Chapter 641

In the past, reaching four-fold inscription recording was considered a master, but now four-fold inscription recording didn't even count as a start, and in the future, it might not even count as an entry-level.

Now that the new Inscription Compendium had just been promoted, a strong person with eight-fold inscription recording had already appeared. In another half a year, it was hard to say if there wouldn't be true strong people with ten or dozens of folds.

The difference between a complete Inscription Compendium and an incomplete one lies here. In a complete Inscription Compendium, as long as the related inscription recording difficulty is involved, it will be greatly reduced, while the difficulty of inscription recordings from different compendiums will be greatly increased.

The reason why the four-fold inscription recording in the past was so difficult was that they all came from different Inscription Compendiums. Whether they were related or not was unknown, and even if they were related, the blacksmiths couldn't perceive it.

Most of the inscription inheritances from the ancient period had already been cut off.

"An eighth-fold enchantment blacksmith, terrifying!" a young onlooker couldn't help but express his emotion.

"Brother, are you from out of town?"

A local onlooker on the side knew his identity with his toes.

"Big brother, how did you know I was from out of town? Can you read faces?"

"Fart! How can he read faces? It's just that your information is too backward." Another passerby immediately began to mock.

"What's wrong? Big brothers, please teach me." The young man who spoke first bowed humbly and asked for advice, neither humble nor arrogant.

Being bowed to and asked for advice so simply, the vanity of several people was immediately satisfied, and they immediately acted as all-knowing big brothers.

"Do you know Master Lin Cheng? The empire's newly promoted eighth-rank blacksmith."

"Heard of him, what's wrong?" The young man pretended to be a newbie who didn't know.

"Master Lin Cheng contributed the complete Inscription Compendium to the empire, and even foreign princes have come to ask for advice. Now you know, huh." The passerby who told the truth raised his head and chest proudly, as if he were the one who contributed the complete Inscription Compendium.

"So that's how it is, I've learned a lot."

The young man understood now and bowed his head again to thank them, but no one knew that when he lowered his head, a trace of coldness and killing intent appeared in his eyes.

So the empire had an eighth-fold inscription recording strong person because of this Lin Cheng. The kingdom's purpose in sending him was also to investigate this Lin Cheng. It was said that the kingdom's battlefield suffered a comprehensive counterattack because of the appearance of this legendary craftsman.

Without him, the kingdom's century-long plan wouldn't be so angry.

Although it was an investigation, if there was a chance, he would kill him without hesitation. Even ordinary people knew that inscription recording was difficult, not just generally difficult, but very difficult. For an entry-level blacksmith, it might take several years of imitation and tens of thousands of simulations to succeed in recording. To reach two-fold recording was even more difficult.

But the premise that recording inscriptions is difficult is that these inscriptions come from different Inscription Compendiums.

The inscription inheritance of the ancient period was not only discovered by the Emperor Tianwu Empire, but also by the kingdoms of the Western Regions. Then, the inheritance regarding blacksmiths was almost broken, and the discovered inscriptions were one here and one there.

This also led to subsequent blacksmiths finally figuring out the interaction between inscriptions, but when enchanting, one was more difficult than the other.

The Emperor Tianwu Empire actually had a complete Inscription Compendium, which was not good news.

With the development speed of the Emperor Tianwu Empire, with complete inscriptions, they would undergo industrial recovery in a few years. By then, they would leave the entire Western Region kingdoms far behind. No, he had to find a way to get a copy of the Inscription Compendium back.

However, when he inquired about the news of the Inscription Compendium, he found that all materials related to the complete Inscription Compendium were in the Blacksmith Guild, and they were not allowed to be borrowed; they could only be viewed and studied uniformly in the Blacksmith Guild.

The first batch of magic recorders recorded was even fully recovered by President Holder, unless the president of the Blacksmith Guild of other cities came in person to receive one.

This was the key to the empire's industrial revival. How could it be borrowed so rashly? It was to prevent it from spreading. If it were passed into the hands of other kingdoms in the Western Regions, Holder's sin would be great.

Even if these Inscription Compendiums would sooner or later be obtained by the Western Region kingdoms, at least now, he could drag it out as long as he could.

As long as the Western Region kingdoms get it later, it is a lead for the empire.

The afternoon competition proceeded as scheduled.

The morning was a competition of the limit of inscription recording, and the afternoon was a competition of creativity.

Within the specified time, use inscription recording to demonstrate new usage, and Lin Cheng and the five judges would evaluate it to determine the final score. Those with high scores would enter tomorrow's semi-finals.

The results of the morning competition far exceeded everyone's expectations. Another batch of people should have been eliminated, but they had to be kept, relying on the afternoon's creative competition to eliminate them.

If ability is the foundation of a blacksmith, then creativity is the upper limit of a blacksmith.

