Heavy Investment in Training (Please Bookmark, Please Vote)

Though his confidence had not been shaken, Ling Pengyun still regretted wasting that batch of materials. That four-foot-long Azure Spirit Bamboo and one pound of Azure Profound Iron had been worth ten spirit stones on the market.

That was equivalent to a month's salary for guarding Azure Stone Mountain. A month's pay had vanished just like that.

Ling Pengyun sighed softly, closed his eyes, and meditated, pondering the reason for his failure during the refinement process.

Only after he felt he had gained some confidence did he begin another attempt.

Every two attempts at refining an Azure Bamboo Sword would exhaust all his spiritual power. At that point, he would stop and meditate to recover.

Ling Yunhong, who had been watching Ling Pengyun refine weapons the entire time, would also occasionally offer a word or two of guidance.

Thus, failure, reflection, failure, reflection, spiritual power recovery, failure...

After suffering forty-three failures, Ling Pengyun was already feeling rather vexed. When he glanced at the ground and saw that only enough materials for seven more attempts remained, his heart became a tangled mess.

Only after calming himself for quite some time did he settle his emotions, steel his resolve, and begin refining once more.

He again separately smelted the Azure Spirit Bamboo and Azure Profound Iron into liquid, purified their impurities, and used the Item Fusion Incantation to meld them together.

Once the two streams of liquid fused under the incantation's effects, becoming one and taking the form of an Azure Bamboo Sword, Ling Pengyun raised his brows slightly. His hands formed seals, and he sent a Dharma seal into the Refining Furnace, merging it into the liquid iron Azure Bamboo Sword.

"Sharpness Spirit Inscription, fuse."

The liquid Azure Bamboo Sword flashed with spiritual light, and patterns of spiritual resonance appeared across its surface.

Sensing the situation within the Refining Furnace, Ling Pengyun changed his hand seals and said in a low voice.

"Solidify Item."

The next moment, the liquid-iron flying sword inexplicably let out a searing sizzle.

Before three breaths had passed, the liquid Azure Bamboo Sword solidified. A flickering spiritual pattern emerged upon its blade—the hallmark of a magic artifact.

Through his divine sense, Ling Pengyun sensed that the magic artifact had been completed, and he was beside himself with joy.

"Success!"

He hurriedly opened the Refining Furnace's lid, took out the newly refined Azure Bamboo Sword, and examined it closely, unable to put it down.

A sense of pride surged up within him.

He was not a professional Weapon Refiner. He had only entered the path midway, yet after merely half a year of cramming knowledge, he had refined this magic artifact.

Ling Yunhong, who had been watching Ling Pengyun refine weapons from the side, also secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He had feared even more than Ling Pengyun himself that Ling Pengyun would fail to refine an Azure Bamboo Sword using those fifty batches of Weapon Refinement Materials.

For Ling Pengyun, at worst, he would merely have wasted the past half year studying weapon refinement.

But for the Ling Clan, should Ling Pengyun fail, then twenty years later, there would be no one to refine magic artifacts for the clansmen. The clan would have to allocate a large portion of its finances to purchase magic artifacts from outside to equip its members. For a great Foundation Establishment clan, that was no good thing.

As the Ling Clan's Clan Head, Ling Yunhong naturally did not wish to see the clan decline. Moreover, the Ling Clan's future dominion could be said to have been built entirely by his own hands. How could he stand by and watch his own possession wither away?

After rejoicing for quite a while, Ling Pengyun finally remembered that someone was still beside him. He handed the Azure Bamboo Sword in his hand to Ling Yunhong and said, "Third Grandfather, what do you think of my Azure Bamboo Sword?"

Ling Yunhong accepted it and inspected the Azure Bamboo Sword carefully. A smile appeared on his face as he spoke in detail.

"After half a year of preparation and forty-three failures, you successfully refined an Azure Bamboo Sword. That is enough to show that your comprehension is quite good. However, you have not refined many magic artifacts after all, and your grasp of heat control is still insufficient. Because of that, you left behind quite a few impurities when purifying the bamboo liquid and iron liquid. You still need to study fire control more. The process of fusing the bamboo liquid and iron liquid and shaping them into a liquid-iron flying sword was also too long. This Azure Bamboo Sword can barely be used in battle, but after several fights, it will certainly break."

"Your Item Fusion Incantation and spirit inscriptions are fairly good, but they still need improvement."

