Chapter 36 Freak Amongst Geniuses (3)

Heavenly Jewel Change

Chapter 36 Freak Amongst Geniuses (3)

Huyan Aobo leapt forward, his large stomach bumping into Zhou Weiqing as he grabbed his shoulders. Huyan Aobo said excitedly: “How can genius describe you, you’re not a genius, you’re a freak amongst geniuses! Quick, tell me, how did you manage to do it? I can’t believe it, a person who has never created a Consolidating Equipment Scroll before can actually succeed after half a day of trying! Furthermore, with a success rate of over 60%!!”

“Teacher, it’s time to lose weight! Also, can we eat and talk, I’m really hungry!” Zhou Weiqing said helplessly. He was indeed famished, after a whole day of hard work and intense focus, where his Heavenly Energy had been drained and replenished several times over, and his vigor was totally drained; how could he not be hungry.

“Alright, alright, let’s go eat now. Even if you want to eat this fat body of teacher’s I will let you!” Huyan Aobo was almost dancing with joy now, waving the stack of completed Consolidating Equipment Scrolls, so excited that he didn’t even know what he was saying anymore.

If Mu En were here, he would definitely give Huyan Aobo this assessment: This old fellow, laughing until his chrysanthemum flower [1. euphemism for anus] has blossomed.

At the moment, Zhou Weiqing had a splitting headache, and he was still rather fuzzy. Hearing Huyan Aobo’s words, he subconsciously said: “Teacher, I don’t like to eat too oily foods.”

Huyan Aobo started, and Feng Yu had already burst out laughing. With Huyan Aobo’s normal temper, he would have sent a slap flying over. However, this time, his hand raised up high but couldn’t land down; Zhou Weiqing in his eyes was more precious than a pot of gold!

After eating, Zhou Weiqing looked much better, having obviously recovered. Under Huyan Aobo and Feng Yu’s constant questioning, he told them about how he had succeeded. “What? Time? You actually have one of the three Saint Attributes, time?”

Zhou Weiqing asked in surprise: “Teacher, you know about the time attribute?”

Huyan Aobo said exasperatedly: “Even if I haven’t eaten pork before, I’ve seen pigs run before[2. Literal translation of an old proverb 没吃过猪肉难道还没见过猪跑么. The basic meaning is usually to describe that although someone might not have experienced something / have something, but he has heard of it/ have some understanding of it. Basically in ancient times, pigs were often reared as food, but many of the poor would not be able to afford to eat pork, but they can easily see pigs running around]! Pretty much every experienced Jewel Master would have heard of the Saint Attributes.” As he said that, he sucked in a deep breath before saying: “Little Wei, don’t you know. In the Jewel Master world, as long as any Jewel Master appears with any of the Saint Attributes, even if it’s just a Elemental Jewel Master, he or she will be highly sought after by all the larger forces in the world. The Saint Attributes true power isn’t just on their combative strength, but they each also have some unique usages.”

Regarding the Saint Attributes, Zhou Weiqing had only heard Tang Xian mention them briefly, and he did not know many details about them. Hearing Huyan Aobo mention them, he couldn’t help being curious and asked: “Teacher, so what are these unique usages of the Saint Attributes?”

Huyan Aobo said: “Let me give you a simple example. Each of the three Saint Attributes have their own unique innate skills. The Divine Attribute’s innate skill is resurrection, Spirit Attribute’s innate Skill would be glamour and hypnosis, while Time Attribute’s innate skill would be the control of time.”

“Wow! Resurrection?” Zhou Weiqing’s eyes widened as he exclaimed. “Doesn’t that mean the Divine Attribute should be the strongest?”

Huyan Aobo shook his head and said: “That’s not necessarily true, they each have their own strengths, and I am not certain myself. After all, the true profound mysteries of the Saint Attributes aren’t something that a mere Jewel Master of my level would know. Although the Divine Attribute has the resurrection innate skill, I have heard that there are many restrictions to it, and it isn’t as easy as you think.”

Taking another deep breath, Huyan Aobo’s little eyes were sparkling like two stars. “I have never imagined that one day, someone would actually have Wind, Spatial and Time attributes all by himself, and even more so that such a person would be my disciple! Little Wei, do you know? With your Time Attribute, as long as you master intricate control of time, then you have an advantage that no other Consolidating Equipment Master in the world has, that is, a 100% success rate! Furthermore, as long as you have enough Heavenly Energy to sustain yourself and sufficient materials, given enough time you can definitely succeed in creating any Consolidating Equipment Scroll. Furthermore, as long as you successfully create one, you should be able to master it and continue creating them.”

“In addition to the increase in speed from the Wind Attribute, I cannot imagine any other person more suited to being a Consolidating Equipment Master.”

Turning to Feng Yu, a strange note appeared in Huyan Aobo’s voice: “Seven days, in just seven days, he has done something that most ordinary low level Consolidating Equipment Masters aren’t able to do. The only thing he lacks now is knowledge, experience and sufficient Heavenly Energy. All normal estimates are useless for him!”

“Before starting to teach him, I was worried he might take too long to learn and affect his cultivation. However, from now, I should be worrying that he learns too quickly, and this teacher will soon be useless to this little rascal.”

