Immortal Path to Heaven

Master Kurong smiled and looked at the crowd. He looked confident.

The spectating Venerable Ones and the blacksmiths from various sects thought, ‘He’s worthy of being the greatest smithing master in Danzhou indeed; he could still differentiate the suits’ pros and cons even when it’s so difficult. I wonder which one of those suits appealed more to him.’

As Master Kurong opened his mouth slowly, everyone focused because they were afraid of missing any word that he would say.

“These 2 suits are extremely valuable,” Master Kurong uttered word by word, “I can’t draw a distinction between them now as I can’t tell which is rarer and more precious.”

Everyone was stunned. Even Ai Hongli had a rather strange look on his face.

‘Since you can’t pick out the better one, why did you act like you perceived even their finest details! You deceived us…’

Nonetheless, owing to Master Kurong’s status and identity, nobody dared to show their dissatisfaction no matter what.

Ai Hongli took a deep breath and asked, “Master Kurong, are you saying that you can’t distinguish their merits and drawbacks?”

Master Kurong nodded. Everyone else looked at each other and felt strange about this.

During the Big Smithing Competitions between the 2 prefectures in the past, there were also situations where it was hard to tell which candidate was better as they were all top-notch blacksmiths. Even so, the outcome could always be determined in the end through all sorts of tests.

Although there were sometimes disputes after the results were determined, none of the competitions ended with a draw.

The people had odd looks in their eyes when they looked at Ou Yangming and Qu Zhengde, who were not saying a word at the moment. Would an unprecedented draw happen today?

Ai Hongli and the 2 other Venerable Ones felt rather regretful, but they could accept the result of a draw in Danzhou. On the contrary, the Venerable Ones from Danzhou kept quiet, but they had quite unnatural looks in their eyes.

Just as they were worrying about their gains and losses, Master Kurong looked up and expressed, “I actually have an idea to set them apart.”

Everyone’s eyes sparkled, but they cast complicated looks at him.

‘Old man, why are you being so secretive? Couldn’t you have said everything in one go? Is it fun to always leave people hanging?’

Lingfeng the Venerable One stepped forward and somewhat urged the master. “What is it?”

Among the 3 Venerable Ones from Mount Wuzhi, he had always been in charge of communicating with the people outside, hence he was far better at observing people as compared to his 2 other partners.

The Venerable One had long sensed the weird and hostile looks from the surroundings, so he knew Master Kurong had probably infuriated the crowd by dilly-dallying. Even though nobody dared to refute the master nor vent their anger, nobody knew what they would do once they were far from him.

Therefore, seeing as there was hope to distinguish the suits, Lingfeng the Venerable One immediately questioned further.

Master Kurong grinned and answered, whether it’s their smithing techniques or equivalent ranks, these 2 suits are close to perfect. Even if I were to smith a suit, it won’t be much better than them.” He paused for a moment before he continued, ” Under normal circumstances, it’s nearly impossible to forcibly compare them. After all, everyone has different likes, and different people will have countless opinions and statements. Since it’s hard to obtain unanimity from everyone, it’s impossible to convince everyone.”

The people nodded one after another. In particular, many of the blacksmiths had such personal experiences.

There was no such thing as the best equipment as there could only be the most suitable equipment.

Properties that were valuable enough to be obtained at any cost to some might be worthless to others, where they might be considered hardly useful and yet a pity to be discarded.

A flawless piece of equipment that could satisfy everyone simply did not exist.

Similarly, not to mention that some people could have selfish motives, even if they were just and fair, it would be impossible to identify the suits’ strengths and weaknesses.

Master Kurong looked around him and continued, “But these 2 suits comprised pieces of Skill Equipment, so I came up with a rather fair solution.”

Ai Hongli’s eyes lit up, and he exclaimed, “A skill competition?”

“That’s right.” Master Kurong stroked his beard and explained, “We’ll appoint 2 top-grade Spiritualists to control a suit each, where they’ll use their spiritual powers to maneuver the skills in a battle. Hehe, the person that perseveres until the very end will be the victor.”

Ai Hongli and the others looked at each other and nodded. Given that everyone was helpless, this suggestion was undoubtedly the most reasonable.

The eyes of Ou Yangming and Qu Zhengde gleamed as well. They were incredibly confident about the suits that they smithed, thus after hearing what Master Kurong said, they were eager instead of feeling afraid.

Master Kurong looked around then ordered, “Fang Kaiyou, come here.”

Fang Kaiyou, who was among the crowd, was dumbfounded, but he instantly walked out. “Martial Granduncle.”

