Immortal Path to Heaven

Panda Novel

In the Middle Camp, many soldiers surrounded Jiang Chengwei to listen to his story of the event that took place in the dense forest.

After the half-spirit beast’s carcass was carried back to the military camp, there was quite a bit of excitement indeed, and the people involved quickly drew everyone’s attention.

Ou Yangming, who was given the most credit, naturally attracted the most attention, but nobody dared to disturb him after knowing that he was a Military Fire Blacksmith from the Armament Camp. After all, it was not the blacksmith whom the bloodthirsty men admired, but the warriors who killed using weapons smithed by the blacksmith.

Yu Hailiang was a captain from the South Camp and was considered one of the high officials there, hence it was impossible for the soldiers to inquire about the incident from him. On the other hand, not only was Jiang Chengwei’s position just right, but he also participated in the attack personally, so he drew everyone’s attention. Many curious individuals surrounded him to listen to his story.

Jiang Chengwei was proud of his success after being given credits for his service, and he drank a lot of alcohol as the other soldiers flattered him. He was spluttering the happenings that day and was even more pretentious when he talked about how he shot the three explosive arrows. It was as though he was in that situation at that moment, causing the listeners to be in a trance.

A voice was heard in the crowd all of a sudden. “Since Squad Leader Yan is so amazing, why was a nobody from the Armament Camp given the most credits?”

Jiang Chengwei instantly froze, and the other people looked at each other, but could not find the person who raised the question.

Not knowing if Jiang Chengwei was agitated or was simply drunk, he expressed angrily while tapping the armor on his body, “I won’t be pleased if someone else is ranked first in terms of contribution, but I’ll say no more if it’s Master Ou! You have no idea, but I witnessed Master Ou’s abilities myself!”

At that moment, the listeners around him forgot about the voice that came from the crowd earlier as they urged him to explain.

“You’ve heard of Yan Haobo from the West Camp, right? That fella got a huge bargain!” Jiang Chengwei widened his blurry eyes and burped, then swallowed his saliva and said enviously, “That fella’s armor was refined by Master Ou, guess what happened to it…”

Although the crowd was unhappy with him being so secretive, they began guessing according to his tone.

“Master Ou restored the holes on his armor?”

“Did Master Ou make shocking adjustments to the armor?”

“Master Ou didn’t upgrade the armor, did he?”

“Tsk…”

Scornful laughs filled the air. The burly soldiers were not blacksmiths, but they dealt with pieces of equipment every day and knew how difficult it was to upgrade equipment. Therefore, they ridiculed upon hearing the wild guess.

Despite that, Jiang Chengwei slapped his thigh hard and announced, “You guessed it right!”

The crowd was stunned and their faces changed. “Squad Leader Jiang, did Master Ou really increase Yan Haobo’s armor’s quality?”

Jiang Chengwei laughed and kept them in suspense. “No.”

The person who asked earlier was another squad leader from the Middle Camp’s Guards, and he was white with fury. “Very well, Jiang Chengwei, you’re teasing me! Hmph, Ou Yangming didn’t attach an attribute to the armor, did he?”

Everyone else was startled at first, but they soon burst into laughter.

They knew that the squad leader had blabbered because he was flustered.

How could binding an attribute to equipment be an easy thing to do? Even the best Military Fire Blacksmith in the military only had a thirty-percent success rate, and the probability only applied if the blacksmith was smithing with extreme focus. It was impossible for one to attach an attribute to random equipment in the wild.

Nonetheless, Jiang Chengwei was stunned and left open-mouthed. He asked, “How the f*ck do you know everything?”

“Of course it was just a gu…” The squad leader replied exasperatedly, but suddenly stopped and reacted as if he had just seen a ghost. “What did you say? Did he really fix an attribute to it?”

The waves of laughter from the crowd slowly stopped as well, and everyone looked at Jiang Chengwei shockingly. Even though they knew based on their rationale that it was absolutely impossible, most of them had guessed the answer when they looked at his expression.

It was the exact reason they were in disbelief.

“That’s right, Master Ou simply took Yan Haobo’s armor and combined it with a Power Ore to it to add some Power,” Jiang Chengwei responded slowly, and continued after a pause, “He also took three of my High Grade Arrows to improve them with his Military Fire. Not only did my arrows’ quality improve, but they also had an extra explosive ability. The explosive arrows were the main reason we were able to slaughter the half-spirit beast successfully.”

He described the explosive arrows’ might vividly, causing the listeners to turn pale as they wondered, ‘If we encountered the arrows that were so tyrannical in nature, wouldn’t we be doomed?’

It was then when they finally understood why Ou Yangming was given the most credit.

He was a blacksmith who could remodel arrows as such, so who would have the guts to steal his credit?

