Chapter 22: Sorry, Foreman, Please Die For My New Weapon!
“It’s not the factory’s doing.”
Shangshan Che looked at the stunned foreman and heard him subconsciously ask: “Mr. Hannya, do you know the inside story?”
“Of course.”
Shangshan Che nodded, extended five fingers, and the bloodstained cleaver clattered into his hand.
“Because I did it.”
In this rumbling silence where only the factory operated, Shangshan Che deliberately waited two seconds, but he did not see the expected emotions in the foreman’s eyes.
The foreman just gazed at him calmly, with a hint of realization in his eyes: “So it was you…”
Shangshan Che tilted his head: “Not curious about the reason?”
Actually, if the foreman could move the workshop away with him, Shangshan Che might not have to kill him, after all, the blacksmith just wanted the noisy workshop to disappear.
And facing a demon with rare personal ambitions, Shangshan Che wouldn’t mind losing dozens or hundreds of soul ash.
But after exchanging with the foreman, Shangshan Che already understood that the conflict between them could not be resolved.
—Sorry, Foreman-san, please die for my new weapon!
The foreman sighed, removed the safety helmet from his head, and revealed a ferocious, bloodthirsty expression after a long time: “The reason is no longer important.”
Laughing Hannya nodded in strong agreement, revealing a smile.
“Hah—”
Accompanied by a whale-like exhalation sound, at the same instant, the falling leaves drifting in mid-air and the foreman’s chest and abdomen were simultaneously slashed open.
Grayish-white blood splattered.
“One slash isn’t enough.”
Shangshan Che’s palm was numbed by the foreman’s breastbone, and this Half-Star elite’s health was clearly not on the same level as a miniboss; even a successful sneak attack slash couldn’t heavily injure him.
In the gap as he retracted the cleaver, Shangshan Che could clearly see the foreman’s arm moving.
It seems the Terrifying Smile could at most give him a first-strike advantage of one slash against enemies of the same level.
However, that was already enough.
Proficient Level Ki-Gong Technique wouldn’t show weakness after a full-force strike; far more prolonged qi flowed through Shangshan Che’s body than before.
With this advantage, he could even wear down the bare-handed foreman just by attrition…
Just as Shangshan Che thought this, the foreman suddenly raised his hand, and a heavy cold gleam pierced through his waist.
The intense pain of flesh and blood being torn apart made Shangshan Che’s brows twitch; he quickly circulated Ki-Gong Technique to retreat violently, then looked at the foreman again.
—What was in the opponent’s hand? He didn’t have a storage bag like Shangshan Che.
Shangshan Che saw the weapon held in the foreman’s hand.
It was a long, stick-like object, thicker at one end and thinner at the other.
Crowbar?!
He had actually forgotten about this thing; Shangshan Che had only paid attention to sharp weapons before, so he hadn’t cared much about cold weapons that were more tool-oriented.
After all, as a foreman, carrying a crowbar on him was very reasonable.
Shangshan Che glanced at the roughly two-finger-wide wound on his waist, transported a large amount of qi there to successfully stop the bleeding, then said indifferently: “The foreman is truly meticulous.”
The foreman kicked the safety helmet beside his foot aside: “Isn’t Mr. Hannya the same?”
Drag it out, just hard drag!
Casually chatting idly with the foreman, Shangshan Che’s mind was exceptionally clear under the effect of Calm as Still Water.
Now the foreman couldn’t stop the bleeding, so as long as he dragged out the time, even without making a move, the foreman would bleed to death alive.
And this time, due to the size of the wound, was destined not to be too long.
If he couldn’t kill the foreman this time, Shangshan Che believed the opponent would never give him a second chance; in that case, not only would the strategy time be greatly extended, but he might not even get the weapon forged by the blacksmith.
So, just stay steady.
Don’t show even a shred of an opening to this insidious foreman.
Time slowly passed, Shangshan Che watched the foreman gradually weaken bit by bit, while the qi in his body had even recovered to peak condition.
As one waned and the other waxed, it could almost be said that the law of victory was already determined!
But instinctively, Shangshan Che felt something was off.
The foreman, who had almost given him a critical hit with the crowbar, didn’t know what choice was correct in a desperate situation?
Shangshan Che gripped the cleaver tightly and decided to strike proactively.
With a bang, a large amount of qi dissipated from Shangshan Che’s body surface.
His whole body shot out like an arrow off the string, and the cleaver slashed down faster than ever before.
“Come on!”
