Five days. Ou Yangming stayed in the Fang residence’s secret room for five days.
When a person’s cultivation base arrived at Yin Grade, he or she would undergo enormous changes, one of them being the ability to cultivate essential Qi to replace sleep.
Needless to say, it only applied to some special cases. For instance, if someone had to maintain absolute focus at short notice. During that time, a martial artist could cultivate essential Qi to substitute sleep temporarily. Ou Yangming was a Yin Grade martial artist, so he could naturally do it.
In actual fact, when he was still in Force Grade, he had completed this step by transforming the flesh and blood of countless quarries into Qi and blood for his own. Now, he was only reaching his goal using another method.
Throughout the five days, Ou Yangming had attached triple-layered Unique Attributes to every piece of equipment.
The failure rate increased as the number of attributes being attached increased, and the most nerve-racking moment was when the third layer of Unique Attribute was being fixed.
Ou Yangming succeeded during his second attempt on the helmet, but when he worked with the other pieces of equipment, he failed at least twice before he really succeeded.
On average, ten to fifteen precious ores had to be consumed for a successful triple-layering process on a piece of equipment. The Fang family’s bosses grimaced in pain and wiped their cold sweat as their hearts ached, but they comforted Ou Yangming while patting their chests as though it did not matter.
When seven pieces of equipment, which consisted of five different types, were laid out in front of everyone, they had mixed feelings. Although there were only five types of equipment, there was one extra arm guard and greave each.
All in all, they had given up 85 precious ores for the seven pieces of equipment. 85 precious ores! In order to smith the archer’s suit, they had made countless sacrifices to accumulate the precious ores.
Nonetheless, they were content that Ou Yangming could arrive at this step.
After all, every piece of equipment was layered with three attributes.
Fang Zhaoyang sighed and said, “Lil’ Friend, you’ve worked hard.”
Ou Yangming was unwilling to give up when he looked at the remaining precious ores. “Do you not need me to go on?”.
“If that hasn’t happened, these attributes will be enough, but if…” Fang Zhaoyang smiled bitterly, then he continued after some hesitation, “Perhaps we’ll still need your help in the future!”
Ou Yangming nodded regretfully, but he cursed.
‘Who said that they’ll do it regardless of the cost? They’re being stingy now.’
Honestly, he was already satisfied with what he had achieved so far.
Only 21 points of attributes were actually used for the seven pieces of equipment, whereas more than 60 unique purple lights were stored in his mind.
Ou Yangming had not expected the gain before he came.
Nevertheless, he was rather curious about what Fang Zhaoyang was talking about, but he could tell by the look on the elder’s face that he would not be able to find out.
“Xuande, teach him how to do tool-chiseling. Tell him everything you know, and don’t keep anything to yourself.” Fang Zhaoyang sighed.
Fang Xuande responded to him. He also knew that this was not the end yet because they might still need Ou Yangming’s help in the future. Since that was the case, he might as well do the young man a special favor this time as much as he could.
When they arrived at a smithing workshop, Fang Xuande cut to the chase, “Master Lil’ Ou, it’s not easy to chisel a hole in a piece of equipment. If you’re slightly careless, the equipment will be damaged, and its equivalent rank will drop.”
Ou Yangming nodded and expressed, “I know, it’s the same as trying to embed a gem.”
Fang Xuande was stunned, so he asked, “Have you learned the Gem Embedding Art?”
“A friend of mine from the Ni family taught me a little about it,” Ou Yangming answered with a smile.
“Very well, it’s great that you’ve learned it before. If you want to chisel a hole, you must first have a clear understanding of the equipment,” Fang Xuande said as he retrieved a greave. He slowly brushed his hand across the equipment and explained, “Every piece of equipment is different, and the chiseling of holes in them will cause various effects. The point that we’re looking for is the aggregation point of different tensions in the equipment…”
He shook his wrist and put his finger on a certain point on the greave. “Right here. If you chisel a hole here, the damage on the equipment will be minimal.”
Ou Yangming accepted the greave and studied it for a long time, but he was still puzzled.
Fang Xuande chuckled. “You won’t be able to see the mystery in it by just looking at it. Come, let me teach you.”
Sure enough, he did not hide anything to himself. He shared with Ou Yangming his personal experiences and every bit of knowledge that he had gained.
In the beginning, Ou Yangming did not fully understand it, but his eyes slowly lit up as Fang Xuande explained further.
When Old Craftsman taught Ou Yangming about the Military Fire, he had only told him what should be done.
Why did he have to do this? What was the benefit of doing this?
Even Old Craftsman had no idea. On the other hand, the Fang family was an inherited clan that had a profound background. While Fang Xuande, the number one blacksmith in the clan, did not possess the unique Military Fire and was not on par with Ou Yangming in terms of empirical aspects, his knowledge in theories was superior to even ten Ou Yangmings.
