Runes were formed in front of Ou Yangming one after another. Though it was only the void, it seemed to have turned into a wall when Ou Yangming made strokes with his finger and wrote his masterpieces on it.
This was the wonderful function of mental power; something false could be turned into truth through natural communication.
Of course, based on Ou Yangming’s mental power, this was his limit for the time being. There were more magical functions for him to explore and to utilize.
While the Big Abdomen Ghost Spider and the Endless Herb were materials for the refinement of interspatial bags, they were entirely different thus the combinations of Space Runes could not be lumped together. Without having inherited the crystal ball’s memories, Ou Yangming would have been at a loss.
Nonetheless, he had a well-thought-out plan at that moment.
As he kept constructing Space Runes, which were dissimilar in styles and functions, he slowly turned pale. He had nearly reached his limit by arriving at this stage with the help of his mental power.
Nevertheless, Ou Yangming underwent the refinement process once and was assisted by the Military Fire, hence he could ignore the biggest problem in the merging of interspatial structures.
As such, the silk cloth naturally curled up after half an hour of runes construction, and it was waiting to be shaped. Ou Yangming’s mental conception was immersed in it, but while he looked attentive, countless thoughts crossed his mind.
He told Wu Yuanwei that he only had a 20% success rate in refining interspatial bags.
It was a leeway that he created, and he only intended to protect himself.
This was because the refinement of interspatial bags was without a doubt ten times harder than the Layering Art. If he displayed a 100% success rate, he would likely stir up unnecessary trouble.
Moreover, the trouble might come from outside of this world.
Thus, Ou Yangming was undecided when he was a step away from completing the interspatial bag.
‘Should I give up and let the material be damaged, or should I successfully refine the bag?’
Every interspatial material was precious, and one would feel terribly distressed if one was ruined.
That being said, Ou Yangming made his decision after a moment of hesitation. He collected himself and looked exceedingly calm.
It was true that the material was exquisite, but it could be replaced for sure if one looked hard enough. In comparison, it was more important that Ou Yangming kept his secret hidden.
By channeling his mental power into the silk cloth, Ou Yangming was about to make adjustments to the interspatial structure from the inside to destabilize it, the purple light in his mind showed a prompt.
[Unformed space found, draw?] Ou Yangming subconsciously paused. Though he knew Wu Yuanwei was likely peeping at him, he could not help but twitch his mouth.
‘This Military Fire is truly out of this world. It can draw unformed spaces too?
‘What exactly has my sea of consciousness become? It’s fine that it stores different attributes, but to store space…
“The thought of it gives me goosebumps.’
However, Ou Yangming developed a strong trust for the Military Fire, which was accumulated bit by bit through numerous tests. The fire gave him a greater shock this time, but he managed to remain calm.
‘Draw.’
As he made up his mind, a purple light ring flashed into the silk cloth, causing the Space Rune combinations, which were constructed by Ou Yangming through a lot of work, to vanish in the blink of an eye. Once the purple light flowed back, the silk cloth split and turned into ashes but also seemed like it turned into air, leaving no trace in the world.
Ou Yangming closed his eyes with a straight face and continued to rest.
After a long time, he picked up the second material. It was slightly damaged, and it also disappeared like dust in the air after the refinement process. Due to the face that the refinement of an interspatial bag required huge mental power consumption, Ou Yangming took long breaks and could only try to refine five bags in a day.
When the fifth material unfolded slowly in Ou Yangming’s hands and was refined for an hour, the young fellow finally smiled brightly.
Wu Yuanwei flashed and appeared in front of Ou Yangming like a ghost. Ou Yangming stood up and kept the interspatial bag, then he asked, “Senior, I’d like to keep this interspatial bag for my own. What do you think?”
‘You’ve kept the bag already, so can I even disagree?’ Wu Yuanwei thought.
He responded with a smile, “The criterion is one-in-ten, so it’s up to you how you’d like to allocate it.”
“If that’s the case, thank you, senior.” Ou Yangming smiled cheerfully as he touched the interspatial bag on his waist.
