“Come, drink some water.”

Qiu Qiang stepped forward and handed a glass of water to Zhang Ping.

After Zhang Ping finished drinking, he smiled and said, "Not bad. I originally thought you wouldn’t make it, but it seems the school misjudged you. With your current performance, making it into the Threes should be a piece of cake."

"By the way, Uncle Qiang, everyone keeps calling Patrol Squad and Investigation Unit the Three Major Organizations, but what’s the third one called?" Zhang Ping looked up, unable to hold back the question he’d been dying to ask.

Qiu Qiang was momentarily stunned, then shrugged and said, "I don’t know. Anyway, here in Mingzhu city, we’ve always called it the Threes. We all know there’s another organization besides Patrol Squad and Investigation Unit, but what it's called or what it does, no one knows."

"That’s so mysterious." Zhang Ping was surprised.

He originally thought it was because the previous owner had been too focused on training and didn’t care about these trivial details, which was why he didn’t know the name of the third organization.

Now he realized, it wasn’t just him—nobody knew.

"Alright, never mind what the third organization is called. It’s probably some secret department like an assassination squad. Are you done resting? If so, come over here and see how your first piece turned out," Qiu Qiang shifted the conversation back to weapon forging.

Zhang Ping nodded, stood up, and his gaze fell on the mold.

He glanced at Qiu Qiang, who gestured for him to open it himself. Zhang Ping reached for the switch and pulled it hard. The mold slowly opened, revealing a knife with a black blade and silver highlights.

Silver?

Zhang Ping frowned slightly upon seeing the color, then looked toward Qiu Qiang.

"Looks like it failed," Qiu Qiang said, not surprised. He smiled and walked over to pick up the knife.

The knife’s shape was identical to the Pearl Blade, the only difference being the numerous silver threads embedded in the blade. These threads were unevenly distributed and lacked the beautiful red streaks seen in the Pearl Blade.

He carried the knife over to the testing station, changed to a fresh testing stone, and raised the blade to strike.

A flash of light passed, but the stone didn’t crack. Instead, there was a crisp snap as the blade broke in two, with the tip landing on a nearby large magnet.

"Clean up," Qiu Qiang tossed the broken knife to Zhang Ping and said.

Zhang Ping looked at the broken edge of the knife and noticed that there were also a lot of silver threads inside. These silver threads were entangled with red silk threads in a chaotic pattern, making the whole blade appear as though it had been hollowed out by termites.

"It must be because I didn’t mix the materials well when kneading the dough. I didn’t truly fuse the materials together," Zhang Ping thought to himself, silently reflecting on his mistake.

The main reason, though, was that the furnace had been too hot.

He had felt like he was becoming a roast pig, and if he had stayed in there any longer, he might have started smelling like grilled meat.

Another issue was his lack of strength.

His power was still lacking, so the "kneading" process had been difficult. It was far from the ease that Uncle Qiang had when he handled it.

After cleaning up, Zhang Ping sat down next to Qiu Qiang.

"If you're tired, rest a bit."

Seeing Zhang Ping looking exhausted, Qiu Qiang smiled and said, "When I first learned Doughsmithing Art, I was worse than you. I couldn’t even complete the first step, and it wasn’t until Liu Tiefeng pushed me that I slowly figured it out."

He then explained to Zhang Ping in more detail where he went wrong during the forging process. His explanation was much more precise than Zhang Ping’s own self-assessment, and after reflecting on it, Zhang Ping found it helpful.

"By the way, Uncle Qiang, how much did I lose in material costs from that failed forging?" Zhang Ping asked, thinking about the price of the iron ingot.

Qiu Qiang sighed, "About sixty thousand."

"..."

Zhang Ping’s face turned pale when he heard that.

That loss? He couldn’t even pay it off if he sold himself.

"Hahaha, you actually believed that? Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as you think. When there’s more scrap, I’ll show you how to deal with it," Qiu Qiang laughed heartily when he saw Zhang Ping’s white face.

But Qiu Qiang’s joy was short-lived. Liu Tiefeng’s cigarette holder hit him on the forehead, and he immediately grimaced and covered his head.

"Snotty Qiang, where did you pick up this kid? His talent is almost as good as Dashan’s. By the way, where’s Dashan?" Liu Tiefeng asked, but as he spoke, he seemed to lose his train of thought, staring blankly with his head lowered.

Qiu Qiang glanced at him, sighed softly, then patted Zhang Ping on the shoulder and said in a low voice, "Help me take care of Uncle Liu. I’ve got business to attend to, so I’m heading out."

"Mm." Zhang Ping nodded.

Qiu Qiang stood up and was about to leave, but then he hesitated, and after a few more instructions—lasting for over ten minutes—he reluctantly left the Iron Soul forge.

Inside, the furnace still blazed fiercely.

Zhang Ping rested as he occasionally glanced at Liu Tiefeng.

In his past life, he had volunteered at a senior care home for a while, so he knew how to take care of elderly people.

"Grandpa Liu, here, have some water."

