Chapter 161: Mu Fei

Ye Zhong’s spacious room currently presented a magnificent sight. Countless test tubes containing colorful reagents immersed various bone materials, arranged neatly. Under the illumination of the lights, this place resembled a world of crystal.

The room also housed numerous high-precision instruments dedicated to crafters, making Ye Zhong’s room look even more like a laboratory.

Ye Zhong carefully observed the condition of the bone materials in each test tube. Today was the final day to evaluate these bone materials—to see just how many groups of bone materials would possess practical value. Ye Zhong felt uncertain in his heart and could only leave it to fate.

Taking the bone materials out of the test tubes one by one, the vast majority of them had undergone very significant changes, looking completely different from when they were first put in. This was the effect of the immersion process.

Just how many of these were useful? Ye Zhong had to experiment with them item by item.

Master Fan sat at his desk with a troubled expression. Just moments ago, he had received an order from the Elder. The content of the order was to ensure that the young bone crafter must not pass the fifth-grade examination. Such things happened every year, so Master Fan was not particularly surprised. There were many ways to prevent this young bone crafter from passing the fifth-grade examination, the easiest of which was to tamper with the test questions. As long as the questions were of extreme difficulty, the probability of the opponent passing was basically zero.

Such manipulation, if carried out before the fifth-grade examination, would be foolproof. This was because in the first four grades leading up to the fifth-grade examination, whether an applicant could pass was decided by only a single master. As long as he had obedient masters in charge of Ye Zhong's examination, it would be completely foolproof. The fifth-grade examination, however, required evaluations from a total of seven masters. Among those seven masters, besides himself, there was only one other master under his control. Even so, there were only two of them. Within a quota of seven people, they simply could not play a decisive role. Consequently, the outcome was completely beyond his control.

The time the Elder gave him the order was after Ye Zhong's fourth-grade examination, which caused Master Fan a great headache. Master Xiao, who was in charge of Ye Zhong, had never pandered to him and possessed a formidable temper. Every single one of these masters was an individual with extremely strong convictions, basically immune to outside interference that might sway their judgment. Furthermore, whenever their profession was involved, their attitude was entirely serious: one was one, and two was two; they could not tolerate a single grain of sand in their eyes.

Master Fan understood very well that if not for the Association's need to control this so-called fifth-grade examination, he would never have become a master. Judging by his true level of skill, he was still a considerable distance away from being a master; he was the lowest-ranked among all these masters. This often placed him in a deeply awkward position, causing the other masters to look down upon him and intentionally keep their distance.

He could not even influence the masters within the Association. Those who managed to become masters mostly possessed simple minds, entirely devoted to their profession, and had always felt deep aversion and disdain for such underhanded methods. Conversely, the bonds among the masters themselves were extremely close. Most of the time, Master Fan felt as though he were being isolated by them. Later, on one occasion, he inadvertently stumbled upon the weakness of a certain master, and through threats and enticements, managed to bring that master under his control. However, the others quickly detected the anomaly, and Master Fan was distressed to find that this time, it was the two of them who were ostracized. Moreover, these masters were all esteemed guests of the Association. Not only could he not harbor any hostile actions toward them, but he even had to protect them when they were in danger. How could Master Fan not feel utterly depressed?

Suddenly, he realized that he truly had no measures at his disposal, and could only pin his hopes on Ye Zhong lacking sufficient strength to pass these final two examinations. Otherwise, his mission this time would inevitably end in failure.

Everything had to be left to fate!

Up to now, the Association could not completely control the fifth-grade examination. This was also one of the reasons why these masters agreed to come and preside over the evaluations. The Association's examination system was originally proposed by a master who agreed to serve the Association, and later gained the response of almost all the masters, who believed that the outsiders in the track-shaped ring should be given a hope of going out. On the one hand, pressured by the masters, and on the other hand, believing that this system could indeed help unearth and discover talent, the Association agreed.

The masters' meticulous attitude toward their profession directly resulted in the extremely high difficulty of this examination.

Hoo... Ye Zhong let out a long breath. Finally, the immersion results of three types of bone materials satisfied him, and what excited him the most was that one of them, a bone material known as Dopotuo beast bone, not only exhibited the most outstanding performance after immersion among the three, but the Dopotuo beast bone itself was merely a common bone material. Unlike the other two, which were both rare bone materials, this meant its range of application was much broader!

"Shang, has the immersion formula for the Dopotuo beast bone been recorded?" Ye Zhong asked.

"Of course. Would I make a mistake of the kind only you would make?" Shang retorted sarcastically.

Hearing Shang's words, Ye Zhong exerted force with both hands, rubbing them together. In the blink of an eye, the Dopotuo beast bone turned into a pile of bone powder, trickling down from between Ye Zhong's fingers. Ye Zhong heard a sequence of footsteps approaching. These footsteps were extremely familiar to him now; Weixi came every day, and naturally, Ye Zhong knew her footsteps inside out.

Ye Zhong slightly shook both hands, and the powder on his hands scattered into the air like mist, leaving his hands as clean as before.

