Translated by: Zryuu

Edited by: b.u.t.ter

—

Lin Zezhi didn't send Fourth Elder Bai off, and neither did he dare to rest. Right now, after listening to how the two of them addressed each other, he couldn't help but s.h.i.+ver.

How long had it even been? And yet the two of them are calling each other brothers now? He wondered how the other elders, who have lived for more than a hundred years, would think after knowing about this.

Fourth Elder Bai looked up with his child-like, flushed face and patted his chest. "Isn't it just forking out some money and uniting a few families and sects to set up a Craftsmen Alliance dedicated to providing some crafting materials and guidance for the pitiful little craftsmen in the wild ma— that doesn't amount to much! It'll easily be done once the Bai family requests for it! It can be regarded as acc.u.mulating some virtue for the younger generation."

Lin Zezhi instantly wanted to kneel as soon as he finished speaking.

d.a.m.n it, what did they talk about? How did they so easily decide such a terrifyingly major thing with just one smack of the table?

A Craftsmen Alliance? One could tell that it wasn't anything small just from hearing its name.

Lin Zezhi couldn't stop glancing at Lin Xuanzhi.

Lin Xuanzhi tossed him a rather profound smile.

A chill instantly ran down Lin Zezhi's spine and he quickly s.h.i.+fted his gaze elsewhere.

He felt like Lin Xuanzhi was in the middle of stirring something up ah.

Lin Xuanzhi smiled slightly. "Then I'll wait for Bai Dage's good news."

Fourth Elder Bai said, "Tomorrow…no. I'll go look for my Dage, Erge and Sange today to discuss this with them. You can rest a.s.sured that I'll give you a definite result tomorrow. We can start setting up the Craftsmen Alliance by tomorrow night!"

Lin Xuanzhi nodded. "Then I'll wait for Bai Dage's result."

In actual fact, Lin Xuanzhi knew that even if Fourth Elder Bai took this matter seriously, they wouldn't be able to take action so quickly. It's…still not that easy to get through the hurdle of the Bai family.

Fourth Elder Bai walked down the street while guaranteeing and patting his chest.

Lin Zezhi looked at Lin Xuanzhi with a complicated gaze. "I'll see him off."

Lin Xuanzhi said, "They may just invite you to stay in the Bai residence today. If they're sincere enough, then stay in the Bai residence for a few more days. You need not worry about this side."

Lin Zezhi, "…"

Looks like you clearly know that after Fourth Elder Bai got brainwashed by you, he would inevitably be re-a.s.sessed by the other elders. When Lin Zezhi stayed in the Bai residence, he didn't stay in the inner courtyard of the main bloodline. The Bai family has a large family and estate — their residence occupied nearly 1,000 mu. Each bloodline lived separately and usually didn't interact much, so they wouldn't easily b.u.mp into one another.

Therefore, although Lin Zezhi had followed Bai Susu to stay in the Bai family, he had never come into contact with the core figures of the Bai family, and he had never seen Young Master Bai or any of the direct elders in the Bai family.

Direct pupils would see him occasionally and would just walk past him with their chins held high and gazes fixated elsewhere, as if they couldn't disdain to have dealings with someone like him who was from a third-rate family– even if they were slightly related by blood.

Whether from an emotional, principle, or pros and cons point of view, Lin Xuanzhi had no reason to refuse.

Although he no longer opposed Lin Xuanzhi and his jealousy towards him had already turned into a deep-seated admiration and fear, this didn't hinder him from wanting to excel.

Lin Zezhi was someone who was very good at seizing opportunities, and he wasn't a foolish man. Thus, after receiving Lin Xuanzhi's support, Lin Zezhi nodded. "Xuanzhi, don't worry. I'll definitely discuss in detail about setting up the Craftsmen Alliance with the elders from the Bai family."

Lin Xuanzhi looked at Fourth Elder Bai, who was about to reach the end of the street while swaying from side to side, and smiled as he shook his head. "I actually just mentioned that casually. It's better for us to just do what we can and obey the mandate of Heaven ba."

Lin Zezhi, "…" You're f.u.c.king telling me that you had just casually mentioned it, yet the Fourth Elder from the Bai family is now racking his brains about how to use the wool of the Bai family and other sects and families to casually set up a Craftsmen Alliance that can let poor-a.s.s craftsmen in the wild get their hands on materials? Let alone mentioning how the two of you were addressing each other as brothers like the two of you had become sworn brothers…

Lin Zezhi couldn't figure out the key point in all this and his fear of Lin Xuanzhi grew.

Lin Xuanzhi went back to his room after seeing Fourth Elder Bai off.

After Yan Tianhen's room was completely destroyed during the explosion of his pill furnace, he had been staying with him after. It's just that, in order to make it more convenient for the two tiger cubs to move about in the room, Lin Xuanzhi found a new room that was made by connecting two rooms together.

After returning to the room, Lin Xuanzhi first went to the inner room to see if Yan Tianhen was covering himself properly with a blanket.

Yan Tianhen had returned four hours ago to sleep. When Lin Xuanzhi came over at this time, he woke up.

Yan Tianhen yawned in his pajamas and reached out to rub his eyes.

"Did I wake you up?" Lin Xuanzhi walked over to sit by the bed, reaching out to pinch Yan Tianhen's small face.

"Nope." Yan Tianhen yawned, "I was always sleeping like a dead pig and I couldn't wake up no matter how much noise was made."

"You can change that a.n.a.logy."

Yan Tianhen thought about it. His train of thought couldn't really be diverted, "Then…a dead rat?"