"Rest for a while. There are six batches of materials left. Continue refining later."

Ling Pengyun committed those words to heart and nodded. "Alright."

Afterward, Ling Pengyun closed his eyes and carefully recalled the refinement process from earlier, seeking out his own shortcomings so he could remedy them.

Only after a quarter of an hour did he open his eyes and continue refining with the remaining materials.

Over the next six refinement attempts, Ling Pengyun refined another Azure Bamboo Sword. However, its quality was still just as poor, at most ranking among the lowest grade of magic artifacts.

If placed on the market, likely no one would buy it. Even if someone did, it would sell for at most its cost of ten spirit stones, far less than the value of an ordinary Azure Bamboo Sword.

Even so, Ling Pengyun was still delighted.

To succeed twice in fifty refinement attempts had already exceeded his expectations.

He believed that as long as he had enough materials to support him, he would certainly be able to refine a mid-grade Azure Bamboo Sword of fairly good quality.

"Not bad. Out of fifty batches of Weapon Refinement Materials, you succeeded twice. You are worthy of being a weapon-refinement prospect for the clan. I was not wrong about you back then."

"Since your main path is spirit plant cultivation, and you are also a prospect in the clan's spirit plant line, the clan does not intend to send you back. Instead, it intends for you to continue guarding Azure Stone Mountain. You may rely on spirit plant cultivation to earn spirit stones here at Azure Stone Mountain, while also studying weapon refinement."

"This Storage Bag contains one hundred batches of materials for refining Azure Bamboo Swords. This is your allotment for this year. At the end of this year, I will have Fifteenth Uncle, who will come to Azure Stone Mountain to collect the mature spirit plants, bring you another hundred batches of Azure Bamboo Sword refinement materials."

"That will cover two years, for a total of two hundred batches of Azure Bamboo Sword refinement materials."

"The clan can only afford two hundred batches of Azure Bamboo Sword refinement materials to support you."

"Any Azure Bamboo Swords successfully refined using these materials will belong to you."

"I have already been at Azure Stone Mountain for twenty-five days. It is time for me to return to the clan."

"In the future, read more of the insights left by the Ling Clan's generations of Weapon Refiners within the Lingxiao Refining Treasure Tome. They will be of considerable benefit to you."

After leaving behind those words, Ling Yunhong mounted the Immortal Spirit Crane King and flew away from the cave.

Ling Pengyun, however, stared at the bulging Storage Bag he had just received from Ling Yunhong, and for some reason, it felt extraordinarily heavy in his hands.

The one hundred batches of Azure Bamboo Sword refinement materials in this Storage Bag were worth a full thousand spirit stones.

Although the Ling Clan grew quite a lot of Azure Spirit Bamboo, one of the two spirit materials used to refine Azure Bamboo Swords, if that Azure Spirit Bamboo were sold outside, it could still fetch the same price. It was all clan wealth.

A thousand spirit stones were enough to raise a Three Spirit Roots cultivator with decent talent from the first level of Qi Training to the Qi Training Late Stage.

Not to mention that there would be another hundred batches of Azure Bamboo Sword refinement materials next year.

"It seems the clan truly intends to invest heavily in me, training me into a Weapon Refiner to succeed Eighth Grandfather."

Realizing this only made Ling Pengyun feel even more pressure.

If those hundred batches of materials did not greatly improve his success rate in refining Azure Bamboo Swords, how could he possibly repay the clan for nurturing him so generously?

"I wonder how far I can raise my success rate in refining Azure Bamboo Swords with these hundred batches of materials."

Ling Pengyun sighed softly.

He had ample confidence in his main path of spirit plant cultivation. He could become a First Rank High Grade Spirit Plant Farmer and succeed the Ling Clan's Grand Elder, Ling Ruxian.

But weapon refinement was, after all, a path he had only just entered, and now he bore the clan's high expectations. The pressure was immense.

After letting out a long breath, Ling Pengyun rallied himself and forcibly turned that pressure into motivation. He closed his eyes, circulated his cultivation technique, refined the remaining medicinal power of the Yellow Sprout Pill within his body, and restored the spiritual power he had expended refining magic artifacts.

Thanks to A Hand Covering Nai for the monthly ticket and the 100-point reward.

Thanks to Thieving Rat, Dream.World, Rain Wolf God King, and Brother Huang the Laborer for the monthly tickets.