Fallen into Mud

"Hmm, I must have opened my eyes the wrong way. There might be some trickery afoot."

Lu Li scraped at his eyelids with his fingertips, preparing to open them again while activating Azure Underworld Painted Skin, hardening his entire body until it was stiff as a board.

"What the heck are these people doing?"

"Your master has recalled a saying from the middle reaches of the Spirit Blood River Basin. I wonder if you have heard it before: the two arts of clamping and welding are divided into three grades—human and earth grades compete in writing, while the heaven grade competes in both martial skill and writing."

At those words, Lu Li's brain crashed. His little mouth opened and closed twice as though he wanted to say something, but in the end, he fell silent.

What a fine "forge artifacts, forge people, even forge the heavens"—then he forgot the rest.

At this moment, Lu Li only hated his own lack of learning; he could not even compose a poem to convey how utterly speechless he was.

He had merely wanted to earn a seal, yet he had somehow gotten to watch this pack of living Yamas from the middle reaches descend to earth in formation and put on a performance.

That was right. Though they were supposedly competing in artifact forging for the top twenty promotion slots, if they accidentally injured everyone else to death, would that not make them top twenty?

With that thought, Lu Li immediately felt his mind clear, while Elder Duan continued speaking with animated delight.

"This is nothing. This is only a heaven-grade assessment in the lower reaches. If you had been born in the middle reaches and were fortunate enough to witness the middle reaches' artifact-forging assembly, you would know what it means for a hundred clans to vie for supremacy, heroes to hunt deer, ten thousand demons to dance in chaos, and flesh and blood to fly everywhere..."

"Deer are so cute. Why are they hunting deer?"

"Because those families stand on different sides, and there is only so much date cake to go around. First, you have to eliminate the outside enemies; only then comes the infighting."

"Mm. Makes sense."

The world beyond his eyelids was simply too bright. Lu Li pondered the correct way to open his eyes, since his Qi-Combining Cauldron could only sense spirit ore and could not detect objects made of other materials.

"Little Deer Pear, catch!"

Mo Shuhan tossed him a pair of goggles. The goggles were essentially an ordinary mechanical contrivance. Their appearance resembled something from Lu Li's previous life: the frames were cast from gray silver, while the lenses were polished from a spirit ore called rainbowstone. The formation patterns inscribed along the inner sides of the frames allowed them to adjust their tint and curvature according to the surroundings and the wearer's eyes.

The moment they landed in his hand, the rainbowstone lenses automatically adjusted to a dark green. Once he put them on, the blinding glare vanished at once, replaced by a dimmer yet clearer world.

Only then did Lu Li belatedly realize that the eyes of this body had somehow become nearsighted, and apparently not to a mild degree.

Lu Li felt that this seemed perfectly natural.

He hoped Elder Duan had some eyeballs he could replace them with.

Lu Li did not dwell on the issue. He merely clasped his hands toward Mo Shuhan in salute.

"Many thanks, Miss Mo. By the way, where did this come from?"

"Picked it up off the ground. They probably didn't want it anymore."

Before her words had even faded, a Fan Family disciple in the distance, wielding an Aurora Spear, clutched his eyes and let out a miserable howl of, "Ah, my eyes!"

Lu Li said nothing, while Mo Shuhan pursed her lips.

At that moment, the three middle-reach families each unleashed their own abilities. Purple, yellow, and red halos intertwined across the entire square, with Lu Li caught in the middle—weak, helpless, and pitiful.

Lu Li operated the Qi-Combining Cauldron, channeling the spiritual power within it into Azure Underworld Painted Skin and bringing it into Steel State. His skin, once so delicate it seemed breakable with a puff of breath, instantly became hard as iron.

The disciples of the three families did not regard him as worthy of notice at all. Even when the aftershocks of their battle grazed him, Azure Underworld Painted Skin's defenses made blocking them absurdly easy.

From ordinary people to puppet masters, passing the assessment of the two arts and three grades did not directly change the physical constitution of a newly promoted puppet master.

Yet puppet masters stood above others not merely because they had mastered a craft, but because they usually held powerful puppet artifacts in their hands. With those artifacts, they could easily decide the life and death of ordinary people.

In other words, although these people around him had not yet passed the assessment and did not nominally bear the title of puppet master, the puppet artifacts bestowed by their families made them no weaker than newly promoted puppet masters.

