Nearly half a month passed in the blink of an eye, and before anyone knew it, a new year had arrived.
"Master Artisan, may you enjoy peace and health in the new year. These are our practical assignments. Please take a look."
In Li Chen's private room on the top floor of the Ironstone Tower, the Apprentice An Yuanxi carefully entered carrying a large wooden crate and addressed him.
Li Chen greeted him with a smile and said gently, "Peace and health to you in the new year, too. Take everything out."
"Yes, Master Artisan," An Yuanxi replied, hastily doing as instructed.
The crate contained mechanical components crafted according to Li Chen's specifications, including armor plates, screws, irregularly shaped flexible parts, and more, made from metal, wood, stone, and various other materials.
Li Chen activated his divine sense and swiftly swept through them. Within moments, he had assessed the materials, dimensions, and other details of each person's creations.
As he concentrated, his magic power worked like fire, engraving words onto each component out of thin air.
Excellent, good, average, poor...
An Yuanxi bit his lip, looking somewhat disheartened at the mere "good" awarded to the component he had crafted.
Sure enough, only those few top students got "excellent" again!
In the world of Puppet Masters, diligent study and arduous practice were vitally important, but talent and comprehension were equally indispensable. An Yuanxi might not have lacked the former, but he fell short in the latter.
This was also the normal standard for a boy from the countryside. Sometimes, hard work truly did not guarantee achievement.
Even when you had given a hundred and twenty percent, exhausting every ounce of strength to do your best, you might still fall short of something a genius had casually tossed together.
But Li Chen