Guo Ran was with Xia Chen. The two of them had their own special space for them to experiment with various odd things.

Xia Chen was rather bashful and didn’t talk too much, but he got along best with Guo Ran. The two of them never ran out of crazy ideas.

Xia Chen was in charge of inscribing runes. After all, any formation master also had to be a master inscriber capable of placing runes on objects.

Guo Ran was in charge of the forging. The two of them worked together perfectly and were continuously making many miraculous things to benefit the Dragonblood Legion.

However, in the past two days, the two of them had stopped their forging and experimenting. They appeared listless.

“What’s going on? Don’t tell me that you’ve run out of money again!” Long Chen walked in.

“Boss, you’re back!” Guo Ran and Xia Chen immediately shot to their feet. Guo Ran had a mischievous expression, while Xia Chen appeared a bit uneasy.

“Out of money?” Long Chen could guess what was happening.

Whether it was forging items or inscribing runes, they both consumed an endless amount of resources. Actually, that also included alchemy, but refining pills for others resulted in immense profits. When it came to making money, alchemy was the profession that made the most. Of course, that was aside from Long Chen’s profession of being a bandit.

An alchemist like Long Chen who had an extremely low chance of failure with his refinements was guaranteed to bring in piles of money. However, in order to raise the Dragonblood Legion, just refining pills wasn’t enough.

Long Chen could make money for himself, but Guo Ran and Xia Chen couldn’t because their products were never sold but kept for their own side.

Last time, the resources that Long Chen had robbed from the Xuan Beasts’ headquarters had mostly been used on building the ancestral land of the Cloud Chasing Heaven Swallowing Sparrow race. They had also created several transportation formations. There wasn’t much left over.

“That’s the truth. Boss, you also know that I’m weak. I live off my armor. As for Xia Chen, he lacks defensive power as well. We just figured out how to build two supreme sets of armor, but…” Guo Ran’s voice trailed off.

“They cost too much. One is a hard set, while one is a soft set. There’s not even close to enough money for them both,” said Xia Chen.

“Just how powerful are they?” asked Long Chen. This was the real important point.

“How powerful? Haha, let me put it this way. Boss, if I had that armor, I would be able to challenge you on my own.” Guo Ran laughed confidently, but then he sadly said, “The main thing is that there isn’t enough money…”

“Are you serious? If it’s really so powerful, I’ll help you with it,” said Long Chen. He was slightly surprised by such a high appraisal.

“Boss, can you really afford it?” asked Guo Ran. After all, the Dragonblood Legion’s armor and weapons had come at a great cost. Long Chen still owed Zheng Wenlong a huge amount of money.

At that time, Zheng Wenlong had sacrificed a great deal to help Long Chen get so much money. He no longer had any means to get more.

It was because of this that Guo Ran and Xia Chen were at their wits’ end. No matter how great the idea or method, without money, they would just be empty thoughts.

Hearing Long Chen’s tone, it seemed that if they made it attractive enough to him, he would help them fulfill their hearts’ desire.

“As long as it’s strong enough, there’s no need for you to worry about the money,” said Long Chen.

Guo Ran and Xia Chen were both delighted. To give a demonstration, Guo Ran took out a set of soft armor and had Xia Chen wear it.

This soft armor was made of countless threads of gold. It was very delicate and exquisite. Long Chen couldn’t help smiling. “Guo Ran, I didn’t expect you to be so skilled in the feminine arts.”

“Hehe, I, Guo Ran, am a capable man. Other than having children, I can do everything.”

Perhaps he had seen hope for the armor he dreamed of. He summoned his own golden armor and suddenly swung his saber at Xia Chen’s head.

Guo Ran hadn’t held back with this slash. If it weren’t for Xia Chen’s calm expression, Long Chen would have really thought that Guo Ran was trying to kill him.

Just as Guo Ran’s saber was about to cut through Xia Chen’s head, golden light exploded out of Xia Chen’s soft armor, enveloping him. This armor automatically protected its master and was so powerful that it managed to block Guo Ran’s attack.

Long Chen was amazed. This soft armor actually had the miraculous ability of automatically sensing danger to its master.

Just at this moment, the soft armor that Xia Chen was wearing slowly dissipated, transforming into a pile of golden sand. After blocking Guo Ran’s full-strength attack, it had lost all its power.

“Amazing. Using Ancestral item materials, you were able to block the attack of a divine item. Truly amazing,” praised Long Chen.

