Not long after Yan Shuai, Yun Fei also successfully refined her Immortal Artifact, becoming the third person to finish.

Following closely, several other strong contestants also successively finished their artifact refining, only their speed was significantly slower than the first three.

As time passed little by little, the atmosphere in the square gradually became tense.

More and more contestants, due to being too impatient, either failed to control the heat or made mistakes during Material Fusion, ultimately leading to artifact refining failure.

One by one, they shook their heads dejectedly and walked out of the artifact refining area helplessly.

The dense crowd in the middle of the square was visibly diminishing at a speed discernible to the naked eye.

Soon, an hour had passed, and the first round of the competition officially concluded.

Originally, there were more than five thousand contestants in the middle of the square, but after this round of competition, only over two thousand people remained, eliminating more than half.

The ten Golden Immortal Elders responsible for supervising the competition flew out from their seats.

Each holding a jade talisman for inspecting Immortal Artifacts, they began to check the Immortal Artifacts refined by these two thousand-plus people one by one, to confirm whether they met the standard for advancing to the second round.

In a short while, the ten Elders finally completed their inspection.

All the Immortal Artifacts refined by the two thousand-plus people met the standard of a Third-Grade Immortal Artifact, and all successfully advanced to the second round.

The Immortal Artifacts refined by those contestants were all taken away by the Elders.

According to the rules of the artifact refining Grand Competition, the Immortal Artifacts refined during the competition belong to the Purple Cloud Chamber of Commerce.

Fang Hong watched as these Elders put the Immortal Artifacts into their Storage Pouches, and couldn’t help but mutter to himself.

Could this Purple Cloud Chamber of Commerce be using the name of the artifact refining Grand Competition to make these Cultivators act as free labor?

After all, if these two thousand-plus Third-Grade Immortal Artifacts were sold on the market, the Immortal Stones earned would be far more than what was awarded at the end of the competition. This deal is too profitable.

At this moment, the Grand Unity Elder stood up, raised his hand, and once again threw out a large quantity of artifact refining materials, neatly arranged on each table.

Fang Hong glanced at them and found that many of them were materials used only for refining Fourth-Grade Immortal Artifacts, and he immediately understood that the requirements for the second round would definitely be higher.

"In the second round of the artifact refining Grand Competition, within two hours, refine a Fourth-Grade Immortal Artifact to advance to the final round."

"Now, let the competition begin." The Elder’s voice was loud, echoing throughout the entire square.

As soon as his voice fell, the expressions of the contestants on the field instantly changed.

Refine a Fourth-Grade Immortal Artifact within two hours?

This difficulty directly increased by a large level compared to the first round!

Fourth-Grade Immortal Artifacts require much higher precision in Material Fusion and control of heat than Third-Grade ones; a slight mistake will lead to failure.

Some contestants immediately shook their heads, knowing their own strength and that they simply couldn’t complete this challenge.

Rather than failing and wasting Immortal Qi at the end, it would be better to simply give up.

Thus, many contestants walked out of the artifact refining area with helpless expressions, and the number of people on the field instantly decreased by several hundred.

The remaining people quickly seized the time to begin melting materials, each with a focused expression, afraid of wasting even a moment, as two hours was truly too tight.

In contrast, Fang Hong remained as calm as still water from beginning to end, with no sense of urgency on his face.

Having refined artifacts for many years, he was already intimately familiar with refining Fourth-Grade Immortal Artifacts; such a challenge was nothing to him.

Moreover, the competition only required refining an ordinary Fourth-Grade Immortal Artifact, not some rare Immortal Artifact that required special Divine Abilities.

Just refining one that met the standard would suffice; there was no need to put in too much effort.

Fang Hong opened his mouth and spewed out Immortal Fire, simultaneously enveloping multiple materials on the table.

His movements were unhurried, melting materials, fusing Material liquids, shaping the Immortal Artifact, and finally quenching it.

Each step was seamlessly connected, without the slightest obstruction, which was the advantage of experience accumulated from years of artifact refining.

Yun Fei, taking advantage of a break during Material melting, secretly glanced in Fang Hong’s direction.

The more she watched, the more shocked she became; Fang Hong’s control over the heat was simply unbelievably masterful!

The temperature of the flame fluctuated, yet it always precisely hit the critical point needed by the materials.

His skilled technique couldn’t help but remind her of how the Grand Elder of her family refined artifacts; it was completely unlike the level a Golden Immortal Cultivator could possess!

As time slowly passed, the situation on the field became increasingly grim.

Another few hundred people failed in artifact refining because they couldn’t control the rhythm of Material Fusion, and could only withdraw from the artifact refining area with unwilling expressions.

The number of people in the middle of the square became fewer and fewer; in the end, less than a thousand people remained who could persevere.

Buzz.

Just then, a dazzling golden light suddenly lit up from Fang Hong’s position, instantly attracting everyone’s attention.

Fang Hong had succeeded in artifact refining once again.

This time, he only took nearly half an hour to refine a Fourth-Grade Immortal Artifact, which was also a precious sword.

This precious sword was entirely silver-white, with a blade as smooth as jade.

Although it didn’t come with any special Divine Abilities, it was exceptionally sharp, fully meeting the standard of a Fourth-Grade Immortal Artifact, more than enough to advance to the next round.

The surrounding Cultivators, seeing that Fang Hong was the first to finish again, all showed surprise and couldn’t help but whisper among themselves.

"My heavens. What is the background of this bald monk? Why is he the first to finish refining again?"

"And look how long he took, less than half an hour. This speed is much more impressive than Young Miss Yun Fei."

"Before, I thought the Yun Family would definitely secure first place this time, but now it seems it’s hard to say."

Facing the heated discussions of the Everyone, Fang Hong seemed not to hear them.

He placed the refined precious sword on the table, then calmly sat back in his chair, closed his eyes, and quietly waited for the start of the final round of the competition.

After Fang Hong, about a quarter of an hour later, Yun Fei also successfully refined her Fourth-Grade Immortal Artifact, becoming the second person to finish. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

After a while, Yan Shuai also completed his refining, becoming the third, and then the other Cultivators who persevered gradually finished the competition.

While waiting for the second round of the competition to fully conclude, Yun Fei proactively greeted Fang Hong.

"Hello, Fellow Daoist, my name is Yun Fei, from the Yun Family. May I ask what Fellow Daoist’s name is?"

Fang Hong opened his eyes, looked at the beautiful woman in front of him, thought for a moment, and did not reveal his real name, but made up a name.

"This humble monk’s name is Guangsheng."

"So it’s Great Master Guangsheng."

"Watching Great Master refine artifacts just now was truly an eye-opener. Great Master’s artifact refining skills are so exquisite; I am truly impressed," Yun Fei said politely.