Deng Zhicai's eyes lit up as he sighed. "Master Ni grasped that skill indeed!"

Tian Boguang smiled. "General Deng is right, the challenge's outcome has been determined."

Chen Yifan pondered for a while, and his face suddenly darkened. He was deeply confused. 'How can that skill be grasped so easily?'

On the other hand, Fang Yihai sat quietly aside while watching with a cold expression. As long as Ou Yangming agreed to his request, he was not going to bother about the result.

Tian Boguang suddenly turned to ask Chen Yifan with a smile, "General Chen, what do you think?"

Deng Zhicai and Fang Yihai exchanged glances. They knew very well that Tian Boguang from the East Camp and Chen Yifan from the West Camp were never on good terms. Although they were not sworn enemies, there was always discord between them. Neither of them was right nor wrong, it was simply a fate between them.

Nonetheless, both of them had their own background and were well-matched in strength. Hence, the other three generals often tried to mediate the differences by compromising but did not side with any of them.

Chen Yifan scoffed. "General Tian, it's true that Master Ni is skillful, but he's too young, after all. He might not have actually grasped that secret technique."

"General Chen, you should wait and see." Tian Boguang laughed out loud, then said after a short pause, "I recall that Ou Yangming is only fifteen or sixteen years old, so he's actually younger than Master Ni."

Chen Yifan was instantly speechless, and he was slightly moved after hearing that. Since Ou Yangming was a genius and a freak, it seemed possible that Ni Yunhong, who had a noble background, showed a stunning performance.

The normal soldiers were also discussing among each other, but they made all kinds of ridiculous guesses.

On the other hand, many Military Fire Blacksmiths were confused and looked troubled.

They had indulged in the Military Fire Smithing Art for decades, and had their own understanding in the art, which they had worked painstakingly in their whole life for. If they were to challenge the generals in smithing art, they could easily triumph over the generals.

However, most of the Military Fire Blacksmiths had only lived in the military camp or a small town their whole life, so they were not very certain due to their limited experience.

Old Craftsman was the only one with a grave expression on his face as though he thought about something, but dared not confirm it.

Wang Zhongtong asked softly, "Old Craftsman, what do you think they're doing?"

The other blacksmiths turned to look at the old man eagerly.

"I'm thinking, perhaps…" Old Craftsman answered after some thought then shook his head and said, "It's quite unlikely. In order to possess the skill, apart from having extreme talent, one requires rich experience. Master Ni is too young…"

The rest of them tweaked their ears and scratched their cheeks as they were anxious, but they could not do anything about it since Old Craftsman said that it was impossible.

Finally, as the crowd watched in anticipation, Zheng Ziwen put on every piece of equipment smithed by Ni Yunhong.

A helmet, a military saber, an armor, a pair of arm guards, and a pair of greaves.

In actual fact, that was the most basic equipment set. Apart from those, there were also waist sash, jewelry, boots, and so on. Nevertheless, the basic equipment set was already very valuable, and not everyone had the ability to purchase it, let alone other pieces of supplementary equipment.

Zheng Ziwen inhaled deeply and looked rather thrilled.

Subsequently, he channeled his essential Qi into every piece of equipment.

A peculiar power was instantly released from the equipment set, which flowed back into Zheng Ziwen's body.

Almost at the same time, a bizarre light shone on the helmet and the armor. The light was vaguely green, and it alternated between the two pieces of equipment for some time before it disappeared.

While the light only moved around for a brief moment, it was enough for those who were observant to take a good look at it.

Ou Yangming watched as the green light disappeared. Instead of feeling worried, he yearned for the unknown.

A question lingered in his head. 'What exactly is that green light? What must I do to learn it?'

After seeing a new skill, the first thing that Ou Yangming thought was how he could acquire it. If he could learn a new skill, it did not matter even if he lost the challenge.

Even a fool knew at that moment the green light was Ni Yunhong's greatest dependence, but only very few could actually describe it.

Old Craftsman sighed. "Ah, indeed!"

Wang Zhongtong was distressed, so he quickly asked, "Old Craftsman, what exactly is that?"

"Back then when I went to the prefecture, I saw a type of equipment known as a suit." Old Craftsman shook his head.

"A suit? Is this a suit?"

The older Military Fire Blacksmiths exclaimed.

A suit, as the name suggested, was a set of equipment. That said, it seemed like the suit that they mentioned was a different thing.

"This isn't right. If it's a suit, why were the helmet and the armor the only ones that responded?" Li Shunfeng questioned.

