Bai Zhiyi nodded blankly. “Okay.”
At this point, whether or not he could smith the treasure saber requested by Poisonous Saber Gentleman was secondary; he was the most curious about how far Ou Yangming could go.
Ou Yangming curbed his thought and reached out his hands again. He was highly-spirited and overjoyed.
Although he failed to show the Rune Skill earlier, the sudden comprehension allowed him to gain an idea of controlling space with spells. Needless to say, the young fellow was still far from being able to do that, but he could exert influence on a space already—even if the influenced range was extremely small and insignificant.
Nonetheless, as long as there was a beginning—a starting point,—he could slowly expand the range such that he could finally achieve what the Six-armed Giant Beast and Ghost Mo did.
Ou Yangming stroked his arms, causing a peculiar energy fluctuation to appear in the space in front of him. Once the fluctuation reached an extremity, a stream of water gathered in the void.
The Waterfall Attack.
It was a scaled-down version of the Intermediate Spell, hence it did not contain much power. Even so, Bai Zhiyi’s eyes lit up upon seeing it.
This was because he sensed an incredibly familiar aura from the small waterfall.
Yes, it was the aura caused by the Waterfall Attack, which he was adept in. The only thing was that the aura was far from that of the real skill and could almost not be compared.
Nevertheless, the smaller the aura, the more surprised Bai Zhiyi was. He had concluded that Ou Yangming had indeed grasped the Waterfall Attack and instead of having a superficial knowledge of it, he could use it for actual combat. If not, the young fellow could not have controlled the spell’s mightiness to be faintly discernible.
Bai Zhiyi thought, ‘This young fella is truly unbelievable—it’s unbelievable that he’s able to have such control over an Intermediate Rune at a young age.’
Having said that, he did not know that this was only the beginning.
After releasing the Waterfall Attack, Ou Yangming did not stop. He continued to make strokes with his fingers, and he was so fast that he released the second and third Rune Skill in succession after just a few breaths.
The 3 skills were indeed the 3 Intermediate Rune Skills that Bai Zhiyi was skilled at. Once the young fellow successfully released all of them, a brilliant look was seen on the elder’s face.
Bai Zhiyi had worked hard for decades but only learned 3 Intermediate Rune Skills. It was not an impressive result, but it was enough for him to have his place among the blacksmiths in Danzhou.
It was worth noting that those were Intermediate Runes, and it was relatively difficult to even grasp one of them.
The elder sighed after a long time and asked, “Ah, you’re a caster, aren’t you?”
“That’s right.” Ou Yangming nodded.
Bai Zhiyi smiled bitterly. “No wonder; only casters can master plenty of Rune Spells at your age, but…” The elder lamented, “There aren’t many casters that are also gifted in smithing art, but those that become blacksmiths will be successful in the future.”
Ou Yangming lowered his head and wondered, ‘How should I respond to that? I might as well keep quiet.’
Bai Zhiyi sighed for some time and said, “Lil’ Ou, pass the intermediate poison-series spell to me first. Once we return to my sect, I’ll recommend you to enter the library, and I guarantee that you won’t suffer any loss.”
“Elder Bai, you’re being too polite,” Ou Yangming immediately replied to the elder.
He recalled what he learned, then he picked one of the 3 intermediate poison-series runes that he learned from Ghost Mo’s inner core.
Even though the 3 poison-series runes were intermediate ones, they had dissimilar difficulty levels. There was a huge gap between the hardest and the easiest one, by which Ou Yangming felt the disparity when he learned them; the time he spent learning them was several times apart.
Given that the difficulty levels were so different for equal-ranked spells, it proved the inequality between their mightiness.
Ou Yangming chose the least powerful Rune Skill.
The Poisonous Gas Diffusion.
It was a simple magic art, which was used to release one’s poisonous gas.
That said, it would not deserve being an Intermediate Skill if that was its only effect.
The biggest feature of the magic art was it would not draw any attention when one released poisonous gas. In other words, the poisonous gas would be released without the knowledge of ordinary people, and they would not realize it even after they were poisoned.
While the spell was not an exceptionally offensive one, it was vicious and suitable for sneaking an attack.
When Bai Zhiyi knew the details of the spell, he could not help but have a strange look on his face.
He fell silent for some time and noted, “Lli’ Ou, let me ask Poisonous Saber Gentleman first. If he’s not satisfied with this spell, let’s think of something else.”
Ou Yangming responded after some thought, “Of course.”
He was also aware that though the spell was unimaginably mighty, not everyone would be fond of it.
