“Thus…”
Judging from how heavy the sound was, the bag must be carrying heavy items.
Ou Yangming looked at the spirit tiger in shock and asked, “Your Excellency, how should I address you?”
The spirit beast immediately answered, “I’m Tiger Ji, the mountain lord of North Ji. Master Ou, if you come to North Ji in the future, I’ll surely serve you well.”
Ou Yangming nodded, but he turned a deaf ear to what he was told. After all, he did not know where North Ji was and would not make a special trip to that place.
He questioned as he glanced at the bag, “Your Excellency, do you not have an interspatial bag?”
Tiger Ji shook its head and answered, “Interspatial bags are extremely precious; I’m not lucky enough to get my hands on one of them.”
‘Are interspatial bags so valuable?’ Ou Yangming was surprised. When he saw Fat Antelope retrieve an interspatial bag, he thought it was already a standard for Spiritualist-level powerhouses, but it seemed like that was not the case.
This was because many spirit beasts below the high platform carried one or several large bags.
As for the beasts that carried nothing at all, they were unquestionably envied by the rest. According to the proportion, very few spirit beasts possessed interspatial bags.
Ou Yangming’s eyes flickered as a thought crossed his mind, ‘If I stay in the Beasts’ boundary, even if I only refine interspatial bags, the supply won’t meet the demand.’
He shook his head and forced himself to get rid of the tempting idea, then he asked, “Mountain Lord Tiger Ji, what equipment would you like?”
Tiger Ji widened its mouth and laughed before it replied to him, “I’d like an armor too, but if you could also smith a helmet, that’ll be great!”
“Wow, you’re quite demanding.” Lin Feifeng chuckled and said, “Brother Ou, open up its bag and see if it prepared sufficient materials and gifts.”
Ou Yangming gently brushed his hand across the bag to open it, then he poured out the minerals and items inside. At a glance, he could see that most of the items were various rare minerals, whereas a smaller portion was some herbs. Nevertheless, the fact that Tiger Ji put the minerals and herbs together showed that the herbs were not too valuable.
After taking a glance, Ou Yangming recognized a few ores. He had seen them once from Fat Antelope, but one of them was what he stumbled upon in the lower realm. Apart from them, he did not know the origins of 3 strange minerals.
Despite that, Lin Feifeng curled his lips and remarked, “That’s all? They’re too ordinary!”
“These are the minerals that I’ve collected throughout these years. Please forgive me, master.” Tiger Ji smiled apologetically and expressed after a pause, “Ah, if the materials and rewards for the helmet aren’t enough, I’ll only need an armor.”
During a fight between Spiritualist-level powerhouses, if one had a magic armor, it would almost be equivalent to having an extra life. Therefore, Tiger Ji sounded quite humble at the moment and completely curbed its wildness.
Lin Feifeng furrowed his eyebrows and proposed, “Brother Ou, how about you listen to the other mountain lords’ requests and see what materials and gifts they’ve prepared?”
Tiger Ji’s face changed, and it could not help but feel somewhat mad. Even so, it dared not be impolite and only looked regretful and upset.
Given what Lin Feifeng commented, it meant that he was not satisfied with the rewards offered. Unless Tiger Ji raised its chips, he would not smith anything for it.
Who knew, Ou Yangming grinned and expressed, “It’s my first time here, so I shouldn’t reject any business opportunity.” He waved his hand and asked, “Tiger Ji, is this the size that you need?”
Lin Feifeng shook his head with a smile. He was non-committal toward Ou Yangming’s act of lowering his value.
Having said that, he did not know that Ou Yangming could tell at one glance that the materials prepared by Tiger Ji were more than enough; at most, about a third of the materials would only be used to smith an armor and a helmet.
Perhaps the loss ratio was not worth it for other blacksmiths in the Spiritual Realm, but Ou Yangming, who had just come from the lower realm, was content.
After all, he never came across 3 of the peculiar stones provided, thus he was going to study them for some time no matter what.
