Chapter 233: Cranky old blacksmith

Of course, a hammer that was thrown at this level was nothing for Lin Fan.

He easily dodged out of the way and reached his hand out to grab the hammer that flew past his head, but then he was shocked by the force that the hammer contained.

He didn't expect much from the hammer and had casually reached out to grab it, but he hadn't been able to completely stop the force which had made him stumble back a bit. However, the moment the force of the hammer did make him stagger a bit, Lin Fan quickly used his life energy to neutralize the force of the hammer.

When he turned to look at the hammer, he was surprised to see that there was a faint golden glow around it that normal people would have missed. This was the golden life energy of a Gold Realm Expert.

While Gold Realm Experts weren't considered as rare in S Rank City, most of them were still quite well off, rather than being in a decrepit blacksmith like this. So why was there a Gold Realm Expert here?

Moreover, based on how thin the life energy around the hammer was, it was clear that this expert was quite skilled in controlling their life energy.

While Lin Fan was wondering about the owner of the hammer, the owner himself came out to see the aftereffects of the hammer they threw.

The owner of this hammer was a bald old man who while skinny had a very muscular build.

The old man saw Lin Fan holding his hammer and he narrowed his eyes before saying, "Who sent you?"

Lin Fan was confused when he heard this as he asked, "This old sir, what do you mean by that?"

The old man gave a snort and said, "You want to play the fool? Fine, give me back my hammer first."

Lin Fan was going to give the hammer back, but as the old man's hand approached the hammer slowly, he suddenly grabbed it and swung up at Lin Fan's face.

While this had caught Lin Fan off guard, Lin Fan was in the end a Platinum Realm Expert, so an attack of this level wasn't enough to deal with him.

Lin Fan just used his other hand covered in a golden glow to stop the hammer.

The old man narrowed his eyes once again when he saw this and he muttered, "Gold Realm Expert? No, those are laws, it's a Platinum Realm Expert."

The old man quickly jumped back after saying this and said, "It seems like your boss really respects me, he's even willing to send a Platinum Realm Expert to deal with me."

Lin Fan and Angela looked at each other with confused looks before Lin Fan said, "What do you mean by my boss? I'm here as a customer."

Seeing the genuine confused look on Lin Fan's face, the old man was taken aback before saying, "You really aren't here on their orders?"

Lin Fan shook his head and said, "I don't even know who they are."

The old man didn't know what to say before moving back to his forge, "Well look around if you want then."

Lin Fan didn't mind this since he was certain that this old man had his own story, but for now he wanted to check out the old man's wares first. Not only was Angela's instincts drawn to this place, Lin Fan could tell from the control of the life energy around the hammer, this old man was quite skilled.

As the owner of a shop, naturally the more knowledgeable he was, the better he would be able to run it.

After the experience in the pyramid, especially with what happened in the mirror, Lin Fan realized that he was too inexperienced. As well, he had been hoarding his points with the system too much since he was afraid of spending them and not having them in the future. He realized that if he didn't use them now, he might not have a chance to use them in the future.

After coming back from the planar crack, Lin Fan had slowly used his points with the system to exchange for new techniques. Namely, different production techniques and information on ingredients.

One of those techniques that he learned was naturally blacksmithing.

He knew that for blacksmiths, the most important thing was the fine control of their life energy since controlled application of energy would allow them precisely refine the material they were working on. With how thin and concentrated the old man had made the life energy around his hammer, it was clear that he had very fine control of his life energy.

But once again, the question was raised, why was a man of his skill doing in this decrepit shop?

Lin Fan put that thought aside for now and began moving across the shop, but he saw that there were only a few pieces that were put on display.

However, when he began looking over all these pieces he was shocked by what he had found.

Of the few pieces that were present, most of these were all Platinum Grade Seeds

For blacksmiths, the work they created were considered seeds which were vessels for laws to be injected into. Before the laws were injected in, they were just normal weapons or items, but once laws were injected in, they became artifacts.

