“Hi officer, what would you like to order?” The manager of the shop immediately greeted Zhou Weiqing upon seeing his army uniform. In Heavenly Bow Empire, although the profession of blacksmith was not considered low, but it was still far from a soldier. Here, the most respected profession besides Jewel Masters were the soldiers of the army. After all, the mere 50k strong army of the Heavenly Bow Empire had withstood countless invasions from surrounding countries, and thus they were greatly beloved by the citizens. Although Zhou Weiqing looked very young, but he still looked very smart in his army uniform.
Zhou Weiqing asked: “Are you the boss here?”
“Yes, I am. Our shop might not be very large, but we are a time-honored brand in Heavenly Bow City, and have a good reputation. Whatever you wish to order, I’ll give you a discount since you are defending our country!”
Zhou Weiqing grinned, and lifted his hand to pluck off the hat off his head, looked out the window carefully, before moving closer to the boss and whispering mysteriously: “Boss, I’m from the 3rd Archery Battalion of the 5th Regiment of the army. I’m actually here on a secret mission from my Battalion Commander to forge something. If you do this well, needless to say you will be well rewarded.”
The boss hesitated for a moment, looking over Zhou Weiqing in evaluation. Although this archer looked very young, but he had an honest face and did not look like a cheat.
Zhou Weiqing continued in a low voice: “Don’t you know our 3rd Battalion? As soon as I mention our Battalion Commander you should understand; it’s our Empire’s top beauty, Viscount Shangguan Bing’er herself. You can go ask around and check for yourself.”
Upon hearing the name Shangguan Bing’er, the boss’ eyes brightened immediately, “Officer, what does Viscount Shangguan Bing’er wish to forge?” To the commoners of the empire, Shangguan Bing’er was like a legend, after all she was also common-born, and was known as the Goddess of Commoners. This unsuspecting boss never expected that anyone would use her name to cheat someone, otherwise that person would be spurned with scorn by everyone. How would he know that the person in front of him was also a viscount. If Shangguan Bing’er actually found out that Zhou Weiqing was actually making use of her name, who knows if she might just castrate him!
Zhou Weiqing said: “I need a extremely durable, strong but light metal to forge something. And it needs to be in a rush, I need it by today. Money is not a problem, but I need it to be hastened immediately.” As such, he took out the gold coins he had and laid them on the table.
Although Zhou Weiqing was not able to cultivate from young, but his thinking was definitely much more cunning and wily than anyone of his age. The reason why he used Shangguan Bing’er’s name was because he could not afford to wait for the usual time that such a forging order would take.
The boss immediately nodded and said: “No problem, we happen to have a valuable titanium alloy which has to be refined by a Fire Jewel Master. Although the price is high, it suits your requirements perfectly. It costs around 10 gold coins per kg of the alloy, but since this is for Viscount Shangguan Bing’er, I’ll give it to you at cost price of 7 gold coins per kg. How’s that?” As soon as Zhou Weiqing took out his gold, the boss had believed his tale.
Upon hearing the words titanium alloy, Zhou Weiqing’s eyes brightened. He had heard of the metal before, as his father had a suit of armor forged with titanium alloy. It was extremely tough and durable, yet extremely light and easy to manoeuvre in, and was considered one of the best materials for forging equipment. As such, he was overjoyed and immediately replied, “Great, that’s it. I want to forge this.” As he said that, Zhou Weiqing handed over his hat to the boss.
The boss was confused momentarily, “Isn’t this the hat for archers?”
Zhou Weiqing nodded, saying: “Exactly, we are looking to forge it like the hat. Just imagine, on the battlefield, the danger that we archers face are usually from enemy arrows. If the hats were made out of titanium alloy, the arrows that the enemy rain down upon us will not be able to hurt us. Furthermore, I require that a handle made from thick canvas be created inside of of the hat. In that way, I can also hold it in my hand like a shield.”
Upon hearing Zhou Weiqing’s explanation, the boss was very impressed by the feasibility of the plan. However, titanium alloy was so rare and expensive, how could it be issued to all archers?
Actually, Zhou Weiqing had thought about such an idea a long time ago. In the past when he was bored at home, he used to spend some time coming up with weird crazy ideas. Earlier, when he had been applying the join the army and the squad leader in charge had told him that archers were the safest unit, he knew that it had been bullshit. As the son of Admiral Zhou, how could he not know about the dangers of the archer units, especially those of Heavenly Bow Empire, which had one of the highest turnover rates. Due to the fact that the damage dealing capability of the archers were so high, they were also often focused heavily upon by enemies. Exchanging fire between archer units were also highly common. The only reason Zhou Weiqing still chose to join the archer unit was because he already had a few ideas on how to increase his safety, and it was also true that they would not engage much in melee combat.
