Chapter 278

“Ha…” Soul Bead chuckled ambiguously, “Of the magic treasures handed down since ancient times, some were refined in the stormy Eastern Sea, full of fierce gales and crashing waves, some were refined while enduring the attacks of vicious devil beasts from all sides, and some of the top weapons that are high on the rankings were even refined on battlefields where tens of thousands of people lost their lives and were buried…The crafting path emphasizes the importance of timing — the right place, right time, and right people, just like how the Ling family’s red tasseled spear could only be born on the battlefield, in the midst of a sea of blood and bloody winds. What did that spear rely on to awaken its own spirit? Nothing more than the brave souls of tens of thousands of soldiers and the remnant bloody and murderous aura left behind on the ancient battlefields. Only ordinary magic treasures can be refined in a calm and tranquil environment without any disturbances. To successfully refine a peerless magic treasure, it must withstand the dangers of landslides and earthquakes, the vicissitudes of prosperity and decline that all living things experience, and even the test of time, long enough for the blue sea to change into mulberry fields.”

Lin Xuanzhi suddenly felt enlightened.

“Yeah, how can the crafting path be so simple?”

However, in the last life, although Soul Plate guided him from beginning to end on how to craft equipment and how to repair the Revert World Mirror, it had never taught him these things.

Thinking about it, he understood the reason — after all, the only reason he took up equipment crafting in the past life was so that he could repair the Revert World Mirror and turn back time on this world, back to when Ah Hen was still alive.

It took him a thousand years to repair that crack in the mirror.

To begin with, he had no intention of becoming the new supreme magic treasure refiner, and Soul Plate naturally knew what he was thinking at the time, so it didn’t spend any extra effort on him.

However, this life had already started over. Not only did Lin Xuanzhi want to be a craftsman, but he naturally also wanted to refine an exceptional magic treasure — this was probably every craftsman’s dream.

His heart used to be filled with only the sword path, but now, unwittingly, there was a crafting path as well.

Surveying history, from ancient times all the way to modern times, then looking at heaven and earth again, Lin Xuanzhi suddenly felt his own insignificance.

In the end, ever since his rebirth, because of his exceptional talent, blessed by the heavens on the sword path, and the one thousand years of crafting experience that he held over other craftsmen; combined with how he almost never suffered any setbacks, which made everything steadily develop in the direction he set, he had been more or less somewhat haughty and arrogant, looking down on others.

But after this day, Lin Xuanzhi’s high-flying and smug heart was also smacked down.

He gazed at the rocks and pieces of broken wood that swirled about chaotically as far as the eyes could see, not knowing when they would suddenly rush at him. He would never again be so conceited as to believe that he was superior to others.

Start anew.

At the end of the day, Lin Xuanzhi was beaten black and blue, with a bloody nose and swollen face. He was even caught in a sudden and inexplicable snowstorm, as well as a heatwave that instantly turned all the ice and snow into water vapor. He nearly suffered a Qi deviation as a result. This feeling really wasn’t something people could bear!

When he came out of this strange place in the evening, he met Wan Yitong and was laughed at by this brat for a long time, which made Lin Xuanzhi somewhat depressed.

However, after listening to Zhan Fengting say that Wan Yitong had also been tempered in that man-eating death zone before but ran back scared witless and crying his face off after only three days, never setting foot there again, Lin Xuanzhi’s heart felt better!

For three days in a row, Lin Xuanzhi was covered all over with cuts and bruises every day. The wounds on his body were even more than the total number of wounds left over from over a decade of sword practice.

It was simply impossible to craft equipment. Lin Xuanzhi’s current thoughts were nothing more than trying to strike and reflect away the stones and broken wood as much as possible on top of not receiving any injuries himself; he thought of nothing else besides this.

Being on Fierce Gale Cliff made Lin Xuanzhi unbearably tired every day. After returning to his residence, he couldn’t wait to lie on the bed without moving a finger. However, whenever he was idle, he would think in his heart, how was Ah Hen?!

So then, how was Ah Hen?

After being trapped in the dense fog forest for seven whole days, on the verge of being driven insane, Yan Tianhen finally made a decision that he never would have made when he first came here.

One after another, he would cut down all the trees blocking his way!

Yan Tianhen’s thoughts were very solemn and moving. He thought that even if he couldn’t successfully walk out of the dense fog forest or find his Dage to help him leave, his actions still couldn’t be so embarrassing. At the very least, he had to vent some of the anger stifled in his heart.

Yan Tianhen couldn’t move or touch this white fog at all, but these irksome trees were about to suffer misfortune.

Feng Jingyu was also terribly angry. Originally, this magic array was nothing to him, but now that he was a useless baby bird, he was at a complete loss regarding how to deal with these magic arrays, whose levels weren’t low.

Thus, Feng Jingyu braved the danger of not being able to use spiritual Qi for a long time again and spewed out a mouthful of phoenix fire, burning the whole forest to ashes in order to avenge the grudge of being trapped for so long

Ah Bai and Hu Po also struck the smaller saplings with lightning. They even stretched out their claws, shaving and scratching away at the trees. Their ferocious little expressions looked as if they were treating the trees like their mortal enemies. Just as Yan Tianhen had cut down nine trees, Ah Bai and Hu Po were about to successfully gouge out the fifth sapling, and just as the next mouthful of fire was on the tip of Feng Jingyu’s throat–

“Fuck, where the hell did these rascals come from, who let you gouge out my trees?”

A flustered and exasperated voice came from the dense fog.

Yan Tianhen instantly entered a battle-ready state and took out the Chaotic Sky Bell and thunder bomb in his hand.

“Don’t point those kinds of useless things at me; be careful that I send you flying with my pinky!”

The impatient and disdainful voice immediately rang out again. At the same time, a strong gust of wind rushed head-on towards them, full of enormous strength, causingthe two cubs to panic. The tiger cubs were suddenly blown over, rolling on the ground.

Feng Jingyu was clever. As soon as he saw that something seemed wrong, he immediately dove headlong into Yan Tianhen’s clothes, not exposing even a single feather outside and directly playing dead.

Yan Tianhen didn’t have time to look down on him. He hurriedly took out and activated the cover Lin Xuanzhi refined to defend against the wind. Because he wore defensive magic treasures on his person to begin with, plus the windproof cover specialized in this field, Yan Tianhen survived safely in this strong wind.

When he opened his eyes again, there wasn’t a single wisp of dense fog left in front of him. Looking around, there were many densely-packed trees with fruits and flowers. For a while, a sweet fragrance assailed his nostrils.

However, this wasn’t what attracted Yan Tianhen’s attention the most.

In front of him stood a young man adorned in splendid red clothes, his long hair loose behind him, looking exactly like a malicious spirit. Although his expression looked particularly unpleasant, gloomy and somewhat sinister, it still couldn’t hide his beautiful face.

Yan Tianchen suddenly felt his throat go dry. “You planted these trees?”

“No kidding!” The young man answered with a foul expression.

Yan Tianhen choked when he heard that. “It was too foggy just now. I’ve been trapped here for too long, so I had nothing to do besides pulling out trees. I didn’t do it on purpose…Oh, right, how much are these trees? I’ll compensate you, don’t be angry.”

The young man narrowed his pair of cat-like eyes slightly as he sized up Yan Tianhen. “Even if I kill you and sell your meat, you still won’t be enough to compensate for a single one of these trees.”

Yan Tianhen got a fright, secretly thinking, This person’s words are too savage; it’s probably not good to provoke him.

Therefore, Yan Tianhen said somewhat pitifully, looking miserable, “This Elder Brother, I’m only worth money when I’m alive. If I am dead, I’ll certainly be worth nothing if you sell me by the pound.”

So please leave me alive! QAQ

When the young man heard this, his expression eased up slightly. He was most annoyed by those elemental and sword cultivators who sought to impress others by feigning more abilities than they had. This lad still had good judgment.

Seeing the young man’s expression change, Yan Tianhen hurriedly struck the iron while it was hot as he continued, “I really didn’t do it on purpose. I was just so trapped that I felt panicked and was in a bad mood, so I couldn’t help but pull out the trees.”

