Ou Yangming had forced Fang Xuande to retreat. Following that, he shook his wrist, and his Military Fire instantly burnt.
He initially wanted to make a grand gesture, but he dared not act on that thought anymore. It was best to speak the truth.
As Ou Yangming’s Military Fire spread, it quickly enveloped the longbow.
The people from the Fang family had a grave expression on their faces. Although Ou Yangming had guaranteed earlier that the longbow would not be damaged, they could not help but feel anxious.
This was because the archer’s suit was too important for them.
Ou Yangming could not understand their feelings, but he could sense it through his bright eyes.
He did not take too long to complete the task because he had explained that the issue was in the longbow’s fine structure. Besides, if Ou Yangming knew the theory and could smoothen the weapon, he should not delay the process.
Needless to say, if he did not know the theory and where the defect was, even if he were to do it eternally, he could not make effective amendments to the piece of equipment.
After 15 minutes, Ou Yangming exhaled deeply and moved his wrist a little to curb the Military Fire.
While looking weary, he handed the longbow to Fang Xuande, who had been impatient for a long time.
Fang Xuande’s eyes lit up, and he rubbed his hands slightly to release the Appraisal Light onto the longbow.
Next, he instantly smiled cheerfully and announced, “Nice, it’s at the peak of Fine Grade Rank Five indeed!”
Fang Zhaoyang and the rest looked at each other. Even the most cunning person smiled with joy at that moment.
In actual fact, they were rather concerned when they invited Ou Yangming, but it seemed like they made a wise choice.
Fang Xuande hesitated for a while before he bowed at Ou Yangming.
It was not a normal formality, but a salute that was similar to what was done by a disciple to his master.
Ou Yangming was shocked, so he quickly dodged and asked, “Senior, what are you doing?”
Fang Xuande asked in a serious manner, “Master, may I ask how exactly was its fine structure flawed?”
He was previously dubious when he asked the same question, but he finally believed it when Ou Yangming really managed to upgrade it to Rank Five.
As the Fang family’s chief blacksmith, his obsession in smithing art was far beyond what one could imagine.
Since there was a great opportunity for him to gain experience, he could not help but raise the question. Ou Yangming smiled bitterly and thought, ‘You’re asking me, but who am I going to ask? ‘Is there really an issue with the longbow’s… Fine structure?’
He felt unusually regretful at that moment. ‘I really shouldn’t have talked so much nonsense!’ “Xuande!” Fang Zhaoyang furrowed his eyebrows and reprimanded, “You shouldn’t ask what you shouldn’t ask!”
Fang Xuande responded after some hesitation, “Yes, Great Ancestor.”
Ou Yangming sighed a breath of relief and explained right away, “Senior, I’m not trying to be selfish because it’s my own skill, I really have a difficult reason behind it…”
He was going to learn the boring technique from Fang Xuande later, so he did not want to offend him.
Fang Xuande cast his unhappiness aside and said, “I understand, you’ve learned it from another master. Ah, how can a secret technique like that be taught so easily? I was being greedy…” In actuality, if Ou Yangming was just a nobody, the people from the Fang family might have handled things differently. However, Ou Yangming was not only close to the three other generals from the Immense Forest Military Camp at the moment, but he was also the Ni family’s distinguished guest, so they naturally would not have other thoughts.
Ou Yangming was in two minds, but he decided to raise his concern, “Senior, I’ve spoken carelessly earlier. If that person finds out, I’ll be in huge trouble, so…”
Fang Zhaoyang laughed. “It’s a small matter, so don’t worry, nobody will spread it.”
Ou Yangming quickly thanked him because he would not want to be questioned by a smithing master like Wu Hongxi one day.
“Lil’ Friend, since you can upgrade the longbow to the peak of Rank Five, can you also upgrade the other pieces of equipment too?” Fang Zhaoyao smiled brightly as he asked.
‘Isn’t that such a casual request…’ Ou Yangming twitched his mouth.
“I can try to upgrade the armor, but I can’t do anything about the boots and the precious sash. I’ve never learned how to produce them, so I don’t really understand them.” He shook his head and spread out his hands.
“If you don’t know, just learn! I believe you’ll understand them as long as you learn about them,” Fang Zhaoyang remarked.
Ou Yangming was deeply moved, thus he replied to him with a smile, “If that’s the case, thank you for the trouble.”
After using his Military Fire to upgrade the armor to the peak of Rank Five too, the other people no longer doubted what he said.
Yes, the longbow’s fine structure must be flawed, but as for how it was flawed… They used their bold and imaginative mind to come up with strange reasonings to convince themselves.
Once Ou Yangming was done, he fixed his gaze on the previous ores.
The ores were not ordinary ores such as the Power Ore or the Agility Ore. When Ou Yangming picked one up and released his Military Fire, he found out that it was a unique ore that could add a Precision attribute.
