The Legend of the Dragon King (Web Novel)
chapter-948

"None of Shrek Academy's former members will ever abandon it. On the other hand, this is something that all the great forces on the continent are unwilling to see. Thus, you can only imagine the stress that he will have to face in the future. Such a person is not destined for an ordinary life, and he is bound to be under the threat of constant danger. Do you understand what I'm trying to say here?"

Long Yuxue spoke, "But our Blood God Army is relatively independent, so we won't be affected! No one here is going to look for trouble with him either!"

Long Tianwu slapped his forehead. "Silly little girl, he's going to leave one day! He'll never stay in the Blood God Army forever!"

Long Yuxue was caught in a daze. 'He'll leave?'

In her mind, she had always felt that the greatest soldiers would definitely choose to remain with the Blood God Army and pass down his or her legacy. Having been born and raised there, she never thought that she would leave the place one day. Yet, her father's words revealed to her that she was different from Tang Wulin and that he would leave one day.

A sensation that was difficult to describe radiated through Long Yuxue's body. She suddenly turned around and ran away. "I'm going to ask him."

Long Tianwu heaved a sigh as he gazed after his daughter quickly dashing out. Perhaps his daughter had truly taken a liking for that young man. Fortunately, he had been forewarned. He could only hope that Yuxue would not land herself in any trouble.

He pressed a button for the communicator on his table.

"General."

"Dispatch my order to increase the exchange rate for every merit point earned from supplementary professions to one hundred and twenty percent. They can be used to exchange for the higher value but from this day on, they can't be used for promotion. Only merit points earned from battle can be used to elevate military rank."

"Yes, sir!"

It was way too easy for a Saint Craftsman-ranked blacksmith to earn merit points, so he could not let Tang Wulin climb too far up the ranks so soon. That was definitely not beneficial for the Blood God Army.

Tang Wulin was unaware that Long Yuxue's moment of excitement had shattered his dream of using the merit points he gained through forging to attain a high rank.

After Lu Ni left carrying the gun barrel, Tang Wulin did not have the large influx of customers that he had imagined. It was until late afternoon that Lu Ni brought over two female officers. One was a major while the other was, surprisingly, a colonel.

Both of them did not elaborate much, but they each requested Tang Wulin to forge a part after asking for a quotation. Both the parts were thousand refined.

Once again, Tang Wulin displayed his incredible forging abilities. He used an exceedingly short amount of time to complete high quality forging under the close watch of the three female officers.

The two female officers did not speak much after they had paid the merit points, and they left with Lu Ni. No other customers came for Tang Wulin after that for the rest of the day.

As evening arrived, Long Yuxue did not turn up either.

Tang Wulin returned to his quarters when he was certain that he would not receive any more customers that night. Doubt had crept into his heart. With forging skills like his, how could he possibly have no customers? Why did customers stop coming later in the day? Had something gone wrong somewhere?

It was only the next day that he finally understood what had happened. The reason was simply that Lu Ni had prevented the information from leaking out.

Everyone knew the value of a Saint Craftsman, but anyone could be a little selfish. The spirit forging requests on the first afternoon were meant to further test his capability, while no one turned up after that because Lu Ni and her close friends went back to prepare all the items they wished to forge. They seized the opportunity when Saint Craftsman Tang Wulin was not popular, before his reputation spread in the Blood God Army, to have him work on all the items they wished to forge first.

Thus, Lu Ni brought a total of five female officers when she came again early the next morning. The workload that they brought startled even Tang Wulin. Three of the female officers brought an entire suit of battle armor's worth of spirit-forged metals. For that, they spared no effort in preparing Tang Wulin's payment, even borrowing a large amount of merit points the night before.

This was undoubtedly a huge commission.

"May I inquire if all of you prefer pure spirit forging or spirit-forged metal with smelted alloy added?" Tang Wulin asked. He was not a Master Craftsman only capable of spirit forging but a Saint Craftsman. The difference between these two ranks was that he could easily complete fuse forging with all sorts of metals, not only soul forging.