All beauty comes from imagination. Without a good imagination, without creativity, how can one become a good blacksmith?

The afternoon creative competition was also a highly anticipated competition. Every blacksmith had more or less some innovative ideas. In the past, inscription ability didn't allow it, but now that inscription conditions allowed it, what were they waiting for?

Start working directly.

"The competition starts now! Please all participating blacksmiths create innovative items."

Following the order, the competition began in full swing. All the blacksmiths on the field had already thought about what their creative works were in advance, and one by one, they picked up the small hammers in their hands and began to strike iron with *ding-ding-dang-dang*, looking like a group forging competition.

Having inscription ideas alone was not enough; they had to forge it, enchant it with inscriptions, and truly realize it.

Time passed second by second. Two hours later, Lin Cheng's family had already fallen asleep with their heads leaning against each other.

Finally, a blacksmith below finished. He stood up and raised his hand excitedly.

This was also a rule specially promulgated by Lin Cheng, fearing that blacksmiths who finished early would deliberately shout loudly and disturb other blacksmiths, so blacksmiths who finished would express the fact that they had finished by raising their hands.

On the judges' bench, Elder Zhai also discovered the blacksmith who finished at the first time, waved his hand, and let people bring him and his work up.

Not long after, a black, strange thing that looked like an animal but not quite was moved in front of the judges.

Lin Cheng looked at this black thing in front of him and couldn't figure out what it was. There were barely four pillars underneath, seemingly used for balance.

"This must be a cow, right?"

As an elder spoke, Lin Cheng suddenly felt that this thing did look a bit like a cow, just a bit ugly.

"No, this is clearly a siege tool. Look at its head, it doesn't look like a cow's horn at all."

"Mm, mm." Lin Cheng suddenly felt that there was some truth to it. Cow horns are curved, while the horns of this thing were upward, and they were pointed, cone-shaped, two of them.

"It feels... it really looks a bit like a siege tool. Look, there are four people holding it underneath, and then it can block arrow attacks from above."

"No, if it's a siege tool, how could four people be enough?"

"What if related city-breaking inscriptions were added on top?"

"That's still not enough. No matter how awesome the inscriptions are, it's impossible to bless the strength of four people to compare with forty soldiers."

Two elders with different opinions argued until their faces were red and their necks were thick, big eyes staring at small eyes, neither of them convinced by the other.

If it weren't for the fact that they both cared about their faces, it was very likely they would have fought.

"Why not ask its owner?" Lin Cheng really didn't want to listen to this meaningless quarrel, and said speechlessly.

"Good idea!" The two elders' eyes lit up, and they said in unison.

"As expected of Master Lin Cheng, you have more opinions than the two of us."

"Uh..." Lin Cheng.

Isn't this common sense? Discussing whether this is a cow or a siege tool in front of the blacksmith, is it meaningful?

"Tell me, what exactly is this?"

Five pairs of tiger-like gazes gathered on the young blacksmith, and he almost peed his pants.

Is it still too late to say it's a combination of a cow and a siege tool?

"Speak quickly! What exactly is this?"

In the end, the young blacksmith gritted his teeth and confessed.

"This is actually a metal dog I developed."

"What!"

The two elders who were still arguing fiercely were stunned on the spot, their faces somewhat displeased. This thing was actually a metal dog?

Lin Cheng also took a careful look. Don't say... if it's a metal dog, it really looks a bit like one.

It's just that it's pitch black all over. If you don't say it's a metal dog, you can't tell at all.

"Tell us your thoughts, we will score based on your creativity." Lin Cheng asked professionally.

"It's like this, Master Lin Cheng..."

The young man quickly explained his reason.

His grandmother stayed at home all day. Because their family background was quite good, there was no one at home to accompany his grandmother. He wanted to hire a servant but was afraid the servant would be dishonest, so he wanted to develop a metal dog to accompany his grandmother.

The creativity was inspired by the pets around noble ladies. Although they were pets, their aggressiveness was not small at all. Every year, news of pets biting their masters to death was spread. Even if the pet merchants who sold pets guaranteed repeatedly that the pets would not attack their masters for no reason, after all, they were elderly people with limited mobility, so it was better to be safe than sorry.

Therefore, the young man intended to make a metal dog that could understand his grandmother's daily commands and would not attack his grandmother.

However, it seemed he had failed.

The young man scratched his head somewhat awkwardly.

"Uh... young man, you can be more confident and remove the 'seemingly'."

Lin Cheng really wanted to say this, but he decided not to dampen the young man's confidence. The starting point was good.

As for the finished product... it was very poor.

"Everyone, what do you think?" Lin Cheng asked for the opinions of the other five judges.

"The creativity is good, but what about its appearance and can it move?" Elder Zhai poked the so-called metal dog.

Just at this moment, the metal dog moved its front and hind limbs with difficulty, sliding in place, but actually didn't take a single step forward.