Chapter 214: Young artisans.

Chapter 214: Young artisans.Lee didn’t expect to stand out so much.

He was by far the oldest one here – all the boys and girls were at most twelve years old and even though he was only a teenager, he felt old. More importantly, it turns out he signed up for the event as the first – the rest registered in the last moment, hoping their works would be inspected last. Apparently the prevailing idea was that a good item the judges held in hands was better than a great piece they saw earlier in the morning.

Lee didn’t particularly care whether it was so. In fact, he kind of liked the number one spot, right next to the spectator crowd. His spot wasn’t directly in front of the seats where the Xiao clan sat, but from the corner of his eye he could see Xiao Lian and his gray hair, at least Lee thought it was him. More importantly, since he was in the first group, he could get over with the competition sooner, and then go for a meal.

The moment the young generation was given the command to start, all the kids forgot about the tension and focused at the task at hand. Everyone picked up the metal they chose earlier while waiting and threw in the forge to heat it up. Lee did the same, except his choice was met by disappointed shakes of heads from the audience.

Because of the time limit, no one attempted to craft anything larger than a fist. Most kids went with something like a small knife, spoon or even a hook. The item didn’t need to be big for the judges to see the quality of work.

Lee didn’t give a fuck, though. Ignoring the pain in the abdomen, he used his own fire elemental energy to heat up the piece of metal and afterwards energetically hammered it, creating a thin sword. He had done something similar multiple times while working for the stingy blacksmith in the Celestial Abyss’s outer sect, and now the hard part was resisting the pain.

The joyful sound of hammering resonated through the city, but just when the rest began, Lee was already finishing. After shaping the sword, even though it turned out ridiculously crude, he cooled it in the bucket of water and gave it perfunctory grind to clean the edges. His work was beyond any critique, and many people in the spectator seats were openly laughing at him.

One didn’t need to be an expert to know that what he created could be considered a walking stick at best, but if people thought this was bad, what followed was even worse.

Lee took an actual stick and cut it in halves. The first attempt didn’t go well – he managed to break the piece of wood. He did the same with two more and some spectators began to cheer for the only lumberjack in town, excitedly sharing their experiences with their friends that they had never seen anyone being so good at chopping wood.



Spectators from the other side of the plaza began to stretch their necks, trying to see the reason for the joyous disturbance, but with the fourth attempt Lee finally managed to cut the wood properly. Obviously he had no time to craft a proper sheathe, but he could make a fake one. After all, the sword he forged wasn’t a real weapon to begin with.

After carving the inside of the two pieces of wood, Lee joined them and secured with a longer leather strip at both ends. One had to admit – when he sheathed the thing that looked like a sword, the wooden part did work like a sheathe, but no one in their right mind would ever use it.

But Lee wasn’t done. He verified there was still time and began to carve something on the sheathe.

There were hopeful people who thought his forte might’ve been rune-crafting. This was an art in which not many artificers specialized.

The judge also thought so, or rather – hoped. But when Lee, finishing well before the rest, presented his work, judge’s expression changed.

"Follow me!" He said, and led Lee away. The latter glanced at the distant Xiao Lian’s figure, and followed.

***

"Reporting to Patriarch! Out of five hundred and twenty two participants, thirty seven turned out to be promising seedlings." After the event was over, the elder overseeing the preliminary competition said.

They were in the Xiao mansion, the dining hall, and the elder was reading the data his subordinates prepared. It was late, and the clan head already had dinner, and now contently sat in a large chair at the end of the table. He called over the elder to report so that the event could be properly concluded.

Patriarch’s wife sat next to him, but seemed to be lost in thoughts, probably thinking of something else entirely. She fiddled with her sword, obviously bored, but knew this part wouldn’t take too long.

Few other Xiao family members were present, but most enjoyed the aftertaste of the roast which now had nothing but bare bones left over. They drank wine and listened to random reports – there were not that many things one could entertain themselves with during the long evenings.

The elder continued, "Apart from a small incident, this part of preliminaries was a success, and it looks like we’ll be able to raise the quality bar for the finals during the New Year’s."

"What incident?" Patriarch Xiao asked.

"Nothing to worry about. There was a junior who openly disrespected the Xiao clan, but he’s in jail now." Elder said.

"What did he do, stab someone?" Patriarch skeptically asked.

"N ... no." For the first time the elder stuttered.

He was the one who locked Lee up in the morning, and to be honest, forgot about him. The initial idea was to teach the kid a lesson and then throw him out of the city. Unfortunately, with how crowded the event was, no one had the time to think of a random nobody.

"He forged an item and wrote something on it." Elder explained.

"Item?" Patriarch asked, "What did he write?"



"I’d rather not say ..." Elder said, throwing a look around at the present.

"Then show it to me!" Patriarch said.

In his years he had seen many rebellious youths, in fact, once upon the time he also was one. But just because someone was a young rebel, it didn’t mean they didn’t have talent. Besides, the most rebellious kids often turned out to be the best artists. Maybe they couldn’t become artificers, but Patriarch Xiao wasn’t going destroy a potential talent nevertheless.

Hearing the order, the elder could only apologize and rush to the Lawkeeper Office to get Lee’s item. On the way he quickly thought of a way to fix the situation in case of patriarch’s disapproval, and ordered to throw Lee out of the city. This way he could always claim that the non-violent offender was properly handled and let go. The timing didn’t matter.

When the elder returned and passed Lee’s creation to the patriarch, the latter took it with furrowed brows. No matter how one looked at it, the thing was nothing but a simple walking stick, except there was a sentence carved on it.

Lian, you bastard! Do you realize you stabbed me in the bandit camp while saving me back then?

"Motherfucker!" Patriarch’s loud shout stunned everyone in the room. No one remembered the amicable man ever cursing, much less this rudely.

Elder turned pale, terrified at the thought he just let a criminal escape, the patriarchs wife stared at her husband in confusion, but a couple of family members, mid-drink, choked on their wine, coughing and sputtering as their snot sprayed all over the table.

"Get him here this instant!" Patriarch ordered, but the elder felt his knees giving in.

’Motherfucker!’ Similar to the patriarch it was the only thing that came to his mind. For different reasons, though. Where in the world was he supposed to find the kid now?