Chapter 49
Chapter 49: Everyone Was Happy
Ou Yangming returned to his original spot soundlessly. He removed the scarf, put on his outerwear, and instantly became a blacksmith who had nothing to do with the masked man that had fought the fop in an intense battle earlier.
It was his first time participating in a night battle. Although he was only involved as a bystander, he was already prepared and fully equipped to escape if anything uncontrollable happened. Nonetheless, he did not expect to encounter an unforeseen person like the fop.
Ou Yangming did not reject it. That was because the fop’s movements had opened a brand new door for him, which helped him understand the definition of skills.
While boundaries represented power and were the clearest reflection of power, skills could indicate power perfectly in a different manner.
Needless to say, the biggest advantage of skills for Ou Yangming at the moment was they allowed him to adjust his mental power.
It was something that had happened by coincidence, so Ou Yangming might not be able to get the same reward again even if he observed the fight again.
After a brief moment, Yan Chengcai and the others returned while grimacing in pain, and they looked embarrassed. Even though they beat Huang Jingtian and his men up terribly, they were wiped out by an unknown fop.
Even one who had a thick face would be unhappy, so they were certain that they had let Master Ou down.
“Guys, why are you so upset when you’ve won?” Ou Yangming could not help but laugh when he saw the dejected men.
Big Bull exhaled deeply, then removed his arm guards and greaves. “Master Ou, we didn’t keep you satisfied, so we’ll return these to you.”
The others did the same even though they were unwilling to, and it was obvious through their expressions that they were very sad. As though they were cutting flesh off their bodies.
“Forget it, I’m very happy with your performance, so I’ll give them to you.” Ou Yangming frowned a little.
“What?” The men were stunned. Other than Yan Chengcai, who had seen it coming, the others looked at each other as if they heard him wrongly.
Their performance?
Without the fop who appeared after and caused trouble, their performance had been perfect. Nevertheless, they were ashamed because of the discord that happened.
“Why? Do you not want them? I’ll take them back then,” Ou Yangming glanced at the men as he spoke unhurriedly, then acted like he was going to take the pieces of equipment back.
Big Bull and the others looked at Yan Chengcai at the same time, who waved at them while saying, “These are gifts from Master Ou. If any of you don’t want them, there are other brothers who are waiting to get their hands on them!”
After coming to a sudden realization, the men quickly went to pick up the pieces of equipment that they removed earlier as if they hit the jackpot.
Yan Chengcai mentioned, “Brothers, we’ve received such a huge gift from Master Ou, so we must offer him our help in the future if he needs us. If anyone dares to ignore him, don’t blame me for not treating you as a brother anymore!”
Big Bull slapped his chest. “Big Brother, don’t worry. As long as Master Ou orders me, I’ll be at his service even if there’ll be immense dangers and difficulties, or I won’t die a natural death!”
The other men swore as well whether they were willing to or not. Ou Yangming was not bothered at all at first, but he did not stop them as he was slightly moved.
He did not have much support in the military, so apart from Old Craftsman, who cared for him dearly, he did not trust anyone else. Since Yan Chengcai made a move to be on his side, he would accept it with open hands.
While he knew that Yan Chengcai was only doing this because of his smithing ability, why would someone be on his side if he could not offer anything?
Once everyone calmed down, Yan Chengcai suggested, “Master Ou, it’s quite late now, so it’s best for us to return as soon as possible.”
Ou Yangming looked at the direction where the fighting group was at, and noticed that the torch was still burning for some reason, but nobody was there anymore.
He nodded, thus everyone used their body technique to sneak back into the military camp.
They entered the West Camp immediately once they were back, and a hoarse voice was heard the moment they entered. “What was the result?”
Yan Chengcai quickly answered, “We defeated the East Camp.”
“Good fella, you didn’t bring disgrace to the general’s name.” The owner of the voice sounded extremely delighted. “Go back and rest, you don’t need to train tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir, but there was an unforeseen event that happened after we won.”
“Oh? You should go back first, we’ll talk about this tomorrow.”
After Yan Chengcai led his men back to the military camp, he waved to signal them to return to their barracks. On the other hand, he escorted Ou Yangming back to his courtyard in the Armament Camp.
Ou Yangming pondered before he said, “Brother Yan, I hope that you won’t spread that I left the camp today.”
Yan Chengcai nodded. Don’t worry, I’ll definitely keep my mouth shut, and I won’t let the others speak nonsense.”
