Chapter 101: Virtuosic
Translator:Ash
Editor:Geoffrey_
The past Li Yao, having grown up in the magical equipnt graveyard since childhood, had the most extre character brought up in him due to the poor living environnt.
He was just like a vicious vulture whose first choice in an encounter was to use the most violent thods.
But now, after three months of traveling over the hills and through the river, beholding so many subli and vast sceneries, and eting many people with various stories, unbeknownst to him, Li Yao had beco broad-minded.
Furthermore, because of assimilating so many of Ou Yezi's mory fragnts, his temperant had gradually transford, and thus he beca more mature. Now, he was unlike any of the 18-19-year-old hot-headed teenagers; he was more like an adult who had been living away from ho for a few years and had gone through fire and water.
It didn't an that he had given up on his principles of life, but rather his fierce aura was no longer exposed.
In the past, Li Yao was like a vicious vulture, but today, Li Yao was like a soaring hawk.
The vulture was now “hibernating within his heart”.
While recalling the mories from the past three months bit by bit, Li Yao disassembled the wooden oxen and flowing horses as skillfully and as easily as if traveling along a familiar road. Nowadays, these unsophisticated, civilian magical equipnt were as simple as ordinary toys in his hands. With proficiency similar to a butcher dismbering an ox, the tal beast puppets turned into heaps of parts one by one. After cleaning, derusting, pruning, oiling, and undergoing all sorts of processing, they were once again reassembled.
"Moo! Moo!" The iron bull bellowed at the top of its voice.
"Baa! Baa! Baa!" The bronze goat automatically spun and weaved wool-like fibers while bleating cheerfully
"Woof woof! Woof woof! Woof woof woof woof!" The big tin dog, which had been missing its hind leg and instead had a wheel installed in its place by Li Yao, bolted around the kids while swaying its hollow, iron tail left and right as it made creaking noises.
"Wow..."
The villagers had never seen such marvelous maintenance skills. Compared to Li Yao, the old magical equipnt maintenance technician who had difficulty seeing clearly was simply as clumsy as a tailor who nded shoes. The entire village that had gathered in the grain drying field was completely shocked by Li Yao's quick and sharp skills. Each and every villager was grinning from ear to ear from shock and amazent.
The repaired wooden oxen and flowing horses cheerfully ran towards their owners, and naturally, the owners all had huge smiles hanging on their faces.
As for the other tal puppet beasts whose most crucial components were impossible to repair because of excessive wear and tear, their owners had a frown knitted on their forehead, and they all felt depressed.
Li Yao, after thinking for a mont, said, "Everyone, don't worry, I will think of so way. It’s just civilian magical equipnt anyway. The load bearing capacity and the precision requirents for its components are very low, it would be better to—"
Under his ticulous inspection of the wooden oxen that could not be repaired, he found those truly worn components which he could do nothing about. The rusting was so severe that the iron bull was reduced to a lump of iron.
Having disassembled it into its various parts, Li Yao explained it to the villagers, "This iron bull is truly worn out; I simply have no way to repair it. Will there be a problem if I dismantle it for spare parts?"
"It's alright, Young Master Li. The rust on this iron bull is already beyond imagination. When I tried selling it as scrap iron, no one was even willing to buy it. Feel free to do whatever you like. Whether you can repair it or not, either way, it’ll be alright. We are already satisfied with all the maintenance you have done!" The village chief laughed; he had made the final decision.
Li Yao slightly smiled as he placed one of the iron bull’s leg on the anvil and raised the iron hamr high into the air.
"Young Master Li, what do you want to do?"
"Do you want to forcibly hamr a lump of iron to create components which can be used directly?"
"Impossible, even immortals can not do such thing!"
One after another, the villagers broke into discussion as they beca extrely curious. Even those kids with runny noses were peeking through the gaps between the legs of the adults. Everyone was staring at Li Yao in surprise.
"Cluck! Cluck! Cluck! Cluck!"
The entire village was wrapped in silence; only the hens who were being raised on the other side of the grains drying field were completely oblivious to the situation as they were still cheerfully clucking.