He already had such an idea to turn the archer’s hats into a shield at the age of eleven. To use it in the battlefield would be extremely easy, when they were under fire from the enemy, he would just need to crouch down, and huddle in a little with his head down, and the enemy arrows would likely all be blocked by the hat. Of course, such an idea would not be easy for commoners to think of, only someone like Zhou Weiqing who was inborn with such a fear of death, and had such a sly, cunning way of thinking, would be able to come up with such an idea. At that time, he had wanted to tell his father about the idea, but every time he looked at the stern face of his father he just could not speak up. Who knows if his father would approve or reject his idea, after all trying to outfit titanium alloy hats to the whole army of archers would be impossible.
“Respect! This must be Lord Viscount’s idea. How creative! Alright, we will take up this job, I’ll get everyone on it and rush it out by tonight. I’ll also only charge you the cost of the materials and not the service charge, so it should come up to around 6 gold coins per kg of titanium alloy.
This was the great part about tricking someone, not needing to ask for a discount, and the boss had automatically given one. Zhou Weiqing was rather proud of himself. As for the boss thinking such a sly idea came from Shangguan Bing’er, he didn’t care. After all, safety first was his motto.
“Boss, do you have any completed products made out of titanium alloy? Preferably for defence.” Zhou Weiqing had never heard of being able to get titanium alloy at the price of 6 gold coins per kg, as far as he knew the usual price was 10-12 gold coins per kg. Since he would be going onto the battlefield in the future, he wanted to prepare as much as possible.
“You’ve asked the right person, I have a set of internal armor made out of titanium alloy, and stitched together with the sinew of the heavenly beast Magic Tenacious Snake. It’s light but extremely durable, definitely more than enough for archers.” As he said that, the boss walked to the back of the counter and took out a silver shining internal armor.
Zhou Weiqing grabbed it in his hands and shook it open. It was a half-body armor, able to cover the entire top half of the body up to the hands. It was so extremely light, less than 2kg in weight, that was the benefit of the titanium alloy.
Zhou Weiqing was euphoric to see such an item, “Great, this is great, I want this. I estimate that this should be slightly more than one kg, but boss don’t worry, I won’t let you suffer a disadvantageous loss, I’ll count this as 2 kg. Here’s another 12 gold coins.” As he said that, Zhou Weiqing grabbed 12 coins and laid them down on the table at lightning speed.
The boss stared aghast at Zhou Weiqing, “Officer Sir, this… this… You can’t count it like this! It took 2 experienced blacksmiths more than half a year to complete this, not to mention the cost of the sinew of the Magic Tenacious Snake.” He had priced this internal armor at 60 gold coins, which was nearly 20 years of an ordinary soldier’s salary.
Zhou Weiqing widened his eyes in surprise, saying with an honest expression on his face: “Boss, didn’t you say it was 6 gold coins per kg earlier? You also said you won’t be charging me for the service. I’m buying this as a gift to our Battalion Commander, you wouldn’t be so stingy right? You should have sincerity when running a business ah! How about this, if you really need to increase the price I can’t argue, but I don’t have enough money at this time, after I gift this to our Battalion Commander, I’ll get her to reimburse you the remaining amount, is that okay? After all, our Battalion Commander is a pillar of our state ah! For her safety, I’m giving up the pay that I have saved for a few years, I really have nothing left already.” As he continued his story, this despicable rascal gave a look of pity and and with tangled emotions.
“This… this…” Upon hearing that this was a gift for Shangguan Bing’er, the boss had a bizarre expression on his face. Meeting up with Zhou Weiqing really made him feel like weeping but he had no tears, and he finally gave up with a sigh, “Alright alright. Since it’s for Lord Viscount, then I have nothing to say. But officer sir, do remember to look for me next time when you have any other bulk orders!”
Zhou Weiqing was laughing in his heart, and didn’t dare to stay any longer, “Thanks so much! I’ll come back later tonight for the hat. Oh yes, please add layers of cloth around the hat so that it looks just like a normal hat, if possible make the brim of the hat larger so that there will be more protection.” After saying that, Zhou Weiqing grabbed the internal armor and left, feeling so pleased with himself.
After leaving the blacksmith, Zhou Weiqing turned around a corner into a quiet alleyway. He then took off his outer uniform, and wore the body-fitting internal armor. Although it was still a little large for him, but the elasticity of the sinew was very good, so he could tighten it a little, and after putting back his uniform, the internal armor was unnoticable.
“Such a great item ah! Sigh, unfortunately titanium alloy is unable to conduct Heavenly Energy, and is also unable to be enchanted with any further attributes, otherwise in addition to its unique qualities, its price would be sky high. Zhou Weiqing sighed with feeling. Titanium alloy had a lot of great points, but it was not perfect and had its own flaws as mentioned. Those flaws alone made it so that it was not a prime weapon for Jewel Masters, thus lowering the price.
