24th of May.

The second day had arrived.

One expert after another had gathered near the Source Qi Secret Grotto. Many of the visiting weaponsmiths were standing at the very front of the crowd. There were even some earth weaponsmiths among the crowd.

Great Xia's very own earth weaponsmith had also left seclusion for this event. He was busy speaking to the crowd around him. Back then, he had a small conflict with Zhao Li. But that did not matter at this moment. A large number of local weaponsmiths were surrounding him.

The white-haired old man solemnly said, "Zhao Li is removing the golden stripes to forge them anew. He is too ambitious and arrogant. The difficulty level of this is extremely high. He is trying to revert a pseudo earth weapon into its original state. That is even harder than forging a new weapon from scratch. But if he manages to complete this, he will become a true earth weaponsmith. Perhaps this fellow has long reached the skill-level of an earth weaponsmith."

Everyone could see the massive projection hanging in the sky. There were seventy-two and a half golden stripes on it. And the half stripe was in the middle of dissipating away.

Reforging.

For many weaponsmiths, this was a fairy tale. But today, someone was doing that in front of them. And it was being done on a pseudo earth weapon. The old man was right. Just the completion of the removal process was enough to make Zhao Li a proper earth weaponsmith.

But after the removal process, Zhao Li was going to continue with the forging. If he was able to proceed until the end and complete the earth weapon, he might even reach a level that was higher than this old man.

This old man was only a middle earth weaponsmith. He could forge up to eighty-two golden stripes. That was sufficient to make him one of the best in the Human Realm.

Nearby, a confused layman asked, "Elder Chen, why is Master Zhao doing this? Isn't it better for him to continue forging on top of what is already there? What's the point of this?"

"There are a lot of benefits to doing this." The old man explained, "Firstly, this process will strengthen the mold. A middle earth mold might grow into a peak earth mold.

"Secondly, this will remove the previous imperfections and further perfect the weapon. Back when he attempted to make this weapon, he was naturally not as experienced as he is now. With his current experience, he can remove all the past imperfections.

"Thirdly, the reforging process will result in a stronger weapon. And a stronger weapon will grant its maker even more benefits. A top tier cultural weapon will grant him more comprehension of weaponsmithing, their characters, their willpower, and their cultivation as a whole.

"Fourthly..."

At this point, he paused slightly. Someone behind him smiled and said, "Fourthly, Cui Lang will also benefit greatly by working alongside Zhao Li. He will be able to witness the creation of an earth weapon from scratch. He will understand the entire process. If they succeed, Cui Lang will probably experience one or two stages of growth in his weaponsmithing level."

The crowd turned to look at the newcomer. It was an old woman. Hu Qi!

Elder Chen stood up and greeted, "Senior Hu."

Yes. She was considered senior to him. She might be a middle earth weaponsmith, but she was slightly better than him. But that was mainly thanks to her age. Furthermore, she was the aunt of Great Xia's Administrator Hu. Thus, her seniority was actually quite high.

Administrator Hu was looking at them from afar with a smiling face. He did not dare to approach them as Hu Qi did not like him.

Hu Qi smiled and nodded, "Chen Xu. It has been many years since we last met."

"I didn't expect to see you here, Senior."

"I'm here to take a look since I once taught Cui Lang a thing or two." Hu Qi said, "He's Old Niu's student, but he can also be considered half a student of mine. A great opportunity is right before him. I hope he can grab it. If he can become a high or even a peak profound weaponsmith this time, he will definitely reach the earth grade in three to five years."

Her eyes lit up brightly as she said, "He will be an earth weaponsmith before forty. He will have an incomparably bright future. I did not expect Zhao Li to let Cui Lang act as his assistant for this project."

A lot of people were envious upon hearing that.

Some of the weaponsmith teachers started grimacing. One of them said, "I really don't understand Elder Zhao. We still have some profound weaponsmiths in our own academy. For example, Senior Brother Wang. He is a high profound weaponsmith. That's his first student as well. Why did he get an outsider to help him?"

Senior Brother Wang was there as well. He laughed and said, "Brother Sun, don't say that. My teacher has always been straightforward. If he thinks that you're unsuitable, you won't cut it even if you're his student. If he thinks you're suitable, he won't care about anything else. I looked at Junior Brother Cui's weapon earlier. He's pretty good. And he's so young. He has a brighter future ahead of him. If they manage to succeed and pave the way for his advancement into the earth grade in a few years, that will benefit humanity as a whole as well."

Suddenly, someone exclaimed in alarm. The half stripe on the hanging hammer had finally faded away.

"It's starting!"

"The moment the removal is completed, they will need to proceed directly with reforging these stripes. With Zhao Li's strength, the removal process will last around three days if there is no mishap."

"..."

Everyone stared at the hanging hammer attentively. They weren't able to see much, but any movement of the golden stripes would cause some people to exclaim in alarm. In the field of weaponsmithing, this event was akin to the birth of a Sunmoon.

Regardless of one's strength, an earth weaponsmith was the equivalent of a Sunmoon in value.

If Zhao Li succeeded, Great Xia would gain another earth weaponsmith. They would have one additional person capable of forging the weapons of Mountainseas and Sunmoons. Then again, with Zhao Li's temper, nobody could guarantee that he would forge any weapons for them.

Not far away.

Xia Huyou and a bunch of youngsters were also observing the hammer.