Lin Xuanzhi, "…"

It's better to not continue this topic, next.

Yan Tianhen looked at Lin Xuanzhi's gloomy and speechless expression and couldn't help but blink. After he laughed for a while, he hugged Lin Xuanzhi's arm. "Dage, how did fooling Fourth Elder Bai go?"

"Naughty." Lin Xuanzhi deliberately put on a straight face and knocked Yan Tianhen's head. "How could you call that fooling? I just had a friendly consultation with him. Fourth Elder Bai is a very aware person; he's extremely willing to help craftsmen who have no money and no background."

Yan Tianhen couldn't help laughing again.When Lin Xuanzhi saw how he was trembling from laughing too hard, the corner of his lips lifted involuntarily, and even his eyes turned into crescent-shapes from smiling.

"Fourth Elder Bai looks so young." Yan Tianhen suddenly thought this.

"Do you know of Fourth Elder Bai's experiences?" Lin Xuanzhi asked.

Yan Tianhen shook his head. "Daddy never told me before ei."

Lin Xuanzhi said lightly, "When Fourth Elder Bai was very young, he was stolen from the Bai family by the Bai family's enemies and sold to a very dirty place almost devoid of cultivating resources. Fourth Elder Bai couldn't find his home and didn't know which family he belonged to, so he had always been living a rather miserable life. Later on, he awakened his crafting soul fire and turned into a craftsman. However, there was a group of powerful people in the place he was at who had other ideas and actually locked him up, forcing him to craft magic treasures for them every day."

Yan Tianhen sucked in a breath of cold air. "That's too pitiful. How could those people treat a craftsman like that?"

"Not everyone in this world respects craftsmen." Lin Xuanzhi continued, "Fourth Elder Bai had no money and no power, so he could only craft magic treasures for them. In order to control Fourth Elder Bai, those people gave him some medicinal pill that ensured he would never grow up. Later on, Fourth Elder Bai escaped somehow and wandered around for a period of time. Since there were people pursuing him, he didn't dare to openly craft any items, so he lived really miserably. One day, he was seen by his biological elder brother, who is one of the elders in the Bai family today, and by some chance, he was found out to be the child the Bai family lost in the past, which was when his days took a turn for the better."

Yan Tianhen felt a bit upset from listening and nodded pensively. "So Fourth Elder Bai was so pitiful when he was a child ah, he was much worse off than me."

At the very least, Yan Tianhen had a dad and older brother, and his dad even particularly pampered and spoiled him and would get whatever he wanted for him. Even though he was a little ugly and had a lame leg, he didn't have to endure much suffering.

But that Fourth Elder bai…was a miserable "little ah.

Lin Xuanzhi said, "So, if the one who had come today was someone else from the Bai family, I definitely wouldn't have said what I did."

A sudden realisation dawned upon Yan Tianhen. "So Dage knew all of this beforehand, which was why you forcibly brainwashed Fourth Elder Bai?"

Lin Xuanzhi was somewhat speechless again. He pinched Yan Tianhen's cheek. "This is called 'adapting to the other's taste'. Fourth Elder Bai has a trauma left behind from his past, so he has a strong urge in his heart to want to help other craftsmen who have had to go through similar experiences as him. It's just that he has never spoken of such an impulse before."

Yan Tianhen sighed. "If the Craftsmen Alliance were to really be established, wouldn't that cost a lot of money? Would the Bai family be willing to fork out such a sum for nothing?"

Lin Xuanzhi took a deep breath. "Ah Hen, do you really think that Dage did all that just to fool them into forking money out to provide resources for us broke craftsmen for free?"

Yan Tianhen, "…" Dage seems a little unhappy.

Thus, Yan Tianhen immediately shook his head and said sincerely, "Of course not! Dage's such a sentimental and ambitious person, how could you trick others into fis.h.i.+ng money out of their pockets?"

Lin Xuanzhi has already given up on rectifying this tiny misunderstanding Yan Tianhen had of him. He said lightly, "For some craftsmen, the greatest help the Craftsmen Alliance can give them isn't the material a.s.sistance they provide, but the venue for them to obtain emergency relief."

Yan Tianhen blinked, puzzled, "Why an emergency relief venue?"

"I have already come to an agreement with Fourth Elder Bai. The most important thing is that once craftsmen join the Craftsmen Alliance, if any accidents were to occur, all of the families and sects of the Craftsmen Alliance must dispatch people out to help them. If that craftsman has not yet joined the Craftsmen Alliance and he gets into an accident, we can still offer him help either actively or pa.s.sively."

In short, the Craftsmen Alliance would be a joint platform that could provide a.s.sistance and act as a backer for the craftsmen of the Five Continents' mainlands.

Nowadays, the current situation of craftsmen was like this: the more powerful the craftsman, the richer their resources would be, and the safer they would be as well. The more wild craftsmen with no background were, the more dangers would be hiding in their surroundings.

The craftsmen of the Five Continents' mainlands were rather scattered. Aside from the unshakable, colossal Bai family, most other craftsmen went their own ways and operated independently. If any one of them got into trouble, there was no authoritative agent that could provide help for them.

In the long run, the living environment of craftsmen would only become more and more terrifying.

Lin Xuanzhi's temperament had changed a lot compared to the past after his rebirth. However, he still had a kind of indescribable sense of calling in his heart. This sense of calling seemed to have been inherently engraved into his bones, such that he was unable to resist it.

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Editor's Little Mutter:
So what you're saying… is that Fourth Elder… is also a contestant in Rebirth of the Supreme Idol? :thonk: