"Here is your weapon, boy."
Early the next morning, Dai Yuan stood anxiously in front of Mr. Jin's smithy shop, his heart hammering with anticipation. After a few agonizing minutes, the blacksmith finally emerged from inside the forge dragging a long, incredibly thick iron rod across the concrete slab of his workshop. The weapon was roughly 2.5 meters long, its surface coated in an unknown dark material that radiated a faint, black metallic sheen and trace amounts of qi energy. Judging by the deep, scraping sound it made against the floor, anyone could guess the terrifying weight of the weapon.
Looking at his custom-commissioned weapon, Dai Yuan could not suppress the pure joy blooming within him. Impatiently approaching the sweating blacksmith, he eagerly reached out and took the massive iron rod.
"Thank you, Mr. Jin! You are truly a master of your craft," Dai Yuan praised, marveling at the seamless craftsmanship. He experimentally swung the weapon left and right; even with his monstrous strength, his unhealed muscles twinged slightly from the sheer, mass of it.
Nodding in deep satisfaction, Dai Yuan tucked the rod securely behind his back after playing around with it for a bit. He turned to Mr. Jin, who had become completely stunned, staring blankly at the oversized youth wielding the heavy iron as if it were a common wooden staff. "How much do I owe you for the workmanship, Mr. Jin?"
"Well, it's not overly expensive, since I managed to utilize leftovers from a previous high-grade commission," Mr. Jin said, a hint of professional pride in his voice. "I'll charge you an even two hundred silver coins."
"Ugh… Mr. Jin… that's a little bit too steep, isn't it?" Dai Yuan grimaced, his heart dropping at the price.
Having lived in Brightmoon City for over a week, he had finally gotten acquainted with the local monetary system. There were three common denominations of currency flowing through the outer city: copper, bronze, and silver. According to Wang Linlin, there was an even higher denomination used strictly by the wealthy nobles in the inner city, but Dai Yuan had never laid eyes on one. In fact, despite his time in the city, he hadn't even held a single bronze coin yet, let alone a silver one.
According to the market conversion ratio, one hundred copper coins equaled one bronze coin, and one hundred bronze coins equaled one silver coin. Therefore, two hundred silver coins was equivalent to an astronomical two million copper coins! Thinking about such an impossible sum caused Dai Yuan's gigantic frame to shudder, and the heavy rod almost slipped from his grasp. For the first time in his life, he realized just how desperately poor he truly was.
Because he hadn't sold the materials from his hunt the previous week—having used them directly to heal and supplement his cultivation—Dai Yuan didn't possess even a fraction of that amount. Touching the flat, empty pouch hanging around his waist, he pouted. His last bits of coin had been spent on food and arena training fees throughout the week. He currently had zero money.
"Umm, Mr. Jin…" Slowly turning his head, Dai Yuan looked at the blacksmith, whose massive arms were resting lazily against the wooden doorframes of the smithy. "Can I… can I hold onto this weapon and pay you back over the next two weeks?" Dai Yuan asked, raising the iron rod in both hands like an offering, his voice full of sheepish hope.
Mr. Jin, who had been watching Dai Yuan's frantic facial expressions and internal panic, didn't say a word. He merely squinted his eyes, scrutinizing Dai Yuan's giant frame the way a seasoned butcher might inspect his next unlucky pig. The alleyway suddenly fell dead quiet. Dai Yuan felt a wave of trepidation hit his mind as a crushing, imaginary pressure seemed to slowly emanate from the burly blacksmith.
"Well… alright, kid. You can," Mr. Jin finally muttered after a tense minute of silence. Looking at the sweating, anxious youth, the blacksmith cracked a small smile and completely retracted his aura.
"Thank you, Mr. Jin!" Dai Yuan breathed a massive sigh of relief as the suffocating pressure vanished. The lively chorus of the morning market rushed back into his ears, bringing immense relief. He quickly turned on his heel and made his way out of the west wing of the market, eager to make himself scarce before the blacksmith changed his mind.
"Heh," Mr. Jin grunted silently, watching the receding, mountainous figure of the boy. After a few moments of quiet contemplation, watching Dai Yuan completely disappear into the dense crowd of shoppers, he chuckled. "Out of sight, out of breath. What a strange kid."
"Brother Yuan!"
Wang Linlin's bright voice rang out across the street the moment she spotted Dai Yuan heading toward her family's storefront.
"Good morning, Miss Linlin…" Dai Yuan greeted her politely, coming to a halt just outside the entrance of Uncle Wang's shop.
"Good morning, Brother Yuan! And haven't I told you several times now not to call me 'Miss' Linlin?" Wang Linlin pouted playfully, waving her hand to motion him inside.
"My apologies, Miss Linlin," Dai Yuan replied habitually. Holding the massive iron rod—which he had carefully wrapped in layers of brown cloth before arriving—he stepped inside.
"Brother Yuan! It's Wang Linlin! Not Miss!" she yelled back, exasperated.
Dai Yuan simply smiled and navigated his way to his usual corner at the back of the shop. Over the past few days, he had become a frequent visitor to the store. As the only real friends and acquaintances he had in Brightmoon City, he spent almost all his free time with Mr. Wang and his niece whenever he wasn't sweating away at the martial arts arena.
Every time Dai Yuan entered the modest shop, the entire room instantly felt small and stuffy as his massive frame occupied the majority of the open space. To avoid completely blocking the paying customers, he had learned to tuck himself away at the very end of the counter, squatting down like a large, silent boulder.
"Where is Uncle Wang today?" Dai Yuan asked, noticing the absence of the usually grumpy old fellow.
