Chapter 100: The Masterpiece Tempered a Hundred Times

Ye Yan had come to the Luotian Grand Rite for only one purpose: to get Zhang Chulan into the event.

Now that the mission had been fully accomplished, his interest in the rite had dropped by a great deal.

As for what came next, there was no need for him to worry.

Who won and who lost, who claimed the position of Heavenly Master, who obtained the Heaven-Bearing Seal—all of it was beneath his concern.

It had nothing to do with him.

On the day after dealing with Bian Min, Ye Yan himself also grew lazy and unhurried. He shed his disguise and began appearing in his true face.

Strangely enough, once he removed that mask of concealment, the number of people who suddenly came running to ask for his autograph or seek a photo dropped all at once.

The world became quiet again.

Ye Yan found it a little strange, though not so strange that he could not make sense of it.

If he thought about it carefully, it was understandable.

The name of Ye Yan, the Night Watchman, naturally carried far more weight than the false identity of Ye Liangchen.

But Ye Yan himself rarely appeared before the public eye, so most people had only heard of him; they did not know what he actually looked like, nor whether he had three heads and six arms.

In contrast, Ye Liangchen, because he appeared repeatedly at the Luotian Grand Rite, and thanks to that black robe and half a fox mask, was far easier to recognize.

Originally, Ye Yan had planned to take Wang Ye and Tang Wenlong out for a footbath at the place next door as thanks before they left Longhu Mountain.

But the two of them each had their own matters to attend to, and after the matches ended they left in a hurry.

That left Ye Yan somewhat helpless.

Still, he had long since grown used to it. Friendship among adults was largely like this: few meetings, many partings. That was the normal state of things.

With nothing better to do, Ye Yan found himself missing the days when he had lounged around the Tiandi Guild from nine to five, slacking off to his heart's content.

He bought two skewers of meatballs on the outer mountain, and on the side took advantage of the shop owner to get a free bottle of Fanta. Then he found a quiet spot, claimed a bench, and sprawled there while basking in the sun and scrolling through his phone.

The air of a thoroughly lazy bum was almost overwhelming.

Just as Ye Yan was lounging on the bench, browsing the day's news on his phone, his device suddenly vibrated for no reason.

At first, Ye Yan assumed it was Xu Si, Li Ziyuan, or the others chatting in the group again about something.

Unexpectedly, the sender was a stranger. The chat nickname was Immortal Through Ten Thousand Refinements, and the avatar showed a girl with a bun, wearing plain clothes, cheeks rouged, looking half like a zombie and half like a machine.

Immortal Through Ten Thousand Refinements: Are you there?

Ye Yan: ?

Even Ye Yan himself did not know when he had added such a strange friend.

"You must be wondering why I would suddenly send you a message like this."

Just as Ye Yan was thinking about it, the person called Immortal Through Ten Thousand Refinements sent another message.

"Before sending this, I hesitated for a long time too. I didn't know whether I should contact you, but in the end I still sent it."

"?

The message made no sense at all, and Ye Yan could only feel bewildered. "Who are you? I don't remember ever adding you."

Ye Yan chose his friends carefully. He rarely had any oddballs in his list, yet he had no memory whatsoever of this person called Immortal Through Ten Thousand Refinements.

Not the slightest impression.

"My name is Ma Xianhong. You can call me by my name, or Master Ma. For now, I am only an unknown nobody, but believe me, it won't be long before I become the one who overturns this world..."

The overturner of the world?

What grandiose nonsense. Even Ye Yan was stunned by Ma Xianhong's words and fell briefly silent.

Still, he did not think too deeply about it, taking the man for some lunatic who had escaped from an asylum.

There were plenty of strange people these days; one more Ma Xianhong made no difference.

Ye Yan shook his head. Too lazy to waste his breath on a madman, he was just about to remove the strange fellow from his friend list.

But at that very moment, Ma Xianhong's message arrived before he could act.

"You think I'm talking big, and you want to delete me, right? But I think there is no need. I mean you no harm."

Seeing that line, Ye Yan suddenly took a little interest in this Ma Xianhong.

He felt as though the other man could read his mind, as though he could predict Ye Yan's every move.

That was rather interesting.

"Master Ma, was it? Since you were able to find me, that means you know who I am. Just say what you want."

"My purpose?"

"Actually, I don't have any real purpose. I just think we are the same kind of people. I wanted to get acquainted with the famous Night Watchman, and, incidentally, give you a little surprise."

"A surprise? For me?"

Ye Yan sneered. "When someone I have never met before suddenly offers me a surprise, that kind of unsolicited enthusiasm usually means one of two things: either mischief, or theft. So I wonder, Master Ma, which category do you belong to?"

Ye Yan teased him while staring at the screen.

But Ma Xianhong was not offended by his words at all.

"Neither, perhaps. But the surprise I mentioned is very real. Don't you want to hear it?"

"Then say it."

Ye Yan's attitude was indifferent. In truth, he did not care much about the supposed surprise.

After all, there were not many things left in this world that could truly surprise him.

As for why he was still chatting with this obscure and bizarre Ma Xianhong, it was simply because the man was somewhat interesting and could kill time.

That was what Ye Yan thought, but Ma Xianhong's next line made his eyes widen at once.

"Aren't you collecting methods for creating absolute darkness? I am not especially talented, but I happen to know a way to do exactly that. Wouldn't you call that a surprise?"

If Ye Yan had merely been bored before, then this sentence struck straight at the heart of him.

He instantly grew alert, so much so that the man who had been slumped on the bench now looked as if a spring had been installed under his backside; with a jolt, he shot upright.

"You know a method to create darkness?"

"Of course. It's not that difficult. Doesn't this sort of thing just require a pair of hands?"

Just need a pair of hands?

Ye Yan's mouth twitched as he read those words.

If absolute darkness could be accomplished so easily, would he not have already entered the Sovereign Realm?

Would he still need to wait until now?

Ma Xianhong's tone still sounded as arrogant as ever, yet there was a steadiness in it that made one instinctively believe him by three parts.

Ye Yan also felt that this fellow had not come merely to toy with him. At the very least, there was some degree of credibility there, and Ye Yan was willing to believe it.

After all, this concerned the Sovereign.

Thinking of this, Ye Yan quickly sent another message.

"Then what is your method?"

"Refining artifacts."

Ma Xianhong's answer was simple, and it immediately extinguished the hope that had just begun to rise in Ye Yan's heart.

"If that could do it, wouldn't this problem have been solved long ago?"

Ye Yan knew quite a few artifact refiners. He had already tried people like Yuan Tao, Gao Nan, Zhao Quan... but without exception, they had all failed.

As for the road of artifact refining, Ye Yan had long since given up on it and no longer held any hope.

Just as Ye Yan was at a loss for words, Ma Xianhong's next line once again sent his thoughts into upheaval.

"Have you ever heard of the Divine Mechanism Hundred Refinements?"

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