Forging Technique

Demoted to a Family Slave, Luo Zheng did not care; made into a Meat Target for the Luo Family Disciples to practice their punches on, he could still not care; even when the Heaven and Earth Creation Pill that should have been his was snatched away by Luo Peiran, he could still not care.

But his younger sister, Luo Yan, was his greatest weakness!

Luo Yan was the sole hope of the Luo Family's Eldest Branch. It was also because her talent was exceptionally high that Azure Cloud Sect had accepted her as an Inner Sect Disciple at thirteen, taking her away from the Luo Family and allowing her to escape the turmoil within the Lineage.

For the past two years, Luo Zheng had been unable to learn any news of his sister because of his status as a Family Slave. Now, hearing from Luo Peiran that his sister's circumstances seemed quite dire as well, he was immediately swallowed by endless worry.

He even forgot to dodge the Luo Family Disciples' blows, taking several punches solidly before finally coming back to his senses...

That night, aching all over with injuries, Luo Zheng returned to the cellar.

"Here's your medicine!" The Luo Family steward casually tossed down a paper packet, then turned to leave.

Meat Targets were not made of steel, after all. Without medicine to treat their injuries, they would die within days from accumulated internal damage. Thus, the Luo Family distributed healing medicine to these Meat Targets every day.

However, these medicines were all ordinary drugs, and their healing effects were far from impressive.

Luo Zheng opened the paper packet and saw that there was only one pill inside. His face darkened as he angrily demanded, "Steward Fang! Why is there only one pill today?"

"You should count your blessings that you have anything to eat. What, you think it's too little?" Steward Fang said in a strange, mocking tone.

"The Luo Family distributes three healing pills every day, yet there is only one now. You have clearly embezzled the rest. Within Luo Residence, private embezzlement is a grave crime. Steward Fang, are you not afraid of death?" Luo Zheng shouted sternly, his eyes fixed on Steward Fang.

"Heh, Old Fang is naturally afraid. But I just don't happen to fear a puny Family Slave like you. What, want to rebel? I simply can't stand that attitude of yours, always thinking you're still some young master. Pah! Why don't you look in a mirror and see what you look like now? Hahaha!" Every word Steward Fang spoke was grating to the ear.

Hearing this, Luo Zheng instead calmed down. His clear eyes looked quietly at Steward Fang, yet deep within them lurked a chilling killing intent, as though he were looking at a dead thing.

Seeing Luo Zheng's expression, Steward Fang felt a little creeped out. He walked over and poked Luo Zheng in the chest. "Not convinced? Looking at me like that, do you want to eat someone?"

Luo Zheng suddenly exerted force through his chest and gave a hard shake. The force traveled into Steward Fang, instantly knocking him stumbling to the ground.

"You... you're merely a Family Slave. You want to rebel?" Steward Fang scrambled up from the floor, his face filled with panic.

Luo Zheng took two steps forward, his fingers cracking with the sound of popping bones as he said sharply, "Even an outsider steward dares to be this arrogant. Do you really think I don't dare touch you?"

At the sight of this, Steward Fang did not wish to remain another moment. He turned and fled, slamming the cellar's iron door shut with a bang.

"Petty villain's behavior!" Luo Zheng sneered, shaking his head. He could not be bothered to argue with such a person.

He sat down quietly, took out a tinder twist to light the oil lamp, and casually flipped through a few pages of his book. But with his heart worried over Luo Yan, how could his restless mind take in a single word?

I cannot remain in the Luo Family any longer! But my strength is only at the Flesh Refining Realm. Forget going to Azure Cloud Sect—even escaping this Luo Family cellar is impossible.

Luo Zheng paced rapidly through the cramped cellar, his chest rising and falling as though he were a trapped beast unable to find an exit.

Strength. My strength is still far too weak. Otherwise, how could a tiny Luo Family trap me?

