Eighth-grade Blacksmith!

"Master Li Han, I want to register for the Blacksmith Tournament. How do I sign up?"

Li Changsheng asked.

"It isn't time for registration yet. You can register next month. When the time comes, I'll take you there," Li Han said.

"Thank you, Master Li Han."

Li Changsheng thanked him.

To obtain a good ranking in the Blacksmith Tournament, he planned to forge more types of weapons, such as sabers, swords, and spears.

As for the materials needed for an Eighth-grade Weapon, he had also asked Li Han to help gather them, striving to complete the forging of an Eighth-grade Weapon before registration began.

After that, he spent more time each day forging weapons like sabers, swords, and spears. The Forging Dao Fruit's ability continued to improve at a slow pace.

In the blink of an eye, half a month passed.

At this time, Li Han had gathered three Eighth-grade materials for Li Changsheng.

Mysterious Gold, Yellow Iron, and Gang Stone—combined with Hundred Refinements Mysterious Iron, these three Eighth-grade materials could be used to forge an Eighth-grade Weapon. Thus, he prepared to forge an Eighth-grade Armor.

With his current strength and forging skill, forging an Eighth-grade Armor would take at least ten days. During those ten days, he needed to remain in the Forging Room the entire time. Although he could rest briefly during the process, there would be very little time for it. If the forging was interrupted for too long, the changes between the various materials would halt, making it difficult to forge an Eighth-grade Weapon.

Clang! Clang! Clang!!!

Li Changsheng began hammering the other materials—smelting, forging, then smelting again. Every stage was exceptionally time-consuming and physically demanding. He had to rest for a while every one or two hours; otherwise, his stamina would not hold out.

During this time, people from the smithy brought him food, allowing him ample time to forge the Eighth-grade Armor.

One day!

Two days!

Before he knew it, eight days had passed. Over those eight days, he forged again and again, and the Forging Dao Fruit's ability improved somewhat, causing his forging skill to rise as well. In just eight days, he successfully forged an Eighth-grade Armor.

"It's done!"

Li Changsheng looked at the newly forged Eighth-grade Armor. It was entirely up to standard, and it was very thin. Once worn beneath clothing, no one would be able to tell that he had armor on.

After the Eighth-grade Armor had completely cooled, he tried slashing it with a Ninth-grade Longsword. It did not leave even the faintest mark.

"Worthy of Eighth-grade Armor—far superior to a Ninth-grade Weapon!"

After forging this Eighth-grade Armor, Li Changsheng looked at his Dao Fruit data.

[Host: Li Changsheng]

[Cultivation: Stone Skin Initial Accomplishment]

[Dao Fruit: Forging Lv2 (10%)]

"The Forging Dao Fruit has risen to Forging Lv2 (10%). That's quite an improvement."

Li Changsheng was very satisfied with this increase. If he could improve like this every time, then after forging ten Eighth-grade Weapons, wouldn't he have a chance to break through to Level 3? But that was unlikely. Later on, forging Eighth-grade Weapons would grant less and less Dao Fruit ability experience.

When Li Changsheng walked out of the Forging Room, Li Han and several other blacksmiths immediately crowded around him.

"Changsheng, did you succeed?"

Li Han asked.

"I succeeded!" Li Changsheng took out the Eighth-grade Armor he had forged.

"A qualified Eighth-grade Low-tier Armor!"

"Changsheng, congratulations on becoming an Intermediate Blacksmith! And you forged an Eighth-grade Weapon in only eight days—this efficiency is even better than that of many Intermediate Blacksmiths!" Li Han and the others congratulated him.

The status of an Intermediate Blacksmith was already quite high. If he joined some faction, even Bone Refining Realm experts would treat him with respect.

There were not many Intermediate Blacksmiths in the outer city, but in the inner city, Intermediate Blacksmiths naturally amounted to nothing.

Baiye City's inner city was a truly incomparably prosperous district. There were quite a few Advanced Blacksmiths there, and countless people from the outer city longed to flood into the inner city. Unfortunately, there were too few slots in the inner city.

Many Bronze Skin Realm Martial Artists could not obtain even a single Inner City Residency Slot. They could only stay in the inner city for a few hours and were unable to reside there long-term.

After some more days passed, registration for the Blacksmith Tournament began.

Li Han brought Li Changsheng to the registration site of the Blacksmith Guild, where he successfully registered. The registration fee was fifty taels of silver—enough to purchase several portions of Azure Origin Secret Medicine.

For many Stone Skin Realm Martial Artists, this was already an enormous sum, yet the Blacksmith Tournament registration fee cost this much.

Of course, many blacksmiths were quite wealthy, so they could still afford a mere fifty taels of silver.

On the sixth day after registration, the day of the competition finally arrived. One blacksmith after another came to the outer city branch of the Blacksmith Guild. Every tournament was held here.

There were enough Forging Rooms and materials here, and the space was also vast.

"Two hundred and thirty-two blacksmiths participating!"

Li Changsheng was also stunned by the number of blacksmiths. But when he considered that Baiye City's outer city, together with the various towns and villages, had a population of several million, a mere two hundred or so blacksmiths was not much at all.

Very soon.

The first round of the Blacksmith Guild's competition began. Every blacksmith forged a Ninth-grade Weapon, ranked by quality, and the higher-ranked blacksmiths advanced directly to the next round.

Li Changsheng chose to forge Ninth-grade Armor and completed it very quickly. Its quality was naturally Ninth-grade High-tier Armor.

As time passed, the other blacksmiths also completed their forging one after another. In the end, thirty blacksmiths advanced to the second round, while everyone else was eliminated.

The weapons forged by these thirty blacksmiths had all reached Ninth Grade Upper Tier quality. Most of them were middle-aged, and there were even several old-timers among them. Li Changsheng was undoubtedly the youngest.

After resting for several hours, the second round of the competition began.

The item to be forged in the second round was a custom weapon. The difference between custom weapons and ordinary graded weapons was that custom weapons came with forging blueprints and precise material allocation ratios.

For example, a Ninth Grade Armor Weapon—one piece of custom Ninth Grade armor was thirty to over seventy percent more effective than ordinary Ninth Grade armor. This was undoubtedly an enormous improvement.

However, custom weapons were extremely difficult to forge and easily failed.

Every custom weapon had been developed through countless forging attempts. It could even be said that they represented the ultimate material proportions. Once a mistake was made, the forging would fail, and the result would directly become a defective product.

There were not many types of custom weapons. Some blacksmiths had forged custom weapons before, so to prevent unfairness, they naturally were not allowed to choose their own custom weapon. Instead, they randomly selected one Ninth-grade Custom Weapon forging blueprint.

Li Changsheng and the others soon drew slips of paper from a large box, each bearing the name of a custom weapon.

"Azure Fang Sword!"

He then took the slip to collect the Azure Fang Sword's forging blueprint and materials. If the Azure Fang Sword was successfully forged, the finished product would belong to the Blacksmith Guild; the individual blacksmith could not take it away.

He briefly studied the Azure Fang Sword's forging blueprint before beginning to forge in earnest. Everyone still had only one chance. Luck was involved in this as well—if one was unlucky, no matter how high one's forging skill, failure was still possible.

Fortunately, the Azure Fang Sword was not an overly complex Ninth-grade Custom Weapon. He was still quite confident that he could forge it successfully.