There were hidden meanings in what they said, so much so that the other men could only understand, at most, half of what they had said. Only the two of them knew very well what they meant.
Ou Yangming nodded then entered his residence. He was relieved after getting Yan Chengcai’s promise.
Yan Chengcai waved his hand hard, and was obviously elated. He would have never imagined that he could get acquainted with Master Ou, and could even receive such a huge benefit. In this case, he no longer despised the fop that much because the outcome would not have been so perfect if the fop had not suddenly intervened.
The next morning, Yan Chengcai woke up his brothers to instruct them not to spread what had happened yesterday, and especially stressed the point that Master Ou did not join them.
The men were grateful after receiving gifts from Ou Yangming, and they figured that the master did not want to be involved in the grudges between the two generals, thus they agreed without suspecting anything.
As for the superior who asked about the battle, Yan Chengcai told him everything that happened except the part where Ou Yangming followed them.
The superior would never relate the masked man who defeated the fop with a Military Fire Blacksmith no matter how well he imagined things.
※※※※
Even though it was peaceful in the West Camp, the East Camp was in a clamor.
A bearded man glared at Huang Jingtian and his men. He was exasperated that they did not meet his expectations. “Idiot, I humbled myself to borrow Good Grade arm guards for you, why did you lose? You even lost more terribly than you did the last time!”
Huang Jingtian lowered his head as he dared not defend himself. He knew his superior’s temper very well, and things would only be worse if he tried to explain.
As expected, the big man was tired of scolding him after some time. “What happened? Tell me!”
“Sir, we didn’t lose unjustly this time…” Huang Jingtian looked up.
“What?” The bearded man widened his eyes.
Huang Jingtian endured the pain as he responded, “Sir, we may have arm guards, but each of them had arm guards and greaves. We were caught off guard, which is why we lost.”
Feeling startled, the big man furrowed his eyebrows. “That doesn’t sound right. I didn’t hear about anyone from the West Camp making transfers at the depot. Hmph, it was only a day, how did they gather those pieces of equipment if they didn’t withdraw them from the depot?”
Huang Jingtian was helpless. Since the man had no idea, he was even more clueless.
“Even if they had greaves, your arm guards are of Good Grade, so you couldn’t have lost this badly,” The big man hesitated before mentioning.
“Sir, please take a look at me.” Huang Jingtian gritted his teeth. He rolled up his sleeves to show his arms, as well as the arm guards, but the guards had many holes in them, and some were especially obvious that they even dented.
“Wh-what happened?” The big man’s face changed as he exclaimed.
“We matched force with force against them, and we ended up quite seriously injured.” Huang Jingtian smiled bitterly.
The big man instantly had a grave expression on his face. Being an elder in the military, though he did not know how to smith equipment, he was aware of equipment properties very well.
There could only be one explanation for the awfully damaged arm guards, which was that their opponents had more powerful equipment than them!
“Sir, Brother Han cultivated the Iron Leg Technique very well, so if they were normal Good Grade greaves, his leg wouldn’t have been broken…” Huang Jingtian added after a short pause.
The big man’s face turned dark. “Are you saying that they had pieces of High Grade equipment?”
Huang Jingtian lowered his head without saying a word, but his expression said it all.
Brother Han was the fellow who fought Big Bull, and he was extremely unlucky because the only High Grade equipment given by Ou Yangming was worn by Big Bull. If Brother Han’s Iron Leg Technique was blocked by a Good Grade greave, he probably would not have broken his leg, but he had a miserable ending since he went against Big Bull out of everyone else.
“High Grade equipment, the West Camp cheated too much!” The big man’s eyes shone.
He did not mention his soldiers’ lack of preparation at all, and blamed everything on the West Camp.
Huang Jingtian then talked about the fop who challenged them, as well as his escape after that.
“Could that person be him?” The big man’s face changed.
“Sir, do you know that fella?” Huang Jingtian’s eyes glowed.
The big man glared at him. “Hmph, you don’t have to find out about that person. If it’s really him, he’s not someone who can be provoked by us!”
Huang Jingtian felt chills down his spine. “Yes, sir.”
Afterward, the big man gestured for him to leave. Huang Jingtian then looked for the medical officer to treat the others.
On the other hand, the burly man who was superior to Big Bull was deep in thought. The fact that the West Camp was able to gather so many pieces of equipment secretly and even let normal soldiers use them was truly worrying…