True Fire Body Tempering

Xie Lang was a Mysterial Artifact refiner of the Profound Tier. Relying on these incomparably sinister refining methods, his proudest achievement in life had been forging three High-Grade Profound Artifacts. The Karma Fire Sword was one of those three.

Yet Xie Lang was not satisfied with refining Mysterious Artifacts. His greatest dream in life was to forge a Spirit Artifact!

In this age, any weapon with a grade was worth a fortune.

Even a Lineage on the level of the Luo Family possessed only one High-Grade Profound Artifact: the Azure Radiance Wind Chasing Sword, Luo Zheng's father Luo Xiao's former Personal Sword. This High-Grade Profound Artifact was one of a kind even in Chongyang County. Luo Xiao rarely used it, and it was always hidden in the most secret place within the Lineage. After Luo Bingquan harmed Luo Xiao, he had dug three feet into the ground in search of that Personal Sword, yet found nothing. To this day, no one knew where the Azure Radiance Wind Chasing Sword was hidden.

And that was merely a High-Grade Profound Artifact.

A Spirit Artifact was even more extraordinary. If an ordinary person obtained one, they would only bring catastrophe upon themselves. A common man was innocent, but possessing jade made him guilty. Not to mention ordinary people—even if the Luo Family obtained a Spirit Artifact, it would have to obediently hand it over, lest disaster wipe out the entire Lineage!

Spirit Artifacts could be called supreme treasures of the mortal world. They possessed all kinds of special abilities. Some could accelerate a person's cultivation, while others could multiply the combat strength of their wielder severalfold...

Hearing Xie Lang's words, Luo Zheng revealed a bitter smile. "They say that in the path of artifact refining, the most crucial things are materials and control of the fire. If either is lacking, one cannot forge the most perfect treasure. Yet you expect this flesh-and-blood body of mine to help you refine a Spirit Artifact? Isn't that treating it far too much like a child's game...?"

Luo Zheng had once read extensively. Whether books on pill refinement or artifact refinement, he had dabbled in them all. However, his ambition lay in martial arts, so he had never delved deeply into such books and only understood a little.

Now that he was trapped in a desperate situation, he could not simply sit and wait for death. He tried to persuade Xie Lang to spare him.

"From what you say, you have at least grasped the barest skin of artifact refining!" As Xie Lang spoke, he unlocked Luo Zheng's shackles and dragged him out of the bronze furnace, only to toss him into a cage beside it. With a clang, he locked the cage. A chilling smile appeared on his skull-like face. "My strength is insufficient. Rare and exotic materials are far beyond my reach, and the True Fire I use for refining is merely second-grade. If I want to forge a Spirit Artifact, of course I can only use wicked methods. As for whether tossing you into the Smelting Furnace can produce a Spirit Artifact... hehehe, it all depends on Primordial Chaos's blessing!"

It all depended on Primordial Chaos's blessing...

That was a phrase every artifact refiner in the world would say.

When refining with True Fire, nine parts depended on skill, and one part depended on luck.

By that reasoning, luck did not seem important.

Yet some artifact refiners, relying on Defying Heaven luck, had forged supreme treasures.

Some had exhausted the efforts of their entire lives studying it, wishing to discover the pattern within, only to gain nothing. In the end, they could only attribute it to luck.

From this, luck seemed unimportant, yet it was also the most important link in the chain.

And Primordial Chaos was the god of artifacts in the hearts of refiners, the faith of all artifact refiners. Thus, whenever they refined artifacts, they would say: it all depends on Primordial Chaos's blessing.

Its meaning was much the same as those religious believers saying, "May the gods in heaven bless us."

Thinking that his living life was merely Xie Lang's wager on luck, Luo Zheng could only smile bitterly, filled with deep unwillingness.

He could only blame himself for still being too weak.

Over this past month, he had advanced at breathtaking speed, rising from the Flesh Refining Realm to the Viscera Refining Realm in a single month.

But compared with people like Xie Lang and Luo Bingquan, the gap was still far too great.

He had finally found hope, only to fall into such a desperate predicament once more. Luo Zheng could only lament the injustice of fate.

