Chapter 44
Chapter 44: Smithing Arm Guards
Fine Grade.
The small necklace was actually a piece of Fine Grade equipment.
Ou Yangming widened his eyes in disbelief.
There was no reaction when his Military Fire first touched the necklace, which meant that the necklace was just an ordinary accessory, not a piece of equipment. However, as the fire burned and the Qi Return attribute was added, the necklace actually became a piece of Fine Grade equipment.
The Qi Return attribute, which was the only attribute in the necklace, made it into a piece of Fine Grade Attribute Equipment, which surpassed High Grade.
Ou Yangming could not understand the sudden twist.
Similar to how Shopkeeper Lin and Zheng Ziwen could not understand how Ou Yangming could identify equipment rankings so easily, he also had no idea how an Attribute Necklace had such a high rating.
After hesitating for a while, Ou Yangming put the necklace on.
Though it was a women’s necklace, nobody would notice if he wore it inside his shirt.
Once he released a little essential Qi into the necklace, there was a mysterious resonance between him and it, which was an effect caused by the stimulation of the Unique Attribute.
Subsequently, Ou Yangming sensed a peculiar power spread inside his body. The power was extremely strange as it did not give him extra power and speed, and did not cause any change to his body.
At the next instant, his face suddenly changed.
It was because he realized the essential Qi that was consumed earlier was slowly being recovered.
Ou Yangming’s essential Qi would always be used first when he used the Military Fire; he cultivated martial arts. After all, essential Qi was more durable than physical power as it could last longer. Moreover, essential Qi recovered much faster than physical power.
Nonetheless, there was a limit to its recovery speed because it was still an extremely slow recovery that could not be felt at all.
It was at this moment when he clearly felt his essential Qi being recovered quickly. Although the recovery was not completed in a flash, the current speed and the speed before were Heaven and Earth apart.
Ou Yangming’s eyes glowed right away as he finally understood the wonderful function of the Qi Return attribute. It turned out to be an amazing ability that allowed one to recover essential Qi quickly.
No wonder the attribute alone was able to make a worthless necklace reach a Fine Grade rank.
The Qi Return ability was too powerful. It would be extremely useful during a fight against someone else, or when he smithed using the Military Fire. Besides, the longer the time consumed during the process, the more the Qi Return’s function was amplified.
Ou Yangming took a deep breath and smiled brightly.
He did not expect an attribute that he encountered by chance to be so useful.
Following that, he quickly left his courtyard to head to the abandoned depot.
The depot still had piles of discarded equipment. Ou Yangming entered the depot excitedly, then casually picked up pieces of equipment to draw their attributes. It was only half an hour later when he finally calmed down.
Nevertheless, he smiled bitterly.
It was not easy to come across Unique Attributes. Ou Yangming had already filled up the purple light slots in his mind, but apart from Sharpness and Toughness, he did not chance on any Unique Attribute.
This made him realize that it was definitely accidental luck when he previously drew a Unique Attribute at the depot.
Luck could be discovered but not sought. When he looked forward to searching for it, he could not find it anymore.
All of a sudden, Ou Yangming who was feeling regretful was shocked.
He trembled when he sensed the number of purple lights in his mind because there were more than what he imagined.
Ou Yangming did not notice it as he was focused on finding a Unique Attribute earlier, but when he came back to his senses, he realized that he already had more than a hundred and seventy purple lights in his mind.
After advancing to Force Grade Class Three in martial arts, he was able to store ten more purple lights due to the improvement of his essential Qi. Despite that, it only amounted to seventy slots, which was a huge difference from the present hundred and seventy slots.
Ou Yangming vaguely guessed the reason behind it.
Mental power.
This was probably the change that occurred after he incited his mental power.
Even though he could not fully grasp his mental power’s application yet, the complementary benefit that came with it was already revealed.
A bit of mental power was able to increase the purple light storage by a hundred, and in terms of efficiency only, mental power was much better than essential Qi.
After a long time, Ou Yangming finally composed himself and went to his smithing workshop with numerous attributes in his mind.
Yan Chengcai and his men would be joining a night battle tomorrow night, and Ou Yangming was determined to keep his promise since he agreed to help them. Furthermore, the battle’s purpose was also to fight for Old Craftsman’s reputation, thus he was not going to take it half-heartedly.
