Lan Tianxiong continued to smoke his pipe, one after another. "We can't just sit here and wait to die, but where can we find a master craftsman? If only Li Shan could step up, but... Li Shan is still a bit short of the mark when it comes to forging top-tier mortal weapons, sigh."
Seeing her father at a loss, Lan Xueyi thought for a moment and said, "Father, I've been conceptualizing a weapon set. If it succeeds, it will be no less than a top-tier mortal weapon!"
Lan Tianxiong was overjoyed. "Really! My good daughter, if you succeed, you will save our Lan family from dire straits!"
"Alas, these years... I've wronged you too much!"
Lan Tianxiong affectionately rubbed Lan Xueyi's head.
By marrying his daughter to Ling Fan, he felt he owed nothing to the Ling family, but he owed his daughter far too much.
Especially since Ling Fan was so disappointing.
He felt very guilty about this, and sometimes he doubted if he had made the wrong decision, if he shouldn't have forced them together.
Lan Xueyi said, "Father, we don't need to be so formal between us. It's just that my idea isn't mature enough yet. I've given the blueprints to Supervisor Li to refine. I'll go to the armory now to take a look."
"Have your brother go with you. I heard Xiao Fan went to the armory again three days ago. Have Junjie drag him out and force him to train at the family martial hall! Hiding and sleeping all day, what kind of conduct is that."
Lan Xueyi nodded. "Coincidentally, I have a good friend with profound family knowledge. I'll invite her to our academy to give a lecture."
"That's excellent. If it can enlighten Xiao Fan and guide him to open his meridians and become a martial artist, that would be even better!"
...
Meanwhile, in the armory.
"Finally, all twelve gold-element meridians have been opened."
A wisp of true qi emerged from Ling Fan's fingertips.
Solid and powerful, its color was like blue gold, carrying an aura of sharpness and might.
After messing around with all the rare metal raw materials on the shelves, Ling Fan had finally succeeded.
The first stage of the Five Elements Meridian Opening Art was completed, marking a good start.
As he came out, Ling Fan found Li Shan still engrossed in his work.
He didn't know how many days he had been awake. His hair was as messy as a bird's nest, his eye sockets were sunken, and his dark circles were like a panda's, only his eyes still held a stubborn gleam.
The workbench was covered with failed scraps of material.
"What are you busy with?"
Ling Fan couldn't help but ask curiously.
Li Shan thought Ling Fan had finally slept enough and was about to leave, so he turned to greet him.
He pointed to a stack of complex blueprints beside him and said, "Miss designed a set of equipment. If successful, it can forge a top-tier mortal weapon. She already has a general idea and asked me to help refine it. It's shameful, but I've been working on it for nearly a month with no substantial progress."
Lan Xueyi could also forge weapons?
Ling Fan was somewhat surprised.
Soon, he recalled these matters.
Lan Xueyi was naturally intelligent and quick-witted. Not only was her cultivation talent strong, she was already a Qi Refining realm expert at a young age, and she also possessed extraordinary talent in weapon forging, being both skilled and ingenious.
According to Li Shan, Lan Xueyi even had the potential to become the first Yellow-tier weapon forger in Jiangnan City!
Yellow-tier weapons were truly in the realm of spiritual artifacts, their power incomparable to weapons forged by ordinary weapon smiths like Li Shan.
The weapons they forged could only be considered common mortal weapons.
Only by reaching the Yellow-tier would they be true spiritual weapons, possessing all sorts of incredible powers!
Just like cultivation techniques and martial skills.
Spiritual artifacts were also divided into four tiers: Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Yellow, with each tier further divided into low, mid, and high grades.
Top-tier mortal weapons would condense a silver weapon pattern above them.
Spiritual weapons, however, condensed golden patterns.
1 to 30 golden patterns constituted Yellow-tier spiritual weapons.
31 to 60 golden patterns were Profound-tier.
And so on, 61 to 90 golden patterns were Earth-tier weapons.
91 to 120 were Heaven-tier.
Ling Fan became interested in the weapon set personally designed by Lan Xueyi.
Casually flipping through it, Ling Fan grasped the general idea.
With his eyesight and forging mastery as the Azure Cloud Emperor in his previous life, this was child's play.
Lan Xueyi attempted to forge a combined weapon set consisting of full body armor and a long sword, intended to be a top-tier mortal weapon.
It was designed to be both offensive and defensive, and the entire set would share a single silver pattern. This would consume less true qi and greatly improve the efficiency of true qi circulation.
The difficulty lay here. Each part of the armor and the sword were forged separately. Condensing weapon patterns was already difficult, let alone controlling errors and ensuring smooth connections for separately condensed weapon patterns, which required extremely high demands on the craftsman.
