Xu Lizhi

Mecha Manufacturing complete!

This also proved that Xu Yuan had reached Second Grade in Mecha Manufacturing.

Xu Yuan continued toward the third Mecha Maintenance station.

Mecha Maintenance. Second Grade Mecha Maintenance required repairing and reforging damaged portions of a Core Array.

That was right—it required the skills of a Forging Master.

Of course, that was only necessary at lower levels.

The Four Great Auxiliary Occupations all drew upon their respective foundational techniques at lower levels, but once they reached the middle and higher levels, they began to develop their own specialized fields.

After Mecha Maintenance reached Fifth Grade, it began to involve spirituality. That was when a qualitative transformation occurred, much like in Battle Armor crafting.

Battle Armor was not unchanging.

Even for a Battle Armor Master who remained at the One-Word Dou Armor level throughout their life, the Core Arrays within their Battle Armor would gradually be upgraded. The Rare Metals used to make Battle Armor were clearly not convenient to replace, so these so-called upgrades referred to optimizing the Core Arrays within.

That was the work of a Mecha Maintenance Master.

Based on the Battle Armor Master's experience, they optimized the arrays within to make them better suited to the Battle Armor Master. In a sense, they were responsible for after-sales service.

What stood before Xu Yuan was a scrapped Mecha component with a damaged Core Array.

Xu Yuan placed it into the furnace. Once the metal had softened from the heat, he began hammering it, flattening the surface of the damaged section before inscribing the array anew.

During Mecha Maintenance, the Core Array was only partially repaired, and it also had to be properly connected to the original intact portions. That was one major difficulty.

It was precisely because of this that Mecha Maintenance students had to learn all kinds of Core Arrays from the very beginning, as well as theories concerning the fine-tuning of arrays.

Clearly, this also helped advance Mecha Manufacturing to Third Grade.

These were all insights Xu Yuan had gained. The more he learned, the more he discovered the connections between the various professions.

Maintenance complete.

Xu Yuan walked toward the final forging station.

Taking out a piece of Sinking Silver, he began heating it. Just as it was about to melt, a forging hammer appeared in his hand, and he brought it down cleanly and decisively.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Rhythmic forging echoed through the room.

As Xu Yuan underwent the fifth assessment, quite a few people had already gathered in the room.

They were students from the next two batches of assessments.

Yet none of them went to choose a station and begin their own tests.

From Mecha Design to Mecha Manufacturing, then Mecha Maintenance, and finally forging, Xu Yuan had left them utterly stunned.

How could someone be this versatile?

Of course, they were all only Second Grade.

But Xu Yuan's age...

Even those prodigies whose Sub-Professions were mostly already Third Grade could not comfort themselves with, He's only Second Grade. I'm already Third Grade.

The final hammer fell, and the Hundred Refined metal was complete.

"Full marks." After a long silence, Cai Yue'er gave her score.

He was clearly only Second Grade, but Xu Yuan was just seven years old. Moreover, all Four Great Auxiliary Occupations had reached Second Grade, and he had completed every task flawlessly.

"Junior brother, you're incredible!" Wang Hao led Xu Yuan toward the next assessment site, his face full of excitement. He still could not forget the sight of Xu Yuan consecutively taking the Four Great Auxiliary Occupation assessments.

"Senior brother, what does the next round test?"

"The next round? It tests how much you can eat."

Xu Yuan's mouth twitched.

He did know there was such a round, but he could not recall the details, so he did not know which round tested what. That was why he had asked Wang Hao.

They entered the room for the sixth round.

Two people were already taking the assessment.

Before each of them sat an enormous tray piled high with steamed buns.

Beside them were even more bun piles, each like a small mountain.

"There. Go eat from that tray."

Wang Hao reminded him, "You have half an hour. Eating fifteen steamed buns within half an hour counts as passing and earns six points. For every additional five buns, you get one more point. You can't circulate Soul Power while eating."

To get full marks, he would have to eat thirty-five steamed buns.

Ridiculous.

Half an hour meant that even eating one steamed bun a minute would not be enough.

Xu Yuan sighed and walked over to the mountain of buns.

It seemed his streak of full marks would end here.

Only when he drew closer did he notice the situation of the two people taking the assessment.

They were sitting on the ground. At a casual glance, it was hard to make out their features, but up close, he saw that they were both exceptionally young. One was a boy, a little fatty, while the other was a girl with a stubborn look on her face and pride between her brows.

Xu Yuan's heart stirred.

Could these be the Bun and the Sword?

Seeing the little fatty stuffing one steamed bun after another into his mouth, Xu Yuan confirmed his guess.

He turned back and asked Wang Hao, "Senior brother, can someone eat on another person's behalf?"

Before Wang Hao could answer, the girl frowned and shot Xu Yuan a glance.

The little fatty had already eaten forty buns. At this point, he was actually helping her eat.

Wang Hao glanced at the little fatty and the girl, then nodded.

"You can, but you only have half an hour."

Xu Lizhi was swallowing steamed buns as he looked over at Xu Yuan. His tiny eyes were filled with surprise and curiosity, as if they were saying, Brother, do we know each other?

"Little brother, I can see that you're handling this with ease. Help me eat some. Later, I'll teach you an Ultimate Art. It has no other benefit—it just lets you eat more and digest faster."

Xu Lizhi's little eyes widened.

He made some muffled, incomprehensible sounds and nodded.

Ye Xinglan frowned and glared at Xu Yuan.

She felt that Xu Yuan was deceiving Xu Lizhi.

But she had no proof.

Besides, her mouth was full of steamed buns, so she could not speak.

Very soon, thirty-five steamed buns disappeared from each of Ye Xinglan and Xu Lizhi's trays.

Only ten minutes had passed.

"Little fatty, you only have five minutes left. Even if you help him eat, you can only help for five minutes." The examiner opened his eyes, glanced over, and spoke to Xu Lizhi.

Xu Lizhi nodded, sat down in front of Xu Yuan, and began stuffing buns into his mouth again.

Ten minutes passed. Xu Yuan had eaten fifteen steamed buns himself, but the farther he went, the harder it became to eat. At first, he could eat two a minute, but he gradually slowed down. Now, he could barely manage one per minute. There was nothing he could do about it.

His own digestive ability was limited.

Although he had explored a so-called Ultimate Art to aid digestion for the sake of cultivating his blood and qi, the problem now was that he was not allowed to use Soul Power.

So he could only trade the Ultimate Art for points.

It was called an Ultimate Art, but Xu Yuan had created it specifically for himself. To him, it was barely the prototype of an Ultimate Art. For others, it was merely a technique that slightly enhanced digestion.

Xu Lizhi was quite reliable. In five minutes, he helped Xu Yuan finish seven steamed buns.

After that, Xu Yuan finally experienced a complete assessment for the first time, using up every second of the allotted time.

In thirty minutes, Xu Yuan had somehow forced himself to eat twenty-eight steamed buns.

Once Xu Yuan passed the assessment and received full marks, Xu Lizhi finally spoke with a cheerful grin. "That Ultimate Art you mentioned earlier?"

As someone born to be a foodie, Xu Lizhi's greatest frustration was having delicious food before him when he was already full.

That had happened more than once.

Therefore, he was quite curious about the Ultimate Art Xu Yuan had mentioned that could let him eat more.

Xu Yuan smiled, sat cross-legged, and began circulating his Soul Power.

The assessment was over. He could use Soul Power now.

His stomach had long since been unbearably bloated, and it was time for him to use the Ultimate Art himself.

"Little fatty, watch closely!"