As Ou Yangming was struck with a thought, he could not help but ask, “Brother Antelope, what’s your specialties? Since I’m going to customize an equipment set for you, I’ll have to make sure it’ll allow you to unleash your abilities perfectly.”
“Thank you, thank you.” The antelope’s eyes lit up. It lowered its head and said, “My specialties are my speed and the horns on my head. These horns can release gravitational force to delay or restrain my enemies, so they won’t be able to move, and I’ll have time to escape.”
Chapter 556 - Intermediate Rune
“Oh, they won’t be able to move, and you’ll have time to escape…” Ou Yangming repeated those words slowly, and he could not help but look down upon the antelope.
He initially thought Big Yellow encountered a formidable spirit beast, but it turned out that the spirit antelope’s character was similar to the big yellow dog’s but in a different way.
The antelope’s horns had such a forceful ability, by which it could release great gravitational force to fix its enemy in a place. Even so, it would not think about taking the opportunity to kill its enemy as it only wanted to gain more time to escape.
People always said that antelopes were herbivores that lacked aggressiveness. Ou Yangming felt deeply about this now that it looked at the spirit antelope.
“Alright, release that power on me so that I can sense it,” Ou Yangming said.
“What? No way.” The antelope shook its head hard and refused without any hesitation. “Who will smith the equipment set for me if I accidentally hurt you?”
Ou Yangming laughed. “Okay, I won’t force you. I was confident about increasing your ability’s power by 50% but since you’re not willing to cooperate, forget that I said it.”
“50% of that power?” The antelope could not help but gasp. “You’re not lying to me?”
“What will I gain from lying to you?” Ou Yangming was disdainful. “But 50% is the best-case scenario; normally, a 30% increase is considered fair.”
“30% then!” The antelope was thrilled. “How would you like me to cooperate? Please tell me!”
Big Yellow loosened its mouth, causing the peculiar plant to drop to the ground. It stared at the antelope and thought, ‘Why is this idiotic antelope so dumb? It believes everything Lil’ Ming says! Even if Lil’ Ming tries to sell it, I suppose it’ll even help him count the money.
‘On second thought, I can’t believe I couldn’t defeat it and was forced to escape because it pursued me. This humiliation will stay with me forever!’
Ou Yangming naturally did not know what Big Yellow was thinking. He waved and replied to the antelope, “I told you—release that ability on me.”
“Okay, please be careful, master,” the antelope responded after some thought, then it lowered its head and pointed its horns at Ou Yangming.
Ou Yangming instantly sensed a drastic change in the air around him. Next, his body was indeed restrained by an invisible power. Moreover, he felt like he was losing balance, and he could not control his body anymore. The young fellow felt like every inch of his muscles was suppressed by a giant rock, causing him to grit his teeth. He was having wishful thinking by wanting to make even the slightest movement.
Needless to say, Ou Yangming felt everything so clearly because he had completely given up his defense.
If he tried his best to resist the power, though he would still be affected by it, he would not be affected to this extent.
Ou Yangming took a deep breath. Under the environment, it seemed like he needed to put in a lot of effort to make the most normal move in his daily life.
His eyelids flickered as he deeply sensed how potent the power was.
The young fellow had also come across many abilities of negative states in the lower realm, where they would cause a lot of trouble after they were transformed into runes. Nonetheless, among all of the negative states, he had never been so immensely affected.
If he were to evaluate those abilities, the runes converted from all of the abilities in the lower realm would only be considered Intermediate Runes, whereas the gravitational force attack would be an Intermediate Rune.
Even though the spirit beasts in this realm were mighty, they were not top-notch beings, which was why Ou Yangming made such a division.
He believed that the effects would certainly be better if Venerable Ones unleashed their powers, which would be considered Advanced Runes.
When the awful feeling eventually subsided, the goshawk asked carefully, “Human master, are you… Alright?”
“I’m alright.” Ou Yangming nodded and said in a deep voice, “Reduce your power and do it again.”
The antelope found it strange but for the sake of its equipment set’s mightiness, it dared not disobey Ou Yangming. As such, it lowered its head and unleashed its gifted ability again.
Ou Yangming still felt intense dizziness and restriction, but he was well-prepared this time. Not only did he stand up straight, but the mental power in his sea of consciousness was already fluctuating too.
He relaxed his consciousness and released his power at this moment to sense every change in the space around him.
The stronger the restraining power, the more intense his sensing ability.
This was the natural ability performed by powerhouses on par with spirit beasts. While it could not draw the Heavenly Thunderbolts as Multi-armed King Kong could, it could not be compared by skills from the lower realm.
A new rune was slowly formed in Ou Yangming’s sea of consciousness. Its veined patterns were extremely complicated, obscure, and profound, such that he could not have fathomed it by taking only a brief look at it.
Nevertheless, the greatest advantage Ou Yangming had when he compacted such a rune was he did not need to explore its hidden, abstruse knowledge; he only needed to refine the rune’s essence and draw it on pieces of equipment according to the model.
Although the method would seem like he only knew the hows but not the whys, the mere attitude of mechanically borrowing ideas could also be useful.