Old Craftsman sighed. "A suit is actually separated into different categories. The highest level suit is the combination of all equipment to form the most powerful combination effect, but it's extremely difficult to do that. Therefore, blacksmiths came up with a simpler version by distributing the suit's effect. Regardless of the number of equipment, if they result in an amplified effect when they're matched together, they're considered a suit."

The other people nodded. They finally understood that among the pieces of equipment smithed by Ni Yunhong, only the armor and the helmet incited a suit's power. This was also considered the most basic suit.

Despite that, it was still a suit. As compared to a single piece of equipment, a suit had a much higher advantage.

Even if they were the judges, they could not go against their conscience by saying that Ou Yangming was the winner.

After all, nobody was foolish or blind. Even if the blacksmiths were shameless, the generals would not sit idly by.

Zheng Ziwen sensed the power quietly, then opened his eyes after a brief moment. He shouted excitedly, "A suit, this is definitely a suit!"

Ou Yangming took a step forward to ask, "Master Zheng, may I take a look at it?"

Zheng Ziwen removed the equipment set reluctantly, but cursed to himself, 'Although it's a suit, only the helmet and the armor responded. You should've pointed it out in the first place, so I didn't have to put on every piece of equipment.'

Ou Yangming took the helmet and the armor. He looked like he was inspecting them, but the Military Fire in his hands had actually flashed a few times.

[Item: Distinguished armor]

[Equivalent Rank: Ordinary Tool, High Grade, Rank Five]

[Attributes: Toughness +15, Durability 15]

[Item: Distinguished helmet1 (Red)]

[Equivalent Rank: Ordinary Tool, High Grade, Rank Four]

[Attributes: Sharpness +14, Toughness +14, Power +1, Durability 14]

Judging from the two pieces of equipment individually, it seemed like nothing was out of the ordinary such that the ones smithed by Ou Yangming were not inferior to them at all.

However, Ou Yangming could not forget the unforgettable green color.

That was because he had a vague feeling that the green color would be unusually important to him.

Zheng Ziwen kindly reminded Ou Yangming after seeing him being deep in thoughts, "Master Ou, that's a suit, so the power can only be sensed if you put the pieces of equipment on."

Ou Yangming raised his eyebrows and was slightly moved. Instead of putting them on, he placed them together.

Next, his Military Fire burned again.

Of course, it only burned a little in his palms, hence the powerhouses and blacksmith experts present did not notice it at all.

This time, the attribute layout that appeared in Ou Yangming's mind was completely different.

Other than the basic attributes of the two pieces of equipment, a set of green words appeared.

[Suit Combination: Increases physique by 10%, increases the upper limit of defensive power by 10%]

Ou Yangming's eyelids twitched as soon as he saw the set of data.

'Physique, defensive power?'

While they were not as straightforward as the Power and the Agility attributes, it was easy to understand them.

Physique represented an individual's body quality. When Ou Yangming put on his equipment set, he had an upgrade of 11 points and 4 points of Power and Agility respectively, but it did not mean that he was not lacking anything.

His greatest limitation was his physique.

If Ou Yangming had fought in his armor, his Qi, blood, and power would be exhausted very quickly. Without the countless flesh and blood at the dense forest's periphery, which allowed him to replenish his Qi and blood at any time, he could not have fought for a long time.

Similarly, Ou Yangming displayed an enormous power in the dense forest by carrying two ferocious beasts' carcasses. That being said, he felt weary after walking a certain distance and required more blood and flesh as replenishment.

It was all because of the limit from his physique.

Even though Ou Yangming had searched crazily to upgrade his physique, he could not find another way apart from cultivation so far.

This time, he saw hope in the suit.

As for defensive power, there was no need to explain it. Though it seemed like a 10% increment was not much, as a person's cultivation base improved, and the qualities of the pieces of equipment were upgraded, the 10% would be magnified.

Ou Yangming expressed after putting down the two pieces of equipment slowly, "I understand."

Zheng Ziwen did not demand more from him. He hesitated before asking, "Master Ou, do you have any comments? If not, I'll be announcing the result!"

Normally, he would have announced the result right away if a suit was made in a challenge of this level.

Having said that, today's situation was different. The two blacksmiths had unexpectedly displayed more superior abilities again and again, to the extent that Zheng Ziwen was starting to doubt himself.

Ou Yangming looked at him deeply. "Wait, wait."

Zheng Ziwen cried to himself, 'F*ck, it's really happening again…'

Author initially wrote military saber here, but as mentioned earlier, Ou Yangming is inspecting the helmet and the armor. We've corrected it for the context