"Rustle, rustle …"
Amidst the unceasing sound of flowing sand, time quickly pa.s.sed by.
Unknowingly, each metal table was covered with a bright red flame. It was either big or small, extremely powerful, or slightly weak.
Thousands of blazing auras intersected in the air, wildly filling the air.
Even though they were sweating profusely and their clothes were soaked wet, they were completely unaware of it. Coupled with the fact that the refiners had already fused with the "True Fire", their ability to withstand heat was also far beyond ordinary people.
However, the people closest to the arena were already unbearably hot, and they all retreated backwards.
"Pfft!" "Puff …"
About a quarter of an hour later, the faint sound of the flames extinguis.h.i.+ng began to ring throughout the arena.
The first one to complete the smelting of the gems wasn"t the red-haired, blue-eyed girl in the yellow dress, nor was it the well-dressed young man. Instead, it was a very mature man in black, followed by the two of them.
Time flew by as more and more people completed the refinement of the "Light Stone".
Tang Huan was completely focused on his surroundings, the white juice slowly condensed on the edge of his palm and dripped onto the plate. When the "Light Stone" had melted, Tang Huan crumpled the sticky juice into a ball and held it in his palm. Then, he wrapped it tightly with his weaker True Fire.
The requirement of this first stage was to refine gems. This meant that after they were melted, they had to be tempered to remove all impurities from the gemstone juice.
In the entire process, Tang Huan was neither fast nor slow. Yesterday, after he absorbed the heat from Shan Shan"s body, his "True Fire" Fire Seed had shrunk once again. Compared to when he had absorbed the "Mysterious Sun Flame Essence", the current flame spark was only a quarter of its original size.
The condensation of the Fire Elemental made the flames appear incomparably pure. The heat emitted by a ball of fire of the same size was, however, multiplied by several times.
If Tang Huan wanted to show off, he could definitely complete the refinement of the "Light Stone" within fifteen minutes.
But in that case, there wouldn"t be that kind of surprising effect in the end, so Tang Huan tried his best to slow down. Fortunately, after this period of practice, his control over the "True Fire" had become even stronger. Otherwise, he might not be able to hide it any longer.
The artificers closest to Tang Huan were all completely focused, and did not sense the extremely strong heat emitted from the small cl.u.s.ter of flame in Tang Huan"s palm, nor did they notice the extremely minute white color at the center of the flame.
After about half an hour, the flames in Tang Huan"s palm quietly extinguished.
In the blink of an eye, nearly forty percent of the refiners had already finished refining the gem, but there were still more flames flickering in the refiners" palms.
Amongst the thousands of people, Tang Huan"s speed was considered neither fast nor slow.
The next step was to wait.
Listening to the constant rustling sounds, as well as occasionally seeing that someone had completed the smelting of the gem, the pressure on those refiners who were still refining the gem grew increasingly greater. Many people revealed anxious expressions, but the more anxious they were, the more mistakes they would make.
As the time limit approached, the flame within the palms of a small number of refiners had actually been extinguished several times.
"An hour is up!"
Under the high platform, the loud rustling suddenly stopped. It was also at this moment that Qing Ye"s extremely powerful voice suddenly burst out in the sky above the plaza.
"Refiners who have not finished refining, please leave the compet.i.tion grounds and go to the right side to rest." Qing Ye arrived in front of the stage and swept his eyes across the area.
"Sigh, I failed. If only it had lasted a little longer."
"Even if we have to wait for another quarter of an hour, that"s fine."
"I melted the gem, but I"ve only tempered half of it. What a pity, what a pity."
"..."
Dejected voices could be heard from time to time, and soon after, a few figures gloomily left the metal table and converged on the empty s.p.a.ce to the right of the high platform.
Tang Huan did a quick count; there were hundreds of artificers who did not finish within the time limit.
"Next, we will proceed with the testing!"
