Chapter 369: Chapter 268: Bitten by a Dog?
Meanwhile, Long Yi began to prepare the materials for the knife handle.
The handle was made of a type of hardwood that was red in color. Long Yi firstly used a sharp knife to carve out the shape, then refined it bit by bit. He also carved patterns onto it. Simultaneously, he took a piece of cowhide and left it aside for future use.
When the time was right, Long Yi removed the curved blade from the bucket, washed it clean with water and wiped it dry. At this moment, the crowd of bystanders couldn’t help but marvel at it in admiration!
What a beautiful pattern!
Lines after lines of beautiful grain covered the entire blade – closely spaced and artistically appealing.
This wasn’t the result of carving, but formed naturally!
Long Yi took a look, nodded with satisfaction.
He took the knife to the fine sand wheel, carefully ground it twice. Picking up a piece of paper from the side, he flicked it into the air and slid the blade past it – with a soft sound, the paper was cut into two halves mid-air.
Not bad.
Long Yi chuckled, fitted the wooden handle onto the knife. He fixed it with a rivet, then placed the knife onto the cowhide to mark the dimensions, cut it out, and sewed it together. Finally, a curved knife twenty centimeters long was presented in front of Ai Lin.
"I made a small knife for you; use it when eating meals," Long Yi said with a smile.
"Alright!"
Ai Lin accepted it and gleefully drew the knife. What captured her mind wasn’t the blade that could reflect a human’s figure, nor was it the intricate pattern, but the residual warmth of Long Yi’s fingertips on it.
It was as scorching as oven fire.
Clap clap clap clap!
The surrounding area was full of excited applause. The onlookers had never seen such craftsmanship before. In the decade or so that Long Yi had worked as a blacksmith, he had never made something like this. Compared to traditional craftsmanship, aside from being aesthetically pleasing, this didn’t necessarily offer an improvement in structural strength, but the amount of labor needed had increased significantly. For the practical-minded residents of the small town, no one would request such a thing. But, given that it was a gift, Long Yi wanted to go the extra mile to please the girl.
Since Ai Lin liked it, Long Yi’s work wasn’t done in vain.
Upon his return, Long Yi of course wouldn’t go back to being a blacksmith. The town’s residents wouldn’t agree to it either, even if Long Yi asked. After all, he was a national hero who saved the country. Asking a hero to go back to blacksmithing was unimaginable.
In the evening, the mayor held a banquet to welcome Long Yi and Ai Lin. Most of the influential people in the town participated. During the meal, Long Yi shared stories about his battles - the crowd listened in surprise. The battles of the Dragon Knights were a distant affair for such a remote town that wasn’t affected by the war. Apart from some soldiers who served in the army’s logistics department, no one in the town had truly participated in a war. Hence, Long Yi was indeed a rare sight.
Long Yi stayed in the town for three days, visiting the homes of his good friends. He also gave the keys to his blacksmith shop to Little Loach. During the year he was gone from the town, the metal goods of the residents that needed repairs had been neglected. Little Loach had been eyeing the blacksmith shop for a while, so Long Yi gave it to him. Little Loach was so grateful he was crying and sniffling.
After leaving the small town, the next stop was naturally the Imperial City.
The Imperial City was in a state of high tension at the moment, as the war had just come to an end not long ago and the new Emperor’s ascension hadn’t been long either. Some undercurrents lurking in society could break out at any time, so certain problems had to be guarded against.
The General’s Mansion of Iron Blood was on high alert. Long Yi saw a servant leave only to return because they forgot something and was subjected to a thorough search. If not for Ai Lin’s Fairy Dragon characteristics standing out, she would likely have been meticulously checked as well.
Indeed, this world wasn’t as peaceful as it seemed on the surface.
Old Master General wasn’t home, and Second Brother Ais was not in either. Anyway, since Ai Lin didn’t require any hospitality, she found a room for Long Yi on her own.
In the middle of the night, the general and Ais returned at the same time. The general’s face was livid, and Ais had suffered an injury with his arm wrapped in bandages.
"What, you got bitten by a dog?"
Rushing over, Long Yi looked at Ai Se and asked with a humorous tone. Regrettably, Ai Lin busied herself checking Ais’s wound. The wound wasn’t big; it seemed like it was a scratch wound and appeared to be devoid of poison.
Ais made a helpless bitter smile, looked up at General Kai Long, who gestured with a faint nod, then he said, "Recently, the situation in the Imperial City has been very complicated. Some foreign spies have infiltrated, and moreover, it seems like Blood Coagulation is closely linked with them."
"Foreign spies are one thing, but Blood Coagulation is just a mere assassin organization, surely they aren’t too difficult to deal with." Long Yi asked, puzzled.
"To become the world’s number one assassin organization, Blood Coagulation cannot be without backers. I just don’t believe that," General Kai Long said.
"Then what?"
"So far, the Empire has conducted three large scale sweeps against Blood Coagulation. Although they were fruitful every time, they never manage to get to the root of the issue. This time, Blood Coagulation has decided to switch from hiding to launching active strikes."
With that, Kai Long passed a white item to Long Yi. Taking a look, it turned out to be a piece of bone with a small line of messy text written on it.
’First up, Kai Long.’
"Huh. Interesting, is this a declaration of war?" Long Yi laughed.
"We received this seven days ago. So far, we’ve thwarted three assassination attempts," Ais said.
"These idiots were actually able to injure you?"
