After half an hour, Fang Zhaoyang finally opened his eyes and was reassured. “Not bad, young fella. You really found both points.”
Following that, when he noticed the strange looks on the other people’s faces, he asked as a thought crossed his mind, “How long did I take?”
Fang Zhengde cleared his throat and answered, “Great Ancestor, around an hour.”
“Huh? An… Hour!” Fang Zhaoyang mumbled and lamented to himself.
‘When Ou Yangming found the embedding points earlier, he only took two glances as he turned the shield around. Why did I spend such a long time?’
He shook his head and sighed. “Ah, I’m old and unfit for this now…”
The other people from the Fang family thought, ‘Even when you were younger, you weren’t that great at the Hole-searching Art. That said, the ability to use time to compensate for your shortcomings and finally finding the accurate points is pretty good.’ Fang Zhaoyang pondered and suddenly asked, “Lil’ Friend, I have a question to ask.”
Ou Yangming was neither humble nor disrespectful as he responded, “Senior, please go ahead.”
“This equipment set has already arrived at its limit. In your opinion, how can we improve its combat power?” Fang Zhaoyang asked. Ou Yangming was stunned, but he thought, ‘If the pieces of equipment are really in my hands, that won’t be the maximum number of attributes that can be held.’
Nonetheless, he could only keep it to himself.
“Great Ancestor, are you going to use the Tool-chiseling Art?” Ou Yangming asked softly.
“Haha, there are certainly two ways to improve pieces of equipment of such level,” Fang Zhaoyang replied to him without hesitation and explained seriously, “One is by making a Formation Map Suit where corresponding formation maps are imprinted on the pieces of equipment to produce a wonderful power that increases their overall ability; the other is by embedding gems.”
Ou Yangming was slightly moved, and he instantly recalled the Suit Skill that Ni Yunhong[1] used during the smithing challenge. He had secretly studied it in the past, but he ended up gaining nothing. Nevertheless, Fang Zhaoyang had just mentioned the key — formation maps. It seemed like the process was only doable through formation maps.
Fang Zhaoyang added, “The Fang family knows nothing about Formation Map Suits, but we have our own knowledge in the Gem Embedding Art, so we’d like to take this
path.”
Ou Yangming nodded. “Senior, you’re right. The right thing to do is to make use of advantages and avoid shortcomings.” “Very well. Since you approve of this, help me see how many grooves can be chiseled onto these pieces of equipment.” Fang Zhaoyang laughed.
Fang Zhengde trembled a little, and he wanted to advise the great ancestor against it. However, he instantly stopped when he noticed the faces of the other elders. He knew very well that Ou Yangming had gained everyone’s approval through his capability.
Ou Yangming nodded with a smile and picked up the longbow.
He had just learned the Tool-chiseling Art and wanted to inspect some good pieces of equipment. Since Fang Zhaoyang did not mind, he would not decline the request.
Ou Yangming turned the longbow around to look at it once. He only studied it once, then he looked up and announced while being watched by the other people, “This bow is pretty good, it can have three grooves.” “Three grooves?” The faces of the other people changed as they were both surprised and delighted.
Even if they were not a blacksmith, they understood that it was better to have more grooves.
“This isn’t right…” Fang Xuande frowned and expressed, “We’ve already checked it before. The longbow can at most have only two
grooves.”
“Let me take a look at it,” Fang Zhaoyang said with a deep voice.
Fang Xuande quickly responded, “Ah, it’s just a small matter, let me do it.”
The other people nodded as well because they felt hopeless at the thought of Fang Zhaoyang’s speed earlier.
Despite that, who was Fang Zhaoyang? He pulled a long face and ordered coldly, “Give it to me!”
This time, nobody dared to object to it anymore.
Fang Zhaoyang took the longbow and shut his eyes as he slowly felt around the weapon. The other people exchanged glances and understood what they were all thinking about.
‘We can take a nap and come back later…’
Of course, nobody actually left, they did not even show their discontent.
As expected, it was only after an extremely long time — longer than the last — that Fang Zhaoyang pointed on a spot and said, “This is the first one.”
The rest of them immediately nodded. Whether it was Fang Xuande, who knew the Hole-searching Art, or Fang Yihai, who knew nothing about it, they shouted, “Great Ancestor, you’re impressive.” After a long time again, Fang Zhaoyang said, “This is the second one.”
Ou Yangming nodded but did not want to speak anymore.
Fang Yihai and the others obviously did not have the guts to be undisciplined in front of their great ancestor. On the other hand, although Ou Yangming did not want to offend the Supreme Great Ancestor because of the time taken, it was impossible for him to put down his pride to flatter the elder.
Once Fang Zhaoyang found two groove spots, he became much slower. He had been feeling the longbow with his fingers for half an hour, but he could not find the third suitable point.
