402 Competition Rewards

These blacksmiths were highly intelligent, so they naturally noticed Chu Qingyan’s abnormal behavior. However, they did not think too much about it.

After all, even if they were all from the Red Heart province, they would still be competing with each other. But they were naturally on the same side when facing off against those from other provinces.

“I see! Wu Mo doesn’t look very old. For him to obtain a spot in the conference, it’s obvious that he’s highly regarded in the White River province. However, the White River province has always been at the bottom of the rankings in almost every conference. He’s probably not even worth mentioning.”

“I’m confident that I can defeat him, but I haven’t seen him for a long time. I wonder how much his forging skills have improved.” Chu Qingyan nodded slightly. “The more we value such an opponent, the better. Since we have a feud with him, we can’t give him a chance to rise.”

“Brother Chu, don’t worry. As long as it’s within our ability, we’ll definitely do our best!”

“Thank you, my brothers. If you need my help in the future, just let me know. I won’t turn my back on you!”

The few of them revealed a tacit smile and looked at Wu Mo with a playful gaze.

At the end of the day, Chu Qingyan was still a blacksmith from the Red Heart province. A casual favor in exchange for a favor was worth their time.

On the other side, Wu Mo sensed something as well. He turned his head slightly and met Chu Qingyan’s gaze. He could not help but raise his eyebrows.

As the saying went, destiny would make enemies meet. He had just arrived at the Red Heart province, but he had already met someone who held a grudge against him. It really surprised him.

However, thinking about what Chu Qingyan had done in the past, it was understandable. Wu Mo did not feel the slightest fear in his heart.

Their conflict seemed to be under control, but in reality, Chu Qingyan would not hesitate if he had the chance to kill him in the wild.

Therefore, Wu Mo was on guard.

One should not harm others, but one should guard against others.

He was in the Red Heart province, and he knew how Chu Qingyan was. Therefore, he would not give him the opportunity to cause trouble.

With that said, he was not afraid. He would deal with whatever came his way, so he was not going to lose sleep over Chu Qingyan.

His gaze only stopped on Chu Qingyan for a moment before he retracted it, as though he did not see him.

His reaction annoyed Chu Qingyan greatly. It looked like Wu Mo did not see him as a worthy opponent. He felt anger from being looked down upon.

Right then, the organizers sent a car that would transport the participants to the venue arranged by the Blacksmith Association.

Since the scale and popularity of the conference were far greater than before, the venue was also chosen to be in the Federal Hall’s stadium.

The stadium could accommodate 33,000 people. It looked much smaller than a stadium that could accommodate 100,000 people, but it was an indoor stadium. There was also a space for forging Divine weapons.

In addition, there were high-definition cameras installed in the forging space, so they could watch the contestants at any time.

There were only a few dozen participants in total, but they brought a large number of security personnel, so the number of people exceeded 300.

Therefore, the organizers arranged for more than a dozen cars to pick everyone up.

The streets along the way were sealed, and police cars directed them to an open path. Those who did not know better would think that some big shot had arrived!

Many people on both sides of the road stopped to watch. They looked at the procession with curious gazes and lively discussions.

Wu Mo sat in the last row of the car and observed the situation by the road.

For some reason, he had a feeling that this exchange conference would not go as smoothly as he had imagined.

In fact, he no longer had interest in this exchange conference. But since he was already there, he did not have any objections. He only wanted to broaden his horizons. Aside from entering the top 10, he would just lay low.

After a night of awakening, he now had low expectations for the conference.

With the transcendent system and the technological system working side by side, and the technological system being the main one, many things needed time to accumulate.

Therefore, most of the exchanges in this conference were about scientific and technological achievements. They were naturally of great benefit to forging, but it deviated from his current forging philosophy, so he lost interest.

Ten minutes later, the groups arrived at the stadium and entered in succession.

With the staff’s guidance, the White River province members found their respective seats. Behind them was a row of magnificent forging rooms with all the necessary equipment.

Although Wu Mo had yet to enter the rooms, the facilities there were definitely not bad based on Red Heart’s reputation.

The next step was a rather boring process. Various organization leaders and the blacksmiths’ representatives gave speeches before they visited the forging space. This basically lasted the whole morning, and a banquet was later held at the hotel.

In the afternoon, the exchange conference officially began.

The so-called “Annual Exchange Conference” was just a nice name. In truth, it should be called the Nine Provinces Blacksmith Competition, not some exchange conference.

Who would be willing to share their best techniques or skills with others?

That would not happen. Everyone would only learn by observing the forging process of others. It was up to them how much they could learn. If they failed to learn anything, they were incompetent. What did it have to do with the other participants then?

Hence, this exchange conference received so much attention because of the competition.

After all, there would always be a winner and a loser in the competition. This would affect the interests of many parties.

Apart from their final rankings, which affected the allocation of funds and various resources for the next year, there were also individual rewards for the participating blacksmiths.

While the rewards were not comparable to a huge amount of resources, they were still extremely generous for an individual. It was enough to make others envious.

The prize for first place was three types of Divine-grade materials and other rewards. They were items that could not be bought even with money.

The prize for second place was two types of Divine-grade materials and other numerous rewards.

The one in third place would be rewarded with one Divine-grade material and other rewards.

The prizes for the fourth to tenth places were similar. They were all Quasi-Divine-grade materials but in a different quantity.

All these materials could not be purchased on the market, so the blacksmiths found them very attractive.

“The rewards are really good. It makes my blood boil. As long as you have one type of Divine-grade material and a few Tier 2 supplementary materials, you can forge true Divine-grade equipment. To a blacksmith, the experience gained is enough to improve by a large margin.”

“Dream on. Although there are so many people participating this time, only a few will place at the top. Most will be trying to catch up.”

“I’ll give it my all no matter what!”