Ou Yangming shook his head and curbed his thought again, then he inspected the remaining materials on the casting table.

The purple flame in his sea of consciousness still enveloped many attributes, so he was confident about upgrading the longsword to the peak of Fine Grade Rank Five without using any material on the casting table.

Nonetheless, he was at the capital, not Changlong County's prefecture.

Perhaps he was facing the present princess at the moment, but Her Royal Highness had the support of a remarkable Fine Grade King.

Therefore, Ou Yangming did not want to leave any loopholes in front of them.

He could subdue the blacksmiths from Changlong County's Ni family and Fang family, but… He would be imagining the wildest thing if he wanted to fool the Fine Grade King.

Ou Yangming nodded after he checked the materials because he was satisfied with them.

He later picked up the longsword and burned the Military Fire around the weapon.

The weapon's attributes appeared in his mind, and he was given two choices as usual.

Ou Yangming chose to draw the attributes without any hesitation, where he withdrew every unique property from the longsword.

Power +3, Ice Attribute Might +2, Freeze Combo (Rank One).

Nothing changed when he absorbed the first two properties, but he needed to use twice the size of the usual purple light to draw the skill property. Moreover, the process was sluggish to a certain extent.

Ou Yangming immediately understood that he was lucky to have become much stronger than before, or he would not be able to draw the skill property.

It would be wishful thinking for him if he had just gotten the Military Fire not long ago.

Without the special properties, the longsword became an ordinary treasure sword at the peak of High Grade.

Following that, purple lights were released onto the longsword right away. As a result, the weapon's basic attributes were greatly improved in a split second.

Before long, a longsword at the peak of Fine Grade Rank Five appeared in front of him.

Ou Yangming smiled proudly. The smithing technique was considered a cheat and could not be compared with Master Wu Hongxi's path of equilibrium, but it was useful during special and crucial moments.

As the Military Fire kept burning, Ou Yangming added the special properties, which he had withdrawn earlier, to the longsword.

In actuality, he could upgrade the longsword without drawing the properties, but he wanted to be as careful as he could, so he put in more energy and effort into the process.

With the purple Military Fire's help, he completed the alteration of the longsword in just 15 minutes.

Ou Yangming exhaled deeply and sensed the longsword's properties. He was extremely proud.

[Item: Extraordinary longsword (Yellow)]

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

[Attributes: Sharpness +20. Toughness +20, Power +3, Ice Attribute Might +2, Durability 20]

[Skill: Freeze Combo (Rank One)]

Only the quality of Fine Grade Rank Five was worthy of the three special properties.

No. Honestly, according to Ou Yangming's judgment, the peak of Fine Grade Rank Five was not a big deal; he thought that only a magic tool could match the properties well!

Nevertheless, how could Ou Yangming reveal his best trump card in this situation?

He put down the longsword and picked up a piece of featured steel and some other rare materials. Through the Military Fire, they were quickly made into different pieces of equipment. Needless to say, the pieces of equipment were only made to increase some attribute storage for the purple lights in his sea of consciousness.

Once Ou Yangming absorbed the attributes, the materials' essences vanished as they were burnt by the Military Fire, and the materials turned into ashes in the end.

Just as Ou Yangming wanted to call out to Wu Hanning, he was struck with a thought. He fixed his gaze on the white peculiar stone.

The young fellow was dying of curiosity. 'What exactly is this odd stone's magical effect?'

It was a completely different treasure as compared to the bizarre stone in the Chaos Cave. Being a blacksmith, the fact that Ou Yangming was clueless about the treasure's function made him feel more uneasy than if he were to die.

Ou Yangming would be fine if he did not think about it, but since he did, he instantly became interested and was eager to try.

He gritted his teeth and reached out for the longsword to envelop it with his Military Fire. Concurrently, the fire burnt the white peculiar stone too.

Ou Yangming decided to utilize the white ore since he identified that the two special properties were related to it.

"Woosh…"

As the Military Fire burned, a wonderful power spread in the fire.

The white stone was incredibly stubborn as it did not waver even when the Military Fire burned it.

Another blacksmith would have felt troubled upon facing this issue. Back then, an almighty blacksmith from the imperial family was only able to melt the stone under extreme coincidence, which was why the weapon was smithed. Consequently, the weapon was at the peak of High Grade, but nobody could melt the white ore anymore.

