Chapter 139 Dull
For the next half of the month, the Armament Camp was bustling with people.
When Old Craftsman fell sick and Ou Yangming went to the prefecture, everyone lost interest in the Armament Camp; when Old Craftsman slowly recovered and Ou Yangming returned, the Armament Camp was instantly in the spotlight once more.
In particular, Ou Yangming, the newly risen Military Fire Blacksmith, became someone that everyone pursued. In fact, even the generals treated him in a friendly manner, and he suddenly became the new appointee in the camp.
Nonetheless, Ou Yangming focused completely on Old Craftsman as he mostly spent time having casual talks with the old man.
In the beginning, Old Craftsman was extremely glad, but he became slightly worried after a long time.
“Young fella, you’re spending time with me every day, have you finished your own work?”
Ou Yangming replied to him cheerfully, “Old Man, don’t worry, I’ve completed my basic homework every day.”
Indeed, whether it was the martial-art squat or the mental power cultivation that he carried out late at night, he never slacked. In actuality, the two basic cultivations were a piece of cake for him.
“Young man, don’t speak nonsense. I’ve recovered, and I don’t need you to serve me, so go smith a few more pieces of equipment.” Old Craftsman was highly dubious of what Ou Yangming said, and he waved his hand. After a short pause, he added, “Sir Kang has been diligently running around lately to get things done. He should be credited for my recovery, so go thank him for me.”
Ou Yangming thought, ‘Kang Weibo is only running errands, how’s that a tough job?’
Nevertheless, he would not disobey the old man’s instruction. Besides, since Kang Weibo had been working hard for Old Craftsman, Ou Yangming was not going to be stingy with rewards.
Honestly, there were at most five people in the entire military camp who knew the truth of the old man’s illness. Most people thought Old Craftsman fell seriously ill, and Ou Yangming went to the prefecture to seek the spiritual medicine needed, which was found in the end so the old man was cured. However, those who knew the real reason and story kept their mouths shut without saying a word.
Old Craftsman pondered and said, “Young fella, there’s something else that I need you to do.”
Upon hearing the old man’s serious tone, Ou Yangming dared not neglect him, thus he responded, “Old man, please give me the instructions.”
“Do you remember that General Chen Yifan asked me to smith a weapon for me?” Old Craftsman asked with a deep voice.
“Of course, I remember,” Ou Yangming answered.
Old Craftsman nodded and explained, “General Chen has been treating us well, so we must complete the task he entrusted to us perfectly. Ah, but my old body can’t take it anymore, so I’m afraid that I’ll have to hand over the task to you.”
Ou Yangming immediately stuck up his chest and assured, “Old man, don’t worry, isn’t it just a weapon? You can leave it to me!”
“Very well, that’s how a good disciple should be,” Old Craftsman said happily, “But having mere determination doesn’t count, you must train harder to not embarrass us.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Seeing as Ou Yangming promised him casually but still stayed in the room, Old Craftsman raged with fire, and he quickly scanned the room.
Ou Yangming was frightened because he was extremely familiar with the old man’s look. He jumped and informed loudly, “Old Man, I’m heading to the smithing workshop now.” Before his voice died away, he had already fled.
“Young fella, don’t blame me for being unreasonable. I’m growing old, and you must rely on yourself in the future.” Old Craftsman sighed after he reprimanded Ou Yangming, then he shook his head and furrowed his eyebrows. ‘After falling sick, I somehow have a feeling that my body has miraculously become much better.’
People were usually weak after being severely ill, and the case of a patient being strong and robust after being sick had never been heard of. The old man was confused as he touched his hair. ‘Could this be a sign of me having a sudden recovery right before death?’
Ou Yangming ran to his smithing workshop at the speed of light. He took a look at the materials inside, then shook his wrist as he retrieved some steel.
As his Military Fire burned, piece after piece of equipment was formed in his hands.
After just a brief moment, twenty pieces of different equipment were laid out on the table. Following that, Ou Yangming took ten precious ores from a compartment in a corner of the room.
It was a place that was specially set up to store precious ores. Kang Weibo would send helpers to check the spot regularly, the ores would be replenished if they were lacking, so Ou Yangming did not need to worry at all.
Needless to say, Ou Yangming was the only person in the Armament Camp who could enjoy the treatment-even Old Craftsman was not treated that way.
The smithing challenge that was held in the Armament Camp had truly caused an enormous and positive change in the way Ou Yangming was treated.
