Chapter 52: Six-Star Dou Fighter! Brand-New Gear!
Over half a year later, in Jiang Lin's Peach Blossom Valley—now more aptly named Forging Valley—two figures, one tall and one short, each carried a large backpack filled with minerals they had mined from the Magical Beast Mountains and hauled back themselves. For certain rare metals, they refined them personally, cutting out the middleman and maximizing value.
"Pei Xuan, get to work." Once they returned to the valley, Jiang Lin tossed all his mined materials to the nearby Xuan Armor Puppet. Pei Xuan was the new name he had given the puppet. Calling it "Peso, Peso" all the time felt too disrespectful to his big bro. Not calling it Peppa was already the last shred of respect Jiang Lin had for him.
The Xuan Armor Puppet, now towering over two meters, dressed in black robes and black armor, face covered with iron plating, and arms as thick as Jiang Lin's thighs, silently took the bundle from Jiang Lin and trudged toward the smelting area with hundreds of pounds of ore.
Pei Xuan possessed a basic level of intelligence, capable of performing repetitive tasks. Jiang Lin happened to need exactly this kind of perfect labor beast. As someone who had been a labor beast in his previous life, it amused him to see the tables turned. Tsk tsk.
"Almost a year now, and I've only reached six-star Dou Fighter. I feel like trash." The freshly thirteen-year-old Jiang Lin slumped in defeat, then shook it off and began checking his gear.
The outside world probably thought he was dead by now. Without a solid set of gear to protect him, a lowly Dou Fighter like him wouldn't last long out there. Others might have a grandpa tagging along, but Jiang Lin didn't. Back when he enjoyed traveling, wasn't it because of the security provided by the Black Knight Battle Armor and the Flameburst Armor-Cleaving Sword?
Jiang Lin had hidden away for a year, training Dou Techniques, studying blueprints, crafting puppets, collecting minerals, forging weapons, and forging armor.
Thanks to his prior experience forging armor, his later crafting efficiency had significantly improved.
With replenished materials, Jiang Lin managed to forge two sets of high-grade second-tier battle armor: his own Black Cavalry Battle Armor and Pei Xuan's Black Xuan Battle Armor.
Both were full-body heavy armor suits. With knowledge gained from the Vajra Inner Armor, Jiang Lin's armor-crafting skills had increased substantially. These two suits, both high second-tier, could stand firm even against seven- or eight-star Dou Practitioners.
As for weapons, Jiang Lin poured everything he had into forging two third-tier Dou Artifacts: his own Black Feather Bow and Pei Xuan's Armor-Cleaving Greatsword.
Jiang Lin's Black Feather Bow was a tall recurve bow, almost as tall as a person. Unlike traditional bows, after mastering the core mechanics of the Qing Feather Bow, Jiang Lin added a pulley system without altering the original energy circuit. This allowed for faster arrow release, quieter operation, less fatigue over long use, and—most importantly—it looked cooler.
Pei Xuan's Armor-Cleaving Greatsword was based on the previous generation Flameburst Sword, but with optimized energy logic to suit Pei Xuan's one-star Dou Fighter energy level.
Pei Xuan's corpse had originally been a three-star Dou Fighter. Enhanced by various alchemical materials, he retained the strength of a one-star Dou Fighter. Peso had been around 1.8 meters tall and burly, but Pei Xuan, once armored, stood over two meters. He looked like a moving fortress—a walking iron mountain! Though he couldn't use Dou Techniques, with the support of the Black Xuan Armor and Greatsword, and his sturdy puppet body, he could still go toe-to-toe with Dou Grandmasters below the four- or five-star level.
Now capable of reliably crafting third-tier Dou Artifacts, Jiang Lin had essentially absorbed all of Peso's blacksmithing experience and fulfilled his final wish—becoming an unofficial third-tier blacksmith.
Other weapons in Jiang Lin's arsenal included some second-tier Black Feather Arrows, a few third-tier versions, a second-tier Black Straight Blade, and a reforged Xuanming Shield.
He also had completely drained all of his savings—down to the last drop.
"Xiao Yi Xian is about to break through to Dou Practitioner… The Fierce Tiger Mercenary Group seems about to leave… and everyone in Qingshan Town probably thinks I'm dead. Hmm… no more materials. Time to head down the mountain for a look." In the Forging Valley, Jiang Lin packed his Black Cavalry Armor and Black Feather Bow into his storage ring. The one-cubic-meter space barely fit all his gear, so he left behind the miscellaneous junk.
He changed into clean black-and-gray martial robes, strapped lightweight bracers to his wrists, knee guards to his legs, and wore a pair of Gale Boots. Beneath it all, he wore a restored Vajra Inner Armor—even though it had belonged to his big bro and still seemed to carry his soul imprint, it granted a protective blessing from the dead, boosting defense!
As for his slightly long hair, Jiang Lin tied a small section behind him and left the rest as it was. Standing beside the pool, he glanced at his reflection—black hair, dark starry eyes, bronze skin, handsome and proud eyebrows, sharp gaze, upright and sturdy posture. The breeze played with his hair and sleeves, giving the black-robed youth an aura that was otherworldly and elegant.
Suddenly, with his black hair fluttering in the wind and an androgynous beauty, the youth furrowed his sword-like brows and glared fiercely toward the side—at Pei Xuan, who had been staring blankly, unable to access the pool due to Jiang Lin's presence.
"Get back to work! No slacking off!"
Jiang Lin barked as he casually moved aside. Pei Xuan immediately stepped forward silently and began soaking some stones in the pool.
"Too bad I only had one piece of soul-infusing paper. Otherwise, I could've had an army of black slaves in this valley. I'd be laughing in my sleep! I could even build a production line, throw it in a high-level storage ring, just toss in raw materials and have them hand over pre-purified materials! I'd only need to handle the final crafting! Damn! Genius idea!!"
Too bad… where could he find such a massive storage ring?
"Watch the place well! If a stranger shows up, kill them on sight!" Jiang Lin left Pei Xuan with the glorious mission of guarding the home front, then silently slipped away toward Qingshan Town.
Back in the valley, Pei Xuan—towering in his Black Xuan Armor—stood silently beside the pool after Jiang Lin's departure. He stared at his reflection, then stiffly raised his hand to touch the soul-infused forehead beneath his helmet, lost in thought. After a long pause, he lowered his hand and continued silently carrying out the repetitive tasks assigned to him.
Elsewhere, in the Myriad Medicines Pavilion, Xiao Yi Xian happily introduced her "resurrected" friend Jiang Lin to her new companion.
"Jiang Lin, look! Her name is Xiao Lan!"
Xiao Lan cast Jiang Lin a disdainful look. "Coo coo?"
Jiang Lin jabbed a finger at her beak and cursed loudly:
"You traitorous coo coo! You backstabbing homewrecker!!"
(END CHAPTER)
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.
Read 30 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Franklin1