"He went out to visit an old friend of his. So, do you have any major plans for today?" Wang Linlin asked, tossing aside the duster she had been using to clean the wooden shelves.
"Not particularly… though I am heavily considering heading out into the forests or the mountains today," Dai Yuan replied with a tragic sigh. He pointed a thick finger at the cloth-wrapped resting across his lap. "This new guy has officially thrown me into a bottomless pit of debt!"
"Oh? What is it?" Wang Linlin asked, her curiosity piqued. She eagerly stretched her hands out toward the bundle. "Let me see!"
"Uh… wait, not here…" Dai Yuan quickly moved the bundle away, gently shaking his head in refusal. The custom iron rod weighed well over two hundred kilograms. With her small, delicate frame, it would be a literal miracle if she grabbed it and didn't break her toes or wrench her back.
"What do you mean?" Wang Linlin stubbornly reached out again, this time grabbing the wrapped rod before Dai Yaun could stop her.
BANG!!!
Before Dai Yuan could even register what was happening, the dead weight of the iron rod tore out of Wang Linlin's hands. It crashed heavily onto the floor, instantly puncturing the thick wooden floorboards. The entire shop violently shuddered from the impact. A tremor rippled through the walls, causing porcelain jars, herbal bundles, and boxes to cascade off the shelves one after another in a chaotic, shattering chorus.
Steadying a tilting shelf beside him with one hand, Dai Yuan frantically lunged forward and snatched the rod back into his grasp before it could plunge straight through the foundation and cause any more catastrophic damage to the shop.
"What in the world…" Wang Linlin stared at Dai Yuan in absolute, wide-eyed shock. Her mind went completely blank, still reeling from the terrifying weight that had almost dragged her to the floor, and how effortlessly the giant youth was now holding it. Thankfully, Dai Yuan hadn't fully let go of the weapon in the first place, or she would have been crushed beneath it.
"Ahhhhh!!! Who the hell is trying to demolish my precious shop?!"
Before either of them could utter a word of defense, Uncle Wang's furious roar echoed from the street outside. His silhouette rushed through the doorway, his face twisted in pure rage, only to halt dead in his tracks at the sight of the duo standing amidst a thoroughly ruined shop with a splintered floor.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" Mr. Wang screamed at the top of his lungs, his eyes bulging as he took in the apocalyptic state of his livelihood. "DAI YUAN!! What the fuck are you doing demolishing my shop?!" He furiously glared at the wrapped rod in Dai Yuan's hands, enunciating the youth's name with every ounce of spiritual energy in his lungs.
"Ugh… Uncle Wang…" Before Dai Yuan could take the blame, Wang Linlin called out from behind him, her voice reduced to a tiny, mosquito-like whisper.
"Oh, pretty please, let me handle this big guy first!" Mr. Wang snapped, ignoring her.
"It… it was actually my fault, Uncle Wang."
"You said what?!" Mr. Wang spun around sharply to look at his niece, who was nervously fidgeting behind Dai Yuan's massive back.
His sudden, violent movement shook the unstable shelf directly above him. With a loud clack, a large box of white medicinal powder slid off the top ledge and shattered perfectly upon his head, exploding into a dense cloud of dust. When the smoke cleared, Uncle Wang stood completely covered from head to toe in white powder, looking like a ghostly apparition.
Stifling a desperate burst of laughter, Wang Linlin tightly bit her lip, clutching the hem of her clothes to keep from shaking. "It was… it was my fault, Uncle Wang. Not Brother Yuan's."
"Egh… egh… cough!"
Staring at his precious niece through a layer of white powder, Uncle Wang felt completely lost for words. His chest heaved violently as he desperately tried to suppress his mounting fury, his nostrils flaring with such powerful exhales that literal streams of white dust shot out of his nose like steam from a kettle.
"Get the hell out!! I don't want to see either of you in here!" Left with no other alternative, Uncle Wang screamed, shooing them away while angrily stamping his foot on the broken floorboards.
"Hahaha!!"
Wang Linlin's carefree, sonorous laughter finally erupted the moment they scrambled out of the shop, sprinting down the street to escape her uncle's wrath.
"That really isn't funny, Miss Linlin," Dai Yuan muttered dryly, carrying his heavy rod effortlessly as they ran.
"Yes… yes, I know, but… I couldn't help myself after seeing his completely white head!" Wang Linlin wheezed, resting her hand on Dai Yuan's massive elbow to steady herself as she laughed until her stomach ached. "Bwahaha!!"
Her cheerful, unbothered character simply wouldn't allow her to take the disastrous situation seriously, and she continued to chuckle as they put some safe distance between themselves and the shop.
"Ehm… Brother Yuan," Wang Linlin finally called out once her laughter subsided, wiping a stray tear from the corner of her eye. "Don't overthink it. My uncle will calm down by evening."
"Hmm," Dai Yuan replied silently, his mind already calculating how many low-grade beasts he would need to hunt to pay for both his weapon debt and the damage to the floor.
"Well, I was thinking…" Wang Linlin continued, completely ignoring his brooding silence. "If you don't have anything urgent to do today, why don't you escort me into the forest? I need to harvest some wild resources along the way."
Dai Yaun's interest was immediately piqued. "Where exactly are you going?"
"Stop looking at me with those scary, intense eyes," Wang Linlin giggled, adjusting her robes. "I'm thinking of harvesting some Fullmoon Grapes. But the Brightmoon Forest where they grow is a little bit too dangerous for me to go alone."
Dai Yaun thought for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. But if we go together, you have to listen to me." That specific sector of the forest happened to be one of the prime hunting grounds he had mentally targeted for the day.
"Deal! Wait right here for me—let me quickly run back and grab my harvesting basket!"