Li Yao took a long, deep breath. In the depths of his brain, Ou Yezi's mory fragnts started rotating wildly. The mory fragnts pertaining to countless days and nights spent in Hundred Slting Clan's tal forging room turned into colorful splendor one after another as the corresponding muscle mory sward into each and every part of Li Yao’s body.
In an instant, it was as if Li Yao was possessed by a god; seemingly as if it was a high-grade flying sword, the crude and thick black iron hamr in his hand surprisingly let out a dragon roar, causing undulating, invisible ripples to appear in the air.
Several nearby villagers felt a gust of wind striking their face and blowing their hair away. A kid even let out a "Wow!".
Just as the villagers blinked their eyes, Li Yao started moving!
His right hand turned into a black shadow as it strangely made a circle in the air before ruthlessly pounding at the iron anvil!
"Dong!"
Dazzling sparks burst forth in between the iron hamr and the iron anvil along with a thunderous bang, which surprisingly lingered in the air for a while, like that of a toll from an old temple bell, making everyone's ears to start ringing.
Many villagers could not help but cover their ears.
"Dong!"
The echo from the first strike had yet to disperse, but the iron hamr had once again turned into a giant black python and landed upon the iron anvil from another tricky angle, thereupon bursting forth with another shockwave akin to a toll from an old temple bell.
Like frightful billows and terrifying waves, two shockwaves, one after the other and with layer upon layer, stord towards everyone.
This ti, even the strongest among villagers involuntarily covered their ears as every child started to break into cries.
"What's going on? It's not like we have never seen tal forging before, but why is it so loud?"
"Wow, check out Young Master Li's speed! An iron hamr weighing tens of kilogram is just like chopsticks in his hands!"
"Fast, extrely fast! I am simply unable to clearly see when he is striking the anvil. I only see boundless black shadows!"
While covering their ears and staring at Li Yao with wide-opened eyes, every one of them was shouting at the top of their lungs.
However, aside from what they themselves had said, no one else could hear or understand the others. Everyone was imrsed in an imnse shock.
As for Li Yao, he seed as if he didn't feel anything.
He was neither affected by the deafening, bombarding rings nor was he perturbed by the screams of the villagers.
Once he switched to his working mode, he seed to have entered an ethereal state where he forgot everything, even himself.
With a solemn look in his eyes, he kept staring at the iron anvil.
But, if one looked carefully, the depths of his eyes bore a faint mist, one that gave off the impression as if his spirit wasn't even here; instead, it was inside the tal forging room of Hundred Slting Clan from forty millenniums ago.
Dong! Dong! Dong! The collision of hamr and anvil continuously reverberated. Since the very beginning, Li Yao consciously controlled each and every movent of his body while displaying the
along the entire process.
However, as the forging progressed, his speed also beca faster and faster. The strikes of the iron hamr were no longer a conscious action; it beca as natural as breathing to him. Afterwards, his pair of arms completely transford into two black aurae, directly enveloping the entire iron anvil. Everyone could only hear a series of "Deng, deng, deng, deng" coming from inside the aura, but they were simply unable to clearly see any of his movents.
Suddenly, his every action ca to a halt.
The flattened iron hamr was thrown aside. To everyone's surprise, the hamrhead had actually turned crimson, as if it had just gone through high-temperature slting, and it was even emitting scorching heat.
"Give
another hamr!" Li Yao shouted as he stared with wide-opened eyes.
Because of the multiple fierce bombardnts in a short span of ti, the temperature of the iron hamr climbed to the peak, and thus it was no longer usable.
Witnessing such a marvelous performance, all the villagers cried out in surprise; they were all horrified.
The village blacksmith quickly handed him a new iron hamr. After weighing the hamr for a bit, another round of sounds of the ruthless pounding of a hamr echoed in the village!
In just a span of half an hour, Li Yao had replaced a total of five iron hamrs. Finally—"It's done!"
Throwing away the scorching hot iron hamr, Li Yao contentedly appreciated his own masterpiece. His hands were full of bloody blisters as they constantly shook.
