Exam

It was the day of the rank 1 master smith exam, Liu Feng got up at 7am as he did not want to be late. He had a quick breakfast at the hotel’s dining area, it was a complimentary meal.

He then headed over to the Smithing Organization building. “What the hell why is there so many people here today? It was not so crowded on the day when I cam to register. Are all this people here to take the exam?” Liu Feng thought.

Looking around at all the people, Liu Feng assessed their cultivation level and saw that majority of them were at the Qi refinement realm and 2 of them were at the Foundation establishment stage.

Both the people at the foundation establishment were stage were almost 40 they were at foundation establishment 2 and 3 respectively.

“There is even an old man around 60 at the Qi refinement realm participating in the exam.” Liu Feng was shocked at how many people there were for this rank 1 master smith exam, since the exam is held once a month.

Liu Feng went through the crowd and entered the building, he then collected his registration number.

Heading to the waiting area, he noticed that 10 rooms were where the examination was being held.

There were displays above the room with numbers, looking at the numbers on the displays and looking at his number he saw that it would take him roughly around 30min to get to his.

Thus with nothing to do Liu Feng went outside the building and headed to the Forging Organization. He walked towards the receptionist, realising that the receptionist was a different person.

“Is the book of techniques for rank 2 master forgers available for purchase? And when is the next exam for rank 2 master forgers?” Liu Feng asked.

“To purchase the rank 2 forging technique book, you will have to show me your rank 1 master forger ID. The book costs 10 purple dram, and as for the exam it will be held every 2 months once. The next exam will be next month on the 15th of August.”

“Oh you will need a rank 1 master forger ID? I didn’t know that anyways thank you for the information.” Liu Feng scratched his head walking outside of the building.

Spending his time by sitting down outside the smithing building and observing the people who were coming and going, it was soon Liu Feng’s turn.

Entering the building he saw that room number 9, displayed one number behind his. Thus the next one should be his number.

Waiting for another 5mins, a man around the age of 27 exited the room with a dejected face.

“I am assuming he did not pass. I have been seeing almost 95% of the people walking out of the building with a dejected look. Is it that difficult to pass?” Liu Feng thought.

His number was displayed on the screen for room 9. Liu Feng entered the room, seeing only one wooden table in the centre with an elderly woman with black hair with a few strands of white hair.

She was slightly hunched back and was holding a walking stick in her left hand.

The elderly woman was gesturing for Liu Feng to walk towards the table.

Liu Feng was shocked when he could not detect the woman’s cultivation level, but it was not because she had a cultivation higher than him. There was something preventing him from seeing her cultivation.

“Boy do not try to see my cultivation it will not work.” The elderly woman smiled slyly at Liu Feng.

“Quickly now head over to the table and pick up the wooden sword on the table, and start applying the three techniques in the rank 1 master smith book. You will have considered passed when you have applied 2 techniques successfully on to the wooden sword.”

Liu Feng was shocked about what the old lady said but he did not waste any time and quickly started drawing the a first layer runic circle on to the paper provided with the respective sigils for the weight decrease technique.

Channeling his Qi into the runic circle he passed his Qi along the sigils in the correct order, successfully applying the weight decrease technique on to the wooden sword.

Liu Feng then proceeded with the other two techniques as usual successfully applying them as well. This process took Liu Feng 10mins.

The old lady observed Liu Feng carefully and was delighted with the speed and accuracy he had shown when applying the technique on to the wooden sword.

“The boy did not falter at all though out the process, and looking at him. He does not seem to be old thus implying that he is indeed talented in the art of smithing.” The old lady thought.

“Pass me the wooden sword so that I can inspect it.”

Liu Feng handed the wooden sword to the old lady.

“Good application of the techniques, well done 3 out of 3 techniques applied you have passed.”

The old lady shook the wooden sword breaking all the techniques on the wooden sword before placing it down on the table.

“How did she break apart all the techniques on the wooden sword?” Liu Feng was baffled.

The old lady then took out a red card from her ring and asked Liu Feng for his name and age. She inscribed something on to the back of the card before handing it to Liu Feng and asking him to drip a drop of blood on to it.

Liu Feng took the card and dripped a drop of his blood on to the card, the card shimmered with words appearing on the black card.

“The card had the words Smithing Organization is bold on it, along with Liu Feng’s picture and his name and age. The words rank 1 Master Smith were also on it.

But what confused Liu Feng the most was when did they get a picture of him.

“The picture was take when you entered the room.” The old lady pointed to a camera opposite the door he entered from.

Liu Feng looked at the camera and chuckled.