Based on Ou Yangming’s current place in Kang Weibo’s heart, his smithing workshop was naturally equipped with normal materials.
He even had precious ores, let alone steel, and featured iron ingots. In fact, he had as many iron ingots as he wanted.
Ou Yangming picked a featured iron ingot, then began smithing a piece of equipment with his Military Fire.
By controlling with his conception, the iron ingot took the shape of an arm guard very quickly. Ou Yangming was already very familiar with forging normal equipment, such that the mass appraisal that he did earlier was a rare experience for him. He had the chance to see the merits and drawbacks of different equipment, which helped him comprehend the smithing process even better.
Having experiences as references and making summaries were mandatory for anyone in any industry to improve skills. Needless to say, Ou Yangming was very keen as well.
Soon enough, an arm guard was formed. Afterward, purple lights in his mind began flickering as they moved into the guard slowly to turn it into a product at the peak of Good Grade.
Ou Yangming smiled proudly because only very few could smith an arm guard at the peak of Good Grade so easily.
Other blacksmiths could smith Good Grade arm guards simply by using the Military Fire, but it was impossible for them to make all of them be at the peak.
Only by using the Military Fire could one achieve something as unbelievable as this.
Ou Yangming nodded happily, then continued smithing the same equipment.
He soon realized two things. One was when he used the Military Fire, not only his essential Qi was being consumed, but the mental power light between his eyebrows was also releasing some power.
This meant that the fuel for Ou Yangming’s Military Fire was no longer physical power, but a mixture of essential Qi and mental power.
Before this, Ou Yangming heard from Old Craftsman that he was able to use Military Fire for a long time before he cultivated martial arts, and was likely consuming mental power. That being said, mental power was invisible, thus Ou Yangming did not know how it was being consumed.
He finally felt it this time.
The mental power was not under his control, but it was truly beneficial for him.
As for the second thing, it was the necklace on his neck.
The necklace was worthy of being a piece of Fine Grade equipment; the power it was capable of recovering was not just limited to essential Qi because mental power was also within its scope.
Whether it was essential Qi or mental power, they would definitely be consumed once they were used. As long as one Ou Yangming did not overuse them, adequate consumptions would actually help him improve, and would also increase their capacity.
Additionally, they would also recover slowly. Of course, the recovery speed and consumption rate were not proportionate, thus it was possible for Ou Yangming to be depleted of essential Qi and mental power.
Nonetheless, the consumption process was slowed down by a lot when he wore the Qi Return necklace.
The effect became more obvious when Ou Yangming began smithing the tenth arm guard. Back then, he would already be exhausted from smithing for a long time, and would also be lethargic due to the power consumption.
His condition at the moment was very different from before because his essential Qi and mental power were being recovered quickly although they could not catch up to their consumption rate.
Ou Yangming initially planned to smith ten arm guards at that moment and ten more the next day to gather ten pairs for Yan Chengcai and the others.
However, he suddenly realized after smithing ten arm guards that he still had energy and was still extremely thrilled.
Without any hesitation, Ou Yangming continued smithing for the whole night. By the time he stopped, he noticed that he had finished all ten pairs of arm guards, and their quality was much better than expected.
Eight of them were White Slate Arm Guards at the peak of Good Grade Rank Five, and one of them was a High Grade Rank One arm guard which Ou Yangming specially prepared for Yan Chengcai. The last guard was a piece of Attribute Equipment at the peak of Good Grade, which had a Precision +1 attribute.
Ou Yangming swore that he did not attach any Unique Attribute to that arm guard. The Accuracy +1 attribute appeared out of nowhere just like when the Vision +1 attribute appeared on the High Grade helmet during the smithing process.
The Military Fire contained a mysterious power. It would occasionally attach some energy absorbed from the void to a piece of equipment, which would form a Unique Attribute. Although it was extremely rare, the situation was not impossible.
Needless to say, the situation was a good thing for Ou Yangming.
After looking at the arm guards contentedly, he returned to his residence to rest.
The next morning, Ou Yangming went to his smithing workshop again to continue smithing until Yan Chengcai visited him nervously in the afternoon.