Tiger Ji’s eyes lit up, and it answered, “Master Ou, if it’s possible, this is my real size!”
As it inhaled deeply, its muscles instantly expanded. In just a short while, its body increased by around 30% in size.
The spirit beasts below the high platform were in an uproar. The curbing or releasing art was not rare among the Beasts, but creatures that had gained wisdom knew that the bigger one’s build, the more the materials needed for one’s pieces of equipment.
It was clear to them that the materials prepared by Tiger Ji were not enough, or Lin Feifeng would not have made such a comment.
Now that the spirit tiger’s body became much larger, was it not posing a difficult question to Ou Yangming?
“You!” Lin Feifeng’s face changed, and he was slightly furious. “Brother Ou, I think you should forget it!”
However, Ou Yangming smiled and said, “There’s no harm trying.”
With that, he picked up the 3 materials unknown to him, then the Military FIre flickered in his hand as he probed their properties.
“Brother Ou, it’s not a good choice to use these 3 materials to smith an armor.” Lin Feifeng was shocked. He picked 2 other types of material from the pile and noted, “The Black-yellow Steel isn’t suitable for an armor, but if you give it up for these 2 materials, it’ll be a great choice.”
Ou Yangming nodded with a smile. Instead of stubbornly clinging to his opinion, he accepted the 2 materials.
There was naturally a ratio for matching materials in the Spiritual Realm, but Ou Yangming had not learned it before. In actuality, he could not have learned it in the lower realm anyway because he could not have found various peculiar stones to carry out experiments.
On the other hand, the situation in the Spiritual Realm was entirely different.
Different rare stones in the lower realm seemed to be ordinary items in the upper realm; any Spiritualist could easily gather a big pile of them.
Were there other places more wonderful than the Spiritual Realm for blacksmiths?
Ou Yangming shook his wrist and released his mighty Military Fire, but it only enveloped 2 of the ores. As for the other 2 materials recommended by Lin Feifeng, they were not wrapped by the fire.
Lin Feifeng was dumbfounded. ‘What does this mean? Does Ou Yangming not trust me?’
That said, the displeased look on his face soon changed because he was stupefied, where his eyes widened so much that his eyeballs were about to pop out.
The reflection of the scorching fire could be seen in his eyes.
Amidst the flame, the 2 peculiar stones had somehow softened and melted, by which they could be kneaded already.
Lin Feifeng twitched his mouth and thought, ‘What spiritual fire is that? How can it melt peculiar stones non-distinctively in an instant?’
Chapter 565 - A Disparity Between Attributes
Every blacksmith possessed different spiritual fires, but as long as one did not conceal one’s smithing process on purpose, the rough situation inside one’s fire could still be seen.
As when Ou Yangming was smithing a piece of equipment at the moment, he did not cover up his Military Fire at all, hence Lin Feifeng could roughly see when the peculiar stones inside began to melt and soften.
Nonetheless, it was the exact reason Lin Feifeng was shocked and was in disbelief.
The 2 ores picked by Ou Yangming were definitely considered treasured in the lower realm, but they were extremely ordinary in the Spiritual Realm.
Although they could not be found everywhere, any blacksmith could find lots of them as long as one put in a little effort.
It was true
that they were abundant, but the fact that they were valued by blacksmiths and were carefully kept by Tiger Ji proved that they were unique in their ways; one of them was a tougher ore while the other had a higher melting point.
In a way, their combination was indeed great for smithing armors.
Even so, the 2 peculiar stones had dissimilar melting points. In particular, a lot of effort would be needed to successfully melt the latter so that it could be joined with other minerals. This was why blacksmiths that were lacking in cultivation base dared not touch the ore at all.
However, the 2 different ores had somehow melted almost at the same time inside Ou Yangming’s Military Fire.
What did that mean? It meant that Ou Yangming’s fire carried an incredibly unique power. At the very least, it had a huge advantage against ores with high melting points.
Lin Feifeng glanced at Ou Yangming strangely. He remembered the young fellow’s face well as though it was his first time knowing him.
