Commanding Wind and Cloud

It didn’t matter if it was just a coincidence, but if not... horrifying. This was the only word Dorata could come up with to describe this young person.

A runemaster? Should he be a runemaster, Dorata would be having horrible nightmares. The runemasters in the Rune Master Union were at least in their thirties, but this young person looked younger than twenty years old.

To serve as a runemaster was shocking enough. Besides, he was able to carve and redress the runes minutely on the opponent’s weapon with the seemingly blunt Zhanmadao. This... this could only be concluded as horrific.

The greatest rune masters in this world were capable of carving on a moving object, but in no circumstance could they make any carvings during a fierce fight. The study of rune arts was as immense as the galaxy, where one might only draw a little knowledge in his lifetime. With the identity of a runemaster, he wouldn’t be allowed to carry out warriors’ drills.

To serve as both a powerful warrior and a runemaster? That was impossible. Dorata sobered up from his astonishment and shook his head hard. That was impossible.

Qian Jin tucked away his Zhanmadao and lifted his hands to wipe away the sweat on his forehead. At one crucial moment just now, he felt that he had the chance to alter the runes on his opponent’s war hammer, so he took the huge risk wielding his sword and changing the runes at a very high speed. It was by doing so that he had the final success. Yet what ensued was large spiritual consumption as to fight this way proved much more tiring than challenging a large crowd of people on his own.

"Well..." Overindulged in his own thoughts, Qian Jin kept nodding his head. It was at this moment that he eventually understood why Professor Akenash had been training him to carve at a fast speed on the rocks.

Only with three moves, he modified the releasing passage of the enchantment of dizziness and obtained the final victory.

If he could carve a self-explosive rune on the opponent’s weapon during the fight... Qian Jin shivered at the thought of the runes. As long as he had a weapon capable of carving runes on the enemy’s weapon, the runemasters with combat power would pose as an influential force in the battlefield.

"I...lost..."

Dorata acknowledged his defeat bitterly. In fact, to lose the fighting technique of Avatar was not the cause of his bitterness, because this fighting technique exclusively designed for Dwarfs and wouldn’t work for anyone else. But to lose to... to lose to a young ordinary warrior who didn’t even have a golden warrior heart was indescribably shameful.

The most bitter part wasn’t his failure, but the truth that his soul power didn’t finish the self-condensation to evolve into a real mature warrior soul. In fact, his soul power was inspired by the huge lotus-shaped warrior power released by the young warrior.

Dorata was clear that his soul power was in the shape of a blossoming lotus. However, this short-lived lotus ceased to blossom into the full length.

The odds had been lost and Dorata knew it was impossible for him to continue condensing the soul power unless he could master that special fighting technique displayed by Qian Jin. Upon thinking about this, Dorata made a long sigh. That fighting technique happened to work as the key to his fulfillment of forming a warrior soul. However, he failed to get it.

"I won." Qian Jin took the training scroll of [Avatar] from Te Jofy and threw it into his warrior dimension. Then he said to Dorata: "I bet you’re the bandit instructor here, aren’t you? Do I still need to stay here on the training ground for half a year?"

Dorata shook his head feebly. The strike from Qian Jin had smashed his confidence into pieces, while the performance of [Fury Lotus Fighting Technique] made him too dumbfounded to think about anything else.

"Alright." Qian Jin nodded his head and turned away to walk out of the door. "I’m leaving. Call me when the assessment comes."

"Wait."

Dazed, Dorata uttered an abrupt roar to stop Qian Jin and drew the attention of all. What did this defeated Dwarf long for doing this time?

"I...I..." Dorata started gasping harshly, "I... I want to make another bet with you."

"Bet?" Qian Jin twitched his ears and looked at Dorata doubtfully. "What else do you have to be used as the stake?"

Dorata’s body tumbled slightly and a flush came upon his coarse face. That was right. Now that he had already lost the fighting technique of [Avatar], what else did he have to be used as the stake?

To quit the bet? Dorata felt aggrieved and this sense of humiliating grievance was further intensified as he saw the inquisitive look of Qian Jin that was full of contempt. Due to the conceited nature typically possessed by the Dwarfs, he couldn’t bear such a look, the typical look showed toward the Dwarfs by people in the Zence Empire and the Demons.

Despite the fact that the Dwarfs were basically stronger in forging techniques than people of the Zence Empire and the Demons and that both the Lucifer Empire and the Zence Empire would send people and demons to buy all kinds of equipment and armament from them, the Dwarfs would from time to time be looked down upon by these residents of the Zence Empire and the Lucifer Empire.

Dwarfs were consequently highly sensitive to this tendency. Sometimes even if the others were not showing any contempt towards them, they would feel as if they were looked down upon.

