Translated by: Ea

　　Edited by: Butter and Zryuu

—

　　There was a “qiang–” sound as the forged stones clashed with the broken knife and sharply twisted its direction. The killing weapon that was originally flying towards Lin Xuanzhi’s head suddenly changed its direction and flew straight at Bai Honghu, who was opposite Lin Xuanzhi!

　　Its power didn’t diminish and even exerted a heavy pressure.

　　Bai Honghu had no experience in countering flying objects while crafting. He watched the broken knife flying towards his eyes in horror. Aghast, he hurriedly tried to pull back his soul force; however, he still couldn’t respond fast enough.

　　Bai Honghu couldn’t afford to care about his incomplete magic tool anymore. He forcibly cut off the output of his soul force and rolled away on the spot.

　　With a swish, the broken knife grazed Bai Honghu’s neck.

　　Bai Honghu spat out a mouthful of blood from the backlash of his soul force. His whole body felt as though it had been tightly bound by innumerable ropes and he wanted to roll on the spot. The backlash from their own soul force will cause great damage for craftsmen.

　　Everything on the platform descended into chaos. The Bai family members rose from their seats. Even Huangfu Jin, who had already withdrawn from the stage, had a frozen expression.

　　There was no need for Huangfu Jin to even open his mouth. The Bai family had already sent people over to carry the injured back for treatment.

　　The Bai family disciple who originally planned to take action against Lin Xuanzhi collapsed to the ground at once, his face deathly pale. Dumbfounded, he blanched as he watched Lin Xuanzhi, who was sitting beside him, return to having his left hand make hand seals while he held the forged engraving pen with his right hand.

　　Lin Xuanzhi closed his eyes, his flawless profile conveying an elegance that didn’t belong to the mortal world.

　　He seemed like this wasn’t of any concern to him; as if the scene just now didn’t affect him at all.

　　The younger Bai disciple swallowed hard. Lin Xuanzhi had already become a demon in his eyes.

　　Involuntarily, fear arose within his heart.

　　Baili Yunshan seemed dazed. After a good while, he put the magic weapon that he almost threw out back into his storage bag.

　　Baili Yunshan touched his nose, and his eyes, which were gazing at Lin Xuanzhi, lit up with a bright light, like a little puppy who saw steamed meat buns.

　　If that top-grade magic compass was only able to make people feel that Lin Xuanzhi was experienced and knowledgeable, then his earlier response to the crisis had clearly completely won over the majority of the spectators.

　　For the next two hours, nobody paid any attention to the movements of other craftsmen. Their eyes remained glued to Lin Xuanzhi, intently recording his every move and observing his difficult-to-imitate hand seals. Some people only thought that looking at him warmed their hearts and pleased their eyes and that they would never tire of watching him.

　　Lin Xuanzhi’s speed remained neither fast nor slow and could even be called somewhat lazy.

　　Before long, the other craftsmen onstage either gave up or had almost finished repairing the treasures in their hands.

　　Quite a few among them began to take advantage of their close proximity to Lin Xuanzhi to simply sit in their original locations and observe him crafting.

　　After Lin Xuanzhi finished repairing the fractured location, he put aside the forged engraving pen in his right hand.

　　His right hand made a lotus flower hand seal, his palm facing upwards. Suddenly, a bright red soul flame appeared in the middle of his palm!

　　He—-

　　“Damn! Am I blind or hallucinating?!”

　　“Craftsman soulfire, that’s an actual craftsman soulfire!”

　　“Hiss—  Oh my Dao of Heaven, this is too fricking heaven-defying!”

　　“Ah, a materialized crafting soulfire!”

　　Duan Yuyang seemed as though he had been shot full of chicken blood as he suddenly seized Yan Tianhen and shook him excitedly, “What in the world is your Dage? Hahaha he’s so shameless! He even brought out the craftsman soulfire, does he not want others to live anymore? Does he dare to even leave the other craftsmen with some way to live? Damn!”

　　He shook Yan Tianhen until his head spun from dizziness, but Yan Tianhen was still pleasantly surprised.

　　His Dage was indeed the most incredible craftsman under the sky!

　　Several Bai family elders couldn’t help but look at each other and saw the deep helplessness reflected in each other’s eyes——

　　“I’m afraid that within the next century, if nothing unexpected occurs, the crafting Dao on the entire Five Continents will be dominated by this Lin Xuanzhi alone.”

　　“He’s so young, only sixteen or seventeen, and still in the fifth stage soulfire, but he can already bring his soulfire out of his body to melt and purify the treasure. This child’s talent is monstrous and not something that ordinary people can compare to at all.”

　　“Terrifying, really too terrifying.”

　　The Bai family elders discussed. After a while, one elder asked, “In the past, wasn’t there a Bai family descendent who married into the Lin family?”

　　Another elder nodded and said hesitantly, “She should be called Bai Ling and is a granddaughter of Old Four’s lineage.”

　　“That’s her.” That Bai family elder sighed, “Send someone to tell her that she must never go against this Craftsman Lin and to take advantage of her proximity to such a powerful person to obtain his favor and build a good relationship with this craftsman.”

　　A younger elder from the Bai family suddenly had an unhappy expression, feeling that they had been insulted. He frowned, “Him being incredible is one matter, but why should we flatter him? The Bai family is not without powerful craftsmen either, our younger generation is just a little worse. This kind of flattery is too cheap.”

　　“What does a brat like you know?” The oldest elder in Bai family smiled wryly as he shook his head, “Do you think he is just a strong craftsman?”

　　“Isn’t that right? What else does he want to do? No matter how incredible he is, Lin Xuanzhi is still only one person. Our Bai family is an entire clan. It’s not difficult to silence him.”

　　“Silence your ass!” Another Bai family elder suddenly blew up in anger and hated how this immature lump of iron couldn’t become steel faster as he gave the younger elder’s head a hard knock. He curled up his beard as he explained, “Can you still not see it? This person, Lin Xuanzhi, has been able to materialize his soulfire for a long time, but did anyone know about it before? No! He’s in the process of reforging now and doesn’t need to take out his soulfire to help with crafting at all, so why would he have to make such a brilliant performance?”

　　The younger elder experienced a flash of inspiration, then answered hesitantly, “It can’t be……He wants everyone to see it?”

　　The older elder nodded with great approval, “There is no better opportunity to reveal one’s talents, nor a more influential event, than today’s Hundred Families Gathering. It seems that this little friend Lin is very ambitious.”

　　The little elder was stunned, “It can’t be that he wants to trample our entire Bai family underfoot? But this is overestimating his own capabilities way too much!”

　　The oldest elder took a deep breath, “Nobody currently knows what he wants, but we will find out soon.”

　　After the oldest elder finished speaking, he looked towards the Second Elder beside him.

　　The Second Elder helplessly added, “I’m most worried that he’ll take this opportunity to step on our Bai family’s face right now and say that we have no successors while our younger generation lacks discipline, which will be detrimental to the Bai family’s reputation.”

　　The young elder rolled up his sleeves as he gritted his teeth, “If he dares to do so, then I’ll send people to teach him a lesson so that he’ll know his place.”

　　“Hmph.” An elder who rarely spoke till now gave a cold snort and spoke in an ill-humored tone, “So certain Bai family youngsters won’t lack discipline if Lin Xuanzhi doesn’t say it? Who taught them this malicious and vicious method of stabbing people in the dark? This entire fiasco has become a dark history that can’t be spread out, losing all of my Bai family’s old face! The younger generation really can’t compare to the older generations anymore.” Of course, he was clearly referring to the young Bai disciple just now who tried to make Lin Xuanzhi experience an ‘accident’!

　　Several Bai family elders immediately sank into silence.

　　It was fortunate that this kind of thing can be called an accident, or else the Bai family really would lose all its face this time.

　　The youngest elder asked cautiously, “Third Brother, why are you so frank? Why don’t we just overlook this kind of event that can easily cause disharmony and drop the topic?”

　　The elder whom the young elder called “Third Brother” immediately felt distressed. “What kind of thing is this? Playing a malicious trick in the dark but being countered anyways, and he even hurt his own people by mistake. He lacks the ability but still wants to use this kind of scheme. He really made a fool of himself!”