Two-word battle armor was too important for an ordinary battle armor master because this was the actual birth of the battle armor. Additionally, a good foundation would undoubtedly become the shortcut to his breakthrough in the future. Therefore, the female officers indicated that they wanted the best. Two of them chose to fuse forge two types of metals, while the other wealthier female officer with a history of military service even chose to fuse forge three types of metals.

In addition to requests to make all sorts of weapons, Tang Wulin accepted projects that earned him more than one hundred thousand merit points. The business was definitely highly lucrative. All the materials were provided by the female officers themselves! He was only charging for his labor costs.

However, his excitement only lasted until noon. One hundred thousand merit points could immediately promote him to a major under ordinary circumstances. However, someone from the military supplies department came over to his forging workshop at noon and announced the army's decision to not accept merit points earned outside of battle in exchange for military rank. This instantly left Tang Wulin feeling greatly disappointed.

This was obviously aimed at him! Tang Wulin was feeling quite helpless. He understood that this was due to the army's fear that he would utilize forging to promote himself too quickly, but it was still a heavy blow to him.

Consequently, Tang Wulin made the decision to change the signage outside his forging workshop, stating his intention to not accept forging missions below soul forging level.

"What happened?" Long Yuxue finally arrived. Surprised by the sign hanging in front of the door to his forging workshop, she could not help questioning Tang Wulin.

Tang Wulin passed over his Blood God Bracelet to her quietly. "I borrowed a total of twelve thousand merit points from you to start up this forging workshop. I'll return the points first then we'll halve the remaining profits later on. I don't wish to take on too much forging work anymore, so I apologize. However, when I take on soul-forging jobs, we'll still split the profits."

Long Yuxue looked astonished as she gazed at Tang Wulin's nonchalant expression. "What's going on with you? I thought Sister Lu Ni had found you a lot of jobs today?"

Tang Wulin spoke indifferently, "That's right! It was going pretty well, but the military supplies department came and informed me that all the merit points earned from forging couldn't be used to elevate military rank. If that's the case, what's the point of me earning so many points? Do I use them to exchange for food?"

Long Yuxue was stunned for a moment as she had yet to be informed of this. She was immediately shocked upon hearing the news. "How did this happen? Who told you about this? Is this a misunderstanding?"

Tang Wulin passed the order sent by the military supplies department to Long Yuxue. It had been sealed with the army headquarters' red stamp.

Long Xuyue's charming face turned ghastly pale at once upon reading the name of the person that issued the order. She immediately understood that this was her father's doing. Moreover, it was due to her own actions.

"I'm going to ask them." Long Yuxue turned around and ran away upon saying that.

Tang Wulin sighed as he watched her depart in a rush, but his gaze suddenly became focused once again. 'So I can't rely on forging to get myself promoted in the army, right? Alright then, I'll just rely on battles to elevate myself.'

His Blood God Bracelet had been upgraded by the military supplies department earlier that day. His military gallantry was divided into two parts. One part could be earned through forging while the other could be gained when he killed abyssal creatures in combat.

His decision to only accept jobs that required soul forging or higher refinement was not out of spite, but after careful consideration. Tang Wulin would not mind being a little tired if he could earn merit points from forging in order to elevate his military rank, but if his merit points could not be used to elevate his military rank then he would not be wasting time on forging anymore. He needed to elevate his military rank as soon as possible, so he would reserve his time for taking part in battles.

Of course, he would still need to complete the forging jobs which he had already accepted to the best of his ability.

It was already dusk when Long Xuyue returned. Her eyes were red when she was back. It was apparent that she had been crying.

"I'm sorry, Wulin. I...I didn't manage to convince them…" Long Yuxue's voice sounded a little hoarse.

Tang Wulin had just completed forging the foundations for a piece of two-word battle armor. He smiled upon hearing her words. "It's okay. Look, I've earned one hundred thousand merit points in such a short period of time. We'll divide it, and you can buy anything you desire. Plus, the value of accepting only soul forging work is relatively higher. I can only elevate myself by practicing soul forging. Perhaps, more soul forging tasks will be coming my way soon. What a pity that we can't utilize the merit points to raise our military ranks together. But it's okay. We shall earn more points so we can make you a top-grade mecha."