Chapter 107

Just as Lu Ren and Qin Ze, Yue Gui, and the others were about to go downstairs, a familiar light laugh reached his ears.

He looked over and saw Lin Wei smiling brightly by the window not far away, with the dashing Xiao Chen sitting opposite her.

The two sat facing each other, and Xiao Chen was saying some complimentary things, making Lin Wei laugh.

Lu Ren shook his head inwardly and left quickly.

Lin Cheng had asked him to take care of Lin Wei as much as he could, but this kind of thing was clearly not within the scope of his care. Moreover, Xiao Chen might not be a bad match. If he said too much, Lin Wei might misunderstand that he had feelings for her.

In the past, at the Weiyuan Hall, countless people had fallen for Lin Wei and approached her openly or secretly, but Lin Wei had remained unmoved. He had thought Lin Wei's heart was set on martial arts, which was why she didn't talk about romance.

It turned out that Lin Wei just hadn't taken a liking to the fellow disciples at the Weiyuan Hall.

"If there is any urgent news, don't wait for the gathering time; you can contact everyone."

As they parted, Qin Ze instructed.

In the restaurant, the five had already decided that from now on, they would meet here once a month on this day to share intelligence or exchange martial arts insights.

The five separated. Lu Ren walked for a while and suddenly saw an acquaintance.

Jiang Fan was following a woman like a lapdog, "Aya, let me treat you to a meal."

He looked ingratiating, his voice gentle, as if he were afraid that if he spoke too loudly, he would startle the woman named Aya.

Aya was clearly impatient, a flash of disgust appearing on her face, "I've already eaten."

Jiang Fan added, "You haven't claimed a mission yet, right? What do you want to do? I'll accompany you."

Aya couldn't take it anymore, stopped, and said, "Can you stop pestering me? If you don't do missions, you'll be cleared out by the sect sooner or later."

Lu Ren never expected that the enthusiastic and cheerful Jiang Fan would be a "lick-dog."

Just at this moment, a few people walked over from another direction. One of them was Lu Ren, and the other was an acquaintance, Gu Haoming.

Together with them was a woman. Lu Ren remembered that this woman seemed to be called Yang Wanqiu, also from Qingyuan.

Aya also saw Lu Ren and the others, and her eyes lit up immediately, "I see my friends. Don't follow me."

Saying this, she left Jiang Fan behind and walked toward Lu Ren and the others.

She clearly knew Lu Ren and the others. Soon, she was chatting and laughing with them, and her body even leaned toward Lu Ren without a trace.

Jiang Fan was dejected, keeping a distance as he followed behind the four.

Lu Ren and the others soon walked up to Lu Ren. Lu Ren and Gu Haoming stopped, and Yang Wanqiu also stopped.

Aya looked at Lu Ren with curiosity, not knowing why Lu Ren and the others had stopped in front of him.

Lu Ren looked at Lu Ren with a somewhat complex expression, "I am at the Perfection of Qi Gathering and have begun to impact the refinement of Qi into Gang."

Lu Ren's expression was calm, "I heard from Senior Brother Jiang Ping that Brother Gu's family spent quite a bit of money on you."

Gu Haoming: ...

Lu Ren was not angry, saying calmly, "I'm not looking for you to show off. I want to tell you that going it alone will never accomplish anything. Zhang Yong and I struggled out of the mud together, and it wasn't easy to get to this step; we should support each other.

Come to the Sharp Wind Hall, and I guarantee that no one will make things difficult for you."

Gu Haoming's expression changed slightly.

Besides him and Jiang Ping, there was no one else in the Sharp Wind Hall who didn't get along with Lu Ren.

What Lu Ren meant was that he could call the shots and make him and Jiang Ping stop making things difficult for Lu Ren.

Although he was unhappy, he didn't say anything; he wouldn't go so far as to not give Lu Ren face over such a small matter.

Lu Ren shook his head, "I'm doing quite well right now and have no plans to join any organization."

Lu Ren didn't speak again.

Gu Haoming said, "You don't know what's good for you. You'll know regret when you're battered and bruised. Don't think that just because you formed an alliance with Qin Ze and the others, you can rest easy. The water in the outer sect is deeper than you think.

If you don't change, the gap between you and Lu Ren will only grow larger."

"Brother Gu, let's go!"

Lu Ren said, striding away.

Lu Ren narrowed his eyes, watching them leave. Gu Haoming was clearly still holding a grudge about him refusing him back then. Judging by his tone, he still wanted to stir up trouble.

"Brother Lu, do you know them? Is that Lu Ren the one who is one of the Ten Heroes?" Jiang Fan walked up to Lu Ren and said.

Lu Ren nodded, "That's him."

Jiang Fan sighed, "So he is Lu Ren. No wonder he looks so extraordinary."

"Brother Jiang, I take my leave!"

