What the Ear Heard Imitated Three Parts, What the Eye Saw Captured Seven Parts of the Spirit

The next match was between the Eastern Thunder Sword Sect and the Blazing Sun Sword Sect.

Because of Bai Li, Lu Feng did not stay to watch.

Leaving the Azure Peak Sword Sect's grounds with Bai Li, he followed her to a Refining Room.

"How is your recovery?"

Along the way, Lu Feng asked Bai Li with concern. Though he saw that some color had returned to her face, he still could not set his mind at ease.

"Much better," Bai Li replied softly, lacking her usual heroic air. "Thank you for the Hall Master's medicine."

"Grandpa Ghost is inside," Bai Li said, pointing at the Refining Room not far ahead. "I spoke with Grandpa Ghost this morning. He agreed to meet you."

The Refining Room that the Azure Peak Sword Sect had temporarily arranged for its guests was rather crude. There was only a furnace and a few basic facilities inside. Most forging tools had not been provided, nor was there any need to provide them.

Any refiner who still had the leisure to forge artifacts while away from home naturally possessed his own familiar casting tools.

From Bai Li, Lu Feng learned that "Grandpa Ghost" was a refiner, one utterly obsessed with forging. He spent nearly all his time immersed in the Refining Room.

Bai Li stood guard outside the Refining Room, leaving Lu Feng to enter alone. She said it was Grandpa Ghost's instruction.

Lu Feng did not dare act arrogantly and insist that she accompany him.

The moment he entered the Refining Room, a scorching wave of warm air rushed at him, making Lu Feng cough twice.

Looking up, he saw only an aged figure in the entire room. The old man appeared to be sixty or seventy years old. Though his hair was already white, his body looked exceptionally robust, and faintly visible through his Outer Garment were well-tempered lines of muscle.

A leather apron hung before the old man. He gripped a massive hammer as long as his waist and continually struck around the furnace. In the flickering firelight, his sharp eyes gleamed with a vigor utterly mismatched with his age.

Perhaps only when he focused on refining did the old man display such a bearing.

For the instant Lu Feng stepped into the room, the old man's demeanor abruptly changed. The fierce concentration in his gaze instantly dimmed, replaced by a murky, listless dullness.

The old man coughed, then waved without turning around, signaling Lu Feng to sit on a stool farther away and wait.

After a long while, the old man removed a piece of refined iron blazing with fierce flames from the furnace and casually set it on a stone rack beside him. Only then did he stop his work.

Setting down the refining hammer and removing his apron, the old man slowly walked toward Lu Feng.

"You are the new Hall Master of Night Feather Hall that Bai Li mentioned?"

As he spoke, a concealed glint suddenly flashed through his lifeless eyes as he scrutinized Lu Feng from head to toe.

Lu Feng nodded. Looking at the coarse hemp clothing beneath the old man's apron, anyone unaware of his identity would have taken him for a street vendor with a stall. No one would have imagined him to be a master refiner.

"The Ghost Empress mentioned you to me," Grandpa Ghost said in a weathered, slightly hoarse voice.

Lu Feng was startled, and his curiosity over the Ghost Empress's identity deepened once more. He was merely a minor Hall Master. No matter what, he should not have received such extraordinary care.

"May I ask Senior's identity?" Lu Feng probed. From the aura the old man gave off, Lu Feng could tell that he possessed strength no weaker than the Heaven Soul Realm. Coupled with the exquisitely imitated Treasure Items in Bai Li's possession, a person with such skill and strength could never be an unknown nobody.

"Ghost Artisan." Rare seriousness appeared on the old man's face.

"Ghost Artisan?" A trace of astonishment crossed Lu Feng's face as he heard the somewhat familiar name. He had assumed the old man would use some identity like "Grandpa Ghost" to brush him off, but he had not expected him to suddenly reveal the name "Ghost Artisan." Bai Li had never mentioned such an identity to him.

Lu Feng did not doubt the old man's words in the slightest. If the latter had been fabricating a lie, there would have been no need. He could simply have answered with "Grandpa Ghost."

"Ghost Artisan... Ghost Artisan..."

