Innate Divine Ability: Neuro Shadow Poison

"It's not that the technique has been lost, is it?" Jiu Cai Rong's face showed deep worry. "Our Mountain Villa can't forge artifacts? Only artifact blanks?"

"The technique isn't lost—the real issue is the lack of forging materials."

Ning Zheng's expression turned grave:

"We need materials from Demon Beasts. They're born with Spiritual Roots and Innate Divine Abilities. When you hammer those into an artifact blank, you extract one of their innate talents. We don't have any channels to acquire Demon Beast carcasses."

An artifact blank is just the foundation.

Certain fangs, hides, bones, blood—Demon Beast materials plus a Magic Copper blank equals an artifact.

The assembly line for an artifact goes roughly like this:

Mine ore, smelt it, forge it into a rough artifact blank.

The rough blank gets sent to family market towns and cultivator cities.

In those cities, family cultivators and local rogue cultivators hunt Demon Beasts. They combine the blank with Demon Beast materials and forge it into an artifact.

In simple terms, Ning Zheng's mine was the very top of the artifact assembly line.

"Then since we don't have a Demon Beast material channel, can we hammer people into artifacts instead? After all, we do have a channel for human materials."

A thought flickered through Jiu Cai Rong's mind, and he didn't even realize he'd asked a question that made Ning Zheng's scalp crawl. His expression was utterly innocent:

"For example, if a cultivator trains a Spiritual Root and awakens an Innate Divine Ability, then we catch him, throw him in, and forge him—wouldn't the weapon also generate that cultivator's Innate Divine Ability?"

???

How could a normal person's mouth utter something so cold?

Ning Zheng looked at him and felt a creeping sense of horror.

Before speaking, young people should learn to put themselves in others' shoes.

What if someone wanted to hammer you into an artifact? How would you feel?

But seeing the other's eager, pleading look, Ning Zheng still said in a low voice:

"That's certainly possible. Many rogue cultivators, Demon People, and demonic sects forge demonic artifacts from the flesh and blood of human cultivators. But we're a legitimate forging Mountain Villa. Don't imitate them—don't hunt down passing cultivators from the mountain to forge artifacts."

Back then, Ning Zheng had also been afraid that some Demon People would catch him and use him for artifact forging.

Because his Spiritual Root was special—the highest grade, a Heavenly Spiritual Root.

It wasn't that he'd never spent money to save up that 200,000 Luck Value.

A few years ago, he'd spent a full 30,000 Luck to request the Spiritual Root most suited to him. That was how he got a Shadow Crocodile Grass soaked in the blood of a Shadow Crocodile from an unknown era's apocalyptic calamity.

Very strange—a spiritual grass with no physical form, only a shadow.

[Spiritual Root: Shadow]

[Innate Divine Ability: Neuro Shadow Poison. Attacks can attach spiritual life energy. Each time you attack an enemy, it causes one spiritual parasitism. After ten attacks, the enemy's soul will undergo a cocoon-breaking split, generating a clone of the enemy that exists for a set duration.]

Cut an enemy ten times, and a temporary clone of Ning Zheng appears beside them.

Ning Zheng had tried shooting a River Monster with arrows laced with Neuro Shadow Poison. He kept shooting, and soon a swarm of Ning Zheng's shadows appeared around the River Monster, all chasing and beating it.

Even Ning Zheng's clones could stack attack counts, injecting poison, and together they'd besiege the enemy, creating new splits.

The more they fought, the more there were!

Ning Zheng didn't know exactly how strong he was, but when he secretly compared his abilities to various low-level Five Elements Spiritual Root techniques—Small Rain Art, Wind Riding Art, Fireball Art—he seemed distinctly unique!

The style was clearly off.

How to put it?

It looked downright evil.

Every ten shots, the enemy would spawn like giving birth. That didn't fit his classical sword-immortal aesthetic.

Sometimes Ning Zheng wondered how he'd ever get married in the future.

But in terms of practicality, he felt that even innate divine beasts, great demons, and the ultimate secret arts of ancient holy lands might be no more than this.