Lu Ren bowed and soon arrived at the Merit Hall to claim a mission.

The Purple Sun Gate had extremely strict requirements for outer sect disciples. Every month, one had to complete missions worth at least ten contribution points. If one didn't have ten contribution points, the three Qi-Boosting Pills would be confiscated.

If one's contribution points were less than ten for three consecutive months, one would be cleared out. In short, it was about making the beasts of burden work hard to create value for the sect.

There were quite a few people here, and there were many missions: escorting, transporting, suppressing bandits, hunting down major criminals, as well as capturing specific exotic beasts and collecting spiritual herbs.

These missions basically had one commonality: they required leaving the sect and were all time-consuming.

Of course, the rewards were very high.

There were also some tasks like being an alchemy assistant or sorting medicinal herbs, which required a certain amount of knowledge about herbs, and some tasks were limited to women only.

Basically, these missions that no one claimed had some problems; otherwise, they would have been snatched up long ago.

Lu Ren was soon attracted to a mission: refining black iron at the Li Huo Peak, for a period of one month. The reward was settled according to labor: refining one hundred catties of black iron would earn one contribution point.

The mission introduction said that if one worked hard, one could earn at least twenty contribution points by the end of the month, and it also provided a lunch with exotic beast meat.

He immediately found the deacon to accept this mission, and to his surprise, it was an acquaintance—none other than Xiao Hua.

Xiao Hua clearly remembered him and helped him register very readily. He even handed over a token and said, "Take this token to Li Huo Peak; someone will guide you. If you quit halfway, three contribution points will be deducted."

Deducting contribution points for quitting halfway? The mission introduction hadn't mentioned that at all.

It was only said after the mission was registered. If Xiao Hua wasn't deliberately trying to trap him, then this mission was difficult to do, which was why it wasn't written in the introduction.

Of course, it also explained one problem: Xiao Hua didn't give Lin Cheng any face at all. A single word of reminder could have prevented him from stepping into a trap, but Xiao Hua hadn't said it.

The wild ginseng worth one hundred taels might as well have been fed to a dog.

"This disciple understands!"

Lu Ren took the token and turned to leave.

The Purple Sun Gate occupied a vast area. With Lu Ren's foot speed, it still took him the time of one incense stick to walk from the outer sect to the foot of Li Huo Peak.

Of course, if he used the Flying Swallow Art, it wouldn't take that long, but the Flying Swallow Art likely came from the Cao family. If it were discovered, Cao Rong would know that he was the one who killed Zhang Si-shui, Guan Young Lady, and the others.

He had already calculated that once he had enough contribution points, he had to exchange for a light movement technique.

He didn't fear Cao Rong, but the Cao family didn't just have Cao Rong in the Purple Sun Gate. In previous batches, there were also Cao family members who had ascended the dragon and entered the Purple Sun Gate.

Showing the token Xiao Hua gave him, the Li Huo Peak gate-guarding disciple led him up the mountain.

After walking for a while, the sound of "bang-bang" hammering reached Lu Ren's ears. Walking further, the trees on both sides gradually became sparse until the surroundings were all yellow sand, and a fire field appeared before his eyes.

Bursts of heat waves with suffocating temperatures hit him. Lu Ren finally understood why some people would claim this mission and then not do it; in this environment, it wasn't something an ordinary person could endure.

Fortunately, his physique was strong, and these heat waves didn't count for much.

"Senior Brother Gao, an outer sect disciple has come to do the black iron refining mission," the disciple who led him here shouted.

Immediately after, a burly man with a bare chest and skin like bronze walked out of a shed.

This man's muscles were knotted like large pythons coiled around his body, and his neck was thicker than his head. He was the sturdiest person Lu Ren had ever seen.

"Take off your shirt!"

Senior Brother Gao took him to a room and told him to take off his shirt.

Lu Ren didn't hesitate and followed orders, taking off his outer garment to reveal a lean, strong body that, while not exaggerated, looked like it was cast from iron.

"Your physique is tempered well. I hope you can persist."

After Senior Brother Gao finished speaking, he led him into a field.

Here, there were huge furnaces everywhere, and more than a dozen bare-chested men were wielding iron hammers the size of human heads, working hard to forge red-hot iron blocks.

Looking at the hammers, they were at least fifty or sixty catties each. With every hammer blow, the iron block being struck would jump out some impurities.

Senior Brother Gao said, "These are black iron ores, containing a large amount of impurities. They need to be repeatedly hammered to obtain black iron without impurities. After the refining is finished, the contribution points will be settled according to the weight.

Also, black iron is precious; stealing is not allowed. Once discovered, your martial arts will be crippled, and you will be expelled from the sect!

In the future, when you enter Li Huo Peak, you can only come here; you are not allowed to wander around the peak."

By weight, black iron was more expensive than gold. When Senior Brother Gao said the last part, his eyes became a bit sharper.

Lu Ren bowed and nodded, indicating he understood.

Senior Brother Gao walked to a furnace, took out a red-hot black iron ore, placed it on the forging table, and said, "Watch my technique carefully. If you learn it well, it will allow you to achieve twice the result with half the effort."

He swung the hammer down, and a large amount of impurities jumped out. Lu Ren watched carefully and found that his technique was peculiar, containing a strange vibrating force.

"Don't grip the hammer too tightly. You must exert force back the moment you strike; otherwise, the counter-shock force will be very large. If you can persist, your physical body will improve greatly.

From now on, this is your spot."

After Senior Brother Gao demonstrated for a while, he handed the iron hammer in his hand to Lu Ren and turned to leave.

"Good fellow!"

Lu Ren took it and weighed it, finding that this hammer should be about eighty catties. With his strength, eighty catties wasn't much, but swinging it all day would be terrifying.

"Bang!"

He tried to strike the first blow, only to feel his hand go numb, yet only a tiny bit of impurities were refined out.

"Someone else has jumped into the fire pit. I bet he can't last two days!"

"He has to last at least three days."

"I bet he can persist. Haven't you noticed he's a new face? He must be a candidate from this year's examination. New disciples have no contribution points to be deducted, so even if it's shit, they have to eat it."

The mocking voices came, but Lu Ren remained unmoved.

He recalled the techniques and movements Senior Brother Gao had taught him, and observed the techniques of those around him, gradually gaining some insights, but the effect was still not very good. Every time, the impurities refined out were not as many as those around him.

The main reason was that he was only at the Great Completion of Qi Gathering, while everyone else was an expert who had refined Qi into Gang.

"It is indeed a fire pit!"

Half an hour later, Lu Ren was covered in sweat and exhausted. At this rate, let alone earning twenty contribution points in a month, earning three or five would be considered good.

"It's been a long time since I've been this tired!"

Time seemed to return to when he first entered the Weiyuan Hall, sweating after practicing for a while.

"This means my physique is not strong enough!"

Lu Ren didn't feel defeated; instead, he found the original intention of struggling to change his fate through martial arts when he first entered the Weiyuan Hall.

After resting for a while, he got up and picked up the big hammer again.

Sinking his mind into his body, this time he activated the Vajra Art, and the Vajra True Qi turned into a large net covering his whole body.

"Boom!"

With one hammer blow, a lot more impurities were refined. A counter-shock force traveled up the hammer handle, making his muscles and bones tremble, and his blood surged.

"Eh?" Lu Ren's eyes lit up.

He discovered that under the effect of this counter-shock force, some Vajra True Qi dissipated and merged into his flesh and bones, and the efficiency of tempering his physique had clearly improved.

This discovery made him feel refreshed, and the fatigue seemed to have lessened quite a bit.

For the rest of the time, he kept the Vajra True Qi running, which not only improved his efficiency but also made the tempering effect of the Vajra True Qi better.

As the sun set, he dragged his exhausted body out of Li Huo Peak with more than a dozen outer sect disciples.

"Junior Brother Lu, this work is not for disciples who have just entered. If you are worried about having no contribution points to deduct, I can lend you some," Chen Chao said with a smile.

After an afternoon, Lu Ren had gotten to know a few people and learned that the black iron refining mission could earn twenty contribution points a month, but it required at least marrow-tempering cultivation.

"Many thanks for the kind offer, Senior Brother, but I want to persist for a few more days," Lu Ren bowed.

Chen Chao shook his head, "Listen to a piece of advice from your senior brother: this kind of persistence has no meaning. We all practiced the Mountain-Shaking Hammer before coming to do this mission. You haven't practiced the Mountain-Shaking Hammer; you might not even be able to refine one hundred catties of black iron in five or six days."

Mountain-Shaking Hammer!

Lu Ren's heart sank. No wonder he thought his technique was about the same as everyone else's, but the refining effect was far inferior to theirs. It turned out there was a specialized martial art.

"If I need to, I will definitely come to find you, Senior Brother," Lu Ren still didn't plan to give up.

Where could he find such a good way to practice martial arts? He would practice for a while first.

Chen Chao nodded, "Fine, if you want to borrow later, you can come find me anytime. Just pay me back four contribution points later."

He naturally wasn't planning to take care of his junior brother; he just wanted to "lend money."

In the following days, Lu Ren left early and returned late. Most people also started doing missions and became busy.

On the fifth day, Lu Ren finally refined his first piece of black iron without impurities and handed it to Senior Brother Gao for weighing: it was one hundred and three catties.

A piece of ore the size of a human head had been hammered down to the size of a bowl to be qualified.

"Refining one piece in five days is very good."

Senior Brother Gao smiled and said, "Do you want to continue to persist?"

Lu Ren nodded, "Naturally!"