"Yes, you should be Gong Cheng…?" Hearing the old man calling out to them along with him instantly mentioning Pei Yang, Xuan Hao guessed that the old man in front of them was indeed the Grandmaster Realm Blacksmith that Pei Yang had mentioned. "Indeed, I'm Gong Cheng… Are you two perhaps here to hide away?" Nodding his head, Gong Cheng slightly tilted his head with a puzzled expression on his face as he asked this.
"Hide away…?" Showing a similarly confused expression on his face after hearing Gong Cheng's question before a look of understanding replaced it.
Considering the fact that the Blue Shore Kingdom was located at the edge of the continent, and it was a well-known fact that people escaping from the different major powers would flee to places like this, it wasn't odd for Gong Cheng to think that they had come to the Blue Shore Kingdom for a similar reason. After all, there wasn't really any other reason why someone at their cultivation realm would bother heading to the edges of the continent where powerful demon beast emerged from the ocean every now and then to cause chaos.
"No, we came to seek guidance from you in blacksmithing!" For this reason, Xuan Hao quickly shook his head and stated his and Yi Min's intentions for showing up.
"Hm? You came all the way here to seek guidance from me? What about Pei Yang? Is he still alive?"
"No, we came to seek guidance from you in blacksmithing!" For this reason, Xuan Hao quickly shook his head and stated his and Yi Min's intentions for showing up.
"Hm? You came all the way here to seek guidance from me? What about Pei Yang? Is he still alive?"
"Still alive…? What do you mean?" "Huh? I thought you- Never mind, it's good that fellow is still alive. Honestly, I thought he would be dead after I heard about him entering the Blue Sea Empire." Shaking his head while saying this, Gong Cheng only now seemed to realize that they hadn't come to hide away from one of the major powers in the core region.
"So… Can you still teach us senior…?" Seeing this, Yi Min stepped forward and asked a bit nervously. Obviously not used to referring to someone else as a senior with how she had spent most of her cultivation journey figuring out things on her own without the help of anyone senior teaching her.
Of course, this was not because she didn't want the assistance of someone stronger than herself, but instead because getting the guidance of a senior normally required her to join a larger power or pay some kind of price… And before she knew it, she had already managed to figure out the thing she wanted to learn about on her own and become one of the strongest people in the Sky Empire. No longer needing the assistance of the Soul Ascension Realm Experts of the Sky Empire due to finding her own path.
Now faced with someone far beyond her current realm in both cultivation and blacksmithing, Yi Min could not stop herself from growing a bit nervous.
"…"
Standing beside her, Xuan Hao could not help silently rolling his eyes.
Where was this kind of nervousness when she faced him? Just in terms of strength, he should be stronger than Gong Cheng… Perhaps it's because she is already used to his presence?
Thinking about this to himself as he watched Gong Cheng put on a thoughtful expression after hearing what Yi Min said, Xuan Hao could not help wondering what the old man had done to be chased out of the core region.
After all, given that he was a Grandmaster Realm Blacksmith and had reached the Earth Immortal Realm, there shouldn't be any reason for those larger powers to chase him away. On the other hand, they should be trying to recruit him to strengthen themselves.
Hm… Maybe it's the same reason why Pei Yang ended up falling out with the Blue Sea Empire, the method to break through to the Pseudo Saint Realm. Although, I have a feeling that there is a bit more to Pei Yang's case than just that…
"I will teach you both on behalf of Pei Yang, but it won't be for longer than two months, I still have other things to do, and my lifespan is already close to running out at this point in time."
At the same time Xuan Hao was lost in his own thoughts thinking about Pei Yang and what might have caused the battle he had seen back when he first met him, Gong Cheng finally seemed to have thought things through as he agreed to teach them for a period of two months.
However, outside of the fact that he agreed to teach them, he also ended up revealing the fact that his lifespan was about to run out, a fact that caused both Xuan Hao and Yi Min to freeze for a short moment.
"Your lifespan is running out?! If I can ask… How old are you?" Not surprisingly, Yi Min could not help asking this question. Mainly because she had learnt about the Earth Immortal Realm from Xuan Hao during their journey to the Blue Shore Kingdom… And from it, she knew that someone in the Earth Immortal Realm could live up to a hundred thousand years, some even longer than that.
"Hehe, don't worry, I'm not as old as you think I am. Although Earth Immortal Realm cultivators can live for a hundred thousand years, that is only under optimal circumstances. In most cases, Earth Immortal Realm cultivators will accrue all sorts of hidden injuries over time that affects their vitality. In the end, most will live to around seventy thousand years, a few thousand longer if they are lucky. Ah, I'm a little over sixty-nine thousand years old and should only have a little over a thousand left from what I can tell."
""…""
Hearing that Gong Cheng was actually close to seventy thousand years old, Xuan Hao and Yi Min could not help feeling surprised. Especially when he mentioned that he only had a little over a thousand years left to live.
After all, both Xuan Hao and Yi Min were below the age of one thousand!
For a thousand years to be considered a short time was shocking to say the least and made both of them understand that crossing through the Earth Immortal Realm in the future would take far longer than any realm before that. Indeed, deserving of having the word immortal in the name of the realm…
"Ehm… Let's go to the capital for now, I will help both of you find somewhere to settle down first before we begin the lessons tomorrow… And although it might not look like it, my comprehension of the Dao of Blacksmithing is far superior to that of Grandmaster Realm Blacksmith. Not to brag, but my comprehension is already half a step into the realm of perfection.
If not for the fact that something other than comprehension of the Dao of Blacksmithing is required when breaking through to the Pseudo Saint Realm, I would long since have become a Pseudo Saint Realm Blacksmith.
Who knows, If I manage to reach the realm of perfection before passing away, I might end up directly breaking through to the Saint Realm…" Shaking his head with a somewhat depressed expression on his face, Gong Cheng turned to look in the direction of the core region with a look of longing.
Even if he had hidden away at the edges of the continent and built a small kingdom for himself to live in, it was obvious that he still wanted to continue pursuing the Dao of Blacksmith.
Unfortunately, he had been chased out of the core region and could only hide away at the edges of the continent where there wasn't any precious spiritual metal around for him to practice his blacksmithing.
Of course, there was the option of entering the ocean in search of spiritual metal deposits, but the danger involved in this was far from something someone in the Earth Immortal Realm could do safely.
Not to mention accidentally stumbling on a powerful demon beast in the Celestial Immortal Realm, who knew what kind of terrifying creatures were hidden beneath the waves?
Whoosh~!
Whoosh~!
Whoosh~!
Deciding not to say anything when faced with the somewhat depressed state of Gong Cheng, Xuan Hao and Yi Min just ended up silently following the old man back to the capital city of the Blue Shore Kingdom, where they were quickly given a place to stay for the next two months before Gong Chen disappeared inside the largest palace at the core of the capital city.
During the entire ordeal, Xuan Hao was rather surprised that the old man didn't ask for anything in return for teaching both of them but guessed that there wasn't really much he could offer to him that would be useful, outside of something precious like life extension pills or elixirs that could help him live longer.
After all, he doubted any artifacts he could produce would be useful to a Grandmaster Realm Blacksmith, while the spiritual metal he did have on him was below the Transcendent Grade and wouldn't be useful to a Grandmaster Realm Blacksmith…
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