“What did you say?” The young man’s expression suddenly changed again and he asked furiously, “You pulled out the trees because you were in a bad mood?”

Yan Tianhen was frightened, not sure where he had provoked this strange beauty again, so he thought for a moment and answered cautiously, “Yeah, I really didn’t think they were an eyesore.”

“Damn, you’re a lucky brat.” The strange beauty scolded again. He originally thought that this rascal destroyed those trees because he saw through the method to crack this dense fog array, but unexpectedly, it turned out to be such an idiotic reason, and it also let him stumble about by chance and pull out the one tree that could destroy the dense fog array!

A moment later, the beauty in red thought of something and chuckled again.

This chuckle could be described as containing a myriad of emotions, as if a malicious spirit had found a tasty meal, giving Yan Tianhen another scare.

The young man narrowed his eyes at Yan Tianhen for a moment, studying him. “Brat, although you were merely lucky this time, I’m not an inflexible person either. What you have done can be considered cracking my dense fog array, so you just barely passed my first test. You’re qualified to enter under my door.”

Yan Tianhen was stunned. “May I venture to ask this Elder Brother, are you Esteemed Huai Yu’s disciple?”

“Disciple?” The young man’s eyes turned, and he nodded. “Yeah, you can just call me Senior Martial Brother. Master went out and is not on the peak, so I have to take his place and teach you first. Since you can break through the dense fog array, this Ve… I will reluctantly accept you under our door!”

Yan Tianhen stood there foolishly, digesting it for a long time, then pointed to his nose. “I’m qualified? I entered the sect!”

The young man frowned, “What are you blabbering on about, can’t you understand what Laozi is saying? Hurry up and get over here now!”

Yan Tianhen let out a whoop of joy and cheerfully ran towards the youth.

The young man rolled his eyes and asked with extreme dissatisfaction, “So forthright, how come such a stupid brat came?”

Yan Tianhen, however, seemed not to have heard anything and didn’t care about what the other party said at all. He was jubilant and full of the joy of victory after successfully passing the test.

He finally had something to show off to his Dage!

“Senior Martial Brother, what’s your name?”

“Is my name something someone like you can know?”

“Senior Martial Brother, then I’ll just call you Senior Martial Brother. You should be the only disciple under our Master’s door?”

“Are you not a person?”

“Senior Martial Brother, I got in through a back door connection, does our teacher know about it?”

At last, the young man did not answer this question with sarcasm and mockery like he did the previous questions.

He glanced at Yan Tianhen, “Esteemed Lan Yue’s back-door connection?”

Yan Tianhen nodded, “Yeah.”

“Fuck, shut up! Do you feel particularly honored too?” The young man’s expression changed faster than flipping the pages in a book. He stared at Yan Tianhen darkly, giving him a death glare. “From now on, you’ll prop up the storefront for Laozi! Say that you’re a rare person Esteemed Huai Yu selected out of ten thousand people after careful thought, someone as rare as phoenix feathers and kirin horns. If you dare say that you came in through the back door and make Master lose face, be careful that Laozi will beat you to death!”

Yan Tianchen: “…”

Mother, this little elder brother was really scary!

Yan Tianhen nodded hastily and explained, “I don’t feel very honored either. I just want to let Master have a correct understanding of me so as to not hold too much hope for me.”

The young man laughed scornfully, “You think too much. As soon as he sees your stupid appearance, he should already have some understanding in his heart.”

Yan Tianhen only wanted to gaze up at the sky.

The young man continued, “However, you also don’t need to belittle yourself. Esteemed Huai Yu is very incredible. Even if you’re trash, he can still drag you up to become a respectable person. It just depends on whether or not you can endure hardships.”

Yan Tianhen nodded hurriedly, “I can endure hardships.”

The young man sneered, “Whether or not you can endure hardships isn’t something that is true as long as you flap your lips. It depends on what you do. If you can’t keep up, then get lost and slip down the mountain early. Brat, I see that you have soft skin and tender flesh, as though you haven’t suffered much, and you even carry so many magic treasures on you — you’re also quite rich, aren’t you? You can’t last two days like this.”