Chapter 10 : Chapter 10
Chapter 10: Aaaah, I Don’t Believe It
“I don’t believe it!”
The moment he heard that, the bandit exploded.
Mo Cuidao exploded as well.
Although 【Complete Collection of Artifact Refining Techniques for the Qi Refining Stage】 was not some especially valuable item, it actually existed in two versions.
One version was collected in the Defying Heaven Sect’s Technique Pavilion. Its difficulty had been simplified, making it easier to learn and understand, without too high a barrier to entry.
But the version Mo Cuidao had passed to Ning Ri through the bandit puppet was his private edition, the one he intended to pass on to his Closed-Door Disciple. The techniques inside were far more profound.
Without Mo Cuidao personally guiding the student through it, merely understanding the text would likely be extremely difficult.
After calmly returning the jade slip to the bandit, Ning Ri asked, “Why do you not believe me?”
The bandit immediately shouted angrily, “You say you learned it, but have you really? I have been reading this thing for five years, and even I still have not understood it. What gives you the right to say you have learned it? This thing is extremely complex—”
Ning Ri said nothing. Suddenly, a current of spiritual power surged through his hand and coiled around his fingertips. It danced a few times like a little spirit, then transformed into a string of incantation formula before vanishing again.
The bandit instantly fell silent...
Mo Cuidao also revealed a stunned expression.
The disciples at Kite Plaza could not quite understand what had happened, and they began whispering to one another. “What is going on?”
But the sharper ones only needed to glance at Mo Cuidao’s expression to understand at once...
Mo Cuidao had never imagined that Ning Ri could learn it so quickly...
That was impossible!
Even though 【Complete Collection of Artifact Refining Techniques for the Qi Refining Stage】 was mostly theoretical knowledge, with relatively little practical incantation work, it was still very hard to cultivate.
How had he learned it so fast?
Only after standing there frozen for a breath did he turn toward Xun Cang and stammer, “Y-you... didn’t you say he was trash?”
Before Xun Cang could speak, Zhou Heng corrected him. “Wrong. I said he was a genius, a genius when it comes to spells!”
As he spoke, the corner of Zhou Heng’s mouth curled upward slightly, a trace of pride on his face, as though the one who had just shown off a little was not Ning Ri, but him.
And Zhou Heng’s pride was entirely justified. He had said Ning Ri was a genius, but while the others had not openly questioned him, they had not fully believed him either. After all, Ning Ri had never learned Spirit Absorption Art in front of all of them.
But now things were different.
That one display had shaken every elder present.
It proved that Zhou Heng had not been exaggerating.
After standing there in a daze for a while, Mo Cuidao’s expression still looked terrible, but a trace of excitement suddenly surged up in his heart...
Ning Ri said again, “All right. Since I have already learned that one, then you will have to bring out another technique.”
The bandit stared at Ning Ri and, just as before, gritted his teeth once more and took out another jade slip, handing it over. “This is an extremely difficult fire-control incantation called 【Heaven-Burning Chapter】. This jade slip has absolutely never circulated on the market. I refuse to believe you’ve learned this one.”
“After reading it, you must let me go!”
Ning Ri did not bother responding. He took the jade slip and started reading furiously. Once he finished, he tossed it back to the bandit and said indifferently, “Another one.”
“I’ve learned this too.”
The bandit instantly flew into a rage. “Impossible!!!”
Before those words had even finished falling,
the fury on the bandit’s face suddenly stiffened. Firelight flickered in his eyes, reflecting his silence.
That firelight came from a wisp of blue-green flame dancing on Ning Ri’s fingertip.
The blue-green flame gradually grew larger. Then five more tongues of fire appeared around it, revolving ceaselessly. Those five flames carried the power of the Five Elements.
This gave the blue-green flame not only scorching heat, but also a deeply embedded sense of corrosion and erosion. It was a smithing-fire incantation that allowed an artifact refiner, even with only Qi Refining cultivation, to refine higher-tier Foundation Establishment ores beyond his level.
And this, too, was the most difficult kind of smithing-fire incantation within 【Heaven-Burning Chapter】.
The instant that flame appeared, Kite Plaza fell completely silent.
Everyone had heard of Mo Cuidao’s methods.