Even though everyone still addressed Old Craftsman as the chief of Military Fire Blacksmiths, everyone knew that the title remained only because nobody dared to offend Ou Yangming. If that was not the case, the term of address would have been used for Ou Yangming long ago. As Ou Yangming’s Military Fire danced again, ten precious ores instantly disappeared, and four pieces of Attribute Equipment appeared on the smithing table.
The four pieces of Attribute Equipment were attached with 5 points of attributes in total, especially the military saber that was a super weapon with 2 Points of Power. If it was shown to the other people in the military camp, even a captain like Liu Zhengye would rack his brain to get his hands on it.
As for the remaining 5 points of attributes from the ores, Ou Yangming had naturally kept them for himself.
Despite that, Ou Yangming frowned when he looked at the weapons on the smithing table.
He was not satisfied with them.
Honestly, after smithing with the absurd materials in the Chaos Cave, Ou Yangming began looking down on normal materials.
Not to mention normal steel, even if he was presented with featured steel, he could point out their shortcomings.
If he compared the pieces of equipment that were smithed using steel with the ones that were smithed in the Chaos Cave…
Ou Yangming’s face reddened because he had a sudden urge to destroy the scrap metals.
He wondered how Liu Zhengye and the other captains would lament if they knew that the pieces of equipment that they valued were regarded as scrap metals by him. Ou Yangming sighed as he packed the pieces of equipment, then carried them toward the equipment depot. His arrival quickly caused a disturbance in the depot, but Kang Weibo arrived soon and was elated when he saw the equipment. Ou Yangming had brought four pieces of Attribute Equipment once he returned to the camp, one of them even had layered attributes. It was a huge favor. As such, Kang Weibo only had one thought at that moment, ‘My hard work when Old Craftsman was sick wasn’t in vain.’
“Sir Kang,” Ou Yangming greeted after glancing at Kang Weibo. Kang Weibo was happily checking the pieces of equipment when he heard Ou Yangming, hence he immediately ran over to the blacksmith and bent over a little. “Master Ou, what orders do you have for me?” Ou Yangming said, “After this, get someone to send steel and a hundred precious ores to my smithing workshop.” “What? A hundred precious ores?” Kang Weibo widened his eyes and twitched his mouth such that he could not let out another word.
If Ou Yangming had asked for twenty or thirty precious ores, he would have agreed even if he was reluctant, but a hundred ores were truly beyond his authority limit.
“You won’t get any more equipment this month if you can’t do it.” Ou Yangming scoffed and left.
‘The young master has gotten really quick-tempered, but the problem is that a hundred precious ores is beyond the limits of my authority.’ Kang Weibo was struck dumb as he watched Ou Yangming leave.
He stomped his feet and left as fast as he could to look for Supervisor Qu Jianming from the Provision Camp.
After hearing Kang Weibo’s complaint, Qu Jianming uttered after some thought, “Give them to him!”
Kang Weibo gulped. “Sir, those are a hundred…”
“Hehe, since Master Ou has such a big request, we must fulfill it. As long as he submits the same number of equipment, the more the precious ores we give, the better.”
Kang Weibo’s eyes lit up, and he agreed to the supervisor to flatter him. He understood the theory very well, but he was not someone who could make the call. Thus, he naturally had to act dumb in front of a boss who was qualified to make the decision.
A hundred precious ores along with pieces of steel were sent to Ou Yangming’s smithing workshop that night.
Ou Yangming spent three days to refine every piece of equipment.
Based on his speed, he could have easily completed everything in a day, let alone three days.
In spite of that, Ou Yangming did not want to scare the other people to death, so he could only force himself to slow down. Even then, his “slow” speed almost stupefied Kang Weibo and the rest.
That said, Ou Yangming was not delighted about his work at all.
If it was not because he wanted to recover the lost attributes in his mind, he would not have smithed the normal pieces of Good Grade and High Grade equipment. Ou Yangming’s mind was still on the powerful materials in the Chaos Cave.
His ability could only be unleashed to its full potential if he smithed with those materials. Besides, Ou Yangming also felt that he needed to make a trip back to the cave if he wanted to complete what Old Craftsman had promised General Chen Yifan.
Nonetheless, before General Chen could approach him, another general had visited.
Commanding General Fang Yihai from the South Camp had paid Ou Yangming a visit with Guards Captain Yu Hailiang.
The general was a direct and honest man, so the first thing he said was, “Master Ou, since Old Craftsman has recovered, can you head to the prefecture? Hehe, my family members have been anxiously waiting for your arrival.”