Chapter 183 Failing On The Verge Of Success
Inside the Ni family’s big courtyard, Ou Yangming, Old Craftsman, Ni Yunhong, his younger sister, the Ni family’s three Supreme Great Ancestors, and five elders gathered.
The five elders were able to attend the meeting not because of their statuses or their cultivation bases, but because of their smithing abilities.
They were the greatest blacksmith elders in their clan, and Ni Yunhong had learned his skills through their careful guidance.
The Ni family’s Supreme Great Ancestors could not sit idly once they knew Ou Yangming was going to smith magic tools. They immediately gave an order to stop the word from spreading while they shifted their attention to Ou Yangming. This time, the great ancestors even personally came to keep watch and allowed five blacksmith elders to observe from the side.
Nonetheless, the five blacksmith elders cast strange looks at Ou Yangming because they were dubious about the news.
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They received news that Ou Yangming displayed his mastery at the Fang residence, where even Fang Xuande praised the young fella’s smithing art and was ashamed of his inferiority instead.
Ou Yangming possessed excellent skills, but if he had to smith a magic tool…
None of the five elders were optimistic about it, and they were ready to mock Ou Yangming.
A magic tool. It was a magic tool that Ou Yangming was going to smith.
How many people in the whole world were confident enough to say “I can smith magic tools”?
In any case, the five elders did not believe it.
Nevertheless, due to the pressure from the three Supreme Great Ancestors, they could only come to watch whether they believed it or not.
Old Craftsman picked a suitable peculiar stone and handed it to Ou Yangming. He instructed, “Smith a military saber.”
The military saber was the first weapon Ou Yangming smithed, and it was the equipment he was most familiar with.
Unquestionably, smithing a military saber was the best option.
Ou Yangming considered for a while before he nodded and said, “Okay.”
He did not incite the Military Fire once he received the stone, but he quietly studied it as though he wanted to perceive its mystery.
The three Supreme Great Ancestors kept quiet, Ni Yunhong and his younger sister were nervous, whereas the five Ni family elders were calm but scornful.
‘What is he trying to do? Be pretentious?’ The elders thought.
Ou Yangming took a deep breath after a long time, and he kept recalling the various changes that occurred when he embedded a gem into his waist sash, which caused it to upgrade into a magic tool.
He had replayed the scene in his head numerous times, where he could perfectly reproduce it as soon as he thought about it.
Ou Yangming paid the most attention to the feeling he had the instant the sash was upgraded.
The power inside the waist sash broke through the world’s limit at the moment, allowing it to arrive at a new height. It was the exact reason the waist sash could be upgraded into a magic tool.
‘What exactly happened during that time?’ Although Ou Yangming recalled the process countless times, he dared not say that he had fully comprehended it. Ou Yangming could only say after his experience that he had vaguely grasped the network behind it, and he could carry out a targeted attempt.
“Woosh…”
His Military Fire suddenly burned and enveloped the rare stone.
The stone quickly melted due to the burning Military Fire, and the melted liquid formed the shape of a military saber under Ou Yangming’s control.
Ni Yunhong and his younger sister were not surprised at all because they had witnessed the process many times.
On the other hand, the five blacksmith elders’ faces changed.
Ou Yangming’s act was not astounding because they could easily do the same. However, the process of the bizarre stone melting and turning into a military saber was so smooth that everything seemed like uncanny workmanship, and they could not find a single flaw.
The five elders exchanged glances and noticed how appalled they all were.
‘This young fella is actually something!’
Even though the military saber had not been completed, they already had a relatively high remark for it.
They were certain that the military saber was of great quality even if it was not a magic tool.
Ou Yangming was fully immersed in the smithing process. His Military Fire grew more vigorous while the military saber constantly twisted inside, causing every impurity to be eliminated at the speed of light.
His forehead was covered in sweat by then, but he fixed his eyes on the military saber.
Ou Yangming could sense that the saber was getting closer to the peak of Fine Grade.
Throughout the process, he did not utilize his ability to upgrade the weapon; he fully relied on his own strength.
This was because he had a feeling that he could not smith a real magic tool even by using the unique upgrading ability if he could not get past the hurdle.
After all, a piece of equipment was limited by its material or the smelting method, hence it had a maximum amount of durable attribute points. Above the maximum limit, the equipment would possibly break apart and become worthless.
If Ou Yangming wanted to break through the limit, he could only rely on his own strength instead of the Military Fire’s upgrading ability.
He was the only one who could go past the obstacle.
“Woosh, woosh…”
The Military Fire burned intensely to brush the strange stone bit by bit. Ou Yangming kept thinking about the scene where his waist sash was upgraded, and he felt that he was getting closer to grasping the moment.
That said, just as the thin veil was within his reach, he could not touch or pull it apart, which stopped him from apprehending the mystery.
At the spur of the moment, Ou Yangming felt an immense burn on his hands.
He sighed and curbed his fire helplessly while he looked at the final product.
The flame released by Ou Yangming was mysteriously connected with his body. It could not hurt him, but it did not mean that he could release the same power forever. There was a certain point of time where even Ou Yangming himself was forced to stop the refinement process.
He gently put down the military saber in his hand and shook his head upon noticing Ni Yinghong’s eager look.
Ni Yinghong smiled sweetly and expressed, “Magic tools are only mentioned legends, so they can’t be grasped so easily. Rest first, and we’ll continue later.”
Old Craftsman stepped forward to pick up the military saber. He sighed after he studied it for some time. “Rank Five, it’s still a Fine Grade Rank Five.”
The old man would have smiled cheerfully if Ou Yangming had smithed a piece of Fine Grade Rank Five equipment using other materials, but he knew before the young fellow began smithing that his goal was a magic tool.
Therefore, Old Craftsman was slightly disappointed even when the equipment was of Fine Grade Rank Five.
One of the Ni family’s blacksmith elders stood up and asked, “Can we take a look at
it?”
The other elders looked at the three great ancestors.
Over here, the Supreme Great Ancestors were the only ones who could suppress them.
Ni Jingshen responded, “Yes, you may study it well.”
The five elders thanked the great ancestors and took the military saber from Old Craftsman. They were not appraisers, but they were top-notch blacksmiths, thus they immediately inspected the saber in detail.
An ordinary person could not tell how skillful a blacksmith was, but every flaw-even the tiniest one—was certainly visible to the top-notch blacksmiths.
Despite that, they fell silent after they scanned the military saber carefully.
They could tell by looking at each other that they were all astonished.
The reason being that there were many astounding details in the military saber.
Whether it was Ou Yangming’s control of the Military Fire or how he was able to form the military saber in one go, the elders were ashamed of their inferiority.
The military saber was more than just a normal, well-steeled weapon to them.
It had arrived at the peak of smithing skill, and the feeling of it resembling nature was like a mountain that oppressed the blacksmith elders, so much so that they found it hard to breathe.
Ni Jingshen suddenly asked, “How’s the military saber?”
He was curious about the military saber’s grade, but since he was neither an appraiser nor a blacksmith, which meant that his professional judgment was inferior to the blacksmith elders’, he allowed them to examine it.
The first blacksmith elder answered respectfully, “Great Ancestor, this saber’s quality is already at the peak of perfection. Nobody else in the world can guarantee that they can smith a better weapon than this.”
Indeed, the military saber was at the peak of Fine Grade Rank Five. On top of that, there was still potential to the saber’s toughness and sharpness, which could be further explored.
This was one of the reasons the blacksmith elder admired Ou Yangming. While Ou Yangming had not unleashed the attributes’ powers to the extreme, he did not waste the energy contained in the equipment.
Based on that method alone, the blacksmith elder dared not call himself a master in front of Ou Yangming.
Ni Jingshen’s eyes glowed. “Is this saber still not a magic tool?”
“It’s not.” The blacksmith elder shook his head with a bitter smile. “A magic tool is a treasure that surpasses all. Even in our clan’s treasure house, there are only…”.
Ni Xuetian cleared his throat loudly and asked, “What do you think needs to be done to smith a magic tool?”
The blacksmith elder was instantly dumbfounded, and he thought, ‘Even if you beat me to death, I don’t have an answer to your question.’
Nonetheless, he had to answer the great ancestor, so he racked his brain and was drenched in sweat by the time he came up with something. “Great Ancestor, an unordinary path must be taken to smith a magic tool.” “What does an unordinary path mean?”
“This…” He looked at his partners to seek help from them, but the blacksmith elders only looked at him pitifully as their hands were also tied. The blacksmith elder gritted his teeth and answered, “Perhaps success is only possible if a distinctive smithing technique is adopted!”