“Now you are officially a rank 1 master smith please head to the reception to purchase a book with the techniques of a rank 2 master smith and start studying them.” The elderly woman smiled at Liu Feng.

Liu Feng exited the room and head to the reception. He purchased a book with the techniques of a rank 2 master smith for 10 purple dram, he was surprised that there were only 2 techniques in it.

And the exam for a rank 2 master smith which needed him to perform the two techniques was held 2 months once. The next exam would be on the 14th of August.

“Time to head back to the hotel and start cultivating after a good break. And tomorrow is the exam for the rank 1 master forger” Liu Feng thought heading back to the hotel.

Once back at the hotel Liu Feng started to cultivate using the Harmonious Cosmic duality supreme cultivation art, after 2 hours his Qi sea accumulated 90% of Qi.

“I will be able to break into foundation establishment 2 tomorrow. But I have been neglecting the training of 100 steps to heaven. Once I am back at West district, and after I have mastered the rank 2 techniques of both the master forger and the master smith, I will focus on the hundred steps to heaven.” Liu Feng decided

Liu Feng opened up the book for the rank 2 smithing techniques, and started studying.

Liu Feng was able to comprehend 1 technique which was the , it allows the weapon to give off a small blast of fire with each strike from one point of the weapon.

“This technique is incredible!” Liu Feng thought as he started to apply the technique on one end of Kumo.

Spinning Kumo around he struck the wall, a small flame emitted from the point at which the technique was applied on Kumo.

Liu Feng controlled his Qi thus the flame emitted was small, as he was in a hotel and did not want to cause any property damage.

“This would be a great surprise attack against my enemies as they would not expect fire to be emitted from Kumo.” Liu Feng thought as he headed to bed to sleep.

The next day Liu Feng got up slightly earlier than yesterday, as he wanted to register first allowing him to complete the exam faster.

Liu Feng rushed to the Forging organization building, after having his shower. He decided to postpone his breakfast for after the exam.

Since it was only 6am now, there was lesser people at the building. He went into the building to register, getting his number.

The forging organization followed the same rules as the smithing exam. Thus waiting for his turn for about 5 minutes, he entered room number 5.

There was a man in his thirties, with a wooden table and a metal helmet on it.

The man had a buzz cut with an extremely serious face, the unusual part was that he had no eyebrows, which seemed to have been burned off.

This time Liu Feng smiled as he entered the room as he knew that a camera would be there, opposite the way he entered.

“Please apply the three rank 1 forging techniques on this hemet. You will need to have successfully applied 2 out of the 3 techniques to have considered passed. Please begin” The man said with a monotonous tone.

Liu Feng walked up to the table and started the process of applying the 3 techniques on to the helmet. He successfully applied all 3 techniques, Protection technique, fire and frost resistance techniques.

Passing the helmet to the man to inspect. The men congratulated Liu Feng with a robotic tone, “Congratulations, you have passed please wait for a moment as I have to give you you card. Then head over to the reception for further information.”

Liu Feng understood that the man’s character itself was like that. Taking the card from the man, he dripped his blood on it like he did previously.

The words Forging Organization, along with his name and age, but this time his picture looked better as he was smiling.

The words Rank 1 Master Forger was also on it, the only difference was that this card was yellow unlike the smithing card which was red.

Heading to the reception Liu Feng purchased the rank 2 forging technique book which was 10 purple dram. Again this book only had 2 techniques inside.

Leaving the building, Liu Feng went to a nearby restaurant to have his breakfast.

With successfully registering as a rank 1 master forger and master smith. His goal in coming to central district has been achieved.

“Now time to break through into Foundation establishment 2” Liu Feng said as he entered his room.

Sitting in a lotus position, Liu Feng started cultivating. After 1 hour, with his Qi sea 100% filled, he felt his Qi sea empty out immediately as all the Qi was used to expend the Qi sea.

Liu Feng noticed that his Qi Sea had grown bigger in size and depth. “So this is what it feels like to break through during the foundation establishment.”

Getting up, he went to have a shower. Switching on his laptop Liu Feng checked the timing for the bus back to West district.

Realising that a bus would be leaving to west district in 10 mins, Liu Feng rushed out of the hotel and checked out making his way to the bus interchange.

“I made in just in time” Liu Feng said panting as he purchase a ticket back to West district.

On board the bus Liu Feng was smiling as he now had a clearer path in front of him.

Looking into his ring Liu Feng’s mood was ruined as he saw that he only had 41 purple dram and 68 blue dram left.

“Dammit I spent so much money on my trip to Central District. Gotta go make more money before University starts next month.” Liu Feng thought as he looked outside the windows of the bus.