Dependent on the intensity of the laws that were injected in, that determined the grade of the artifact, which was why normally no one used an artifact below the Silver Realm unless they were still in training since Silver Realm and below artifacts were nothing more than training artifacts.

But for the seeds to accept the laws, that depended on the level of the seeds themselves. Which in turn all depended on the level of the blacksmith.

What a Platinum Grade Seed was was a weapon or item that could accept laws up to the Platinum Realm, which meant that they could potentially become Platinum Realm Artifacts dependent on the person who injected the laws.

For Lin Fan, this meant that there were potentially more than ten Platinum Realm Artifacts here for him to take.

While he didn't personally need this, he could definitely give them to his subordinates and make them much stronger than they were now.

It had to be known that a high Gold Realm Expert with a Platinum Realm Artifact would be able to take on a peak Gold Realm Expert. If he were to give his subordinates these, that would mean increasing the power of ten high Gold Realm Experts.

Lin Fan was more than confident in his ability to control his laws because of the various techniques he had received from the system. While they were God Tier Techniques which could only be obtained through missions, they were still techniques that were far above this lower realm.

To make a Platinum Realm Artifact with these Platinum Realm Seeds was just a simple flip of the hand for Lin Fan.

Lin Fan quickly looked over the prices and found that while these Platinum Realm Seeds weren't cheap, being sold at more than double the price of normal Platinum Realm Seeds, he could tell that these were all well made. The fact that they were all well made meant that there was a chance of spiritual awakening during the creation process.

A spiritual awakening would make the artifact similar to his Iron Eater Bone Artifact, allowing it to develop a will that could connect and grow with the user.

Just a single spiritual awakening would more than make up for the price of all these Platinum Realm Seeds.

Once again, this begged to differ, who was this old man and what was he doing in a place like this?

After seeing all this, Lin Fan made up his mind to buy the store on this street since it would put him closer to this old man, especially since the open store was just next to this blacksmith. But before that, he had to buy all these Platinum Realm Seeds first.

Lin Fan picked all of them up and brought them to the counter where he rang the bell that was there.

The old man looked up from his forge and knit his brows when he saw this.

The old man came over and said, "What are you doing? Are you trying to cause trouble?"

Lin Fan just revealed a smile and said, "I want to buy all of these and if possible, anything else you make in the future."

The old man was taken aback for a second before angrily shouting, "Are you playing with me? Can you even afford all of them?"

Lin Fan just smiled without saying a thing as he tapped his watch on the payment device in the shop.

The old man looked down at his own watch and seeing the transaction that was just processed, he was shocked. This young man had actually paid in full for all of these Platinum Realm Seeds, not missing a single crystal.

The old man looked back at Lin Fan and asked, "Who are you?"

Lin Fan pointed at the store next to the blacksmith and said, "I'm your new neighbour, nice to meet you."

The old man looked at the store before looking back at Lin Fan with a confused look, "New neighbour? I didn't hear about anyone buying that store yet."

Lin Fan didn't say anything as he walked out and headed to the store next door, heading in and showing the person at the counter the letter he had from the manager of his branch store.

The person at the counter was the owner and he naturally recognized this letter, so he happily greeted Lin Fan and wanted to negotiate with him, but Lin Fan didn't give him that chance.

Lin Fan directly offered double the initial price which stunned the owner and while the owner was in a daze, he transferred the crystals.

After the owner saw that the crystals were in his account, he immediately gave Lin Fan the deed and happily left the door with a smile, skipping as he left the street.

Lin Fan came out of the store once again and looking at the old man who had come out to look at him, he waved the deed in his hand with a smile.

The old man didn't know what to say in response to this as he looked at Lin Fan in a daze.

It seemed like this kid hadn't been joking, he really was his new neighbour.

Only the old man had never expected him to buy the store next to his blacksmith as soon as he walked out.