Given that Ou Yangming was a blacksmith that possessed such a peculiar fire, even if he was not a prominent figure yet, he would one day stand above others for sure.
At this moment, Lin Feifeng envied Ou Yangming very much from the bottom of his heart.
‘Woosh, woosh, woosh…”
As roaring blazes were heard from the Military Fire, it was dead silent on and below the platform as the others were afraid of distracting Ou Yangming during his attempt.
Nevertheless, after a brief moment, not to mention Lin Feifeng, even the other spirit beasts realized that something was off.
Ou Yangming’s Military Fire kept burning, but he did not seem to be smithing a piece of equipment. Instead, he was continuously kneading the 2 minerals so that they would melt and combine, then he melted them again and analyzed them.
Many spirit beasts looked at each other and cursed internally, ‘Is this little fella fooling around?’
Even though Ou Yangming’s fire was enough to prove his identity, which was a legitimate blacksmith, every blacksmith’s ability was different. If they really met an impressive-looking but useless blacksmith, it would be similar to falling into a giant hole.
On the other hand, Fat Antelope and Big Yellow were not bothered at all because they had witnessed similar situations. Since this was a common sight, they did not find it strange at all.
Ou Yangming curbed his fire after 15 minutes, and he beamed as he was pleased.
By continuously analyzing with his Military Fire, he gained an immense understanding of the ores’ properties. While he derived everything himself, they must be real because he had certification from his fire.
The young fellow looked at Tiger Ji to estimate the armor’s size, weight, as well as the materials needed.
Following that, he reached out his arm and waved, causing more ores and the Wish-fulfilling Clay to fly onto his palm.
With that, the Military Fire burned intensely. This time, instead of probing the ores’ properties, he melted every material according to his idea.
It was not easy to melt distinctive ores together to smith a piece of equipment that matched one’s idea the most. Even Lin Feifeng, who cultivated in the Spiritual Realm, needed to spend plenty of time and energy to achieve this.
Despite that, as the materials and the Wish-fulfilling Clay were being burned by the Military Fire that carried the Phoenixes’ power, they quickly merged. After only about 8 minutes, the armor was formed.
With a flash of thought, the armor’s attributes appeared in Ou Yangming’s sea of consciousness.
[Item: Walking beast’s battle armor]
[Equivalent Rank: Magic Tool, Common Grade, Rank One]
[Attributes: Toughness +21, Durability 21]
[Wish-fulfilling Degree: 5]
Apart from the Wish-fulfilling Degree, which was evidently higher than that of the armor smithed by Lin Feifeng, the armor was inferior in the other aspects.
The Wish-fulfilling Degree was probably a unique effect from using the Wish-fulfilling Clay. It was a limit for a piece of equipment to automatically expand and contract.
A Wish-fulfilling Degree of 3 represented a triple expansion-and-contraction limit, whereas a degree of 5 represented a 5-times scale.
Needless to say, whether the degree was 3 or 5, they indicated the scale limit. Once half of the Wish-fulfilling Degree’s scale was exceeded, the equipment’s attributes would begin to decline.
Ou Yangming would surely be satisfied if he smithed this equipment in the lower realm, but the magic tool of Common Grade Rank Three stirred emulation from him. He did not want to be defeated by anyone on the smithing part, by which he did not want to be inferior to anyone whether it was Wu Haohan and Jin Shengjie from the lower realm, or blacksmiths in the Spiritual Realm.
By thinking through his mind, his Military Fire did not disappear and kept scorching.
He began to assemble the various attributes stored in his sea of consciousness.
It was worth noting that his Military Fire had a special ability, which allowed him to draw and upgrade attributes. As such, attributes from different pieces of equipment could be used to upgrade another piece of equipment.
This was the most law-defying ability. Without being restrained by the world’s barrier, he could even smith a super-divine tool that would really precede everything.
Having said that, when Ou Yangming started to gather the Toughness attributes enveloped by purple lights this time, he came to a sudden realization that they could not upgrade the walking beast’s battle armor.
