The Thirty-Ninth Attempt at Weapon Refinement (Please Bookmark, Please Vote)

Time passed bit by bit, and in the blink of an eye, it was April.

After Qingming, a long, drizzling rain fell over the lands surrounding Azure Stone Mountain, nourishing the earth and lending an extra measure of aid to the plants already in their growing season.

After the rain, Ling Dong, the Village Chief of Azure Stone Village, led one person from each household to Xia Zhi Town, three hundred li away, to purchase this year's rice seeds.

After ten straight days of relentless travel, they returned to Azure Stone Village. Once the rice seeds had been distributed to every household, they gathered all the villagers in the already prepared paddies and sowed the rice seeds, waiting for them to sprout and grow before transplanting the seedlings.

After last year's autumn harvest, the more than three thousand villagers had already reclaimed over ten thousand mu of farmland around Azure Stone Village.

This also made this year's farmwork far more arduous. Once the sown rice seeds had sprouted into seedlings, the transplanting alone took the more than three thousand villagers a full ten days to complete.

The subsequent task of managing the paddies was even more demanding.

Yet for those who farmed the land, such work was precisely where they found their joy.

After enduring temporary hardship, once Autumn Equinox had passed, they would harvest more rice than last year and exchange it for more gold and silver.

As their families gradually grew wealthier, that became the driving force behind the perseverance of these farmers.

The men of Azure Stone Village generally labored in the fields, while the women worked in a specially reclaimed vegetable plot of nearly a thousand mu, carrying water to irrigate the vegetables.

The village children had become self-reliant early on as well. They formed groups to catch fish in the shallow waters of Azure Stone Lake, adding another dish to their family tables, or went to the thousand-mu orchard outside Azure Stone Village to do small jobs such as pulling weeds.

In mid-June.

Ling Rufan, ninth among the Ling Clan's Ru generation and the one who had taken over from Ling Ruguo in distributing stipends to clan members stationed at low-grade spirit mountains, also came to Azure Stone Mountain.

He delivered Ling Pengyun's stipend for the next half year. It remained the same as before: six Qi Refining Pills, twelve Yellow Sprout Pills, one hundred and twenty jin of Azure Jade Spirit Rice, and sixty spirit stones.

In the blink of an eye, the half year Ling Pengyun had agreed upon with Ling Yunhong had passed, and Ling Yunhong arrived as promised.

At the summit of Azure Stone Mountain.

Ling Yunhong had just ridden the Immortal Spirit Crane King down onto Azure Stone Mountain. Looking at Ling Pengyun, who had long been waiting there, a trace of nervous anticipation showed in his expression as he asked, "Peng Yun, have you comprehended the Lingxiao Vessel Fusion Method?"

With a hint of pride, Ling Pengyun replied, "A month ago, I barely managed to gain an initial understanding."

Upon hearing this, a smile immediately spread across Ling Yunhong's face. "Not bad, not bad..."

Only after repeating "not bad" several times did he stop and ask, "Have you finished refining all thousand jin of Mortal Iron? Have you learned the spirit inscriptions in the tome?"

"The Mortal Iron has all been used up. I gave the mundane iron tools I refined to the more than three thousand villagers of Azure Stone Village outside the mountain. As for the weapon refinement spirit inscriptions in the tome, I only barely comprehended the Sharpness Spirit Inscription. I have inscribed it into Mortal Iron before, but Mortal Iron's foundation was too weak. Whenever the inscription took shape, the mundane iron tool could not bear it and collapsed on its own," Ling Pengyun said.

"In half a year, it is already quite good to comprehend a Sharpness Spirit Inscription while studying the Item Fusion Incantation. Ordinary weapon refinement apprentices require several years." Ling Yunhong first praised him, then continued, "Since you have refined quite a few mundane iron tools from those thousand jin of Mortal Iron according to weapon refinement methods, you should already be familiar with the process of refining magical artifacts. Then let us get straight to business and begin refining magical artifacts. Are you ready?"

"Your grandson has waited a long time for this day," Ling Pengyun said eagerly.

"Birds occasionally fly over this mountaintop, and fierce winds often sweep through it. It is not a quiet place. Let us go to your cave." After surveying the surroundings, Ling Yunhong made the suggestion.

During the weapon refinement process, being disturbed was greatly taboo. One needed to be in a relatively quiet environment.

Ling Pengyun naturally agreed and returned with Ling Yunhong to the cave halfway up the mountain.

