Three Weeks Time

Three deceptively calm weeks passed in Dark Spirit Town, but not one of the people living at the Unyielding Branch Forge truly believed that nothing was going on.

But even if they knew, they didn't have any choice but to continue on with their lives.

Chang Liuyun had obviously stopped going out, same with Lei Mingxing and Jing Jiang had fully supported this desicion. So it was just Jing Jiang and his stubborn father occasionaly leaving the forge, while the other two focused on the work inside.

For example, Chang Liuyun had pretty much taken up the role as maid, cooking, cleaning the house, washing clothes and a variety of several other chores while recovering from his broken bones. At the same time, Lei Mingxing concentrated wholeheartedly on her work in the forge and improving as much as she could along with saving for their travel funds.

And her progress wasn't actually that bad, rather, she was only a little shy of the minimum sum Chang Liuyun had given her.

This was all thanks to the business of the forge increasing every day, to the point that Jing Jiang and her were already on the verge of overworking. Two people running a forge all on their own with several private orders a day and stock running out all the time was exhausting to say the least. Even though Chang Liuyun came down to help them out every time it really got unbearable, receiving a small salary in turn and growing their funds even further.

So these past three weeks were very successful over all, at least that were Lei Mingxing and Chang Liuyun's thoughts, they had no idea of the worries and troubles in Jing Jiang's heart.

For example, something they didn't know, throughout the three weeks, Jing Jiang had to thwart several of Suan Bi's wicked plots.

In the first week, Suan Bi's tricks had still been pretty tame and careless, he had only tried to destroy the reputation of their newly added artifatcs created with Lei Mingxing's purified metals by distributing counterfeints and sabotaging real ones.

Surprisingly, this true and tried method Suan Bi had used to crush several forges didn't work this time, and the explanation for that was actually quite simple.

The quality of the Lei Mingxing and Jing Jiang's products was just too good.

Usually, with ordinary forges that didn't really have any speciality destryoing their reputation was enough to put them out of business, as nobody really cared, they could just buy the same product anywhere else.

But this didn't work with something like Lei Mingxing's refined metals, as there were frankly no alternatives. This became even more obvious after Suan Bi spread the first counterfeints.

No mercenary who had at least the faintest bit of experience would believe them to originate from the same source.

After that, disproving the rumours was quick work, like this, the first plan failed.

It even backfired, instead of destroying their reputation, spreading it even further and growing ther customer base.

So, Suan Bi could only feel bitter in his heart at acting so thoughtlessly, but barely a week later, he had already come up with the next plan.

This time he secretly positioned mercenaries around the Unyielding Branch Forge.

Their purpose?

To capture Lei Mingxing and Chang Liuyun when they went out.

But the only people to step out of forge were the Jing father and son, the latter making quick work of the mercenaries after noticing their unusual behavior.

Unbeknownst to Lei Mingxing, Jing Jiang chased away at least 4 mercenaries only slightly below his own cultivation rank every time he stepped out the first few days, but that number began to shrink gradually until Jing Jiang couldn't find anymore of them.

Jing Hai had also helped his son, talking to some of his old friends in the Mercenary Association and hanging up a warning that whoever tried to lurk around the forge again would receive a lifelong ban on all products of Unyielding Branch Forge as well as getting their benefits cut in the association branch in Dark Spirit Town.

That was a pretty hefty price to pay for most of the mercenaries in the town, so, despite the generous reward of the commissioner, barely anyone took the risk anymore.

With this, the second week passed and the third began with barely any troublemakers still around.

And Suan Bi hadn't even tried anything else yet.

But this just made Jing Jiang even more nervous.

The Bi-Yearly Competition was just around the corner, only three more days in fact, and Suan Bi should have felt at least a little threatened and thrown everything he had at them after all these failures. But instead he was unnervingly quiet.

Speaking of Bi-Yearly Competition, Jing Jiang hadn't even mentioned it to Lei Mingxing yet.

So, this morning in the forge, when they were still setting up everything for the day, Jing Jiang stopped Lei Mingxing from busily walking in and out of the storage for the n'th time to gather materials.

Lei Mingxing also honestly halted her steps and looked at Jing Jiang.

The latter only coughing guiltily while looking at Lei Mingxing straight forward gaze.

"Ahem..., so, Lei Mingxing, I was wondering...", Jing Jiang felt even more awkward and guilty the more intently Lei Mingxing seemed to listen, "... if you would like to participate in the Bi-Yearly Competition between the different artifact forges?"

Lei Mingxing blinked confused.

"Bi-Yearly Competition?"

Jing Jiang nodded, starting to explain:

"In the Bi-Yearly Competition artificers and even alchemists can compete against each other, the forges have to compete in pairs, with one person at least having reached Master Artificer and the other at most Craftsman. There's a small prize money for the first place but the competition mostly serves as an advertisement for the forges in town," Jing Jiang concluded his explanation, before he quickly added ,"But you don't have to participate if you don't want, the forge is already doing pretty well lately..."

"A prize money? How much is it?", Lei Mingxing quickly asked, with shining eyes.

Jing Jiang was stunned for a moment at Lei Mingxing's sudden enthusiasm.

"About four gold coins? It's really not that much, but in the case we won first place, of course we would split the money equal-"

"Let's participate!", Lei Mingxing directly interrupted Jing Jiang, her excitement obvious, "When is it?"

"...In three days?"

Jing Jiang was very hesitant when telling her the date, feeling ashamed.

All this time, he had pushed off telling her about the competition, through various excuses. Too busy, too tired, she wasn't ready yet,...

But Lei Mingxing had proven herself plenty capable, in all aspects vastly superior than the apprentices he had in the past, except for maybe experience but that was to be expected.

He would even consider her to be around the level of a Craftsman if not already verging on full-fledged Artificer if not for that fact.

"Alright."

Jing Jiang's mind froze.

He disbelievingly stared at Lei Mingxing.

"You're fine with it?"

Lei Mingxing seriously nodded her head.

"Al-alright then."

Taking these words as having concluded their business, Lei Mingxing turned away and started walking towards the storage again in a good mood, leaving a dumbfounded Jing Jiang standing.

Small theater:

Lei Mingxing: 4 gold coins! That's just what I needed!

Jing Jiang: Great!

Lei Mingxing: With that we can finally leave Dark Spirit Town!

Jing Jiang:... What?