I Am Not The Machine King

City center, World Street.

This street was filled with shops of various aristocratic families in Qingshan City.

The World Square in the center was a place for leisure, dining, entertainment, and retail.

The owner behind it was the first-class aristocratic family, the Wang family in the capital of Tianshui Kingdom, Dongdu. Therefore, World Street quickly became the city center after it was established in Qingshan City.

Since it was morning, there were not many customers on the street.

World Street was very large. On both sides of the street, there were countless shops.

"Iron-blood Soldier City".

"Little Zhang's Weapon-making".

"Dan's Pleasant Face".

"Kendo Education Center".

...

The target customers of these shops were all different. They could survive in the Tianshui Kingdom, which was prosperous in martial arts.

A level two blacksmith could actually open a blacksmithing pavilion and customize weapons for some common martial artists to maintain a normal life.

Lin Yuan entered a small shop called "The Song Family's Blacksmithing Pavilion".

"Welcome..."

Song Yi was carefully wiping the cold weapons hanging around him. When he heard the sound of customers entering the shop, he immediately greeted them with a smile.

Lin Yuan smiled politely and said, "Hello, Uncle Song."

"Lin Yuan?"

"Why are you here? Didn't you go to class today?"

Song Yi was a little surprised.

His son, Song Cheng, was a member of Wu Di's small group of seven or eight. They had met a few times before.

"I didn't go today. I came to buy something."

Uncle Song said enthusiastically, "Come, come, come. Don't stand at the door. Come in and talk."

"What do you want to buy? Uncle Song will help you choose."

"I'll sell it to you at the cost price."

Song Cheng had always told him that Lin Yuan and the others had taken good care of him in school and they had a very good relationship with each other.

"I want to buy a few types of spirit stones."

Uncle Song was slightly surprised. "Spirit stones?"

"What do you want those for?"

Low-grade spirit stones were the basic materials for refining weapons and were also the core materials for spirit energy bullets.

Because the core energy was relatively small, it could not be directly absorbed for cultivation. High-grade spirit stones with pure energy could.

Facing Uncle Song's doubts, Lin Yuan did not know how to explain it in just a few words because even Lin Yuan himself did not understand the basic theory of mechanization.

Seeing that Lin Yuan did not want to say it, Uncle Song smiled and said, "It's okay."

"Tell me what kind of spirit stones you want. I don't have high-grade ones here, but I have low-grade spirit stones."

"Come."

Lin Yuan was brought to the spirit stone display area. After looking around, he pointed at the grade one and grade two spirit stones and said, "Uncle Song, how much are these spirit stones?"

Uncle Song took out the two stones from the display cabinet and said, "This first-grade one is cheaper, 3,000 yuan."

"The second-grade one is more expensive, 24,000 yuan."

"These are the cost price."

Uncle Song glanced at Lin Yuan, and Lin Yuan carefully said, "Uncle Song, you didn't sell it to me at a loss, right?"

Lin Yuan had previously searched the price of grade-one and grade-two spirit iron ore on the Tianshui Martial Arts Website. They were 9,000 yuan and 70,000 yuan respectively.

Was this business so profitable?

Uncle Song shook his head and said, "No, these are the cost price."

"The ores that small shops like us can get are all leftover from those big aristocratic shops. The quality is average."

Uncle Song continued to pick up the grade-one spirit iron stone in his hand. "Moreover, the size of the stone will also affect the price."

"The normal selling price for this piece is around 4500 yuan."

Hearing Uncle Song's explanation, Lin Yuan nodded. He really did not know about this.

Uncle Song continued to explain.

"For example, if we forge a spiritual iron sword, it is usually a half-spiritual weapon."

"If we want to forge a real spiritual iron sword, we need a whole piece of spirit iron stone."

Uncle Song gestured the size of the iron stone in front of his chest.

A whole piece of spirit iron stone was very expensive.

Lin Yuan looked at the spirit iron stone in front of him and thought for a while. Then he said, "Uncle Song, help me take these three grade-one spirit iron stones and one grade-two spirit iron stone."

"Okay."

"Thank you, Uncle Song."

...

After coming out of The Song Family's Blacksmithing Pavilion, Lin Yuan carefully put the four stones in his embrace.

Although he wanted to visit the cultivation shops in World Street, he was too poor and had only 20,000 yuan left.

20,000 yuan was a small amount of money for ordinary people, but it was a drop in the ocean for martial artists.

"Time to go back."

Every day was very important to Lin Yuan. He wanted to go back and study mechanized elasticity.

Just as he turned a corner, a middle-aged man and woman came out of a clothing shop at the corner of the street with a bouncing boy.

Lin Yuan looked up and happened to meet them.

"Lin Yuan?"

"Dad?"

The family of three was none other than Lin Yuan's father, Lin Shouyi, and his stepmother, Zhao Lan.

There was also Lin Yuan's half-brother, Lin Xiaoyang.

Lin Yuan had not been home much since he was in middle school. Occasionally, he would go out to eat with his father, Lin Shouyi, and talk about the recent situation.

Therefore, Lin Xiaoyang, who was only nine years old, was very unfamiliar with this half-brother of his. He could not help but grab Lin Shouyi's sleeve.

"You didn't go to class today?"

"Culture class. I didn't go."

"I came here to buy something."

Lin Shouyi nodded slightly.

He knew that Lin Yuan's results in the culture class were very good, so he did not have to worry much.

The most troublesome thing was that Lin Yuan yearned to apply for the martial arts course.

Since last year, Lin Shouyi had received a few calls from the school.

He had never really talked to Lin Yuan about it.

Then, Lin Shouyi and Zhao Lan discussed in a low voice.

Zhao Lan gave Lin Shouyi a slight glare, then held Lin Xiaoyang's hand and left slowly.

Seeing Zhao Lan and her son leave, Lin Shouyi smiled and said to Lin Yuan, "Let's go, let's have lunch together."

"I have something to talk to you."

...

World Square, Little Zheng's Restaurant.

"Try it."

Seeing the mutton soup, Lin Shouyi asked Lin Yuan to try it.

Lin Yuan took the bread and soaked it in the mutton soup. After taking a sip, the aroma filled the air.

"How is it? Not bad right? The shop is new."

"Okay."

Compared to the lively atmosphere at the other tables, the atmosphere between Lin Yuan and his father was a little strange.

It was mainly because their lives were a little divided, and they did not have many common topics to talk about.

After a moment of silence, the first to speak was Lin Shouyi.

"How long until the College Entrance Exam?"

Lin Yuan answered while chewing on the bread, "Less than half a year."

Lin Yuan did not have a good impression of his stepmother, Zhao Lan.

His father, Lin Shouyi, had a soft personality and did not have much status in the family. However, he and Lin Yuan were father and son after all, and their blood was thicker than water.

Lin Shouyi nodded. "Have you thought about what school you want to take the exam for?"

"Military academy."

When he said the word "military academy", Lin Shouyi's expression was obviously stunned.

Lin Shouyi's family background was not bad, but it was still a commoner's family. With his family background, he could not spend a lot of resources on Lin Yuan to learn martial arts.

Lin Yuan had shown a maturity that far exceeded his peers since he was young.

If Lin Yuan wanted to make a difference in martial arts, the military academy was indeed the best place to go.

"Military academy?"

"The military academy requires quite a high score in the martial arts."