After half an hour, just as the antelope was starting to feel exhausted from continuously releasing its gifted ability, Ou Yangming finally waved his hand.
The antelope was secretly relieved. If Ou Yangming still asked it to release its power like that, it might start to have another thought.
Ou Yangming closed his eyes and sensed the rune that was just collected in his sea of consciousness. It was not particularly obvious as it had only been formed for a short period, but its veined patterns were clearly distinguishable.
With a flash of thought, several more runes appeared.
Those runes were the ones he gained from the newly-advanced Supreme Great Ancestors in the lower realm. Though he obtained those Skill Runes, he also smithed magic tools for them and attached skills to those pieces of equipment; he did not treat them shabbily.
When Ou Yangming quietly compared the runes, he apprehended many things.
Intermediate Runes were far more profound than Rudimentary Runes, but Ou Yangming did not want to carve the Intermediate Rune on the antelope’s equipment set.
‘Those that aren’t my kind must be condemned!’
Since the antelope was not his pet beast, he would not smith its equipment set whole-heartedly.
At this moment, he needed to pick one of the Rudimentary Runes.
It was worth noting that runes could also interact with one another. Having said that, there were different effects such as overlaying, enhancing, or weakening.
Apart from situations akin to when Ou Yangming applied plenty of blessing and defensive runes on Big Yellow altogether, causing its blood to boil, the cooperation between runes must follow a certain rule.
Under Ou Yangming’s control, rune after rune approached the Intermediate Rune for gravitational force in order.
Each time a rune got close, there was an unordinary phenomenon. The unusual phenomenons were not intense in Ou Yangming’s sea of consciousness, a
nd they would not cause real damages. Despite that, according to those phenomenons, the young fellow could use his imagination.
As expected, there was a huge disparity between Intermediate Runes and Rudimentary Runes. Even during attempts to join an Intermediate Rune and a Rudimentary Rune, the unusual phenomenon caused was 10 times more intense than that between Rudimentary Runes.
This made Ou Yangming more cautious, and he carried out tests for a longer time.
Ou Yangming felt exhausted after only trying with about 10 runes. He shook his head and gave up wanting to make further attempts. ‘I’ll slowly try them when I have spare time or when my mental power improves.’
The antelope looked at Ou Yangming with a lot of gratitude because it could tell that he was sincere about wanting to smith pieces of good equipment for it, or he would not have been so worn out.
While the antelope was an intelligent and stingy creature among spirit beasts, it mumbled to itself as it was deeply moved by Ou Yangming, ‘If he really manages to smith an equipment set for me, and I end up being satisfied with it, should I increase his reward…
‘But will this human blacksmith fancy any of my collections?’
Ou Yangming opened his eyes and retrieved an ore on the ground. He hesitated for a while before he released his Military Fire.
The Military Fire’s power would actually constantly increase as a blacksmith became more capable, but Ou Yangming’s Military Fire was an exception.
Even when Ou Yangming was still inadequate, his fire burned peculiar stones as though it was heating butter; it was effortless. Now that he entered the Spiritual Realm, his Military Fire seemed to have become more powerful than before. As a result, the tough ore with an incredibly high thermal stability melted without being able to resist the fire at all.
Ou Yangming was moved, and he quickly controlled his Military Fire to maintain its state. Following that, he picked up the Wish-fulfilling Clay. It was his first time using it, but he made it seem like he had done this numerous times; nobody could tell.
Instead of incorporating the Wish-fulfilling Clay in a large quantity, he added it bit by bit.
The young fellow needed to rely on his experience of smithing 1,000 magic skill tools to determine how he should allocate the clay.
Ou Yangming was exceptionally glad that he possessed the queer and mysterious Military Fire. Whenever the mineral and the Wish-fulfilling Clay merged, he could grasp the newborn mineral’s specific attributes. Though they were not as detailed as what would be shown for the final product, they gave him enough assurance.
‘Almost—this isn’t the golden ratio yet, so I should add a bit more Wish-fulfilling Clay. I can’t add too much this time; only a bit will do.’
The young fellow mumbled but did not make any sound, thus the antelope and the others did not know what he was talking about.
That said, his eyes were brimming with radiating vigor, and he bore a formidable momentum as if he had the world by having the Military Fire in his hands.
Ou Yangming was full of confidence as he sensed the feedback from his Military Fire. His confidence was also released as the fire burned, and it influenced every living being around him.
Chapter 557 - Expansion-And-Contraction Limit
The big lazy turtle looked dumbfoundedly at Ou Yangming. An extremely absurd and strange thought crossed its mind.
‘This fella isn’t an imposter, is he?
‘Mm, without Multi-armed King King, the goshawk, and the human Spiritualist that exchanged blows with me several times in the lower realm… Perhaps he’s fake?’
After sensing the faintly discernible forceful aura released by Ou Yangming, this was the lazy turtle’s greatest doubt.
How could a fellow that never used—no, never heard of the Wish-fulfilling Clay use it so normally? His performance really exceeded the big lazy turtle’s expectations.
A powerhouse that was unaware of Ou Yangming’s origin would not have felt this way, but the big lazy turtle knew the young fellow—a cultivator that entered the Spiritual Realm from the lower realm. Given his identity, how could he have done this?