Xie Lang busied himself within the cave for a long time. First, he hammered and pounded in a corner. Then he carried an object into the Smelting Furnace. After emerging, he sat cross-legged before it, clapped his hands together, and assumed a strange posture.

At the same time, the pitch-black Smelting Furnace suddenly lit up. Dense yet orderly runes blossomed across its walls, releasing intense Red Light that illuminated the entire cave.

The living people pierced by spikes extending from the Smelting Furnace all hunched their backs, their mouths constantly emitting hoarse, agonized cries. Their expressions were twisted in pain. Drops of blood flowed down those spikes and into the Smelting Furnace, which was actually feeding on the blood essence of living people.

The blood essence flowed along the patterns on the furnace walls, and the Red Light it emitted became even more vivid and alluring, bewitchingly sinister.

After activating the Smelting Furnace, Xie Lang held a black-and-white longsword in his hand. This should have been the High-Grade Profound Artifact he had mentioned—the Karma Fire Sword.

Xie Lang stroked the Karma Fire Sword in his hand for a while, and his gaze seemed to soften considerably, as though he were looking at his own son. Seeing such an expression appear on the face of this monster made Luo Zheng, who was secretly watching from the side, break into a cold sweat. This man was completely insane.

After stroking it for a while, Xie Lang turned his head and gave Luo Zheng a strange smile. He walked over, dragged Luo Zheng from the cage, and said, "You should feel honored to merge into one with my Karma Fire Sword!"

Luo Zheng shook his head. Communicating with such a madman was useless, and this madman was absurdly powerful besides. He could only accept his bad luck. It was a pity that his great vengeance remained unavenged, yet he was about to be burned to ashes by Xie Lang. He could only resent the heavens for being blind.

Dragged all the way to the Smelting Furnace, Luo Zheng was shoved inside.

The interior of the Smelting Furnace was pitch-black, with scorch marks from fierce flames everywhere. At the center of the furnace chamber stood a platform.

Xie Lang then crawled inside as well, placing his Karma Fire Sword upon the platform. He let out two shrill laughs at Luo Zheng before preparing to crawl back out of the Smelting Furnace.

Just as Xie Lang reached the furnace opening, he suddenly turned around and flicked his finger, sending a cloud of yellow powder toward Luo Zheng.

The yellow powder smelled fragrant, but after inhaling only a little, Luo Zheng immediately felt his hands and feet go limp. This powder was actually Ten Fragrance Tendon Weakening Powder, a drug that could numb the Meridians in a short time and leave one weak in the limbs.

Luo Zheng had originally planned to seize the Karma Fire Sword, smash the Smelting Furnace, and fight Xie Lang to the death. Anything was better than being burned to ashes here. But now that hope had been completely cut off. The moment he tried to exert force, his entire body went limp, unable to muster even a trace of strength.

Was my life, Luo Zheng's life, about to end here?

I was the fish on the chopping board, while others held the knife. If there was anyone to blame, it was my own weakness! I could only let others slaughter me.

He gritted his teeth, despair written across his face. As wild thoughts ran through his mind, he saw a flame suddenly surge into the center of the Smelting Furnace.

The flames were a bright yellow throughout. As they burned, each cluster resembled a yellow lotus blossom. These flames should have been Xie Lang's Origin True Fire.

The instant the True Fire appeared, it spread outward, filling the entire Smelting Furnace. Luo Zheng felt a scorching wave strike him head-on. He had already been enveloped by the True Fire.

Poof!

Luo Zheng's clothes ignited almost instantly, bursting into flames and turning to ashes.

When the True Fire touched his skin, a searing sensation immediately spread through him. The True Fire was burning his skin. Luo Zheng clenched his teeth, ready to endure the pain of being scorched. Yet after gritting his teeth for a long while, the pain he had imagined never came.

He felt only a slight scorching heat. Other than making him somewhat uncomfortable, it caused no great distress.

Puzzled, Luo Zheng opened the eyes he had already shut and looked down at his body. Apart from his clothes having burned away, his body was completely unharmed. Not only was his skin unburned, even his hair had not been singed.

Could it be that he was not afraid of the True Fire's burning at all?

Luo Zheng, who had believed death was certain, was suddenly overwhelmed with joy.