Without being noticed by the crowd, a white figure had left discreetly and swayed far away.

After a couple of hours, Assistant Supervisor Zhang Yinfan from the Provision Camp lectured a few men furiously and yelled at them based on a petty excuse.

Later on, Assistant Supervisor Zhang locked himself in his room and only left after half a day.

※※※※

A figure appeared outside a courtyard in the Armament Camp, and the person jumped over the wall easily to get inside.

Inside the courtyard, a man, who looked like a white-faced scholar, was studying a military saber carefully. He turned and smiled when he heard some voices. “Little Sister, why did you go out again?”

The figure was the white figure who was hiding in the crowd earlier to listen to Jiang Chengwei’s story. She was disguised as a man, had fine features, and bore a natural heroic spirit. It was difficult to spot her disguise without spending a long time with her.

“Elder Brother, I went to ask around and found that the old craftsman’s disciple, Ou Yangming, is quite skillful. I heard that he can smith Attribute Equipment, and…” The lady hesitated before continuing, “He seems to be able to smith explosive arrows.”

“What? Explosive arrows? How is that possible? That’s a Magic Blacksmith’s secret technique, which is never taught to others, how did he achieve it?” The man’s face changed abruptly.

“I have no idea either.” The lady shrugged, then asked after seeing the military saber in the man’s hand, “Elder Brother, whose product are you looking at? Why do you look so serious?”

The man sighed and replied, “This military saber was smithed by Ou Yangming, the person you were talking about.”

“Oh, did you notice anything?”

In actual fact, many things could be identified from a piece of equipment, but it required profound experience and vision.

“Hehe, Little Sister, you have the best eye in our family, take a look at it yourself.”

The lady received the military saber and studied it for some time, then a strange look was seen on her face. “This is strange. The smithing technique used for this saber isn’t of a professional level, and it’s somewhat flawed, but how did it achieve the peak of Good Grade?”

A piece of Good Grade Rank Five equipment was very rare for many soldiers but was nothing spectacular for the siblings.

If the military saber was not flawed, it did not really matter if it was of Good Grade Rank Five. However, they were bewildered by the fact that it was at the peak of Good Grade when it was flawed.

“Hehe, you noticed it too.” The man chuckled. “I have no idea what method was used, but Ou Yangming is not a simple person at all.”

The young lady nodded lightly and was curious for some reason.

Needless to say, it was not Ou Yangming whom she was interested in, but his smithing technique.

A knock was suddenly heard at the door.

The man grinned. “They’re here already.”

“What?”

“I was exchanging views with Old Craftsman yesterday, and I benefited a lot from him, so I invited him over for another talk.”

The young lady smiled sweetly. “Elder Brother, won’t General Tian be unhappy if you get too close with Old Craftsman?”

“Since I came and showed up for him, that’s enough. Heh, don’t forget that we’re the ones who are the Tian family’s masters,” the man replied to her without feeling bothered at all.

He stood up to open the door to the courtyard.

Old Craftsman and Ou Yangming were seen standing at the door.

Upon seeing the man, Ou Yangming’s eyes lit up and he exclaimed, “It’s you!”

He was not expecting to meet the fop who suddenly appeared during the night battle.

Old Craftsman was stunned. “Do you know Master Ni?”

Ou Yangming tensed up for a while but quickly said with a serious face, “Old Man, I took him for someone else. Master Ni looks very similar to a friend of mine, so… Hehe, I got the wrong person, I got the wrong person.”

Old Craftsman and Master Ni looked at him suspiciously as they could tell that Ou Yangming did not mean what he said. Nevertheless, they could not expose him.

“Young fella, this is Master Ni Yunhong, and this is his younger brother, Ni Yinghong. One of them is a blacksmith while the other’s talented in appraisals, they’re both rare geniuses,” Old Craftsman introduced once they entered the courtyard.

Ou Yangming nodded and thought to himself, ‘Master Ni Yunhong is also a powerhouse in martial arts skills, and he can easily take out anyone who’s in the same rank as him!’

Ni Yunhong chuckled. “Old Craftsman, you’re overpraising me.”

COMMENT

Old Craftsman had a strange habit. Apart from Ou Yangming, he disallowed people from addressing him as Old Man, such that he would correct a person to call him Old Craftsman instead if that person had called him something else. One with such a habit would definitely be mocked by other people, but given that he was the number one Military Fire Blacksmith in the camp, even the commanding general treated him with respect.

“Swoosh…”

A military saber was suddenly shown in front of Ou Yangming’s face.

Ou Yangming was surprised, and Ni Yinghong’s face came into view when he looked. In particular, the pair of bright, shiny eyes were staring at him curiously.

“Did you really smith this saber?”