One of them said, "Cui Lang sure is lucky. He gets to take part in this. It's an earth weapon. An embryonic heaven weapon! It's not like he is a good man benefiting from good karma. How is this happening?"

"Why did Master Zhao pick him?

"This fellow sure is brazen. After creating such a big ruckus, he needs to be careful less Elder Cheng of Great Tang decides to come looking for him."

"Hahaha, that is very possible. He created too big of a ruckus this time. Everyone knows that he's helping Master Zhao Li. Upon success, he will become a high or even peak profound weaponsmith. I suspect that when news of this reaches Great Tang, the people there will call Elder Cheng out of seclusion to capture Cui Lang and take him back to Great Tang!"

"See, even the people from Great Ming are here. Senior Hu is a middle earth weaponsmith as well. And Vice Principal Wang is a Sunmoon. They are probably here to prevent anyone from stealing that fellow from Great Ming."

Beside them, Xia Huyou listened silently while rubbing his chin. Cui Lang? He knew who that person was. But how did that fellow earn Teacher Zhao Li's favor? This was too surprising.

In fact, it was already very surprising that Teacher Zhao would actually agree to meet Cui Lang. Everyone knew about Zhao Li's temper. He enjoyed offending everyone around him when talking. If it wasn't for his status, he would have been beaten up in secret.

"Cui Lang...if they succeed, we can consider roping Cui Lang to join Great Xia. I wonder if Su Yu knows him..."

Somewhere else.

Hong Tan and Bai Feng were at the top of the Wentan Research Center. With his arms crossed in front of him, Bai Feng said, "Teacher, what is Old Zhao doing? Why is he using an outsider as his assistant instead of his own student?"

His tone turned to one of envy as he continued, "Old Zhao's temper is too terrible. Teacher, why did he teach Su Yu his Soul Expanding Art but not me? Am I that bad?" This did not make any sense!

In the past, the Soul Expanding Art was relatively unknown apart from its fame among weaponsmiths. But after Su Yu used his hammer to kill Zhou Pingsheng and cripple Shan Xiong without even using a cultural weapon, everyone knew that this was a super offensive soul technique.

There were very few soul techniques in existence, and something with such prowess and low requirement in terms of characters like this was even rarer. Thus, a lot of people were starting to covet the Soul Expanding Art.

However, Old Zhao's temper was too terrible. He refused to teach anyone. As for Su Yu, since it wasn't his own art, it was unlikely that he would teach it as well. Thus, a lot of cultural researchers were feeling very regretful about it.

Hong Tan smiled, "That's not a bad thing. Your talent isn't good enough. After learning this, how long will you remain stuck below the Cloudbreach Realm?"

"..."

His talent wasn't good enough? Him? Bai Feng was feeling very gloomy. At this time, he saw someone heading in their direction. It was his younger cousin. He decided to ignore that boring cousin.

He said, "Teacher, what should we do about Brother Feng Ji? Are we ignoring him?"

"He will be fine. Someone else will be in trouble."

Bai Feng sank into silence. After a short while, he nodded, "I understand. It's not a bad thing to delay the trial for a few days. This will give Senior Brother the time to run further away. Maybe he can enter the Allheaven Battlefield and find somewhere to hide."

Hong Tan said, "It's fine. Don't worry too much. This might not be related to your senior brother. And even if it is..."

Hong Tan calmly said, "It won't have anything to do with us."

Bai Feng gloomily said, "Teacher, apart from enduring, is there nothing we can do?"

"Focus on protecting yourself first." Hong Tan said, "He's still alive, right? He's not dead. If you can reach the Cloudbreach or the Mountainsea Realm sooner, I will have fewer things to worry about. Even your student is going to surpass you soon."

"He might have surpassed me already." Bai Feng sulked, "With his apertures, he can directly become a Cloudbreach the moment his willpower reaches the corresponding level. Teacher, what can I do? I feel very helpless as well. It hasn't even been a year. Why are you comparing me against him? Why don't you compare yourself against him?"

"..."

Bai Feng was sent flying by Hong Tan's kick. Damn this bastard! How dare he disrespect his teacher! Was his teacher not allowed to nag him anymore? He ignored Bai Feng and looked in Zhao Li's direction again. Was Old Zhao doing this now to buy more time for Chen Yong?

If that was the case, this would be a huge favor owed. The more he thought about it, the more helpless he felt.

Perhaps...it would have been better if Su Yu had joined the weaponsmithing faction instead. Bai Feng had rashly accepted this student. Not even Liu Wenyan had expected that this kid would grow so fast. But now, it was too late to change anything. Hong Tan shook his hope and offered Old Zhao his prayers.

He turned to look in the direction of the prefect's residence. He saw a scene nobody else could see. There, in the void, several imposing figures were hovering.

"Three Invincibles...my student sure is important."

Hong Tan smiled. This...wasn't necessarily a bad thing. A few Mountainsea enemies had been killed. This was an acceptable trade. Of course, the premise was that Chen Yong would be able to escape this.

He then looked in the other directions. Sunmoons could be seen hiding all over the city. Hong Tan rolled his eyes. What was so interesting about this? These people should be careful lest they lose their lives from their curiosity.

"They are probably hoping to make Little Yong the main culprit. I guess having a public trial is a good thing. This way, we can force some people to show their true colors."

Hong Tan sneered with contempt before vanishing into thin air. Outside the research center, Bai Feng sent Bai Junsheng flying with a kick. This fellow should leave as soon as possible. Why was the Bai Family getting involved in this?