Fang Xuande inched closer to Ou Yangming and asked carefully, “Master Lil’ Ou, did you really find three groove spots?”
Ou Yangming replied to him snappily, “Why would I lie to you?”
“But Great Ancestor can’t find it…” Fang Xuande responded softly.
Ou Yangming took a step forward and pointed on a spot on the longbow despite being looked at strangely. “It’s here!”
Everyone else was taken aback, and Fang Yihai’s face took on a ghastly expression. Ou Yangming must be tired of living for being so unrestrained in front of the great ancestor. In spite of that, Fang Zhaoyang had unexpectedly opened his eyes and touched the spot as he mumbled, “How can it be this spot? How can it be… Here? Ah… I understand! Yes, this is indeed the point! Lil’ Ou, you’re amazing!” He stood up abruptly and laughed out loud.
If Fang Zhaoyang had slowly searched for a longer time, perhaps he still could not find the spot. It was only due to Ou Yangming’s reminder that he came to a sudden realization.
Similar to solving a problem, one could not find the answer when one puzzled over the problem for a long time. After knowing the answer and deducing the problem in reverse, it was easily solved.
“Try finding them too.” Fang Zhaoyang passed the longbow to Fang Xuande. Fang Xuande had been very impatient, so he quickly focused and calmed down to begin searching
“Are you not satisfied because I’m wasting time?” Fang Zhaoyang asked as he looked around.
“No.”
The other people including Ou Yangming subconsciously answered at the same time.
This was because they did not need to think about the answer. If they were to express their dissatisfaction to a Supreme Great Ancestor, they would definitely be punished.
“I’m aware that I’m wasting time when I’m searching the holes, but…” Fang Zhaoyang sighed and glanced at Fang Xuande, who was fully immersed in touching the longbow with his eyes closed. “If I didn’t do that, I wouldn’t be at ease!”
It was then that the rest of them came to a sudden realization, and Ou Yangming’s heart skipped a beat. He finally found out that Fang Zhaoyang valued the matter much more than he had imagined.
Ou Yangming was curious. ‘What exactly is the matter that the Supreme Great Ancestor attaches so much importance to?
‘Could the Fang family have a secret like the Ni family does?
‘And the place is so dangerous that an archer’s suit is needed to eradicate demons…’
Ou Yangming shook his head and got rid of the crazy thought. ‘I’m really overthinking.’
Fang Zhaoyang said, “Once Xuande is done inspecting it, you may check it too if you’re interested. This matter must be done perfectly, without a single flaw.”
The other people responded to him, but they did not step forward.
If they did not trust the great ancestor and Fang Xuande, could they trust anyone else?
Fang Xuande stood up after some time, and he looked confused. “It’s impossible. I’ve checked it before, and I clearly found only two possible points on the longbow…”
Ou Yangming cleared his throat and spread out his hands. “Senior Xuande, did you forget that I’ve upgraded the longbow’s equivalent rank?”
“You… When you upgraded it, did you smoothen out the tensions too?” Fang Xuande suddenly looked up in astonishment.
This time, Ou Yangming smiled bitterly.
“I have no idea either.” He shook his head and added after some thought, “If I try to do the same again in the future, perhaps I’ll find the answer.”
Fang Xuande nodded. He suddenly turned around and expressed, “Master Lil’ Ou is exceptionally talented, and he’s beyond ordinary people. I request that he chisel holes and embed gems in the archer’s suit instead, and I hope you’ll allow it, Great Ancestor, Patriarch.”
A strange atmosphere filled the secret room at once.
Fang Zhaoyang looked deeply at him and questioned, “Does he have a better hold of it than you?”
“Yes, a genius can’t be weighed with logical reasoning!” Fang Xuande answered without any hesitation.
Without witnessing Ou Yangming’s unbelievable way of searching holes, Fang Zhaoyang and the others would ignore Fang Xuande’s request.
However, their doubts were removed after they watched Ou Yangming’s performance.
Even if Fang Xuande had not proposed the idea, the others were actually having similar thoughts. When Fang Xuande decided to withdraw himself from the task, they became more certain of the idea.
Fang Zhaoyang nodded and said to Ou Yangming seriously, “Lil’ Friend, we need to trouble you again.” Everyone else lamented. They had actually figured that they would need to request Ou Yangming’s help again in the future if his skills improved such that he could perform quadruple-layering of attributes.
That being said, they did not expect it to happen so quickly.
Moreover, instead of quadruple-layering, they were requesting him to perform the Fang family’s secret technique — the Tool-chiseling Art.
Ou Yangming clicked his tongue and wondered, ‘What’s going on? Why are they asking me for help again? What I did was really… Not too much!
[1] Author made a typo here by writing Ni Yinghong instead of Ni Yunhong. We’ve corrected it for the context