"I can’t let them look down on me." Dorata uttered a sigh and gasped harshly. At this crucial moment, he didn’t bother to care being laughed at his trickeries by anyone.

"I want to bet on forging with you." Dorata looked at Qian Jin as his heart beat fiercely. As an inborn talent of the Dwarfs, the art of forging was known to each and every member of the Dwarfs with different degrees of proficiency.

Things were different in the Zence Empire, where most people knew nothing about forging, and warriors were exclusively engaged in practicing fighting techniques and warrior power or researching into stratagems and tactics, showing little attention to the forging arts.

It was unfair for members of the Zence Empire to join in such a bet, yet Dorata didn’t bother to care about whether he would be mocked by Te Jofy. As long as he could obtain the peculiar fighting technique to condense the warrior soul, every cost was worthwhile for him.

Forging? Qian Jin smiled as he was no longer a noob in this field. Having seen a great number of Forge Masters in the Zence Empire, he had a rough knowledge about the forging proficiencies of most blacksmiths. Even if the Dwarfs might be bestowed with innate talents in forging, to enter a relatively high level in this filed entailed persistent and meticulous practice for years.

Considering that the warrior power of Dorata had nearly reached the soul power level, he couldn’t have possessed outstanding forging competencies. In this case, to forge was only a hobby for him.

"In case you lose to me..." Qian Jin cupped his chin with his palm and looked Dorata up and down in sheer doubt. "What else do you have to give me?"

Dorata wondered whether there was something wrong with his ears. Before bringing about this request, he thought that he would be mocked by Qian Jin. But now it sounded that he had agreed with this bet.

Yes. The implication of Qian Jin’s words was a consent to the new bet. Dorata pinched his thighs hard. The ensuing pain told him that he was not in a dream.

What to use as the stake? Dorata hadn’t thought about this. He knew by intuition that he would win the moment he brought about the request for the bet, even if the weapon held by the young man was more powerful than the warrior weapon of his.

Dorata counted that this young man had been receiving harshest drillings since he was a toddler, or else he wouldn’t have acquired such compelling combat power at such a young age. In this way, the edgy Zhanmadao grasped by him couldn’t have been forged by himself but given by someone else as a gift.

"What stakes do you still have for me?"

Qian Jin looked at Dorata once again and raised this question. He wouldn’t mind taking another trophy from this Dwarf as a result of the new bet.

Undoubtedly, in case Dorata didn’t have any equivalent stake, Qian Jin would directly let go of this scheming Dwarf who tried to trick him.

"I will lose? Will I lose?" Dorata pointed to the tip of his nose. "How could I lose to you? In case I lose to you, I will do whatever you want."

Qian Jin looked Dorata up and down. "What else do you possess? What do you want to use as the stake this time?"

"I want to bet the lotus-looking fighting technique you have just used." Dorata’s voice died down as he found that he didn’t have any stake of equivalent value to this fighting technique.

To other people, this Fury Lotus Fighting Technique wasn’t valuable.

However, the Fury Lotus Fighting Technique had the function of helping him condense the soul power, and its value could be compared to a warrior weapon. An ordinary warrior who longed for reaching the saint level might try endless means to get this fighting technique. Things were the same with the top Golden Warrior Heart Warriors.

In this way, the value of this Fury Lotus Fighting Technique was more than what could be expressed. For Dorata, it might constitute his second life. Compared with this Fury Lotus Fighting Technique, everything he was in possession of was as trivial as a speck of dust.

"Your only stake is yourself."

This simple sentence carried superlative impact force. Dorata looked at Qian Jin bemusedly, not knowing what to say. But to give up on this once-in-a-hundred-year opportunity was out of his good faith.

"I..." Dorata felt something bitter in his mouth. As if he was pressed by a heavy stone, he found it hard to make any utterances, "I...use...my freedom..."

"That’s not needed." Qian Jin smiled and shook his head slightly. "The Dwarfs enjoy a high degree of pride, yet a low degree of trust. You will perform allegiance only upon your own tribes, while the vows you have ever made throughout history..."

Dorata looked at Qian Jin in curiosity. Most warriors in the Zence Empire would focus their studies on the Demons, while less attention had been paid to the nations among the Barbarians, where they’d at most research into the Behemoth Bloodline Warriors. Few people had the interest of digging into the national culture of the Dwarfs, but Qian Jin had just summarized the consistent mode of thinking of the Dwarfs in simple words.

"You enjoy a certain status among the Dwarfs, don’t you?" Qian Jin looked at Dorata calmly. In fact, he did think about taking in this Dwarf as his retinue. However, repeated historical records in the Zence Empire said that the Dwarfs were not trustworthy.