Though he did not know why, this unbelievable scene before him must have been connected to what had happened in the cellar that day. Could it be that after becoming a Mysterious Artifact, he was completely immune to True Fire's burning?

Just as he thought this, the True Fire surging in from outside the Smelting Furnace intensified by several degrees.

Strands of yellow, lotus-shaped True Fire transformed into two invisible giant hands, continuously battering Luo Zheng's body and the Karma Fire Sword atop the platform. After the flames intensified, Luo Zheng felt the scorching sensation grow stronger, but it still remained within his endurance.

In contrast, the Karma Fire Sword began to change. Both its blade and hilt turned crimson red, while the black and white runes on the blade began flashing with a strange light, seemingly absorbing energy from the yellow True Fire.

"So this is how artifact refiners forge artifacts: they control True Fire to temper them. After heating the weapon until it glows red, they pour the energy within the True Fire into it. But this technique is quite unique. The True Fire hovered around the Karma Fire Sword, neither close nor distant, suspended in indecision..." By chance, Luo Zheng was watching an artifact refiner's forging process from within the Smelting Furnace itself.

Luo Zheng watched the refining process with great interest when someone outside the Smelting Furnace suddenly let out a surprised "Eh." It was Xie Lang, who had noticed something strange about Luo Zheng.

Xie Lang, standing outside the Smelting Furnace, truly had not expected that after his True Fire had burned for so long—even after the Karma Fire Sword had been heated red—this youth had still not died.

Although this youth did indeed smell as though he carried the aura emitted by a Mysterious Artifact, that was one thing to say, but he was still flesh and blood! Could this youth's body truly rival a Mysterious Artifact?

At this thought, excitement filled his gaunt face. Xie Lang had never followed the orthodox path of artifact refinement, so the stranger and more bizarre the refining material, the more he liked it.

The Karma Fire Sword he had forged, for instance, was made from two materials that clashed like yin and yang. No other artifact refiner would ever combine those two materials to forge a weapon, but Xie Lang refused to believe in such taboos. Not only had he forged it, he had even produced a High-Grade Profound Artifact.

That was what it meant to depend on Primordial Chaos's blessing!

Now, seeing Luo Zheng's bizarre physique, Xie Lang was ecstatic. His True Fire might only be second-grade, but it was ten times stronger than ordinary flames. Yet it still could not burn this youth to death. How could Xie Lang not be delighted?

Seeing that this youth remained completely unharmed beneath his True Fire's smelting, he was delighted on one hand, but somewhat frustrated on the other. Even if this youth's body was a heavenly treasure, what use was it if his True Fire could not melt it down?

After thinking for a moment, he reached into his robes and took out a pill. The pill was bluish gray all over, with flame-like pill patterns running across its surface.

"Fire Fusion Pill!"

This third-grade pill was worth a fortune. It could forcibly raise one's Origin True Fire by an entire level in a short time. Back then, he had exchanged a High-Grade Profound Artifact just to obtain this pill.

This Fire Fusion Pill had remained with him for many years. Because it was so precious, he had never been willing to use it.

Today, as he took out the Fire Fusion Pill, hesitation showed in his eyes. If he used this Fire Fusion Pill, then this would truly be a grand gamble. But Xie Lang reconsidered—when had he ever refined a High-Grade Profound Artifact without staking everything on a gamble? If he won this time and raised the quality of his Karma Fire Sword to that of a Spirit Artifact...

At that thought, Xie Lang's heart burned hot. He swallowed the Fire Fusion Pill in a single gulp.

The Fire Fusion Pill was an extremely hard and yang pill. The instant he swallowed it, Xie Lang felt as if his throat had been scalded by fire. Flames seemed ready to burst from all seven of his orifices. He roared, circulated the True Fire within his body, and sent it surging madly into the Smelting Furnace.

With the Fire Fusion Pill's medicinal effect, Xie Lang's True Fire rose by one grade. Both the intensity and temperature of the flames increased severalfold. For a time, the entire Mountain Cave was filled with incomparable heat. Even the living people in the distant cages, struck by the faint heat radiating from the True Fire, were scalded into screaming miserably.