Ou Yangming laughed as he thought to himself, ‘I wonder how Kang Weibo’s face will change if he finds out that I only used three precious ores to smith two pieces of Attribute Equipment.’
Following that, the master and his apprentice looked at each other and laughed together.
Old Craftsman patted Ou Yangming on his shoulder. “Young fella, you’re a rising treasure in the Armament Camp, so you must work harder!”
Ou Yangming nodded.
“Besides that, based on what you did today, Zhang Yinfan will probably face you squarely. Hehe, they won’t give you a hard time anymore,” Old Craftsman mentioned confidently.
However, Ou Yangming’s face changed.
If Zhang Hanyu was still alive, Old Craftsman’s words might come true, but since that was not the case, Ou Yangming was not sure of what would happen
Chapter 25
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Heh…”
Ou Yangming straightened his body all of a sudden and his dantian shone in a cold light as it released a powerful hot stream. When the hot stream circulated inside his body, he felt as though he was in a hot spring and enjoyed the warm, boiling feeling.
Ever since Sui Hezhi sent him strong wild beasts regularly, his Qi and blood were constantly replenished, and the fact that his body was always rich in them naturally helped him improve his essential Qi cultivation.
A martial artist’s cultivation was separated into four grades, which were Force Artist, Yin Artist, Yang Artist, and Extreme Artist. There were also five small passes in the four grades, and they were known collectively as Four Grades Five Classes.
Though Ou Yangming previously acquired the Dantian Light, he only opened the door to martial arts, because he had just reached the threshold of a Force Artist.
A Class One Force Artist was considered a martial artist but was not presentable in the military camp.
After replenishing Qi and blood for more than a month, Ou Yangming had been transforming them into essential Qi, thus finally advancing to a Class Two Force Artist.
He was elated when he sensed the light that was emitted from his dantian.
Even though he was not a pure martial artist, he was familiar with the advancing speed of the men in the military camp.
Hence, he knew very well that it was extremely tough for him to cultivate his essential Qi to Class Two of a Force Artist in just two months.
Apart from those who were truly talented, those who kept consuming top-grade medicine could also advance quickly.
In fact, Ou Yangming actually belonged to the latter group but instead of taking precious medicine, he relied on the feature of a devouring attribute that absorbed energy from blood and flesh and transformed the energy into Qi and blood for his body.
When he stood up slowly, popping sounds were heard coming from his bones, and he seemed to have grown a little taller.
He chuckled as he walked over to his smithing table.
Once Kang Weibo registered him as a Military Fire Blacksmith, he was given a personal smithing workshop.
A smithing workshop was not a rich facility in the military camp, but normally, only a few top-notch Military Fire Blacksmiths could have a personal workshop.
Since Ou Yangming was a new blacksmith, he should not be an exception. However, when Kang Weibo promised Ou Yangming that he would have the right to use a personal smithing workshop by giving two of the ten pieces of Attribute Equipment that he would produce, there were no more objections.
The people who could achieve that in the military camp were countable, and Old Craftsman, who was the chief of blacksmiths, was one of them too.
Therefore, nobody dared to go against Ou Yangming even though they doubted him.
After taking a glance at the smithing table, Ou Yangming picked up a featured iron ingot casually, then refined it with his Military Fire. At the next instant, he felt the greatest advantage of improving his strength as a martial artist.
He felt more at ease when he used the Military Fire. The situation was similar to when he trained with a 2-kilogram dumbbell, which felt rather strenuous at first, but as he kept training and his strength increased, the dumbbell was not so much a burden anymore.
The iron ingot melted quickly after being burned by the Military Fire, and it slowly turned into a greave.
When the greave was almost formed, Ou Yangming quickly attached an Agility Ore to it. On top of that, he completed the drawing and upgrading processes swiftly through his mind.
As he curbed his Military Fire slowly, he found out about the greave’s attributes.