Nonetheless, Big Yellow, which followed Ou Yangming to the Spiritual Realm, turned a blind eye to this because it had witnessed too many miracles from him.
What was the big deal about fiddling with the Wish-fulfilling Clay?
Ou Yangming broke through the world’s barrier in the lower realm and smithed magic tools. In comparison, what was so surprising about him adding an unseen mineral into his smithing system?
The times the lazy turtle and the big yellow dog had spent with Ou Yangming were different, which was why their attitudes toward this matter were dissimilar too.
Nevertheless, the antelope—the real concerned party—had sparkling eyes and was full of hope at the moment. It knew nothing about Ou Yangming’s past, hence it merely regarded him as a potent human blacksmith. When it sensed how confident the young fellow became, it was more relieved.
If it was aware of Ou Yangming’s background and knew it was his first time using the Wish-fulfilling Clay, it might not be in such a good mood.
Ou Yangming exhaled deeply and retrieved another ore. The Military Fire kept flickering in his hand, and he glanced at the antelope from time to time.
The antelope thought that Ou Yangming was really customizing pieces of equipment for it, but it did not know that they were his natural reactions when he explored and verified those unique ores’ attributes, as well as when he refined them.
After all, Ou Yangming did not know anything about most of the ores. Although his Military Fire could look into their attributes, it would be difficult for it to fully bring their specialties into place. Therefore, the young fellow felt about the ores one by one. If the ores were somewhat lucky, they could still be smithed into other types of equipment in the future; if they had terrible luck and were simply put together by him into unknown scrap metal, even God would not be able to do anything to them.
Ou Yangming finished checking up the ores after 2 hours.
Even though he only checked them once, he gained a finer understanding of them with his Military Fire’s help.
He dared not say that he had thorough grasps of the ores, but it would not be an issue for him to smith pieces of equipment for the antelope.
“Come over here,” Ou Yangming uttered after some thought.
The antelope was stunned and hesitant at first because it was rather wary against Ou Yangming. Despite that, it could not resist the temptation of the equipment set, thus it ran toward the young fellow eagerly and asked with a flattering smile, “Human master, what do you need me to do?”
“I’m going to start smithing officially now, so I need to know how big of a physique change you need,” Ou Yangming answered seriously and added after a pause, “The Wish-fulfilling Clay will be incorporated into the pieces of equipment, but they can’t be changed infinitely; there must be a limit to it, do you understand?”
“Yes! Yes!” The antelope nodded without any delay.
The Wish-fulfilling Clay was indeed a good item that allowed one to resize one’s pieces of equipment as one wish, but there was a limit to it. If Multi-armed King Kong were to use the equipment set smithed for the antelope, the pieces of equipment would only end up being torn into ordinary metals.
This was because the antelope and the king kong’s builds were too different, so much so that it exceeded the Wish-fulfilling Clay’s change limit.
The antelope tilted its head and pondered seriously before it asked, “Human master, may I be so bold as to ask—what’s the highest change limit of the pieces of equipment that are smithed by you?”
Ou Yangming thought for a brief moment before he answered according to what he comprehended through his Military Fire, “That depends on the materials used, but I suggest that the highest change limit shouldn’t be more than thrice of their original sizes.”
“Thrice?” The antelope suddenly widened its eyes. The look on its fa
ce was indescribably strange.
The young fellow was slightly startled. He flushed and explained, “They can actually be expanded to 5 times of their original sizes, but that’ll affect their qualities, so I propose the highest limit to be not more than 3 times.”
At the end of the day, Ou Yangming’s understanding of the Wish-fulfilling Clay was too little. He could learn more about it if he continued to explore, but nobody knew if there was a unique method in this world that could make the clay play a more important role.
“5 times…” The antelope mumbled then shouted, “Master! You’re truly a master!”
“What?” Ou Yangming was bewildered. When he looked at the antelope’s expression, he somewhat felt like he made a mistake.
“Ah…” Unlike its normal behavior, the big lazy turtle explained, “Master Ou, even if normal human blacksmiths are given enough Wish-fulfilling Clay, they can only achieve a limit of roughly 2 times for whatever is smithed. Besides, once a piece of equipment exceeds the normality by one and a half times, its attributes will decline whether it shrinks or expands.” It looked at the young fellow with respect as it continued, “Given that you’re able to expand pieces of equipment to 5 times—no, 3 times of their normalities, even if their qualities are slightly poorer, they’re rare fine items for us!”
Though the lazy turtle had been staying inside Ou Yangming’s Long Feather Band for a long time, judging from its nature, it had not completely accepted the young fellow.
If it was not because it feared Multi-armed King Kong and the goshawk, it would not have bothered about a tiny human Spiritualist.
Having said that, after witnessing Ou Yangming’s level of attainment and performance in smithing art, the big lazy turtle’s attitude changed drastically. In fact, it even addressed the young fellow as Master Ou.
The fact that a powerhouse from the Turtles addressed Ou Yangming as a master proved that he had gained its approval.
Ou Yangming twitched his mouth and was rather regretful. ‘It turns out that I didn’t say too little, but too much.’
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