Chapter 328 - Equipment Upgrade
“Woosh…”
The Military Fire’s light scattered and melted the materials, which was transformed into a unique mold accordingly.
About 20 blacksmiths were in this smithing workshop, and they focused on carrying out the same task. These blacksmiths were the most prestigious in the capital for specializing in rune carving. Among them, the lowest-ranked blacksmith was an Advanced Blacksmith, and a Superior Blacksmith supervised the team.
Every Advanced Blacksmith spared no effort in refining molds at the moment, whereas the only Superior Blacksmith, Fu Taihong, kept mumbling while he held a rune drawing in the backyard.
Fu Taihong slapped his thigh after a long time and exclaimed, “I see, I get it now!” “Hehe, Brother Fu, what did you understand?” A burst of hearty laughter was heard as Jin Shengjie and Wu Hongxi arrived cheerfully. A quiet young man followed behind them.
“Ah, it’s the two of you. Come, come, come, quickly come to take a look at this!” Fu Taihong smiled when he looked up, then he opened up the rune drawing in his hands. The blacksmith master looked fascinated as he remarked, “This rune is ingenious and a work of art! I’ve derived it for days, but I just only figured out a thing or two.”
Jin Shengjie asked with a faint smile, “Brother Fu, is this rune drawing so great?”
“It’s not just great; it’s extraordinary!” Fu Taihong answered seriously and sighed while shaking his head. “I initially thought nobody in this world could be on par with me in terms of runes, but…”
Wu Hongxi laughed and questioned, “Brother Fu, finish your sentence. How is the person who provided the rune drawings similar to you?”
“I’m far from him!” Fu Taihong responded without any hesitation, then his eyes lit up. “Brother Wu, since you’re from the imperial family, do you know who provided the drawings for the Rune Molds? Could it be related to that person?” He lowered his voice and asked as he pointed at the sky.
“You’re wrong, they didn’t come from beyond Heaven.” Wu Hongxi could not help but laugh.
“If they didn’t come from above, were they just created by a master?” Fu Taihong was stunned, and he added after some thought, “But according to my understanding, a person like that doesn’t exist!”
“You truly underestimated the heroes in our world.” Jin Shengjie glared at him.
Fu Taihong shook his head and was about to speak when he noticed the young man behind the two blacksmith masters. He reprimanded the teen impatiently, “Who are you? I’m having a conversation with two super masters, so stay away!”
The faces of Jin Shengjie and Wu Hongxi became extremely strange, and they twitched their mouths as though they were enduring something. “Yes.” The teen smiled and cupped his hands at Fu Taihong.
He later turned around and walked past the three masters, then he entered the smithing workshop.
Fu Taihong naturally did not pay attention to the young man, so he furrowed his eyebrows and commented, “Brother Wu, who’s that imperial family disciple? He’s quite. Insensible!”
Although the imperial family disciples were noble, Fu Taihong was one of the rare Superior Blacksmiths, hence he was more superb as comp
ared to most of the ordinary imperial family disciples.
Wu Hongxi cleared his throat and asked with a straight face, “Brother Fu, didn’t you say you’d like to meet the person who provided the rune drawings?”
Fu Taihong’s eyes glowed, and he questioned Master Wu closely, “That’s right. Where’s that master?”
“Hehe, hold your horses. He’s not a master, and he’s far from a super blacksmith like you,” Wu Hongxi noted.
“Brother Wu, what nonsense are you talking about? Other people might not be able to tell, but how can you not know? The person who created these runes is definitely a master-a real master! He or she is much greater than super blacksmiths like us, who fish for fame and reputation!” Fu Taihong glared at Master Wu and expressed furiously.
Jin Shengjie did not know to cry or to laugh when he heard him. “Brother Fu, don’t finish off everyone with one blow! You’re the ones who fish for fame and reputation, okay? I earned the Superior title through real skills!”
Wu Hongxi shook his head helplessly. “Brother Fu, you’ve met that master.”