Just at that moment, Weixi pushed the door open and entered. Ye Zhong turned around as if nothing had happened, but his heart suffered a violent jolt!

How could there be an extra person?

Ye Zhong's vigilance instantly surged to the highest level. Just now, he had clearly heard only Weixi's footsteps, yet two people had entered now, which meant the other person's footsteps had completely evaded his detection range! On the garbage star, Ye Zhong's hearing was already exceptionally acute. After practicing meditation breathing, although no distinct effects were visible in terms of mental cultivation, he accidentally discovered that his hearing had become even sharper than before!

This was the first person he had encountered who could remain completely inaudible at such close range!

Looking at the long-haired man beside Weixi, Ye Zhong appeared calm on the surface, but inside, monstrous waves were crashing!

What a terrifying man!

The man's entire physique was extremely well-proportioned; no muscular bulk could be seen, but Ye Zhong did not harbor the slightest contempt for him because of this. From the information he had acquired, among the arcane apprentices of the Association, only low-ranking trainees would possess bulging muscles. The greater the expert, the less specialized their physique appeared on the surface. Furthermore, the man's gaze was calm and serene. Ye Zhong had already determined that this man's mental cultivation had reached a remarkably high level, vastly superior to his own amateur meditation breathing. Moreover, Ye Zhong could barely perceive his breathing; if his eyes had not captured the fact that the person was right in front of him, Ye Zhong would never have sensed the existence of another man in the room!

The Association could just pick anyone at random, and they were this formidable? This was too terrifying!

"Xiao Zi, be careful. This person is very strong!" Shang also seemed to sense that the man before them was not simple.

Weixi smiled and said to Ye Zhong, "Mr. Ye, how are your experimental results? Any breakthroughs? Oh, right, I almost forgot to introduce you two!" Weixi playfully stuck out her tongue and continued, "This is Lord Mufei. He will replace me as your guide. Sigh, I really wanted to continue learning from you, but I have other assignments, so I can only have Lord Mufei serve as your guide. I hope you two will cooperate happily!"

Ye Zhong's heart skipped a beat. He was going to be his guide? That meant from now on, he would be by his side every day? Lord? It seemed this man's status was not low! Ye Zhong's expression remained unchanged; he merely gave a bland "Oh" and nodded toward Mufei.

Mufei smiled slightly, "It's a pleasure to be of service. I heard that you possess astonishing attainments in bone materials. Please give me plenty of guidance!" Mufei's face itself was rather delicate and refined, lacking the ruggedness of an ordinary man's face. When he smiled like this, it revealed an unusual charm, instantly causing Weixi beside him to wear a dazed expression.

"It's nothing," Ye Zhong feigned indifference and waved his hand.

Weixi noticed the two pieces of bone in Ye Zhong's hands and asked with a curious expression, "Mr. Ye, are these your successful experimental products?"

"Heh, only two of them are barely passable!" Ye Zhong put on an expression of deep regret.

Weixi hurriedly comforted Ye Zhong, "It's nothing. Even just this is an astonishing breakthrough, Mr. Ye!"

Mufei, standing to the side, suddenly leaned in, "These are the bones of the Luoyun ape and the Biji-winged bird, right?"

Could it be that he is also well-versed in bone materials? Ye Zhong's heart skipped a beat once again. On the surface, he deliberately glanced at Mufei indifferently, then asked in a plain yet slightly surprised tone, "Mr. Mu also studies bone materials?"

Mufei smiled modestly, "What do I know about bone materials? I've simply crossed paths with these two mutated creatures before!"

Ye Zhong's heart jolted once more. He knew about these two creatures; the Luoyun ape was manageable, but the Biji-winged bird was extraordinarily ferocious, highly aggressive, and always traveled in pairs. Their claws and teeth were incomparably sharp, capable of destroying the armor of ordinary mechs. Their movements were extremely agile, and their temperament cunning—they were extremely difficult to deal with! Since Mufei claimed to have crossed paths with them, Ye Zhong certainly did not believe that their encounters had been friendly ones. Viewed in this light, Mufei's strength must be formidable indeed!

What did the Association mean by sending him to his side? Ye Zhong could not help but feel utterly puzzled.

However, Ye Zhong quickly immersed himself in his examination. No matter what, passing the examination first was his most urgent goal right now. What made Ye Zhong feel uncomfortable was that Mufei almost never left his side by even half a step, and no matter what he was doing, the man would watch with keen interest, which also greatly heightened Ye Zhong's suspicions.

However, time was running out, and Ye Zhong had no leisure to mind Mufei's presence beside him. He began to devote himself entirely to constructing the all-bone mech engine. Being cautious, Ye Zhong still kept a card up his sleeve. Since Master Xiao had stated that the engine model was unrestricted, Ye Zhong chose the simplest mech engine—the Black Bird engine, which was the engine of the Black Bird mech that Ye Zhong was extremely familiar with.

Even so, it cost Ye Zhong a tremendous amount of effort. After all, this gadget was being built for the very first time, and he lacked experience. Fortunately, however, Ye Zhong finally completed the world's first all-bone engine within the allotted time!