“Hey, how did you get up here, human blacksmith?” The spirit bear was in disbelief. “Didn’t you say you can’t smith Good Grade magic tools?”
“Why can’t I come up here if I can’t smith Good Grade magic tools?” Ou Yangming laughed and asked the spirit bear in return.
The spirit bear blinked its huge eyes and answered, “It’s a rule set by Sir Venerable One!”
Ou Yangming could not bring himself to be mad at all when he saw how simple and honest the fellow was. Instead, he found it quite interesting. “When did Sir Venerable One set such a rule?”
The spirit bear looked around it as though it was questioning its partner, which was not far away.
A small spirit beast noted in a troubled tone, “Dumb bear, Sir Venerable One never set such a rule for human blacksmiths!”
“Ah,” the spirit bear uttered, then it scratched its head and said, “I remembered it wrongly.” It turned its humongous body around to go back to where it came from, and it spoke as it walked, “I remember it now—you can’t smith Good Grade magic tools, but you can come in if you’re a human.”
The tiny spirit beast seemed to be a spirit fox. It hopped on to the spirit bear and tugged at its ear as it said, “Dumb bear, if this human master’s a blacksmith, he can definitely smith Good Grade magic tools!”
“Why?” The spirit bear widened its eyes as it was surprised.
“Take a look at the low-grade spirit beasts behind him. Since he can bring them here, do you still not understand?” The spirit fox answered snappily.
The spirit bear wondered for a while before its eyes lit up. It shouted, “I get it now—you can really smith Good Grade magic tools.”
Ou Yangming laughed out loud and rejoined, “You’re right, I was lucky to have smithed one just now.”
“You’re truly a cunning human. Why did you lie to me when you can actually smith Good Grade magic tools!” The spirit bear was infuriated.
The young fellow was dumbfounded. He was speechless, and he thought.
‘It must’ve been difficult for this honest and simple-minded bear to live until now…’
Nevertheless, Ou Yangming was lost for words when the bear questioned him.
“Haha, please don’t be offended, human master. This fella was born dumb, and it’s still the same even after it became a middle-grade spirit beast.” The spirit fox pulled the spirit bear’s ear hard, but the mountainous fellow seemed to be unfeeling. Its thick skin was truly one of a kind.
Ou Yangming cleared his throat and asked, “You’re…”
“I’m Fox Yi, and this is Bear Da, my good friend.” The spirit fox smiled with its eyes squinted. “How should I address you, master?”
Bear Da was monstrous, but it was clear that Fox Yi was the one in charge. The former was displeased with Ou Yangming, but it dared not say anything else after the latter conversed with the young fellow.
“I’m Ou Yangming, a human blacksmith.” Ou Yangming paused before he continued, “I’m here to take a look at my fella’s smithing techniques. Please forgive me if I disturbed you.”
He had guessed the spirit beasts’ intention, so he beat them to it and stopped them from bringing it up.
Fox Yi was shocked. ‘Master Ou, can’t you smith Good Grade magic tools already?”
“I was just lucky, so I need to keep learning,” Ou Yangming replied to it.
The spirit fox obviously did not buy it. It looked around and suggested, “Master Ou, I’m very familiar with this place, so how about I be your guide?”
Ou Yangming was about to reject it when a thought crossed his mind. He rejoined with a smile, “Okay, thanks for the trouble, Your Excellency.”
Fox Yi was elated, and it immediately led Ou Yangming up. As for Bear Da, it followed them compliantly. Accompanied by the 2 middle-grade spirit beasts, Big Yellow and the 2 other spirit beasts were not so eye-catching anymore.
Sure enough, the spirit fox was extremely familiar with this area. It knew the names of every human master on the high platforms, and it was well-informed about the abilities that those masters were adept in. Ou Yangming was amazed.
Even though there were many blacksmiths along the way, they adopted secret techniques to conceal their Military Fires, thus Ou Yangming could not see much.
