Chapter 607 - Distracted
Chapter 607: Distracted
Ou Yangming was a genius—an unparalleled God-favored one in smithing art.
At such a young age, he could layer pieces of Half-Silver Equipment. Moreover, after watching the smithing technique of Good Grade magic tools once, he could figure out a draft formula according to the proportion of minerals. As far as Bai Zhiyi knew, the young fellow was the only one capable of doing those.
He regarded Ou Yangming with special respect because he witnessed the young fellow’s talent.
Even so, no matter how much Bai Zhiyi valued Ou Yangming, he did not think that the young fellow could smith the equipment on the parchment.
Poisonous Saber Gentleman made a strict request; the poisonous saber had to be a Good Grade magic tool, and it must be attacked with at least 2 offensive poison-series Skill Runes. He did not ask that they must be Intermediate Skill Runes, but it was clear that at least one of the skills had to be an intermediate one.
It was difficult to carve a Skill Rune on a piece of equipment, but many blacksmiths could do it.
However, if 2 skills were to be engraved, even if they were from the same series, the difficulty would increase by a few times. In comparison, it would be much simpler to change the request for the skills into a request for a piece of White Silver Equipment.
Not to mention a young blacksmith like Ou Yangming, even Bai Zhiyi dared not make any promises.
Bai Zhiyi sighed and responded, “Lil’ Ou, I know you’re young and fearless, so you want to give it a go, but you saw Poisonous Saber Gentleman’s request. If anything goes wrong, my reputation will be ruined by you.”
Ou Yangming flushed and replied to the elder, “I was being unmindful. Please forgive me, Elder Bai.”
Indeed, the one that agreed to smith the equipment was not him, but Bai Zhiyi. If he smithed and succeeded, the elder would feel uneasy about taking the credit; if he failed, the elder would have to take the blame too.
Bai Zhiyi waved his hand and said, “It’s fine; it’s great for young people to be ambitious. Hehe, I lack that drive.”
He looked at the materials on the floor and furrowed his eyebrows.
There were fine minerals that could be used to smith Good Grade magic tools, but 2 of them were different from what Ou Yangming normally used. It was not strange; Poisonous Saber Gentleman requested a poisonous saber, hence the 2 materials were definitely suitable for attaching poison-series spells.
Nonetheless, the most eye-catching items were 3 poisonous pills. They did not know where the pills came from but since Poisonous Saber Gentleman brought them here, they were evidently unordinary.
To Bai Zhiyi, 3 sets of materials were enough to let him smith a Good Grade magic tool according to his wish.
Despite that, the difficult part was to attach 2 skills to the equipment. On top of that, the fact that they had to be poison-series spells exceeded the elder’s capability.
Ou Yangming hesitated for a while before he uttered, “Elder Bai, I actually know a poison-series spell, and it’s also an Intermediate Spell.”
Bai Zhiyi, who was deep in his thoughts, looked up abruptly and asked in shock, “What? Are you being serious?”
“I won’t dare to lie to you, Elder Bai.” Ou Yangming nodded.
The elder looked deeply at Ou Yangming and finally sighed. “I understand now; no wonder you wanted to give this a go.” He was undecided at first, but he finally said, “I’d like to discuss something with you.”
Ou Yangming knew what the elder wanted, but he responded with a smile, “Senior, please go ahead.”
Bai Zhiyi laughed and asked, “I’d like to exchange a Skill Rune with you, are you…”
“I’ll accept it,” Ou Yangming answered without any hesitation.
The elder was dumbfounded, then he uttered with a smile, “Good fella, thank you.”
Given the situation, Ou Yangming could have made extra requests, but he agreed with the exchange right away. Therefore, Bai Zhiyi was grateful.
Ou Yangming shook his head and expressed, “Elder Bai, you guided me before this, so don’t worry about it.”
Bai Zhiyi pointed at him and laughed cheerfully, “Alright, what Skill Rune would you like to learn?”
“Am I allowed to choose?” Ou Yangming asked after some thought.
The elder smiled bitterly. “There are numerous Skill Runes in the world, but I’m not a know-it-all, so I don’t know all of them. I’m adept in wind-series and water-series Rune Skills. It’s okay if you’re not talented in them; once you return to the sect with me, I’ll make arrangements for you to learn an Intermediate Rune Skill from the library.”
Ou Yangming nodded. Bai Zhiyi’s arrangement was beneficial for him, but he still asked, “Elder Bai, the specific Rune Skills that you’re adept in are…”
Bai Zhiyi answered in a deep voice, “The Intermediate Runes that I’m skilled at are the Waterfall Attack and the Water Arrows Chain from the water series, as well as the Great Windstorm from the wind series.”
