novelraw Chapter 277-2: The Great General’s Pursuit, the Blacksmith’s Divine Tool (2)
Chapter 277-2: The Great General’s Pursuit, the Blacksmith’s Divine Tool (2)
He selected the first option, returning to where this whole mess had started.
[…]
[Teleport successful!]
[A powerful wandering soul awakens in a desolate, lifeless port…]
Lin Xun began testing his theory.
[You possessed the shell of the Fire-Worshipping Heartless Ninja Master!]
He waited a moment, and sure enough, just as he’d guessed, there was no pursuit prompt from the damn game!
He switched shells again.
[You possessed the shell of the Fire-Worshipping Imperial Swordsmith!]
[You felt a bone-deep chill rise within you…][Your shell has been marked by the malice of the Extreme Evil Great General. He is rushing toward this location at full speed!]
Lin Xun smiled faintly. If that was the case, this would be easy to handle!
The Extreme Evil Asura had been a sliver of malice born from the Extreme Delusion Fruit. It could lock directly onto his soul, no matter where he ran.
But the Great General’s malice lock was far weaker, only capable of tracking the Imperial Swordsmith shell that had been ‘blessed’
He carefully watched the game text, waiting for the Great General to arrive.
[In the white daylight, the abandoned port was deserted, a cold and eerie silence filling the air. No ships docked here; everything in sight was broken and desolate.]
[You knew the Great General was barreling toward this place with all his might. With his strength, it wouldn’t take long to arrive.]
[You are about to be hunted across the land!]
[Please quickly choose your escape destination…]
Lin Xun ignored the game options, smiling coldly as he continued to wait.
After about half an hour, the game finally displayed something different.
[…]
[You felt the icy chill on your chest grow ever stronger. That immense malice was almost upon you…]
[Some instinct compelled you to look up at the sky. A black meteor streaked across the heavens, plummeting toward you at a terrifying speed!]
[You knew disaster was about to strike. Panicked, you prepared to flee…]
Lin Xun still ignored the game options.
[The black meteor came ever closer. A deafening shriek of sundered air filled the port.]
[Through the inky flames shrouding the ‘meteor,’ you could already see the colossal, mountain-like figure within!]
Lin Xun calmly reached for the Resting Page again and hit the teleport option.
“See you never!”
[Teleporting…]
[…]
[Teleport successful!]
[A powerful wandering soul awakens at the summit of the Five-Story Treasure Pagoda…]
[You possessed the shell of the Fire-Worshipping Imperial Swordsmith!]
[You felt a bone-deep chill rise within you…]
[Your shell has been marked by the malice of the Extreme Evil Great General. He is rushing toward this location at full speed!]
“If I don’t run you ragged today, how will I ever avenge getting killed twice?”
[You leaned against the railing, pondering where to flee next…]
[Ever since you rescued the little yokai from the Golden Hall, the Dharma-Aspect Temple had grown even more deserted. Even after gazing down for a long time, you saw no trace of tourists.]
[Only the enormous barrier around the temple remained, standing firm…]
Ten minutes later, the game notified him again.
[…]
[You felt the icy chill on your chest grow stronger still…]
[Some instinct compelled you to look up at the sky. A black meteor streaked across the heavens, plummeting toward you at terrifying speed!]
[As the meteor fell, it cleaved down a jet-black blade of primordial force, tearing open the supposedly unbreakable Absolute Barrier Seal of the Ten Directions. The ground quaked, and the pagoda shuddered on the brink of collapse…]
[You locked eyes with the figure inside that black ‘meteor,’ then stepped forward to touch the Resting Page, something no one else could see or touch.]
[As furious roars echoed from the sky, your figure vanished once more…]
“Next time, fly a little faster, will you? Don’t make me wait so long.”
Lin Xun curled his lip in disdain.
[…]
[A powerful wandering soul awakens in the deserted port…]
Lin Xun activated a ‘dog-walking mode,’ teleporting back and forth between the Dharma-Aspect Temple and Fukoka Castle, driving the Great General into a helpless rage, unable to do a thing about him.
