Lan Xueyi and Lan Tianxiong had both gone this far, and the other Lan family higher-ups had nothing more to say.
The meeting ended on an unpleasant note.
As soon as the door opened, everyone was surprised to see Ling Fan standing outside.
"Hmph!"
"What is this thing?" Kuai Shu Ge
"Trash, parasite."
"Bad luck!"
"Scram."
Many Lan family higher-ups scoffed at Ling Fan and cursed as they filed out past him.
Ling Fan ignored them and walked into the council hall.
He looked at Lan Tianxiong and asked, "Father-in-law, what's going on?"
Lan Junjie's temper flared when he saw Ling Fan. "You still have the nerve to ask? Father is stepping down because of you! My sister even took out her jade bracelet to cover your mess."
Lan Tianxiong frowned and scolded Lan Junjie, "Don't be disrespectful, get out!"
Lan Junjie stomped his feet in anger, muttering resentfully as he walked out, "Father, at a time like this, you're still protecting him. Are you going to lose the entire Lan family before you're satisfied?"
After Lan Junjie left, the atmosphere in the council hall became somewhat silent.
Lan Tianxiong took a puff from his pipe and said wearily, "People from the brothel came to collect a debt, demanding a million taels! In reality, that brothel is worth at most thirty thousand taels, but the people from the brothel colluded with the Jin family and several other influential families to put pressure on us, so we had no choice but to pay!"
"The Lan family's annual cash flow is only three million taels. This one million taels is truly a crippling blow."
Lan Tianxiong gave a bitter smile.
Ling Fan remained silent and looked at Lan Xueyi.
She immediately avoided his gaze, her beautiful face etched with despair.
Ling Fan was silent for a moment, then said, "I will take responsibility for this matter."
With that, he turned and left.
Behind him, Lan Tianxiong frowned as he watched his retreating figure, murmuring, "Xueyi, don't you think Xiao Fan has changed since he returned from the brothel? Sometimes his expressions and gaze are so unfathomable, even to me."
"Father, it's too late. Even if he repents, he has already missed the best period for cultivating the martial way. One step behind means every step is slow. His best outcome is to live an ordinary life and not cause trouble anymore."
...
After leaving the council hall, Ling Fan did not return but went directly to the weapon workshop.
The events of the day had given him a strong sense of urgency.
He had to recover his strength as soon as possible.
Like the brothel and the Jin family coming to collect debts today and making such a exorbitant demand, if he had recovered to the Qi Refining realm, he could have easily resolved this problem.
Anyone who dared to cause trouble would be annihilated!
He wouldn't have to put Lan Xueyi in a position where she had to sell her dowry and jade bracelet.
Now that he had successfully opened his gold element meridians, he urgently needed water element spiritual herbs or spiritual items to open his twelve water element meridians.
After thinking about it, he could only buy them from trading companies or auction houses, but this required a large amount of funds.
However, he was penniless, and the Lan family was in such a state that he couldn't possibly ask them for help.
Therefore, he thought of the weapon workshop. With his blacksmithing skills from his previous life, he could forge any weapon and sell it for a sky-high price.
In front of the weapon workshop.
The artisans, who had originally blocked him with cold faces, were surprised when Li Shan passed by and invited Ling Fan in.
This made the artisans very resentful. Why was this?
He was just a good-for-nothing, why was Li Shan treating him with such respect?
"Young Master, what brings you here?"
Li Shan asked respectfully.
Ling Fan said, "I need to borrow your furnace to forge something."
Upon hearing this, Li Shan's eyes lit up.
The young master was going to forge weapons himself?
This was a golden opportunity.
He finally had a chance to witness Ling Fan's blacksmithing skills.
Li Shan stammered, and Ling Fan saw this and asked, "Is there a problem?"
Li Shan said sheepishly, "Young Master, may I observe while you forge?"
Ling Fan pondered for a moment and agreed to Li Shan's request.
If Li Shan could gain some inspiration and reach the level of a top artisan, it would be considered Ling Fan helping the Lan family.
His style of doing things was always swift and decisive. Seeing that the workshop was filled with materials for forging the set of armor designed by Lan Xueyi, he decided to forge this set of weapons.
Pieces of metal ore were thrown into the refining furnace and melted, then refined multiple times to remove impurities.
During this process, Li Shan initially saw Ling Fan's movements as somewhat clumsy.
But as it progressed, he became more and more astonished. Ling Fan's movements were becoming more proficient and exquisite at a visible speed!
There were many techniques that Li Shan had never seen or heard of before.
It was truly eye-opening!
This was just the simplest refining stage, and Li Shan had already benefited greatly.
What surprised Li Shan even more was that after melting and refining various iron ores, Ling Fan barely paused to think or ask him about the material ratios. He mixed the various liquid metals almost instinctively.
Yet, the resulting weapon embryo was of such excellent quality that his eyes widened.
He marveled inwardly, further confirming his previous guess.
Ling Fan was definitely a hidden blacksmithing master!
No, even those top artisans couldn't achieve this. Although material ratios seemed simple, they required immense experience. He hadn't heard of any blacksmithing artisan who could test the optimal ratio in one go.
Could it be...
Is the young master a true Yellow-tier blacksmith?
When Li Shan had this thought, he was startled himself.
A Yellow-tier blacksmith under the age of twenty?
That was too insane!
He knew very well how difficult it was to become a Yellow-tier blacksmith. It could be said that out of ten thousand artisans, barely one would become a Yellow-tier blacksmith.
In the entire Jiangnan City, there was only the president of the Blacksmithing Association, Master Wang, who was a low-grade Yellow-tier blacksmith, but Master Wang was already fifty or sixty years old!
He had also had the honor of observing Master Wang's blacksmithing, but it was nowhere as smooth and effortless as the young master's!
As for the subsequent shaping, forging, and pattern formation, Li Shan became more and more shocked the more he watched.
By the end, he was so shocked that he was numb, his mind blank, and he didn't know how Ling Fan finished.
When the complete set of armor, gleaming with a cold metallic luster, appeared before his eyes, Li Shan's shock reached its peak. His mind buzzed, and his reverence was indescribable, almost making him want to kneel and pay homage.
Li Shan had the most say regarding this set of weapons.
He was even more familiar with it than the designer, Lan Xueyi, so familiar that he could reproduce the blueprints perfectly with his eyes closed.
This set of weapons included a breastplate, a heart guard, vambraces, a battle skirt, a battle sword... a total of no less than fifteen parts. The difficulty of forging the same silver pattern on each was unimaginable.
After Ling Fan instructed him on the method, he spent two full days trying no less than ten times to produce a finished product.
But the quality of what he made was incomparable to the set Ling Fan had produced.
He had relied on the special properties of Cloud Tear锡金 to forge a continuous silver pattern, which was crooked and barely reached the level of a top-grade mortal weapon.
However, Ling Fan had not used that material and had succeeded in one go with his own abilities!
The silver patterns on those parts were almost identical, with negligible errors, which could be considered perfect!
Li Shan was certain that even a Yellow-tier blacksmith might not be able to achieve Ling Fan's level.
"As I expected, the young master is a blacksmith master of extraordinary skill. He is so young. When did he learn this blacksmithing skill? With the young master here, what is the Master Zheng hired by the Jin family compared to him? Why should we fear the Jin family..."