Lu Feng silently repeated the name several times, running through the influential figures of the continent in recent years one by one. Finding nothing, he pushed his memories back several decades.

Then his expression abruptly shook.

"By ear, imitate three parts; by sight, capture seven parts of the spirit; through one's hands, seize Heaven's craftsmanship!"

"You... You are Senior Ghost Artisan?"

"The one who stood among the top ten of the Heaven List more than twenty years ago?"

The old man nodded. A few traces of disdain showed beneath his cold, proud expression, as though he was quite dissatisfied with that title.

Lu Feng was instantly dumbfounded. He had never imagined that this old man before him possessed such a formidable identity.

Top ten on the Heaven List—that was an existence more powerful and more legendary than Soul Snatching Guest Xiao Gu.

If the man before him had not suddenly vanished without a trace more than twenty years ago, Ghost Artisan would likely still hold a place on the Heaven List today!

As memories of Ghost Artisan's many legendary deeds surfaced in his mind, Lu Feng became even more curious.

This old man who called himself Ghost Artisan clearly possessed only Heaven Soul Realm Initial Breath strength, nowhere near the later breaths. Yet according to the records, Ghost Artisan had at least Heaven Soul Realm Six Breaths cultivation.

Could Ghost Artisan's decline in strength be related to what happened more than twenty years ago?

Lu Feng guessed inwardly. Then he deeply bowed to the old man. "Senior, please tell me why so many Heaven List experts suddenly vanished at the same time more than twenty years ago."

Upon hearing this, Ghost Artisan's expression became even more weathered, his brows filled with melancholy.

"What do you know?"

Ghost Artisan did not answer. Instead, he questioned Lu Feng.

???

Lu Feng secretly frowned, suspicion rising in his heart. He found Ghost Artisan's question confusing and surprising. This reaction of Ghost Artisan's gave him the feeling of a tactic used to haggle before selling goods.

To those who recognized the goods, sell at the proper price.

To those who did not, raise the price.

Lu Feng knew he was at a disadvantage, but his desire to uncover the truth was too urgent. Ignoring Ghost Artisan's intentions, he truthfully recounted the scraps of information he had gathered over the years.

"More than twenty years ago, many seniors ranked on the Heaven List vanished at the same time. Even the Jun Family could not discover the reason."

"After years of investigation, this junior has only found that the events of that year may have been connected to a certain force within the Ghost Domain."

"Whether they were secretly targeted by that force, coerced in some way, or reached some relationship of mutual interest with it, is unknown."

Ghost Artisan's tightly furrowed brows unconsciously relaxed somewhat. He let out a deep sigh. "Since it concerns the Heaven List, wait until you have entered the Heaven List before involving yourself in such matters."

Seeing that Ghost Artisan was unwilling to reveal anything, Lu Feng grew anxious. Eager for knowledge, he immediately dropped to his knees.

Ghost Artisan's expression changed dramatically. As spiritual energy circulated, a fierce gust swept out and straightened Lu Feng's half-kneeling body.

"Why are you kneeling?! If I ever see you casually kneeling to someone again, I'll chop off your legs!"

Ghost Artisan's cold rebuke was like thunder, shaking even Lu Feng's eardrums with pain.

"Senior—" Lu Feng pleaded frankly, "To be honest, my father seems to have once been ranked on the Heaven List as well. Like Senior and the others, he suddenly vanished more than twenty years ago..."

This was why Lu Feng cared so deeply and anxiously about the matter. Back when he was in the Clear River Sect, he had heard it accidentally when the Sect Leader was drunk. It was also the only clue he currently possessed regarding his origins.

Ghost Artisan said coldly, "Once your strength breaks through to the Heaven Soul Realm, you will naturally come into contact with matters of that level."

Seeing Ghost Artisan's resolute attitude and that he had no intention of saying more, Lu Feng could only helplessly give up.

After regaining his calm, Lu Feng considered Ghost Artisan's current hidden identity and began probing from another angle. "Senior, is the Soul Gate... a force from the Ghost Domain?"

