The Geared Immortal

An Academy Life: 12

/*unedited*/

When they were about to start, Tong Lei saw the lines and some words on the glasses which made him a little confused. But it didn't take for him to understand what is being shown in front of his eyes.

"It seems that this thing is a guide… how was this made?" Tong Lei was suddenly awed by the technology he is seeing.

He didn't expect that the simple-looking thing that Shin Jiao gave him has these many complex functions making him really curious and interested in learning how it was made.

"Concentrate we are about to start." Suddenly Shin Jiao said in his earpiece.

When Tong Lei heard this he immediately curbed his curiosity. He really wanted to see or know more about the glasses that he is wearing. So instead he explored his eyes around the lines and graphs that he can see.

"Start crafting!" suddenly the voice of Gu Ouyang echoed through the hall.

The two people in front of the furnaces started to move and gather the materials they needed to craft the artifact they desired.

Tong Lei plans to remake the bracers that he wanted to give to Shin Jiao so he began gathering the same materials he had gathered before. When the people around them saw this they showed a sneer on their faces.

They planned to do the same thing so that Tong Lei would be distracted and would fail to finish crafting the artifact.

And so time went by and the two artifacts started to form inside the furnace. While they are doing this, Shin Jiao observed the process that Tong Lei is doing and nods his head with expectation. He can already see and feel that the artifact would be a success.

As time went by the artifacts on both furnaces are already forming and began to take shape. Sai Wu's tier 2 flying sword has started to hum, inside the furnace as the shape of a sword began to form. The spiritual auras surrounding them are slowly sucked into the sword.

"Hehe, this is my finest work so far. And since teacher Ouyang is here I can show him my ability and maybe get his attention… if so then I can be his disciple. Hehehe…" Sai Wu thought as excitement suddenly filled his heart.

But because of this he suddenly missed to control the spiritual Qi which forms the flying sword's shape, this slight error didn't escape the eye of Gu Ouyang and he shook his head.

"Truly just a youngling and too impetuous. He is forming the body of the sword too quickly. He should have lowered the temperature so that the margin of his error would lessen… does he think that he is already an expert?" Gu Ouyang thought.

But he just showed a stern face without any hint of reaction.

"Damn it! That was too close. Hopefully, I didn't make that big of a mistake." Sai Wu thought as he cursed in his heart.

Suddenly his eyes turn towards the men surrounding them and he gave them a slight signal. Upon seeing this, two men went out of the group and walked near a furnace while another one lifted a lid.

Tong Lei is now beginning to form the bracers for suddenly a line of words appears on top of his eyesight. Though it didn't distract him, yet it has gotten his attention.

'Warning! Warning! Forming the molten material into shape is too soon, the material is still brittle.'

When he read this he was shocked and decided to follow what the instruction said and stopped the formation. He continued to slowly refine the materials until they are almost glowing golden in color. When this happened, another set of words appear on top of his sight.

'Perfect refinement achieved! Begin molding!'

When he saw this he smiled and began to mold the refined material inside the furnace.

The seemingly random action and illogical action of Tong Wei came to Gu Ouyang's attention. He suddenly thought that what Tong Lei did was something weird.

"Why did he mold the artifact just now? When he could have done it a while ago? Why wait until now? Isn't he afraid to burn the materials and turn it into a failure?" Gu Ouyang thought as many questions entered his mind.

Meanwhile, Shin Jiao who is standing beside Tong Lei smiled and nods his head with satisfaction. He knows that because of Tong Lei's slow refinement, the detectors and sensors in the glasses can detect and assess the situation perfectly. But if Tong Lei's refinement is too fast just like what Sai Wu is doing then the glasses would have a hard time with its sensor since it is not as effective as the goggles. And the sensors in the glasses are only in the minimal setting because of its size.

Sai Wu is nearing the completion of his artifact and is about to finish the final touch of the flying sword. He suddenly nods head towards the two people. His slight movement was caught by Gu Ouyang and Shin Jiao but they didn't react.

Gu Ouyang wanted to know the resolve of Tong Lei and how he can become stronger as an artificer, while Shin Jiao has the same goal, but his other goal is to test the capacity of the glasses to assess any emergency situation.

Though in his case he already tested it, however, he wanted to see how others would react with it.