The moment they entered the cave, Ling Yunhong handed the Storage Bag in his hand to Ling Pengyun and carefully explained, "Peng Yun, there are fifty four-foot lengths of Azure Spirit Bamboo and fifty jin of Azure Profound Iron here. They are enough to support fifty attempts at refining Azure Leaf Swords."

"Of those fifty attempts, as long as you succeed once, you will become a weapon refinement prospect of our Ling Clan and receive the clan's support in Weapon Refinement Materials, helping you walk ever farther down the path of weapon refinement."

"Everything now depends on your performance."

Ling Pengyun accepted the Storage Bag. Though he was eager to refine weapons, he was also somewhat uneasy.

Do not let his perfect success rate in refining mundane iron tools fool you. That was mainly because Mortal Iron was merely a mundane material. Not to mention Ling Pengyun—even any weapon refinement apprentice with a slight grasp of the craft could achieve a perfect success rate in refining mundane iron tools.

But he had never refined a magical artifact before.

Whether he could succeed even once out of fifty attempts, he had little confidence.

If every weapon refinement apprentice newly entering the path could easily refine a graded magical artifact, Weapon Refiners would not be so scarce in this world, nor would magical artifacts be so precious.

For a beginner, having even a one-in-fifty chance of refining a graded magical artifact was already quite good, a sign of talent.

As long as one refined a single one, there would be a second. After that, with sufficient refinement and diligent practice, the success rate would continuously rise. Once one achieved a thirty-percent success rate in refining a certain magical artifact, it would become profitable, and only then could one be called a Weapon Refiner.

As for how long it would take to raise a one-in-fifty success rate to thirty percent, that was impossible to say.

Seeing Ling Pengyun's nervousness, Ling Yunhong encouraged him from the side. "You have already gained an initial understanding of the Item Fusion Incantation, and you have learned the Sharpness Spirit Inscription as well. So long as you are more careful when refining Azure Bamboo Swords, with the strength of your divine sense, these fifty sets of materials will be enough for you to succeed once. Do not be nervous. Keeping your mind calm is what matters most."

After hearing this, the weight in Ling Pengyun's heart eased somewhat. He nodded lightly, then sat cross-legged on the Meditation Mat on the ground, closed his eyes, and circulated his cultivation technique to restore himself to peak condition.

He first used Mortal Iron and the Black Flame Refining Furnace, following the method for refining magical artifacts and using the Item Fusion Incantation to condense it into an iron hoe. He then inscribed a Sharpness Spirit Inscription into the iron tool.

Although this iron hoe naturally collapsed because it could not withstand the spirit inscription, Ling Pengyun's confidence grew by several degrees. If the spirit inscription had not formed, the mundane iron hoe would not have collapsed. Only the successful formation of the Sharpness Spirit Inscription could produce such a result.

Ling Pengyun had asked Ling Dong, the Village Chief of Azure Stone Village, to purchase this remaining Mortal Iron from Xia Zhi Town three hundred li away.

Ling Pengyun took a deep breath and poured more divine sense into the flames burning the Kindling Wood. His hand seals changed constantly as he employed a fire-controlling technique, holding the fluctuating flames at an even level.

Once the Refining Furnace reached a certain temperature, Ling Pengyun first tossed the Azure Profound Iron into it, using the high heat to melt it into iron liquid and purify the impurities within.

He then threw the Azure Spirit Bamboo inside, melting it into bamboo liquid and purifying its impurities.

Though this step appeared simple, it took a full half an hour and consumed nearly thirty percent of Ling Pengyun's spiritual power.

After completing this step, Ling Pengyun's already furrowed brows drew even tighter. His expression gradually turned solemn as his hand seals shifted and he used the Vessel Fusion Method, merging the azure bamboo liquid and Azure Profound Iron liquid together and shaping them into an Azure Bamboo Sword.

Yet before the two could fuse for long, they began to repel each other. With a bang, the lid of the Refining Furnace was blasted away.

His first attempt at weapon refinement thus came to an end. He had failed before even shaping the two liquids into an Azure Bamboo Sword, much less inscribing the Sharpness Spirit Inscription into the sword.

This first failure did not damage Ling Pengyun's confidence by much.

After all, "All things are difficult at the beginning." He still had forty-nine sets of spirit materials for refining Azure Bamboo Swords, and forty-nine more chances.