But cultivation in this world proceeds step by step, one footprint at a time. Now that I am a Family Slave, I must serve as a Meat Target every day and let others beat me. I have no time to cultivate at all. At this rate, I will eventually be beaten to death alive.

The more he thought about it, the more anxious he became. His gaze fell upon the battered copy of "Inquiries on the Heavenly Dao" resting quietly on the table.

"This rotten book is full of lofty principles, yet it is utterly useless to me. What is the point of reading it?" Luo Zheng resentfully picked up the book, tore it in half from the middle, and set it over the oil lamp to ignite it, reducing it to ashes.

The bean-sized flame instantly caught the book, sending up roaring fire.

Watching the book gradually burn away, Luo Zheng felt a trace of regret. He reproached himself, Luo Zheng, Luo Zheng, why take your anger out on a book? This book teaches people to be good, to understand reason and know shame. What fault does it have? The one at fault is you, weak and powerless, able only to be manipulated by others like a lamb awaiting slaughter!

Unfortunately, the flames were too fierce, and the book had already turned into a pile of ashes.

Just as he was vexed, Luo Zheng suddenly spotted a wisp of golden light amid the ashes.

"Eh? What is this?"

Luo Zheng brushed aside the ashes and picked out that wisp of golden light, only to discover a thin sheet of gold foil.

He had never noticed this gold foil when reading the book before. It must have been hidden within the book's inner layers.

What use could a mere piece of gold foil have?

In this world, gold was the least scarce thing of all. Especially for a great Lineage like the Luo Family, gold was as cheap as dirt!

Yet the instant Luo Zheng focused his gaze upon the gold foil, a strange phenomenon suddenly arose!

The foil was engraved with densely packed characters. They resembled tadpoles, and Luo Zheng did not recognize a single one.

With a sweep of his eyes, the sheet of gold foil rapidly broke apart into several thousand tiny golden slips. Each tiny slip bore one tadpole-like character, and they flew toward Luo Zheng.

His face, his eyes, his neck, his arms, his torso, his legs...

Every part of Luo Zheng's body was covered by the tiny golden slips.

The final tiny golden slip shot directly into Luo Zheng's brain. His entire body trembled violently as if struck by an enormous iron hammer, while at the same time, the tiny golden slips covering his body shone brilliantly.

As the golden radiance gradually faded, the several thousand tiny golden slips silently sank into Luo Zheng's body. Meanwhile, memories appeared from nowhere within his mind—memories that did not belong to him.

"Supreme Forging Method..."

"The First Forging Method of All Time..."

"Use the fleshly body as a vessel, use oneself as spirit, Thousand Hammered, Hundred Refined, cleanse my body, and become Primordial Chaos..."

This was a forging technique?

Although Luo Zheng did not know how to forge artifacts, he knew that artifact forgers were a blazing-hot profession. Even with the Luo Family's abundant wealth, they could not recruit even the lowest-ranked artifact forger. Their desirability was plain to see.

But what did it mean to use the fleshly body as a vessel?

Could it be... this forging method forged one's own body into a treasure?

This unbelievable conjecture swiftly became reality.

He suddenly discovered that his body had begun to heat up continuously, like a fever, its temperature rising sharply.

So hot! At this rate, I'll be roasted alive.

In his panic, he rushed toward a water vat at the end of the cellar. This vat was where Luo Zheng usually drew water.

Without a second thought, he jumped into it.

Sizzle...

Thick steam rose from the water vat. Before long, the water within it had actually been evaporated by his body temperature, and the entire cellar was filled with mist.

So much water had not lowered Luo Zheng's temperature. On the contrary, it kept rising higher and higher. His skin emitted a Dark Red glow, like a piece of iron heated until red-hot.

In the end, he staggered in two circles before throwing back his head and collapsing into the mist-filled cellar.

Within Luo Zheng's mind, an unimaginable transformation was taking place.

A gigantic furnace suddenly appeared in his mind. The furnace was entirely bluish-black, and nine dragon-shaped reliefs were carved into its walls.

