Eternal Heavenly Emperor

Still expecting dinner?

As soon as the girl left, Jiang Han and his two companions immediately stopped their work and approached Chu Hao.

"You can get lost now!" Jiang Han crossed his arms over his chest and said coldly.

"Why?" Chu Hao put down the hammer and asked.

"No reason. I'm the boss here, and if I tell you to get lost, you get lost!" Jiang Han retorted coldly, the two young men beside him also full of hostility.

Chu Hao shook his head inwardly. He knew that their hostility stemmed from jealousy! But what would driving him away achieve? Would Guo Yushuang take a liking to one of them just because of that?

Unless the Sky Martial Star only had three men left, then maybe there would be a chance!

However, they were the employers—pretty much junior managers, indeed having the power to hire or fire him. What could he do about them being unreasonable?

Chu Hao rolled up his sleeves and said with a smile, "Fine, I'll go. But I won't let you off for half a day's work for nothing!"

"Ha! You still expect to get paid?" Jiang Han scoffed.

"Forget the payment, but I need to beat you up to release some anger!" Chu Hao laughed heartily as he lunged forward.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Soon, all three of Jiang Han's group were down, but Chu Hao had taken a few hits himself.

In terms of strength, none of the three were weaker than Chu Hao. Jiang Han was even a Fourth Tier Martial Disciple, and when it came to physical condition, each of them was considerably stronger than Chu Hao! But when it came to combat experience, they couldn't even compare to Chu Hao!

If it weren't for the fact that Chu Hao had been hammering iron for so long and his arms were a bit numb, he wouldn't have taken a single punch.

After beating up the trio, Chu Hao's mood improved significantly. He dusted off his hands, got dressed, and strode away proudly.

As he was leaving, he saw a robust man in his forties, about 1.9 meters tall—much taller and bulkier than him, like a towering iron statue—entering as he was leaving.

The man cast a glance at him and walked straight into the backyard, passing Chu Hao by.

Once in the backyard, the man saw Jiang Han and his companions sprawled on the ground, all bruised and moaning continuously.

"What happened?" the man asked with a frown.

"Master!" The three hurriedly stood up, embarrassment written all over their faces. Not one of them had managed to win against just one adversary and ended up getting thrashed. Moreover, the opponent hadn't even been stronger than them!

"Hm?" The man grunted heavily.

Jiang Han quickly explained, "A new apprentice came by, but he was very arrogant, complaining about this and that when asked to forge iron, so we fired him! To our surprise, he got mad and beat all three of us up!"

"Yes! That's right!" The other two chimed in hastily.

The man was the girl's father, also a blacksmith by profession, named Guo Zhen. He was instantly enraged, instantly thinking of the young man he had crossed paths with at the store entrance just a moment ago.

How dare someone create a disturbance at Bingyuan Pavilion!

He turned around to chase after the young man, intending to give him a lesson in reflection, but his gaze fell upon an iron block the size of a fist and his steps halted.

Changing direction, Guo Zhen walked over to the spot where Chu Hao had been working on the iron, scrutinizing it as if it had grown a flower.

"Did that guy come here this morning?" he suddenly asked.

Jiang Han and the others didn't understand why their master would ask such a question, but they answered honestly: "It was this afternoon!"

What!

Guo Zhen was startled. Just over three hours and the rough fifty-pound chunk of iron had been hammered to nearly the quality of Fine Iron—what astounding skill! If it had been an experienced old blacksmith like himself, it wouldn't be surprising, but the problem was how young that lad was!

Although he had only glimpsed it, he remembered clearly that the guy couldn't have been over 20 years old.

As he recalled further, the image of Chu Hao's hands surfaced in his mind again.

They had calluses, but certainly not from regularly gripping a hammer; they were in a completely different place! That kid was a swordsman!

Hissss!

Guo Zhen's heart pounded faster with excitement. He turned back sharply and shouted, "What big guts you have to deceive me!"

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Jiang Han and his two friends immediately knelt, for in their hearts Guo Zhen was as revered as a Heavenly God.

"Speak, what exactly happened?" Guo Zhen pressed.

With no choice left, the three didn't dare to deceive him any longer and relayed the whole story of what had taken place.

Guo Zhen, however, didn't care about their conflict with Chu Hao and simply asked, "Are you sure, that kid has never forged iron before?"

"Positive!" All three nodded.

"The guy didn't even know how to hold a hammer at the start!"

"Yeah, it looked like he even tweaked his back a few times!"

While they were disparaging Chu Hao, they failed to notice the increasingly excited and agitated expression on Guo Zhen's face.

Genius!

Absolute genius!

The first time forging, it took only over three hours to almost turn a piece of crude iron into fine iron! Think about it, how long did it take him to reach this step?

Seven days!

And even then, his master praised him as "highly talented"!

Compared to that... he was ridiculously weak!

"You guys immediately go and call that kid back!" Guo Zhen said, "If you can't find him, don't bother coming back either!"

Ah!

Jiang Han and the other two were dumbfounded. How did things turn out like this so suddenly?

"What are you waiting for? Go now!" Guo Zhen glared at them.