This was all Lu Feng could think of. If he could confirm that the Soul Gate came from the Ghost Domain, then he could infer that the Ghost Empress's special care for him was very likely connected to his origins. Furthermore, Ghost Artisan had also lain low here for more than twenty years, which would better prove the Soul Gate's unusual nature.

If that were the case, he could begin with the Soul Gate and gradually uncover the mystery of his origins.

Under Lu Feng's expectant gaze, Ghost Artisan shook his head without hesitation.

"The Soul Gate does not come from the Ghost Domain."

"The Soul Gate is merely an ordinary force that the Ghost Empress built step by step."

"The reason this old man concealed his identity within the Soul Gate's Hundred Refinements Spring was only because people from the Soul Gate happened to save me back then."

Ghost Artisan's calm words were like a basin of cold water, thoroughly extinguishing the flames of hope in Lu Feng's heart.

"I heard from Bai Li that you came to ask me to forge some weapons?" Ghost Artisan guided Lu Feng's thoughts elsewhere, seemingly unwilling to let him continue asking about the Heaven List.

Lu Feng nodded.

Ghost Artisan continued, "Do you know the rules? For anything made by my hand, I take thirty percent of the materials. For anything forged above Earth Grade, I take fifty percent."

"Only more, never less." Lu Feng took out the many forging materials he had collected during this time from his storage item.

Calling them materials was less fitting than calling them finished products. Apart from those he had looted from other people's storage items along the way, there were also those obtained from the Sword Maniac Secret Realm. The longswords soaked in Nether Void Liquid were all of exceptional grade, numbering nearly a thousand.

Lu Feng had long calculated the quantity needed. Taking out just over twenty swords was already enough.

"I ask Senior to help forge a long spear and some Batwing Darts."

A glint flashed through Ghost Artisan's eyes. With great interest, he picked up one of the longswords and secretly nodded. "Not bad. I never expected that I would be fortunate enough to see Nether Void Liquid in my lifetime."

"How many more longswords like this do you have?" Ghost Artisan was visibly moved. "If you can produce a hundred, this old man will forge your spear and darts to Heaven Grade!"

Lu Feng hesitated for a moment, then deliberately put on a pained expression. "This junior only obtained some of these longswords through a fortunate coincidence. There are not many—only a little over seventy."

"That will do," Ghost Artisan said delightedly. "Give them all to me."

I was too hasty!

Lu Feng could not help but regret it. Had he known Ghost Artisan would be satisfied so easily, he would have said a few fewer.

He took out more than fifty additional longswords and handed them to Ghost Artisan together with a diagram of the Batwing Darts' characteristics and shape.

"Tell me in detail about the strength, cultivation methods, and talent of the users of the spear and darts."

Whenever it involved forging, Ghost Artisan's expression became exceedingly stern and earnest. His eyes also regained their bright gleam.

Lu Feng hesitated briefly, then carefully explained in full the cultivation methods, strength, and talents of Shao Yang and Zhao Yan. He withheld nothing, including the Assassination Art from the Profound Sky Treasure Mirror and the Heaven's Will Four Absolute Spears.

Artifact refinement and forging were all about tailoring to the individual. It was like a physician diagnosing and treating illness—only by knowing the roots and details could one prescribe the right remedy. Only by understanding the user's foundations could one forge the most suitable weapon.

Ghost Artisan listened with a calm expression, only showing emotion when the cultivation methods recorded in the Profound Sky Treasure Mirror were mentioned. He was then filled with surprise and shock.

"You are so young. How do you possess so many peerless cultivation methods to teach your students?" Ghost Artisan's gaze was clear and pure, containing only a refiner's curiosity, without the slightest trace of greed or evil intent.

Lu Feng had already prepared an explanation and replied calmly, "These cultivation methods were obtained together in the secret realm where I found these longswords."

Ghost Artisan gave Lu Feng a faintly amused look. "Come find me to collect the spear and darts on the day the Sword Tournament ends."

"Thank you, Senior." As Lu Feng spoke, he took out a small piece of wood and used the opportunity to probe further.

"Senior, do you recognize what material this is?"