Immortal Path to Heaven c1-725

by Heaven's White Crane

  He only uttered 2 words, but they portrayed his immense confidence.

  The ape’s eyes lit up, and it suddenly kneeled before Ou Yangming and kowtowed at him 3 times.

  Ou Yangming was shocked. Just as he was going to help it get up, it already stood up and said, “Thank you.”

  The ape had not become a spirit beast, but its wisdom was not inferior to other intelligent living beings. Furthermore, its eyes were filled with innocence and purity, thus it could easily gain the favorable impressions of others.

  “It’s what I should do, so you don’t need to thank me.” Ou Yangming smiled bitterly.

  Following that, the ape swung its tail and stated with a smile, “The venue is right ahead. Good luck to you.” It later swayed its body and jumped nimbly into the forest, where it disappeared in the blink of an eye.

  Ou Yangming’s eyes glowed as he looked forward to the Trading Meet.

  This would be his first time meeting human blacksmiths ever since he entered the Spiritual Realm. He wanted to know how capable the blacksmiths here were.

  The Trading Meet on the 10,000 Beasts Ridge was organized by the Venerable One through a lot of hard work. The meet would not only be participated by spirit beast kings from different mountains, but at least 100 human cultivators would be present too.

  As soon as Ou Yangming and his companions entered the venue, at least 10 spirit beasts hurried toward them from afar.

  Fat Antelope and the Silver Ridge Giant Leopard quickly went forward. They had met the 10,000 Beasts Venerable One after they followed Ou Yangming. While the Venerable One could not be bothered talking to them at all, they were content about being able to meet it.

  Given that they were still in high spirits, they would not let other spirit beasts approach Ou Yangming so easily.

  Since even the Venerable One’s son was Ou Yangming’s pet beast, they must serve him well.

  A spirit tiger wielded its claws and shouted, “What are the 2 of you doing?”

  Fat Antelope questioned proudly, “What are you trying to do? Why are you charging in this direction?”

  The spirit tiger was furious. “We’d like to request this human to smith magic tools and refine pills for us. Is that wrong?”

  Fat Antelope was startled, and it chuckled embarrassedly. “You didn’t have to swarm here, did you?”

  The momentum as a result of over 10 spirit beasts charging in the same direction was unordinary indeed; most ordinary people would have been horrified.

  “There are too many seekers, so we have no choice but to do this.” The spirit tiger and the others looked at each other and smiled bitterly.

  After some time, Ou Yangming and his companions understood why they were so impatient.

  It was true that there over 100 human blacksmiths and alchemists were invited or came uninvited, they were far from enough for the entire 10,000 Beasts Ridge. At least 1,000 spirit beasts had attended the meet, hence every human master was enthusiastically pursued. Regardless of their abilities, spirit beasts were willing to place their bids and wait.

  The spirit tiger and the others arrived too late, so they could not find any alchemist or blacksmith. Therefore, they were elated when they saw a human enter with only 3 spirit beasts around him. As such, they rushed toward Ou Yangming.

  Chapter 563 - Human Fellow

  Ou Yangming was rather shocked after hearing the spirit beasts’ requests.

  He knew from Fat Antelope and the Silver Ridge Giant Leopard that spirit beasts yearned for pieces of equipment and pills made by the Humans very much. Even so, he was quite surprised about how strong their desires were.

  “Everyone, it’s my first time here, so I don’t understand your requests very well, and I’d like to find the other blacksmiths to observe them first,” Ou Yangming expressed after some thought. He cleared his throat loudly and added, “But I can promise you that I’ll smith pieces of equipment for you first once I’m done observing.”

  The spirit tiger and the others were displeased, but none of them dared to offend any human masters at this time.

  Perhaps they would have had other plans if they were on their respective mountains, but this place was watched over by the 10,000 Beasts Venerable One. Spirit beasts that had evil intentions were already suppressed, and they had learned from their fellow’s mistakes, hence they dared not be unrestrained at all.

  Some spirit beasts left as they were disappointed to know that Ou Yangming was a blacksmith. It was evident that they wanted to refine some pills and were not interested in blacksmiths.

  Nonetheless, most of them were unwilling to leave Ou Yangming. They would rather follow him around than give up the opportunity easily.

  After all, the Trading Meet had started for some time, so the chances of new human blacksmiths joining the meet were relatively small.

  Ou Yangming was not bothered about the spirit beasts behind him at all because he believed that no accidents would happen in a place that was guarded by Multi-armed King Kong’s father.

  Although the 10,000 Beasts Venerable One did not treat him politely, it could tell sense something from his aura. In that case, it definitely knew that Multi-armed King Kong would not end well if he were to die. Therefore, if a spirit beast wanted to attack the young fellow, the Venerable One would be more concerned than anyone else.

  The mountain was enormous. Ou Yangming casually walked around with a bunch of spirit beasts and arrived in front of a tall platform after a brief moment.

  Roughly 20 spirit beasts surrounded the platform, where a human cultivator stood calmly in front of a furnace. He was fully focused on the furnace, thus he did not notice the change below the platform.

  The person was an alchemist, who was refining a certain pill at the moment.

  Below the platform, every spirit beast turned and wanted to bare their teeth at other spirit beasts that approached the platform. Nevertheless, they had wonderful expressions on their faces when they noticed that a human cultivator was leading them.

  The spirit beasts knew those that could come to this place were either blacksmiths or alchemists. Even a fool would not offend them during this period.

  Having said that, it did not seem like a good thing to have so many fellows gather around the platform. If the human alchemist was affected, there would unquestionably be a huge loss.

  Fortunately, Ou Yangming only looked for a while and left.

  Alchemists and blacksmiths were different. Any changes in the pills that were being refined took place in a furnace, so even a Venerable One could not discover any clues at all.

  When Ou Yangming continued to walk and passed by the fourth high platform, his eyes finally lit up.

  At last, he saw a blacksmith on the high platform.

  He stood at a suitable distance away and observed, where he would neither affect the blacksmith nor miss out anything important.

  Below that high platform, roughly 10 spirit beasts were also casting hostile looks at Fat Antelope at the other spirit beasts. On the contrary, they flashed flattering smiles at Ou Yangming.

  After all, the smithing of pieces of equipment depended on success rates. If a blacksmith was in a bad mood because of them…

  It was not a threat, but any spirit beast knew they should avoid that as much as possible.

  Despite that, Ou Yangming was not focused on them at all. He fixed his gaze on the blacksmith on the high platform and began to observe closely.

  Without the blacksmith’s permission, Ou Yangming did not release his mental power, but he could spot many things with his naked eye.

  The blacksmith on the high platform was not too old; he seemed to be only a few years older than Ou Yangming. That said, he was already considered a Supreme Great Ancestor in the lower realm. This could be identified from his overflowing aura.

  Given that such a young figure had the cultivation base of a Supreme Great Ancestor in the lower realm, he was extraordinarily gifted and could be considered a God-favored child.

&n
bsp; It was worth noting that very few people in the lower realm had the same achievement. According to Ou Yangming’s understanding, the only people were He Liangce, Zuoqiu Hongyuan, Wu Hanning, and a few others.

  Such figures were carefully groomed by their respective force. They would even feel like they did not have enough time for martial arts cultivation, let alone studying other abilities.

  However, the young man on the high platform gave off the feeling that smithing art was more precious than martial arts cultivation to him.

  Needless to say, a human with an Extreme Grade cultivation base was not much as compared to spirit beasts because any of the spirit beasts could easily eliminate him. In spite of that, the spirit beasts were looking at the person with respect and anticipation.

  Such a strange situation would probably only appear during this event.

  A spiritual fire flickered in the hand of the blacksmith on the high platform. It burned and danced as though it carried a certain magic power, causing one to be drawn when one stared at it.

  The Beasts could not smith pieces of equipment at all, so they were curious about and revered the mysterious flame.

  On the other hand, the spiritual fire did not seem very profound to Ou Yangming. He could even deduct many things by looking at the fire’s different forms.