The actual quality of the golden soft armor wasn’t high. It wasn’t made of divine materials. However, it still managed to block Guo Ran’s full-strength attack.

It should be noted that Guo Ran’s current armor was something that most ordinary Empyreans with partially awakened manifestations would not be able to stop. However, this seemingly unremarkable soft armor had managed to block his attack.

“Boss, you’ve now personally seen the effect. This prototype was made of low class materials, or it would have an even greater effect,” said Guo Ran.

“There should still be leftover materials from when you forged divine items for our brothers. Why not use those?” asked Long Chen.

“Those materials are no good. They’re hard but lack flexibility. There’s no way to turn them into the soft threads that we need. Other than that, I’ve discussed this matter with Xia Chen for many days, and I feel like the armor and weapons that we made have many flaws. They were all made for maximum offense and defense, and in our pursuit for hardness, we neglected the flexibility of the weapons. With pure hardness, it results in a backlash every time we clash against someone. With a bit of softness mixed into it, we won’t lose any power, but there won’t be such a backlash,” said Guo Ran.

Unfortunately, bringing this up now was clearly too late. The weapons and armor had already been forged. They couldn’t be changed.

“It’s only natural that people grow as they test things. You didn’t have a master to lead the way, so you could only rely on yourselves. Although you end up suffering more like this, your accumulated experience isn’t a bad thing. This way, you don’t end up following someone else’s footsteps. After all, everyone else’s path has an end, but your own path can go wherever you want. Just tell me what kind of material you want to buy, or if you’ve already found the material, I can buy it for you,” said Long Chen. This kind of powerful armor couldn’t be abandoned just because of a lack of money.

“Divine materials that have the flexible nature we want are very rare. I’ve already asked around, and that kind of material is priceless. Some sects have a small amount of it, but they refuse to sell it. As for forging these two sets of armor, we’ll need quite a bit of it. Just one or two stockpiles of it won’t be enough. That’s why I’ve planned to purchase some divine ore and refine it ourselves. That should save us some money, but even then, the ore is very expensive. At the very least, it will require several billion spirit crystals. Qian Duoduo has said that we’re currently hard-pressed for money though…” Guo Ran couldn’t help feeling powerless.

At the start, the Dragonblood Legion’s finances had been looked after by Tang Wan-er. Then it had been Qing Yu, and then that duty had been passed onto the talented Qiang Duoduo.

However, currently the Dragonblood Legion’s expenses were frighteningly great. Just the armor for the two of them, even when using the cheapest option of buying the ores and refining it themselves, would require billions of spirit crystals. That was enough to buy a huge sect.

“Actually, it’s fine for me not to have one. It should be Guo Ran who gets one first. After all, he focuses on the battle, and that armor can raise morale,” said Xia Chen.

“You’re wrong. Last time, the Bloodkill Hall’s assassins set their sights on you. If it weren’t for sister Chu Yao’s protection, you would have been in danger,” said Guo Ran. Xia Chen’s formations were absolutely terrifying, and they possessed amazing killing power. When the battle started, he would always be their first target.

“There’s no need for you to argue. Do two men need to be so sappy? I’m telling you, there will definitely be enough money. Let alone two sets, even twenty sets would be no problem,” said Long Chen.

His primal chaos space was currently filled with spirit crystals, and he had actually been in the midst of wondering how to spend them.

It seemed that there was no need for him to worry about how to spend it though. With Guo Ran and Xia Chen present, the money would always find a way to spend itself.

Guo Ran and Xia Chen were delighted. Guo Ran asked, “Boss, did you go robbing again?”

Long Chen rolled his eyes. He really detested when people randomly guessed things about him. Well, the main thing was… that Guo Ran had guessed right.

“Ah, that’s right, can you use this thing?” Long Chen took out a fist-sized rock. This rock emanated fluctuations of divine energy. It was one of the fragments from the divine pillars he had cut down.

“These fluctuations… is this wind copper divine ore? But why does it possess such a terrifying divine energy?” Guo Ran recognized the ore, but he was stunned by the energy within it.

This ore was able to absorb the spiritual qi in the air, and most large sects had it. It was a useful item for spirit gathering formations. An egg-sized piece of wind copper would count as a very large piece perfect for the core of a spirit gathering formation.

Smaller sects only had a chunk the size of a bean, while weaker sects might only have a sesame seed speck of wind copper.