Forging Immortality: The Undying Blacksmith

Chapter 98: The Secrets of the Red Fish Chamber of Commerce

An invitation from the City Lord’s Manor?

Ke Luoda blinked, caught entirely off guard by the question. He stared at Li Qing for a long moment before finally opening his mouth. “There… is such a matter, yes.”

Why was this terrifying blacksmith asking about the City Lord? A wave of sheer panic crashed through Ke Luoda’s mind. Could it be that his real target is the City Lord’s Manor?! What absolute insanity! For years, the City Lord had ruled Giant Rock City with an iron fist. No one dared challenge that supremacy. It suddenly made sense to Ke Luoda: no wonder this man had reached the Inner Force realm yet remained hidden in the slums. He wasn’t a mere blacksmith; he was a dormant dragon, biding his time to usurp the throne of the city itself!

Unaware of the wild conspiracy theories spinning in the gang leader’s head, Li Qing stated his demand calmly. “When you attend this banquet, I will be going with you. I’ll disguise myself as one of your gang members.”

“Done. Absolutely no problem.” A bead of cold sweat slid down Ke Luoda’s temple.

He agreed without a second of hesitation. Survival dictated submission. When a monster capable of crushing his skull with a single punch made a request, the only acceptable answer was yes.

Seeing the Sand Crocodile so thoroughly cooperative, Li Qing smiled. “Now, tell me everything you know about the Red Fish Chamber of Commerce.”

He’s targeting the Chamber too?! Ke Luoda’s heart skipped a beat, but he kept his voice steady and honest.

“As far as I know, the Red Fish Chamber of Commerce holds the city’s economic throat. They maintain a very close relationship with the City Lord’s Manor. In fact, the money crystals we all use were jointly established by the Chamber and the Manor.”

Ke Luoda paused, gathering his thoughts. “The head of the Chamber is an Inner Force expert named Ge Wen. He cultivates external martial arts and is a master of the sword. He’s only slightly younger than City Lord Qin Xiu. As for how much of his peak strength he still retains, no one really knows. That’s about the extent of it.”

Li Qing’s expression turned thoughtful. He habitually stroked his chin.

After a long stretch of silence, Li Qing pressed deeper. “Give me your personal read on them. The Armored Pigs they sell, and those newly announced Blood-Generating Pills. What do you think is really going on behind closed doors?”

Ke Luoda’s eyes flickered. He lowered his voice. “It happened about seven years after the sun disappeared. I gauge the timeline based on the bone age of the street orphans. Back then, Qin Xiu had only been ruling Giant Rock City for two years. He had just established a basic semblance of order.”

“We were all starving,” Ke Luoda continued, his voice tight with the memory. “Meat was so scarce you couldn’t even find a rat in the gutters. And then, completely out of nowhere, the Red Fish Chamber of Commerce started selling Armored Pigs. At first, it was just a trickle, exclusively for the higher-ups of the gangs. But the supply kept growing. Today, even the commoners can afford a scrap of meat every now and then.”

Seven years after the sun died. Li Qing silently burned the timeline into his memory. “Did anything unusual happen to the Chamber during that specific time? Did any mysterious or important figures join their ranks?”

Ke Luoda frowned, shaking his head slowly as he searched his memories. Suddenly, his head snapped up.

“Wait. Yes! I remember rumors from that year. Someone claimed they saw Ge Wen suffering from horrific injuries. He was badly hurt, and shortly after, he went into Secluded Cultivation for a very long time. When he finally showed his face again, he acted like nothing had ever happened.”

As a martial artist, Ke Luoda’s memory for shifts in power was razor-sharp.

Bingo. Li Qing’s mind raced. The sudden appearance of the Armored Pigs. The recent bounties for age-old beasts. The miraculous Blood-Generating Pill. It all traced back to that exact year!

Ge Wen was an external martial arts practitioner. Seven years ago, he was an Inner Force expert in his absolute prime. As the head of the Chamber, he wouldn’t have been starving. So who could have possibly inflicted life-threatening injuries on a peak Inner Force expert?