  After watching for a while, Ou Yangming could not help but furrow his eyebrows.

  This was because he realized that the blacksmith’s standard seemed to be much poorer than he expected.

  The blacksmith shook his hand after some time, and the spiritual fire slowly disappeared. In front of him, a gigantic armor appeared.

  He looked proud as he asked, “Mountain Lord Spirit Rhinoceros, your armor is done. This is a magic tool of Common Grade Rank Three, are you satisfied with it?”

  A burly rhinoceros monster instantly jumped up to the platform and thanked the blacksmith, “I’m satisfied, I’m satisfied. Thank you, master.”

  The blacksmith nodded and exhaled. Just as he wanted to go on, he spotted Ou Yangming from the corner of his eyes, and his eyes gleamed. He cupped his hands in the young fellow’s direction from a distance away.

  Ou Yangming was slightly stunned, but he returned the salutation.

  “Brother, would you come up here to join me for a chat?” The blacksmith asked.

  When Ou Yangming looked, he noticed odd looks on the spirit beasts around the high platform. He could not help but respond with a smile, “I don’t mind, but it seems like you don’t have much free time.”

  “Brother, since you stopped by here, you must be a blacksmith. Don’t you know that we need to rest for a certain period every time after we give our all to smith?” The young man on the platform laughed out loud. He paused to look around him and expressed, “If we don’t get enough rest and fail because we force ourselves to go on, the losses will outweigh the gains instead.”

  “Yes, Master Lin, you’re right—you should rest.”

  “Yes, yes, Master Lin, go ahead and take a break until you have enough rest.”

  The spirit beasts around him smiled as if they agreed with him very much.

  In actuality, whether or not they agreed with the young man on the platform, they could not change his mind at all.

  Besides, if the spirit beasts forced him to continue smithing, they could not blame him even if he intentionally ruined a piece of equipment. Hence, regardless of their real thoughts, they could only force smiles at him.

  “Okay.” Ou Yangming grinned. He flashed and walked up the platform.

  He did not know if the spirit beasts were doing it intentionally or unintentionally, but they made a way for him when he walked over. Nonetheless, when Big Yellow and the others wanted to follow him, the spirit beasts blocked their path.

  Even though Big Yellow, Fat Antelope, and the others glared at the spirit beasts, they could not barge their way through unless they attacked them.

  Ou Yangming turned around to calm them down, then he went up the platform.

  “I’m Lin Feifeng. How should I address you, brother?”

  “I’m Ou Yangming. Greetings, Brother Lin.” Ou Yangming smiled and asked, “Brother Lin, may I take a look at the magic tool that you smithed just now?”

  After telling each other their names, they had not gone through the formalities to get more acquainted with each other, but Ou Yangming went straight to his point because he did not want to reveal his abilities.

  Lin Feifeng was taken aback, but he smiled and answered, “Of course.” He turned to say to the rhinoceros, “Mountain Lord Spirit Rhinoceros, can I borrow your equipment?”

  It was true that he smithed the equipment, but he gave it to Mountain Lord Spirit Rhinoceros after that, so it belonged to the spirit beast now. After all, the materials were provided by the rhinoceros, and he had received enough rewards. As such, he could not regard the finished product as his own.

  Mountain Lord Spirit Rhinoceros was reluctant, but he was even more unwilling to offend 2 human blacksmiths at the same time. It put down the armor but kept staring at it with its large eyes.

  Ou Yangming reached out to gently touch the armor. As his Military Fire flickered in his palm, he knew the equipment’s specific attributes.

  [Item: A spirit rhinoceros’ battle armor]

  [Equivalent Rank: Magic Tool, Common Grade, Rank Three]

  [Attributes: Toughness +23, Durability 22]

  [Wish-fulfilling Degree: 3]

  Ou Yangming’s eyelids fluttered. ‘This is a magic tool indeed.’

  He turned to look at Lin Feifeng with deep respect.

