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nOnce a flash of red light appeared on Ou Yangming’s palms, his eyes lit up.

nThe full properties of the waist sash appeared in his mind, and it was those properties that stunned him to a great extent.

nItem: Outstanding Waist Sash (Red)

nEquivalent Rank: Ordinary Tool, Good Grade, Rank Three

nAttribute: Toughness 8

nSkill: Blood Flight (Activation Condition: Abundant Qi and blood)

n‘Skill. There’s actually a skill property on this waist sash.’

nBefore this, Ou Yangming only had one skill encounter, which was the explosive arrow. Once essential Qi was channeled into the arrow, which was then shot to hit another object, a huge explosion would be caused, resulting in fatal injuries.

nWas a half-spirit beast powerful? A captain had led a group of well-trained soldiers to encircle one, but they ended up badly defeated and even lost a few lives.

nHowever, once explosive arrows—coated with some poison—were used, even the half-spirit beast could not withstand it. It fell to the ground and died.

nThis was the mightiness of skill, and it gave Ou Yangming a deep impression.

nNonetheless, other than the explosive arrows, which he had created using his mental power and the Military Fire, he did not encounter another skill-carrying equipment.

nThe waist sash was the first piece of Skill Equipment he came across, but according to the skill’s description, Ou Yangming vaguely felt that it was not a skill that could be used by anybody.

nPerhaps that was the reason the waist sash was among the other pieces of equipment here.

nAfter some thought, Ou Yangming looked up to glance at Zheng Ziwen and Ni Yinghong. They were still immersed in their task and did not notice his abnormal behavior. In actual fact, even if they did notice something out of the ordinary, they would not suspect anything, and would instead think that Ou Yangming had stumbled on an item that he was not confident about.

nThis was because the other two masters would have the same expression on their faces if they could not distinguish a piece of equipment.

nOu Yangming inhaled deeply, then slowly put down the waist sash. He placed it in the first row among other pieces of equipment and did not tie any note to it.

nAfterward, he picked up his speed.

nIt was impossible to know how much time had passed as they were working in the basement. After each of them appraised roughly ten pieces of equipment, a person, who was dressed as a servant, came downstairs. He neither spoke nor did any gesture, and only stood quietly while waiting for them.

nSome moments later, Ni Yinghong put down the piece of equipment in her hand, and she looked quite weary. After taking a glance at that person, she sat down somewhere to take a break from appraising.

nOu Yangming was slightly startled. He idled for a while on purpose and wrote another appraisal result before he stopped as well.

nLastly, Zheng Ziwen finished his task and sighed. He looked more exhausted than Ni Yinghong. “I haven’t done appraisal with so much focus for a long time. Ah, I’m getting older, and I’m becoming useless…”

nIt was then when the servant asked respectfully, “Masters, may I ask when you’d like to have your meal?”

n“Now that you’ve asked, I do feel quite hungry.” Zheng Ziwen chuckled while touching his belly, then turned to ask the others, “Shall we… Hey, Master Ou, have you decided already?”

nWhen he turned to look, he instantly noticed the waist sash that was intentionally placed in the front row by Ou Yangming. It would mean nothing if it was just a waist sash, but it was eye-catching because nothing was tied to it.

nNi Yinghong opened her eyes, she had closed her eyes earlier to rest her mind, so she did not notice the waist sash. After seeing it, she could not help but furrow her eyebrows and said, “Master Ou, there are quite a number of good equipment here, and you have plenty of choices left, so you can decide later.”

n“Thank you for your good intentions. I only want to study that equipment because I’ve never seen anything like that before, as for the other pieces of equipment…” Ou Yangming chuckled. He then pouted his lips and expressed proudly, “As long as I have time, I’ll definitely be able to smith something as great.”

nNi Yinghong and Zheng Ziwen looked at each other and felt somewhat frustrated.

nIf another appraiser had said the same thing, they would have mocked and derided that appraiser, but they did not refute Ou Yangming at all.

nThey had just witnessed an intense smithing challenge yesterday, and they admired Ou Yangming’s talent, as well as his level of attainment in smithing art. As mentioned by Ou Yangming, it was true that none of the equipment that he had or would be appraising in the basement was out of his smithing capabilities.

nSince that was the case, would a piece of equipment that he had never come across not be a perfect choice?

nZheng Ziwen sighed and was suddenly in low spirits. “Let’s go, it’s time to eat.”

nHe cursed to himself, ‘If Ou Yangming is so gifted in smithing art, he should just stick to that path, why must he be so outstanding in appraisal art too?

n‘It’s really hard to feel happy when I’m working with a freak.’

