Chapter 328: Brother, That

Hearing this,

Lin Mo's mouth twitched.

"What are you sucking on?"

"Stop fooling around."

"Are the usual fire-type foods not enough for you?"

Lin Mo said irritably.

"Thousands of blacksmiths in town rely on this vein for their livelihood."

"If you suck it up, what will they use to forge?"

"You?"

【"…"】

"Fireball Spell" pouted and reluctantly pulled back.

【"Just say it…"】

【"I didn't even really act."】

"Ice Spike Spell," watching from the side, snorted with amusement.

【"Hmph."】

【"Always thinking about eating, no matter where you go."】

【"Don't you feel ashamed?"】

"Fireball Spell" shot a furious glare over.

【"What did you say?"】

【"Say it again?"】

"Ice Spike Spell" rolled her eyes.

【"The Young Lady says you're embarrassing yourself."】

【"Did you hear that?"】

【"If you didn't hear, I'll say it again."】

【"You—"】

"Enough, enough."

Lin Mo interrupted them.

"Outside, both of you, behave."

The master had spoken.

Both skills fell silent at once.

……

Feng Cangqiong, seeing Lin Mo lost in thought, continued:

"The energy of this vein serves far more than just providing flame."

Lin Mo lifted his head.

"What else?"

Feng Cangqiong said:

"To forge a truly excellent piece of equipment."

"Besides temperature, you need energy infusion."

Feng Cangqiong extended his hand, gesturing.

"When a top-tier blacksmith forges,"

"he doesn't simply heat metal red-hot and hammer it into shape."

"True top-tier forging,"

"involves infusing the purest elemental energy from heaven and earth into the internal structure of the equipment during the forging process."

"Alongside his own blacksmithing technique."

Feng Cangqiong paused.

"And the vein-fire is the perfect medium for this process."

"Through the blacksmith's countless hammer blows, these energies become locked within the equipment."

"Ultimately, when the equipment takes form, it gains various special attributes."

"Special attributes?"

Lin Mo sharply caught the keyword, puzzled.

"Yes."

Feng Cangqiong nodded.

"Equipment forged this way carries special attributes that gear dropped in Team Fuben lacks."

"There are many special attributes, and they're powerful."

"You'll see when the time comes."

"I see."

Lin Mo fell into thought.

Feng Cangqiong nodded and continued:

"This is why the blacksmith profession holds such high status."

"The more skilled and top-tier the blacksmith, the stronger the special attributes they can forge."

Lin Mo looked out the window.

He paused, then asked:

"So, the reason Casting Star Town became the number one forging town of Dragon Nation is, ultimately, because of this ley line."

"Correct."

Feng Cangqiong nodded.

"Isn't the Qingyun Town beneath your Jianghai City the same logic?"

"The wild magical herb resources around Qingyun Town are extremely abundant, so magical pharmacists from all over the country flock there."

"Similarly, forgers from all over the country flock to Casting Star Town—same principle."

Lin Mo understood.

Put plainly, it was an industrial cluster.

This Casting Star Town—

in essence, was a super-large forging industrial cluster that had formed naturally, relying on the top-tier natural resource of ley line energy.

Ley line energy was Casting Star Town's core competitive advantage.

Forgers from all over the country, in pursuit of the very best forging results, would all choose to come here.

And the gathering of large numbers of top-tier forgers here, in turn, attracted even more upstream and downstream supply-chain vendors.

Given enough time—

Casting Star Town became the undisputed number one forging town of the entire Dragon Nation, and even of the entire Blue Star.

……

As they talked—

the commercial vehicle turned onto a side road.

This road was considerably narrower than the main thoroughfare.

But the road surface was so smooth that one could barely feel any bumps.

On either side of the road, the rough-and-tumble forging workshops were gone, replaced by rows of standalone mansions with their own gates and courtyards.

Grey bricks, dark tiles, courtyards deep and secluded.

The signboards at the doors were all extremely low-key.

Suddenly—

Yan Lie stepped on the brakes.

