Bab 32: The Nine Peaks I
Ding* Ding*
The old man hammered away at the metal. The soothing sound of the metal appeared as though the hammer is a bow and the metal a violin. Ye Qin and Wang Tao watched without moving or saying anything as the old man continued hammering down onto the metal
After a while, the old man stopped pounding the piece of metal and put it into the furnace to heat it up slightly before taking it out and hammering a few times to get the shape he wanted then threw it into an ice cold bucket to cool it down
Shizz* Shizz*
The old man wiped his sweat away as his muscular body shone with a powerful light. He then turned around to face the two brothers and stared at them deeply for a brief moment before taking off his gloves and shoving them into his pockets. "So what do you think of my profession?" he asked
Thump*
Sitting down onto a trunk of wood, the old man stroked his white beard as he looked at the boys before him. "It's quite nice, I can feel your passion as well as your blood, sweat and tears in your smithing." Ye Qin replied
Wang Tao nodded, "I can tell that you truly love your work." he added. The old man continued stroking his beard before laughing out loud "Hahahahahahaha, I see."
"Well have a look around, I can tell the two of you appreciate smithing. If you come back, I'll let you in without taking a test." the old man said before standing up to take out the already cooled metal
The two boys nodded as they walked around to look at the surrounding work. From the left to the right, the walls are filled with all kinds of weapons. From swords, to maces, bows and shields as well as pieces of armour. Even different types of guns and what seemed to be failed work were on display
Ye Qin looked at a specific piece that hung up on the wall, kept safely inside a glass container. What he saw is the diagram of a monster core with detailed writing all over and labeling. Next to that, a blueprint of a sword shaped like an ember with the monster core placed in the centre
Many things that Ye Qin didn't recognise were also written on the blueprint that explained their properties. Reading and taking in the information, Ye Qin felt glad that he learnt something new that would benefit him in the future
As for Wang Tao, he looked at the piece next to the sword that Ye Qin was studying. What he saw is a chest piece that looked like the eyes of a demon. According to the blueprints, the armour could change shape according to the wearer, not only that, a monster core could be integrated into the armour to make it more durable whilst being able to give the user elemental attacks added on top based on the core used
Naturally this too is a failed piece and couldn't be brought to light. Wang Tao thought to himself "This is quite interesting, if such things could come to light, humanity will progress further and have another way of fighting the monsters."
"Maybe I should join this peak, it piqued my interest plus I don't need to take a test to join… Though it won't help me get any stronger, well there's still another eight peaks to have a look at. I'll probably join whichever peak boss decided to join anyway."
After having a look around and watching the other students hammering away at metal, the two boys walked back to the teleportation gate and teleported to the next peak
…
Whoosh* Whoosh*
Contrary to the barren sight of the Blacksmithing Peak, the Medicine Peak in front of them is full of live and lustrous grass. The peak appeared as though it were a place where all of nature resided, from beautiful rivers and tall mountains, to grass that behaved like hair as it swayed nicely along with the soft wind
Just like the Blacksmithing Peak, the Medicine Peak too had a large number of students doing their own things. The two walked around to see large gardens that grew strange looking plants as well as some familiar ones. The similarities between the Blacksmithing and the Medicine Peaks are that they haven't progressed during the thousand years since that era
Even when plants mutated or new species never before seen grew, humanity could only make simple medicines with them. Of course they have been tested, but even with humanity's greatest pride being their science, the plants still couldn't be fully utilised to this day
Walking deeper into the peak, the two brothers asked some questions to the older students who happily answered them. After exploring and getting some ideas for a while, they walked to the large towering gate
When they approached, the gate automatically opened slowly as they walked inside. When the two of them appeared on the other side, the gate closed off blocking their backs. On the other side of the gate, more students were busy writing onto paper or taking care of various plants and herbs
In the middle of the peak, a wooden house that didn't appear to be too old or too new stood. The two boys approached it and heard the sound of wood being chopped, looking around the back, they saw an old man holding an axe and hacking away at blocks of wood on top of a tree trunk
Beside him, a pretty young woman patted her monster as she took out a herb from her bag. When the two noticed Ye Qin and Wang Tao they greeted the two boys. "Welcome to the Medicine Peak, as you can see there's nothing special about this peak besides from nature. Feel free to join if you'd like, the next test will be held in a week from now." the old man said
Ye Qin nodded, "Thank you, the land around here is nice and relaxing. But may I ask why you are chopping wood?" he asked
"Ah, it's just a hobby. Whenever I'm bored I hack away at wood which will be used to make my next meal." the old man replied. "Hehe, don't lie grandpa, you lost a bet with my senior and he told you to chop wood for him." the young student sitting beside him exposed
"Ah, don't expose me! Look at this, an old man being treated this way by his only family. Sigh…" the old man rebuked
"..."
"..."