If those Demon People discovered him, they'd probably seize him like a treasure and forge him into an artifact, using his bone ash to make a blade.

That blade would probably also have the splitting effect on cuts—a true divine artifact.

At the same time.

It seemed like his 30,000 Luck Value was a great deal, but afterward, Ning Zheng realized he'd fallen into a massive pit!

It was like a 30,000 down payment.

He'd have to develop the cultivation method himself from there!

For every subsequent realm's method and all the accompanying techniques, I fear he'd have to spend an astronomical sum.

His thoughts returned to the present.

Regardless, Ning Zheng strongly opposed using cultivators to forge demonic artifacts.

"I know. Our Mountain Villa produces rough blanks. Our job is just that simple." Jiu Cai Rong echoed verbally, but inside he grew more speechless.

So we're even worse off than I thought.

It was a sweatshop with zero skill.

Batch after batch of semi-finished artifact blanks were sold off, and the Artifact Refiners who bought them would process and refine them on the spot, raking in massive profits in an instant.

You had to hunt Fierce Beasts to forge artifacts.

Where did the raw Demon Beast forging materials come from?

"Hard, hard, hard! But since the name is Sword Forging Manor, there's no way we're just cranking out rough blanks. This main line is stuck—I need a breakthrough."

Jiu Cai Rong suddenly felt another glob of green bird droppings fall from his hair, and silently looked up.

"Wild Zone, found it."

Time passed, and soon it was dusk.

Ning Zheng was about to leave, leaving behind a parting remark: "Work hard. I won't join you for dinner. Remember to rest on time and recover your energy, so you'll have the strength to work tomorrow."

Actually.

Looking at them, they probably couldn't eat much anyway.

In the afternoon, every single one of them had secretly snacked on Magic Copper as a treat, and they were all still pretending to hammer away at the forge, acting like their hands were clean.

That four-month-pregnant belly of theirs was already a dead giveaway!

As for them sneaking snacks, Ning Zheng couldn't care less.

It was a Food Factory assembly line, after all—the workers at least got their fill. Eat as much as you want. No matter how good the food is, eating it every day will eventually make you sick of it.

Back then, the Money Boys raised at the Manor were thrilled at first, each one practically shoving their head in with their butt in the air. Later, they got sick of it, and it took us slaves forcing their heads down to make them eat!

Seeing them like this, Ning Zheng thought it was just fine.

They gorged on Magic Copper, their nails would grow, and soon there'd be raw materials for forging Magic Coins.

After leaving the Blacksmith Shop, Ning Zheng prepared to head down the mountain. Back when he was a slave, he had a dream: to clock out on time.

By the time he got home and ate dinner, it would be exactly seven o'clock. He'd just kick the line remotely and log off.

It was just that as he descended the mountain, Ning Zheng saw a few chefs cooking.

They were holding a huge Magic Copper pot, stirring it constantly with a wooden stick.

Gurgle, gurgle~

He had no idea what kind of paste they were boiling, but it kept bubbling, steam rolling thick.

Food God: [No way, I'm really not feeling it. My body's a bit weak. Went to bed at four in the morning, woke up at seven dizzy and lightheaded, and it hasn't let up.]

Shao Chai Kun: [Do you have any cooking experience?]

Food God: [No. I was raised on takeout, wasn't I?]

Shao Chai Kun: [Then you call yourself Food God? Pfft, what a random name. And you keep shouting that you're a hotel chef in charge of the wok.]

Food God: [Next, we're adding No. 95 gasoline.]

Shao Chai Kun: [That much?]

Food God: [They're getting off easy.]

Shao Chai Kun: [I wouldn't dare eat like that.]

Food God: [It's for the Manor anyway.]

Shao Chai Kun: [What if something goes wrong?]

Food God: [Throw 'em in the forging furnace, blow the brass suona, and a dozen blacksmiths will give 'em a grand send-off.]

Ning Zheng watched in silence, recalling that besides the bronze swords and bronze knives forged earlier, there were indeed bronze suonas. He couldn't help but feel a moment of realization, sighed, and continued down the mountain.

These people were probably all crazy.