Ou Yangming was surprised because it was his first time encountering this problem. What frightened him more was if his Military Fire lost the ability, it would be an unimaginably tremendous loss for him.
The young fellow’s face changed. He believed that he had a rather ghastly look on his face at the moment.
However, he immediately calmed down and kept finding the reason.
Ever since he came to the Spiritual Realm, he realized that he no longer sensed obstacles from the world’s barrier when he smithed pieces of equipment.
Theoretically, he could upgrade an item’s attributes if he was willing to. That said, in reality, the purple-lights-bounded attributes were gathered on the armor but only lingered on it without penetrating it.
Ou Yangming had tried to control himself, but he was still upset and confused.
‘No, I must find the reason or it’ll mean that I lost my greatest reliance.’
His eyes suddenly lit up as he stared at the armor. ‘Since I can’t upgrade it, can I draw the attributes?’
Sometimes, thinking in a different path would make one feel like there was another way out.
[Drawable composition found, draw?]
‘Draw!’
Following Ou Yangming’s order, the Military Fire instantly became brighter, then the attributes were enveloped by purple lights one by one and were drawn from the equipment.
Ou Yangming quietly watched the process. He was moved as his mental conception focused on the purple lights, and he sensed something unordinary.
The attributes that were being wrapped by the purple lights were the same, but there was an exceptionally subtle difference between them.
Among the 21 Toughness attributes, 20 of them were the same as ordinary Toughness attributes, but one of the purple lights carried a mysterious ring of luster, which could not be noticed at all if one did not look carefully. Once one tried to distinguish the attributes closely, that attribute’s difference was revealed.
Ou Yangming was struck with a thought as he thought about a possibility.
He took a deep breath and merged the 21 purple lights, which were surrounding Toughness attributes in his sea of consciousness, at once.
The Layering Art.
Ou Yangming actually used the purple lights’ attributes to practice the Layering Art in his sea of consciousness.
Sure enough, as soon as he consciously carried out the process, the purple lights fused. Not only that, b
ut the attributes inside them combined as well.
From +1 to +2, the points increased one by one until there were 21 points.
The moment the 21 points of ordinary Toughness attributes got together, the combined purple light emitted the same mysterious luster.
Ou Yangming was overwhelmed with indescribable joy. He knew that by working tirelessly, he finally found the way to break through his limit.
Magic tools were rare and could not be refined by anyone else in the lower realm due to the obstacle from the world’s power. Unless one broke through the power’s shackles, one would not be able to smith magic tools at all.
On the contrary, in the Spiritual Realm, due to the greatness of the world, one did not need to break through the world’s barrier anymore when one smithed magic tools.
Nonetheless, there was a considerable disparity between the powers of 20 points that represented ordinary tools and 21 points that symbolized magic tools. In order to upgrade a magic tool’s equivalent rank, instead of 1 point from an ordinary tool, 21 points of the same attribute from an ordinary tool were needed.
Ou Yangming exhaled deeply and was glad.
‘Luckily, I was well-prepared before I entered the Spiritual Realm. Apart from loads of ores, I also compacted many purple lights in the sea of consciousness in advance.
In total, there were at least 100 Toughness attributes.
With a flash of thought, Ou Yangming ordered a backflow of attributes. The armor regained its gloss right away, and it became more striking as the Military Fire burned.
After the 21 points of Toughness attributes returned to the armor, he carefully sent the agglomerated purple light into the equipment.
As expected, the armor accepted the purple light without repelling it this time. Almost at the same time, it had 22 points of Toughness attribute altogether.
Ou Yangming curled his lips proudly. Subsequently, another 21 purple-lights-bounded Toughness attributes in his sea of consciousness were condensed again…
At last, when the Military Fire was curbed, a brand new armor appeared in Ou Yangming’s hands.
[Item: Walking beast’s battle armor]
[Equivalent Rank: Magic Tool, Common Grade, Rank Three]
Immortal Path to Heaven c1-725 Page 333