If Poisonous Saber Gentleman was not satisfied with the spell, he could still pick from the 2 other poison-series spells. However, those 2 spells were much more potent, thus he would not be willing to reveal them unless he would be well-rewarded.
With that, Bai Zhiyi sent a message, and Xia Zizhen delivered Poisonous Saber Gentleman’s answer in no time. The middle-aged man was willing to accept the Intermediate Spell.
Ou Yangming curled his lips and disdained the word “gentleman” in Poisonous Saber Gentleman’s name. Even if a gentleman was willing to accept the spell, he was only a gentleman to a very limited extent.
Since Poisonous Saber Gentleman approved of the spell, Bai Zhiyi began to smith.
Ou Yangming retrieved an ore and smithed a military saber using his Military Fire. The saber was far from the model requested by Poisonous Saber Gentleman, but it would be more than enough to be used as an ordinary carrier.
As his Military Fire burned, subtle rune paths appeared on the weapon.
The young fellow did not conceal his fire, but Bai Zhiyi still frowned.
He could vaguely sense the rune paths being carved, but it was not easy for a non-caster blacksmith to learn a Rune Skill. Without putting in a lot of hard work, it was unimaginable.
In actuality, it was true that Bai Zhiyi agreed to take up the task, but he and Poisonous Saber Gentleman both knew that the equipment with strict conditions could not be smithed easily.
Normally, plenty of time would be needed to design, research, and develop the equipment. Following that, one would start smithing from ordinary materials and would only smith for real after one was confident about completing the task.
The whole process would take several months to several years.
This was the biggest reason Bai Zhiyi agreed to take up the job. If not, he would rather be killed than being demanded to learn an Intermediate Rune on the spot and apply it successfully.
When Bai Zhiyi sensed the rune paths left by Ou Yangming’s Military Fire on the equipment, he had a tingling sensation on his scalp.
At last, Ou Yangming shook his wrist and curbed his Military Fire.
He handed the military saber to Bai Zhiyi and said, “Elder Bai, take a look at it.”
Bai Zhiyi accepted the military saber and sensed the rune again. He sighed after a long time and expressed, “Ah, it’s too difficult for me to learn this Rune Skill.”
Ou Yangming was dumbfounded. “Elder Bai, why are you humbling yourself?”
“I’m not humbling myself; I know my limitations.” Bai Zhiyi waved his hand and continued after a pause, “When blacksmiths come across Rune Skills, we always have a subtle yet wonderful sensing ability. To date, I’ve sensed all of the Rune Skills I learned, but I felt nothing when you carved the Poisonous Gas Diffusion Rune.”
Seeing how disappointed he was, Ou Yangming did not know how he could persuade him.
The young fellow knew that normal blacksmiths could only perceive limited Rune Skills. Without a unique sense toward a certain series of runes, one would unlikely learn them.
Despite that, Bai Zhiyi had previously learned a Rudimentary Rune Skill from the poison series, so Ou Yangming and Xia Zizhen thought that he could easily learn an intermediate one.
Who knew, the path was cut off before the elder began to learn it.
Bai Zhiyi pondered for a brief moment and scanned Ou Yangming, then he uttered, “Lil’ Ou, you said that you’re interested to give this a go.”
Ou Yangming’s eyes lit up. He nodded and responded, “Yes. Elder Bai, are you allowing me to do it now?”
The elder sighed. “Since I can’t do it, I must find a helper. Hehe, since you’ve learned intermediate poison-series runes, why can’t you try?”
Ou Yangming’s eyes gleamed due to excitement. It was his first time smithing a piece of Dual Skill Equipment.
Nonetheless, he did not know that Bai Zhiyi initially decided not to let him cause any trouble. The elder only changed his mind after he witnessed the young fellow perform the Rune Skills and accidentally release energies that influenced space.
Given that Ou Yangming was a young caster, the elder figured that it would be fine to give him an opportunity.
Bai Zhiyi stroked his long beard and asked, “Lil’ Ou, have you smithed anything similar before this?”
Ou Yangming answered after some thought, “I can smith a Good Grade magic tool with a Skill Rune, and I can even add a White Silver Attribute to it.” He sounded confident.
The elder’s eyes flickered, then he questioned, “Oh, so can you smith a piece of Dual Skill Equipment too?”
Ou Yangming was taken aback. “Elder Bai, I’ve never smithed one before. Please guide me.”
He understood that pieces of Dual Skill Equipment were more difficult to be smithed than pieces of Single Skill Equipment but judging from Bai Zhiyi’s tone, it seemed to be more complicated than that.
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