Gifts!(1)

''What? Why? Why? Jinjin, why?''

Sun Jian started sobbing in the middle of the restaurant. Qing Yan and Li Ao also looked slightly confused, but unlike Sun Jian they could understand Lei Jin's words to some extent.

Their master's trial hadn't been a pleasant one. It was simple suffering in and out, which made two of them tremble even when they simply thought of it. For Lei Jin who dropped out mid-way, the blow to his confidence must have been greater.

''It just isn't what I want to do.'' Lei Jin replied. The boy waved his hand and a saber appeared on the empty side of the table. It had a golden sheath with beautiful lines of black spreading on its surface, looking like interwoven snakes. ''I like doing this...not that.''

''That? What's that?''

Sun Jian looked over the saber. ''Isn't this what you forged at the competition?''

Lei Jin nodded.

Li Ao observed the elegant details from up close. Back on the stage, he hadn't noticed any of these patterns on the sheath.

Taking the saber with Lei Jin's approval, he unsheathed it and glanced at its dark blade. A sharp glint reflected off its edge, and its body had thin spider-web like lines flashing marine blue and crimson.

'How does he do that?'

It was simply too beautiful. Not only was it at an usable quality for early Foundation Establishment cultivators, its looks could also serve as a Ceremonial Sword for the Imperial Family. His eyes glittered for a moment.

''Are you sure about giving up?'' Qing Yan asked.

Lei Jin nodded again. ''Don't misunderstand me. I'm not giving up because I couldn't take the pressure...but...''

Li Ao put down the saber and looked at Lei Jin.

''...Whenever I reached my limit back there, I just thought 'Why am I doing this?'. 'Do I want to live like this?'. I think those are normal thoughts to have, I mean, I'm sure you all must have thought something similar.''

Lei Jin's gaze passed by Sun Jian, which caused him to clear his throat.

''But then I thought 'Do I love doing this enough to endure this much suffering?'. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed reasonable to me. After all, I always spend days and weeks cooped up in my room, neither talking to a soul nor a ghost, and not once resting without finishing my work. I don't feel what I do is bothersome, even though it is equally hard as forging weapons.''

''I could have gone on even longer back then, but when I reached that conclusion I couldn't anymore. Then back at home, I sat with my mother watching the lotuses float in the pond. We sat there for over an hour, not a word between us, and when she heard me sigh she pulled my ear...''

Sun Jian laughed. ''She's pulling your ear at this age? Way to go, Jinjin!''

Lei Jin's face seemed to blush from embarrassment. ''Do you want to be beaten!?''

Qing Yan put a hand between them. ''Don't interrupt.''

The duo settled back, and Lei Jin continued. ''She said...''You are in a position to enjoy anything you wish, and we have enough capable people to ensure such a position endures for a long time. So do not trouble yourself over what you can't accomplish, but over what you want to accomplish.''—I think she misunderstood why I felt down, but still, her advice made me realize it.''

''You...don't really begrudge me, or make fun of me for what I do.'' Lei Jin said. ''You are good friends.''

''But others, even my own clan...they always make fun of me. They make light of what I do. It's not like I am making things harder for people. I only try to make works of art with my forging. But because they isolated me, because they always shamed me for doing something useless, I never tried to make it my aim.''

Li Ao thought for a moment. ''You decided to do it as a side-business? A past time?''

Lei Jin shook his head. ''Maybe it could be my trademark. If I ever got a Master Title, I dreamed it would be related to the beauty of my creations. That would give me enough face to stand proud.''

Qing yan nodded, thoughtful. ''Face, huh...''

What was face worth anyway?

The four of them all had different ideas about the matter, and Sun Jian tried to persuade Lei Jin for a while. However, Lei Jin had made up his mind. From today onward, he would forge no weapons, but only works of art.

It took a while for them to explain the difference to Sun Jian, who thought Lei Jin would simply drop down the hammer for the rest of his life. Once they did, the boy let out a relieved breath and clapped Lei Jin's shoulders.

After spending some more time and revealing their own relationship, the four of them had a strange meal. Sun Jian kept addressing Li Ao and Qing Yan as junior sister and junior brother, always drawing out the word junior long enough to make drool escape his mouth. Lei Jin had a rather weird look, but when he saw how much the duo suffered just showed a wry smile and kept the conversation going.

Also, he seemed to be very shaken by Qing Yan's shining head...

An hour later they left, promising to meet on the same day, and Li Ao returned to the brothel. On the way, he heard news of another competition, this time sponsored by Qing and Zhang families for young alchemists. It would be held in two months, and many famous stores had sponsored the ordeal to make themselves more famous.

Li Ao rushed back to inform Zhu Qiu, but the boy was already aware of it. Worse yet, he laughed back at him and declared his participation with a proud look on his face. His name on the registration paper, which he shoved into Li Ao's face, was Xu Fuqiu.

''Really?''

Not bothering anymore, Li Ao returned to his room and inspected some of the texts his master gave to them. He spent a day looking through their contents and almost swallowed his tongue at the diversity of the collection. He even found notes of several Immortal Forgers, though their content had little about forging and more about their daily lives.

'Who names their turtle dog?'

Shaking his head at the weird writings, Li Ao set aside the collection and returned his attention back to Rick's Elementary Body Tempering Guide. He still needed a little way more to temper the entirety of his tendons. After that would come the tempering of Muscles, then of his Skin.

Once he reached the peak of Bronze Body, he would need a medicine with great vitality to break through to Silver Body. Minimum grade of such a pill had to be 8-th grade, the same tier as a Foundation Stabilizing Pill.