  Putting aside that the young man’s martial arts cultivation base was already of a great ancestor, the fact that he had a distinguished level of attainment in smithing art proved that he was truly an unparalleled God-favored child.

  While Ou Yangming could achieve this too, it was only because he relied on his Military Fire’s unique power. Without the Military Fire, he could not have achieved what the fellow in front of him could.

  ‘I didn’t expect the first human fellow that I meet in the Spiritual Realm to be such a brilliant figure.’

  He nodded hard and commented seriously, “Brother Lin, your smithing art is magnificent. I’m in awe.”

  Chapter 564 - New Peculiar Stones

  Lin Feifeng was slightly stunned and embarrassed. He smiled bitterly and replied to Ou Yangming, “Brother Ou, you’re overpraising me. It’s my first time joining the Trading Meet held by the 10,000 Beasts Venerable One. Ah, I outdid myself by smithing a magic tool of Common Grade Rank Three; normally, I can only smith

  Although he was losing himself to shame, he was being frank.

  Ou Yangming chuckled. “Brother Ling, you’re being too humble. I’ve never smithed any magic tool above Common Grade Rank Two.”

  He was saying the truth. Even though he had grasped the ability to get past the barrier, he could only increase the attribute values to 21 points no matter how hard he tried in the lower realm. If the young fellow wanted to go further, the barrier’s resistance would increase by 100 times, where he might not succeed even if he were to give all he had.

  Besides, Ou Yangming no longer fussed over this after he got used to the 21-points value; when he entered the Spiritual Realm and smithed pieces of equipment for Fat Antelope, he controlled the values at 21 points too out of habit. Needless to say, the young fellow made this choice because it was his first time meeting the antelope and he did not know how important its fur was back then. If he were to smith another equipment set for it, perhaps he would find ways to improve the equipment set’s equivalent rank.

  “Brother Ou, those that are capable of smithing magic tools are invited by the 10,000 Beasts Venerable One. Don’t worry, if worst comes to worst, you’ll just have to smith a few more times, and I’m sure you’ll break through.” Lin Feifeng laughed. His eyes gleamed as he added softly, “Coming here can be a bit distressing, but we’ll gain a lot too. Not only will we become more skilled at smithing,
but we’ll also receive valuable rewards.”

  Ou Yangming was moved. The Beasts needed pieces of equipment and pills from the Humans, but were the minerals and herbs produced by the 10,000 Beasts Ridge not what the Humans required too?

  The Trading Meet could be maintained because of the 10,000 Beasts Venerable One, but the real reason was each of the parties taking what they needed.

  Lin Feifeng clapped his hands and suggested, “Brother Ou, I’ve already smithed 3 pieces of equipment in a row, so how about you try now?”

  Ou Yangming was hesitant for a while, but he soon nodded and said, “Okay, I’ll try too.”

  When he observed Lin Feifeng’s smithing earlier, though he did not watch the entire process, he gained something too.

  The Spiritual Realm’s smithing technique seemed to be a little different from that in the lower realm, but there was not too much of a difference in terms of their natures. The only thing was that some techniques and skills used in the upper realm were much simpler, hence Ou Yangming found it rather strange.

  There were definitely other blacksmiths in this place, but it would be very difficult to find another good talker such as Lin Feifeng.

  Ou Yangming glanced at the spirit beasts below the high platform and asked, “Which one of you mountain lords would like to give this a go?”

  The spirit beasts that initially surrounded the platform kept quiet. Ou Yangming and Lin Feifeng did not converse with each other loudly, but the beasts heard them well. Since the former never smithed magic tools about Rank Two, it meant that he was inferior to the latter in terms of smithing art.

  If that was the case, the spirit beasts would rather wait for Lin Feifeng than letting Ou Yangming interfere.

  Nonetheless, the spirit tiger that followed Ou Yangming here shouted with bright eyes, “Master Ou, I’m willing to try!”

  As such, the spirit beasts that kept Fat Antelope and its companions outside reluctantly opened up a path.

  The spirit tiger hurried up to the high platform then swung its shoulder to drop the big baggage on its back on the casting table.