Chapter 534: Soft Aurinium Ore
Mo Wanxia was the first to speak out of everyone there. “Are….are you saying you’ll be crafting one right now? Are we not going to go inside first?”
“No need,” Bai Yunfei smiled, “I’ll do it here.”
His actions today were already very high-profile. To go a little further with his feats would prevent people from trying to do any further investigations on the ‘mystical’ art.
The art of crafting wasn’t really a secret, but it wasn’t something that could be replicated by any spectator after a single glance.
Bai Yunfei stared at the seven with a solemn look, “Pay attention what I said. Your understandings and experiences will be what I will use for my initial assessment of you seven.”
He turned around to the people still watching him, “This one will start crafting now. The process will take a very long time, but feel free to leave or come back anytime you wish. My only wish is that everyone will be quiet when they watch, thank you.”
Bai Yunfei’s words and actions thus far had brought nothing but the deepest respect from the audience. Many of them were students, but there were a few instructors who felt a great deal of respect towards him now. “Don’t worry, instructor Bai, we will watch quietly.”
And just like that, the entire audience went silent, much to Bai Yunfei’s satisfaction.
Nodding, Bai Yunfei walked back to the center of the platform. He no longer cared for the outside world as he set about to preparing to craft a soul armament. A giant cauldron the color of fire itself plopped onto the platform with several sparks of lightning sometimes emitting from the inside.
It was the Lightningfire Cauldron.
The Cataclysmic Seal popped up next to him to transfer its fireseed from it into the cauldron. At the same time, the fireseed in Bai Yunfei’s chest moved from him over to the cauldron as well.
His actions were simple, but no one from the audience knew what it meant. All they could see was that the cauldron was starting to light up.
The second fireseed to enter the Lightningfire Cauldron was the one that came from Bai Yunfei. It was the fireseed with the companion lightningseed, and that meant the cauldron had now both of its corresponding elements in it so Bai Yunfei’s chances of successfully crafting was now slightly higher.
Pulsating his soulforce, Bai Yunfei activated the cauldron with a slight ‘bang’. Fire started to roar out from the center in large waves, bringing the temperature of the area high enough so that even the audience could feel it.
Bai Yunfei took a step back to sit down on the ground. His right hand waved in the air, bringing out all sorts of materials into the world. Wrapped in elemental fire, they laid out over one another in one neat row. Whenever Bai Yunfei pointed at a material, it’d flow into the cauldron.
The crafting was starting.
Everyone was extremely silent as they watched the items be burned up inside the cauldron. The seven students were most especially observant. Their eyes shined with extreme concentration to watch every single motion Bai Yunfei made. Every single second was spent focusing on him, and every so often, they would make sure to file away a thought for later reflection.
Elemental fire began to pour out from the cauldron after the first row of materials were poured into the cauldron. Likewise, the intensity of the flames start to rise as the materials were decomposed and mixed together to form a concentrated drop of liquid within the cauldron that rippled every so often.
This was where Bai Yunfei was starting to focus now. His right hand revealed a golden stone in his hand, pulsating strongly with elemental metal when it appeared. From just the energy alone, everyone in attendance could tell that it was comparable to even a high-grade primal stone or even a mid-earth tier soul armament.
It was a strange-looking stone. Rather than having edges and corners like any normal stone, it was completely smooth and spherical, making it seem almost ‘soft’ with how Bai Yunfei’s right hand looking as if it was half an inch into the stone.
Soft aurinium ore, a rare metal-type material that rarely was excavated by human hands. Its origins laid deep within the earth where only the Crafting School saw it being useful. A palm-sized chunk would mean having a purity level achieved by after a millennia of untainted growth. And having one would mean having a material that was worth as much as a low-earth tier soul armament.
The one Bai Yunfei had in his hand was one that would need at least three millennia to form, which was about the same in price as a high-earth tier soul armament.
This was one of the many materials the academy had provided for Bai Yunfei. When Bai Yunfei first saw this item in the warehouse, he immediately gave up the other materials he had in mind to use that one instead.
With this item, crafting a high-earth tier soul armament wouldn’t be a problem at all.
In order to guarantee his success, Bai Yunfei was using enough materials for two soul armaments to create one. It was a bit wasteful, but the importance of his success here was imperative.
The aurinium ore was placed into the cauldron for it to process. The fires within the cauldron immediately intensified with its addition, and the elemental fire around the cauldron was now even more intensive. The audience kept quiet, but even they could feel that the temperature in the area had risen again.
For a while after the aurinium ore was deposited into the cauldron, Bai Yunfei didn’t move. His two arms stayed pressed against the cauldron with his eyes closed. The only thing he was doing was regulating the flow of soulforce from his body to the cauldron to transmutate the inner contents, though his actions had several people think he was in a meditational trance.
It wasn’t for another hour when the audience heard a sign of activity from the cauldron in the form of crackling. The fires within the cauldron roared to life once more with such intensity that several people were entranced with its dancing movements.
Bai Yunfei’s eyes flew open at the same time. His right hand waved again, commanding several types of materials float over to him and into the cauldron like a commander ordering his soldiers.
The replenishment of materials in the cauldron was the start of Bai Yunfei’s refocusing on the cauldron. Still motionless, his hands were now manipulating the soulforce flow to control the flame.
Slowly, but surely, it went from midday to evening….
But Bai Yunfei didn’t move again for the entirety of that period!
Those people who were most excited about crafting slowly started to wane in interest. From excitement, they turned to confusion, and then ultimately disappointment.
So this is what the art of crafting was like. Tedious and boring.
A small portion of the audience had already left by the time evening hit, unwilling to stay there any more.
There were still a good amount of people that were watching Bai Yunfei with interest still. Perhaps it was the everchanging flames within the cauldron that excited them.
The seven students had been the most patient. They were prepared for the wait, and not once did their attentions weaken. They watched Bai Yunfei earnestly, and even though Bai Yunfei wasn’t moving, the seven of them were making careful note of how his internal soulforce was moving, and how the cauldron itself was altering its contents.
Evening was replaced with night, and the entire academy was basked in darkness except for the arena, where the fire from the cauldron was as bright as the midday sun.
It wasn’t until midnight when Bai Yunfei finally ‘woke’. He added a few more supplementary materials into the cauldron before again going into a state of stillness….
Night was replaced by day, and the audience found itself thinning again. There were several that came back, but more that left. Many of the audience had finally decided that the ‘enigmatic’ art of crafting was a ’disappointment’ and no longer wanted to waste any more of their time watching such a boring process.
But those that didn’t leave saw minute changes happening in the cauldron. The fire coming from the cauldron was more and more frequent now, and the aura from it stronger and stronger as if something on the inside was about to be ‘born’.
There were also a rarer few that saw a change on Bai Yunfei’s expression. He looked surprised almost, but definitely….excited.