Chapter 7 The Culprit of Ignorance

  The peak of the golden engraving array merged into the short sword, and Kong Fang Bian once again sealed the earth fire. After waiting for the temperature on the short sword to cool down completely, he walked over and took out the short sword.

  The previous mental daze did not attract Kong Fang's attention, so he didn't have too much hope for Qiling. However, Kong Fang still had to check the grade of the short sword, which meant what he could get.

  Carefully examining the short sword in his hand, suddenly, Kong Fang's eyes widened and his face showed an expression of incredulity.

  "This... has actually reached second-grade, how is this possible?!" Kong Fang exclaimed in a loud voice.

  The four steps of refining equipment, each step playing a crucial role in the final grade of the weapon. But in Kong Fang's memory, there was only a simple and crude formation, which made him not hold much hope for the awakening step. Kong Fang did the awakening with a "better than nothing" mindset, but now he suddenly found that the short sword's grade had directly increased by one level, reaching second-grade.

  "If I recall the formation correctly, this short sword should not be able to upgrade by a single grade. Did something happen during that brief moment of dizziness that I'm unaware of?" Kong Fang's heart stirred, and he faintly guessed at a possibility.

  "The formation method... Enabling the short sword to be upgraded by a whole level, the problem can only lie in the formation method. Kong Fang couldn't help but smile wryly as he looked at the short sword, 'I didn't examine it carefully before, now the formation method has been completely merged into the short sword, with my ability, I am unable to make the formation appear, it seems that I will not be able to know what happened when the formation was drawn.'"

  Kong Fang rubbed his head in confusion, trying to recall what had happened during the period when he was dazed earlier. However, after half a day of effort, he still couldn't remember anything and could only give up reluctantly.

  But then Kong Fang suddenly burst out laughing, his laughter filled with excitement and joy.

  "No matter what happened before, as long as I have this second-grade short sword, I have a great chance of becoming an inner disciple." Kong Fangyue looked at the short sword in his hand with increasing excitement, lovingly stroking it.

  Then, Kong Fang rewrapped the short sword with tattered cloth and prepared to leave the refining room. This short sword was prepared for this assessment, and Kong Fang had to go to the Huoyun Hall counter ahead to hand over the short sword to the people of Huoyun Hall.

  As soon as he opened the cold and dark stone gate of the alchemy room, the noise in the corridor rushed into Kong Fang's ears.

  "The materials I've been preparing for my alchemy practice all turned to ashes in an instant, and the array in this yellow-grade alchemy room is really too poor. How could it still have unstable earth fire?" A young disciple who looked like he was in his twenties loudly complained as he walked through the corridor.

  "Have you encountered this too? I thought it was just me." Upon hearing this, another disciple in the corridor first looked surprised, but then became extremely depressed.

  Upon hearing this, the other novice disciples who were also tormented by the earth fire pit immediately spoke up about their own strange encounters. One word from you, one phrase from me, the voices were noisy and filled with intense resentment.

  Kong Fang initially didn't associate the matter with himself, and nodded in agreement with a hint of sympathy. After all, when he was refining his equipment earlier, the earth fire had also suddenly erupted, causing him to worry for half a day, fearing that this time's short sword would be ruined. Therefore, Kong Fang listened to the surrounding people's words filled with resentment, and his heart felt extremely sympathetic.

  Kong Fang gradually discovered that something was off, as the materials used by these people to refine their equipment had all been reduced to ashes in the explosion of the earth fire. Although the earth fire in this refining room had also undergone an abnormal change, his short sword had not turned to ash, but on the contrary, its grade had increased significantly.

  Kong Fang, who felt something was off, swept a glance at the crowd with heavy resentment and found that all the occupied refining rooms were near him. The refining room behind him wasn't noticeable since not many people used it, but the one in front of him had a problem.

  The refining room was originally built on both sides of the corridor. At this time, Kong Fang found that no matter which refining room in front of him, whether it was on the left or right side, the farthest refining room was separated from him by four refining rooms. In other words, the refining rooms in front of him, whether on the left or right side of the corridor, had five problematic refining rooms, making a total of ten refining rooms with problems, and this number was surprisingly symmetrical.

