Chapter 457: 《Disguise Art》 Accomplished

At the Weapon Room,

Su Wangchuan had only just arrived when he saw Master Lin, Master Liu, and Master Wang standing at their respective forging tables, forging Thousand-Forged series weapons.

“Hall Master!” “Hall Master!”

Everyone greeted him at once, all smiles.

Su Wangchuan nodded as he walked over to the three master blacksmiths.

“Hall Master, what brings you here?”

The three master blacksmiths had been living quite comfortably lately as well.

Ever since the blacksmith workshop had recruited a large number of blacksmith apprentices, the burden on their shoulders had lightened considerably. All ordinary weapons and Hundredfold series weapons had been handed over to the disciples below them, while they focused exclusively on forging Thousand-Forged series weapons.

“I came to take a look.”

Su Wangchuan ran a hand over the forging table and asked the three master blacksmiths,

“Among all the Thousand-Forged series weapons, which one is the hardest to forge?”

The three blacksmith masters exchanged glances, then answered in unison without hesitation:

“A Thousand-Forged Steel Spear!”

“Oh?”

Su Wangchuan raised a brow and immediately pressed further.

“Why?”

Master Lin cupped his fists and replied,

“Among weapons, the manufacturing process for a Thousand-Forged Steel Spear is the most complicated of all! And because it consumes a great deal of material and takes a long time to forge, it demands an immense amount of effort and care...”

“That’s right. In the time it takes this subordinate to forge one Thousand-Forged Steel Spear, I could forge five Thousand-Forged Steel Sabers.”

“Even a Thousand-Forged axe is nowhere near as difficult.”

The other two blacksmith masters echoed the same view.

Su Wangchuan rubbed his nose and finally explained why he had come.

“The truth is, the reason I came today was precisely to ask the three master blacksmiths to help me forge a Thousand-Forged Steel Spear...”

Ever since seeing the overbearing attributes of 《Thirteen Overlapping Waves Spear》, he had immediately realized how terrifying this sixth-rank spear art would become in the later stages.

Although its attribute growth did not become stronger and stronger the way 《Raging Tide Sword Art》 did, so it would not rapidly break past a thousand attack in the later stages, the entry threshold of 《Thirteen Overlapping Waves Spear》 was already extremely high. From beginning to end, its attack remained steady and tyrannical, and its built-in Armor Break property was the natural bane of all body-protection techniques and armor!

A weapon is stronger for every inch it gains in length!

Ten years training the saber is not worth one year training the spear!

Su Wangchuan had already formed the intention to forge a Thousand-Forged Steel Spear and raise the realm of 《Thirteen Overlapping Waves Spear》, making it the signature cultivation method of his identity as a fifth-rank martial artist.

The three blacksmith masters looked at one another, clearly finding the request difficult.

Forging a Thousand-Forged Steel Spear would take at least half a month or more!

“Hall Master!”

“If you want a finished Thousand-Forged Steel Spear, you could actually purchase one from Master Artificer Tower. That would be much faster.”

Master Wang made the suggestion.

Su Wangchuan looked over at him and said,

“Master Artificer Tower does not seem to have any Thousand-Forged Steel Spears.”

“There are very few people who use Thousand-Forged Steel Spears, so places rarely keep them in stock. But we can have Master Artificer Tower requisition one and transfer it over from somewhere else. At most, it would take only two or three days.”

Master Lin pointed out the way.

Su Wangchuan’s spirits lifted.

“That would work too... Fine, I’ll have someone handle it.”

Then he changed the subject and said to the three master blacksmiths,

“When the three of you have time, help me forge a batch of Thousand-Forged Battle Armor. Our hall is facing the Beggar Sect head-on now, so we must make preparations in advance.”

“Yes!”

“This subordinate obeys!”

“We’ll start forging Thousand-Forged Battle Armor as soon as we finish this batch of weapons!”

The three master blacksmiths accepted the order.

After leaving the Weapon Room, Su Wangchuan immediately arranged for someone to go to Master Artificer Tower and place the order.

As expected, Master Artificer Tower agreed, saying that the Thousand-Forged Steel Spear could be delivered to the Sanhe Commandery Hall within two days, and the asking price was very reasonable as well.

Su Wangchuan did not dare immediately push 《Thirteen Overlapping Waves Spear》 toward Entry-Level Mastery, nor did he want to rush straight into the Sixth Rank.

Back in his courtyard, he took out a manual.

《Disguise Art》.

All the materials required to cultivate this technique had already been prepared in advance and blended into a special disguise solution.

The stuff was not cheap.

One pouch of disguise solution was worth one hundred taels of gold and could only be used one hundred times.

Under the watchful eyes of Su Yun and Su Qi, Su Wangchuan dipped both hands into the special solution, used internal force to heat it, applied it to his face, and traced out stiff wrinkles and crow’s feet. Very soon, the handsome young man in the mirror had turned into a weathered middle-aged man in his forties.

Although there were slight flaws around the temples and forehead, and the muscle lines looked faintly unnatural, at a casual glance he really did look like a different person.

“The Hall Master truly is formidable.”

“He mastered 《Disguise Art》 the instant he touched it.”

Su Yun and Su Qi praised him from the side.

Su Wangchuan carefully inspected his face from every angle, then shook his head.

“《Disguise Art》 is easy to learn at the entry level, but making it so no one can spot the flaws is far too difficult... I’ll need much more practice.”

He washed the disguise off his face with clear water and began disguising himself all over again.

This time, he chose to imitate Su Yun’s face.

After a fresh round of adjustments, he ended up about seventy percent similar to Su Yun.

The experience value of 《Disguise Art》 was not so easy to raise.

Only when the disguise achieved ninety percent similarity to the target did it count as a successful disguise.

Su Wangchuan spent several more minutes refining Su Yun’s features and finally succeeded.

After a short pause, he began trying to imitate Su Qi’s face.

His disguise technique grew more and more skillful.

He began to understand how to quickly arrange wrinkles and muscle lines, rapidly change apparent age and complexion, and alter face shape, brows, and eyes...

He went through all the high-ranking members of the hall one by one, then began imitating martial artists whose appearances were deeply imprinted in his mind.

For example, Zhuang Xuyan, Elder Zheng, and Qiu Dahong, all of whom had died by his hand, as well as Wan Xiwen and Yin Xingtian of the Caobang, and Gang Leader Luo Tiancong.

At last, all one hundred portions of the special solution were exhausted.

“Ding!”

System prompt:

“《Disguise Art》 has risen to ‘Minor Mastery.’ Reward: +1 Spirit!”

When Su Wangchuan heard that, his eyes filled with astonishment and shock.

The reward was actually Spirit!

This...

《Disguise Art》 was a treasure!

He knew very well that the further one advanced, the more precious Spirit became.

For true experts, the greater their internal energy, the longer they could sustain battle and the more times they could unleash Ultimate Arts!

The 《Disguise Art》 that Old Seven had sent over was actually a rare Spirit-type manual!

An absolute windfall!!

Su Wangchuan felt as if a pie had fallen from the sky and smashed straight into him, and joy surged through him.

Seeing how excited the Hall Master looked, Su Yun and Su Qi glanced at one another, completely at a loss.

“Go and prepare another batch of the special solution for me at once!”

“Yes!”

The materials were quickly gathered from Divine Physician Shen’s medical hall and brewed without delay.

Su Wangchuan discovered that his disguising speed had become much faster.

Forehead, face shape, and complexion could almost be adjusted into place in an instant.

Then, so long as he made fine changes to the brows, eyes, mouth, and lines of the face, he could complete a disguise very quickly and match the target seven or eight parts out of ten.

At the beginning, it had taken him about ten minutes to complete a disguise.

Now, it took him only about two minutes to finish shaping one.

Over the course of a single night, Su Wangchuan transformed himself into every face he could imagine.

After consuming three hundred taels of gold’s worth of special solution, he finally heard the system prompt he had been waiting for:

“Ding!”

“《Disguise Art》 has risen from ‘Minor Mastery’ to ‘Practice Makes Perfect.’ Reward: +2 Spirit!”

Su Wangchuan discovered that now, if he casually smeared some special solution over his face, he could very quickly disguise himself as any of the faces he had already imitated before. Within one minute, he could achieve ninety percent similarity.