Innate Divine Ability: Neuro Shadow Poison

"Wasn't the technology lost?" Jiu Cai Rong revealed deep concern. "Can't our Mountain Villa forge Artifacts? Can we only forge Artifact Blanks?"

"It hasn't come to the point where the technology was lost. The key is the lack of forging materials."

Ning Zheng's expression was solemn:

"We need materials from demonic beasts. They naturally possess Spiritual Roots and Innate Divine Abilities. They're embedded into Artifact Blanks to extract one of their divine abilities. We have no channels for purchasing demonic beast corpses of this kind."

An Artifact Blank was only the foundation.

Certain fangs, fur, bones, and blood of demonic beasts—demonic beast materials plus a Magic Copper Blank—became an Artifact.

The production line for an Artifact was roughly like this.

Mine ore, smelt and cast it, then forge it into a rough Artifact Blank.

The rough Artifact Blanks were sent to the various family marketplaces and cultivator cities.

Those cities all had family cultivators and local Rogue Cultivators responsible for hunting demonic beasts. The Blank was combined with demonic beast materials and forged into an Artifact.

Simply put, Ning Zheng's mine was at the very top of the Artifact production line.

"Then if we have no channels for demonic beast materials, can we put people into Artifacts instead? After all, we do have channels for human materials."

A thought struck Jiu Cai Rong. He had no idea that he had asked a question that made Ning Zheng's scalp crawl. His expression was utterly innocent:

"For example, if this cultivator cultivated a Spiritual Root and gained an Innate Divine Ability, then we captured him and threw him inside for forging, would this weapon also develop that cultivator's Innate Divine Ability?"

???

How could an ordinary person's mouth say something so cold?

Ning Zheng looked at them, feeling inexplicably horrified.

Young people had to learn to put themselves in someone else's shoes before speaking.

What if someone wanted to forge you into an Artifact? What would you do then?

But seeing the other man's eager, yearning expression, Ning Zheng still said solemnly:

"Of course that's possible. Many rogue cultivators, Demon People, and practitioners of the demonic path use the flesh and blood of human cultivators to forge demonic artifacts. But we're a proper Sword Forging Manor. Don't imitate them and hunt cultivators passing along the roads below the mountain to cast Artifacts."

Back then, Ning Zheng had been rather afraid that those Demon People would capture him for Artifact forging, too.

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

It wasn't as if he had saved up those 200,000 Luck Value without spending any money at all.

In the earlier years, he had also spent a full 30,000 Luck Value to request the Spiritual Root most suited to him. Thus, he had obtained Shadow Crocodile Grass soaked in the blood of a world-ending disaster Shadow Crocodile from an unknown spacetime.

It was miraculous: a spirit herb with no physical body, possessing only a shadow.

Spiritual Root: Shadow

Innate Divine Ability: Neuro Shadow Poison. Attacks can carry spiritual life energy. Every time an enemy is attacked, it causes one instance of spiritual parasitism. After ten attacks, the enemy's soul body undergoes a cocoon-breaking split, creating a clone on the enemy that exists for a certain period.

After slashing an enemy ten times, a temporary clone of Ning Zheng would split off beside the enemy.

Ning Zheng had tried using a bow and arrows imbued with Neuro Shadow Poison to shoot a River Monster. He kept firing until a heap of Ning Zheng's shadows appeared beside the River Monster, all chasing after it and beating it down.

Even Ning Zheng's clones could stack the number of attacks and inject poison, surrounding the enemy together and causing new clones to split off.

The more they fought, the more there were!

Ning Zheng didn't know how powerful he was, but after secretly comparing it with the innate spells of various low-grade Five Elements Spiritual Roots—Little Cloud Rain Art, Wind Riding Art, and Fireball Art—his own ability seemed rather unique!

The entire style was obviously wrong.

How should he put it?

It looked downright evil at a glance.

Every ten shots, the other party gave birth to another one. That didn't fit the bearing of a classical sword immortal.

Sometimes Ning Zheng also wondered what he would do about taking a wife in the future.

But in terms of practicality, he felt that perhaps this was how those naturally born divine beasts, great demons, and even the supreme secret arts of those ancient sacred lands worked.

