Forging Immortality: The Undying Blacksmith

Chapter 18: The Market

As the old man helped Li Qing pack the jade stones, Li Qing’s gaze suddenly locked onto a single jade slip among them.

“Old man, what is this?” Li Qing asked, pointing to the slip, which was about the width of two fingers pressed together.

The elder merely glanced up and shook his head. “Something my ancestors left behind. Probably a protective talisman of some sort.”

He wasn’t sure himself. The artifact had been passed down through too many generations to count. If not for the gnawing hunger, he would never have considered selling it for a few Black Wheat Mushrooms.

Li Qing picked up the jade slip, his eyes narrowing as he examined it. Faint, thread-like veins seemed to pulse just beneath its surface. The jade was smooth and lustrous, radiating a pleasant warmth into his palm. In any world, it would be considered a Top Grade treasure.

Once the old man had hastily bundled the rest of the stones, Li Qing took out over three pounds of Black Wheat Mushrooms from his cloth basket and handed them over.

With the transaction complete, Li Qing resumed his stroll through the market.

He recognized most of the goods for sale in the Extreme Night World, but a few local specialties were entirely new to him. One, in particular, caught his eye: a fungus that looked remarkably like a chunk of meat. Its white, fleshy mycelium was interwoven so tightly it looked uncannily like a slab of marbled fat.

Its name was fitting: White Meat Mushroom. It was far more valuable than its darker cousin; it took three pounds of Black Wheat Mushrooms to trade for a single pound of it.

Li Qing, however, had little interest in fungi. He had come to the Obsidian City market for one purpose: to trade his mushrooms for refined iron and see if any other unique ores were available.

Ever since his Gu Xuan Hammer Technique had reached the Novice realm, his need for a proper hammer had become urgent. The one he currently used was a standard apprentice’s tool, fine for shaping metal but utterly useless in a real fight. He needed to forge a new one—a weapon.

At the thought, Li Qing’s hand drifted to his chest, touching a piece of cool metal hidden deep within his clothes. It felt as smooth and dense as black jade.

It was the Black Gold.

Officer Li Gui had given it to him, ordering him to smelt it into the captain’s mountain-cleaving axe. But the bandit raid had thrown everything into chaos. Li Qing, trapped in his tent, never had the chance to finish the job.

To his astonishment, he later discovered that the piece of Black Gold, which he had tossed into the hottest part of the forge, hadn’t even begun to melt. The core of the furnace was a searing, white-hot inferno where even the toughest metals would have turned to liquid.

Yet the Black Gold had remained perfectly intact.

So, before he fled to the granary, he made sure to retrieve it. Holding it in his hand, he realized that even after hours of intense heat, the metal showed no signs of melting. Its surface had merely warmed from its usual icy touch to being slightly hot.

‘The bandits raid the camp, and Officer Li’s precious Black Gold falls right into my lap,’ Li Qing mused, a smirk touching his lips. ‘Well, we both share the surname Li. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind me borrowing it. Permanently.’

The thought lifted his spirits considerably. His plan was simple: buy a large quantity of high-quality refined iron, then try once more to melt the Black Gold. If he succeeded, he would use it as the head for a peerless war hammer.

After circling the market twice, Li Qing found a blacksmith’s shop. There was no rhythmic clang of a hammer, and the air lacked the familiar scorching heat of a working forge. It felt more like a tomb than a workshop.

As Li Qing stepped inside, a young man with the weary look of an apprentice glanced up from his seat beside a cold, grey anvil. “Customer,” he said listlessly, “what can I get for you? Weapon or farm tool?”

An idea sparked in Li Qing’s mind. This was the perfect chance to gauge the local market. “I need a few harvesting knives forged. What are your rates?”

The apprentice’s eyes lit up, and he pushed himself to his feet. “If you provide the iron, it’s half a pound of Black Wheat Mushrooms for two knives!” he said, his voice suddenly energetic. “If I use my materials, it’s half a pound per knife. But we can negotiate for a larger order!”

So the Yan family really had been lowballing me, Li Qing thought. They had only paid him half a pound of mushrooms for three knives. Still, this shop was in the main market; higher prices were to be expected.

“Ahem,” Li Qing coughed, changing the subject. “I’m actually here to buy refined iron. What’s your price?”

The apprentice’s newfound enthusiasm vanished instantly. “One pound of Black Wheat Mushrooms for twenty pounds of iron ingots. How much do you want?”

Li Qing’s next words made the young man’s eyes go wide.

“I’ll take three hundred pounds,” he said in a low, steady voice.

“What? Th-three hundred?”

“Is there a problem?” Li Qing asked, a faint smile playing on his lips as he watched the apprentice’s expression shift from disbelief to frantic hope.

“No! Of course not! I’ll go get it for you!” The apprentice scrambled toward the back, his movements suddenly sharp and efficient.

A sale of three hundred pounds of iron was worth fifteen pounds of Black Wheat Mushrooms—a fortune for a failing shop that had been on the verge of starvation.

Obsidian City was surrounded by mining pits. Anyone with enough grit could venture outside the walls, dig for ore, and smelt it into ingots. The city’s few blacksmiths all sourced their own materials this way. Under the current lawless conditions, no one regulated it; what you dug was yours. It was a world away from Feng Country, where the state’s strict control over salt and iron kept prices perpetually high and forbade any private trade.

After what felt like an eternity, the apprentice emerged from the back storeroom, covered in dust and grime.

“Customer, it’s all counted. I’ve got just over three hundred pounds of ingots here. That’ll be fifteen pounds of Black Wheat Mushrooms!” He rubbed his hands together, staring at Li Qing, terrified this was all some cruel joke.

Thud.

Li Qing dropped his large basket onto the floor. It was filled with the last of his supply—nearly fifteen or sixteen pounds of Black Wheat Mushrooms.

The apprentice’s eyes practically bulged out of his head. He swallowed hard. “I’ll… I’ll pack it for you right away!”

Soon, the massive pile of iron ingots was loaded into a larger, heavily reinforced basket. The apprentice grunted with effort, barely managing to shove it into the main room of the shop.

“Whew! Customer, do you need help carrying this back?” he panted.

Li Qing shook his head, declining the offer. “No need. I can manage.”

With that, he squatted, positioned the basket on his back, and stood up. The floorboards groaned, but Li Qing’s posture was perfectly steady. He took a moment to feel the weight, testing his limits, and let out a quiet breath.

Manageable. The load was immense, but not crushing. Good. This will be training in itself.

He was deeply satisfied with his current physical power. To carry over three hundred pounds and walk with a steady gait was something the old Li Qing could never have even dreamed of.

Leaving the stunned, gaping apprentice in his wake, Li Qing strode out of the blacksmith shop and into the market, the immense weight settling on his back like a challenge he was more than ready to meet.