Ou Yangming was unquestionably enlightened with great wisdom after he was taught the knowledge.
He used to wonder during smithing processes in the past why it was difficult for the Durability attribute to be on equal terms with the equipment’s grade and rank. The answer was finally revealed to him.
In addition, Ou Yangming vaguely felt that perhaps his evaluation of Wu Hongxi, the Fine Grade King, was right. The longbow’s fine structure was flawed indeed.
However, the higher the equipment’s level, the deeper the flaw was hidden, hence it was difficult to be noticed. One could only make adjustments according to one’s feelings, so one could imagine the effect of it.
After Fang Xuande was done explaining, he took another piece of equipment and explained again patiently, then he said, “In order to successfully chisel a hole in a tool, apart from needing to find a suitable point, the process is also very important. You have to do it according to the different tensions…”
Following that, a spiritual fire burned slowly in his hands.
Ou Yangming had already released his mental power by then to watch Fang Xuande’s every move in detail.
Under the integration of Heaven and man and the thoroughly meticulous state, Fang Xuande had no secrets at all. Not to mention he was already teaching Ou Yangming everything, even if he was really hiding something, he could not hide them from Ou Yangming.
Eventually, a groove appeared on the greave indeed. It was incredibly strange because the groove seemed to have been naturally formed through uncanny workmanship. It was as though the groove was already there when the equipment was smithed, and that no extra work was done to form it.
Fang Xuande curbed his spiritual fire and smiled with satisfaction when he looked at the greave. “Hehe, I didn’t expect myself to perform so well today, I haven’t been able to achieve this for a long time.” Ou Yangming remarked sincerely, “Senior, I admire you for being old but vigorous.”
He genuinely meant what he said. Since Fang Xuande did not have the unique Military Fire, he had fully relied on his strength and experiences to arrive at this step. Ou Yangming had always admired figures with genuine skills.
Subsequently, Fang Xuande retrieved a greave and handed it to Ou Yangming. “I’ve taught you everything I know. You’ll have to explore and practice on your own from now on. Remember, practice makes perfect.”
Ou Yangming responded to him and felt the greave for a while before he held it tightly.
Fang Xuande waited for some time, and he could not help but frown when there was still no sign from Ou Yangming. “What are you doing? Aren’t you going to find the point?”
“Senior, haven’t I found it already?” Ou Yangming was surprised.
“What? Nonsense. You’ve found it already?” Fang Xuande looked mad. He reached out to snatch the greave from Ou Yangming, then carefully touched it while he calculated in his head. That said, Fang Xuande stopped after some time, and his face took on an extremely strange expression.
He found it. He had found the most suitable point.
‘But… But how is this possible…
‘This point?’
Fang Xuande pondered, and he finally confirmed that Ou Yangming had also placed his thumb on this point earlier. He twitched his mouth and passed a saber to Ou Yangming. “Here.” Ou Yangming received the saber and wielded it, then he placed his thumb on a certain point on the blade.
Fang Xuande took the saber and inspected it carefully for a moment. His face suddenly reddened as he asked, “How did you find it?”
Ou Yangming scratched his head and answered, “The point is so obvious, anyone could’ve found it…”
One needed to be exceptionally observant to find the point, and the better one’s ability to perceive, the better.
Since Ou Yangming had achieved the thoroughly meticulous state in his understanding of nature, it was just as he had said — the point was not a secret and was not difficult to be found.
Similar to a program, without knowing the settings, one would really have to rack one’s brain to figure it out.
However, once the settings were complete, one only needed to press on a button to confirm it.
Fang Xuande’s lips trembled a little. He inhaled deeply and said, “Okay, chisel a hole in it.”
Ou Yangming responded to him again. His Military Fire soon enveloped the saber.
He first withdrew the saber’s attributes, then burned a groove on the suitable point, and finally returned the attributes to it once everything was done.
The process was not long as it was only half of the time taken by Fang Xuande when he carried out the same process.
Seeing as the Military Fire disappeared, Fang Xuande studied the saber closely to look at the seemingly naturally-formed groove. He then shook his wrist to release the Appraisal Light.
The military saber had not only gained a groove, but most importantly, its quality had not declined at all.
Fang Xuande’s beard and hair stood on ends, and he stared at Ou Yangming like he had just seen a ghost. On the spur of the moment, he shouted out loud and ran away with the saber.
Ou Yangming reached out his hand to call out to Fang Xuande a few times, but Fang Xuande turned a deaf ear on him.
He was confused when he put down his hand. ‘Even if my performance was quite exaggerated, I couldn’t have scared him so much that he has gone mad, right?’