Azure Underworld Painted Skin could only protect Lu Li himself. He was not afraid of these attacks, but the sword blank he was forging was.

Under high-temperature heating, the sword blank had become exceptionally fragile. This was the most crucial stage of forging, and it could not endure any interference.

Under the three families' fierce offensive, the five puppet artifacts around Lu Li were inevitably caught in the crossfire. They teetered on the verge of collapse, especially the Profound Heavy Hammer, which was currently operating and suffered extremely severe interference.

Lu Li hastily stopped the Profound Heavy Hammer and pushed each of his five puppet artifacts toward the edge of the square.

After finishing, Lu Li wiped the cold sweat from his brow and checked the steel billet with lingering fear. Fortunately, he had retreated in time, and it had not been affected too badly.

For now, he could only withdraw this far. The entire square was shrouded by the barrier Zhong Wenbai had set up; if Lu Li chose to leave, it would mean forfeiting the assessment.

Continuing to forge was impossible. Lu Li decided to wait and see. He certainly could not maintain uninterrupted forging for a full day and night with his current stamina, so this was a good chance to rest midway. Once these people settled down, he would reconsider what to do.

Lu Li was feeling a little hungry. His vision flickered between black and white. He had spent the entire morning controlling puppet artifacts with his divine sense, leaving him exhausted, with a faint stabbing pain in his temples.

Since things had come to this, he might as well eat a pear first.

He took a premium large pear from the bag he had prepared beforehand, wiped it on his clothes, then turned his back to the middle-reach crowd behind him. He guarded the Profound Heavy Hammer and the premium pear in front of himself, glancing back from time to time with a wary expression, terrified that something might happen.

The way he acted made him look like a roe deer sneaking a bite to eat.

The young girl bit down with her silver-white teeth. Under the pressure of her molars, the crisp flesh burst with sweet, clear juice. Seeing Deer Pear in this state, the people outside the arena could not help laughing, marveling that she truly lived up to her name.

At the sight, Elder Duan was so annoyed that she laughed.

"Must you eat that pear?"

"It's not like I like it that much... munch munch... it's not like I absolutely have to eat it... munch munch munch... this pear isn't even that tasty... munch munch... but this pear really is cheap."

Elder Duan only wanted to rub her forehead, but when she raised her hand, she discovered that she had no hand.

"I... how did I end up taking in such a good-for-nothing disciple?"

Lu Li said nothing, simply kept gnawing on his pear.

What a joke. The Heaven-grade assessment lasted an entire day and night—this was a battle of endurance. Elder Duan had surely once been a cultivator; her body had been tempered to the utmost, allowing her to go without food, drink, sleep, or rest. She had long forgotten the needs of an ordinary mortal, so of course she could not understand their hardships.

Lu Li was different. He was merely an ordinary man. Only by filling his stomach and conserving his strength could he have the energy and stamina to continue refining artifacts.

After swiftly finishing one premium pear, Lu Li pulled a paper bowl from his bundle. Lifting the lid, he found a bowl of rock sugar stewed pear inside.

To make it, a premium pear had to be cored and peeled, then simmered in sweet syrup with ingredients such as red dates, snow fungus, and goji berries. Sweet without being cloying, it was immensely satisfying.

Lu Li first slurped a mouthful of syrup from the edge of the paper bowl. Just as he was about to dig in, Zou Bufan's dog-like barking came from the side.

"Fine, fine, fine! Yan Xiong, Fan Lingyu... you've joined forces to deal with me, have you? I hadn't wanted to use this move, but you forced my hand!"

With that, he produced a trumpet-shaped mechanical artifact and tossed it into the air. The trumpet spun round and round before hovering above the heads of the seven members of the Zou Family.

"Change the formation!"

At Zou Bufan's command, the pitch of the Resonance Instrument abruptly soared.

[Nine Nether Soundwave Formation: Shang Form]!

Seven soundwaves were drawn into the trumpet, converging into an even stronger wave that swept across the entire field. Everyone from the Fan Family and the Yan Family turned grim, forced to abandon offense for defense.

Everyone was stunned. Mechanical artifacts were flung away, stone slabs cracked inch by inch, and everything touched by the soundwaves was reduced to a complete mess!

The paper bowl in Lu Li's hand burst apart as well. Soup splashed all over him, while the pear he had not taken a single bite from flew away and rolled dozens of meters across the ground. By the time it stopped, it was already covered in filth. Then someone stepped heavily on it, crushing it into dust...