From Abyssal Invasion to Bursting Stars with a Single Sword-Chapter 123 - 109 Quenching Assessment, Distress Signal_2

The competitor would definitely try to prevent him from using the Quenching Furnace.

However, Lu Heng's response caught him by surprise.

After a moment's thought, Lu Heng replied, "As long as the Crystal Cores earned can compensate for the consumption of the Quenching Furnace, I see no problem."

The reason he did not outright deny the competitor the chance to use the Quenching Furnace was not out of magnanimity, but because it was unnecessary.

Quenching Castle would interact with more and more Superpower Users in the future, and human Quenching Masters couldn't possibly remain singular forever.

That is to say, if He Shangyong were blocked now, there would still be Chen Shangyong and Wang Shangyong later.

Instead of blocking these people, it was better to improve relations with Gulu.

Thus, the suggestion Lu Heng made was for the benefit of Quenching Castle, thinking from Gulu's perspective — the correct way to build rapport.

After giving it some thought, Gulu asked, "That makes sense, but how can we know if it's worth the consumption of the Quenching Furnace?"

Upon hearing there was room for discussion, He Shangyong quickly said, "It's definitely worth the consumption."

Gulu couldn't trust a stranger and kept watching Lu Heng, wanting to hear his suggestion.

"It's simple; just do an assessment. Perform a quenching, and you give a score—won't that settle it?" Lu Heng offered a very fair suggestion.

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"Right, an assessment."

Gulu stood up and pointed at He Shangyong, saying, "Do you have quenching materials with you? If so, come with me for a quenching session, and I'll assess your ability."

Upon hearing this, He Shangyong eagerly agreed, "I've brought them, I've brought them, I'll make sure to perform well."

Gulu then pointed at Lu Heng and said, "You come too, and give him a score."

The Superpower Users present showed surprised expressions, thinking to themselves: What exactly is his relationship with Quenching Castle? How come he's involved in evaluating Quenching Masters?

Even Hu Biao was surprised; he clearly knew the relationship between Lu Heng and Quenching Castle.

It was only that time four months ago in the Abyss Battlefield, where they had helped Quenching Castle escape from the Abyss.

In such a short time span, Lu Heng had seemingly become the half-owner of Quenching Castle.

He Shangyong's face turned ashen. He had originally seen Lu Heng as a competitor, but now his opponent had become his evaluating mentor.

How could he even proceed?

However, he had no choice but to bite the bullet.

This was his only chance, as giving up now would mean it would be very difficult to have another opportunity in the future.

Gulu did not prevent others from watching, so all the Superpower Users followed en masse into the forging area.

Lu Heng and Gulu found a spot to sit and prepare to watch the performance of the newly appointed Apprentice Quenching Master.

He Shangyong started the process with trepidation—warming up the furnace, inserting the quenching materials, melting, quenching...

He went through a series of procedures.

Lu Heng watched expressionlessly, not uttering a single word throughout.

Gulu stood up from his seat several times, wanting to offer a reminder, but each time the words reached his lips, he swallowed them back because this was an assessment; if he gave any hints, it would invalidate the evaluation.

Finally,

He Shangyong completed the quenching procedures, but an unusual situation occurred.

The quenching was only partially successful, having increased only half of the intended quenching attribute.

Such a situation did indeed exist and should be considered incomplete.

Normally, when faced with this, the approach would be to add some more quenching material and repeat the latter part of the process to complete the quenching.

In terms of data, this incomplete state of quenching would require an additional 50% of quenching materials for a successful outcome.

After He Shangyong recognized this situation, he quickly glanced over at Gulu, then gritted his teeth, took out another portion of quenching material, threw it into the Quenching Furnace, and repeated the latter half of the process. Only then was he finally able to complete the quenching.

The quenching was completed.

He Shangyong turned and shot a glance at Lu Heng, then respectfully bowed to Gulu, saying, "Please, master, provide your assessment."

Gulu didn't give his opinion directly but instead turned to ask Lu Heng, "What do you think?"

Lu Heng casually replied, "Not too bad, pretty average."

This evaluation was not intentionally derogatory, it was rather noncommittal.

Gulu then asked, "So, do you think we should let him use the Quenching Furnace?"

Everyone looked at Lu Heng, guessing what he would say.

Lu Heng spread his hands and said, "Between the two options, let the master decide."