"We're here, Feng."

"The car can't go any further ahead."

Feng Cangqiong nodded.

"Let's get out."

The three of them pushed open the car doors and got out.

Lin Mo surveyed his surroundings.

This was a pedestrian street paved with bluestone slabs.

The bluestone slabs underfoot had been polished smooth and gleaming—clearly aged by quite some years.

And at the far end of their line of sight stood a tall bluestone gate-tower.

A massive plaque hung on the gate-tower.

Thousand Forging Street.

Beneath the gate-tower stood a group of people, apparently waiting for them.

Lin Mo's gaze swept to both sides of the street.

"Dark Iron Residence."

"Meteor Pavilion."

"Hundred Arms Hall."

"Quenching Edge Manor."

To be fair, these names did look considerably more upscale than the shop names outside.

"Let's go."

Feng Cangqiong stepped forward, with Yan Lie and Lin Mo following behind.

As they walked—

Yan Le leaned in toward Lin Mo:

"Lin Mo."

"This Thousand Forging Street is the top forging street in all of Casting Star Town."

"The absolute peak forgers in the entire Dragon Nation are basically all here."

"That impressive?"

Lin Mo raised an eyebrow.

Yan Lie nodded, looking ahead.

"At the very end of this street is the headquarters of our Dragon Nation's Forgers' Association."

"Anyone who can hang a plaque on this street is almost certainly an S-rank or higher forger, and a high-ranking one at that."

"Understood."

Lin Mo nodded, his gaze fixed on the group of people standing beneath the gate-tower not far ahead, and asked:

"So, that group must be the most formidable forgers on this street, right?"

Yan Lie followed Lin Mo's gaze.

The elder at the head wore a dark gray robe; his beard and hair were white, yet his spirit was vigorous.

His eyes held a sharpness that made young men dare not look directly at him.

On both sides of him stood several people.

"The one in the middle is Mo Qianjun, Elder Mo, the Dragon Nation's number one blacksmith, the only SSS-rank Blacksmith profession, the Heaven-Crafting Creator."

Yan Lie lowered his voice and quickly introduced them to Lin Mo:

"The one on his left is Wei Yan."

"The thin one beside him is Xiao Li."

"The one on his right wearing goggles is Lu Mingzhang."

"The woman beside him is Jiang Yunshang."

"The young Miss with a ponytail behind Elder Mo is Han Shuang."

"These people are all Elder Mo's disciples, and they are also the strongest blacksmiths in Starfall Town besides Elder Mo; they are all S-rank blacksmiths without exception."

After hearing this, Lin Mo was somewhat surprised.

"All S-rank professions? Why did they all come?"

Logically, Elder Mo being here should be enough.

Why did all the disciples come too?

Don't they have work to do?

Aren't blacksmiths all quite busy?

Yan Lie chuckled lightly.

"What do you think?"

"Elder Mo, to forge this Forbidden Special Weapon for you, not only summoned all his disciples over to assist, but also issued an order for the entire town to help collect forging materials."

"The materials for this Forbidden-grade Special Weapon aren't just Divine Casting Stone and a Legendary Special Weapon; there are many other materials required."

"Some of them are even very hard to buy."

"Whoa, does that mean I still have to go buy materials?"

Lin Mo looked at Yan Lie beside him and asked in confusion.

Yan Lie shook his head:

"You don't need to worry; I heard the materials are just available in the town, all gathered; only the Divine Casting Stone in your hand is missing."

Hearing this,

Lin Mo breathed a sigh of relief.

Good, otherwise it would have been troublesome to make a wasted trip.

Yan Lie beside him sighed:

"Lin Mo, Lin Mo, to be honest, I have never seen such a massive blacksmith team, such a grand-scale forging operation."

"No..."

"I should say, I have never heard of it."

Lin Mo fell silent for two seconds.

"So, my face is quite big?"

Yan Lie rolled his eyes at him.

"Brother."

"This isn't called 'face'."

"It's called strength."