Wang Tao's mouth twitched as he watched the exchange between the old man and his granddaughter. The two brothers politely made their leave off the Medicine Peak after looking around for a bit before heading towards the next peak
Whoosh* Whoosh*
Next the two boys visited the Machinery Peak which like the name implies focuses on dealing with machinery. They deal with all types of things from vehicles to siege weapons to everyday products like a microwave
Clink* Clink*
Unlike the Medicine Peak which was full of nature, the Machinery Peak is similar to the Blacksmith Peak in that it appeared like a barren land but instead of having lava flowing down the sides of it, the peak had all kinds of machinery and devices placed down and ready to activate at any time
As the two brothers walked by, the machines scanned them and displayed their ID's on a monitor nearby. One of the engineers who wasn't busy welcomed them to the peak. "Welcome juniors, if there is anything you'd like to ask please feel free to come and bother me. I have nothing else to do anyways for the rest of the day."
Ye Qin nodded, though he didn't have any questions and just looked around. To his surprise, a young woman around his age wearing the same clothes as those on the Blacksmiths Peak wore, sat on a huge pile of metal and junk as she tinkled away with some work in her hands
"Ah that is our Peak Master's granddaughter, she's been involved in machinery all her life. Following in the footsteps of her grandfather, machinery is a part of her life." the senior from before said
The two boys nodded as they scanned the pile of junk beneath the girl. From a glance, they could see that the girl is a beauty, though from head to toe she is dressed like a middle aged man who does labouring. The girl's tanktop that she wore looked as plain as the others with just a single color throughout, with just a single look one could tell that she isn't wearing any underwear but at the same time her private places were covered as if the clothes had a mind of its own and protected its wearer
"A strange one." Wang Tao said. The senior nodded to his casual remark as the three continue their tour of the peak. As they continued exploring, the two eventually met with the Peak Master who was lying down on a giant wrench and having a joyous nap as though he didn't have a single care in the world
The old man wearing the same clothes as his granddaughter and appeared to be very thin as though a soft breeze of wind would send him flying. His student came up to him and nudged him a few times until he woke up. "Hrm? Who woke me up? It was about to get to a good part!" the old man shouted
As he jumped up, his previously thin body as if it was a volcano waiting to erupt, every limb in his body expanded until he became huge but has explosive muscles that seemed like they could easily crush large boulders
"Oh it's you Tang Ci, what brings you here?" he asked
Tang Ci replied, "Ah master, I've brought these two here to look around and greet you". "Ah, so that's it, welcome to the machinery peak, I assume that Tang Ci has done a good job as your tour guide?" the peak master asked as he finally noticed the two brothers
Wang Tal exclaimed internally "WTF! Where did those muscles come from!?" Before replying "Yea, he did a good job." Wang Tao nodded. "Good, good, you didn't disappoint this old man. Now that I'm awake would you two like to see some of my work?" the peak master asked
The two boys nodded as they followed the peak master and Tang Ci into a deeper part of the room where the old man resided
Step* Step*
"This here is a mechanism that I designed in order to automatically shift the position of the ground slowly without anyone noticing. Well it didn't go so well and frankly used up quite a large budget so I had to eventually give up on it." the peak master pointed out
"That there is a device I made that converts the air into bubbles that can be sealed up and contained. Well that too didn't go so well…" he said
"..."
"..."
The peak master showed the two around and displayed some of his lifetime's work. Seeing so many failures, Wang Tao couldn't help but ask "Are there any that you didn't fail?"
"Ah… erm… well you could say that it was a success I guess? When I was a wee little boy about 7 or 8 I created a device that can change the flavors of anything kind of food you can think of. The downside was that the converted flavor was random and even had flavors such as vomit or booger…" the peak master said as a bead of sweat slid down his forehead
"..."
"..."
The four people looked at each other awkwardly as if the world only consisted of the four of them. As a soft breeze blew by, Ye Qin said "Have you ever considered working on things with the Blacksmithing Peak?"
"..."
"That… you shouldn't talk about the Blacksmithing Peak in front of the master…" Tang Ci replied slowly. The peak master pretended that he didn't hear Ye Qin's question and said "If there's nothing else, I would like to go first." the peak master excused himself
"Oh no, please." the two said as the peak master left the three of them behind. Once he was far out of sight, Wang Tao asked Tang Ci "Senior, what's the story behind the peak master and the Blacksmithing Peak?"
"Well it's a long story but I don't know the details myself. To keep it brief, long ago the peak master and the master of the Blacksmithing peak were best friends. They grew up together, played together, went to school with each other and played pranks on each other when they weren't indulged in their hobbies. Eventually came a time when they had a falling out and didn't talk to each other."
"It's been about 20 years since then I guess? Well that's all I know." Tang Ci answered truthfully
"I see, thank you for telling us. We will be taking our leave." Ye Qin replied. "I see, then I won't keep you here. If fate will let the two of you join the peak then let us meet again." Tang Ci said as he left the two brothers
When it was just the two of them, Wang Tao said "I wonder what happened between the two peak masters." Ye Qin nodded "Who knows, let's go visit the six remaining peaks."
Wang Tao nodded as the boys left the Machinery Peak and headed for the Design Peak
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone