Ou Yangming followed Gao Mingjie into the place beyond the crystal wall.
Over here, there was a building with crystals as its main body, where the bright luster made it look splendid.
Nonetheless, whether it was Ou Yangming or Gao Mingjie, they did not attach much importance to the beautiful view here. Perhaps the 10,000 Beasts Venerable One had specially arranged the crystal ball as a kind gesture to express its respect for the human blacksmiths and alchemists.
However, humans that could become masters were elites among elites, hence they would not lose themselves in the gorgeous view.
Inside the crystal ball was a spacious main hall, where over 10 big doors were seen. The doors were either opened or closed, but Ou Yangming sensed intense energy fluctuations coming from behind those closed doors.
Although Ou Yangming did not see it for himself, he understood that the energy fluctuations were due to human masters refining pills or smithing tools.
“Ah, Master Gao, you’re finally back!” A little macaque suddenly jumped out from one of the rooms. It had an adorable smile on its face as it asked, “You must’ve been affected by the earthquake earlier, am I right?”
Gao Mingjie spoke harshly to the high-rank spirit beasts, but he smiled at the talking little macaque. “Hehe, my mental state was unstable. I must’ve made a joke out of myself in front of you.”
The little macaque immediately responded, “Master Gao, don’t worry. It was an accident, so all losses will be on us. If you’re still not satisfied, we’ll find the culprit and give you a satisfactory answer.”
“You don’t have to go through all the trouble. I somewhat found out the reason when I went outside just now, so I know that fella didn’t do it on purpose.” Gao Mingjie waved his hand and stroked his beard before he continued, “Isn’t it just a furnace of pills? I’ll just refine them again.”
He glanced at the few other rooms with closed doors and asked, “Those old fellas didn’t come out?”
The little macaque answered, “Perhaps the masters didn’t notice, so they never came out.”
Gao Mingjie flushed because he was the only one affected out of the many masters, which were either refining pills or making tools. Did it not mean that his cultivation was inadequate? At this time, even if the elder was thick-faced, he would be too embarrassed to look into the matter. In fact, he wanted to cover up the matter as much as he could.
The little macaque looked away and stared at Ou Yangming. “Master Gao, this is…”
“This is a little friend that I found. Hehe, you can consider him responsible for the disturbance earlier,” Gao Mingjie instantly answered.
Ou Yangming twitched his mouth and thought, “Master Gao, you mustn’t say that!’
Nevertheless, the little macaque’s eyes flickered, and it questioned, “Is he also a human master? Did a piece of equipment that he smithed or pills that he refined cause a fight outside?”
The young fellow looked at the little macaque in shock. The little fellow was quite quick-witted. One would have certainly thought that he was a part of a dispute, but the macaque guessed the basic truth right away when it saw Gao Mingjie bringing him into the place behind the crystal wall.
It was extremely rare for the little macaque to have such an ability.
“I knew I can’t hide anything from you.” Gao Mingjie laughed out loud. He turned to say to Ou Yangming, “Lil’ friend, I’ll continue to refine pills as I can’t be inferior to those old fellas. As for you…” He pointed at the little macaque and continued, “This is a special attendant that’s specially arranged for us by Sir Venerable One, so you can ask it if you have any questions.”
Following that, he hurried into a room and closed the door.
Ou Yangming was dumbfounded, and he thought, “Didn’t you say you’ll bring me here to meet a few seniors? Why did you leave me here like that in the blink of an eye?’
He possessed great mental power, but he knew he could not penetrate the walls to pry the situations inside, or he would definitely cause public wrath.
The little macaque blinked and asked curiously, “Human master, how should I address you?”
“I’m Ou Yangming, and I’m a human blacksmith.” Ou Yangming chuckled and asked after a short pause, “I’d like to climb to the top to take a look. May I ask how I can get up there?”
“Master Ou, has your skills arrived at that level?” The little macaque asked in shock.
Ou Yangming twitched his mouth and thought, “I don’t even know what’s considered up to standard, so how should I answer you?’
He answered after some thought, “I only want to take a look at the top skills of the Spiritual Realm’s smithing art.”
The little macaque tilted its head and rejoined, “Master Ou, according to my understanding, without reaching a certain boundary, you might not pick up anything even if a top-notch blacksmith starts smithing in front of you!”
Ou Yangming nodded and replied to it, “I know, but I still want to go up there to take a look.”
The macaque pondered for a brief moment and suggested, “Master Ou, if you really want to go up there, how about you smith 10 pieces of equipment here first? If you meet the standard, I’ll let you go up to take a look. What do you think?”
“What standard must I meet?” Ou Yangming’s eyes lit up.
