The Geared Immortal

The three academy contest 2

/*unedited*/

Three events are being held simultaneously in every part of the stadium, the alchemy contest, crafting contest, and the array formation contest. Since the contest is being held simultaneously the field is filled with young people along with the judges of the contest. From Shin Jiao's perspective to his left he can see the alchemy contest and to his right is the crafting contest and in the middle is the array formation contest.

Everyone is cheering on each of their participants for each category.

For the crafting contest, since Sai Wu was kicked out of the academy, Tong Lei and a few others represent the crafting department of the Great Wu academy. Right now, the task given to them is to craft a tier-1 supportive armament. This armament should have the ability to defend at the same time to enhance a cultivator. But since it is only tier-1, a single ability can only be expected from that artifact. But supportive armaments are far harder to craft than defensive or attack artifact because its function is to support a cultivator in combat or in an emergency situation.

But as cultivators they are used to using pills and charms for support and artifacts are less popular. So this really put everyone in a dilemma as they didn't know what to do. At this moment, Tong Lei's eyes are glowing in excitement.

This is because he has seen the glasses and the goggles that his master/friend is using. And he has already experienced its support for a cultivator. If he can make something like that using a simple array and system then he would be able to grab this opportunity to advance in the next round.

With that in mind, he became excited and began drawing blueprints on paper.

But when the other students saw this, they sneered at the fatty who busied himself scribbling something on a piece of parchment.

Since this is a contest, to prevent people from cheating they are required to create blueprints which the judges can see and observe. This way, the judges can see if the craft is an original or not. Or if there are those who copy they can immediately illuminate such a person from the contest.

But what confuses the judges the most is that Tong Lei is actually using a thin piece of paper. Unlike a parchment, thin pieces of paper would blot when one uses ink to draw on it.

Then suddenly the judges were dumbfounded as Tong Lei took out a thin object from his spatial tool. He then filled that small tube-like object with some ink and after closing its cap, he began writing on the paper.

What surprises the judges the most is the fine line that comes out of that small thin tube-like thing.

Shin Jiao gave a simple pen to Tong Lei which can use the raw ink combined with arrays to maintain its gooeyness so that it would function as a normal pen without causing too much inkblot on the paper.

Tong Lei began to use many pieces of paper as he slowly draws his blueprints. And after a couple of minutes, he was able to finish his work and smiled.

"I think this would do it." Tong Lei muttered to himself.

The judges showed a confused look on their faces as they tried to figure out what Tong Lei has written. Nobody noticed that every one of them are watching only one person and they seem to have neglected the rest of the participants.

Suddenly, Tong Lei flattens the 5 stacks of papers and since it is a bit thin the drawings from below were shown and a complete structure of a visor-like thing appears.

Upon seeing this, the judges began nodding their heads as if they had realized something.

After drawing the blueprint, Tong Lei took his position behind a furnace and began choosing materials to use in crafting his own version of the glasses. He then began to meticulously inscribe runes on a surface of a metal. What surprises the judges is that the runes seem to be very tiny almost nonexistent. If not for the keen spiritual sense of the judges they would have never seen those runes and hairline-like patterns.

Every one of them was in awe of the way the young pudgy guy used in writing such a pattern. This is because Tong Lei is using his own spiritual sense to control each tiny stroke as he writes down everything.

Shin Jiao has already taught Tong Lei the principle of rune programming and how they interact with each other. Although what Shin Jiao taught was not as complex as an A.I. program, but it's still programming none the less.

And so after some time, Tong Lei was able to finish his own crafted item which gained the admiration of almost all the judges except for a few.

"Although what he did is amazing, but I can't understand how that thing could be of use to support a cultivator?"

"It just looks like a toy that you can put on your head."

"Well, you're right, but how to use it then?"

The judges began to discuss what Tong Lei has crafted.

Tong Lei found himself to be the last contestant to finish even though he was the one who started. This becomes what he crafted is rather a bit complicated than others.

The rest of the contestants created bracers, rings, and amulets. So this did not spark any interest with the judges. And their attention was all on Tong Lei, so no one noticed that Tong Lei has already finished his crafted item.

"Ahem… judges, everyone can start inspecting the crafted items now." the person in charge of the crafting contest said as he gained the attention of everyone back.

With his word, the judges immediately stood up as they move in unison towards Tong Lei's table.

"What the hell is going on? Is there some problem with that guy?"

"I think the judges are going to do something outrageous this time."

"Yeah, I think so… that fatty is the only one who made something different out of the rest."

"He might be trying to gain attention. Look at that thing on his table… it doesn't look anything like an artifact that I have seen before."

"Che, what do you know? Just watch, Tong Lei is one of the best artificers in our academy, he wouldn't make something that's of no use."

"So what? I say that what he made is trash. Look at that thing."

The audience began discussing while looking at the item on Tong Lei's table. As the discussion became louder, the others who are not watching the crafting match turned their attention in this place and after a while noticed the weird object on one of the contestant's tables.

…

When Shin Jiao noticed this a smile appears on his face.

"I truly found a genius for a friend and a student." Shin Jiao thought as he observes the visor like thing on the table.

What amazed Shin Jiao is the design of the item that Tong Lei crafted. It looks like a VR Box but thinner and more refined. If you flip the thin metal covering of the visor, you can use it as a normal visor.

Shin Jiao wanted to go down below and use his spirit sense to scan the object, but resisted on that idea and just opted to wait. He can just ask Tong Lei about it after the contest.

When the judges reached Tong Lei's table he was shocked at the appearance of all the judges along with some of the contestants.

Everyone was in awe of the foreign object on the table and wanted to see how it works.

"Student… Tong Lei. What is this thing that you crafted? Can you introduce it to us?" one of the judges asked.

"Umm… this thing is…"

"Haha… that's just rubbish. From its look it doesn't even seem to be of any use." suddenly someone from the crowd said which gained the attention of the other people.

"Yeah… why would you bother with that thing? He just made it like that so that he can gain the attention of our fellow judges." Another one chided in.

Since Shin Jiao's attention is in this area, he heard those two which seem to belong to two teachers from other academies.

This made Shin Jiao wants to jump down and punch those two teachers.

These two teachers belong to the Helu academy which is well-known for their prowess in martial arts and alchemy. Although they are not that strong in crafting only this year a genius appears in their school and that young woman is truly amazing. So they didn't want to give this lime light to the Great Wu Academy though they know that the students in that place are considered as the best when it comes to crafting and war tactics.

When the judges heard the words of the two teachers, they suddenly felt that their reaction was over board. This only happens because the crafted artifact in front of them is truly unique from the rest and no one wanted to be the last one to check it.

So after regaining their composure they all suddenly received instruction through mental communication and began dispersing to the other students.

This made the rest of the students sigh in relief. They thought that the pudgy young man would have gotten all the attention and their crafted item would be wasted.

So, upon seeing that the judges started to go around and began judging each of the items, everyone felt happy.

But their joy was short-lived as everybody was dumbfounded at the judges' action.