[Item: Outstanding greave (Red)]
[Equivalent Rank: Ordinary Tool, Good Grade, Rank Five]
[Attributes: Toughness +10, Agility +1, Durability 9]
Not only was the greave an Ordinary Tool of Good Grade, Rank Five, but its Durability was also at 9 points. This proved that Ou Yangming’s level of attainment in smithing increased to a stage where there were no major flaws anymore.
In actual fact, a piece of Good Grade equipment could be smithed using a featured iron ingot, but Ou Yangming had to put sufficient stored attributes into the equipment previously. After exploring for more than two months, while he still needed to put certain attributes into a piece of equipment, he only needed to add a maximum of 3 attribute points to smith one of Good Grade, Rank Five.
This meant that he could now smith equipment of Good Grade, Rank Two, or even Rank Three, from featured iron ingots by using only his own strength.
His standard was not equivalent to Old Craftsman’s when the old man was still at his peak, but it was more or less the same.
Needless to say, Ou Yangming’s seemingly impossible speed of progress was closely related to the purple energy in his mind.
The purple energy was the purple brilliance he saw in the Military Fire Badge. When the energy unfolded, he was able to enter a completely rational and unique state as if he was watching from a bystander’s perspective.
He was absolutely calm whenever he was in that state.
It was the extremely calm state that he relied on in the past to turn the tide, to survive on the verge of death, to kill Zhang Hanyu, and to advance by leaps and bounds in smithing.
Afterward, Ou Yangming went through the things on his smithing table and found five pieces of Attribute Equipment, as well as five remaining precious ores.
He smiled bitterly. If the others found out that he could maintain a hundred percent success rate in smithing Attribute Equipment, it would probably cause an unimaginable sensation.
When he weighed the five precious ores in his hands, he felt troubled.
A fifty percent success rate was the biggest limit that he could hit, but how should he handle the five remaining precious ores?
Ou Yangming sighed, then activated his Military Fire again.
He would be worried no matter where he kept the precious ores, so he figured that it was best for him to draw their attributes to be stored in his mind.
However, there was a limit to the number of purple lights that could be stored, which was fifty. Thus, he would need to need to get rid of some of the Common Attributes after storing Unique Attributes.
Through the Military Fire, the five precious ores turned into powder and then vanished.
On the other hand, five small light balls appeared in Ou Yangming’s mind. Before long, a surprised and delighted look was seen on his face.
That was because he suddenly realized that the light storage in his mind seemed to have increased.
According to his estimation, roughly ten slots were added to the space, which meant that he could now store sixty purple lights instead of fifty.
Ou Yangming was overjoyed. It was as if he was given a pillow as soon as he began to feel sleepy.
How did he achieve the sudden change?
He thought about his advancement in martial arts and figured that not only did his force improve when he moved one cl
ass up, but the capacity in his mind increased too.
Following that, Ou Yangming carried the five pieces of Attribute Equipment to Old Craftsman’s smithing workshop.
His smithing workshop was not far from Old Craftsman’s at all as they were almost next to each other. Perhaps Kang Weibo arranged it on purpose.
The moment Ou Yangming entered the workshop casually, Old Craftsman could tell who it was without turning to look. Other than the immature young fellow, even General Chen Yifan would knock on the door.
“B*stard, don’t you have your own smithing workshop? Why are you still here… Eh, why are you carrying a bunch of trash?”
“Old Man, what are you saying? If you don’t like me, I’ll leave now.” Ou Yangming refused to give in, but even though he said that he would leave, he sat next to Old Craftsman.
Old Craftsman reached his hand out to pull Ou Yangming’s ear. “B*stard, you’re independent now, and you learned how to talk back to me too?”
Ou Yangming shrieked in pain. “Old Man, it hurts, let go…”
Old Craftsman did not use a lot of force, so he knew that Ou Yangming was pretending to be in pain, but he still let go.
“Hmph, tell me, what is it?”