He asked after some consideration, “Senior Fang, do you only need me to attach the Precision attribute?”
“There are actually two attributes, which are Vision and Precision,” Fang Xuande quickly answered, and he added after a pause, “Just use whichever attribute you’re more confident with.”
Ou Yangming frowned. “Senior, there’s a certain failure rate in attribute attachment.”
Fang Xuande chuckled. “Don’t worry, we won’t blame you even if you fail.”
“What I’d like to ask is — what’s the highest acceptable failure rate for you?” Ou Yangming asked with a deep voice.”
“If you can bind one attribute, we’ll accept a 40% failure rate, but…” Fang Xuande was stunned at first, but he replied to him after he pondered, and continued with bright eyes, “If you can layer attributes, we’ll accept a 60% failure rate!”
The request for such probabilities was unquestionably a nightmare for the blacksmiths from the Immense Forest Military Camp — even Old Craftsman could not fulfill it.
Nonetheless, Ou Yangming wondered and asked, “What if I can fix three attributes to a piece of equipment?”
The people from the Fang family began breathing rapidly. “If you can fix three attributes, we’ll accept an 80% failure rate!” Fang Zhaoyang cut Fang Xuande to it. “If you can go four and above, there won’t be a limit, so you can carry on without worries.”
Since Ou Yangming had raised the question, did it not mean that he had a way to bond more than three attributes?
Honestly, the Layering Art was exceptionally difficult, but most importantly, there were very few blacksmiths who were adept in it.
Based on the Fang family’s capability, they could find masters who were famous for it.
That said, those masters valued their reputation very much, and they dared not promise that they could achieve triple-layering. As such, they naturally could not bind attributes to these pieces of equipment.
On the opposite, Ou Yangming was a highly spirited and fearless young man, who agreed to the request right away.
Of course, that was only the impression that Ou Yangming gave, hence the people from the Fang family did not know the real reason behind it.
After picking up a helmet, Ou Yangming burned it with his Military Fire and tossed a precious ore into it. When he curbed his fire some moments later, the equipment was already bonded with 1 Point of Precision.
Seeing as Ou Yangming succeeded during his first attempt, the other people smiled delightfully. This is a good start, it’s a great sign.’
Nevertheless, instead of putting down the helmet, Ou Yangming retrieved another precious ore.
This time, everyone else watched him with a serious face when his Military Fire burned again.
Ou Yangming later exhaled as he curbed his fire, and he smiled at the eager men. “I was lucky enough to have accomplished the task.”
The men cheered, and Fang Xuande even inspected the helmet with appraisal art. He shouted, “Both the Precision and the Vision attributes are added, nice!”
Though Ou Yangming did not understand why they valued the suit so much, he reminded, “Gentlemen, if you’d like me to add the third ore, the failure rate will be quite high.”
The other people looked at Fang Zhaoyang, who gritted his teeth and gave permission, “Go on and add it!”
Ou Yangming nodded and retrieved another ore for Vision before tossing it into the fire. As his Military Fire burned, the Vision +1 attribute was instantly withdrawn. On top of that, even the Vision and Precision attributes, which had been attached to the helmet earlier, were withdrawn as well.
He humphed and stopped the fire from burning, then he said with guilt, “I’m sorry, I failed.”
The men could not help but look regretful, but nobody blamed Ou Yangming for it. It was triple-layering, after all. If he could pull it off in one go, he was probably not a human, but a deity.
“It’s okay, Lil’ Friend. Take a rest, and we’ll continue later,” Fang Zhaoyang comforted with a smile.Even though his heart was actually bleeding, he could not express it. Besides, the elders had tacitly agreed not to give Ou Yangming any pressure. After resting for half an hour, Ou Yangming seemed to feel extremely energetic again. He kept adding precious ores to the helmet, and he only stopped sulkily after it was attached with 3 Points of Vision.
Despite that, Fang Xuande held the helmet, which had 3 Points of Vision, like it was a treasure. Once he confirmed the helmet’s attributes, he could not help but shout, “Triple-layered attributes, they’re really triple-layered attributes. We did it!”.
Fang Yihai grinned from ear to ear. “Seventh Uncle, I told you, Master Ou can do it.” “Yes, he can do it indeed!” Ou Yangming asked, “I’ve just done triple-layering. Senior Fang, do you need me to continue?”
The secret room fell dead silent at that instant.
‘He has failed once when he attempted triple-layering, what about quadruple-layering?’
The men looked at Fang Zhaoyang, but this time, the great ancestor was not that decisive.
He said after a brief moment, “Let’s end it here. We’ll discuss again when everything’s done.”
“Yes.” The helmet was put aside while the second piece of equipment was handed to Ou Yangming. Ou Yangming looked plainly at it, then he released his Military Fire to begin refining it. However, he started to calculate to himself.