nNormally, roughly 15 minutes were needed to appraise a piece of equipment. That said, additional methods might be employed if one was unsure about a piece of equipment’s properties, but even without using appraisal art, one could possibly spend half an hour.

nTherefore, although the appraisal of roughly ten pieces of equipment in the morning was not considered fast, it was certainly not slow too.

nNevertheless, according to that speed, the three masters would spend about five days to appraise all the equipment in the basement.

nThere were no problems on the first day, but on the second day, Ni Yinghong suddenly exclaimed and called out to the others halfway through an appraisal, “Master Ou, Master Zheng, please come over here for a while.”

nOu Yangming and Zheng Ziwen stopped what they were doing and went over to her.

nWhile the three of them were still appraising separately, if one of them found a piece of unique equipment, or was really unsure about something, one could naturally seek help from the others.

nNi Yinghong was holding a small round shield at that moment. The round shield actually had an extremely frightening cut on it, and it was clear from the slash mark that the shield’s value had dropped drastically.

nZheng Ziwen frowned and asked, “Master Ni, what’s so special about this shield?”

nNi Yinghong handed him the shield instead of replying. Sometimes, the equipment itself was the best explanation and nothing else needed to be said.

nZheng Ziwen observed the shield for a brief moment before he looked surprised. “This is strange, why can’t I identify its equivalent rank?”

nOu Yangming was immediately curious too. After spending time together for two days, he knew that the other two masters were appraisers with genuine skills. Thus, the shield had to be unordinary if they were troubled by it.

nOnce he took the shield, a flame flashed on the palm of his hand that was holding it.

nNext, Ou Yangming’s face changed.

nItem: Extraordinary shield (Red)

nEquivalent Rank: Ordinary Tool, Fine Grade, Rank Five

nAttributes: Toughness 20. Power 2

nOu Yangming was instantly amazed. As he looked at the obvious cut on the shield, he could not figure out how a damaged item like that was an extraordinary item of Fine Grade Rank Five.

nEven if he used steel to smith a piece of equipment, the highest equivalent rank that could be achieved was High Grade Rank Five. He had not smithed a piece of Fine Grade equipment to date.

nHowever, the shield had already achieved Fine Grade Rank Five.

nWhat was more unbelievable was the equipment was already ruined.

nIt was a piece of damaged equipment that was in Fine Grade Rank Five, and was attached with 2 points of layered Power attributes…

nOu Yangming suddenly wondered, ‘If this shield isn’t ruined and is perfect, what will its equivalent rank be?

n‘Am I able to smith something like this?’

n“Did you sense it?” Ni Yinghong asked in a deep voice.

nOu Yangming hesitated for a while and nodded. “This equipment is very powerful, it’s the most powerful one among the other pieces of equipment.”

n“Yes.” Ni Yinghong’s eyes glowed as she said, “The equipment is damaged, but it’s still so powerful and is attached with power. It’s unbelievable.”

nOu Yangming hesitated again but decided to reveal it. “Layered.”

n“What?” Ni Yinghong asked in confusion.

nOu Yangming explained slowly, “If I’m not mistaken, the round shield has layered attributes.”

n“Impossible,” Ni Yinghong and Zheng Ziwen uttered almost at the same time.

nIt was already very rare that a piece of damaged equipment had a Unique Attribute. If it actually retained layered attributes, it would be considered a nature-defying item.

nBesides, it was worth noting that Unique Attributes were hard to come by, and they would not necessarily remain constant after being bound to a piece of equipment.

nEven though Layering Art could enhance Unique Attributes, the attributes could be lost if the piece of equipment was damaged.

nThe mark on the shield was so obvious that it simply extended across the surface. Hence, even if it originally contained Unique Attributes, they should have been gone by now. If Zheng Ziwen and Ni Yinghong had not probed it with their essential Qi, perhaps they would think that Ou Yangming was lying to their faces.

nOu Yangming said unhappily, “Whether it has layered attributes or not, you’ll find out after using appraisal art.”

nZheng Ziwen gritted his teeth and agreed. “Okay, I’ll use it once.”

nAppraisal art was unusually precious toward every appraiser because one could only use it for a limited number of times in a day.

nThough the frequency would increase according to a person’s strength, every opportunity was precious.

nA cold light appeared in Zheng Ziwen’s hands as he rubbed them together and it shone on the round shield.

nOu Yangming’s eyes sparkled right away. He observed Zheng Ziwen’s moves attentively, as well as the master’s breathing and his surging mental power.

nOn the other hand, Ni Yinghong curled her lips into a beautiful smile and looked at Ou Yangming in admiration.

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