Soul Land 3: Legend Of The Dragon King

A surprised expression appeared on Tang Wulin's face. 

"You're referring to her? She's a bright new political star for the Dove Faction. Come to think of it, she has quite a tragic backstory; she was once a train conductor, and in order to protect the masses during a terrorist attack from the Holy Spirit Cult, she was severely injured and became a hero. Her father was a high-ranking official in Heaven Dou City and also a parliamentary member, but he unfortunately perished during the Heaven Dou City bombing. At the time, she had already entered the Heaven Dou City political system upon request from her father, and Heaven Dou City was in a state of complete turmoil. 

"She was the one who stepped up during those tumultuous times, urging and guiding officials to address the emergency situation. Not only did her father perish during the bomb, her husband and child also passed away. Despite this, she was able to contain her grief and placed the people ahead of herself, thereby controlling the situation in Heaven Dou City; she really is a very remarkable woman!"  

A crushing sense of grief also welled up in Tang Wulin's heart upon hearing this. Mo Wu had perished, and even Mo Lan's husband and child had also...

Just how much pain did she have to go through!

Tang Wulin's hands reflexively balled up into tight fists. All of these accursed evil Soul Masters deserved the most painful of deaths!

Tang Wulin had never been so enraged in his life. He forcibly repressed his emotions, and asked, "What happened after that?"

Ji Qi replied, "After that, this Mo Lan became an extremely revered figure in Heaven Dou City, especially among the general public. During the parliamentary reform, she became the representative for Heaven Dou City, and also one of the youngest Dove Faction parliamentary members. At the same time, she became the deputy mayor of Heaven Dou City. The current mayor of Heaven Dou City is also a vice-president, so Ms. Mo Lan is actually taking care of most of the matters in the city. It's said that she's currently in a very strange state; aside from sleeping, all of her time is dedicated to her work, and it seems that she's trying to numb her pain and grief through overworking."

The more Tang Wulin heard, the more forlorn and enraged he became.

"Where is she right now? Is she in Heaven Dou City or Bright City?" Tang Wulin asked.  

Ji Qi replied, "The federal parliament is holding its third plenary meeting soon, so she should currently be in Bright City. The main topic of discussion during this meeting will be about waging war against the Star Luo Empire."  

Tang Wulin raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. "Can you find out where she's staying?"

Ji Qi replied, "I should be able to. However, due to how rampant the Holy Spirit Cult has been recently, all of the parliamentary members are receiving very high levels of protection, so even if we find out where she's staying, you may not be able to meet her anyway. Do you recognize Ms. Mo Lan?"  

Tang Wulin nodded in silence as a wry smile appeared on his face. 

Sister Mo Lan, how are you? 

Tang Wulin emerged from the underground Tang Sect base with a heavy heart. He had benefited greatly from this trip as he had learned a lot about the continent's current overall situation, yet he had also learned about the tragedy that had struck Mo Lan.

After getting into a soul taxi, he instructed the driver to take him to the Bright City blacksmith association.

No matter how tight the security was, he had to find a way to meet Mo Lan, just to offer her some consolation, if nothing else.

Tang Wulin was quite confident in his ability to bypass any security measures.

The Bright City blacksmith association was no smaller than the blacksmith association headquarters, which was situated in Heaven Dou City. This made sense, seeing as this was the federal capital, and the demand for high-grade metals was extremely high here.

However, as soon as Tang Wulin walked into the blacksmith association building, he discovered that there was barely anyone around. Wasn't the blacksmith association here supposed to be a lively and bustling place?

There were relatively few people who chose to pursue forging as their occupation, but even so, there was no lack of blacksmiths, especially low-grade and mid-grade ones.  

There were many blacksmiths at or below the third-rank who weren't even Soul Masters, and they relied solely on their skills and expertise to earn themselves a living. After all, the metals they forged could definitely be used for the construction of ordinary mechas.  