The little macaque chuckled and explained, “According to our rule here, every master can smith pieces of equipment or refine pills as they wish. Once they succeed, they’ll put those items on the crystal wall for the spirit beasts to compete for them. If 10 of your pieces of equipment are a hit with them, you’ll qualify.”
Ou Yangming furrowed his eyebrows and asked, “This standard’s too idealistic. If a piece of equipment is suitable but none of the spirit beasts wants it, wouldn’t it be passed?”
The macaque shook its head as though it was a rattle drum. “Don’t worry, we can tell if a piece of equipment is good or bad, so you won’t suffer any loss.”
“Must I smith here? What if I want to customize pieces of equipment for the spirit beasts?” Ou Yangming raised another question.
The little macaque blinked its intelligent eyes and answered, “That’ll be the best. If you’re not afraid of being affected by those fellas, you can smith outside directly., but the qualities of the pieces of equipment can’t be too poor. If a spirit beast doesn’t offer more than 1,000 spirit ores, it won’t be counted.”
Ou Yangming smiled proudly and said, “1,000 spirit ores, right? I understand.”
Seeing how Ou Yangming was smiling calmly, the little macaque was also moved. ‘Could this young human actually be capable?’
Even so, given that it was arranged to be the attendant here, it had extraordinary vision and could tell Ou Yangming’s real age. As such, it was rather doubtful that someone of the young fellow’s age could be on par with those human masters.
Ou Yangming nodded at the little macaque and left the place behind the crystal wall.
He wanted to meet the smithing masters in the Spiritual Realm and exchange views on smithing art with them, but he could not just talk to the wall.
“Brother Big Yellow’s my friend, what are you trying to do?”
“Pfft, Brother Big Yellow has agreed to be my guest at the Black Wind Cave, so why are you stealing it away?”
“Nonsense, why didn’t I hear Brother Big Yellow agree to that? It should come to my place first!”
As soon as Ou Yangming left the crystal wall, he heard countless disorderly noises before he even turned around. Among them, some were so loud that they were drumming in his ears.
He was struck dumb, and he finally understood what the little macaque meant earlier.
Behind the crystal wall, there must be a secret technique to cut off noises. Other than situations such as when Mount Liang Wolf King performed a skill without any restraint or howled with its spiritual power without holding back, the spirit beasts would not be able to disturb the people behind the wall at all.
For a moment, Ou Yangming wanted to turn around and go back inside.
Despite that, when he heard many high-rank spirit beasts mentioning Big Yellow’s name, he was uneasy.
‘Why did Big Yellow become so close to these high-rank spirit beasts?’
After a moment of hesitation, Ou Yangming hastened around the crystal wall and walked toward the spirit beasts.
At this point, the spirit beasts had swallowed their pride as high-rank spirit beasts and surrounded Big Yellow. If they were not in 10,000 Beasts Venerable One’s territory, they might have fought each other already.
Ou Yangming cleared his throat at the periphery and asked, “What happened?”
He did not speak loudly, but many spirit beasts fell silent at once and turned around at the same time. The spirit beasts closest to him asked in astonishment, “Master Ou, why have you come out?”
“Why can’t I come out?” Ou Yangming was shocked.
“Because, because…” The spirit beast was stupefied and lost for words.
Mount Liang Wolf King quickly approached Ou Yangming and explained, “Master Ou, those masters think we’re too noisy and that our auras are too strong, so they’re not willing to be surrounded by us.”
Ou Yangming looked strangely at the high-rank spirit beasts and remarked, “You’re quite noisy indeed…”
Many spirit beasts were embarrassed. The spirit wolf suddenly rolled its eyes about and asked, “Master Ou, the equipment that you smithed earlier was made according to my build, right?”
“That’s right. You were the only one that spoke to me, so I naturally smithed according to your build.” Ou Yangming grinned.
Many spirit beasts found it odd. They did not think that the chatterbox benefitted from the simple reason.
Mount Liang Wolf King was elated. “Master Ou, I’m willing to buy that armor, and I hope you’ll fulfill my wish!”
“Hmph, Mount Liang Wolf King, I can wear that armor too, so why must it be given to you?” A spirit beast with a similar build was displeased.
The spirit wolf responded scornfully, “You heard Master Ou; this equipment was smithed according to my build. Heh, if you want to snatch it, why didn’t you speak to him just now?”
That spirit beast was instantly speechless. It could still harass the spirit wolf unreasonably, but its loss would outweigh its gain if it infuriated Ou Yangming.
By now, all of the spirit beasts could tell that the young human blacksmith had a bright future and would one day ascend to the peak. Even if they could not acquire pieces of equipment from him, they must not offend him no matter what.
Ou Yangming pondered and asked, “Mount Liang Wolf King, how many spirit ores do you plan to offer?”