Initiation ceremony at 3:10

  Fei Long is indeed a veteran beggar who has been wandering in Luoyang for several years. After half a day of screening, Zhen Mingshu finally settled on a wooden house near the Luoshui River, with beautiful river views and surrounded by poor fishermen's residences, which met his requirements without being too far from the Wuji Ironworks.

  The wooden house is about 100 square meters in size, with a kitchen and a bathroom. The main house is divided into a living room for receiving guests and the owner's bedroom, as well as a guest room. Although it's small, it has all the necessary facilities.

  Fei Long familiarized himself with the surroundings, bought a lot of daily necessities, and also picked up some cheap and simple furniture from the pawnshop. He lit the stove, cooked rice and dishes, and everyone gathered together to eat a meal, which was considered officially moving in.

  After paying the deposit and three months' rent, the total cost was only a little over two taels of silver.

  At this rent level, Zhenming felt very satisfied. This location and house, if placed in the 21st century, would be equivalent to being within the third ring of a metropolis. It's a riverside building with an invincible river view. Although the house is really too simple and old, the surrounding scenery and environment are what you can't find in a 21st-century city, even the air has a fragrance of flowers and grass.

  With the blacksmith's job, Zhenming handed over all the work of maintaining order in Hongyuan Bieyuan to Feilong and his fellow villagers. He thought it would be polite for him to say hello to the lovely little maid Miao Yu, but unfortunately, he didn't see her come out again after going there several times. People said she would soon become a flower fairy of Baifang Lou and could no longer show up easily.

  Today is his first day of work at the blacksmith's shop.

  He changed into a new set of clothes and arrived at the Wu Chi blacksmith shop on time.

  The entrance of Wei Chi's ironwork shop, Zhu had been waiting at the door with a strange smile on his face.

  It's exhausting, I never thought that in this era, getting a job would involve so many tedious procedures. First, you have to worship the Fire God Zhu Rong, then pay respects to the Master Craftsman of the Ou Ye Clan, and finally, make three bows to the leader of the Mining Guild.

  Looking at the bright red branding iron of the mine helper, there is a pattern on it that looks like the two sword-shaped knives on Wei Zheng's arm.

  "With this mark on you, you are one of us in the mine gang." Wei Chi Jing De held a fiery branding iron, "From now on, we will share difficulties and joys together, advance and retreat together!"

  He said, turning his head towards the pillar standing aside, with a small dog in one hand and a knife in the other, "Pillar, spill dog blood!"

  Zhuzi got the order, before Zhen Mingsu could react to what was happening, the knife fell, and the dog's head rolled off. Dog blood splattered all over Zhen Mingsu's face.

  "Take off your clothes!"

  Zhen Ming bitterly knew that rules are hard to break, so he had no choice but to follow orders and take off his clothes.

  "Dog blood splashing on my head, ghosts and gods are frightened, entering my mine to offer sacrifices, the spirit of knives and swords, descending upon my body, pitying my humble life, wind and fire rising, forging the divine continent!"

  All that could be heard was Wei Chi Jing De closing his eyes, muttering to himself, waving the branding iron in his hand and making strange gestures as if he were a Taoist priest drawing talismans.

  The branding iron was pressed onto Zhenming's arm, making a hissing sound and emitting white smoke.

  Burned the token of the gang, worshiped the ancestor Ou Yezi, and was considered to have entered the gang.

  After the initiation ceremony, Zhen Ming changed into a set of ironwork uniforms and followed Wei Chi Jingde on a tour around the place.

  The size of the ironwork shop was completely beyond Zhen Ming's imagination.

  The storefronts along the street are just stores selling various iron products, and behind the stores there are open-air warehouses specifically used for stacking various ores.

  Ore dressing room, smelting house, forging house, quenching house...

  Wei Chi Jing De finally brought him to a three-story wooden building, the sign above the door engraved with the three powerful words "Divine Soldier Pavilion", the strokes of which contained a sharp and murderous aura.

  Zhen looked at the three big words carefully, and Wei Chi Jing De's expression was slightly proud. He said: "You just joined our gang, and you can learn the rules slowly, but there is only one thing you need to remember. In my gang, from top to bottom, we all look up to my big brother Ma Shou. Without him, there would be no today for our gang. This is also the foundation of our gang."

  Zhen Ming bitterly turned his head and asked: "Who is your elder brother?"

  Wei Chi Jing De's face showed a respectful expression: "Mai Yi Ying Fu Xiaowei Liu Wu Zhou."

  ……

  After roughly strolling through the blacksmith's shop that covered nearly 10,000 square meters, Wei Chi Jing De brought Zhen Ming Su to the smelting room.

  In the several hundred square meters of house, smoke and fog swirled around, hot air rose, a drum blower that three people could pull, a large smelting furnace weighing several tons, the fire in the stove illuminated the entire room with a crimson glow.

  A dozen or so men, wearing only a piece of cloth around their waists, stood under the furnace, their robust muscles and dark bronze skin radiating an aura of rugged power. Under the scorching heat of the high-temperature furnace fire, they were drenched in sweat as they scooped out the molten iron water from the furnace one ladle at a time and poured it into the casting mold.

  "Everyone working here are our ironwork shop's highest-paid senior craftsmen."

  Wei Chi Jing De pointed at those men. Those strong men saw Wei Chi Jing De coming in, and they just slightly nodded to him before burying their heads in hard work.

  "These are all hard jobs, can't take any shortcuts, can you handle it?"

  Wei Chi Jing De looked up and down at Zhen Ming Ku, who was standing among the tall and strong men. Although he wasn't very tall to begin with, Zhen Ming Ku looked even more frail and short compared to them. Wei Chi Jing De's gaze was very clear - with Zhen Ming Ku's current physical condition, he wouldn't be able to withstand even an hour in this high-temperature environment without fainting, let alone doing labor-intensive work like casting and forging metal.

  As expected, Zhen Ming shook his head and said, "Can't be done."

  The pillar behind him smiled complacently: "Big brother, what kind of joke are you playing? With his body that can be blown down by just a puff of air, I'm afraid he can't even get close to the stove. The work here isn't something that can be done with just some deceptive tricks, it requires real skills."

  Zhu Zi said, the muscles on his body began to twitch involuntarily, jumping and convulsing, as if he couldn't wait to strip off his clothes and show off his strength and bravery to Zhen Ming.

  Wei Chi Jing De did not stop Zhu Zi, he also wanted to know what made Zhen Ming so calm and collected from start to finish, without showing any signs of fear. After all, the people in Wei Chi's blacksmith shop were all handpicked by him, strong and powerful men, if it were an ordinary person, seeing so many sturdy men would inevitably make them a little nervous.

  But what he felt was that he wasn't as nervous as he had imagined.

  "If you can't do these jobs, what can you do? I don't pay wages for nothing here. The kind of work you do determines the kind of pay you get, I think you should understand that. Zhu, show him an example."

  "Alright!" Zhu Zi couldn't wait any longer, quickly taking off his clothes to reveal sturdy and robust muscles, walking towards one of the large bellows.

  "Get out of the way and let me handle it!"

  Several men who were pulling on bellows to fan the wind stopped and stood aside.

  Zhùzi yī rén lā zhù fēng xiāng jiǎ bǎ, dà hǒu yī shēng, xī yō xī ——

  English Translation:

  Zhu Zi held onto the bellows handle alone and let out a loud roar, "Hei yo hei——"

  Every muscle in the body is tense, with bulging veins on the neck and arms, like an enraged bull slowly pulling the piston of a bellows.