As soon as Qing Ye finished speaking, a dozen figures walked into the arena. They were either male or female, old or young. They were all clearly artificers, most likely mid-tier artificers.
Each of them had two lines, inspecting the area along the way.
"Incomplete tempering, not qualified!"
"It"s not complete, it"s not suitable!"
"There are too many impurities remaining, it"s inappropriate!"
"..."
Similar sounds rose and fell within the plaza. When the refiners heard this result, they all looked as if their parents had died, and helplessly left the arena with sullen faces.
It was not that there were no refiners to defend him, but it was a pity that he was unable to do anything.
The artificers who were sent to inspect not only had astonis.h.i.+ng Perception Ability s, but they also had extremely good eyesight, so the chances of them making mistakes were very slim. After they explained the situation of the "Light Stone" juice in detail, the people who had refuted them in the end obediently left.
Not long later, a middle aged woman came to Tang Huan"s side.
"Hu!"
A ball of flame whizzed out from his palm, covering the gemstone juice on the plate.
Very quickly, the middle-aged woman finished her examination. She looked at Tang Huan in shock, but did not say anything.
It took more than a quarter of an hour for all the tests to be completed.
More refiners had been eliminated because they failed the inspection than because they didn"t complete the refining process. There were even some refiners who had completed the refining process early on that day that had been eliminated. Some of the artificers who had luckily pa.s.sed were instead silently rejoicing. A "Thunder Light Stone" and a low level weapon had finally been obtained!
Presently, there were less than 2,000 weapons craftsmen still standing here, and the arena had become much spa.r.s.er.
"Congratulations, you have pa.s.sed the first stage of the compet.i.tion."
Qing Ye smiled like a flower. "The next part is the second stage, the forging of the bladework. Now, please take out the "Spirit Flexible Iron" from the drawer. "
Everyone followed his instructions, and after a while, a large square piece of iron ore appeared on everyone"s table.
This "Spirit Flexible Iron" was completely different from the "Black Profound Iron" iron ore. It did not need to be burned with a fire or hammered with an iron hammer, it could be directly completed with "True Fire". When the "True Fire" was strong to a certain extent, the iron ore would become extremely soft, and could be kneaded as easily as dough.
Of course, this "Spirit Iron" was easily broken and couldn"t be used against the enemy at all, but it was very suitable for this kind of test. The level of weapons forged by a refiner was something that could be easily detected with the "Spirit Flexible Iron".
Thus, no matter if it was the "Artifact Forging Compet.i.tion" held every five years in Nu Lang (Furious Waves) City, or the matches of other artificers, they would often use this relatively common "Spirit Flexible Iron".
"The second test, begin!"
As soon as Qing Ye gave the order, the rest of the blacksmiths started moving once again.
All the refiners who were able to enter the second stage were of good standard. There was no way that there would be anyone who had put on an act. Not long after, a ball of flame seemed to have ignited in front of everyone. Many refiners, who had previously held back, were now full of energy.
It was impossible to train this "Spirit Flexible Iron" if the fire was small.
Only when the intensity of the flame exceeded a certain point would the "Spirit Flexible Iron" quickly soften. In the second stage, there were already pitifully few weapons craftsmen who could still hide their abilities.
The luxuriously dressed young man swept his gaze at the yellow dressed young man and the others behind him, and a sense of urgency appeared on his face.
As for the Tang Huan he had originally provoked, all of it had been completely tossed to the back of his mind.
Previously, when he saw Tang Huan observe his opponent"s strength before fusing the gems, he thought that Tang Huan was similar to him, with a decent level of artifact forging. However, the flames that Tang Huan controlled left him disappointed, as they completely lost interest in Tang Huan.
Tang Huan was still neither fast nor slow, but the flame that was seeping out from his palm was a little stronger than the first round.
Under the continuous burning of the primordial flames, it only took about half an hour for the "Spirit Flexible Iron" to soften. "s left hand controlled the flame as he continued to burn it while his right hand continued to knead and knead on top of the metal.
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