　　Several Bai family elders couldn’t help but glance at each other and saw the helplessness reflected in each other’s eyes.

　　Although the method was dirty, it could still be said to be smart. It’s just that the opponent was too strong, so no crafty plot could hide itself in front of Lin Xuanzhi.

　　The idiom “tried to steal the chicken only to end up losing the rice used to lure it” perfectly described these Bai family youngsters.

　　“Why has nobody asked about that youngster’s injuries?” The oldest elder frowned with dissatisfaction.

　　Even if Bai Honghu wasn’t part of the main branch, he was still a disciple of the Bai family. What were these people trying to say, being so concerned about Lin Xuanzhi?

　　With a face laden with grief, Second Elder answered, “He forcibly cut off his soul force in the middle of crafting and suffered backlash from both his soul force and spiritual qi. This result is within our expectations and is not impossible to treat, but…” Second Elder paused and sighed, “I’m just afraid that Lin Xuanzhi will hold a grudge!”

　　On their side, they planned to cover up the younger generation’s folly and treat the entire affair as an accident. Besides, nobody could come up with evidence that the little fool had been deliberately trying to kill someone. In addition, the Bai family represented authority, so no one would deliberately make enemies of the Bai family over this.

　　However, that “nobody” certainly didn’t include the victim himself, Lin Xuanzhi.

　　Even if the scheme didn’t succeed, it was still nowhere near enough to erase the fact that Bai Honghu had plotted against Lin Xuanzhi’s life.

　　Why had Lin Xuanzhi suddenly materialized his soulfire and shown the public a part of his demonic talent?

　　Perhaps it was to recruit forces by attracting strong cultivators from the major families and sects in order to form a protective and confrontational force to stand on equal ground with the Bai family and then retaliate in revenge!

　　The mood of the Bai family elders immediately fell into a dark and gloomy state.

　　They seemed to have already seen the scene of Lin Xuanzhi suppressing and provoking the Bai family from all directions after recruiting enough forces.

　　“Why don’t,” the youngest elder suggested hesitantly, “we talk to Young Master? He seems to have some friendship with Lin Xuanzhi.”

　　“I think you want to die.” The oldest elder rolled his eyes at him. “The Young Master hates this kind of despicable act the most. Besides, his health is not good, and he’s busy with many family affairs everyday. To inconvenience him with such trifles, have you no shame?”

　　The young elder hurriedly shook his head.

　　Although Bai Yichen always spoke in a leisurely and composed manner, his smile like the spring breeze, every time the youngest elder saw him, he always had an urge to run away with his tail between his legs.

　　Some people possessed inherently strong and imposing auras that couldn’t be covered up by simply sitting in a wheelchair.

　　The little elder dismissed the idea of finding Bai Yichen. If he could help it, he didn’t want to see this young master who often appeared unpredictably, was shrouded in mystery, and held a supreme and untouchable position within the Bai family.

　　The oldest elder muttered to himself irresolutely for a moment, then made up his mind. “That Lin family’s younger generation who lived with the Bai family family a few days ago should have some blood ties with both the Bai and Lin families, shouldn’t he?”

　　When one of the Bai family’s children reached a hundred days old, he even gifted the child quite a high-quality rattle-drum — it looked like a rattle-drum but was actually a high-grade defense treasure. The gifter could be said to be full of sincerity and creativity.

　　Second Elder nodded, “Yes, that’s Bai Ling’s son. Bai Ling married into the Lin family a few years ago. That boy and Lin Xuanzhi are also from the same branch, so their relationship shouldn’t be too distant.”

　　The youngest elder suddenly thought of something, “That rattle-drum should also be Lin Xuanzhi’s work?”

　　“That’s right.” Second Elder nodded. “The technique was sophisticated, and the strength was applied evenly. I can’t pick out any flaws.”

　　All of a sudden, as though blessed by luck, they seemed to have understood something.

　　The youngest elder and Second Elder glanced at each other as they spoke simultaneously, “Good opportunity.”

　　This was actually the first time Lin Zezhi met all the Bai family elders.

　　While Lin Xuanzhi was still crafting onstage, Lin Zezhi had already been cordially invited to the spectating platform on the mountain by the Bai family’s people.

—