When the carriage finally stopped, Ou Yangming and Ni Yinghong returned to his residence along with the two ores.
The two ores were the smallest in size, hence they could easily be carried. Ou Yangming looked at Ni Yinghong with anticipation after putting down the ores.
“Master Ni, please guide me.”
Ni Yinghong’s eyes wandered around before she said, “It’s neither difficult nor easy to embed a precious stone in a piece of equipment, it all depends on your sense and perception of it. That said, based on your ability, Brother Ou, I believe that it’ll be a piece of cake for you.”
Ou Yangming was stunned as he was not used to the sudden change in the way Ni Yinghong addressed him.
Ni Yinghong continued, “This first step of combining the two is to use the spiritual fire… Oh no, the Military Fire to refine the gem. Firstly, you have to change the gem’s size to fit into the groove.”
Ou Yangming furrowed his eyebrows and asked, “If I change the gem’s shape on my own, won’t that affect its attribute?”
“It will,” Ni Yinghong answered without hesitation.
‘If it will, how am I supposed to do it?’ Ou Yangming twitched his mouth and wondered.
“But I know a secret smithing art that’ll allow you to preserve the attribute as much as possible during the smithing process.” Ni Yinghong grinned, then casually taught Ou Yangming everything about the secret art.
Ou Yangming listened quietly while he pondered. He slowly realized that the secret art taught by Ni Yinghong was actually a method that allowed his mental power to be in resonance with Heaven and Earth. In order to execute the method, one needed to transfer mental power and sense the change of energy in a gem. The more the mental power transferred, the more detailed the energy change that could be sensed, and the stronger the method’s effect.
For other people, even if one had mental power, it would be difficult to transfer it as one wished and to sense a gem’s energy in detail. Even if it was not a hell-like process, it was at least a nightmare to do so.
However, Ou Yangming was instantly delighted after hearing about the secret technique.
The transfer of mental power was no longer a difficult task for him. Perhaps it was slightly tougher than eating and drinking, but it was definitely easier than running and chopping wood.
As for the sensing of a gem’s energy change, which was feared by many…
Ou Yangming said to himself, ‘Since I have the Military Fire, is that even a problem?’
After going through his thoughts again and confirming that he did not miss anything, Ou Yangming took a deep breath and took the gem in Ni Yinghong’s presence. The instant his Military Fire burned, Ni Yinghong was in a daze.
She did not expect Ou Yangming to be so impatient that he would begin smithing right away.
As the Military Fire burned, the gem’s surface melted quickly, and its size changed according to the groove’s size.
Ni Yinghong’s face changed when she witnessed the process. Although she did not possess a spiritual fire, she was born with a good eye, and had, because of her family, watched gems being embedded numerous times.
A gem would undergo change each time a spiritual fire burned, but the margin of change was not big. Every blacksmith would try their best to keep a gem in its perfect state so that the mysterious energy contained within would not be damaged due to the external changes.
Needless to say, it was just a wish. No matter how careful the blacksmiths were, the parts that were bound to be damaged would inevitably be damaged.
Despite that, when Ou Yangming smithed, the gem did not change in an orderly manner, but at an exaggerated speed.
After only roughly 15 minutes, the gem in Ou Yangming’s hands had been remodeled to fit the groove size.
Ni Yinghong was dumbfounded. Instead of looking surprised, she looked extremely helpless because she was certain that Ou Yangming had failed to transform the gem.
This was because nobody had ever completed the transformation of a gem in such a short span of time. A master who had decades of experience could not even achieve such an impressive feat, let alone Ou Yangming, a blacksmith who had just come across a gem.
Ou Yangming exhaled deeply as he put down the gem. He expressed with a smile, “Thank you… Brother Ni, this method is very useful!”
“What?” Ni Yinghong was struck dumb. She asked after suddenly realizing what had happened, “Did you… Succeed?”
“Of course,” Ou Yangming answered with a smile, then handed the gem to Ni Yinghong.
Ni Yinghong studied the gem carefully after reaching her hands out to receive it. The gem’s pattern was extremely different from its original form. She would not have believed that it was the same gem if she had not been informed.
Nonetheless, when Ni Yinghong took a closer look, she shockingly realized that the gem’s color and luster had not changed as it was still dazzling and clear. It seemed as though only its appearance had changed, whereas its interior remained the same.
‘But how is this possible?’ She wondered.
She had witnessed the gem being retrieved from a raw gemstone. The gem was completely natural, hence no changes were allowed.
In actual fact, there were normally two ways to handle gems like this. One of them was to change the gem’s size according to the groove, which was what Ou Yangming had done, and the other way was to customize a piece of equipment according to the gem’s original size.