Ou Yangming put the five pieces of equipment down, then rubbed his ear as he said, “Old Man, I smithed these. Take a look at them.”
Old Craftsman frowned. “You only smithed five pieces of equipment in two days? It’s too little.”
A Military Fire Blacksmith was not an ordinary blacksmith because a qualified one could smith ten weapons a day with the help of the Military Fire.
The efficiency was way above a normal blacksmith’s, and it was the efficiency of the lowest grade Military Fire Blacksmith.
Although Ou Yangming had only been independent for two days, he was below the mark for smithing only five pieces of equipment.
“Old Man, just take a look at it first!” Ou Yangming pouted his lips as he felt helpless.
Old Craftsman was slightly moved, so he lowered his body to pick up a military saber. He was surprised after looking at it carefully, and he glanced at Ou Yangming before channeling a hint of essential Qi into the saber. Subsequently, his eyelids twitched.
‘An Attribute Military Saber. This isn’t an ordinary weapon, it’s an Attribute Military Saber!’
Old Craftsman put the military saber down, then picked the second equipment and channeled a hint of essential Qi into it too.
He proceeded to do the same with the third equipment, the fourth, and the fifth.
In the end, he stood up slowly while pursing his lips tightly. “Did you smith all of them in two days?”
“Sir Kang sent me ten precious ores yesterday, and I used them because I couldn’t wait.” Ou Yangming scratched his head. He then pretended to sigh, but could not disguise the proud look on his face. “Sadly, half of them were successes, half were failures.”
Old Craftsman took a deep breath and stared at Ou Yangming, but he was so stunned that he could not speak.
Chapter 26
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
An Attribute Equipment, it was an Attribute Equipment!
Even if it was the worst Attribute Equipment, it was much more precious than a White Slate Equipment.
If Ou Yangming had forged only one Attribute Equipment instead of five in just two days, Old Craftsman would still be extremely overjoyed. Therefore, when the old man saw the five pieces of Attribute Equipment laid in front of him, the shock he felt was indescribable.
“Ah…” Old Craftsman sighed. “Young fella, didn’t I tell you to rest a few days before smithing another Attribute Equipment? Why did you do it again so soon?”
“Old Man, you can’t blame me. After Sir Kang arranged a smithing workshop for me, he gave me enough raw materials, and sent ten precious ores over so that I could smith some pieces of Attribute Equipment as soon as possible.” Ou Yangming paused for a while before he continued, “He gave me a courtyard and a smithing workshop, and the arrangements made were great, so I should repay his kindness.”
“You’re repaying too much.” Old Craftsman scoffed, then continued after some thoughts, “Forget it. After all, Kang Weibo is the Armament Camp’s supervisor. I’m guessing that he was pressured by the task index, so he had no choice but to be thick-skinned to ask you for help.”
Ou Yangming chuckled. He naturally knew what was going on since he was a member of the military camp.
The Armament Camp was an exceptionally special part in the military camp, and it probably spent the most money a month, because the cost of precious ores was not of the common run.
Hence, there was an assessment criterion in the Armament Camp.
However, the criterion was not for the smithing and restoration or normal armaments. Honestly, while Military Fire Blacksmiths could smith normal armaments in a large amount and at a high speed, the main source of armaments was the munition factories in the empire.
It was said that the munition factories had an assembly line operation that increased a normal blacksmith’s efficiency by a few times, and a collaboration would be similar to the Military Fire Smithing Art in terms of speed.
With that, the main job of Military Fire Blacksmiths in the military camp was to smith Attribute Equipment. Needless to say, the smithing of top-notch equipment was time- and energy-consuming, so one needed to have sufficient energy and patience.
Under normal circumstances, a Military Fire Blacksmith would take a month to use ten precious ores, but the success rate this month had been terribly low.
Taking their military camp as an example, apart from Old Craftsman and two experienced Military Fire Blacksmiths, the others had a one-in-ten success rate. Sure enough, a two-in-ten success rate would be an unexpected joy, but it would be impossible to maintain that for a long time.
