Chapter 301 - A lecture on toolmaking
Dense multi-coloured starlight fell down onto the ground in streams, while the chilly night wind blew across the small island.
On the small island, located at the cross-section of two rapid flowing rivers, Yu Mu had built a blazing bonfire and was grilling a few human-sized chubby fishes on it. Three inches thick fish fat that had been grilled into clear oil, dripped down onto the fire along a loud sizzling noise, causing the fire to grow bigger and bigger as well as the delectable scent of grilled fish shrouded the entire island.
With a trace of an indescribable holiness and majesty, Yu Mu carefully spread the sauce made according to his family’s secret recipe, on the grilled fishes.
Man Man was like a hungry kitten, squatting closely beside the bonfire. She was staring at the amazingly great smelling fishes without blinking her eyes even once. From time to time, she tried to thrust out her hand and grab a piece of fish and wolf it down. However, every time she tried, Yu Mu would throw a glance at her and she would obediently retract her hand.
When it came to food, Yu Mu was like a god for Man Man. If Yu Mu said that a piece of meat was good enough to be eaten, it would be an absolute delicacy for Man Man. On the other hand, if Yu Mu said that something was not ready yet, Man Man would wait with patience till it was ready, else the food might taste lousy.
Ji Hao was sitting quite far away from the bonfire, with Yu Yu sitting right in front of him. Yu Yu’s five fingers abruptly spurted out streams of muddy purple smoke, with which, Yu Yu lightly made a grabbing motion in the air in the direction of Ji Hao. Following his move, the Yan Spear, the Gold Crow Armour and the Fiery Feather Boots, all the three precious treasures Ji Hao had brought from the Gold Crow Clan, instantly flew out of his body.
The three peak-level inherited Magic treasure emitted deep buzzing noises and began shaking in those streams of muddy purple smoke. Yu Yu narrowed his eyes, those primitive scenes, such as the cracking of the sky, flood and flame streams rampantly swooshing across the entire earth, flashed across his eyes, after that, he grinned and shook his head.
“Ji Hao, since you have already become my apprentice, I will immediately teach you some basic knowledge, in detail.”
“The Magi system was created by human beings. In ancient times, the human race was weak. Wild animal attacks, diseases, mosquito bites and natural disasters, any of these could wipe the entire humankind out. Magi emerged among the humankind, fought against nature and eventually gained a place for humans to exist.”
“The initial enemy of Magi was nothing else but nature, all wild living creatures and natural disasters used to be the enemies of Magi. Therefore, Magi valued ‘strength’ very much. The first generation of Magi pursued greatest strength - the most primitive kind. With that strength, they were capable of shattering mountains and splitting the ground, killing wild beasts or driving them away. They could even change the routes of rivers and flatten mountainous areas, to build fertile residential areas for the humankind.”
“Hm, therefore, well, I’m not downgrading your human ancestors but, here,” said Yu Yu while pointing at his own head, “their brains didn’t work so well!”
Yu Yu slightly knocked his own head with a struggling face, then continued seriously, “Ji Hao, you have been cultivating your soul and spiritual power, so I assume that you have already realized the differences between you and the other people. You’re special. Other Magi only pay attention to the cultivation of stuff like physical strength and bloodline powers, they only care about the improvement of strength and powers.”
“As a result, weapons and treasures made by Magi, are all heavy, simple, and highly lethal, but extremely lacking in versatility.”
Ji Hao nodded slowly. He then pointed the spear, armour and boots floating in front of him, smiled bitterly and said, “Dear Shifu, you’re absolutely right. These three were all precious inherited treasures of the Gold Crow Clan, made by my direct ancestors and have been nourished by generations of the Gold Crow Clan’s powerful Magi with their own spirit blood. But now, even with all my strength, I can only activate each of them for the span of only one breath.”
Yu Yu smiled and said, “See, that is because of the inadequacies of the tool-making methods they used. I told you, the brains of your ancestors didn’t work very well.”
Pointing at his own head once again, Yu Yu curled his lips and snorted scornfully, “All they knew was to melt the best materials down with the purest, hottest flame, mix the most solid and heavy materials together, then add some special materials that naturally had spiritual powers such as the bones of the Gold Crows, the horns or scales of dragons, and the feathers of phoenixes, as the core of their magic treasures. After they had mixed these powerful materials altogether, they would inject the fiercest, most powerful magic spells and spell symbols in them.”
Lightly flicking the Yan spear, Yu Yu laughed out teasingly and continued, “That is how those ancient, legendarily powerful Divine Magi, and even Supreme Magi thought, when they made magic treasures back then. They believed that if they mixed all the best materials and the most powerful magic spells together into a piece of treasure, then nourish it with generations of Magi’s spirit blood, that piece would become the most powerful magic treasure.”
Ji Hao grinned embarrassedly, looked at his Shifu and said, “Well…that…seems nothing wrong…”
Yu Yu buried his face in his hands and let out a long, muffled sigh, then he raised his head and yelled at the sky, “Such a waste! For many, many times, at least a hundred times, if my big brother hadn’t stopped me, I would’ve already robbed your dumb human ancestors a thousand times! A thousand times!! Seeing them wasting all those rare materials…...”
Ji Hao’s face darkened. What the hell? Did Yu Yu just confess to almost robbing the humankind’s ancestors?
Gnashing his teeth, Yu Yu grabbed the Yan spear with both of his hands, then flicked his finger. A series of Gold Crow caws came out from the spear, along with which, the spear expanded swiftly into a one-zhang wide, three-hundred-zhang long gigantic spear.
“Take a good look! This is what your spear is supposed to look like!” Yu Yu yelled with an extremely black face, which made it seem like countless lightning bolts were forming under his skin and were about to dart out, “Yeah look at how rich you were, using a whole ninety-nine Gold Crow skeletons and making such a lousy stick!”
Ji Hao grinned embarrassedly again, but his heart began beating intensely. A whole ninety-nine Gold Crow skeletons were in that spear? That was ten times more than the legendary number those elders had told him!
It was indeed, a bit of waste…
“If I had done the job, using ninety nine Gold Crow skeletons, I could have made at least three hundred and sixty weapons, each ten times more powerful than this stupid stick of yours!” Yu Yu snorted again and continued, “Look at this stupid thing made by your ancestor. True, he had no problem using it freely, but I am afraid none of his descendants, not even a single one, could use it in battle as freely as him!”
Ji Hao gave an even more embarrassed smile, and slowly lowered his head.
Yu Yu couldn't have been more right. This Yan Spear would drain his power within the span of a single breath, which made it impossible for him to use it in battle.
“Toolmaking is not as simple as mixing things together you know.” Yu Yu finally calmed down slightly and continued, “During all these years, I have collected quite a few magic treasures produced by the Magi Palace...Hm, your humankind…You have stepped onto the wrong path and never turned back from it!”
Ji Hao hurriedly raised his head in shock and asked, “Shifu, what, what do you think about the current toolmaking techniques of the Magi Palace?
Yu Yu looked at Ji Hao and responded in a lazy tone, “Well, your ancestors had already chosen the wrong path, and now, those kids in the Magi Palace are trying their best to steal technologies from the non-humankind, and add as many magic spells and symbols into their treasures as possible through all kinds of methods… If you ask what improvements they’ve achieved during all these years, then that would be that they’re now wasting less than they had been doing before.”
Sighing, Yu Yu took out his wine calabash and slowly took a sip of the ‘wine flavoured river water’ contained in it.
“Toolmaking is not that simple Ji Hao, it’s far beyond simply making tools. Instead, you create things when you make tools, turning foul and rotten things into the rare and ethereal treaures, turning artificial into natural, turning impossible into possible, you know? The peak level of true toolmaking is turning a piece of shit into a magically powerful treasure that is powerful enough to create a new world!”
“Eh…”
Ji Hao stared at Yu Yu in both shock and confusion. Turning a piece of shit into a world-creating magic treasure? It sounded…odd, and yet, quite reasonable!
“Dear Shifu, can you do that?”
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Edited by SecondRate and Horrible CPU
Translated by XianXiaWorld