanfeng asked quietly.
Xuanwu habitually tapped his head: “It doesn’t seem too heavy, probably over five hundred pounds.”
“Clang~ clang,” the hammers in Liu Guanfeng and the others' hands unknowingly fell to the ground. Moreover, Iron Bull's hammer landed on his foot; fortunately, a few days ago Xuanwu had dispersed the effects of the Iron Skin Soup they had absorbed, or else Iron Bull's foot bones would have been broken.
“Five… over five hundred pounds? Xuanwu Master, how do you use it? Can you show us so we can learn?” Iron Bull weakly asked.
“It’s not difficult; just watch closely.” Saying this, Xuanwu pulled the hammer out of the pit with one hand and swung it around before accurately striking it against the anvil. A spark flew with a loud clang.
Xuanwu smiled at the five children across from him: “So, did you see that?”
“Y-yes… we saw it. Xuanwu Master is indeed a master; it’s truly impressive,” Iron Bull stammered in awe.
“Now that you’ve seen it, why aren’t you picking up your hammers? Are you waiting until mealtime?”
Liu Guanfeng and the others struggled to pick up their hammers. Liu Guanfeng looked at the large hammer in front of him: “Xuanwu Master, can you tell me how much this big hammer weighs?”
“Oh, that’s simple. The three of you have hammers that weigh only one hundred twenty pounds; Bao Rui’s is even lighter at one hundred pounds, and the lightest is Dai’s small hammer, which barely weighs eighty pounds.”
“One hundred twenty pounds? Xuanwu Master, we can’t even lift such a heavy hammer!” Liu Guanfeng shook his head as he looked at his one hundred twenty-pound hammer.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it slowly."
Xuanwu seemed to be having fun with the children: "First, listen carefully. Do you see the furnace in front of you? Your task is to put the iron ore you dig out into the furnace, but before you do that, you need to use the big hammer in your hands to break the ore into pieces. This way, the ore can heat up better to produce high-quality Pig Iron ingots. Also, the fire in this furnace must be hot enough. You Five People will take turns operating the Bellows; each person will operate it for one hour and smash ore for four hours. Let's get started. Dai, you go first and work the Bellows."
After speaking, Xuanwu pointed to a nearby Bellows. Dai rolled up her sleeves, ready to work hard, while Liu Guanfeng and the others cried as they placed large chunks of ore in front of them, smashing them piece by piece.
At first, Liu Guanfeng and the others didn't use much strength. Iron Bull swung his Hammer back with all his might, only to find himself stumbling backward with a thud until he crashed into a tree behind him.
Among the four, Bao Rui had the least strength. He raised his big hammer high, but when he tried to bring it down, he lost his balance and stumbled toward Copper Bull. Seeing Bao Rui charging at him with the hammer raised, Copper Bull quickly stepped back. However, at that moment, Bao Rui's hand slipped, and the Hammer came crashing down toward Copper Bull. Copper Bull reacted quickly and jumped back, but his foot landed on a Stone and he fell directly onto the ground instead.
Sitting on the ground with his legs spread apart, Copper Bull found himself in a precarious position as the Hammer landed right between his legs. The distance from the Hammer to Copper Bull's groin was only a hand's breadth away. Cold sweat broke out on Copper Bull's forehead as he stared wide-eyed at Bao Rui.
"Little Bun, I haven't even gotten married or had kids yet! If you ruin me like this, how will my father hold his grandchild?"
Bao Rui walked over, tugged at the back of the Hammer while grinning at Copper Bull: "Brother Copper Bull, it was just an accident; I didn't mean it. Luckily it didn't hit you. If it had really hit you, wouldn't Iron Bull be there?"
Copper Bull: "..."
Iron Bull had just gotten up from behind; he hadn't seen the earlier scare but heard Bao Rui's last words about Iron Bull being there. Excitedly, he rushed over to his brother.
"Brother, what good thing do I get to do?"
Copper Bull glanced at Iron Bull: "You can also face Master Xuanwu's cane."
That one sentence made Iron Bull shrink back his neck and hurriedly grabbed his Hammer to smash some ore.
Among the four, only Liu Guanfeng performed relatively steadily. His grip on the hammer was closer to the head, which allowed for better accuracy when striking, unlike Bao Rui, who tended to hinder others.
Moreover, Liu Guanfeng slowly picked up the Hammer and raised it a little at a time. However, he did not lift the Hammer above his head; instead, he first struck the ore and then gradually raised the Hammer higher using inertia. As he adapted, Liu Guanfeng's grip also moved slightly backward.
Seeing Liu Guanfeng's performance, Xuanwu nodded in satisfaction but offered no praise. Instead, it was Dai, who was operating the Bellows nearby, that received Xuanwu's focused attention. Xuanwu stood next to Dai, and whenever the fire diminished even slightly, Dai would receive a reminder with a vine whip. Xuanwu would also say, "Why is the fire so low? Quickly add coal and work the Bellows."
Soon, under Liu Guanfeng's continuous strikes, the first large chunk of ore was shattered into pieces. Liu Guanfeng then took a second piece, which was much stronger than the first, and smashed it into fragments with just a few blows. Afterward, he selected some larger pieces from the crushed ore for a second round of smashing. Only when there were no larger pieces left did Liu Guanfeng place the crushed ore into the furnace.
Before long, molten iron began to flow from a small opening in the furnace into various molds. Blocks of Pig Iron ingots appeared before them. Upon seeing their results, the other youths became energized and began striking their own pieces of ore as Pig Iron ingots continued to emerge from the furnace.
An hour later, Dai, exhausted and with numb arms, was replaced by Bao Rui. Bao Rui secretly rejoiced at what he thought would be a good break; however, as soon as he started working the Bellows, his spirits sank. He finally understood why Dai had been smiling when he was replaced.
The resistance of operating the Bellows was immense—much greater than that in an ordinary Blacksmith Shop—and Xuanwu's requirement was to keep pulling for an entire hour without interruption. This was not something just anyone could endure.
Seeing the children's performance, Xuanwu was quite pleased and said to Liu Guanfeng and the others: "You have three days to turn all the ore into Pig Iron ingots. If you fail to complete this task, you will have to mine for another two weeks."
Upon hearing Xuanwu's demand, Liu Guanfeng and his companions realized that slacking off was not an option; they certainly did not want to go back to mining again—a life that was both tedious and painful.
Thus, sounds of "bang~ bang~ bang," and "clatter" echoed around the deep pool.
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