After a few more laps, when he possessed the Imperial Swordsmith’s shell again, the game text simply said.
[Your shell has been marked by the malice of the Extreme Evil Great General.]
And the second line, [He is rushing toward this location at full speed!] no longer appeared.
“Oh no, what’s this? You’re giving up already? But I wasn’t done taking you for a walk.”
Lin Xun had been thinking about returning to the Imperial Palace to lure the snake out of its hole again and keep baiting the Great General until he collapsed from exhaustion.
But after giving it some thought, he decided to abandon that plan.
If the Great General truly lost patience and sent the Kyoto army to surround both Resting Page locations, he’d end up exposing his base in either Dragon Marsh Temple or the Tenshukaku.
Once both bases were wiped out by the army, he’d have nowhere left to go except the Library, essentially getting soft-locked.
Cautiously, he put away the Imperial Swordsmith shell and stopped flaunting it under the Great General’s nose now that it had been marked by malice.
He returned to the High Throne Chamber in the Tenshukaku to inspect the legendary-grade tool he’d traded a life to get.
[Imperial Swordsmith’s Hammer (Legendary-Grade Tool): After the swordsmith was appointed Imperial Swordsmith, he received many precious materials as gifts from the Great General. Through countless hammer strikes, he refined the essence of those materials into a forging hammer worthy of passing down through generations.]
[When using this tool to craft equipment, there is a high chance the created item will gain an Equipment Trait and a very small chance that one forging material will be returned upon completion.]
“This… this is literally a blacksmith’s divine artifact!”
Seeing those effects, Lin Xun didn’t hesitate, he immediately called his female boss.
The line soon connected, and Li Xingyue’s voice came through.
“Lin Xun, what’s wrong?”
Lin Xun got straight to the point, telling her he’d completed a certain hidden quest and obtained a shell capable of forging legendary-grade equipment.
He wanted to practice his skills and make a little Spirit Essence on the side. His commission fee would definitely be cheaper than the Book of Craftsmen.
But at the moment, he was just an ordinary official Apostle, an undercover agent in New World, so he couldn’t afford to be too high-profile. He’d have to rely on Li Xingyue’s connections behind the scenes to handle this discreetly, and then they could split the profits.
There were reasons he’d never agreed to make weapons for others before.
First, the forging commission was usually about 15 to 20 percent of the weapon’s total value, and he could only craft epic-grade equipment. Even the most expensive epic weapons were only worth about 200,000 Spirit Essence.
After spending half a day forging, he’d at most make 40,000 Spirit Essence, less than he earned just by clearing a chapter.
Second, if the Apostles’ Security Council had infiltrators in New World, why wouldn’t New World have infiltrators among the Apostles?
Lin Xun suspected the officials also had New World spies. Forging for others required prearranged material trades, if there was any slip-up, it could draw New World’s attention and be extremely dangerous.
That was why he said he wanted to use Li Xingyue’s channels instead of the official ones.
He and his boss were close enough that he didn’t need to hide the matter of the Imperial Swordsmith. Besides, Li Xingyue was decisive, reliable, and had powerful backing, he couldn’t think of anyone better to trust.
If Li Xingyue had been someone like Wang Zong, Lin Xun would rather forgo the profits than risk exposing this and putting them both in danger.
Li Xingyue understood his meaning right away and didn’t waste any words, replying simply with wait for news.
Lin Xun ended the call, knowing that once she agreed, she would see it through to the end.
“Crafting equipment, refunding materials… If that chance is even a little higher, wouldn’t I be able to make money hand over fist?”
Even the cheapest legendary weapons sold for at least three million Spirit Essence, and the pricier ones could fetch four or five million.
As long as he completed one order, he’d get hundreds of thousands just in commission fees.
Later, he could even advertise the guaranteed equipment trait to justify higher fees. And if he occasionally got a material refunded… that would be easy money beyond imagining!