Though the latter was more troublesome, it could fully unleash the gem’s Unique Attribute.
That being said, Ou Yangming had started smithing before Ni Yinghong finished explaining.
Nevertheless, the outcome was beyond Ni Yinghong’s expectations. Regardless of the angle the gem was viewed from, it did not look like it had been smithed by the Military Fire at all.
She hesitated for a while before gritting her teeth, and she rubbed her hands to release the Appraisal Light.
Once she curbed the light, she exclaimed while looking stupefied, “H-how did you do it?”
Ou Yangming mentally laughed. His Military Fire had a unique ability, which was the ability to draw or upgrade. Not only was the ability effective on equipment, but it could also be used on gems.
Therefore, the sensing of a gem’s energy change, which was difficult for many, was effortless for him.
“Uhm, Brother Ni, is this… Difficult?”
Ni Yinghong’s lips trembled a little. She looked deeply at Ou Yangming as she answered slowly, “Yes, but it doesn’t seem… Difficult for you…”
The readjustment of the gem’s size was undoubtedly the toughest step. Once the step was done, the gem could be embedded in a groove.
Even though it was slightly easier to embed a gem, it could not be completed right away. One needed to pay attention to the energy change between the piece of equipment and the gem as well. If one was careless, the equipment could easily be destroyed when the Military Fire was used to embed the gem.
However, for Ou Yangming, the entire process was just another process that required his Military Fire to burn.
Due to his Military Fire’s special effect, the waist sash and the gem were successfully combined together. When it happened, though the gem’s shape did not change, its color and luster seemed to have been absorbed. Judging from its appearance alone, it no longer shined with a stunning luster, but looked the same as an ordinary stone.
After witnessing this, Ni Yinghong was truly floored, and had nothing but admiration for Ou Yangming.
If a gem maintained its color and luster after being embedded in a piece of equipment, it could only mean that the blacksmith had not perfectly bound the gem’s attribute to the equipment. On the contrary, if the gem’s light was completely absorbed, it proved that the merging between it and the equipment was perfect, and its full power could be unleashed.
Ou Yangming was able to achieve a near-perfect result in his first attempt of remodeling and embedding a gem, which was totally out of Ni Yinghong’s expectations.
Even the Spiritual Fire Blacksmiths from her family, who specialized in the gem trade, could only achieve the same result.
In actual fact, Ni Yinghong had overthought it. Unless they were much higher in rank than Ou Yangming, normal Spiritual Fire Blacksmiths in the gem trade could never achieve that standard.
After seeing Ou Yangming’s abilities, Ni Yinghong was even more determined to invite him to the prefecture. They had a friendly discussion to decide on a rough date before Ni Yinghong bid him farewell.
Ni Yinghong turned to look after taking a few steps away from Ou Yangming’s residence, only to see that he had already closed the door. Ni Yinghong stomped her feet as she mumbled, “Hmph, one day, I’ll find out your limits.”
Following that, she turned to leave with a brisk pace and a bright smile on her face.
On the other hand, in the courtyard that Ni Yinghong had just paid attention to, Ou Yangming had already put on the waist sash.
Peculiar energy was sensed returning to his body the instant he channeled a hint of essential Qi into the waist sash. The energy was completely different from normal energy because Ou Yangming did not notice an increase in his power or speed after the energy entered his body. Nonetheless, he clearly felt his body becoming much stronger.
Instead of a minor change, it was such an enormous change that describing it as an earth-shaking change would be an understatement.
If it had to be compared with something, perhaps having 11 points of Power was the only thing that was more overwhelming.
When the Military Fire danced in Ou Yangming’s hand, the waist sash’s properties appeared in his mind again.
[Item: Outstanding waist sash (Orange)]
[Equivalent Rank: Ordinary Tool, Good Grade, Rank Three]
[Attributes: Toughness +8, Physique +4]
[Skill: Blood Flight (Activation Condition: Abundant Qi and blood)]
There was a 4 points increase in the Physique attribute, which resulted in an unimaginable change for Ou Yangming.
Physique was the foundation of all martial power. Once a person’s physique was improved, his body would experience the most sensitive changes.
Ou Yangming was suddenly struck with an idea, and his face took on a grave expression. He rubbed his hands slowly, and a faint light actually appeared in his hands.
If Zheng Ziwen and Ni Yinghong were present, they would definitely recognize that it was the Appraisal Light.
Throughout the appraisal task, Ou Yangming had seen the Appraisal Light for more than twenty times, and had heard in the carriage plenty of secrets regarding appraisal art. Once he gathered all information together, he finally released the Appraisal Light that belonged to himself.
The light flickered, then finally settled on Ou Yangming’s body.
