Dan stared at the frozen old man with a nonchalant expression on his face. The old man, on the other hand, froze as a smile soon lifted on his face followed by a cold chuckle. The atmosphere inside the room turned incomparably cold and Dan who remained his carefree expression became stunned when he saw the blaring red system notification that floated in the air.
[Warning: The System has detected the existence of a lifeform that could easily extinguish the host's life]
[Suggestion: Please stay away for at least a kilometer from the lifeform!]
Bending his knees, he concentrated and focused on activating Flicker if something goes wrong. Fortunately for him, the old man calmed down and sat on the chair, staring at him with a cold expression.
"It's the first time that I met such a presumptuous brat like you..." He snorted, "If I announce to the world that I am accepting disciples, everyone in this entire empire will surely flock over and beg me for that position."
"But you..."
Dan knitted his eyebrows, "I simply said the words that I feel in my heart. If Senior feels offended to what I said, then pardon this one's wrongdoings." Dan clasped his hands together and spoke in a respectful tone. Towards a powerhouse that could turn him into dust with just a thought, he knew how to act and compromise.
"Now that you know my power, how about you consider my proposal once again? I promise you that you will definitely not regret becoming my disciple." The old man spoke his proposal and Dan sighed before replying, "Ever since I started on the path of cultivation, I strongly believe that only those who walk their own path to the peak will surely succeed. I appreciate Senior's offer but I am suitable to lead than to follow."
Crossing his arms together, Dan lifted a smile on his lips and said, "How about you consider my proposal, Senior? Even though I'm quite young, there's a saying that age doesn't reflect knowledge, maybe your more skillful than I am but you can't say for sure that my knowledge doesn't surpass yours."
The old man stared at him with a cold gaze. Although he wasn't an unreasonable man, he still felt ashamed about the fact that not only the young man before him, denied his proposal; he even proposed an idea of his own.
With his cultivation and skill sets as a Legend Ranked Blacksmith. How could he submit to an unranked young man? He inwardly thought before saying, "I can consider what you said as quite logical, however, if it is true or not, I can't say for sure..."
"How about this," A smile lifted on his face as he continued, "Since you claim to be more knowledgeable than me, Let's have a battle of knowledge, we will ask each other questions in turn and if one of us can't answer the other's question, they will lose." His eyelids squinted, "Simple, right?"
"Yeah, quite simple, so what are the stakes?" Dan inwardly chuckled, not only the Crafting Sub-System helped him create weapons or armors, it also had a deep database that he obtained from the Longinus Clan's Great Library. He was pretty confident that he could answer the old man's questions.
The old man stared at the fearless Dan with a complicated expression on his face, but still. Since he already went this far, he planned on going through as he said, "If I win, you'll become my disciple, but If I lose, then I will become your disciple or follower..."
"Really?" Dan couldn't help but make sure that the old man was speaking the truth. After all, after he scanned him with the System, he found that the old man before him possessed a Divine Soul Realm Cultivation, a realm higher than his father.
Having such a sturdy and powerful bodyguard was something that he could use to protect his family. Smiling to himself, Dan said, "Old man, are you sure about the stakes?"
"Yeah, I do believe that in any bet, fairness should be upheld, and to make everything fair, it should be natural to place that on the stakes, right?" The old man smiled which revealed his pearly-white teeth. Dan nodded his head and said, "Okay, but we won't go into turns, how about you ask five questions first and I will answer it."
"That's also fine." The old man shrugged, walked towards the entrance of the blacksmith shopped and flipped over the OPEN sign.
"Now we're good to go, okay, I'll ask the questions first." He crossed his arms together and sat before Dan as he continued, "When it comes to tempering Crystallized Blood Iron instead of using the highest temperature possible why is it that it won't melt when it reaches a certain temperature threshold?"
Dan pondered for a moment, the question that the old man asked really was a tricky one. According to the Crafting Sub-System's database, the Crystallized Blood Iron was a crafting material that could be formed from the blood of your enemies. By freezing their blood and condensing it into a dense concentrated core, it would form a Yin affiliated material that was two-hundred times stronger and harder than Deep Sea Gold.
The old man smirked to himself, waiting for Dan's answer.