If those Demon People discovered him, they would probably seize him as if they had found a priceless treasure and drag him away to forge an Artifact. If they used his ashes to make a blade...

It would probably also have the effect of splitting upon striking people, worthy of being called a divine treasure.

At the same time.

This made it seem that his 30,000 Luck Value had been very worthwhile, but afterward, Ning Zheng discovered that he had fallen into a colossal pit!

It was equivalent to paying a 30,000 down payment.

He had to develop the cultivation techniques afterward himself!

The development of cultivation techniques for every realm in the future, along with all the supporting arts, would probably require smashing in an astronomical figure.

His thoughts returned to the present.

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

"I understand. Our Mountain Villa produces rough Blanks, so our work is that simple." Jiu Cai Rong agreed with his mouth, but grew increasingly speechless inside.

So we were worse off than we imagined.

We're a sweatshop with absolutely no technology.

Large batches of Semi-finished Artifact Blanks were sold, and the Artifact Refiners who bought them processed and refined them in a second step, instantly making a huge profit.

Demonic beasts had to be hunted to forge Artifacts.

But where did those original demonic beast forging materials come from?

"Difficult, difficult, difficult! But since it's called Sword Forging Manor, it can't possibly only make rough Blanks. This main quest is stuck. We need to break through the deadlock."

Jiu Cai Rong suddenly touched the clump of green bird droppings that had fallen from his hair again and silently tilted his head up.

"The Wild Zone. I found it."

Time passed, and dusk soon arrived.

Ning Zheng prepared to leave, leaving them with a final remark: "Work hard. I won't stay and eat with you. Remember to rest on time and recover your energy. Only then will you have the strength to work tomorrow."

In reality.

Looking at them, Ning Zheng figured they probably couldn't eat much either.

That afternoon, every one of them had secretly snacked on Magic Copper, yet they were still putting on an act there, hammering away and claiming that their hands and feet were clean.

Their bellies, swollen as if they were four months pregnant, had already betrayed them!

As for their sneaking food, Ning Zheng didn't care.

It was a production line in a Food Factory. The workers had to at least be fed until full. They could eat as they pleased; no matter how delicious something was, eating it every day would eventually make them sick of it.

At first, the Money Boys raised by the Mountain Villa had also eaten with great enthusiasm. Each one had practically wanted to stick his head inside with his butt in the air. Later, they ate until they threw up, and these slaves had to press their heads down and force them to keep eating!

Ning Zheng thought this arrangement was quite good.

The more Magic Copper they gorged themselves on, the more their fingernails would grow, and the raw materials for forging Magic Coins would soon be available.

After leaving the Blacksmith Shop, Ning Zheng prepared to go down the mountain. When he had been a slave, he had possessed one dream: getting off work on time.

After going home and eating dinner, it would be exactly seven o'clock. He could directly kick himself offline from across the air and be done with it.

While going down the mountain, Ning Zheng saw several chefs cooking.

They held a huge Magic Copper pot and kept stirring it with a wooden stick.

Gurgle, gurgle~~

He had no idea what kind of paste they were stewing. It kept bubbling, with steam billowing into the air.

Food God: No, I really can't go on. My body's a little weak. I went to sleep at four last night, and when I got up at seven this morning, I was dizzy and seeing stars. It's still like this now.

Shao Chai Kun: Do you have any experience cooking?

Food God: No. Wasn't I raised on takeout?

Shao Chai Kun: And you call yourself the Food God? Bah, what a random name. You even shouted that you were a head chef at a hotel and would be in charge of the cooking.

Food God: Next, we add No. 95 gasoline.

Shao Chai Kun: That much?

Food God: Consider it a bargain for them.

Shao Chai Kun: I wouldn't dare eat that much myself.

Food God: It's for the people in the Mountain Villa anyway.

Shao Chai Kun: What if something happens after they eat it?

Food God: Put them in the forging furnace. Once the suona starts playing, we'll give dozens of blacksmiths a grand send-off.

Ning Zheng fell silent as he watched. Recalling that besides the Bronze Swords and Copper Knives he had forged earlier, there were indeed also copper suonas, he suddenly understood something and sighed before continuing down the mountain.

There was probably something wrong with these people.