The morning after the feast, a handsome young boy with long dark hair and noticeable silver eyes emerged from a bedroom in the compound of Forgemaster Su Won. He looked sleep deprived. This was the result of the long lecture he had received from Old Guan the previous night about only cultivating in absolute privacy and keeping his silver hair hidden.Ma Sa understood his concerns about the cultivation thing as he really hadn"t thought of the consequences of absorbing the light. The hair thing irritated him though as he thought the Sima reputation would protect him a bit. According to his teacher, it would instead make him a target for schemes to extort the Sima family. Humans in the cities may not be able to use violence but their skills in deceit were well polished.
Ma Sa walked to the courtyard to subtly cultivate in a seemingly normal fashion before he had to head to the workshop for his first lesson with his grandpa Su. Old Guan was going to head to the Ye clan to explain the new development to Ye Zhu. From now on Ma Sa would only train there every other day.
Cultivation went smoothly but uneventfully. It felt so slow! Ma Sa pitied the "normies" that had to cultivate like this all the time.
When he entered the workshop the overwhelming noise and temperature were the first things that struck him. He had expected it would be like this to an extent but he hadn"t imagined that Su Won"s workshop would be such a ma.s.sive operation. There must be at least two hundred people hammering away and furiously pumping the bellows of the fifty or so forges. How did normal people breathe in here?!
A few workers turned their heads towards him and frowned before getting back to their work. They wondered why a small boy had wandered into their domain but they were too busy to throw him out. Someone else would take care of it. One of the workers whistled loudly and nodded in Ma Sa"s direction once he had caught someone"s eye. Shortly after, Ma Sa was approached by a tall and burly bearded man. Yup, this was a blacksmith alright!
"This isn"t a place for little kids to play. How did you get in here?"
"Greetings to senior. My name is Ma Sa and I"m here to learn smithing from Forgemaster Su."
"Hahaha! Kid that"s a funny joke but not just anyone can learn from the Forgemaster! Besides, you couldn"t even swing a hammer!" He Tian Fa couldn"t contain his laughter. Just how was this kid meant to learn anything? "Now, you can"t be here. It"s dangerous. Come with me and I"ll take you back to your parents, ok?" He reached a huge hand out to Ma Sa as he prepared to escort him outside.
Ma Sa"s brows furrowed slightly as he realised that his grandpa Su was rather unreliable. He hadn"t informed anyone that Ma Sa would be training here! He could only equip Su Won"s disciple token from his inventory in the hopes that the senior would recognise it.
He Tian Fa"s hand closed around the boy"s to lead him out but before he could move he felt the coldness of the metal token.
"What"s this boy? You shouldn"t take metal from the shop or people will think you"re a thief, you know?" He held up the token and looked at it for a second before his face froze. "You? Where did you get this??"
"Grandpa Su gave it to me and told me to come here in the morning for training."
"..."
What the h.e.l.l? He Tian Fa knew precisely what this token was but he just couldn"t wrap his head around why the Forgemaster would give it to a small boy. A small boy who had never forged before was worthy to be his successor?
"You said your "grandpa Su" gave this to you? What does he look like?" He Tian Fa couldn"t help but ask.
"Eh? He"s old, bigger and more muscly than you with a grey beard and funny long eyebrows."
"Bu--" He Tian Fa almost burst into a fit of giggles at the boy"s description of the Forgemaster. It was true! He Tian Fa would never say that though...
"Hmm well... Come with me and you can wait for the Forgemaster to arrive."
Ma Sa nodded and followed the man. A short while later Su Won arrived and threw him a wink when he saw him.
"Greetings Forgemaster!" The workshop shook with the exuberant greeting of the workers as they momentarily stopped their forging.
"Ah, Good! Carry on!" said Su Won as he walked over to Ma Sa and He Tian Fa. He was proudly stroking his beard as he thought about how awesome he must look to Ma Sa after that display of the workers" respect for him.
Ma Sa could only inwardly chuckle at his transparent grandpa Su"s act.
When Su Won finished his stately march across the shop floor he announced, "Men! This here is Ma Sa. He"s my successor so make sure you treat him well!"
Subtle as a brick... Ma Sa facepalmed inside his head. How cliche?? Best start looking for the jealous disciple who thinks they deserve to be the true successor...
Surprisingly, there was only a momentary lull in the noise before work resumed and a resounding cry of "Yes, Forgemaster!" was heard.
Really? No one jumping out in protest? Ma Sa was stunned.
"Kid, come. I"ll teach you something good!" Su Won walked on towards a room at the back of the shop. Ma Sa took one last look around the room to look for his non-existent nemesis and followed.
*********************
Sweat dripped off the tip of Bu Du Teng"s sizeable nose as he beat the billet of cloudsteel in front of him like it had just dishonored his mother. Successor? Bulls.h.i.t! Only he, Bu Du Teng was deserving of such an honour! Now, it would take some careful planning in order to make sure that he received was was rightfully his...
Bu Du Teng hammered away ferociously as his mind worked overtime to come up with a suitably cunning plan to remove the obstacle that was Ma Sa. The plan needed to be airtight so that it would not incriminate him in any way. It would be for the best if neither he, nor his acquaintances, had any direct contact with Ma Sa.
Finally, a plan had formed in his poisonous mind. He was rather find of his scheming side actually. Putting his plan into action, he first decided to visit the Contributions Hall to see what jobs were available. Knowing the Forgemaster, he would be likely to send Ma Sa on a beginner mission to let him get familiar with the rewards system. It would probably happen in the next week or so. He would have his friends keep an eye on the brat"s whereabouts until he headed towards the Contributions Hall at which point phase two would begin.
He and his friends would then grab all of the beginner missions except one which would require one to head to the charcoal makers" huts, away from the main compound. Bu Du Teng knew of a tunnel which led to a small grove outside the walls. The difficulty in the plan lay in making Ma Sa choose to explore the tunnel willingly.
It was possible that he could get someone to mention a bonus mission or something but that would be risky. It may be better to deploy a temporary beguilement formation to make Ma Sa curious about an illusory trail towards the tunnel. It wouldn"t be hard to do as natural formations were his uncle Bu Ran"s specialty. He often deployed them in the back hills to confuse and herd any beasts that wandered off the pastures back home. Bu Du Teng had been learning the art recently and, although he was not skilled enough to set up his own formation, he could definitely repurpose an existing one temporarily. Just a few well placed jade formation stones along the dragon vein would send that kid to h.e.l.l! Now all that was left was to organise what would greet the brat at the end of the tunnel.
"Muhu-!"
Bu Du Teng suppressed an evil laugh. He would do this increasingly more often over the next few days.