Zhang Ping stood up and went behind the counter to pour a glass of water, carefully handing it to Liu Tiefeng.

But Liu Tiefeng ignored him and kept his head down, smoking.

A few minutes later, Liu Tiefeng finally raised his head and glanced at Zhang Ping. With a calm tone, he said, "Alright, you can put the cup down now. That kid’s gone."

"Uh..." Zhang Ping blinked, sensing something was off with Liu Tiefeng.

Liu Tiefeng sighed and said, "Actually, I’m not sick. I know very well that Dashan is probably in danger."

"Then what about you?"

Zhang Ping placed the cup on the nearby table and looked at Liu Tiefeng in surprise.

Mainly, Liu Tiefeng’s acting was so convincing that Zhang Ping didn’t expect it. The first time he saw him, Liu Tiefeng really looked like an elderly person with dementia.

"I know Dashan’s abilities. Qiang wanted to investigate Dashan’s whereabouts, but I was worried he might be in danger too, so I had to pretend to be senile, giving him no time to take risks," Liu Tiefeng explained slowly.

Although Liu Tiefeng desperately wanted to find out who was responsible for his son’s death, he didn’t want Qiu Qiang to get involved in any danger. He had already lost one son, and he couldn’t bear to lose Qiu Qiang’s son as well.

Zhang Ping thought for a moment, and it clicked. He couldn’t help but ask, "So now Uncle Qiang won’t take any risks?"

"No, once that kid cares about something, he won’t easily risk his life," Liu Tiefeng said with a bitter smile.

He understood Qiu Qiang better than anyone else.

Although Qiu Qiang usually seemed carefree, he was actually very meticulous. That was why he had survived until now.

When Liu Tiefeng had tried to stop him from becoming an adventurer, Qiu Qiang had promised verbally but then ran off. When he returned, he was covered in scars, but had become more mature and capable.

That was when Liu Tiefeng realized that no amount of advice would stop Qiu Qiang from doing what he wanted.

So this time, he chose to feign illness.

Only then would Qiu Qiang, with a heart full of worries, not rush into danger.

"Grandpa Liu, aren't you afraid I'll tell Uncle Qiang?" Zhang Ping couldn't help but ask.

Liu Tiefeng glanced at Zhang Ping and asked, "Would you do that?"

"No," Zhang Ping replied.

Liu Tiefeng smiled and said, "Then that's fine."

Zhang Ping felt like he had been completely seen through.

"However, Qiang is right about one thing. You do have a talent for forging. But Qiang doesn't teach well and isn't very focused on the craft, so there are a lot of things he's missed. Over the next few days, I’ll teach you the true Doughsmithing Art." Liu Tiefeng exhaled a puff of smoke and looked at Zhang Ping seriously.

This craft wasn't exactly a top-secret technique, but it was the foundation of his Liu family’s unique skills. Originally, he had passed everything on to his son, but his son had tragically passed away. Liu Tiefeng couldn't bear to see this skill die with him. It was a treasure of humanity, and if it disappeared in his generation, he would feel he was betraying his ancestors and humanity. Therefore, he had to find a way to pass it down.

Initially, he had planned to write the secret technique down as a manual, but after observing Zhang Ping's forging, he realized he had a better option.

The next day.

Zhang Ping woke up at around four in the morning. Looking out the window at the scenery, he realized he had already left the school dormitory. He left his room and found that Liu Tiefeng had woken up even earlier.

Liu Tiefeng was sitting in the living room, staring intently at a sword nearby. When he saw Zhang Ping, he spoke, "Alright, come with me."

He got up and led Zhang Ping upstairs.

The third floor was Liu Dashan's workshop, primarily used for weapon modification—embedding special materials or gems into weapons, replacing guards, redesigning sheaths, and so on.

Liu Tiefeng led Zhang Ping to the workbench, had him fetch some flour, and then directly began teaching him how to knead dough.

This time, it was real dough kneading!

Liu Tiefeng expertly worked the dough, laughing, "Actually, Qiang could knead dough when he was a kid, so he probably doesn't even realize that the foundation of Doughsmithing Art is really just proper dough kneading. But he started practicing from a young age, so he's already mastered it. As long as his strength is up to par, it comes naturally. You, however, don’t have that foundation, so we’ll take a shortcut."

As he spoke, he added a variety of iron beads of different sizes into the dough and quickly kneaded them in. In the end, the dough and the iron beads were fused together, and it was impossible to tell from the outside that the dough contained so many beads.

"Now it's your turn. Put on the blindfold and knead out the iron beads from the dough," Liu Tiefeng stepped aside and instructed Zhang Ping.

Zhang Ping nodded, put on the blindfold, and placed his hands on the dough. He realized the dough was very firm, clearly designed to simulate the feel of forging materials. As he carefully kneaded it, the feel of the dough became very distinct with the blindfold on, and he quickly removed the iron beads from the dough.

However, the process wasn’t entirely precise.

Some of the smaller pieces of dough actually felt similar to the iron beads.

Zhang Ping had no idea how Liu Tiefeng achieved this effect, but it certainly made things more difficult for him.