However, Fox Yi, which was leading the way, made a sudden turn into a quiet trail.
Ou Yangming was moved, but he followed the spirit beast calmly.
Chapter 573 - Tremendous Power Spirit Ore
There was only a big path on the mountain peak’s main road, but winding trails could sometimes be seen on both sides.
Led by Fox Yi, Ou Yangming traveled to a tall building. He was rather surprised when he saw the building because he had only seen high platforms before this, where human blacksmiths and alchemists smithed pieces of equipment or refined pills for the spirit beasts around them. Over here, a tall building was seen.
Fox Yi chuckled and explained as though it noticed Ou Yangming’s bewilderment, “Master Ou, human blacksmiths that come here have different characters and likes, but most of them don’t like to show the specific operations of their spiritual fires when they smith pieces of equipment.”
Ou Yangming nodded because he knew this very well throughout his journey here. If he had not happened to meet Lin Feifeng, he would not have learned even the most basic smithing technique.
Nonetheless, Fox Yi suddenly switched the subject. “But there are always some exceptions.”
The young fellow was moved, and he looked at the spirit fox in shock. “Brother Fox, are you bringing me to meet them?”
Fox Yi squinted its eyes, but peculiar lights could be seen between its thin eye gaps. “Master Ou, you’re really smart.”
Ou Yangming stopped walking and asked slowly, “Brother Fox, why are you doing this for me? Do you have any requests?”
“I only gave you a little information, so how could I make requests?” The spirit fox immediately waved its hand. It grinned with narrowed eyes and added, “Once you’re done, if you feel like you gained something and are willing to consider our hard work, could you smith 2 pieces of equipment for us?”
The young fellow was at ease after he heard the fox, and he was relieved.
If Fox Yi merely acted as his guide without asking for anything in return, he would have been worried and dubious instead. Since they were taking what they needed, he had no concerns.
Ou Yangming smiled and responded, “If I really gained something, I won’t disappoint you, Brother Fox.”
As both parties were satisfied, they entered the tall building.
Sure enough, Ou Yangming noticed an extremely different atmosphere when he entered the building.
Normally, every blacksmith or alchemist was surrounded by spirit beasts. As for Ou Yangming and Lin Feifeng’s encounter, it was only an unforeseen event.
A high platform could also be seen at the center of the tall building, where an elder was smithing a piece of equipment. Even so, apart from over 10 spirit beasts, 3 humans were also present.
They fully focused on the high platform as they stared attentively at the elder’s fire. In terms of concentration, the spirit beasts around them were far from them.
Ou Yangming glanced and understood right away why they were so engrossed. It was because the elder did not conceal his fire, by which he simply displayed his smithing skills to the people in front of him.
The young fellow’s eyes lit up, and he felt lucky.
If he had not met Fox Yi, he was certain that he would not have stumbled upon this place.
Next, Ou Yangming became concentrated and did not care about anything else around him.
Fox Yi was not surprised; it had brought many human blacksmiths here in the previous years, and they had similar reactions. It seemed like the elder’s fire was the most wonderful thing in the world to the blacksmiths, so much so that nothing else could compare.
It was worth noting that the spirit fox had once observed th
e flames and attempted to learn.
Despite that, it quickly realized that perhaps the Beasts were really not meant to smith pieces of equipment or refine pills. No matter how it observed, the fire was just a fire to it. At most, the flames would change a bit.
In any case, it could not stare blankly at the fire for half a day.
On the other hand, judging from the human blacksmiths’ expressions, not to mention half a day, it was as if they could watch until the end of the world.
Ou Yangming’s eyes were bright. The fire’s changes might seem uninteresting, but it was only how amateurs felt. To him, every flicker seemed to have an incredibly deep implication behind it. This was a skill, one that he had never come across before.
It was not strange. Ou Yangming had learned many skills when he met Superior Blacksmiths with great abilities in the lower realm.
