52: Chapter 52 I asked, "Can you really kill the Shadow Eater?"

As Qin Lie's voice trailed off, the muscles on Zhang Zhenhai's face twitched. He stared at Qin Lie, then glanced at Gu Changming, seemingly deep in thought.

Gu Changming naturally noticed the change. He rested his right hand casually on the hilt of the Tang sword at his waist, his index finger lightly tapping the cold metal. The movement was slight but unmistakable.

Zhang Zhenhai saw this small gesture. He looked at Gu Changming and raised an eyebrow, asking as if seeking confirmation:

"I say, that shadow crystal core... did you really kill the Shadow Devourer to get it?"

His words were blunt. The nearby team members stopped what they were doing and slowly walked over, vaguely forming a circle around Gu Changming and Qin Lie.

Gu Changming glanced at them without answering. The smile on his face even deepened slightly as he looked at him with a grin.

His finger tapped against the hilt faster and faster.

The atmosphere grew tense once again.

Just as Zhang Zhenhai seemed about to take a step closer, Qin Lie stood up once more.

He stepped directly in front of Gu Changming, shielding him and facing Zhang Zhenhai.

"Captain Zhang," Qin Lie said, struggling to remain calm. "Think carefully. I spent points to hire your team to come in here. It's not like no one in the camp knows about this."

"If you make a move here and now, even if you get rid of the two of us, only the five of you will make it out alive... Don't take the others in the camp for fools."

"Do you really intend to never show your faces in this camp again?"

Zhang Zhenhai was taken aback, the arrogance on his face stiffening.

His eyes flickered; he was clearly struck by the concern raised.

Although human society was currently trending toward a collapse of order and the law of the jungle, such blatant murder—especially of an employer who had paid points—would make it impossible for their team to survive if word got out.

If they encountered others in a Secret Realm, people would be wary of them. Some might not even be willing to trade with them.

Seeing it was working, Qin Lie struck while the iron was hot, his tone softening slightly. "I can pretend what happened before never occurred. We'll just look for niyuan steel nearby. Once we find it, we'll leave immediately."

"For the escort fee, I'll give you another twenty points, making it one hundred and fifty as originally discussed. You won't be losing out on this trip... Harmony brings wealth."

Zhang Zhenhai didn't answer immediately. Instead, he turned his head and quickly exchanged looks with several team members behind him.

Soon, they reached a consensus and nodded.

They had already had a falling out, and the other party had no intention of entering the nest. They couldn't handle the Shattered Steel Weaver themselves either. Fighting the other party would bring them no benefit and might even lead to casualties.

"Fine!" Zhang Zhenhai turned back and clapped his hands, his tone becoming relaxed. "You're the boss. Whatever you say goes. If you say we don't go forward, we won't. We'll search here."

With that, he waved to his team. "Did you hear? Search carefully, don't miss anything."

The team members acknowledged and dispersed again.

Zhang Zhenhai also backed away, no longer confronting Gu Changming.

After Zhang Zhenhai left, Qin Lie quietly let out a sigh of relief, the back of his clothes already soaked with cold sweat.

Gu Changming's hand on the hilt also relaxed. He looked at Qin Lie's slightly trembling back and smiled. "Now you finally look like someone who spent money."

He hadn't expected Qin Lie to actually stand up for them in the end.

He had been just about ready to kill them.

Qin Lie turned around, a forced, somewhat awkward and guilty smile on his face.

"Haha," he gave a hollow laugh. "Not really, it's just another twenty points."

"I'll pay you back once we're out," Gu Changming said.

"No need," Qin Lie hurriedly waved his hand.

...

The brief conflict seemed to have been put on pause, but the atmosphere within the group was even more subtle than before.

Zhang Zhenhai's team no longer initiated conversation, and both sides maintained a deliberate distance.

About half an hour later, Qin Lie pulled a piece of niyuan steel out of a hole gnawed by a "Scavenger Rat." The material was irregularly shaped and about the size of a head.

Once the item was in hand, everyone headed back the way they came.

The return journey was even more silent and rapid than the way there.

Qin Lie held the piece of niyuan steel and stayed close to Gu Changming.

Meanwhile, Zhang Zhenhai's team walked about ten meters ahead. Both sides tacitly maintained this safe distance, remaining wary of each other.

They traveled in silence. Fortunately, they didn't encounter any more attacks from mechanical creatures.