Given their symbiotic relationship, it definitely wasn’t City Lord Qin Xiu. They co-ruled the city; a death match made no economic sense.

There was only one logical conclusion. Ge Wen had encountered an Otherworlder. Someone capable of breeding mutated Armored Pigs. Someone who could refine strange Pills like the Blood-Generating Pill. And, most importantly, someone powerful enough to utterly crush a peak Inner Force martial artist in a fight.

Li Qing’s breathing grew slightly heavy as the adrenaline of the revelation hit him.

“Hoo…” He exhaled a long breath, forcefully suppressing the sharp spike of anticipation. He needed more intel, but the pieces were finally connecting.

“I will find you before the City Lord’s banquet begins,” Li Qing said, his tone returning to a flat, chilling calm. “And as for what happened here today…”

“Not a word!” Ke Luoda interrupted frantically, raising his hands. “I swear it. My lips are sealed, and I’ll keep my men on a tight leash. Nothing leaves this room.”

He wasn’t stupid. Offending a dormant Inner Force predator was a guaranteed death sentence.

“Remember your promise.” Li Qing gave the Sand Crocodile one last, piercing look before turning toward the door.

As he crossed the threshold, he glanced at the four thugs crumpled on the courtyard floor. They were sobbing weakly, their swollen cheeks split open, blood and saliva pooling in the dirt. They were street trash who preyed on the weak; their shattered jaws elicited zero sympathy.

Without breaking stride, Li Qing activated his Shadow-Seeking Footwork. His silhouette blurred, shifting seamlessly into the shadows before vanishing entirely from the compound.

The moment he was gone, Ke Luoda’s legs nearly gave out. He braced himself against the table and roared, “Get your worthless asses in here!”

The impending birthday banquet acted like a bucket of ice water dumped over the city’s boiling underworld.

Everyone understood the subtext: City Lord Qin Xiu was hosting a peace-making summit. The City Lord’s Manor hadn’t thrown a formal celebration in years. Doing so right at the peak of the post-hunt gang violence was a clear mandate to halt the bloodshed. As the undisputed strongest faction in Giant Rock City, the Manor demanded respect, and the gangs had no choice but to swallow their grudges and comply.

The volatile, blood-soaked tension in the streets rapidly evaporated as rival factions hastily prepared their tributes.

Giant Rock City, Northern District.

The City Lord’s Manor was a sprawling, opulent estate heavily guarded by armored sentries. As the hour of the banquet arrived, the grand gates were thrown open, welcoming the absolute elite of the city’s underworld.

Each invited gang leader was permitted a maximum of two bodyguards. The procession was a tense, heavily armed display of posturing and veiled threats.

The Zhenwu Gang arrived first. Having recently secured a Blood-Generating Pill and successfully elevated a lieutenant to the Outer Force realm, they strutted through the gates with palpable arrogance.

“Kong Fei of the Zhenwu Gang, wishing City Lord Qin boundless longevity!” the gang leader bellowed, his voice thick with pride and vital energy.

Other heavyweights quickly followed suit.

“Dahe Gang! Jia Dachun wishes City Lord Qin a lifespan as high as the heavens!”

“Quanshan Gang…”

Virtually every gang leader of consequence filed into the grand courtyard. Naturally, Ke Luoda of the Sand Crocodile Gang was among them.

Yet, unlike his boisterous peers, Ke Luoda looked physically ill.

He marched stiffly toward the Manor gates, sweat prickling at his collar. Walking half a step behind him, dressed in the standard, unremarkable leather armor of a Sand Crocodile enforcer, was Li Qing. His face was a placid, unreadable mask, entirely blending into the background.

For the first time in his violent life, the leader of the Sand Crocodile Gang felt like a helpless puppet.

Swallowing hard, Ke Luoda forced his voice to project across the courtyard. “Ke Luoda of the Sand Crocodile Gang, wishing City Lord Qin both happiness and longevity!”