Each dragon relief was a different color—azure, black, white, purple... These carved dragons bared their fangs and brandished their claws, vivid as living creatures.

The eyes of eight dragons were shut. Only the Azure Dragon at the very bottom had its eyes open, its gaze fixed tightly upon Luo Zheng.

The Azure Dragon's gaze seemed to have settled through tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of years. As it stared faintly at Luo Zheng, he felt an immense, overwhelming pressure.

Clack clack clack clack clack...

Under the dragon's gaze, Luo Zheng's soul trembled without end. Cracks soon appeared throughout his soul form, showing signs of collapse.

At the instant Luo Zheng's soul was about to collapse, a dragon's roar suddenly came from the Azure Dragon's mouth. Then the gigantic furnace began spinning continuously, while flames eerily ignited within it.

They were Black Flames!

There was actually a flame of such a color in this world, as though it could burn away everything under heaven!

Luo Zheng had no time to marvel before the giant furnace came crashing down over his head, its raging Black Flame instantly wrapping around his soul.

The agony of having one's soul burned was not something an ordinary person could endure. Yet Luo Zheng was in a soul state, unable even to faint, and could only grit his teeth and bear the pain.

"Aaaah! Just let me die!"

At that moment, Luo Zheng wanted only to use death to free himself from this torment.

But to him, even death was a luxury. He was a soul body and could not bite his tongue to kill himself.

Whenever his soul could no longer hold on and was about to shatter and vanish—

A Seven-Colored Light suddenly spread from within the furnace, immediately repairing Luo Zheng's soul.

And so it went: burning, shattering, repairing; burning again, shattering again, repairing again...

Again and again, without end.

He did not know how long this pain of dying and coming back to life lasted, but it finally stopped.

"I finally endured it," Luo Zheng said, letting out a long breath. Thinking of the agony just now, he still felt lingering fear. At the same time, he discovered that his soul was actually emitting a faint golden radiance.

After a long while, he withdrew from his mind and slowly regained consciousness.

Within his mind, the enormous furnace had stopped turning. Yet the Black Flame inside had not gone out; it had merely drawn inward, no longer looking quite so terrifying.

Luo Zheng understood now that his soul and fleshly body had likely been tempered by that furnace.

The world was vast, and there was no end to strange things. Some artifact forgers employed all kinds of bizarre methods to forge weapons. Some would slaughter people without restraint, gathering human blood to use in tempering fire. Others went even further, sealing human souls into weapons and turning them into evil artifacts.

Yet this forging technique actually refined one's own body into a treasure. Such a method was unheard of. It was simply too insane...

Where fortune lay, disaster lurked; where disaster lay, fortune leaned. Once his emotions calmed, Luo Zheng understood that this happening to him might not necessarily be a bad thing!

The treasures and weapons of this world were divided into five stages: Mysterious Artifacts, Spirit Artifacts, Immortal Artifacts, Sacred Artifacts, Divine Artifacts, and Primordial Spiritual Treasures. Each stage was further divided into low, middle, and high grades.

And Luo Zheng's body had just been forged into a treasure, belonging only to the lowest grade of Mysterious Artifact.

It truly was strange to describe himself using the grades of treasures. A bitter smile appeared on Luo Zheng's face.

Looking out through the cellar's only vent, he saw that dawn was already breaking. Without realizing it, he had spent the entire night struggling.

Strangely enough, despite staying awake all night, he did not feel the slightest bit tired. Instead, he was brimming with energy, feeling better than ever.

Moreover, his mood had calmed. None of last night's agitation remained. The book's principles had been right: every sip and every peck was perhaps predetermined. Only by steadying one's mind could one face matters with composure.

After carefully sweeping up the ashes from the burned book and moving the water vat back into place, Luo Zheng heard the sound of a lock opening from the cellar entrance once more. It was time to be beaten again...