Chapter 187: Countless Failures Made an Artificer
The Four Artificer Elders stood mid-air as they watched the many artificers below them. Their sharp gazes were fixed on every small action that they could not miss anything.
An Jian shook his head at the many people that walked away from the arena: "This competition is only for Master artificers and higher. Ordinary artificers cannot even make it past the preliminaries"
Despite his words, An Jian had a sense of pride that Blacksteel Association was able to turn away multitudes of artificers like it was nothing. Other forces would do anything in their power to get such young talents.
"Hmm, they can try again after ten years if their abilities have improved. Our Blacksteel Association has no need for ordinary people" Old Zu agreed completely with An Jian.
"This year will surely be good. Some people were even able to refine artifacts above rank one Profound Grade. There must surely be Grandmaster artificers among them" Old Fang clicked his tongue.
"Let's continue watching to see who the next Child of Aptitude will be" Di Wei smiled at the many artificers below him.
The artifacts and refinement materials disappeared from before the many people below the Four Artificer Elders and a new set of refinement materials replaced them.
The test this time was to refine an artifact above rank five Profound Grade. Most Master artificers would struggle to refine rank one and rank two Profound Grade artifacts and even the most seasoned Master artificers would make mistakes when refining rank four Profound Grade artifacts and above.
Only quasi Grandmaster artificers and Grandmaster artificers could easily refine Profound Grade artifacts without failure. Yet, how easy was it to become a Grandmaster artificer?
The four ranks of artificers ranged from Master, Grandmaster, Great Grandmaster and Supreme Grandmaster, each with their own abilities and limitations. Ordinary artificers could only refine Simple Grade artifacts and any attempts to refine anything above that would end in failure.
Only after countless experiences over decades would an artificer reach the Master realm and be able to refine Profound Grade artifacts. Even then, the chances of failure would be exorbitantly high.
The time required to become a Grandmaster artificer was even longer and dozens of decades would barely be enough. Only Grandmaster artificers could add dao imprints into their artifacts and refine Spirit Grade and Immortal Grade artifacts.
Those artifacts wielded power that could smite the earth and purge the heavens!
Mere martial practitioners that had never faced a single tribulation and broken through to the Sky realm could not even wield them.
Great Grandmaster artificers could refine Divine Grade artifacts. These Divine Grade artifacts had their own souls and could unleash chaos and disaster upon the world without fear. Even paramount gods and Immortals clamoured for such artifacts.
Supreme Grandmaster artificers were the rarest of all. They had been refining artifacts for millions of years and had perfected the dao of refinement. The artifacts they refined bore the laws of the world itself and were akin to fragments of the Heavenly Dao.
These Supreme Grandmaster artificers could refine Heavenly Grade artifacts that even Venerables feared. Only Reverends were invincible before them.
Countless failures made a seasoned artificer and untold wastage of refinement materials. Any force that wished to nurture a single artificer would spend millions of vital stones only to make little progression.
It was for this reason that Blacksteel Association was publicly accepted as the number one in nurturing artificers and alchemists and the richest force in all of Western Plains. Their coffers were definitely deeper than the mind could understand.
Lu Zheng opened his cast and submitted his artifact to the people that collected finished artifacts. This time, he refined a rank seven Profound Grade hammer.
Yu Hong Mei was the second to submit after Lu Zheng and she refined a rank six Profound Grade shield.
"This bastard isn't entirely clueless. Hmph! I'll show you that I, Yu Hong Mei, am better than you" Yu Hong Mei stared daggers at Lu Zheng as she controlled the blue Immortal Flame in her hands.
Time passed by and soon, it was time for the fifth and final test of the Blacksteel Decennial Refinement.
From the initial sixty thousand people that had joined the competition, only three were left. The bottom seventeen of the top twenty had already been confirmed and only these three remained to become the next Child of Aptitude.
Old Zu smiled brightly: "Last time, there was only one person left at this point but now, there are three people. This year is definitely a good one for our Blacksteel Association"
"Hmm. Even if only one becomes the next Child of Aptitude, the remaining two would surely be admitted by one of the Internal Elders. Their futures will be second only to the Child of Aptitude's" An Jian nodded gleefully.