After settling his things, Zhou decided to head towards the Stars Forest to retrieve a treasure he had hidden there. That was the most valuable thing he had in the thirteen years he had lived.
……..
Just as Zhou Weiqing was joining the army to become a cunning archer, in the Palace of Heavenly Bow Empire, another nervous atmosphere was prevalent.
“Father Emperor, please don’t be angry. It’s all my fault.” Princess Difuya was kneeling down in chagrin, sobbing.
In front of her, a middle aged man of around forty dressed in a gold robe was pacing back and forth, a golden crown on his head, his complexion as clear as jade, the aura of a man used to be in power was tangible in the air, causing the servants around to barely be able to breathe. At this moment, his brow was furrowed and his eyes were full of anger. On hearing Princess Difuya’s words, he stopped suddenly and shouted in anger: “Let me tell you! If Weiqing is alright then that’s fine, but if he really died from your actions, you will have to accompany him in death!”
When Difuya had returned to the palace earlier, she became more and more afraid as she thought about what happened. After a while, her reason finally overcame her fear, and she told her father, Emperor Di Feng Ling, what had happened. At first, she kept swallowing her words haltingly, but as soon as Di Feng Ling heard that it was regarding Zhou Weiqing, he immediately called the guard Niya over for questioning, until he finally got all the details straight. As soon as he knew the truth of the matter, he flew into a rage, and immediately sent the 4 Life Elemental Jewel Masters to go with Niya to find Zhou Weiqing and heal him.
Difuya stared in shock at her father. She had not expected Zhou Weiqing to have such importance in her father’s heart.
“Father Emperor, he is just an official of yours, but I’m your only daughter!” Di Feng Ling had one son and one daughter, the daughter of course was the 16 year old Difuya, and she also had a younger brother. Di Feng Ling was a great and illustrious leader, and after having a son and ensuring his health, he decided not to have any more children. The reason was simple, he did not want his children to end up fighting over his throne in the future, so he would just groom his only son with all his effort instead.
Di Feng Ling said in anger: “You still know you’re my only daughter? In the past, at our borders with the Kelise Empire, if not for Big Bro Zhou risking his life to save me, using his body to shield me from the enemy arrows, you would not be alive right now! At that time, Big Bro Zhou was hit by 26 arrows, and it took the combined might of our 4 Life Elemental Jewel Masters a whole month to be able to rescue his life. For the past 20 years, Big Bro Zhou has risked his life countless of times, shedding blood and tears in his deeds of valour over countless battles. Without him, there would be no Heavenly Bow Empire, and would you be a Princess then? As a member of the royal family, you aren’t putting any effort into improve our empire, instead always daydreaming about a prince charming riding into your life. Let alone today Zhou Weiqing probably saw you by accident or coincidence, even if he peeped on you on purpose, so what? You are his fiancee, to put it in blunt ugly terms, even if he …. you, it’s also nothing. But you… you actually attacked him, and with your Elemental Jewel skill. I can tell you that I’m not joking, if Weiqing really dies, you will have to accompany him in death, else I can’t answer to Big Bro Zhou.
Difuya was really afraid now, especially since Di Feng Ling had twice said that she would be buried together with Zhou Weiqing, she knew that her father had made up his mind no matter how much she didn’t want to believe it.
“Your Majesty.” At this moment, 5 people entered the room, bowing to Di Feng Ling. It was the 4 Life Elemental Jewel Masters he had sent out.
“How is it? How is Weiqing?” Di Feng Ling asked worriedly.
The leader of the Life Elemental Jewel Masters said respectfully: “Do not worry your Majesty, we did not manage to find Viscount Zhou, but upon careful examination of the area, we found his footsteps leading away. We can conclude that Viscount Zhou managed to leave safely.”
Di Feng Ling’s brow furrowed, “How is that possible? Weiqing is an ordinary person without Heavenly Energy, enduring a blow from a Fire Elemental Jewel, I’m afraid…”
The Jewel Master said: “Viscount Zhou is Admiral Zhou’s son after all. Perhaps, the admiral gave him some defensive items that could save his life.”
Di Feng Ling’s expression finally eased up, and he turned to Difuya and said: “Get up, follow me to the Admiral’s mansion to apologise to Weiqing.”
At this point, how could Difuya dare say anything in contrary? Although she was scolding Zhou Weiqing in her heart, but she still got up and followed her father, feeling like she was being wronged.
……..
Of course, Zhou Weiqing did not know what sort of trouble he had brought to the capital city. The next dawn, he had an enjoyable breakfast in his inn before shouldering his longbow and heading towards the army camp.
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