  The two farthest refining rooms from Kong Fang were surprisingly equal in distance, and Kong Fang didn't think it was a coincidence. Adding to the fact that all the materials of the people around him had been incinerated by the earth fire, only his materials remained intact, Kong Fang knew that even if he didn't know what caused it, everything must be related to him.

  Kong Fang's heart sank instantly. He had originally planned to follow the crowd and complain a few more sentences, but at this moment, he didn't dare to complain, and he even quietly retreated into the alchemy room, afraid of being discovered by these people with extreme resentment. If these people guessed that the culprit was Kong Fang, he would not be able to escape.

  Kong Fang retreated into the refining room and hastily hid in a corner. Only when the people outside couldn't see him did he finally let out a long sigh of relief.

  "This matter has gotten out of hand, fortunately I discovered it early, otherwise the consequences would be unthinkable." Kong Fang secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Destroying someone else's equipment materials was equivalent to cutting off their future path, this could lead to a deadly feud, Kong Fang had no choice but to be cautious.

  But this matter can't be blamed on Kong Fang, the situation of refining one's body with fire is indeed too rare, who would have thought that an entry-level disciple could actually achieve this step?

  Kong Fang hastily stuffed the short sword wrapped in a piece of cloth into his clothes, fortunately it was just a short sword, and as long as others didn't look carefully, they wouldn't notice.

  Then, Kong Fang carefully walked out of the refining room, ignoring the loud complaints and even the shouting disciples who wanted to go to Huoyun Hall to find the elder. Kong Fang quickly walked towards the passageway in front, planning to leave this "troublesome place" as soon as possible.

  "That junior brother." Suddenly, a somewhat familiar voice came from behind, Kong Fang immediately judged that it was the voice of Sun Hao, an inner disciple, but Kong Fang didn't dare to stop now, pretending not to know that Sun Hao was calling him. Kong Fang took three or two steps through the crowd and disappeared around the corner of the passageway.

  Sun Haonan looked at Kong Fang's disappearing back, he wanted to call out to Kong Fang and let him go with them to find the elder. So many disciples' refining materials were destroyed due to the earth fire, the problem was very likely to be in the refining room, Huoyun Hall would naturally have to give an explanation, otherwise these people would not be able to complete the assessment and would definitely be expelled from the sect.

  But who would have thought that Kong Fang didn't even bother with him and actually ran away directly. Looking at his hurried appearance, it's not an exaggeration to say that he escaped.

  "Let Brother Kong do what he wants, he's going to smash the pot anyway. A novice disciple without ambition, why bother with his life or death? Let's go find the elder quickly." Zhang De's face turned green and glowed slightly as he watched Kong Fang disappear into the distance, his eyes filled with resentment.

  Sun Hao took care of this newcomer three times in a row, which made Zhang De extremely unhappy.

  "Alright." Sun Hao nodded in response, then loudly said to the others: "Everyone should stop complaining, I'll take you to find Elder Qingfan. As long as the problem really lies with my Huoyun Hall's refining room, the elder will definitely give you a satisfactory answer."

  "Thank you, Senior Sun Hao." The crowd replied respectfully. However, a few people still had some dissatisfaction in their hearts. They had spent a lot of time and effort accumulating good materials, but now they were all destroyed in the earth fire. Even if Huoyun Hall could reassign them some refining materials later, they would only be ordinary materials.

  But these ideas can only be thought of in people's hearts and dare not be spoken out loud.

  After Sun Hao left with the others, the door of a relatively rear refining room opened, and Qian Ziguo, who was monitoring Fang, walked out.

  "The earth fire has gone wrong, and everyone's refining materials have all turned to ashes. Heh heh, in that case, that damned Kong Fang should also give up, without materials I wonder what he'll use to refine his equipment. Hmm, no good, I'd better hurry out and keep an eye on him, or else he might run away in desperation. Tsk tsk, I really want to see the look of despair on that little bastard Kong Fang's face, haha, hahaha." Qian Ziguo sneered with a smile.