Edited by Aelryinth
When Dijiang-hao landed back in Bei Du Airport, it was only around four in the afternoon.
Just as Zhang Che walked out of the airport, he received a call from Huang Juyun. “You’re back, Xiaoche!”
“Mmm. I’m back, Uncle Huang.”
On the other end of the call, Huang Juyun mumbled to himself for a moment, then suggested, “I think it’s better that you don’t leave Hua Xia borders easily in the future. They are a large faction in Bei Mei, after all. Although Dijiang-hao has stealth equipment installed, no one can guarantee they won’t find information on you via surveillance with the satellite.
“If anything happens, we won’t be able to help you when you are all alone, away from our reach.”
Zhang Che naturally understood Huang Juyun’s concerns. Like he had mentioned, there was always a chance of the Bei Mei faction finding out about him travelling around on Dijiang-hao.
However, he couldn’t tell Huang Juyun that he could switch up his identity and enter other countries via other means. As such, he could only nod understandingly and reply, “I understand, Uncle Huang. I really had something very important to take care of this time. I won’t leave Hua Xia thoughtlessly.”
“Mmm. I’m glad you understand,” Huang Juyun replied. He continued, “Right, I have already reported the matter about researching exotic beast genetic evolution fluid using human specimens to the Bei Mei government through the military. Although the faction might not receive too severe of a punishment, it should be enough to keep them to themselves.
“After the storm has passed, you just have to be more careful and not step on Bei Mei soil, and there shouldn’t be any trouble.”
——-
After ending his call with Huang Juyun, however, Zhang Che seemed to have forgotten everything about this matter.
It was exactly as Huang Juyun had said. Although the alliance government had forbidden conducting research using human specimens, since they had gone unpunished for so many years, they must have some kind of connections and had no need to fear punishment from the alliance government.
Zhang Che felt that the so-called alliance government was no different from the United Nations of his previous life on Earth. They could only punish the small and weak factions, and could do nothing against the big dogs.
In this world, nothing was real. Only by becoming strong could you guarantee you could do whatever you wanted. The world worked like that.
If Zhang Che could become a powerful divine beastmaster, the world could do nothing against him, even if he was a man who committed all kinds of evil.
Not only that, due to their fear of his destructive powers, perhaps many people and factions would try to coax and pacify him, not daring to say a word.
Of course, if a day came when Zhang Che really became a divine beastmaster, he would still follow his heart and not become an evil man…
—–
Driving the beastly car Liu Gang had parked at the airport previously, Zhang Che went directly to the equipment shop he custom ordered his bow from the last time.
“Ah, it’s Mister Zhang. Please, come in!”
Although the manager had only interacted with Zhang Che once in the past, he immediately recognized a huge customer like him.
After Zhang Che’s arena deathmatch with the Zhen family, he had become famous among the upper circle in all of Hua Xia, in addition to him having ordered a bow here before. It wasn’t strange the manager could recognize him at a glance.
After he respectfully invited Zhang Che in, the latter spoke directly, “Is your master craftsman available? I want to place a custom order for a superstrong bow.”
“Super strong bow?” The manager revealed a doubtful look when he heard that.
From what he could remember, didn’t Zhang Che order two superstrong bows just two months ago? They were bows with over two thousand kilograms draw weight! Only some very experienced high-tier beastmasters could draw them after their bodies were tempered to a certain degree.
When Zhang Che fought the Zhen family in the arena deathmatch recently, he was only a mid-tier beastmaster. Even if he had advanced to high-tier since then, it was impossible he could use that kind of a bow!
Furthermore, to high-tier beastmasters, the attacking power of those bows were actually worthless. They wouldn’t increase your overall combat ability by much.
Those bows wouldn’t be able to kill any legend-quality beasts. Of course, perhaps Zhang Che was only collecting them? After all, all kinds of people existed. Many people collect weird things. Collecting strong bows seem to be more on the normal side…
After a quick thought, the manager hurriedly nodded and said, “He’s available, he’s available! Even if our master bow craftsman isn’t free, he has to finish the orders of a VIP like Mister Zhang first!”
After hearing that, Zhang Che immediately smiled faintly and followed the manager inside.
This was the advantage of status and reputation! If he was an unknown kid and specifically asked for their master craftsman to craft a bow for him, see if they’d pay him any heed…
Not only that, if you didn’t have certain status, even if you were rich, people might not be willing to help you. Of course, if you spent enough money, it should be no problem. After all, there were very few things in the world money could not get done. It was just that doing so wasn’t very cost-effective…
—-
The manager brought Zhang Che to the manufacturing department. Their master bowyer took over from the manager and spoke with Zhang Che.
“Young man, bring out your materials and let me have a look.” This elder’s attitude wasn’t as polite as the manager. Those with skills, in addition to age, naturally became much more casual when dealing with youngsters, even though Zhang Che was a potential big customer.
Zhang Che nodded and brought out the materials he had prepared. First, he took out the ten thousand year-old scarlet-gold wood.
“Hmm? This wood is not bad!” The elder squinted slightly the moment he saw the ten thousand year-old scarlet-gold wood Zhang Che took out.
As a master bowyer, he recognized basically every material that could be used to craft bows. With only a sweep of his gaze, naturally he discovered the extraordinariness of the wood.
Zhang Che didn’t say anything and brought out two pieces of flood dragon ribs arced at an angle. This time, the elder’s eyes nearly popped out from their sockets.
He immediately realized how extraordinary the two ribs were. When Zhang Che placed them on the table, the elder quickly reached out and picked one up, feeling a heavy sinking sensation in his hand. The rib, which was only as thick as his wrist and less than a meter long, actually weighed more than twenty kilograms!
“Th-this… Could this be the rib of a legend-quality exotic beast!?”
Obviously, a rib with that high of a density had to be the bone of a legend-quality exotic beast at the very least, perhaps even from an epic-quality exotic beast!
Of course, it wasn’t very likely that the two ribs came from an epic-quality exotic beast. If that was true, let alone the difficulty in crafting them into bow limbs, even if they were produced, it would have a draw weight of tens of thousands of kilograms. Who could possibly use such a superstrong bow?
Even a bow crafted from the bones of a legend-quality exotic beast wasn’t something humans could draw!
“Young man, are you sure you’re not joking with me? A bow made from the bones of such quality would have a draw weight of ten to twenty thousand kilograms, at the very least! Who can draw such a bow?”
Zhang Che chuckled, not explaining himself. He only said, “I didn’t say it was meant to be used? It’s just that I like to collect strong bows. I happened to come across such good materials by chance and thus wanted to craft a bow out of them for collection.”
The elder nodded. That was only reasonable. It would be strange if anyone could use such a strong bow! If the bow was only a collectable, then it wouldn’t matter even if the bow had twenty thousand kilograms draw weight, or even higher. In any case, the bow would only be hung on the wall for display. Who cared if anyone could use it?
Immediately, the elder furrowed his brow slightly, saying, “But it’s very difficult to craft a bow of this level.”
Zhang Che was stunned for a moment. -What do you mean?- “Uh, can you not do it?”
Heavens! This could be considered the best bow crafting company in Bei Du! If they couldn’t make it, wouldn’t he be helpless, then?
The frisky monkey had finally advanced in level after so long. Zhang Che really wanted to have a walking cannon; if they couldn’t craft a bow suitable for the frisky monkey, then his hopes would be dashed!
Of course, given how huge Mercury was, perhaps some other bowyer from other regions could do it, but that was too troublesome. More importantly, it wouldn’t be easy to find that kind of a craftsman!
“It’s not like I can’t craft it,” the elder shook his head slightly, “But the difficulty is extremely high, and I will need to use many supplementary ingredients. The fees will be a little expensive.”
Zhang Che let out a long sigh of relief. -In the end, it’s about money, huh?- “That’s not a problem. As long as you can craft it, I will pay the company whatever the fees are.”
“Is this a problem about money?” The elder was slightly enraged. He blew his beard and opened his eyes wide, saying, “Given the two ribs’ shape, they can’t be used to craft the bow limbs directly. Some expensive materials needed to be used to soak them first. Afterwards, they can be shaped when they’re softened from soaking. There’s a lot of work to be done, and whether it will succeed is another story!”
Zhang Che finally understood. He nodded and said, “It’s fine. Please do whatever you can, master. It’s fine if you fail, too. I won’t let your company pay for the loss of materials.”
He couldn’t help but think, -This is only a bow with twenty thousand kilograms draw weight, and the difficulty is already this high. If I find better materials in the future, wouldn’t there be no way to produce a better bow, then?
-This is bad news. According to the frisky monkey’s potential, even though he can no longer increase his level, he can definitely advance to legend-quality. Wouldn’t his talent in archery be wasted if he doesn’t have a suitable bow to use at that time?-
With Zhang Che’s assurance, the elder nodded and said, “There’s no problem, then. But don’t worry, we’ll definitely strive for excellence and try to produce the completed bow.
“Right, I’ll need to test the ribs’ draw weight first, so that we can customize them properly to craft it into the appropriate strength grade.”
Done speaking, the elder took both ribs and walked to the side, testing them with a special device. Soon, he got the data.
“Mmm, not bad. According to this draw strength level, a bow with a maximum of twenty-six thousand kilograms draw weight can be crafted from them.”
-Twenty-six thousand kilograms draw weight! As of now, the frisky monkey can’t draw that!- Zhang Che thought. He asked, “Then, can you please process the materials and set the draw weight at about twenty-thousand kilograms?”
The elder nodded, smiling, “That’s not a problem. We’ll just need to process the materials a little more. I’m only afraid you’ll want me to craft a bow with a higher draw weight than that; it’d really be impossible then!”
After confirming the specifics, Zhang Che asked about the crafting fees. The elder made some calculations, and finally offered the sky-high price of a little more than ten thousand purple crystal points.
They wouldn’t accept alliance dollars to craft a bow of that level, only accepting purple crystal points. Zhang Che had no objections to that, however. He paid three thousand purple crystal points as deposit very straightforwardly, and asked them to produce a thousand complementary alloy arrows. The fees for that weren’t much, and were directly considered a free service for him.
At the same time, the elder told Zhang Che the crafting process for the bow was a little troublesome, and thus he needed more time for it. Zhang Che would only be able to get the bow a whole week from now.
Although Zhang Che felt it took a little too long, he understood that good products came from meticulous work, and he made no objections.
After paying the deposit, Zhang Che left the bow and arrow crafting shop and drove home. As for the name of this strong bow, Zhang Che didn’t intend on coming up with another name. He’d still call it the Falling Star Model X, but more accurately, it should be called Falling Star Model X Mk III!
——–
After dinner, since Huang Tielan didn’t return home tonight, the elemental queen immediately pulled on Zhang Che and asked him to play Go with her. “Master, come play chess with me, quickly!”
Zhang Che agreed to it, smiling. He was gratified that the elemental queen had shifted her interest. That way, he didn’t have to worry that she’d learn all the bad stuff.
Moreover, when they were in the beast world in the future, the two could spend time playing chess while waiting for their sleepiness to catch up to them. Otherwise, the nights in the beast world were really too hard to deal with with no entertainment activities.
The two came to the study and started playing chess.
This time, the elemental queen strongly requested Zhang Che not give her any advantage. The two decided on playing first alternatively and played on equal terms.
In the end, as the game went on, Zhang Che grew astonished.
Previously, Zhang Che was still giving the elemental queen a three piece advantage. Now, they were playing on equal terms and were actually on par, unable to easily distinguish the winner.
After a long, bitter match that lasted close to an hour, Zhang Che actually lost by a little, shocking him so much that he couldn’t keep his mouth closed.
If this inhuman girl was put on Earth in his previous life, she’d probably be able to become a one-in-a-century chess grandmaster if she was given the proper training!
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