Chapter 186: Yu Hong Mei

Old Zu nodded before clearing his throat: "We the Seven Great Elders welcome every one of you to the Blacksteel Decennial Refinement Competition and wish you best of luck. Shortly, you will be moved to the arena where you will be tested and the best of you all shall become the Child of Aptitude for the next ten years. Good luck"

The people murmured amongst themselves before they were moved to an open space at the centre of the large building.

Lu Zheng looked around at the people around him as he thought inwardly: "The alchemists have been moved to another space in the building and we artificers would be tested under the watchful gazes of the Four Artificer Elders. From this moment onwards, everyone is on his own"

Beside Lu Zheng was a large female with an elephant head and strong pale white tusks. Her gaze was filled with awe as she gazed around her.

"Blacksteel City truly is beautiful!" The beastman smiled to herself. She could still remember the many hardships she and her brother, Yu Peng Chao had endured to come to Blacksteel City. The journey alone took them several months and they faced many near death experiences in the hands of demonic path martial practitioners.

Yu Hong Mei, the female beastman knew why they had decided to take the risk. Her brother's words still rung loudly in her large ears.

"Hong'er, do not forget why we are here. Your talent in refining artifacts surpasses mine by a great margin and you have even grasped the core concepts of refinement path. This competition is your time to shine. Do your best, brother believes in you"

Speaking to herself, Yu Hong Mei blushed: "Elder brother, you'll see! I'll surely come first!"

Out of nowhere, bronze cauldrons appeared from nowhere with numerous refinement materials. A metal cast laid at the bottom of the empty cauldron.

"You may begin!" An Jian announced as the many martial practitioners rushed to start.

Lu Zheng stood motionlessly as he gazed at the large cauldron before him. A strong sense of nostalgia shook him.

Yu Hong Mei that was beside him harrumphed pitifully: "Clueless"

Ignoring him, she placed her right hand on the blue topaz gemstone on her neck as a blue Immortal Flame burnt under the bronze cauldron before her.

Lu Zheng cleared his mind of useless thoughts as he picked up a chunk of metal from the many refinement materials before him.

~The first task is to refine this earth crust copper into any suitable Profound Grade artifact. Most Master artificers can refine Profound Grade artifacts but normal artificers would struggle to even refine rank seven Simple Grade artifacts. This competition is already sifting the sand from the gems from the beginning~

Lu Zheng shook his head as a drop of Vermillion Blood floated from his hand before combusting into the crimson Vermillion True Flame.

The latent heat of the Vermillion True Flame was enough to melt the cauldron into nothingness but Lu Zheng controlled it. Not even artificers that were keen to strong flames could sense it at all.

Lu Zheng added the refinement materials into the cauldron slowly and carefully, making sure to be accurate to the very last grain. Over time, the contents of the cauldron turned molten.

Holding the cast in his hands, Lu Zheng ground the earth crust copper into dust with his bare hands before filling the cast with it. Slowly, he dropped the cast into the cauldron with his soul power.

The Vermillion True Flame burnt strongly as the contents of the cauldron mixed properly. Lu Zheng would even use his soul power to mix the molten contents of the cauldron.

After sometime, the molten mix in the cauldron began to boil and churn.

~It's time~

Lu Zheng opened a small vial of temporal sand and added exactly three grains into the cauldron.

The boiling mix churned vigorously before suddenly calming and turning into nothingness. The small cast in the cauldron laid at the bottom of the cast lonely.

Lu Zheng picked up the cast like it wasn't even hot and opened it. A small dagger appeared from inside the cast.

The dagger was extremely red from the heat but one could tell that it was extremely sharp and lethal. Ice Qi formed around Lu Zheng's hand as ice formed into the handle of the dagger.

Strong ice path aura blew past the dagger and it cooled instantly to reveal a small pristine dagger made entirely out of earth crust copper and ice.

"Rank three Profound Grade" Lu Zheng muttered to himself.

The small dagger was a rank three Profound Grade artifact and even Domain Formation realm experts would find it as an extremely powerful artifact.

Lu Zheng knew that the refinement materials provided could only be refined into a rank one Profound Grade artifact at best but he had refined a rank three Profound Grade artifact on a whim. This was because he was a Grandmaster artificer.

Soon, others began to finish and within moments, everyone was either done or was unable to refine a Profound Grade artifact.

They were casually removed under the watchful gazes of the Four Artificer Elders.

Only those that could refine Profound Grade artifacts remained.