There was another interesting thing in the guide that, if he used a higher quality pill, he could temper the same region two or three times. Though each re-tempering would give a rather small boost to his prowess, it would help solidify the aura inherent to his body. At the fifth-tempering, he could condense the aura to form a 'Aura Weapon' of his choosing, which could unleash a destructive power similar to Magical Arts.

The limit of the technique was, currently, six temperings. After forming the Divine Spark, the limit rose to nine.

But of course, there were two drawbacks. Each bout of re-tempering lasted longer than before, and after the third tempering required several vitality pills equal to 8-th grade pills for each layer.

Fifth-tempering required 7-th grade pills for each layer of Bronze Body.

But perhaps because he was bitter about his gambling incident from before, Li Ao this time had no hesitation in deciding. If he couldn't get a magical technique before tempering his Skin, he would go the path of re-tempering.

There was also the fact that he didn't want to suffer Tribulation Lightning with his injured cultivation...

Closing his eyes, Li Ao began tempering the rest of his tendons.

In a flash, days went by. He attended Fan Yueyin's lessons, each lasting almost eighteen hours when it required him, then spent most of his days finding materials for making the gifts of his seniors and master.

Li Ao also spent the remaining 70 Universal coins of his for a particular formation recipe and studied it at night.

When he began forging the gifts, his master gave plenty of tips and taught him several ways to approach the subject, which made his forging skills sturdier than before. Except, when he was alone and was making the gift for his master, he failed most of his attempts.

Unlike other methods, this time he was trying to make an accessory with a formation engraved into it. After wasting four batches of materials that cost him 20 mid-grade spirit stones, Li Ao employed Lei Jin's help. They spent a few nights making adjustments to how he melted the ores and engraved the formations onto the finished product.

The unique experience helped Li Ao absorb the theoretical knowledge he acquired from the books as well. With rapid improvement, it took them two weeks to produce a satisfactory result. In the end, to Li Ao's surprise, Lei Jin asked him if he would teach formations to him.

It didn't occur to Li Ao until that time that, though the Bai Dynasty had excellent forgers for its weak foundations, it didn't have many Formation Masters on its lands, let alone a Grandmaster.

Their scarcity made each Master rare to find, and even rarer to employ. In their absence, Li Ao's somewhat refined formation skills and forging made Lei Jin think of another way to establish his footing in the family. With bright eyes, the boy pleaded to him several times.

Accepting with little thought, Li Ao also emptied some of his time to teach the boy formations as a favor.

Soon a month went by, and it was time for the master disciple gathering. The four of them found themselves a large hall in the Sun Family's estate. It was far away from the rest of the clan, with its courtyard donned by several ponds and a garden of bright, colorful flowers. Their smell cleared up the mind and put anyone who breathed it in in a pleasant mood.

The door to the courtyard remained open, and they sat around a round table overlooking the scenery. There was plenty of wine and spicy food for them to enjoy.

Talking of random things, the group enjoyed the moonlight and each other's company for a while. After an hour, when moonlight began to shine inside the dimly lit hall from the top of the sky, Fan Yueyin tapped on the table.

''Who wants to go first?''

Everyone looked at each other, then Sun Jian stepped forward.

''Since I am the senior brother, of course I must lead by example!''

Puffing out his chest, Sun Jian waved his hand and a gray metallic box appeared in front of everyone.

Waving his hand, a proud smile on his face, Sun Jian nodded at Li Ao.''Junior brother, you go first!''

Obliging, Li Ao opened the lid of the box. He took out a pair of prismatic gloves that covered the palms and knuckles. Apart from the striking color, the texture felt smooth and Li Ao could feel a cooling aura spreading out of it.

''Try it on~''

Seeing Sun Jian eager to brag, Li Ao laughed and slipped them on.

The moment he did, a cold aura seeped into his arms, clearing his mind and opening his pores. Not only was he refreshed, Li Ao felt like his fingers turned more agile. With a thought, he felt like he could change the aspect of the aura.

''I call them Prismatic Gloves!'' Sun Jian nodded again and again. ''It has four modes—Ice, Fire, Thunder, Metal! Since your Yang is too strong, you can use Ice mode for forging, Fire mode for enhancing your strength, Thunder for enhancing your speed, and Metal for...''

''For...?''

''For...'' Sun Jian pressed his brows together to think. Massaging her temples, Fan Yueyin shook her head.

''Balance.''

''Ah, yes! Balance!'' Sun Jian laughed. ''I couldn't make the three work alone, so I added Metal to stabilize the artifact.''

''It is fourth-grade Earth-Quality, and if you can find better materials for the four types of elements you can re-forge it into a Spiritual Tool.''

With a wave of his sleeve, Sun Jian puffed out his chest and looked at him.

Li Ao was deeply impressed by the gift, more so for the deep consideration shown to his safety. So he didn't hold back his praises.

''That's amazing! Excellent, good job!''

''Good job?''

''Good job!''

''Good job what?''

''...good job, senior brother.''

''Ahahahaha,'' Sun Jian waved his hand. ''It is all for my cute little junior siblings! No matter!''

Lips twitching, Li Ao put away the box. He was actually a year older than Sun Jian...

''Give back the box...''

After a short banter, Qing Yan opened her gift. It was also a Prismatic Glove, but the elements for her's were Water, Fire, Earth, and Wind. She was also forced to bow and pay her respect, though she found it acceptable.

She was very afraid the innocent guy would make her some kind of helmet.

Fan Yueyin also opened her gift. It was a dark purple armband that suited the dark colors she wore, which also contained a hidden compartment for storing things.

Though Li Ao and Qing Yan had no idea what could be put there, Fan Yueyin had a scary glare that gave them enough reason to not be curious about it. Sun Jian had his cheeks stretched until they turned purple.

''But it was grandpa...''

After some time, it was Qing Yan's turn.