Did Luo Chen have a talent for crafting artifacts?
As it happened, he had a little.
When he obtained Azure Pill Valley's method for refining the Primal Chaos Cauldron, he had briefly planned to make it himself.
So he had spent some time learning the basics of artifact crafting from Duan Feng.
Duan Feng's craft came from the Duan Family.
The Duan Family's tradition, in turn, had come from a cultivator in Sky Sail City during the Founding War.
They had not acquired its essence, but its basic theory was thoroughly orthodox.
Under Duan Feng's instruction, Luo Chen came to understand the way of artifact crafting.
To craft an artifact, one first had to master the properties of various ores and how to process them. Next came control of the heat. Last, and most important, was mastery of formations.
None of these three was especially difficult on its own. A little study was enough to gain a basic grasp.
Even formations, which demanded the most talent, posed little difficulty to a Golden Core Cultivator at lower tiers.
But combine all three, and the difficulty soared severalfold, even tens of times over.
When Luo Chen had sought Duan Feng's instruction, he had tried refining basic Magic Tools under his guidance. With the Founding War in the Howling Moon Mountain Range looming, he had never managed to finish even one Low-Grade Magic Tool.
Even so, Duan Feng had praised Luo Chen for having some talent in artifact crafting.
Flattery aside, Luo Chen's knowledge of ore properties was genuine.
Pill Refining did not use only herbs and plants.
It often called for minerals as well.
The main ingredient of Luo Chen's early Jade Marrow Pills, for example, had been Jade Washing Herb. Later, when refining Jade Dew Pills, Blue Smoke Jade had been