If they were born in the Spiritual Realm and kept learning here, perhaps they would not be inferior to the smithing masters here in the future. Having said that, they were born in the lower realm, after all. Not only did they have different resources, but they were also in touch with exceptionally different things. For instance, many techniques and rules adopted in the Spiritual Realm became unnecessary burdens in the lower realm.
Therefore, once Ou Yangming entered the Spiritual Realm as he had wished, he needed to learn too many things.
As Ou Yangming watched quietly, he could not help but feel eager to use his hands. He somehow had a strong feeling of wanting to instantly use what he had just learned.
The elder on the high platform was finally done smithing after half an hour. He exhaled deeply and put down the piece of equipment in his hands.
Other than him, a spirit horse was also on the platform. It kept staring at the equipment, but it dared not take it before the elder said it could.
The elder looked up and fixed his gaze on 3 of the people and said, “Come up here.” He suddenly spotted Ou Yangming through the corner of his eyes, and he uttered coldly, “You, come up here too.”
Ou Yangming was stunned at first but seeing how the 3 people went up to the platform without any hesitation, he followed suit.
“Take a look at it.” The elder pointed at the giant horseshoe that had just been smithed.
With that, Ou Yangming and the 3 people went forward one after another to inspect the equipment. The instant the young fellow’s Military Fire touched the horseshoe, his eyes gleamed.
[Item: Horse King’s Horseshoe]
[Equivalent Rank: Magic Tool, Good Grade, Rank Two]
[Attributes: Toughness +27, Durability 27]
[Wish-fulfilling Degree: 4]
The equipment’s attributes were pretty good. It was of Good Grade Rank Two, and its Wish-fulfilling Degree was 4.
In every aspect, the elder’s level of attainment in smithing art was much higher than that of Lin Feifeng.
“Now that you’ve all looked at it, what do you think?” The elder stroked his beard and asked.
The 3 people praised the elder and raised various questions about the materials, smithing technique, and so on. Upon hearing their questions, the elder answered them without any reservations.
Ou Yangming remembered the questions and answers well but it would be too much to say that he could understand them. After all, he knew too little about this topic and could not even form a system from what he had learned so far, hence he could only be an onlooker at the moment.
After the elder was done talking, he turned to look at Ou Yangming. He found it odd that the young fellow only listened without asking any questions, but he did not have other thoughts about it.
“This is only the most basic Good Grade magic tool. I’ll be layering a Unique Attribute on it now, so watch closely.” He retrieved the horseshoe again and took an item from the side.
Ou Yangming was sharp-eyed, thus he recognized at once that it was a power ore.
However, the power ore was rather different from the ones he saw in the lower realm. In particular, the light ring around the ore had a mysterious luster, which caused one to be dazzled.
The elder turned to ask the spirit horse, “This is a rare Tremendous Power Spirit Ore, whose value is 100 times more than that of ordinary power ores. Are you sure you want to use it?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” the spirit horse immediately answered.
“I can only do my best, and I can’t guarantee that I’ll succeed; you should understand,” the elder noted sternly.
“Yes, I understand.” The spirit horse gritted its teeth. Of course, it knew there was a certain failure rate if the treasure was used, but it did not have the right to choose. If it did not use it this time, it would not know how long it would have to wait to find another suitable human blacksmith.
Ou Yangming was moved. A Tremendous Power Spirit Ore was 100 times more valuable than a normal power ore.
He understood in an instant that the Tremendous Power Spirit Ore was probably an upgraded version of the power ore.
Once he entered the Spiritual Realm, he needed to have at least drawn 21 points of an ordinary attribute with his Military Fire for them to be reflected on magic tools.
This proved that every point of an attribute in a magic tool was 20 times greater than 1 point of an attribute in a common tool. If that was the case, would that not be the same case for Unique Attributes?
That said, Ou Yangming found it weird because he never encountered such situations in the lower realm. Could it be due to the difference between the world’s powers?