"To answer that question, the reason why the Crystallized Blood Iron won't melt when it reaches a certain temperature threshold is that if that temperature is reached, it means that the Yin Affiliated Iron is being saturated with Yang. Which means the overbearing Yin made from the blood of people would rebel, suppressing the Yang and concentrating once again."
He smiled amidst the old man's widened eyes and offered a solution.
"In solving this problem, one must maintain a temperature that a fourth lower than the melting point of Deep Sea Gold. Not only that, one must continuously fluctuate the temperature between cold and hot so that the Yin inside the Iron won't become agitated."
Swallowing a mouthful of saliva, the old man struggled to maintain his calm. For when he checked his memories, he understood that the answer that Dan gave, thoroughly matched the answer from the books that he read from his homeland!
He was pretty confident that no one in this small empire should even know about the Crystallized Blood Iron but when he heard Dan's answer, his eyes narrowed, 'it seems like this brat is a scholarly one...' Clenching his fists, he asked a series of questions that baffled even the blacksmiths of his homeland, yet Dan seamlessly answered it without any problems or even stopping.
By the time that Dan was finished; he found that the old man's expression looked flushed and agitated as he slowly kneeled to the ground. Embracing Dan's knees, he said, "Y-y-young master...Take this old man as...Your...Disciple..."
He threw all of his pride and kneeled down, begging Dan to take him as his disciple. What was pride in the face of benefits and a possibility of a brighter future? He consoled himself.
"Old man, stand up, stand up, stop doing that, it's embarrassing," Dan awkwardly scratched his head, and the old man stood up, holding the walls, he calmed his furiously beating heart as he stared at Dan with a light of loyalty within his eyes.
'Yes! Divine Soul Bodyguard, acquired!' Dan inwardly exclaimed but kept all of his excitement within his heart. Turning around, he frowned when he realized that it was very noisy and that the roads were cleared. The civilians looked at the incoming carriage with excited looks on their faces.
The old man stopped and explained, "Young master, that's the carriage that belongs to the Paradyne Clan, and the one inside must be the daughter of Mathias Paradyne, Charlotte Paradyne."
Dan nodded his head in confirmation, "Why the grand entrance? It feels like they're welcoming a hero instead of a brat..."
The old man wryly smiled, he also felt that such a welcome was an absurd one. But still, he answered his young master's question with a smile, "Well, that's because it's the first time that the daughter of such a powerful Clan Chief visited the Empire, and the Emperor itself planned to welcome her in this way so that she may potentially become attached to the Empire..."
Upon hearing the old man's words, Dan commented, "That's quite a smart move from him," The old man at the side chuckled and both of them stared at the incoming entourage.
Dan knitted his eyebrows when he realized that someone from the crowd mixed among those people that surrounded the luxurious carriage. The old man's expression darkened, from this angle, he also noticed the man and opened the doors of his blacksmith shop.
But Dan was even faster than him, manifesting his Divine Arts, he sped towards the middle of the entourage, caught the suspicious man and threw him the air before saying, "CROUCH DOWN! THERE'S A SUICIDE BOMBER!" His roar resonated in the area and the old man rotated his cultivation base as he quickly propped a barrier followed by an explosion which shook the entire Region.
Lightning crackled and fire rained down from the skies. Fortunately for them, the old man managed to activate a barrier in time, resulting in no casualties among the civilians. Clenching his fists, Dan's eyesight followed a jade token that came from the bomber's wretched body.
Picking it up, his eyes widened as he remembered a piece of information that he read from the Longinus Clan's Library. The jet-black jade token had an insignia of two bloodied daggers forming an X with a crow sitting on top of a skull above the daggers.
Gripping the jade-token, he spoke in a solemn voice, "Night Ranger Association?" Towards this mysterious association of Assassins, Dan's expression flushed red in anger. Assassins should only eliminate their indicated target and should not include everyone around the target, yet the actions of that suicide bomber indicated that he wanted everyone around to lose their lives.
If not for the presence of him and the old man, this region of the City would've been bathed in flames and ruins, resulting in innumerable casualties among the civilians.
Calming his anger, he hurled the token towards the old man before walking towards the carriage to check if the passenger was alright.