It was not difficult for Ling Fan, but it was as difficult as reaching heaven for these ordinary mortal craftsmen.
It was normal for Li Shan to be stuck at this point.
Overall, Lan Xueyi's idea was quite creative and her conception was ingenious.
Ling Fan had a good impression of Li Shan, as he had always shown respect to him, the "useless son-in-law."
The Azure Cloud Emperor always reciprocated respect; therefore, he decided to offer Li Shan some guidance.
"You're stuck, aren't you? Not sure how to solve the problem of sharing a single silver pattern?"
Ling Fan hit the nail on the head, causing Li Shan to tremble slightly.
"Could it be that son-in-law knows the solution? Please, son-in-law, teach me!"
Li Shan blurted out instinctively.
But then he laughed at himself. He had become obsessed with forging this set, becoming too sensitive. Ling Fan knew nothing about weapon forging, how could he have a solution?
Ling Fan knew Li Shan didn't believe him and suddenly said a name: "Cloud Tear锡金 (Xijin)."
Li Shan had never heard of such a material and asked in surprise, "Where did son-in-law hear of this material, and what is its connection to forging this set?"
Ling Fan explained, "Cloud Tear锡金 has extremely strong penetration and bonding properties, and it has the characteristic of imprinting weapon patterns. First, you condense the weapon patterns for each part separately, leaving the interfaces untreated. Then, condense similar weapon patterns on a piece of Cloud Tear锡金, imprint several copies, and finally use these Cloud Tear锡金 pieces to finish the interfaces."
Li Shan's first reaction was disbelief, thinking Ling Fan was talking nonsense.
However, after careful consideration, his expression changed slightly.
How did Ling Fan, an outsider, know about a material that even he, a master craftsman, had never heard of? Moreover, what Ling Fan said seemed to align with forging principles and didn't sound like baseless speculation!
Could it be true!
"Please wait a moment, son-in-law. I'll go check this material called Cloud Tear锡金 right away."
Li Shan hurried away.
In front of the bookshelf, when Li Shan truly found the name Cloud Tear锡金 among the countless materials recorded in the forging diagrams, and its properties matched Ling Fan's description exactly, Li Shan's hands trembled.
With a thud.
The thick ancient book fell heavily to the ground.
An expression of immense shock appeared on his face.
"A material that even I don't know, son-in-law not only knows it, but knows it like the back of his hand! The forging understanding conveyed in his short sentence far surpasses mine!"
The more Li Shan thought about it, the more shocked he became.
"Everyone thinks son-in-law is an ignorant and useless live-in son-in-law. Could it be that son-in-law is actually a forging genius, a forging master..."
Once this thought emerged, it could no longer be erased.
Li Shan was almost certain that everyone had misunderstood the son-in-law.
A single casual remark could solve a problem that had troubled Lan Xueyi and him, two senior craftsmen. What else could this be if not a forging master!
"Son-in-law must be biding his time. When the Ling family was destroyed, son-in-law had to disguise himself as a useless person to protect himself, to lower the enemy's guard. Yes, it must be like this!"
Li Shan even imagined a lot.
If Ling Fan knew, he would be amazed by Li Shan's imagination.
Seeing Li Shan's expression when he came out, Ling Fan knew he had believed him.
The latter bowed respectfully to Ling Fan, then, without hesitation, knelt before him.
"Li Shan thanks son-in-law for your guidance. Son-in-law's forging skills fill Li Shan with admiration. If son-in-law does not mind, Li Shan dares to ask son-in-law to take Li Shan as a disciple and guide Li Shan in the way of forging!"
Ling Fan smiled slightly. It seemed Li Shan was quite intelligent and had guessed quite a lot.
However, to become a disciple of the Azure Cloud Emperor just like this was too easy.
"Get up. With your aptitude, you are still ten thousand miles away from being my registered disciple. However, as long as I am still in the Lan residence, you can come to me with your forging problems."
Li Shan gave a bitter smile. "I know my talent is limited. Thank you, son-in-law, for not disliking me!"
The chief forging craftsman of the Lan family actually knelt to the Lan family's useless son-in-law to beg for discipleship, and Ling Fan even rejected him with a proud expression. If the events of today were to spread, everyone would be greatly astonished.
"Do not speak of today's events to anyone outside."
Ling Fan said after some thought.
"Understood! Li Shan will absolutely not disrupt son-in-law's plan of biding his time."
Ling Fan was somewhat taken aback. When had he been biding his time?
He simply didn't want to cause unnecessary trouble.
Just then, a group of craftsmen arrived at the armory with the siblings Lan Xueyi and Lan Junjie.