And so it happened.

Just as Sai Wu nods his head slightly, the two people made their moves.

Clang! Bang!

The sudden sound of metal falling and hitting the ground reverberate through the hall. Even Sai Wu who orchestrated everything was shocked at the sound of the falling and hitting objects that his hand was shaken and the blade of the sword is not straight anymore but curved a little.

Through his two mistakes, the flying sword which he made almost turned into a curved sword which is harder to fly. But it is still considered as an artifact in the spirit level, but a low-grade one.

"Shit! Those two *ssh*les, why did they made it too loud? Damn it! I almost failed this time." Sai Wu said while glaring at the two people who are equally stunned at what had happened.

Unknown to them, it was Gu Ouyang who made it so with the use of his spiritual sense control.

Meanwhile, since Tong Lei had a much sharper sense, even with the help of sound deduction and isolation from the earpiece, he still heard the sound while made him almost jump.

When this happened, a series of words in red suddenly appear on the top of his sight.

'Warning! Warning! Unstable Qi, unstable heat… Please lower temperature to 500 degrees.'

When Tong Lei saw this he began to panic but followed the instruction. When he saw the temperature indicator at the top right corner to have reach 500 from around 3,000 degrees he heaves a sigh of relief. Then he saw the artifact stabilizing.

'Warning! Warning! The eminent failure of the artifact molding, raise temperature to 1,200.'

'Warning! Warning! Eminent failure to mold, raise the temperature to…'

'Warning! Warning! Qi unstable lower temperature to…'

A series of instructions appear which made Tong Lei surprised and worked hard to follow each step as he tried to recover the artifact from failing.

Through his arduous effort, he didn't notice that he is already covered with a large bead of sweat and his clothes are already soaked. But he pressed on following the instructions from the glasses. Suddenly he was stunned when he saw the last words written.

'Congratulations! You've just made a soul level low-grade artifact.'

When he saw those words, he was stunned.

He didn't know what happened but in his mind, he tried to recall all the steps that he has followed and suddenly discovered something.

"This is… this is the 200 steps refinement method that I saw in the library. This is…" Tong Lei muttered.

Along with Tong Lei, Gu Ouyang was also shocked. He didn't know how Tong Lei learned the 200 steps refinement method but he has actually almost perfectly executed it. Though he can see that Tong Lei is delayed by around two seconds, nevertheless it is still enough for him to create a soul level artifact.

"Good job!" Shin Jiao said while patting Tong Lei's shoulder.

Tong Lei regained his consciousness after Shin Jiao patted his shoulder and a streak of tear actually flows down his cheek.

Then suddenly he turns towards Shin Jiao and kneels on the ground.

"Brother Shin! Please accept this lowly one as your disciple!" Tong Lei shouted as he was about to kowtow.

"Wait! Don't!" Shin Jiao immediately caught him.

He didn't expect that Tong Lei would kneel in front of him because of happiness. The extreme emotion in Tong Lei's heart is overflowing with sincere gratitude and willingness to follow Shin Jiao. He only thought that Shin Jiao is just a normal student but upon seeing the ability of the glasses he let him borrowed, Tong Lei immediately knows that he surpasses any master craftsman in this school.

As a student of the academy, Tong Lei has already seen most of the so-called master artificer. And most of them are very haughty and prideful. But Shin Jiao is different; he knows that if he follows Shin Jiao he can learn more.

After helping Tong Lei up, Shin Jiao turn to face Sian Wu. With a smirk on his face, he lifted his brows with provocation.

"So I guess we won… right?" Shin Jiao said with a smile.

Sian Wu showed indignation on his face as he didn't want to accept the outcome of the match. Suddenly a thought came up and he showed a sinister look on his face.

"Master Ouyang, I lost to Tong Lei… and this is my payment." Sai Wu said with a smile.

After paying he turned his eyes on Shin Jiao and raised his voice.

"Tong Lei might be able to defeat me, how about you? Do you dare challenge me in crafting? Oh, I guess you won't accept because you're not skilled and is just a martial technique idiot… Hahaha…" Sai Wu said with provocation in his tone.

"Sigh… I guess idiots won't give up until you beat them to a pulp.." Shin Jiao muttered as he steps forward.