Being the Armament Camp’s supervisor, other than managing daily tasks, Kang Weibo paid special importance to supervising the amount of Attribute Equipment smithed.
Since Old Craftsman had been focusing on smithing a weapon for General Chen Yifan lately, he stopped forging Attribute Equipment.
With that, Kang Weibo had three less Attribute Equipment for the month, and he was so anxious that he simply wanted to remove a few pieces of equipment from a Military Fire Blacksmith to report on his task.
Despite that, he dared not put it into action, but he managed to seize Ou Yangming who made a timely appearance. As such, Kang Weibo would do anything to flatter the new and young blacksmith who agreed to the two-in-ten condition.
Old Craftsman tapped the armaments as he mentioned, “Kang Weibo may be snobbish, but he’s a decent man. Take these armaments to him, and tell him that three of them are to make up for what I owe him last month.”
Ou Yangming nodded. “Yes.”
“Ask for twenty more precious ores from him, and…” Old Craftsman paused for a moment, then continued, “Your control of the Military Fire is qualified, so you may use steel now.”
“Old Man, can I use special grade steel?” Ou Yangming’s eyes glowed.
“Hmph, in your dreams.” Old Craftsman stared at him. “Start with normal steel, because you’ll have to forge Fine Grade armaments using normal steel first before you can use special grade steel!”
Ou Yangming nodded. He quickly packed the armaments he smithed into a bundle wrapped in cloth, then hurried away.
Old Craftsman yelled at him, “B*stard, seal your lips, and don’t simply say anything!”
“Don’t worry, I know what to do,” Ou Yangming shouted back at him from far.
He was obviously not going to tell Kang Weibo the truth. If Kang Weibo knew that he used ten precious ores in two days, and had a fifty percent success rate, it would only cause him unnecessary trouble.
Ou Yangming did not want to bring trouble upon himself.
He arrived at the equipment depot with the armaments.
There were two big depots in the Ar
mament Camp. One was an abandoned depot, which was treated as a dumpster, whereas the other one was an equipment depot, which was heavily guarded by soldiers.
The former could be accessed by anyone as it was a place where many blacksmiths and helpers picked usable items from. Nobody would be stopped from entering, because it was an open secret and a benefit for everyone.
On the opposite, the latter was the most important place in the Armament Camp. Normal Military Fire Blacksmiths might not even be allowed to enter, let alone a helper.
Ou Yangming noticed Xiong Gaoan as soon as he arrived at the depot.
He immediately slowed down, and was hesitating if he should enter.
At that moment, Xiong Gaoan happened to see Ou Yangming standing there when he looked up, so he quickly put his work aside to approach him with a smile. Even from a distance away, he was already cupping his hands together to greet Ou Yangming in a friendly manner, “Oh, isn’t that Brother Ouyang? Quick, quick, come in!”
Ou Yangming smiled embarrassedly. Though he knew why Xiong Gaoan switched from arrogance to humility, he was reluctant to deal with him. Nevertheless, since Xiong Gaoan was willing to humble himself, he should not leave in displeasure, because one should never slap a smiling face.
“Officer Xiong,” Ou Yangming replied helplessly, “you’re wrong.”
“Huh? What?” Xiong Gaoan was puzzled.
Ou Yangming answered, “My surname is Ou, not Ouyang.”
“I see. Brother Ou, I was wrong.” Xiong Gaoan slapped his forehead after being stunned for a while, but he thought to himself, ‘Since your surname is Ou, why is it followed by Yang? Isn’t that just a trap…’
Although he knew that Old Craftsman’s helper was called Ou Yangming, he did not take the time to understand him better since he was just a helper. If Ou Yangming had not pointed out the mistake, he would never know.
“Brother Ou, you’re here to…” Xiong Gaoan asked when he looked at Ou Yangming’s bundle.
Immortal Path to Heaven c1-725 Page 16