“I’ve met him already?” Fu Taihong was dumbfounded. He frowned and mumbled, “There aren’t many people in the capital who are adept in smithing art and runes, but one who can create a series of runes to upgrade pieces of economical equipment… No, I won’t forget that person if I know him or her!”
“You just shooed him away. Are you pretending not to know him now?” Wu Hongxi sighed.
“I shooed him away?” Fu Taihong was struck dumb for a long time, then an unusual look was seen on his face. He sounded in disbelief as he uttered, “A-are you saying that young man…”
Wu Hongxi stated, “That person’s name is Ou Yangming. I suppose you’re familiar with it?” “Ah, he’s Ou Yangming?” Fu Taihong widened his eyes.
Ou Yangming’s name had been spread far and wide in the capital for a month, by which nobody was more reputable than him throughout the period. As ill-informed as Fu Taihong was, he could not have been unaware.
“Why? Do you not believe me?” Wu Hongxi chuckled.
Fu Taihong smiled bitterly. “Brother Wu, how can I not believe you? But how does he know so much?”
Wu Hongxi and Jin Shengjie exchanged glances, and they were both puzzled too. ‘Yes. How does that young fella know so much…’
Nonetheless, once they recalled how Ou Yangming performed when he learned the path of equilibrium, it seemed like everything was explainable.
No matter how shocking of a thing the freak did, it was understandable.
“Since he’s here, I’ll go meet him to ask him for some advice.” Fu Taihong slapped his head and turned around to enter the smithing workshop.
Jin Shengjie and Wu Hongxi looked at each other and smiled bitterly as they thought, ‘The old fella will do anything when Runes Secret Technique is involved.’
As soon as Fu Taihong entered the smithing workshop, he noticed Ou Yangming inspecting the refined molds in the finished product area. His heart tensed up, and he carefully approached the young fellow. “Master Ou, I was being impolite just now.” Ou Yangming turned and smiled. “Master Fu, you don’t have to be so polite. You’ve worked hard this month.”
Fu Taihong laughed out loud. “I only assembled some people to smith molds according to the drawings. Hehe, you’re truly amazing to have created this Rune Mold. The latest finished products are here, so please inspect them, Master Ou.”
The young fellow nodded. He had only done two things this month. The first thing was turning rune marks for the upgrade of affordable pieces of equipment into drawings and entrusting them to the imperial family for the molds to be smithed.
As for the second thing, it was the refinement of interspatial bags in the imperial family’s secret realm.
Perhaps because the materials for the refinement process were incredibly precious, Wu Yuanwei stayed in the secret realm to supervise Ou Yangming even after he provided the young fellow with the materials.
With that, Ou Yangming spent a month to complete the refinement processes with the interspatial materials gathered by the imperial family.
Needless to say, many of the materials were not suitable for the process, or Ou Yangming would still be laboring in the secret realm.
Nevertheless, Ou Yangming benefited greatly from working hard for a month.
As he said, to maintain a roughly 20% success rate, out of the 120 over materials that were provided, 25 interspatial bags were produced. Even though Wu Yuanwei promised the young fellow a one-in-ten criterion, Ou Yangming still left 15 interspatial bags for the imperial family. Of course, Wu Yuanwei did not let Ou Yangming suffer a loss. He returned the favor by opening the imperial family’s secret storehouse and allowed the young fellow to pick some valuable items from it.
Being a blacksmith, Ou Yangming was uninterested in the different pieces of equipment, but the exquisite spiritual pills and wonderful medicine caught his attention. After noticing it, Wu Yuanwei waved his hand and presented Ou Yangming with costly pills as if they were free. The young fellow felt shy as he was given plenty of medicine, but he also knew that the 15 interspatial bags were far more valuable than the spiritual pills.
Even if the profound imperial family lost these spiritual pills and medicine, they could slowly accumulate them again.
However, Ou Yangming was the only person who could refine interspatial bags. While the bags could be obtained from beyond Heaven, even a fool knew the price would be unbearable.
