Refinement Results

Lei Jin sat there cross legged and meditating as he waited. It was incredibly clear there was a competition going on between the two groups. So Lei Jin had an idea to help them recover their spirits after they finished. For it, he needed to summon a Re-Kindled one.

"Master has summoned this subordinate, this subordinate is ready to serve!" The Re-Kindled One said, kneeling now in the presence of Lei Jin. Though this person had been warned not to go inside. They could feel the sheer heat from outside and assumed that was the reason why.

"Please take this order and go to the maid's. The order being, "Prepare a small party's amount of nourishing snacks and refreshments." And tell them to bring it to this location. Our Artifact Refiners will need something after they finish." Lei Jin said, relaying his order to the Re-Kindled one.

"At once and with haste and gratitude in my heart." The Re-Kindled One said, bursting off towards the Residence Kitchen. "Master Lei Jin, he really cares about his people. Even going as far as to help them recover from the intense heat from that refinement room. I hope one day one of my children will have the honor of uniting with one of his. I should put in more effort to teach them right." The Re-Kindled One thought as they made their way to the Kitchen to deliver the Order.

~~Half a day later~~

Elder Mei and the rest had finished the refinement. Lei Jin promptly removed the Fire supplements from the room and used his own strength to cool the room quickly. All of the refiners quickly returned their garments to their bodies. Making themselves more presentable to the other side. Everyone seemed eager to figure something out.

"Thanks to all of you for completing the task at hand. Outside, I have arranged for an assortment of snacks and refreshments for your efforts. Feel free to indulge to your heart's content." Lei Jin said, cupping his hands in thanks.

"Young Pillar is quite thoughtful. But I think I can speak for everyone here. We are eager to see the results of our competition. Who won?" One of the men mentioned with a look of both seriousness and anticipation.

"Ahahaha, I had a feeling that's what was going on. Good, then I will tally up the Artifact Worlds produced. I will start the count then by pulling one from each side at a time. This way we can avoid any thoughts of foul play." Lei Jin laughed a little.

As he began to count the number of Artifact Worlds, he noticed something interesting. He could tell at a glance that the number of Artifact Worlds that the men produced was slightly higher. However, they were less stable than the ones the women had refined. It was intriguing for many reasons. The main one being that the women counted for less than half of the refiners. "Hmm, I'll have to give these women an extra reward. I'll think about it later." Lei Jin thought, continuing the count.

After some time Lei Jin started running out. Of the women's pile of Artifact Worlds. "600…" Lei Jin said, picking up the last of the women's pile. "601, 602… 606." Lei Jin finished counting.

The men all started cheering as if they made a great accomplishment. Some congratulated each other. The women just glanced at the 15 men and thought it was odd how the men only managed to make 6 more than the women. Some women were a little upset but knew that it would be a bit difficult to compete against 15 when they numbered 10.

"I know you may be excited. And while I am thankful for your efforts. I have to say, I am thoroughly disappointed in you." Lei Jin sighed with difficulty.

"Might I ask what makes the Young Pillar say this?" One of the men said, with a bit of surprise and hurt pride in his voice.

"It's simple. There are 5 more men than there are women. Yet the men only managed to make 6 more Artifacts then the women's side. Can you tell me what accomplishment you seem so pleased about? Because from where I am I can only see the acceptance of average. By simple ratio, the men should have made 900, not a measly 606." Lei Jin explained, disappointed that this was not obvious. Though the fact it wasn't obvious was all he needed to know why it was like this.

"Now that you mention it. I'm curious as well. We were pushing ourselves to refine non-stop. So I wonder how the women managed to stay so close." Another man mentioned.

"Mother-in-Law, how did you manage to do it?" Lei Jin asked plainly.

"We noticed that the Refinement was a ten step process. And we also noticed that all of us were faster at particular steps. So instead of each refining individually we started and then passed it along. Which allowed us to speed up the refinement process by 50%." Elder Mei explained.

Lei Jin pondered for a moment and then looked at the mass of Artifact Worlds before him. "Then it took a little time for production to ramp up. Hmm…" He said, returning to his pondering. "Alright, since the original competition was the quantity of Artifact Worlds refined, I must declare that the Men's side have won." Lei Jin said.

The men cheered. The women remained quiet knowing that Lei Jin wasn't done yet. It was like they could sense he had other feelings about the situation.

"However, I will be giving a special reward to the women for coming up with a far more effective method. Name a reward and if I can grant it I will naturally do so. Anything is on the table so long as it is not something I am already responsible for doing. Also, due to the extraordinary results I will be giving everyone that participated an extra one of these Artifact Worlds." Lei Jin declared.

"I guess that's fair. Young Pillar is indeed a man of excellence. This one will strive to learn more and perform better next time." One of the men said.

"Young Pillar, you said anything is on the table… Do you truly mean that?" One of the women asked.

"Yes, so long as it is within my abilities I will naturally do it." Lei Jin smiled with a thumbs up.

"Then… would you be willing to accept one of my disciples as a concubine?" The woman asked, with an inquisitive look.