Chapter 943: Secretly Learning Without Being Known
A breeze swept across the platform…
Li Xuanji’s clothes fluttered in the wind, making him look like a celestial being.
A curious look appeared on his face, and he asked with a smile, “Brother Ai, forgive me for being presumptuous, but may I know which God-favored one defeated Master Qu?”
Ai Hongli’s pupils contracted slightly, and he answered, “Ou Yangming!”
“Ou Yangming?”
As the voice reverberated, the entire place fell silent. Even breathing sounds seemed to have stopped.
Qu Zhengde’s eyes also revealed a momentary daze as he thought to himself, ‘Master Ou, in the future, I must claim my victory!’
At this moment, Ou Yangming’s name spread throughout the Seven Stars Sect. Needless to say, it would not take long for it to spread throughout the whole of Zhangzhou.
No one noticed that a young man who had his hat pulled down in the crowd was touching the tip of his nose. He looked very worried.
He thought, ‘This is bad. I can’t say Ou Yangming’s name in Zhangzhou.’
All of a sudden, Guan Yue walked gracefully among the crowd. She moved a few times and quietly came to Ou Yangming’s side. She smiled like a flower and asked, “Brother Yu, have you heard of Ou Yangming?” She raised her chin, and she was full of curiosity. She guessed that Yu Tianrui was a disciple of an influential sect from Danzhou and that he was definitely not an unknown person there. That was why she got rid of her master, Luo Xiaoyu, and walked over to ask the young fellow.
After hearing her question, Ou Yangming cleared his throat, and his delicate face was tense. He wondered, ‘How am I supposed to answer this?’
Nonetheless, he soon came up with a plan. His intelligent and deep eyes rolled twice, and he pretended to be boasting as he answered, “Of course, I’ve heard of Master Ou. Everyone in Danzhou knows him.”
“Really?” Guan Yue’s eyes were bright as she stared straight at Ou Yangming.
Ou Yangming had a strange feeling in his heart. This feeling of praising himself made him uncomfortable.
He could only brace himself and respond, “Yes, of course, it’s true.”
“Brother Yu, can you tell me about his experiences? Someone like him must have a life filled with legends.” The corners of Guan Yue’s mouth curled up as she blinked her eyes. Her beautiful eyes seemed to have penetrated through an infinite space and saw an unknown place in the distance.
Although there was a faint trace of arrogance in her personality, it was precisely that that made her blindly worship the God-favored one that she trusted.
Qu Zhengde was a Daoist disciple from the Smithing Peak, and he stood out since young.
Guan Yue had admired Qu Zhengde since she was young. Now that Ai Hongli mentioned that a smithing master named Ou Yangming defeated Qu Zhengde in smithing, her curiosity was piqued like a cat that itched in her heart.
Even so, this was hard on Ou Yangming because he still did not know what to say. ‘Do I really tell her about the things that I experienced? Nonsense!’
He stammered for a long time but could not say a word.
Finally, the flame in Qu Zhengde’s hand faded, and Ling Yue’s equipment was successfully smithed.
It was a longsword, which was a meter long and 3 inches wide. Its color was light green and under the sunlight, it shone with a cold light. Even its quality had reached a magic tool of High Grade Rank Five. Moreover, the skills that came with it were extremely powerful.
The disciples of the Ultimate Sword Peak were especially obsessed with swords.
Ling Yue looked at the longsword and could not put it down. He lightly flicked the longsword with his finger, and a clear ring immediately soared into the sky. One could faintly hear the arrogance carried by the sword.
The young man reluctantly carried the longsword on his back and leaped to Ou Yangming’s side. He sincerely expressed, “Thanks for giving me the opportunity, Brother Yu.” He understood that if the young fellow wanted to fight for the spot, he would not be able to get the Blood Ore.
Ou Yangming could finally get rid of Guan Yue. He secretly heaved a sigh of relief and shook his head. “It’s your fortuitous encounter, Brother Ling; itt has nothing to do with me.”
Now that he could refine magic weapons, he naturally did not care much about magic tools. Besides, he was a smithing master himself. What equipment could he not smith for himself? He simply did Ling Yue a favor conveniently.
As Qu Zhengde’s first longsword was already a magic tool of High Grade Rank Five, the atmosphere in the square reached its greatest height.
Ou Yangming found that Qu Zhengde’s attainment in smithing art had indeed improved greatly.
Even Qu Zhengde’s speed had also improved significantly. Ou Yangming could not help but wonder, ‘Looks like Master Qu had a very fruitful trip this time. It’s just a pity that his cultivation base is too low. If he could become a Venerable One, he might be able to smith magic weapons too.’ The young fellow shook his head, and his eyes filled with pity that others could not understand.
After about 15 minutes, Qu Zhengde finished smithing the remaining 2 pieces of equipment.
One was a cape while the other was a saber. They were both magic tools of High Grade Rank Five, and they were in the limelight at the moment.
Nevertheless, this was the reason Ou Yangming’s name was spread. How could a blacksmith who could surpass Qu Zhengde in smithing art be simple? After all, Qu Zhengde had just smithed 3 High Grade Rank Five magic tools in a row.
Qu Zhengde looked around and walked down with a smile.
Ai Hongli and Li Xuanji exchanged glances and noticed the look of admiration in each other’s eyes.
