Tribulation of Myriad Races

Slowly, a crowd formed around him. It was obvious to all these people that this was Su Yu's first time forging. His movements were quite stiff, but they could also see that he had learned the process before. The person who had taught him was most likely a grandmaster.

At this point, they started believing that he had indeed learned from Zhao Li. A top-tier profound-grade weaponsmith was by no means weak. It wasn't like there were a lot of earth-grade weaponsmiths in Great Ming.

Extraction, refinement, quenching the flame...

After going through the entire process, it was time to hammer the weapon. His Soul Expanding Hammer appeared and started striking the weapon.

Once. Twice. Again and again.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The hammer moved rapidly, creating a shockwave each time it struck. Slowly, the first golden stripe appeared on the black blade.

Ten minutes, twenty minutes...

Some of the people started grimacing. For a Mental Tempering Stage cultivator, they would reach their limit at twenty minutes. Very few of them could even last this long. Su Yu had formed five golden stripes thus far.

"Shut up!"

A nearby teacher berated, "This is Grandmaster Zhao Li's unique technique. Even if he's a Mental Tempering Stage cultivator, he will still be able to last longer than you."

"This must be Su Yu's first time forging. His movements are quite stiff and he lost some of the essence of the materials when extracting them. Meanwhile, you have been forging weapons for years. Is it fair to compare yourself against someone who had only attended a few hours of class like him?"

Bai Junsheng was left completely speechless. Meanwhile, Su Yu continued silently. He was aware of the mistakes he made. In fact, he had nearly ruined this weapon with those mistakes. This was his first time, so he was too unfamiliar with the process. Even the balance between the materials wasn't maintained well.

He had mainly relied on his strong willpower and hammer to constantly adjust the state of the weapon to prevent failure. More and more golden stripes formed on the small black blade.

Seven, eight, nine...

When the ninth golden stripe appeared, Bai Junsheng helplessly said, "Fine, fine, I apologize. Teacher Zhao Li is truly incredible. I never claimed that he's not great, right? I only said that he's not at the earth grade. And that's not wrong..."

How was he wrong? Zhao Li was indeed below the earth grade.

Su Yu ignored him and continued forging the weapon. One hour, two hours, three hours...

The surrounding students and teachers were completely stunned.

Fuck!

This kid was able to forge non-stop for three hours. Just how thick was his willpower? Eighteen golden stripes could be seen on the blade.

At this time, Su Yu frowned and put his hammer away. With the same expression on his face, he tossed the dagger to Bai Junsheng and said, "I'm not good enough so I made some mistakes when choosing and mixing the materials. Even when quenching the flame, I made some mistakes as well. If it was Teacher Zhao, he could have forged something with at least thirty stripes with the same materials."

The surrounding people looked at Su Yu in astonishment.

Peak middle-tier yellow-grade cultural weapon. And this was his first time forging. This was crazy. If he was actually familiar with weapon forging, wouldn't he have forged a high-tier yellow-grade cultural weapon instead?

Generally, one would need to be a veteran weaponsmith at the Skysoar Realm to forge a high-tier yellow-grade cultural weapon. As for top-tier yellow-grade cultural weapons, most of them could only be forged by those who had reached the Cloudbreach Realm.

People like Zhao Li who could forge top-tier profound-grade cultural weapons at the Cloudbreach Realm were extremely rare. That was mainly because their willpower did not have enough endurance to last until sixty-four golden stripes.

And without sixty-four golden stripes, a cultural weapon would not be considered a top-tier profound-grade weapon. Su Yu did not take any of that into consideration. Rather, he was busy thinking about his five elemental characters. They seemed rather helpful in weaponsmithing. And the process of weaponsmithing was also very helpful in tempering those characters. Since he had been wanting to practice weaponsmithing, perhaps he could consider starting now.

He had not forgotten his promise to help Teacher Zhao Li complete the earth-grade cultural weapon upon reaching the Cloudbreach Realm. Without some experience, he wouldn't be able to do that. Just look at how careless he was when forging a mere middle-tier yellow-grade cultural weapon. He had zero chance of succeeding. He would only cause more trouble for his teacher.

While he was deep in thought, a nearby old man lamented, "This must be Zhao Li's Soul Expanding Art. The movements reminded me of the Zhao Family's style. You said that you only learned from him for five hours. But it felt like he was teaching you like a personal student. You are very talented in weaponsmithing. What a pity that your talent in other fields is even stronger. And those fields are even more useful than weaponsmithing. What a waste."

This was truly regretful.

That old man was not weak. He was a peak Cloudbreach. After sighing, he said, "If you spent a few months bitterly practicing weaponsmithing, you would probably be able to forge a top-tier yellow-grade cultural weapon. Feel free to visit this place when you're free. My teacher also said that you're quite talented in weaponsmithing."

Su Yu blanked out slightly and asked, "Your teacher is..."

"Teacher Hu." The old man laughed, "I'm her student."

Su Yu hurriedly said, "Greetings, Teacher. I've embarrassed myself in front of you. I was merely joking with Bai Junsheng. He insisted that others aren't good just because he was able to forge a low-tier yellow-grade cultural weapon..."

Bai Junsheng felt incomparably gloomy. He was speaking the truth. Why was this fellow telling on him?

The old man smiled, "He knows nothing. That kid is very cocky just because of the tiny talent he has. He does need to be taught a lesson. He needs to know that there is always someone better out there."

