Final Competition II

As expected, just after the elders sat down, another batch of visitors came in. They were the young masters that visited and tried to greet Ji Li before, some of them were also participants that failed, among them was the seventh talented person of the jeweller's position. He made it to the top hundred but failed in the end, which Ji Li expected.

Surprisingly, all the other six entered the top ten, while the talented smiths of the two other competitions that were selected by Rong Xi and filtered by Ji Li also entered their own top ten, making it so that most of those that would be winning were already recruited. Of course, there were still some in the top ten that weren't called and recruited, and some that rejected the invitation. Still, in the end, there was a considerable amount of talent that would soon be entering Ji Li's Vassal City, Ferrarius. He was happy about the gain, making all the expenses more than worthwhile.

Just one of them would need to become an Essence Awakening Stage cultivator and smith, and he would make several times the profit that he spends. EAS cultivators weren't too rare, truth be told. Even a town might have more of them than Ferrarius city, but all EAS cultivators of Ferrarius went down the smithing road, or many of them would be at the peak stage and some even at the talent refining. They only had one person among them that focused on cultivation, and he had just cultivated enough to barely get the qualifications of a city lord.

The new guests also paid their respects to Ji Li, who again was very cold and indifferent to them. Now that they were used, they just assumed it was the arrogance of a young intermediate Eunuch. But talented people always had the right to be arrogant, so they didn't complain too much.

They sat down at the right side of the host, parallel to the smiths. Shortly after, the young master of the Yi family moved around a bit and greeted several of the smith elders, till he was next to Rong Xi who was also sitting at the far left. If he could, he would've stood just a bit away from Qianyu, but still close to Ji Li. But he had to stand as far as possible, demonstrating some kind of majesty and detachment towards the Eunuch Palace. Still, he had to be a guest as the competition was 'financed' by said Palace, even though his own town paid a considerable amount to build the Stadium.

Before the secret discussions started, Ji Li already stood up and went down towards the balcony. Many people looked up when they saw him. Both of Ji Li's guards had loud musical instruments on them which they used to produce a very loud sound that made sure all focus was on them.

Qianyu took out a scroll and Shixuan began shouting "Welcome all visitors and all competitors. The Eunuch palace thanks all guests for visiting this competition held by us. We will be starting off now with the jeweller's competition for the top five, all in order in one competition.

The rules will be the same as before, the only change being that you are allowed to use any and all tools you may have, as long as they are on the same cultivation realm as you. After all, a blacksmith has to have their secrets, or they would just be a common smith making simple tools." With the remark, it was Shixuan's turn to take out a scroll as Qianyu began. 

"All participants are ready, so we will not stop you by talking any further. We will be going back to the first stage, ask you all to present a medallion in any form. The rule for this is that the medallion has to honour the Eunuch Palace in however the smith want. 

You are free to choose your tools, resources and all that is necessary to craft. Everything has been prepared on the tables and you may look for what you need." The resources were placed on a large table in the middle of the arena platform where there were ten working station and participants.

Qianyu also took the scroll away, but for the first time, it was Ji Li that said something. His voice was very cold and added a certain feeling to what he said, as he announced solemnly "The competition will be held for three hours, you may begin, may the emerald tree shine forever."

All visitors repeated loudly "May the emerald tree shine forever.", the unified call brought in a feeling of being blessed by the presence of the Emerald Tree. Motivated, all participants moved towards the table, where they were surprised to truly find a very large variety of resources, but the quantity was only enough for one person! 

At most it could be used twice, after all, a medallion didn't have a specific form, especially in this scenario where they could just choose what they wanted to do. But the problem was that they had barely looked at the resources when one of the young men that was previously recruited by Ji Li stepped forward and took a few metals.

He was so quick back at his assigned station, that no one could react. But his move made all the others rush to the resources and take and fight over resources, especially two heated young men that weren't recruited at all injured each other as they fought.

Ji Li only looked at them and was reassured that Rong Xi did the right thing when he didn't choose them. They were talented, obvious from their ranking, yet for them to fight at such an important stage, and not just skirmishing like the others, but truly fighting till one was injured…

They were clearly more aligned on the path of a fighter than the path of someone that wanted to smith. It was only right to have hard feelings towards smithing, and wanting to compete for the resources was even better. But the competition shouldn't be in the hands of smiths, as every injury would cause their ability to worsen, and that would result in lower quality.

The spectators reacted happily over the conflict, as smithing usually wasn't a very interesting thing to do. Still, most of the senior smiths saw the fault and commented to their juniors, making it obvious that the mistakes of the participants weren't to be repeated.

The young man that was recruited by Ji Li previously and the one that just took the first initiative was the smartest. Taking the first step, being decisive and not hesitant in his actions, that was exactly how a soldier reacted upon receiving their command. Coincidentally, said young man was also the one that came alone with only his friend, obviously he was of lower standing.

As the competition went on, several smithing techniques astonished the spectators. Even Ji Li, who knew nothing, was enjoying the sight. Still, he quickly became bored and closed his eyes to rest and think of a few things. 

After all, he wasn't a smith and rather enjoyed pottery, which had some similarities, but was still different in that skilled potters could do anything without truly needing any special skills. As long as they had a wild imagination and basic hand and fire controlling skills, everything was easy. 

The truly difficult part about pottery was that one had to have a variety of skills while also a wild imagination, or else even if they could make a vase, it would just seem like a normal vase. A real potter could make a vase, texture it, colour it and then refine it once again.

In the end, potters were still not very popular because of it's limited use. Sure, the decoration of high-class potters was worth much. Some pottery was even used as the core of formations, and some were just used to build certain things. 

But in hindsight of cultivation, it was by far less useful than learning smithing and making one's own weapon. Ji Li didn't care because he had a different idea of pottery, which he had yet to truly reveal to even his brothers.

…

Suddenly a gong sound could be heard. The deep and steady sound was very calming and quickly spread throughout the whole stadium, making the heated situation very calm quickly. All people turned towards the balcony, where the sound came from. 

There, Shixuan was seen holding a gong at the wooden ending above. He was holding it firmly without letting go, and his face was very calm and unchanged. But contrary to his face, his arms' muscles were very deeply defined as they used their strength to hold the very large and heavy gong.

On the other hand, Qianyu was holding a kempul, the gong instrumental stick used for the specific Javanese Gong Shixuan was holding. The kempul was made of ivory and had a patted end. Qianyu and Shixuan were using a music instrument together, although it could be used alone, together it gave a totally different vibe as one could see the harmony between both people.

The movable gong and the swinging kempul made it so that the rhythm would be even more defined, making the sound more defined and changeable. The way to play the gong was taught by Ji Li, who had visited traditional orchestras and saw the gong being used.

The spectators automatically stopped their actions as they listened to the sound and felt very serene, as Ji Li started to say, "The competition has ended, please put down your tools." Which threw off all the listeners out of their state. They were shocked at how easily they were entranced in the sound, knowing full well that a single attack could have injured them heavily at that moment.

Even the Essence Awakening cultivators felt uneasy, as for a second, they also felt entranced, by a weapon used by a whole cultivation realm below them! Still, all the smiths quickly regained their composure and put down their tools as they were told.

They didn't feel bad about it, as they had just finished and were exhausted, and the sound gave them some time to calm their hearts and not feel nervous about the competition. Most of them already found a new home and only tried to impress any expert that would take them as their disciple. The others also were happy about the exposure and experience of participating.