116: Are you sure you're not here to entertain me?

This money pouch was quite substantial. He Sui, with her sharp eyes, noticed that it contained not only low-grade xuan stone but also many Medium Grade and High Grade xuan stones.

She hadn't expected this Young Master to be truly wealthy, thinking he must be a descendant of some large Family; otherwise, it would be impossible for him to carry so many xuan stones.

Thinking of this, she immediately put on a captivating, deadly smile and said sweetly, "Oh my, Young Master is truly young and promising!

To come and certify as an Artifact Refiner at such a young age—this Young Miss has been here for so long, and this is the first time I've seen it! Young Master, please follow me!"

"Am I hearing things?" Long Yuan was startled.

"Hehe, Young Master isn't hearing things. It's indeed rare for someone as young as you to come here for certification.

This Young Miss initially thought you were a lecher coveting my beauty, specifically here to tease me! I didn't expect you to actually be here for certification!" He Sui giggled.

"This..." Long Yuan was speechless upon hearing this. Was this person the Isekai Great Ming version of a confident woman?

However, to be fair, He Sui wasn't spouting nonsense; with her beauty, she indeed had the right to say such things.

It was probably just as the Heavenly Dao Eye said—she must have been harassed by many perverts in the past to develop such a self-protective reaction.

He Sui led Long Yuan to the outside of a room, unlocked the door with a key, and pushed it open.

Long Yuan saw that the inside was quite spacious, with Artifact Refining tools placed everywhere; it should be an Artifact Refining Room...

He Sui placed the registration form and a charcoal pen on a counter and said, "You fill out this form here first, and I'll go get three sets of Materials for you!"

"Okay! Thank you!" Long Yuan said, beginning to fill out the form.

Soon after, He Sui returned, holding three heavy bags.

She said, "Here are three sets of Materials. You can craft according to your design.

As long as one of them can pass the Wisdom Eye of the duty officer, he will assign you a level.

However, in our Fengyang, the highest you can be is a Two-Star Weapon Refiner.

For people like you who are just taking the Entry-Level test, you are generally designated as Entry-Level, without a star rating!" He Sui patiently explained.

"Understood! When does that duty officer get off work?"

"He looks at the situation! If someone is Artifact Refining, he will watch." He Sui said.

"Okay! Thank you!"

"Hehe, you're so polite. Oh, by the way, your surname is Long. Are you from our Fengyang Long Family?" He Sui asked.

"No! I have no relation to them!"

"I see. Alright, then you can start Artifact Refining. You can call me anytime if you need anything!"

"Okay!"

After He Sui left, Long Yuan locked the door to avoid interruptions, then opened one of the bags to look.

He found five kinds of Ore Materials inside, along with some wood and leather.

Opening the other two bags, he found the contents were the same.

As he pondered, he habitually swept with his Divine Sense and suddenly noticed something unusual at the top and sides of the room.

Upon closer inspection, there were small cameras. These cameras were not as imperceptible as the spy devices on Earth, but due to their concealment, most people would not easily notice them.

Clearly, this was a monitoring method of the Refiners Guild, likely to prevent cheating, such as replacing the Artifact Refiner certification work with something someone else had already refined.

Long Yuan knew that someone might be watching his every move through these cameras, but this was normal.

Since it was an assessment and certification, wasn't it basic practice to have someone monitor?

However, the Refiners Guild did not send people to monitor on-site but used camera surveillance, perhaps to avoid putting too much pressure on the certifier in person.

Of course, it could also be due to laziness or insufficient staff.

Long Yuan didn't mind. While checking the Artifact Refining tools and Materials, he pondered what kind of work to create.

After a while, he had an idea: since he planned to build a hot weapon factory in the future, he would first create a Xuan Gun, thus laying the groundwork for his future hot weapon endeavors.

As for what level this Xuan Gun should reach, what would be best?

"Hmm, the highest here is only Two-Star Weapon Refiner? Then I'll refine a Xuan Gun that can kill a second-order exotic beast!" Long Yuan quickly made a decision.

Second-order exotic beasts are equivalent to human Martial Artists, meaning they are at a Realm between Martial Apprentice and Martial Master, belonging to the Acquired Middle Stage.

However, exotic beasts are generally half a level stronger than humans of the same rank, so if it's a Late Stage second-order exotic beast, human Martial Artists would find it difficult to fight them.

Only a Martial Master might be able to subdue them.

However, Long Yuan believed that if a Martial Artist possessed the Xuan Gun he refined, killing an exotic beast of the same rank would be relatively easy.

As long as they seized the opportunity to heavily injure the exotic beast with the Xuan Gun first, wouldn't the rest be a simple matter?

Having a plan made things easier, but what gave him a headache was that the Ore Materials He Sui provided were too ordinary, and compared to the Xuan Gun he wanted to forge, several varieties were missing.

If he used the existing Materials to forge it, it would definitely not meet his requirements.

He thought for a moment, pressed the call button, and opened the door to wait.

Sure enough, He Sui quickly walked over and asked, "Young Master Long, is there a problem?"

"There is indeed a problem. Can these Materials be exchanged or adjusted?"

"Exchanged or adjusted? Entry-Level certifications all use these Materials; they cannot be exchanged..." He Sui said.

"Is it that the Material grade cannot be changed, or the variety?"

"This... mainly, one set of Materials only costs ten xuan stones; it's impossible to have anything too good!" He Sui said, her face slightly red.

Didn't the Guild rely on this to earn some pocket money? You can't possibly prevent the Guild from earning even this much, can you?

Long Yuan understood as soon as he heard it. He said, "How about this: I'll pay extra to buy a set of Materials from you, according to the Material list I provide. How does that sound?"

"Your own Material list? What do you want to refine?" He Sui's eyes lit up, and she quickly asked.

"A Xuan Gun!"

"A Xuan Gun? That's not many Materials. Alright, list them out, and I'll calculate the price for you at market value!" He Sui said.

Long Yuan immediately took out the charcoal pen and began to write on the paper.

Soon, he handed three fully written pages to He Sui.

He Sui was stunned, muttering to herself, "Just a Xuan Gun, and you're writing so many Materials to scare whom? I'm an Entry-Level Artifact Refiner!"

She browsed through it carefully and immediately became unsettled, as she found that there were too many and too varied items, some of which even the Refiners Guild didn't have in stock!

"Long Yuan, are you sure you're not here to tease this Young Miss?"

She snorted, "This Cloud Steel Stone and Carbon Steel Stone both need to be bought new from outside.

As for this Whale Fat, don't you know how could such a marine product possibly be on the market? Who can kill a Great Whale now?!"

...