Chapter 199 Grand Minister, It Seems Like Someone Doesn’t Believe In Our Abilities (1)
There were over a thousand types of forging materials that Great Qin had placed in this valley, and it was impossible to determine exactly how many of them there were.
Zhou Shu searched for a long time, but he still couldn’t find any materials that seemed to be pieces of the imperial cauldron.
On second thought, something might have happened to Great Qin’s imperial cauldron, but it might not be broken.
Even if it was broken, they might not necessarily take out the fragments of the imperial cauldron directly.
There were so many Grand Craftsmen in Great Qin. No matter how useless they were, they should be able to analyze the forging materials of the imperial cauldron.
They might have even disassembled the forging materials.
Zhou Shu had to admit that Great Qin was indeed cautious.
Even someone like him, who knew some inside information, was unable to discover any abnormalities in these materials, let alone these Forging Masters who didn’t know the inside story.
They thought that Great Qin was merely testing their forging abilities.
It seems like it’s impossible to use these materials to speculate about the situation of the imperial cauldron… Zhou Shu thought… unless I can analyze all of these materials.
He looked at the forging materials.
Over a thousand forging materials had been identified in half a day.
The Forging Masters sent by the various nations were all elites, and their basic skill of identifying the materials was definitely passable. The speed at which they identified the materials was very fast.
Zhou Shu estimated that in another half a day, they would be able to identify all of these materials.
… Unless there were forging materials that no one could recognize.
There was no need to consider this possibility.
If the teams of the nine nations were able to identify all the forging materials, then…
Zhou Shu rolled his eyes.
He felt tired just thinking about personally analyzing over a thousand different materials. He couldn’t be bothered to do such manual labor.
Wasn’t there so much free labor now?
After they identified all the forging materials, he would go to find them and reason with them. It shouldn’t be a problem for everyone to share information, right?
Is there a problem?
Then, may I ask if there are any second-rank martial artists on your team?
If not, then stand still!
Thinking of this, Zhou Shu’s mood improved.
He strode toward Wang Xin. “Hello, General Wang.” Zhou Shu chuckled. “Does that mean that we can head to the second checkpoint anytime now?” Since there was no victory or defeat in the first round, there was no such thing as elimination.
According to the rules, everyone should be able to enter the second checkpoint at any time as long as they felt that they had enough materials.
Wang Xin looked at Zhou Shu strangely and nodded.
He could clearly see that from the beginning to the end, this official envoy of the Great Xia diplomatic mission had not identified even a single forging material.
Wang Xin thought, This young master isn’t really planning to rob the challengers from the various nations, right?
Speaking of which, we didn’t specify that this isn’t allowed in our rules. Should I stop them?
They’re not breaking the rules, so why should I stop them?
If someone else snatches forging materials away, you can only blame yourself for being incompetent. What does it have to do with me?
Wang Xin decided that as long as they didn’t kill anyone or violate the rules, he would pretend not to see anything!
“Thank you, General Wang.” Zhou Shu smiled and cupped his hands. Then he turned and walked toward the exit of the valley. As he walked, he raised his voice. “Old Shi, and who… that’s enough. We’re going to the second checkpoint.”
Shi Songtao and the other Forging Masters raised their heads in confusion. That’s enough? There are so many forging materials here. How do you know we won’t need them for the next round?
“Marquis—”
“Let’s go!”
Before Shi Songtao could finish his sentence, Yin Wuyou shouted coldly and followed Zhou Shu.
Fine, one is the official envoy and the You Marquis, the other is the princess of Great Xia. Since both of them have spoken, what else can I say?
Shi Songtao looked at the remaining materials reluctantly.
As long as he was given time, he was confident that he could identify the other forging materials!
But now…
No matter what he thought, in front of the people from other nations, he couldn’t appear to be someone who disobeyed orders!
Zhou Shu, ah, Zhou Shu, when we reach the next checkpoint, if there aren’t enough forging materials, I want to see how you will take responsibility! Shi Songtao thought. He felt a little sad. It seemed that this time, not only would he not be able to accomplish anything, but he would also get into trouble.
If news that they had been eliminated in the second checkpoint spread back to Great Xia, who knew how many people would curse him.
He shook his head and sighed. He gritted his teeth and said to the other Forging Masters, “Let’s go!”
They did their best to carry the materials they had already obtained, supporting each other as they chased after Zhou Shu and the others.
He didn’t know if Great Qin was intentionally trying to mislead him, but these nine checkpoints weren’t located in the same place. Instead, they were arranged in various places from Hangu Pass to Great Qin’s capital.
The first checkpoint was located in a valley within Hangu Pass. The second checkpoint was located a fifty kilometers away from Hangu Pass.
Zhou Shu and the others relaxed. Although Shi Songtao and the others were carrying hundreds of kilograms of forging materials on their backs, they were still martial artists after all. It wasn’t like they couldn’t walk.
They continued forward, arriving a few kilometers away from the second checkpoint. Zhou Shu stopped. “Marquis, according to the map, the second trial is still about four kilometers away,” Shi Songtao said while panting.