Later, Liao Qingsong slowly walked up again. His voice carried spiritual power and spread in all directions. He laughed heartily and said, “Alright, now that the entertainment program is over, the main event of the Pill Feast’s grand ceremony is up next.” He paused for a moment and waved his sleeve to liven up the atmosphere.
After seeing that everyone in the square was looking over, he continued, “Now, let’s have the various alchemy masters from the Pill Peak!”
As his voice spread out, several muffled thunderclaps exploded in the sky. A multicolored mist descended from the sky like a streak of colorful stream that crossed over from a river in the nine heavens. Immediately after, 10 enormous furnaces pushed aside the colorful mists and made waves of piercing sounds that whistled through the air as they appeared.
When they landed, 10 elders from the Pill Peak with powerful auras stood side by side.
They shouted at the same time, “Open the furnaces!” As they spoke, they raised their right hands and pushed up. The furnaces’ lids instantly flew up.
A wave of air that could be seen with the naked eye reverberated in the air. Even the air above the furnaces began to distort.
Ou Yangming’s eyes revealed a strange expression as he stared at the furnaces. His eyes were filled with disbelief.
Ling Yue’s thoughts were clear. When he saw Ou Yangming’s expression, he smiled and explained, “Those are the Pill Peak’s Ten Ultimate Furnaces. They’re taken out once every decade and are used to refine pills during the Pill Fast. Even the fire that’ll be used to refine pills will come from the Flaming Volcano.”
Ou Yangming nodded as he stared at the furnaces with a burning gaze. He was still very interested in pill refinement.
Since the Seven Stars Sect held a Pill Feast every 10 years, their pill refinement methods must be brilliant. This gave Ou Yangming a chance to secretly learn without being known.
His aura condensed as he entered the states of the integration of Heaven and man, as well as the thoroughly meticulous.
At this moment, an old man in a beast robe on the platform moved. He made gestures with both hands, and his robe fluttered without the presence of wind. Afterward, he leaped up.
A sound was suddenly heard coming from his interspatial bag, and all kinds of verdant herbs flew out of nowhere. He pressed his finger in the air and shouted, “Enter!” With that, the dozens of herbs seemed to be attracted to him and entered one of the furnaces in a special order.
Ou Yangming rubbed his chin and thought, ‘The first step of making the herbs enter in a certain order tests one’s understanding of different herbs and how they cooperate with each other. This is what I lack the most.’ He analyzed his shortcomings and became integrated into this world. By acting as a third party, he watched the alchemy masters refine pills.
The people from the Pill Peak would have never thought that under the watchful eyes of everyone, their unique abilities would be stolen.
Furthermore, Ou Yangming was doing it so secretively that even Venerable Ones would find it difficult to discover. After all, his mental power was incredibly powerful, and he had the Phoenixes’ inheritance in his mental world. Once it was activated, the young fellow would naturally gain entirely different results from others.
He pondered for a moment and sighed. After the medicines were added, the essences of the spiritual herbs would be refined to their best. This was somewhat similar to equipment smithing. It required constant practice because practice made perfect.
Ling Yue and Guan Yue stood by his side and introduced things to him from time to time. Even they did not notice that the young fellow’s mind was already immersed in the pill furnace on the platform.
At last, the old man in a beast robe let out a breath of turbid air.
The light in his eyes suddenly condensed, and the spiritual power in his dantian surged into the furnace without limit.
He growled in a muffled voice, “Open!”
As he uttered , his hands quickly made gestures, causing countless complicated spells to be cast out. They intersected with each other and made the crowd dazzled.
Of course, this was the case for others. The process seemed fast to Ou Yangming too, but he possessed the spiritual world unique to the Phoenixes. Inside the world, he quickly analyzed the complete set of movements, and it did not take long for him to get the gist of it. If the people from the Seven Stars Sect’s Pill Peak were to find out, they would probably be so angry that they would vomit blood. This was a secret technique that was not passed down to non-core disciples, and yet it was learned by the young fellow. He really deserved to die.
Despite that, at the same time, it was also likely that they would be incomparably shocked. This was because in the thousands of years of history of the Pill Peak, even with their inheritance, this kind of secret technique would require at least a few months to be learned. Having said that, Ou Yangming had only used a little over 100 breaths. Not only did he understand the form, but he also learned its meaning. His speed was simply unheard of.
Not long after, a refreshing fragrance reverberated from the furnace.
Ling Yue’s eyes revealed a wild joy when he picked up this scent. He gently cupped his hands and bowed. “I will rely on you after the Pill Feast, Brother Yu”
This was because the furnace was used to refine Seven Dazzling Pills, which had the miraculous effect to improve the cultivation of cultivators below Advanced Spiritualists.
“Brother Ling, don’t worry, I’ll definitely do my best.” Ou Yangming nodded with a smile. When he first approached Ling Yue and Guan Yue, he indeed had other intentions. That said after this period of time together, he had regarded them as his friends, so he would help the young man for sure.
The old man in the beast robe made a grasping motion in the air, and a suction force erupted from his palm. 20 pearl-like round pills flew up into the air and were put into a porcelain bottle.
Wen Zhou shook his head, and his eyes were filled with emotion.
He glanced at Ling Yue then quickly looked away. No one knew what he was thinking.
Ou Yangming licked his lips and carefully shifted his spiritual power to the other furnace. At this time, a sudden change occurred. Ai Hongli’s eyes focused, and his forceful mental power came crushing over. He wondered, ‘Who is it? Who dares to provoke the mightiness of the Seven Stars Sect and secretly learn from us?’