However, the massive first floor of the blacksmith association building was currently extremely sparsely populated, and there were no more than 10 blacksmiths present. The building was made to look especially spacious as a result, and there weren't even that many employees around.  

What was going on?

Tang Wulin strode over to a desk with befuddlement in his heart, and the employee behind the desk immediately stood up. "Hello, are you a blacksmith or would you like to release a mission?"

Tang Wulin replied, "I'm a foreign blacksmith who's only just arrived in Bright City. What's happened here? Why is there barely anyone here?"  

A wry smile appeared on the employee's face. "All of the blacksmiths have been conscripted to the military with high wages on offer! Did you not receive a conscription order? Due to the fact that wars could break out at any time, the military is conscripting all blacksmiths, and especially favorable terms are being offered to blacksmiths of the fifth-rank or below. The military is willing to provide a vast amount of uncommon metals to these blacksmiths, which is naturally a very attractive offer for those trying to achieve spirit refinement for the first time. As such, there are very few blacksmiths on the first floor here. In contrast, the terms being offered by the military aren't as attractive to blacksmiths above the fifth-rank, so all of the high-grade blacksmiths are on higher floors."

Tang Wulin was rather surprised to hear this. "Isn't the parliament still deciding whether they're going to wage war or not? Why are they conscripting blacksmiths already?"  

A cold smile appeared on the employee's face. "The decision has already been made, and they've been mobilizing troops for a long time already. One of my friends is currently serving in the military, and he told me that they're already mobilizing everyone toward the east sea. The parliament is only following some formalities to make the decision more official."

Tang Wulin's brows furrowed upon hearing this. Was the situation this bad already? The Eagle Faction really was keen to take up arms!  

A war would be beneficial to his endeavor to revive Shrek Academy as it would buy him a lot of time, but he really didn't want to see this happen. It couldn't really be said that he was very fond of the Star Luo Empire, but the fact of the matter was that everyone was human and lived on the same Douluo Star; if a war were to break out, countless people would undoubtedly lose their lives!

"Alright, thank you for the introduction; can I still take on any forging missions now? Preferably some higher-level ones if they're available," Tang Wulin asked.

"Of course. We have mountains of forging missions that are waiting to be completed! If you're a third-rank or fourth-rank blacksmith, then there's virtually an endless number of missions for you to complete. Would I be able to see your blacksmith badge?"

Tang Wulin smiled and pulled out his blacksmith badge before pinning it to his own chest. The badge was golden in color with seven shimmering black stars on its surface.

The employee was completely flabbergasted at the sight of this badge, and she exclaimed, "You're a seventh-rank Saint Blacksmith?"

In the blacksmith world, one's badge indicated their rank, as well as their status. Even in a large branch like the one in Black City, Saint Blacksmiths were extremely rare!  

The badge colors of blacksmiths followed this template:

Expert Blacksmiths possessed blue badges with one or two white stars.  

Master Blacksmiths possessed orange badges with three or four yellow stars.  

Grandmaster Blacksmiths possessed white badges with five or six purple stars.  

Saint Blacksmiths possessed golden badges with seven or eight black stars.  

Finally, Divine Blacksmiths possessed platinum badges with nine red stars.  

Tang Wulin's badge instantly revealed the fact that he was a Saint Blacksmith, which meant that he was capable of soul refinement! He was an extremely rare commodity, even in the context of the entire continent!

Why was it that there were far fewer three-word battle armor masters on the continent than two-word battle armor masters? This wasn't because two-word battle armor masters weren't able to cultivate to the extent that they were powerful enough to become three-word battle armor masters; instead, it was because there was simply a severe shortage of Saint Blacksmiths, and they simply didn't have enough time to forge so many suits of three-word battle armor. Suits of three-word battle armor had extremely high metal requirements, and if one were to fail in the forging process, then they would have to start again from scratch. As such, many two-word battle armor masters refrained from upgrading their suits of battle armor unless they had a sufficient economic foundation. 

Hence, all Saint Blacksmiths were extremely revered on the continent, and almost all of them were blacksmith association branch presidents!