"Next."
A sharp reprimand came from ahead. Lin Taichu hunched his back as he stepped forward, deliberately making his knees crack loudly.
When he pressed his palm against the Spirit Testing Stone at the edge of the platform, he secretly circulated the Breath Concealment Art, compressing his spiritual power to the level of Qi Refining Level 3.
The Spirit Testing Stone gave off only a faint gray glow. The supervising cultivator casually tossed him a wooden token engraved with "C grade." "Go wait in the C-grade area."
The C-grade area lay on the western side of the plaza, where more than a hundred ragged Artifact Refiners had gathered.
Lin Taichu found a stone bench and sat down, his gaze sweeping over the surroundings. A one-eyed Old Man kept stealing glances at the central Grade A Area, where the Cultivators were using Mid-grade Spirit Stones as fuel for refining. Faint fluctuations of Spirit Patterns could be seen within the flames.
Not long afterward, a bell rang.
The chief examiner stood atop the platform, his voice carrying across the plaza. "First test: within the time it takes three incense sticks to burn, refine ten jin of Profound Iron into iron threads as thin as hair. The threads must support a three-jin weight without breaking."
The C-grade area immediately erupted in uproar.
Profound Iron was notoriously violent. Ordinary Qi Refining Cultivators found it difficult even to ignite a furnace fire, much less refine it into threads.
Lin Taichu remained calm. He took out the Rusty Iron Furnace he had picked up from the ruined temple, then shook a small pinch of black powder from his sleeve. It was Spirit Melting Powder, which he had spent three days extracting from an abandoned spirit mine.
While the other Artifact Refiners were still struggling to fan