The young fellow waited quietly for a brief moment but did not hear anything else, so he could not help but ask, “And?”
Bai Zhiyi glared at him and rejoined, “Being adept in 3 Intermediate Skill Runes is quite a lot. The other runes I know are rudimentary ones, so they can’t be used to exchange for your poison-series spell.”
“Ah? 3?” Ou Yangming had a weird look on his face.
“Why do you have that look on your face?” Bai Zhiyi frowned.
Ou Yangming curbed his thought and forced a smile. “Nothing—I recalled something, so I lost myself.”
The 10,000 Beasts Venerable One had told him that the ability to fathom Skill Runes from spirit beasts’ innate abilities was not a trivial matter. He did not attach much importance to it at first, but he now knew that the ability was truly significant.
Bai Zhiyi was not a simple person. Not only was he an elder from the Beast King Sect, but he was also an elder from Danzhou’s Smithing Alliance. In a way, he had a certain status among the blacksmiths in Danzhou.
In spite of his status, he could only grasp 3 Intermediate Skill Runes.
It was certainly not a special case, thus Ou Yangming figured that every blacksmith could only learn limited Intermediate Skill Runes. Needless to say, those of Bai Zhiyi’s rank had surely grasped numerous Rudimentary Runes, which might be able to satisfy Rudimentary and Intermediate Spiritualists, but they would be not worth mentioning to Advanced Spiritualists.
Ou Yangming raised another question as he recalled something, “Elder Bai, can you learn intermediate poison-series Skill Runes in a short period?”
Bai Zhiyi smiled bitterly, “I dare not guarantee it, but I’ve learned a rudimentary one before and have some talent in poison-series runes, so I might succeed if I try.”
Nevertheless, it was clear from his tone that there was not much hope in that.
Ou Yangming immediately shut up and thought.
‘If he finds out how I learn Skill Runes, I’ll probably get burned.’
Bai Zhiyi turned around and asked, “Which one of the 3 Intermediate Skill Rune would you like to learn?”
Ou Yangming was slightly stunned, and he shook his head. “Elder Bai, frankly speaking, I’ve grasped those 3 Skill Runes already.”
“Oh, what?” Bai Zhiyi was in disbelief. “You’ve grasped them already?”
“Yes.” Ou Yangming nodded.
“That’s impossible,” Bai Zhiyi commented without any hesitation, “You’re so young, so how’s it possible…” His voice suddenly lowered because he recalled the time he met Ou Yangming during the Trading Meet.
The young fellow smithed a piece of equipment that was a half step to White Silver by using ordinary Power Ors.
Bai Zhiyi was as shocked as he was at that time.
According to Ou Yangming’s age, he could not have done it, but he did.
Since the young fellow created a miracle once, could he do it twice?
Bai Zhiyi fell silent for some time then asked, “Lil’ Ou, can you show me those 3 Skill Runes?”
Ou Yangming chuckled and answered, “Of course.”
He did not want to expose the way he learned them, but it would not be a problem for him to show his abilities.
Displaying runes and carving runes were entirely different things; it would be extremely easy for him to do the former. With that, he straightened his body and quickly made strokes in the air with his hands.
When his hands began to move, wonderful energies surged in the air and underwent marvelous changes according to his gestures.
Ou Yangming’s eyes lit up all of a sudden. It was at this instant he experienced a queer feeling.
Back when the Six-armed Giant Beast and Ghost Mo fought, they easily triggered changes in the universe’s spiritual power. As their fight progressed, it even felt like they were controlling the space.
Before this, Ou Yangming had released Rune Spells many times but this time, he accidentally stumbled upon the feeling of controlling the universe with spells.
His hands were still making strokes, but his aura changed drastically. As such, the universe’s energies that were flowing along with his hands were unexpectedly forceful.
Bai Zhiyi had unknowingly stood straight and was watching Ou Yangming with his eyes and mouth wide open as he was in disbelief.
The elder was knowledgeable, but this was the exact reason he understood what this meant.
‘If this young fella can really achieve that, he can’t be described as a mere genius. What should he be called? A freak…’
Just as Bai Zhiyi was feeling ill-at-ease, a soft “pow” was heard. The surging energies in front of Ou Yangming burst and dispersed, so the Skill Rune naturally disappeared too.
Ou Yangming looked regretful. He smiled apologetically at Bai Zhiyi and said, “Elder Bai, I was distracted just now. How about I do it again?”