five workshops

The view inside was breathtaking. To the sides were many doors from which one could hear banging sounds, but in front of them was a large round stone table in the middle of the room and an open ceiling was covered by many numerous layers of glass. The glass shined very strongly as they reflected the sun light to the centre of the table. The table itself had a middle section where one old man stood, while in the centre of the table was another smaller round table. On the outer section close to the middle section there were many utensils and tools for smithing, and the old man was checking on every one of them very closely. He looked up confusedly when he heard footsteps coming from the entrance, not expecting any visitors for the day. 

Ji Li left his usual pretentious behaviour and stepped forward to inspect the stone table which looked very robust. He looked at all the tools and then he looked up again, at the strongly shining ceiling where there were so many glass pieces in different shapes, he didn't know if he could count it all.

Seeing such a view was a different world for him, so he inspected as much was, he wanted, still elegantly but livelier than his usual cold self. The old man in the middle wated to speak up, but the town chief raised his and shook his head, indicating that it wasn't the right thing to do.

Stone and Monkey knew the personality of their big bro, so it wasn't a surprise. They also enjoyed seeing their brother like that, unlike his stern and annoyed self, he looked much more curious than before. Of course, they also knew that he would feel much better if the others weren't there, so they looked several times menacingly at the other people, but stopped themselves because they knew it wasn't the right time to have fun at this moment.

After some time, Ji Li looked at the smith in the middle as he said "Using the natural and Essence dense light to produce weapons, I am sure there have been many people who thought of this, but not only have you made it but also perfected it. I am sure that your ancestors worked hard on the constructions, and I can see that there isn't only glass but also many irons and jewellery around the ceiling, bending the light in different directions. This whole station alone must have cost a fortune that could rival any smaller clan, the Rong clan must really be one with rich history." 

Rong Xi looked happy and proud for he was the town chief and naturally the clan head. He bowed, this time with much more sincerity, and said "It is an honour to be praised like this by you, esteemed Intermediate Eunuch. Let me introduce you, this elder of our clan is Rong Yua, his family line has been owning this workshop for as long as our clan persists, and they were also the ones that rebuild the entire workshop! Once we had holed a whole mountain, and now we can only use the ceiling of a room for that. I apologize for our humble abode here."

"That might be, but it seems that it was also one of the reasons for your war. It truly is a pity that so many inheritances were destroyed, but at least the core was remained thanks to his majesty the emperor of the past's generosity and your dwarf kings wise bearing." Ji Li nodded as he continued "I wonder, why did you clan decide to stay on their own and came such a long way to the core region of the empire? Sure, the royal family has ceased, but many strong clans that survived came together and build the dwarf council at the old capital of yours… Well, you probably have no desire to continue, so I shall not force it, although I am quite interested in history."

Rong Xi breathed a sigh of relief, because although it wasn't something impossible to say, the shame was too much, and he'd rather take it into his grave. Seeing that Ji Li didn't continue, he signalised for Rong Yua to come forward, and so the elder dwarf came and bowed too, as he understood the position of Ji Li after Rong Yua was introduced "I greet you to my humble abode, esteemed Intermediate Eunuch. I am Rong Yua, the family head of the third line and also the owner of the 'Flying Sword' workshop".

Ji Li kept looking around the workshop while he listened to Rong Yua introduce all the tools and then in the end he introduced the centre table that was the burning point of all the gathered energy and could melt up to tier 9 metals, which was comparatively Low Talent Refining Stage.

After half an hour, Ji Li decided that he saw enough. Sure, the workshop was interesting, but in the end, he wasn't a blacksmith and wouldn't dive in too deep into how everything worked. In the first place, he just wanted to have a look and planned to check out the other four of the five most prominent workshops, and so he did.

He first went out of the arch before he looked around and saw another entrance with a plaque, on which stood 'Crimson' in deep red like blood, to show the killing power of the weapons that the shop introduced. This time, it wasn't very special, the only unique thing was that there was a blood pool where the blood of monsters was gathered, and the blood-energy would sweep out now and then. When that happened, one could see several sabres laying in the middle of the pool, absorbing said energy and being strengthened. It wasn't comparable to the observatory that was the first workshop they visited, but it was still unique on its own. 

The owner, Rong Quan, seemed to be impatient and impulsive at first, but when he saw how high the town chief treated Ji Li and how curious and polite, yet also cold Ji Li was, he decided that it wasn't the right time to be heated and just stood by to explain any questions.

Ji Li repeated the process as he visited 'Piercer' and 'Rapid Bow', the former had a large room in which the tip was refined again and again till it had a very strong peak and could strike anyone precisely at moments notice, while the other had a small underground cave system with strong wind and earth energy flowing through. The bows would be build underground and the arrowheads would be tested on their lightness and durability, while also refining everything over and over again till it was as fast as the wind. 

What was slightly surprising was that the owner of 'Rapid Bow', Rong Xua, was a female dwarf. Ji Li didn't know if it was because he was a eunuch or because he was a human, but he didn't really feel attraction to her, which made him slightly sad before he forgot about it once again, after all it wasn't like he really hoped for anything of this sort.

Finally, he arrived at the 'Iron Gem', which was the last workshop he wanted to visit but also the only non-weapon type of the five highest workshops. The location came as a real surprise, as it was right behind the workshop he visited first. Not only was it right behind it, but it also had the exact same structure, only that the burning point was much smaller and hotter than the previous one, apparently being able to melt tier 10 metals.

Ji Li quickly came to understand that 'Iron Gem' and 'Flying Sword' both needed a significant density of Essence, and the Observatory-like construction was the secret method of the Rong clan to enhance the capacity of the ironwork they developed. It was probably because there wasn't enough capital to finance all five, and only the second and third line of the Rong family managed to build their station.

The first family line was the clan head line that focused on cultivation and general management, which was why they themselves didn't own a workshop. Ji Li thought that the way they operated was the correct way, as it stopped the clan from becoming overly centralised one family line while also having a steady and trustworthy protector for each generation of their family.

In the end Ji Li didn't stay any longer and went back to the branch yard, where dinner was nearly finished. Shixuan was the first to talk when they closed the doors of the room "Big brother, all the shops were very good, which one do we recruit?"

Qianyu also commented "Big brother, I also think all of them were good and although they weren't too amiable, they still treated us with respect. Which one do you think can we recruit?"

Ji li listened to them as he thought about it "Yes, they are all good and all of them behaved properly. Now I ask you, after seeing them behave like that even though they had their own opinions, just because Rong Xi shook his head or raised his hand, don't you think that they trust their clan head very much? How are we to recruit anyone of them?"

Qianyu thought for a second and understood as they said "Will we have to stop then? Didn't we plan to finish all this in three months so we can focus on training them and gaining their trust?"

"Hmmm, I might have an idea".

"What is it big brother?" Shixuan nearly jumped when he heard that "I will do everything to help you! Monkey and I will work like we did in the trainee yard and…" suddenly Shixuan shivered when he thought back to their trainee days where he and Qianyu had to work while Ji Li was just laying there and commanding them till, they couldn't move!