"Yes, yes, yes!" The three of them scurried away, clutching their heads.

Great, it was bad enough to be beaten up, but now they had to grovel and beg for him to come back, how humiliating!

All three of them felt like crying!

But what could they do? Who dared to disobey their master's words?

The three left Bingyuan Pavilion and hurriedly split up to search. A good while had already passed, and they had no idea where Chu Hao could have gone.

They searched until evening but couldn't find Chu Hao, so they had to make do with sleeping in a street corner, planning to continue the search the next day.

...

Of course, Chu Hao had already returned to the Yunliu Sect. He planned to go to the town again tomorrow to see if there were other jobs available.

Flying Fire hadn't seen him for a day and naturally clung to him again, wagging its tail and rubbing its head against his feet, making one wonder if it was a leopard or actually a dog!

However, Chu Hao tossed and turned for a long time before falling asleep that night. It wasn't because he was upset from the day's events—he had released his anger by beating Jiang Han and the others. It was because both his arms were sore and swollen, making it hard to feel sleepy.

Eventually, he did fall asleep, and early the next morning, Chu Hao got up, moved his arms a bit, and felt that although there was still some discomfort, it was no longer a problem.

A Martial Artist's recovery ability is indeed impressive!

Chu Hao began by cultivating with the Star Stone, guiding it with the Nameless Technique. After completing this task, he went to the cafeteria for breakfast—five jins of ferocious beast meat. But with two mouths to feed, five jins of meat were hardly enough.

Fortunately, there was Tang Xin's portion as well. Combined, it was enough.

After filling his stomach, Chu Hao went back to town. He needed to quickly solve the food issue and couldn't always mooch off Tang Xin.

"Chu Hao! Chu Hao!" He was wandering about when he heard a hoarse voice behind him, full of excitement, almost as if it was about to break into tears.

Who is it?

He turned around and saw, huh, wasn't that Jiang Han? But the Jiang Han of today couldn't be compared to yesterday's. His hair was a mess, and he had dark circles under his eyes. Chu Hao couldn't help but smile and said, "What, you're not satisfied with yesterday's loss and want another round?"

"No, no, no, no!" Jiang Han quickly waved his hands, as if in jest. After all, three people couldn't beat him yesterday; wouldn't he be asking for more trouble if he was alone today? And even if he had a sudden breakthrough overnight and could defeat Chu Hao, he would still need the courage to make a move!

"My master wants you to visit the shop!" he whispered.

"I won't go!" Chu Hao refused without a second thought and continued on his way.

Jiang Han was stunned. How could you be like this? Don't you know if you don't come back with me, I can't return either? He quickly caught up to Chu Hao, blocking his path, and said, "That's my master! Guo Zhen! Master Guo!

His master is the Great Craftsman Feng Yezi! Have you heard of Master Feng? Not to speak of a small fry like you, even the Sect Master of Yunliu Sect would need to depend on Master Feng's mood to see him!"

Quite impressive!

Chu Hao thought to himself, but just shrugged and said, "So what? The problem is, I don't want to see your master at all!"

That was indeed a problem!

Seeing that Chu Hao was about to walk away again, Jiang Han became desperate and immediately dropped to his knees, pleading, "I beg you, come back with me to meet my master!"

"Didn't you say yesterday I didn't need to come back?" Chu Hao said with a smile.

In reality, he felt that blacksmithing was quite suitable for his current stage of Body Refinement. It was only because Jiang Han was being too unreasonable yesterday that he wouldn't let him off so easily.

"It was my foul mouth!" Jiang Han slapped his own mouth.

"So you tell me to scram, and then to come back whenever you want? Wouldn't that make me lose face?" Chu Hao added.

Jiang Han's expression twisted, as he begged, "Chu Hao, Big Brother Chu, what would it take for you to come back with me? Whatever it is, I'll make sure it's done!"

"Since you've begged me like this, I suppose I could make an effort and go back with you to have a look!" Chu Hao was actually quite interested in the method of body refining through blacksmithing, and seeing that he had punished Jiang Han enough, he gave in.

"Thank you, thank you, Big Brother Chu!" Jiang Han said eagerly. Even though he was several years older than Chu Hao, he called him 'big brother' quite naturally.

Chu Hao walked ahead, while Jiang Han consciously fell a few steps behind, acting like a follower's little brother. They soon arrived at Bingyuan Pavilion. Not for a moment did Jiang Han consider informing the other two—after all, he went through such great humiliation to bring Chu Hao back, so let the other two worry for a few more days!

As they entered the backyard, the sound of hammering iron rang out from the room that had been empty yesterday.

Jiang Han rushed over and shouted, "Master! Master! I've brought Chu Hao!"

The sound of forging stopped abruptly, and Guo Zhen strode out, his towering figure emanating a sense of oppression. Fortunately, his daughter wasn't short, but obviously, she wasn't as "extraordinary" as him.

"Boy, come in!" Guo Zhen gestured for Chu Hao to enter, then glared at Jiang Han and said, "And you, go and tidy yourself up properly!"

"Yes, Master!" Jiang Han was overjoyed, clearly, he would not be kicked out of Bingyuan Pavilion.