299: You call this garbage?

The celebration wine of the Bing Battalion hadn't even been finished before trouble came knocking.

Su Ming hadn't even had the chance to take a sip of hot tea before the tent curtain was kicked open by a foot wearing deerskin boots.

Three young men dressed in dark red short-sleeved tunics walked in.

The leader was a tall fellow, carrying a heavy animal-hide bag in his hand.

These were apprentices from the Artifact Hall.

In Iron Wall Pass, the Artifact Hall managed the repair and distribution of all Magical Artifacts, and their status had always been a cut above the rest.

Zhao Tieji was gnawing on a lamb chop. Seeing this, he frowned and slammed the bone onto the table: "Artifact Hall? If you have something to say, say it. What kind of rule is kicking down doors?"

The tall apprentice glanced at Zhao Tieji, ignoring this blood-stained brute. His gaze swept around the tent, finally settling on Su Ming, who was wiping his fingers in the corner.

"You're that Su Ming?"

The tall fellow threw the animal-hide bag in his hand onto the table in front of Su Ming.

With a clatter.

The bag opened, and a pile of colorful, incomplete fragments rolled out, nearly knocking over the teacup by Su Ming's hand.

Su Ming reached out to steady the teacup, lifted his eyelids, and spoke calmly: "What advice do you Senior Brothers have for me?"

"Hardly advice." The tall fellow crossed his arms, his chin slightly raised. "I heard from Deacon Zheng that you showed off some 'Water-grinding Skill' at the Ancient Formation Repair Workshop and belittled us as worthless. You said we weren't even as good as a self-taught formation cultivator from the outer sect."

He pointed at the pile of fragments on the table. "Since you're so capable, why don't you take a look? This is a set of 'Yin and Yang Mother-Child Formation Plates' sent back from the front lines, severely damaged. We're too dull to fix it. Since Junior Brother Su has such brilliant methods, why not show everyone a trick on the spot?"

Su Ming glanced at the fragments on the table.

This was hardly "severely damaged."

It was clearly dismantled, and then fragments from several Formation Plates of different attributes were intentionally mixed together.

The breaks were fresh; some places even still bore traces of being manually snapped.

They were here to pick a fight.

The air in the tent suddenly froze.

Zhao Tieji stood up abruptly, his fan-like hand gripping the giant hammer at his waist, while Chen Chuan also placed his hand on his sword hilt.

"Want to fight?" Zhao Tieji gave a sinister grin. "Don't you see whose territory this is?"

Su Ming extended a finger and lightly toyed with the pile of fragments.

In his Sea of Consciousness, Lin Yu's voice rang out with a hint of mockery: "Oho, disciple, this is a 'Yin and Yang Mother-Child Formation.' Although they've messed it up, the core circuit is still there. If you fix this thing, you can trade it for quite a few good items."

"Zheng Tieshou has been trying to recruit me these past few days. These guys probably couldn't stomach it," Su Ming replied in his mind.

"It's good that they can't stomach it," Lin Yu chuckled. "Then let's make them even more upset."

A slight curve appeared at the corner of Su Ming's mouth.

He stood up, ignoring the three aggressive apprentices, and picked up a fragment, examining it before his eyes.

"This Formation Plate is indeed 'rotten' enough," Su Ming said indifferently.

The tall apprentice sneered. "If you can't fix it, just say so. Don't make excuses. If you admit defeat, go kowtow before Deacon Zheng and admit you were just a blind cat stumbling upon a dead rat. After that, don't hang around the Artifact Hall's entrance anymore."

"I meant that the original design was too rotten."

Su Ming put down the fragment and extended both hands.

"Watch closely."

Before his voice faded, the spiritual energy within Su Ming's Dantian and Qi Sea suddenly surged.

From his ten fingertips, ten deep blue threads of spiritual energy instantly gushed out. These threads, as if alive, flexibly dove into the chaotic pile of fragments.

Rise!

Su Ming raised his hands slightly.

The hundreds of fine fragments on the table actually levitated simultaneously, rotating slowly in mid-air.

The tall apprentice's pupils constricted sharply, the sneer freezing on his face.

What kind of Spirit-control Technique was this?

Before he could react, Su Ming's fingers began to move.

Fast.

So fast they left only afterimages.

Su Ming was like playing an invisible zither, his ten fingers flying in a dazzling blur.

Guided by the threads of spiritual energy, the floating fragments quickly found their positions.

Click.

The first fragment fell into place.

Followed by the second, the third... The dense sounds of metal clashing merged into one, crisp and pleasant, like large and small pearls falling onto a jade plate.

"Not this one."

Su Ming flicked his finger, and a seemingly intact red fragment was sent flying, hitting the ground with a 'ding'.

"What are you doing! That's the Core Diversion Plate of the Child Formation!" the tall apprentice shouted in panic.

"It's a burden."

Su Ming didn't even look up, his fingers continuing to dance. "Yin and Yang conversion—why pass through a Fire Position? Using water as a bridge directly will increase efficiency by at least ten percent."

As he spoke, a blue Water Bridge appeared out of thin air, directly connecting the originally severed Yin and Yang poles.

Buzz—

As the final fragment fitted perfectly into the main body, the entire Formation Plate emitted a low hum.

The originally dim surface instantly lit up with two flowing halos of black and white. The halos chased each other like Taiji fish, and their operation was even smoother than when it was new.

Su Ming withdrew his hands, dispersing his spiritual energy.

That "Yin and Yang Mother-Child Formation Plate," as large as a washbasin, landed steadily on the table, its spiritual light pulsing without a hint of stagnation.

There was a dead silence in the tent.

The two followers gaped, their eyes nearly popping out. The tall apprentice looked as if he had seen a ghost, pointing at the Formation Plate with trembling fingers, unable to speak for a long time.

From start to finish, it hadn't even taken half a cup of tea's time.

The interference items they had intentionally mixed in were precisely removed, the broken patterns were perfectly repaired, and... even the original design had been altered?

"This... how is this possible..." the tall apprentice muttered to himself, his face turning the color of pig liver.

"Nothing is impossible."

Su Ming picked up his teacup, blew on the foam, and spoke in a tone as flat as if he were saying the weather was nice today. "I just used my brain a bit more than you and wasted fewer words."

"Good!"

A sudden roar came from outside the tent curtain.

The curtain was lifted again, and Zheng Tieshou strode in. Behind him followed several veteran soldiers looking for excitement.

Zheng Tieshou's face was flushed, clearly having just come from the wine table, but his eyes were startlingly bright.

He walked to the table in a few steps, picked up the Formation Plate, examined it over and over, and tested it with spiritual energy.

"Wonderful!"

Zheng Tieshou slapped his thigh. "Removing the Fire Position diversion—why didn't I think of that? With this change, the spiritual energy loss is reduced by at least twenty percent!"

He spun around abruptly and kicked the tall apprentice in the backside.

"Did you see that clearly? Huh?"