Anyone who knew even a little about artifact refining understood how profound this technique was.
This Ning Ri was far too monstrous!
And the elders seated above understood even more.
Mo Cuidao was not someone who worked behind closed doors in isolation. He had discussed this fire-control incantation with many of the other elders before.
He had said that he was compiling the most comprehensive and most supreme fire-control method. This fire could defy heaven and refine the Heavenly Dao itself into a treasure.
He intended to leave the Heaven-Burning Chapter to his Closed-Door Disciple, allowing that disciple to build a perfect foundation from the Qi Refining stage onward.
If he himself could not defy heaven, then his Closed-Door Disciple would do it in his place.
And all the other elders had thought Mo Cuidao’s brain might have been flooded with molten iron.
For elders of immense cultivation, the Qi Refining fire-control techniques of 【Heaven-Burning Chapter】 were not difficult.
Because they could use their own cultivation to force compatibility with those techniques.
But for a Qi Refining cultivator—
these techniques were simply too difficult.
The elders believed that only one of the top artifact refining geniuses in the entire cultivation world, a once-in-a-millennium prodigy with exceptional natural talent, could possibly adapt to Mo Cuidao’s fire-control techniques while still in the Qi Refining stage.
But people like that usually would not come to the Defying Heaven Sect.
And although Mo Cuidao always refused to admit what the other elders said—especially the part about molten iron getting into his brain—he still acknowledged one point deep down—
this method really was difficult.
Otherwise, he would never have handed it to Ning Ri through the bandit at a moment like this...
But he had not understood what kind of young man Ning Ri really was.
At that moment,
the elders’ seats had fallen utterly silent.
Zhou Heng, who had been looking smug just a moment earlier, now wore a strange expression.
He was muttering inwardly—
Good heavens.
The last time, when this brat took half an hour to learn Spirit Absorption Art, he was probably faking it...
Then one elder after another turned to look at Mo Cuidao, curious to see what expression he wore now.
After all, he had just been publicly slapped in the face twice in a row.
And Mo Cuidao’s expression had grown even uglier, tinged now with anger...
...
At the same time,
inside the water screen, after a moment of silence, the bandit suddenly gritted his teeth and snarled, “You’ve even learned Heaven-Burning Chapter?”
“Then I refuse to believe you’ve learned the array-inscription method: 【Subtle Precision】.”
Ning Ri took it, tossed it back, and said, “Another one. I’ve learned it.”
“...Aaaah! I don’t believe you’ve learned the furnace-nurturing method: 【Dao Nourishment】.”
“Another one. I’ve learned it.”
“Aaaah! I refuse to believe you’ve learned the material-refining method: 【Red Furnace Melts Snow】.”
“Another one. I’ve learned it.”
“Aaaah! I refuse to believe...”
...
“Mo Cuidao, stop refusing to believe it for a moment and wait!”
At Kite Plaza, Zhou Heng sensed that things were going badly and cut Mo Cuidao off.
At this moment, the expressions with which all the elders looked at Mo Cuidao had become extremely strange.
Every gaze was fixed on Mo Cuidao’s face, and none of them looked friendly.
Mo Cuidao, however, glared back at them in fury. “What? What do you all want? Why won’t you let me continue? Do you all want to see me make a fool of myself in front of so many disciples?”
“He first smeared my reputation, claiming I had some connection to him, and now he keeps learning my techniques on the spot. If this gets out, what will people think of me?”
“They’ll think Ning Ri is one of my people, that I’m pulling strings for him through the back door!”
“I absolutely will not allow such a thing to happen.”
“I must find a technique he cannot learn and prove my innocence.”
Even as he spoke, the bandit in the water screen kept shouting, “Aaaah! I don’t believe you’ve learned the shaping method: 【Ghostaxe Divine Craftsmanship】...”
Seeing this, Zhou Heng was so angry that he laughed instead. “Heh, making a fool of yourself? Don’t think we don’t know what you’re doing!”
“From the basic knowledge of artifact refining, to furnace nurturing, fire ignition, material refining, array inscription, and shaping—the things required in the actual process of artifact refinement...”
“Is this your idea of taking revenge on him?”
“This is clearly you taking a disciple in public!”
“This is supposed to be the disciple trial!”