The 15 interspatial bags that Ou Yangming gave were rudimentary products, where the space inside each of them was only around 3.6 meters in height and width.
As for the 10 interspatial bags that he kept for himself, 9 of them had the same properties, but the last one was different.
Ou Yangming incorporated the spaces that he drew from the other materials into the bag, but he realized that even when the Military Fire helped with the process, the expanded space was much lower than he imagined.
While the interspatial bag was expanded about 10 times, it was done at the expense of 100 low-ranked interspatial materials.
The exchange ratio was truly unacceptable.
Moreover, Ou Yangming had a feeling that the interspatial bag had been expanded to its limit and could not be further improved.
The thoughts stayed in his mind only for a brief moment, then he refocused on the finished molds. The young fellow sighed after he examined them and thought, ‘This is the power of the imperial family indeed. Once they get to work, they’re effective and unstoppable.’
It was worth noting that the finished products’ qualities exceeded Ou Yangming’s expectations. There was a huge disparity between them and the finished molds in Changlong County’s prefecture.
They could not be compared with the molds he made, but they were sufficient.
Chapter 329 - Performing In Front of Others
Upon noticing Ou Yangming’s satisfied expression, an unknown wave of relief washed over Fu Taihong.
However, once he noticed this, he immediately flinched. ‘How could someone of my status be so nervous in front of Ou Yangming?’
After all, Fu Taihong was a Superior Blacksmith, and even if one were to use all the available appendages they had to deal with him, they would still come up short. In a sense, Fu Taihong was the pinnacle of the blacksmiths, and within the capital, no one, not even his Royal Majesty could unnerve him to this extent. However, when he stood before Ou Yangming, Fu Taihong felt that all his pride and achievements he had accumulated throughout the years were for naught, and he was reminded of his youth, back when he still needed to face his mentor.
He shook his head slightly. Deep down, Fu Taihong was aware that the only reason he felt that way was due to the rune drawing he saw, as the profound revelations that were contained within it had startled him to his core.
When one outshines another effortlessly in an area one is supposedly good in, it is only natural that one would feel belittled; even the mighty Fu Taihong
is no exception to this.
Although Jin Shengjie and Wu Hongxi were also Superior Blacksmiths, their area of specialty lied not in runes. As such, they could not comprehend the contents that were inscribed within the rune drawing, and they did not experience the same epiphany Fu Taihong had. Due to this, they were able to interact normally with Ou Yangming.
“Master Ou, these aren’t the first batch of molds we’ve smithed.” Fu Taihong collected himself and continued, “The ones we’ve smithed earlier have already been delivered to the munitions factory and the blacksmiths there are already using them.”
Ou Yangming widened his eyes and asked, “So, how is it?”
“It’s incredible! Once we apply the rune mold onto the equipment, a majority of them, if not all, would immediately improve to Good Grade or above!” After pondering for a moment, he added, “80 percent! The rate of success is around 80 percent!”
At this point, a visible glint of respect could be seen within Fu Taihong’s eyes.
Only a master blacksmith who had spent his life researching runes could tell how rare and precious those runes were.
As such, as a rune creator himself, he was utterly impressed by his skill.
Ou Yangming nodded and responded, “That’s good. His Majesty is pulling all the stops, huh?”
This was the full potential of the imperial family’s military might, which far surpassed Ou Yangming’s combat strength.
Wu Hongxi and Jin Shengjie made their way over and interjected. “His Majesty has already stated that Changlong County would be the first to receive the freshly forged equipment. Hehe, this old man also heard that the first batch of equipment has already been delivered, and it’ll take around two months before it’s the Immense Forest Military Camp’s turn to receive them.”
Ou Yangming’s lips curled open into a wide smile. He had never brought up this matter to the imperial family before, and as such, their work ethic was quite a delightful surprise.
Fu Taihong blinked his eyes and asked, “Brother Jin, Brother Wu, aren’t you two supposed to be planning a new magic tool? Why do you even have the time to visit us?”
Immortal Path to Heaven c1-725 Page 196