Dragon's Origin

## Chapter 131: The Capital (Part 2)

Although the imperial power wasn't particularly strong, the scale of the capital city was indeed impressively large. Even if the various aristocratic families outwardly showed respect to the imperial family while inwardly disregarding them, the scale of the imperial city was still the most magnificent and largest city Wang Sheng had ever seen.

Wang Sheng spent a full five days just wandering around the entire capital. In this era, there were no cars or other means of transportation. Moreover, the capital was an important imperial city, where ordinary people were not allowed to ride horses at full speed. Wang Sheng could only walk, taking in the entire capital on foot.

The Old Lord Temple was located in the suburbs, not in the city itself, so there was no rush to go there. After settling down and making some preparations, Wang Sheng went straight to the Imperial Workshop in the capital. It was said that the Azure Cloud Pavilion's branch in the capital was located within the Imperial Workshop.

However, Wang Sheng searched the Imperial Workshop thoroughly but didn't see a single store with the Azure Cloud Pavilion's signboard. Instead, the entire workshop was filled with various small shops, mostly engaged in handicrafts. Blacksmith shops, tailor shops—at a glance, they were all such small businesses.

There were hundreds of shops, large and small, but not a single one had a name similar to Azure Cloud Pavilion.

The source of the information wasn't particularly formal; Wang Sheng had inadvertently heard it from the female owner of Baoqing Surplus Hall. She had said it casually at the time, but Wang Sheng had remembered it.

If it weren't for the female owner, Wang Sheng wouldn't have been able to inquire about the Azure Cloud Pavilion at all. How could anyone connected to the Azure Cloud Pavilion casually reveal their most exquisite and high-end supply source to irrelevant people?

But arriving at the place and discovering this situation couldn't help but leave Wang Sheng dumbfounded. He had underestimated these cunning merchants; not a word they said was true. Even that female owner, who seemed to have such a good figure and gentle voice, knew how to deceive people inadvertently.

There were definitely branches of Baoqing Surplus Hall and Yu Treasure Hall in the capital, but Wang Sheng certainly wouldn't go there himself. He was trying to conceal his identity; revealing his name in the capital now would be like being swarmed and devoured by a pack of wolves. This wasn't Worry-Free City. At least, those guys in the inner city of Worry-Free City had some reservations when taking action, but in the capital, those guys could be completely unscrupulous.

The old eunuch's jade token was said to be useful in the capital, and Wang Sheng firmly believed it. However, as soon as he revealed it, Wang Sheng would probably have to get involved with the imperial family.

For the time being, Wang Sheng didn't want to have any connection with the imperial family. Currently, Wang Sheng didn't see any benefits from associating with the imperial family, nor did he see any possibility of the imperial family helping him find the girl in his dreams. Therefore, at this time, Wang Sheng would never easily use the old eunuch's jade token.

After pondering for a moment, Wang Sheng suddenly smiled self-deprecatingly, 'Since I'm here, I might as well take a look!' His gaze began to focus on these small shops.

It must be said that the name 'Imperial Workshop' was well-deserved. It seemed like a hodgepodge of various workshops, doing all sorts of things. Wang Sheng even saw a restaurant, where the fat chef was skillfully flipping the wok, a technique very similar to Wang Sheng's.

He didn't expect that in such a short time, cooking skills had already spread from Worry-Free City to the capital. Wang Sheng wasn't in the mood for that now, so he just took a look on the way.

Just as he took a few steps, a burst of cursing suddenly came from the shop next door, and then two figures walked out of the shop.

"What a load of crap! So many demands just for forging a weapon, you deserve to have no business!" The one walking in front was clearly a wealthy young master, muttering with a look of displeasure.

Behind the young master was a servant in a blue coat and cap, slightly bowing and echoing his young master, cursing the owner of the shop behind them with a torrent of abuse: "That's right, that's right, an old geezer, can he even lift a sledgehammer? He even wants the young master to help him swing the sledgehammer, what wishful thinking!"

As the master and servant left, one singing and the other harmonizing in displeasure, Wang Sheng became interested in the blacksmith shop that didn't even have a signboard at the door. A blacksmith shop forging weapons, with so many demands? What demands?

Wang Sheng strolled into the seemingly dilapidated blacksmith shop and saw the old geezer that the master and servant had been talking about.

He was indeed an old geezer, with a head full of white hair and wearing gray and black clothes. They weren't torn, but there were many scattered small holes on them, which were obviously scorched by sparks from the furnace. The old man's hands were also covered in the color of smoke and fire, full of calluses.

The blacksmith looked hale and hearty, not at all like the master and servant described, unable to even lift a sledgehammer. However, after all, he was old. The customers had already left, and the old man was sitting on a stool in front of the furnace, staring blankly at the fire.

"What kind of weapon do you want to forge?" Hearing Wang Sheng's footsteps, the old man asked without raising his head, "If it's for your own use, it's best to participate yourself. The weapon you forge yourself with a sledgehammer is the most suitable for you."

Hearing this sentence, Wang Sheng knew what the master and servant had been talking about. The old man wanted the young master to swing the sledgehammer, which was probably the so-called demand. Could this be the old man's rule?

"If you're short-handed, just say you're short-handed, why make such a fuss?" Wang Sheng didn't answer his question, but instead smiled and said the truth he saw.

There was only the old man in the blacksmith shop. No matter what he wanted to forge, the old man always lacked someone to swing the sledgehammer with one hand holding the tongs and the other holding a small hammer. Wang Sheng's gaze began to sweep to other places, and finally his gaze landed on the sledgehammer leaning against the anvil.

Hearing Wang Sheng's words, the old man's eyes lit up, and he finally looked up at Wang Sheng, with a little more smile on his face: "Can you swing a sledgehammer?"

The entire blacksmith shop looked dilapidated, but two places were very clean, one was on the furnace, and the other was on the anvil. There was no need to ask, the owner must have taken care of them carefully. However, this wasn't what attracted Wang Sheng. What made Wang Sheng laugh was that the furnace didn't even have a bellows.

The blacksmith shop's furnace didn't have a bellows? Was that possible? Wang Sheng had seen many ordinary blacksmith shops in Worry-Free City, in Linchuan City, and in Shanglin City, and each of them was equipped with a bellows. Without a bellows, how could the furnace fire temperature rise? How could good objects be forged?

But in this blacksmith shop, there were obviously still finished products. Although those finished products looked only decent, they were still finished products.

So, with only an old geezer, no one to help swing the sledgehammer, and no bellows to increase the flame temperature, how were those finished products forged?

"I can swing it," Wang Sheng also smiled and replied: "But I don't know how much strength to use."