Huyan Aobo grabbed hold of Zhou Weiqing’s shoulder and said: “Little Wei, from today onwards, I ask that you spend the next four months focusing totally on training to be a Consolidating Equipment Master, and when you leave here, that should be the time that you graduate from my teachings. Everyday, you will only have 4 hours of rest, 8 hours to learn from me, and 12 hours to practice creating the scrolls. I want you to learn everything about Consolidating Equipment Masters in the shortest time possible, and hopefully become a low level Consolidating Equipment Master by then.”

“Yes!” A massive interest for the profession of Consolidating Equipment Master had been sparked within Zhou Weiqing as well. To anyone, to focus entirely on doing something, the most important thing was to have a sense of accomplishment, and to him now, that was definitely something he had in abundance.

Even Huyan Aobo did not realise currently that he was not just grooming an excellent Consolidating Equipment Master, but someone who would eventually surpass him… someone who would reach the heights of Consolidating Equipment Masters… someone who would be a human money printing machine. After all, with Zhou Weiqing’s speed and success rate of creating Consolidating Equipment Scrolls… Heh heh...

From that day onward, Zhou Weiqing’s schedule was packed to the brim. Everyday, Huyan Aobo was still able to get some rest after teaching him, but Zhou Weiqing only rested for 4 hours, including eating hours. Luckily, he had an extremely good physique, and his entire being was enjoying being immersed in the joys of the Consolidating Equipment Master profession.

Huyan Aobo did not try to pull up a seedling in the mistaken hope of helping it to grow[3. Literal translation of 拔苗助长, basically meaning to spoil something by excessive enthusiasm (descriptive of a person so impatient for success that he acts to destroy the very conditions upon which success depends).], and did not jump the gun and allowing Zhou Weiqing to start creating high level Consolidating Equipment Scrolls. Instead, he instructed Zhou Weiqing to learn and practice every single one of the low level Consolidating Equipment Scrolls he had in his considerable memory. The mission he gave Zhou Weiqing was that before leaving for the Military Academy, he had to design and complete a set of 1000 Scrolls of all the 392 basic Consolidating Equipment Scrolls Huyan Aobo taught him.

As an experienced Consolidating Equipment Grandmaster, Huyan Aobo knew just how important establishing a strong foundation and good basics was. No matter how much of a genius Zhou Weiqing was, if he did not build a good foundation, he would never to go on to amount to great success. As such, although he transferred a considerable amount of knowledge to Zhou Weiqing, he stopped him from creating Mid Level Consolidating Equipment Scrolls and beyond.

According to Huyan Aobo, the higher level scrolls were all made up of mixing and matching of the basic scrolls, or could even be considered ‘leveled up’, more complicated versions of all the various basic skills. Even if Zhou Weiqing had the terrifying ‘cheating’ Time Attribute, if he did not have the solid foundation with a bedrock of basic skills, he would only amount to a copying machine, and not a creator.

4 Months Later.

“Teacher, what will you be teaching me today?” Zhou Weiqing had an eager look on his face as he looked at Huyan Aobo. In these four months, he had noticeably lost a large amount of weight, going down an entire size, with sunken eyes and obvious dark circles around them. His skin was no longer the healthy bronze, but rather pasty and white after spending 4 months without seeing the sun.

However, if one examined closely, they would notice that although his body was abnormally fatigued, his eyes were much more brilliant than four months ago, filled with the desire for knowledge. In his mind, it was filled with the profound secrets of Consolidating Equipment Masters.

In the past four months, this pair of master and disciple had not left the house, one teaching and one learning with all their hearts and minds. Huyan Aobo, despite his miserly ways, had spent all his life savings buying Consolidating Paper and the various materials needed for all the different Consolidating Inks.

As for Zhou Weiqing, he had also managed to learn pretty much everything about the basics of Consolidating Equipment Masters, mastering the various knowledge and skills; from design, to creation, to memorising all the various Consolidating Ink Recipes, as well as other tips and tricks.

“Today, we will not be learning anything else.” Huyan Aobo looked at Zhou Weiqing with a faint smile on his face. He was sitting cross legged in front of Zhou Weiqing; though of course his stomach was almost sagging to the floor.

Sensing the kind benevolence of his teacher’s eyes, Zhou Weiqing was rather surprised by Huyan Aobo's words. “Not learning anything? But... Teacher, I have to leave for Fei Li City in just a few days, there's no time to waste!”

Huyan Aobo smiled and said: “Haha… you little fool, Teacher no longer has anything left to teach you; I have already passed on everything I know to you in this four months. Although you still need a long period of time to digest all my teachings, and need a lot more practice, it is indeed true that I have nothing new left to teach you.”

Zhou Weiqing was stunned, and he could sense the complicated feelings from Huyan Aobo. “Teacher…”

Huyan Aobo said: “Little Wei, I was never ever able to become a Zong Stage Consolidating Equipment Master. Not because I didn’t have enough talent, or because I didn’t work hard enough, but because my cultivation level was never enough. My body and my Heavenly Energy was never sufficient for me to create anything more than a single socketed Consolidating Equipment Scroll.”

“Creating a Zong Stage Consolidating Equipment Scroll has always been my dream, alas I was restricted by being a mere Elemental Jewel Master. However, you are different, you are a Heavenly Jewel Master, and not just an ordinary Heavenly Jewel Master, but one richly endowed by nature, with six elemental attributes, of which many are rare. I hope that even when you go to the Fei Li Military Academy, you still spend 2 hours a day on practicing to be a Consolidating Equipment Master. With your talent, 2 hours is more than enough.”

“In any case, you are leaving soon, and I have a gift for you.”