"Zhao Li is one of the best among the profound-grade weaponsmiths. Or we can even say that he's the number one profound-grade weaponsmith. He does not have a main character, but he is able to forge cultural weapons with seventy-two stripes with only support characters. Not everyone can do something like that. Even early earth-grade weaponsmiths will find it hard to replicate that feat."

Bai Junsheng wasn't angry. Instead, he curiously asked, "Teacher, is Grandmaster Zhao Li really that amazing? But...why have I never heard about the cultural weapons he forged?"

That was the main reason why he thought that Zhao Li wasn't too impressive. As far as he was concerned, the most important thing for a weaponsmith was for experts to use their forged weapons. That was how most weaponsmiths gained their fame.

The old man laughed, "He is an eccentric. He will never forge anything for someone he doesn't find pleasing to his eyes. It's normal for you to have never heard about his forged weapons. We actually have his cultural weapons in our academy. For example, the one Wen Zhong is using. That's a top-quality cultural weapon."

Bai Junsheng had a look of realization.

"That weapon...I see. That was an incredible weapon. I heard it's no weaker than earth-grade weapons. Teacher Wen only got it after spending his entire fortune. I thought it was forged by Elder Hu, so it was Teacher Zhao Li instead?"

The old man nodded, "Yes. That's why you shouldn't act like you know everything if you have no idea. It's embarrassing."

The old man looked at Su Yu and said, "I won't say anything else. Just remember to pay this place a visit when you find the time. Just treat this as a hobby. With your talent, you can do well in anything. But it's better to specialize in one field and learn enough about the other fields to not be completely clueless. If you reach a level where you can forge profound-grade weapons, you will be welcomed everywhere."

For some reason, the people around them felt a sense of shame.

Fuck!

Forging profound-grade cultural weapons as a hobby? They understood just how highly their teacher viewed Su Yu, and they also finally understood how little he thought of them.

Was this how all geniuses were? You could spend a lifetime to accomplish something that the genius could casually achieve without even trying.

Then again, their teacher's words were understandable. Su Yu had only spend a few hours learning weaponsmithing. And during his first attempt, he had forged a middle-tier yellow-grade cultural weapon. What else could they say? In the academy, only a handful of students could forge a cultural weapon with ten or more golden stripes.

Suddenly, they felt empty inside.

After a short chat with the old man, Su Yu dragged Bai Junsheng outside the building. Horrified, Bai Junsheng said, "No, it was only some words. Why are you so petty? What are you doing to me? Are you going to kill me to silence me? Su Yu, this is the academy. You shouldn't do that. Why don't you settle with beating me up? Don't kill me..."

Holy shit! He had merely made a short remark. Not only had Su Yu slapped his face, this fellow wanted to kill him as well? This fellow was too ferocious! No wonder everyone called him a psychopath.

"Su Yu, out of respect for my elder cousin, we should talk it out instead..."

Bai Junsheng tried to struggle free, but he was unable to break free of Su Yu's grasp. He was so terrified that he was on the verge of pissing himself.

Su Yu said nothing and continued dragging Bai Junsheng away. After they were outside the Weaponsmithing Faculty, he smiled and said, "Let's go. I wish to visit my teacher's father and your father."

"..."

Fuck!

Bai Junsheng cursed inwardly. This fellow should have stated his intentions directly. Why scare him like that? He had thought that this fellow was going to drag him into the woods before ending him.

With a relieved yet gloomy tone, he said, "Visiting my father and my second uncle? You better not. They are very unhappy with my cousin's choice to join the Great Xia Cultural Research Academy. Be careful lest they kick you out of the house."

Su Yu smiled, "It won't be that bad. No matter what, I'm a guest of the prefect, right?"

"True." Bai Junsheng nodded and said, "If you're not afraid of being scolded, feel free to go."

"It's fine. You'll be around, right? You can simply say some nice things about me."

"Why should I—"

Before he could finish, Su Yu said, "Because I have a bigger fist. Consider your words carefully. Otherwise, I'll give you a beating once per day after we return to the academy."

Bai Junsheng's face fell.

Bastard! Shameless bastard! How dare this fellow threaten him?

His elder cousin was this bastard's teacher! How dare this bastard treat him like this?

Alas, his feelings wouldn't change how reality works. And the reality was that Su Yu had a bigger fist. His head drooped down helplessly as he said, "Alright, alright. Don't be so barbaric. Us cultural researchers are refined people. We don't fight..."

"Why did you fight Zhu Hongliang?"

"His fist is smaller."

Bai Junsheng answered matter-of-factly. Wasn't that obvious? He would surrender if his fist was smaller. He would be cocky if his fist was bigger. That was perfectly normal, right?

Su Yu laughed in amusement.

Bigger fist? Not at all. That iron devourer of Zhu Hongliang merely didn't deign to fight back. That big fellow could slap this fellow to death with a single slap if he wanted to. Su Yu wasted no time and left the academy with Bai Junsheng.

This was a rare opportunity to spend some time alone with Su Yu, so Bai Junsheng took the chance to talk unceasingly. He also asked a lot about Bai Feng as he didn't know too much about that cousin of his.

It had been ten years since Bai Feng left home. Over the years, he had only returned once. Even then, he had only stayed for a short period of time. Thus, Bai Junsheng did not even remember that cousin of his well anymore.

Su Yu naturally only talked about the good things about his teacher, intentionally omitting things like getting beaten thrice by Huang Teng. He had to protect his teacher's reputation, right?