However, it was worth noting that Ou Yangming's Military Fire could melt even the indestructible queer stone in the Chaos Cave, let alone this white ore.

When the purple Military Fire's power was slowly adjusted to become greater, the white stone finally began to melt.

Ou Yangming's energy, essence, and spirit rose as he carefully observed the entire process.

All of a sudden, he sensed that the white ore's power strangely resonated with the longsword after it melted.

They were only able to communicate so mysteriously because they were both wrapped by the Military Fire.

Ou Yangming was moved, and he became more certain about their connection.

Without any hesitation, he released his conception and opened up a customized path between them.

For the white ore and the longsword, they initially resonated because there was a mysterious connection between them. After Ou Yangming opened up a path, he added momentum to the process where the white rare stone could be linked with the longsword more easily, and they became unstoppable.

Enormous exceptional energy flowed rapidly in the passage, resulting in massive pressure on the Military Fire around it.

Ou Yangming was forced to draw out more energy to maintain the passage, but he looked forward to the outcome. He could feel that the longsword's energy was being increased, so much so that its quality was changing.

On top of that, he also had an untypical feeling that if the energy continued to flow, the longsword could directly become a magic tool without him needing to apply any smithing technique.

The white ore slowly disappeared after half an hour, and the surging energy eventually diminished too until it disappeared.

Ou Yangming shook his head and thought, 'It was just one breath short.'

He had a strong hunch that the longsword could be reborn if the white ore's energy was slightly more powerful.

'What a pity—it's truly such a pity!'

As the Military Fire burned, the longsword's properties were displayed.

[Item: Extraordinary longsword (Yellow)]

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

[Attributes: Sharpness +20, Toughness +20, Power +3, Ice Attribute Might +3, Durability 20]

[Skill: Freeze Combo (Rank Two)]

Ou Yangming's eyelids twitched. He was surprised that the longsword's properties changed drastically after the white ore's power was used up.

An Ice Attribute Might +1 was like an appetizer, but the advancement of the Freeze Combo skill from Rank One to Rank Two was indescribable.

After all, Ou Yangming was the owner of the Blood Flight waist sash, hence he knew very well how powerful and fearsome a skill property was.

Ever since Ou Yangming possessed the waist sash, he even dared to fight a Supreme Great Ancestor because he knew he could at least escape even if he could not defeat a great ancestor. This was the most formidable aspect of a skill property, and it was clear that the Freeze Combo skill was unordinary.

At this moment, Ou Yangming was quite tempted to reduce the Freeze Combo and the Ice Attribute Might by one level each.

In any case, Wu Hanning's request was simple; she only asked to retain the special properties. As for the layering of attributes, Ou Yangming figured that it did not cross her mind at all.

Despite that, Ou Yangming got rid of the idea after a moment of hesitation.

Wu Hanning was Master Wu Hongxi's niece, and due to the master's pointers, Ou Yangming was able to gain unmatched benefits from the path of equilibrium. Although it seemed like his cultivation base and smithing art had not improved yet, the young fellow knew how much exactly he benefited from the master's teachings.

Thus, as thick-faced as he was, he would not be ungrateful even if nobody knew it was difficult for him to get through it.

Ou Yangming sighed and shook his head. He curbed his Military Fire and picked up the sword, then he opened the door as he dared not delay the matter any longer.

Even though he had strong willpower, it was tough for him to resist the temptation of seizing the special properties for himself, especially when nobody was watching him.

Hence, he had to return the longsword to its owner as soon as he could because he was afraid of doing something that was against his conscience.

Sure enough, Wu Hanning was waiting quietly outside the door. It had been an hour, but she did not look impatient at all.

The look in her eyes changed the moment the door was opened, where she cast a questioning and anxious look at Ou Yangming.

One would panic more the more concerned one was. There were not many things that could get in Wu Hanning's head, but the longsword was certainly one of them.

Ou Yangming did his best to curb his thought, then he handed the longsword to the princess. "Young Lady Wu, please check and accept it."

"Master Ou, did you succeed?" Wu Hanning was undecided.

She made a guess when she saw Ou Yangming's expression earlier, but she could not help but ask.

Ou Yangming laughed and answered, "I was able to accomplish the task by good luck."

Wu Hanning's eyes darted a little, and a look of delight was soon seen on her face as though the whole world became lively and full of life.