The villagers sward over, and as they carefully looked with wide-opened eyes, they discovered multitudes of parts of different shapes lying on the iron anvil as well as a pile of parts on the ground!
A completely rusted iron bull had been forcefully hamred into the over a hundred magical equipnt components on the ground. The equipnt components, in and of itself, were the proof that showed how formidable the forging techniques of the Hundred Slting Clan were forty millenniums ago!
Holding a magical equipnt used to asure accuracy, the village blacksmith walked over. A red beam from the magical equipnt shot out, carrying out a full range scan of each and every component.
"He really made it! Although the accuracy is a bit worse than the original, for a civilian magical equipnt, it is completely acceptable!"
The gray-haired, old blacksmith, after reading the data on the asuring equipnt, jumped out in surprise and happiness.
In a mont, the swarm of villagers broke out into cries of exclamation just like the waves of a tsunami.
"Young Master Li is absolutely amazing! Just using an iron hamr, he made hundreds of parts!?"
"Of course, Young Master Li is a university student!"
“So what if he's a university student? Our family's third child is also a university student as well, but look at what he is doing now!”
"How can that be the sa? Young Master Li is a student of a prominent university!"
While the villagers were imrsed in cheering and jumping in joy, the village chief, with a big grin on his face, invited Li Yao into his own small house.
"Young Master Li, this ti, I really have to thank you. You have greatly helped my village!"
"Village Chief, I simply repaired since I could. Now that university is about to start, tomorrow, I will leave to report to the Grand Desolate War Institution," Li Yao said with a smile.
"Alright. Attending university is important. On behalf of the entire village, I wish you a pleasant and safe journey. Right, I have sothing for you. If it's not too heavy, bring it along with you!"
From under the bed, the village chief, with difficulty, dragged out sothing that was wrapped in a rag. It was apparent that it was very heavy; just from the friction with the cent, it already made a squeaking noise.
The village chief cautiously unwrapped the cloth. Lying inside was an oddly-shaped lump of tal where the bottom part was thin, while the top part was thick and even had two protruding ends—it resembled a hamr that had been crafted by nature itself.
"Huh?" Li Yao's eyes began to shine.
In the mory fragnts of Ou Yezi, the very first exercise he ca in contact with was .
And in the Hundred Slting Clan's forging room, day and night, it was also the hamr which he had been in contact with.
The hamr could be said to be the tool which he was the most familiar with.
And it appeared that this bizarre-shaped, naturally ford hamr was neither tal nor any kind of ore. It looked quite ordinary, but it possessed a kind of bizarre, devil energy, one which made anyone who looked at it be reluctant to extricate their line of sight.
The village chief breathed a sigh of relief. While raising a spiritual energy lamp to illuminate the lump of tal, he laughed and said, "Look!"
Narrowing his eyes, a faint blue color appeared in his sight.
Just a mont ago, this lump of tal was completely black and gave off an appearance that was too ugly to look at. But once it ca in contact with the light, a trace of a magnificent blue sheen appeared on its black surface. Within the depths of this blue sheen, it seed to be sparkling with a brilliance akin to stars, giving it a look as if it were a huge blue gemstone; it was extrely beautiful and captivating.
"Dark Star Rock?" With one glance, Li Yao recognized the material.
This material called Dark Star Rock was neither tal nor ore since it possessed both the characteristics of tal and rock. It was not sothing which was naturally ford in the Heaven Origin Sector, but instead, it was a kind of teorite from outer space. Although it was not scarce in quantity, generally speaking, its was limited to the size of the fist of a newborn child.
Such a big piece lumped together to take the form of a natural war hamr was rather rare.
The Dark Star Rock's value was not too high; although it was very hard, its spiritual energy conductivity was extrely bad, and it was very difficult to use it to refine a variety of magical equipnt. Thus, it was almost equivalent to a scrap of tal.
Unless it was used to refine a very particular magical equipnt with a specialized property, for general purposes, it would never be used.
However, the market price for such a big piece of Dark Star Rock was easily a few hundred thousand bucks.
A flash rushed past Li Yao's eyes as his breathing beca a little rapid. He said in excitent, "Village Chief, what do you an?"
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