The elder nodded, then his spiritual fire boiled and enveloped the iron horseshoe and the Tremendous Power Spirit Ore. He had a remarkable reputation, by which none of the spirit beasts dared to disturb him when he was smithing. As for Ou Yangming and the human blacksmiths present, they observed with a lot of focus.
Although there were certain dissimilarities between the elder’s Layering Technique and the one learned by Ou Yangming, the young fellow was relieved after he witnessed it.
Equipment smithing involved too much knowledge, which was not what Ou Yangming could master through a comprehensive study of it at the moment. Nonetheless, the layering of Unique Attributes in the Spiritual Realm seemed to be akin to the smithing technique and theory used in the lower realm.
Needless to say, there were separations, but they were only on small points. After Ou Yangming observed and made some calculations in his head, he could understand almost everything.
“Watch closely. One must pay extra attention to equilibrium if one wants to successfully layer Unique Attributes.” The elder’s voice was heard.
Ou Yangming was shocked. ‘This elder really teaches everything he knows.’
As the elder further explained, not only did Ou Yangming understand better, but the 3 blacksmiths also nodded and watched while trying to fathom the technique according to their experiences. All in all, they looked excited.
The elder curbed his spiritual fire after half an hour. He was pleased as he looked at the iron horseshoe in his hands, and he said with a smile, “Take a look at it.”
Even though the spirit horse had been waiting impatiently, it dared not snatch the equipment if the elder did not give it to it.
The people that took the equipment nodded after they studied it. When Ou Yangming secretly appraised it with his Military Fire, as expected, there was a Power +1 attribute. Even so, the attribute’s color was quite different because it had a faint silver luster.
Chapter 574 - Silver Equipment
Once everyone was done examining the horseshoe, the elder chuckled and announced, “I’m quick lucky today; I smithed a piece of White Silver Equipment.”
One of the human cultivators flattered him, “Elder Bai, you’ve smithed pieces of five-star White Silver Equipment before, so a one-star one obviously isn’t difficult for you.”
The elder stroked his beard and smiled proudly. He was evidently in a great mood.
Ou Yangming was moved, and he asked, “Senior, may I try the Wh
ite Silver Equipment’s power?”
It was his first time seeing such a queer color, so he naturally wanted to experience it.
The elder was slightly stunned. He pondered for a while before he answered, “Go outside to try it.”
‘That’s my equipment, so why do you—a human blacksmith—want to try it? Do you have nothing better to do?’ The spirit horse widened its eyes and wanted to flip out, but it opened its mouth without saying a word.
Ou Yangming nodded. He knew the elder was afraid that the equipment would wreck the tall building as it was too powerful, which was why the elder gave such an order.
The young fellow carried the horseshoe and walked out of the tall building. He was followed by a bunch of spirit beasts, which were extremely curious and even coveted the equipment.
It went without saying that the equipment was far more valuable than an ordinary white slate magic tool.
Needless to say, they also knew that the human blacksmith would not take forcible possession of the equipment as long as he was not mad. This was a core area on the 10,000 Beasts Ridge, after all. If the young fellow had wishful thinking about fleeing with the equipment, he would be courting death.
Ou Yangming went far away from the tall building and lifted the horseshoe before he channeled his essential Qi into it. Nonetheless, his face changed, and there was a strange look on his face.
This was because he suddenly realized that his essential Qi could not be used.
Although Ou Yangming’s mental power was notable and had long broken through a Spiritualist’s limit, his essential Qi had not reached that boundary.
He suddenly understood that pieces of White Silver Equipment were made for Spiritualists. If one only used one’s mental power, one would not be able to initiate it.
Ou Yangming smiled bitterly and waved at the big yellow dog. “Big Yellow, come and try it.”
At this point, including the elder and the spirit horse, almost everyone and every spirit beast in the high building had come out.
Immortal Path to Heaven c1-725 Page 338