"These dull assassins you speak of are indeed hopeless, but there are Dragon Knights among them. And, I have already been injured by four of their dragon marks today," Ais said.
"Really? Are you that vulnerable? Can you identify which country the Dragon Knights are from?"
"I can say for certain that they are Black Dragon Knights, and fully suspect that they have been sent by the Black Dragon Empire. But these guesses are useless, the Black Dragon Empire would never admit to it," Ais explained.
"Hmm, sure enough, it seems there’s never a dull moment, even during the summer vacation! This is so thrilling!" Long Yi eagerly responded, a look of excitement on his face. "What is the Emperor’s plan?"
"His Majesty has ramped up the Imperial City’s patrol forces which has had a degree of success, but to speak frankly, it hasn’t been of much use," Ais noted.
"So, Old Master, what plan do you have in mind?" Long Yi asked Kai Long.
"I plan to do nothing at all, just hide here, not stepping past the threshold," Kai Long stated.
"I don’t believe that," Long Yi retorted.
"I plan to listen to your plan, to use your plan as a basis to formulate my own," Kai Long stated cryptically.
"Alright then, I’ll return to ponder this plan! As for Blood Coagulation, they have attempted to assassinate me twice already, and I do not intend to let them off so easily," Long Yi said, casting his gaze around. Beside Kai Long, there was a tall, stalwart bodyguard who swayed subtly throughout their conversation.
"Little Zi!"
With a sudden shout from Long Yi, Little Zi immediately appeared. The bodyguard who had just raised his dagger was immediately frozen in place.
"Ah!"
Little Zi let out a piercing scream, a massive Mental Impact blasting outwards. The guard’s eyes instantly glazed over.
At the same time, in a secret room, a frail man screamed and collapsed on the ground, convulsing.
Next to him, a fat man frowned. The man was Toen, the person in charge of Blood Coagulation in the White Dragon Empire’s Imperial City. His face was etched with a deep smile and he appeared jovial at all times.
"How did it go, was it a success?" Toen asked the frail man.
After a while, the frail man opened his purely black eyes, the blackness gradually retreating.
"It failed. A female demon hit me with a Mental Impact."
"A female demon? Where did she come from? Did Long Yi come too?"
"I... don’t recognize Long Yi."
"Long Yi! Tall, muscular, usually dresses in black, and he has a Fairy Dragon girl with him!"
"Yes! It was them!"
"Damn it!"
Thump!
Toen viciously kicked the man’s stomach, knocking the man unconscious straight away.
Long Yi! It’s always Long Yi! That damn Long Yi!
Toen paced around the room in agitation, his fat jiggling with each step. Despite his chubby face trying to maintain a smile, he no longer found the situation amusing.
Blood Coagulation and Long Yi have crossed paths not once or twice. The first time was when the third prince commissioned two Rock-traversing Dragon assassins to kill Long Yi. But the assassination failed, and both assassins and the two Rock-traversing Dragons were all slaughtered by Brother Long. The second time, again, was an attempt on Long Yi’s life, once more at the order of the third prince. Again, the assassin was utterly routed. Not long after that, Long Yi even killed Dasaide, a top-ranked Black Dragon Empire Guardian Dragon Knight.
One could say that Blood Coagulation has suffered heavy losses due to Long Yi.
Blood Coagulation invested in the third prince, not because they saw any potential in him, but because of the backing of the Black Dragon Empire. This was a secret only known to a few high-ranking officials. With the covert aid of the Black Dragon Empire, Blood Coagulation was able to stand strong worldwide throughout the years. The original invasion of the White Dragon Empire by the Black Dragon Empire succeeded due to Blood Coagulation’s collaboration. Now, although the Black Dragon Empire was defeated, instead of retreating, they issued new orders to Blood Coagulation, demanding them to stir up chaos in the White Dragon Empire as much as possible. Even if it meant sacrificing the entirety of Blood Coagulation’s foothold in the White Dragon Empire, their goal was to disrupt the current stronghold of the White Dragon Empire and glean information about their current affairs in the confusion.
Currently, what the Black Dragon Empire was most concerned about was the military capability of the White Dragon Empire. Apart from Long Yi, there were no other notable combatants in the entire White Dragon Empire. The key issue was to what extent the White Dragon Empire’s Golem technology had developed.
Ever since, the Black Dragon Empire’s biggest concern was the White Dragon Empire’s Golem technology. One day, suddenly, a ship powered by a crystal core appeared from the White Dragon Empire. At the same time, Long Yi also showcased an impenetrable Fine Gold Golem.
The public had no doubt that the Golem was given to Long Yi by the White Dragon Empire to demonstrate its power. After all, after that, the Golem suddenly disappeared, which was clearly not Long Yi’s personal property.
The Golems played a significant role in the war. If they were to appear on a large scale, it could even lead to Dragon Knights winning but still losing on the ground.
Furthermore, the Black Dragon Empire was currently researching an undead army. Undead armies and Golem armies share the same characteristic, they fear not death. But the fighting capacity of the undead is totally incomparable to the Golems. Particularly during the Seven-Nation Tournament, when the Fine Gold Golem stood in the dragon’s mouth and resisted the Black Dragon’s breath, it shocked all the high-level officials of the Black Dragon Empire.
Thus, through Blood Coagulation, the Black Dragon Empire hoped to learn just how far the White Dragon Empire’s Golem technology had developed. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please vote for it on qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivator. Mobile users can read on m.qidian.com.)