Gulu was not very satisfied with this evaluation. He hopped down from the chair, walked over, and closed the door of the Quenching Furnace, then began to scold:

"Let's not talk about Quenching Skill, your skills have nothing to brag about. Just look at your attitude; every time Lu Heng uses the Quenching Furnace, he cleans up the residue inside and puts the parts back where they belong.

"You didn't clean up at all. Don't you know that if the material residue isn't cleaned up in time it settles in the furnace, it can lead to temperature changes inside the furnace?

"Also, your Quenching Skill isn't up to par, nowhere near Lu Heng's level. You're not cut out to be a Quenching Master; my score for you is a fail."

The Superpower Users present widened their eyes upon hearing Gulu's scolding and thought to themselves: Are you the so-called dream-crushing mentor? So ruthless.

He Shangyong froze where he stood. If it had been Lu Heng belittling him, he could have claimed it was malicious suppression from a competitor.

But in fact, Lu Heng had not said anything throughout, whereas Gulu's evaluation of him was very poor.

He actually knew that the Quenching Furnace needed to be cleaned after use, but this task was generally the responsibility of the Quenching Master's assistant; he had never needed to do it before.

However, if he brought up this excuse now, it would just be asking for trouble.

He Shangyong's Quenching evaluation failed, resulting in the Chunshang Group's plan to infiltrate Quenching Castle completely shattering.

...

Leaving Quenching Castle, Hu Biao and He Shangyong had to report back to Kenji Ono.

Hu Biao wasn't nervous because he had completed everything that the Chunshang Group had asked him to do.

His only responsibility was to bring someone into Quenching Castle, and he had definitely done that.

As for He Shangyong not having gained the approval of the owner of Quenching Castle, that was not his problem.

The Chunshang Group's strategy failed in the Quenching Master arena, while the value of Lu Heng's Quenching Skill rose.

During this time, the Chunshang Group's plans in Coastal had faced continuous setbacks, causing great dissatisfaction among the financial moguls behind them, putting a lot of pressure on Kenji Ono.

...

After leaving Quenching Castle, Lu Heng needed to hand over the Quenching Orders to Lin Zeyu, so he sent him a message.

It wasn't long before Lin Zeyu's reply came: "I just finished paying the auction fee this afternoon; I'm now going to pick up the team contract. You can go to the company for the handover; I don't need to be present."

Now that it was dark, it was quite late to go pick up a team contract.

Lu Heng didn't think too much about it and first went to Huan Yu Company to hand over two weapons from the Quenching Orders.

Huan Yu Company set a minimum success rate of 70% for the Quenching business, so even if Lu Heng performed poorly today, his success rate was still above the minimum threshold.

After finishing the handover, Lu Heng prepared to go home.

Just at that moment.

Huan Yu Security Company was suddenly alerted, and a group of Superpower User bodyguards rushed out of the building.

Lu Heng stopped the Huan Yu Security manager in charge of the handover, asking puzzledly, "What's happening?"

"The boss sent a distress signal," the manager said, sounding rather flustered.

"A distress signal?" Lu Heng's brows furrowed deeply, and he immediately thought of Lin Zeyu going to pick up the team contract so late, which indeed seemed problematic.

"Can you get in touch with him?" Lu Heng asked immediately.

The manager at Huan Yu Security instantly took out an earpiece communicator and said, "This is the company emergency communicator. As soon as the boss sends a distress signal, all the company's security personnel will be notified. Mr. Lu, please help us out."

Lu Heng took the communicator, put it on his ear, and spoke, "What's the situation now?"

The voice of a Huan Yu command staff member came through the communication channel: "The boss has been shot, his vehicle is stopped on the river embankment road near Jiangbin Park, and we haven't been able to reach him."

As he listened to the information, Lu Heng walked outside.

Every member of Huan Yu Security Company mobilized, with a dozen vehicles starting up one after the other.

Lu Heng got into one of the cars and asked over the communication channel, "Mu Yu, can you hear me?"

One of the initial reasons for establishing Huan Yu Security Company was to provide bodyguard services for Lin Zeyu.

When Lin Zeyu sent out a distress signal, all of Huan Yu's security personnel would receive the message.

Su Muyu had signed with Huan Yu Security just a few days ago and naturally received the distress signal as well.

"I can hear you; I'm on my way. The scout eagle should arrive in two minutes near Jiangbin Park," Su Muyu's voice came through the communication channel.

"Alright, maintain contact."

As he spoke, the car's engine roared to life with an urgent howl, speeding toward the direction of the river embankment road near Jiangbin Park.