But unexpectedly, the foreman roared, his body surface instantly turning crimson red, and he raised the crowbar to block this strike.
Shangshan Che’s whole body was forced back two steps by this immense force, and intense pain came from his right arm—probably a bone fracture.
Because at this moment, a 【Jade Shatter】 red affix suddenly appeared above the foreman’s head, and the mist above his head also changed from white-yellow interspersed to a dangerous crimson.
【Jade Shatter: Gradually consumes vitality to accumulate power; the more vitality consumed, the more power accumulated. Vitality cannot be recovered.】
Shangshan Che thought to himself, so he was waiting for me here.
If he had been a bit more steady just now and dragged it out for three to five minutes, he might have been directly smashed by the foreman’s crowbar.
He didn’t want to experience the feeling of his upper body exploding.
Shangshan Che looked at the foreman, who clearly struggled after swinging one strike, seized this fleeting opportunity, and immediately advanced.
While advancing, he also roared: “The winner will be me!”
The Natural Reason School thrust technique that Lili Zi had once demonstrated flashed rapidly through Shangshan Che’s mind at this moment.
He instinctively thrust out the cleaver.
The rusted blade deftly passed through the wound and easily pierced the heart.
The foreman’s originally soaring momentum stalled abruptly, then suddenly dissipated like clouds and mist.
After Shangshan Che withdrew the blade, the foreman thudded to the ground.
Victory and defeat were decided.
In the silence, the foreman’s weak voice struggled to emerge.
“Mr. Hannya…”
He exerted all his strength to turn sideways, gazing at the half grayish sky: “That factory…”
Phantoms of the past flashed before the foreman’s eyes: the golden rice fields once covering the hills and plains of Arakawa Village, and the people laughing and working in the fields.
Unfortunately, the past times had all burst and dissipated like bubbles.
He closed his eyes and murmured softly: “Please make sure to get rid of that factory that brought filth and oppression.”
Shangshan Che looked down at him, his pupils pitch black.
Even without the foreman saying it, he would never let that factory gathering a large number of demons go.
But after thinking about it, Shangshan Che still nodded lightly and agreed: “I promise you.”
Thus, the foreman smiled pleasantly, as if a burden was lifted.
“Thank you…”
The foreman said.
The Jade Shatter affix above his head gradually dissipated bit by bit, until nothing remained.
A prompt timely appeared before Shangshan Che’s eyes.
【You killed the Half-Star obsession “Worker Leader” and obtained 75 soul ash.】
【You obtained the Foreman’s Crowbar（Rare）.】
【You experienced combat, Ki-Gong Technique Fragment proficiency +25!】
【You experienced combat, gained some insight, Natural Reason School proficiency +76!】
Shangshan Che let out a heavy breath, sat on the ground, stared at the gradually clarifying double moons, and thought how extremely dangerous it had been.
The Terrifying Smile was used up at the very beginning, the qi was depleted in the last two slashes, and even stamina was almost gone…
It could be said that this was a complete fluke victory.
It was laughable that he had thought a mere Half-Star like a Sturdy Farmer would be killed in just two or three slashes.
Now it seemed there were differences even among Half-Stars.
He still had to thank the foreman for teaching him a lesson.
After panting for a while, Shangshan Che remembered to carefully check the previous prompts.
Quite a lot of soul ash, nothing to say there—it matched the foreman’s strength.
But what Shangshan Che didn’t expect was that the crowbar on the foreman actually dropped.
【Foreman’s Crowbar】
【Quality: Rare】
【Effect: Exceptionally sturdy, greatly increases damage to all types of doors and objects.】
【—Since I’m the foreman, isn’t it reasonable to carry a crowbar?】
A special type of weapon, or rather an item.
Shangshan Che looked at this “exceptionally sturdy” effect; no wonder when they clashed earlier, his cleaver had several chips, while this crowbar was unscathed.
But fortunately, with the foreman dead, the new weapon was coming, and the tattered cleaver could roll into the warehouse to gather dust.
Besides that, the Natural Reason School proficiency had surged so much all at once, almost comparable to practicing the sword twice with Soul Incense Ash.
“Combat really is the fast track to getting stronger…”
Unfortunately, Shangshan Che rarely encountered evenly matched battles; it was either him one-shotting the opponent or being one-shotted, with no game experience at all.
After sitting on the ground for a while to recover some stamina, Shangshan Che stood up and happened to spot something in the withered farmland not far away.
He focused and saw that it was actually a twisting and turning white shadow.