Master Kurong noted, “You’ll represent Danzhou and wear Master Ou’s suit later to release its skills.”

“Yes.” Fang Kaiyou responded seriously.

Regardless if he was willing or not, since Master Kurong assigned him to this task, he could not decline it.

The master then turned around and said, “The skills of the suit that was smithed by Master Ou are ice-mastery skills, but Fang Kaiyou doesn’t cultivate ice-mastery abilities, so you’ll be able to sense their true powers if he releases them.”

Ai Hongli and the other powerhouses from Zhangzhou were in admiration. It was only going to be a skill competition, but the master was very particular about who he was going to appoint as Danzhou’s representative.

Since Mount Wuzhi was huge and had a profound foundation, it would be a piece of cake to find a powerhouse that was adept in ice-mastery techniques to control the suit.

If Master Kurong were to make such a choice, the right candidate and the suitable pieces of equipment would complement each other, causing the suit’s mightiness to double.

Nevertheless, if that was the case, it would be unfair for the guests from Zhangzhou.

Given Master Kurong’s choice, he was considered a poised gentleman.

“Yi Haobo, you’ll be using Zhengde’s suit,” Ai Hongli instructed after some thought. He later added with a grave look on his face, “The skills from Zhengde’s suit are related to the Illusion Art, but Haobo has never learned the art before.”

At this point, the top-grade Venerable Ones from Danzhou and Zhangzhou chose the fairest fight.

After looking at each other, Fang Kaiyou and Yi Haobo went forward one after another. They exchanged formalities, then they arrived in front of the pieces of equipment and conveniently put them on.

The only thing was that the pieces of equipment that were smithed by Ou Yangming were clearly leaning toward a female style. Though Fang Kaiyou could put them on, he could not help but look embarrassed when he saw the special armor on him.

Despite that, since he had already come to this step, even if he was unwilling to do it, he could only bite the bullet until the end of the battle.

“Fellows, please come and join me here.” Master Kurong smiled with his eyes squinted. “Feel the powers of the suits so that you’ll be able to make a fair judgment too.”

Ai Hongli and the others were struck dumb, then they nodded and paced toward Master Kurong.

They might not be resigned to the outcome if the master were to assess on his own, but now that they were going to experience it themselves, they would naturally be able to weigh the suits against each other.

Master Kurong nodded and instructed, “Now, the rest of you leave to the hillside. Nobody’s allowed to come up here without permission.”

The other people were stupefied at first, but they eventually left one after another.

They were not happy with the instruction, but to disobey Master Kurong’s order in Mount Wuzhi… It required a lot of courage. Besides, anyone with such courage would probably not end up well.

The Venerable Ones looked at each other and could vaguely sense that it would not be a simple competition. Perhaps they would be surprised by the Equipment Skills.

“Gentlemen, you may begin.” Seeing as the other people had left, Master Kurong looked away and uttered.

Fang Kaiyou and Yi Haobo responded to him at the same time. Following that, they released their spiritual powers into the pieces of equipment to stimulate their skills.

“Boom…”

A peculiar explosion echoed in the air, but even the Venerable Ones could not identify where the sound came from.

Having said that, everyone’s vision went blurry, where the scene that they previously saw had somehow vanished.

A rich red color replaced their view.

Everyone blinked and came to a sudden realization that their view had not disappeared, but it was simply covered by a layer of blood light. The blood light was omnipresent as though it enveloped the whole world, but they could vaguely spot their original view through it.

The steep peak, the tall giant sword, as well as the familiar people around them, slowly became clear to them.

Needless to say, the clear view was only described in relative terms as it was entirely different from the bright and sunny scene from before.

The Illusion Art—this was the Blood’s Illusion, which was the Blood Refining Suit’s unique skill.

While the illusion merely existed and was not really released, the Venerable Ones knew how unordinary the illusion’s power was, such that it was almost not much inferior to that of a formation map’s illusion. In particular, if one was going against a well-matched opponent and released this illusion, it would be the end of the fight.

All in all, the illusion was much mightier than they had imagined.

Just as the people were drawn by the illusion’s power and slowly thinking more highly of the Blood Refining Suit, an unusually cold aura surged in the air.

Amidst the blood light, while frosty snowflakes that kept falling from the sky added a new color to the red world.

Cold intent—an intense cold intent.

It was a cold intent that seemed to be able to freeze one to death, and it was so harsh that even the Venerable Ones at the center felt cold.

The cold intent that suddenly appeared in the world spread in all directions with a momentum that could freeze everything in its way…