They reached the extraction point, which was a slightly shimmering blue-green light curtain, just like the one outside.

Zhang Zhenhai's team was the first to file in, their figures disappearing into the light curtain.

Gu Changming and Qin Lie waited a few seconds before stepping in one after the other.

A familiar, brief moment of dizziness followed.

The next moment, air mixed with the scent of dust and vegetation rushed into their lungs.

After coming out, Qin Lie took a deep breath, his tense nerves finally able to relax.

Gu Changming also took off the mask he had been wearing and tossed it aside.

Not far away, the members of Zhang Zhenhai's team had already gathered.

Seeing them emerge, Zhang Zhenhai only glanced over with an expressionless face before turning his head and leading his team straight away.

He didn't even come forward to ask for the "twenty points" that were supposed to be added.

Watching them disappear at the end of the road, Qin Lie finally truly breathed a sigh of relief.

He turned around and looked at Gu Changming, a smile of genuine happiness appearing on his face for the first time in a while.

"The materials are all here. Once we're back, I'll start work immediately and help you forge the weapon."

Gu Changming nodded. Without wasting words, he reached back to unbuckle the Tang sword he had been carrying, handing it to Qin Lie horizontally, sheath and all.

After the other man took it, Gu Changming reached into the inner pocket of his coat, pulled out a shadow crystal core, and handed it over as well.

Having done this, Gu Changming asked, "What time can I pick it up tomorrow?"

"Noon! I'll get it done for you even if I don't sleep tonight!" Qin Lie said excitedly.

"Alright," Gu Changming nodded.

Then he turned and walked toward another part of the camp, his figure soon blending into the passing crowd.

...

At night.

The entrance to the Secret Realm in the distance still emitted a faint glow, and scattered campfires flickered throughout the camp.

Inside Qin Lie's Blacksmith shop.

Qin Lie was currently standing by the furnace. His forehead was covered in sweat, and his undershirt was soaked through, clinging to his body.

But he couldn't care about any of that right now. His eyes were fixed on the Tang sword lying horizontally on the anvil in front of him.

The blade had already undergone hours of repeated hammering, quenching, and tempering. He had also carefully smelted in some rare materials to assist with the fusion and balance the energy.

Now, the most critical step had arrived.

Qin Lie carefully took out the shadow crystal core from his robe.

This was the one Gu Changming had given him before leaving. Speaking of which, it was a size larger than the one he had gritted his teeth to buy.

He carefully placed the crystal core above the blade of the pitch-black Tang sword, then held his hands suspended in the air, palms facing the crystal core and the blade.

Then, he performed a forging skill that only a Blacksmith could master.

Light emerged from his palms and flowed down slowly, enveloping the shadow crystal core and connecting it to the blade below.

Energy was slowly injected, and the cold, dark power within the crystal core gradually seeped into and fused with the blade.

Time passed minute by minute.

More sweat seeped from Qin Lie's forehead, and his breathing became noticeably heavy.

About five or six minutes passed.

Just as Qin Lie felt that the energy within the crystal core was about to be fully accepted by the blade and the fusion was on the verge of completion—

*Crack.*

An extremely faint yet exceptionally clear sound of cracking rang out abruptly.

Qin Lie's eyes widened suddenly.

Before his eyes, the shadow crystal core suddenly shattered, then turned into a small pile of black powder that rustled down from the blade.

It failed...

Qin Lie stood there dazed, staring at the Tang sword before him, his mind a complete blank.

It wasn't that he had never failed before, nor was it that he couldn't accept failure. Otherwise, he wouldn't have thought about preparing an extra shadow crystal core earlier.

It was just... he didn't want, and wasn't willing, to fail in forging Gu Changming's Tang sword.

Although they had known each other for less than two days and couldn't be said to have much of a relationship...

And in the Secret Realm, the other party would occasionally mock and provoke him with words...

But he could feel that the other party meant well for him, unlike the others in this camp.

So... how could it fail?

After dazing for several minutes, Qin Lie finally moved. He reached into his robe and soon pulled out the shadow crystal core he had wrapped tightly in toilet paper.

Qin Lie looked at the shadow crystal core he had spent five hundred points on just to create the special item in the seal, and then at the pitch-black Tang sword before him.

Finally, he gritted his teeth, placed the crystal core on the Tang sword, and held his palms over it once more.

...

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