Forging Artifacts

[You conversed with Guo Zhao, seeking guidance on the nuances of controlling heat during the shaping phase of forging. Guo Zhao provided a detailed explanation, and upon receiving his pointers, you felt as if waking from a dream; your understanding of forging deepened significantly. Forging experience +34.]

[You asked Guo Zhao how one should judge the right moment to open the furnace during forging. Guo Zhao provided a detailed explanation, and upon receiving his pointers, you felt as if waking from a dream; your understanding of forging deepened significantly. Forging experience +22.]

The two talked until late into the night before parting ways.

After bidding farewell to Guo Zhao and returning to his room, Shen Mo opened his destiny attribute panel, his gaze falling upon the forging experience bar.

[Forging: Unranked (288/500)]

The experience bar is more than halfway full. Progress has been smooth during this period.

Although he had not yet begun to formally craft a weapon, he had already accumulated 288 experience points.

Being able to obtain so many points was naturally due to the various teachings within the Basic Weapon-Forging Canon, as well as the unreserved, personal guidance from Guo Zhao.

But building a cart behind closed doors can only take one so far.

I shall begin formal forging tonight.

Shen Mo exhaled, thinking to himself.

What is learned from books is ultimately shallow; one does not know the difficulty until one experiences it personally.

Merely reading, studying, and asking Guo Zhao for advice had brought his forging experience to its limit.

To continue increasing his experience, the only way forward was to forge weapons with his own hands.

"Click! Click!"

He shed his outer robe and removed his inner armor. "I shall start with this piece!"

As his palm caressed the Heart-Protecting inner armor, he looked at the cracks running across it, thinking that he would use the repair of these fissures as practice.

He had purchased this inner armor from an inner-sect senior brother at the market for thirty Spirit Stones.

In terms of grade, it was a low-tier Profound-grade item.

However, it had already been severely damaged when he bought it, and later, while hunting the Two-Headed Silver-Ringed Python in the Zhao Family Spirit Field, it suffered another heavy blow from the Two-Headed Python.

At this moment, the Heart-Protecting inner armor was tattered and torn.

Its once-impressive defensive capabilities had been reduced by seventy percent, leaving it near the point of being scrapped.

He flipped his palm and retrieved several pale yellow, crystal-clear ores from his Qiankun Pouch.

Mystic Crystal Essence!

He had obtained these after slaying a Stone Spirit while on night patrol with Chen Mengze.

This item was an excellent, versatile material for forging, making it perfectly suited for repairing the Heart-Protecting inner armor.

"It must be smelted before it can be used for repairs."

He took out a furnace used for forging.

This furnace was an item belonging to Guo Zhao.

For some master blacksmiths, a forging furnace was an optional luxury.

They could use their own palms as a furnace to melt gold, spears, and mysterious iron.

But for a beginner, such a dashing and unrestrained method was far too sophisticated.

It was impossible to master, so a forging furnace was an absolute necessity.

Shen Mo had never bought forging equipment, so naturally, he had no furnace of his own.

Thus, he had borrowed one from Guo Zhao. Not only the furnace, but he had also borrowed many of the tools and materials required for forging.

Because Guo Zhao had requests of Shen Mo, he was very generous toward him.

After setting up the furnace, he piled firewood underneath and tapped his fingertip lightly.

"Whoosh."

A faint blue flame instantly ignited within the dry wood.

The fire was initially weak, but it soon spread, turning into a raging blaze that caused the inner walls of the furnace to gradually heat up, taking on a deep crimson hue.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

He placed the four pieces of Mystic Crystal Essence he had prepared into the furnace one by one.

Afterward, he waited on the side for the Mystic Crystal Essence to be burned into molten Mystic Crystal iron.

This process required a great deal of time.

As a blacksmith, one could only wait patiently at this moment.

One hour.

Two hours.

Three hours.

Shen Mo stood before the furnace, occasionally adding new firewood and standing on his tiptoes, watching the activity inside the furnace with eager anticipation.

"Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!"

After three hours of roasting, the Mystic Crystal Essence finally showed signs of melting.

However, this was merely the beginning; to wait for it to completely transform into molten Mystic Crystal iron would still require some time.

"It is truly too slow."

Having waited for so long, Shen Mo could not help but lose his patience, thinking to himself, In the future, once I have achieved success in weapon-forging, I must find a way to obtain special flames. Otherwise, using ordinary mortal fire to forge weapons is far too inefficient.

Weapon-forging and alchemy—these two major professions both had an absolute necessity for fire.

In the world of immortal cultivation, flames were likewise divided into different qualities and tiers.

The higher the quality of the flame, the greater the benefit to weapon-forging and alchemy.

According to what Shen Mo had seen and heard within the River-Facing Sect, the flames of the cultivation world were divided into three grades.

The first grade was Earth Fire.

The second grade was Spirit Fire.

The third grade was Heavenly Fire.

Earth Fire, as the name implied, was fire that grew from the earth itself. Some Alchemy Masters, or those who had achieved great mastery in weapon-forging, would spend a fortune at auction houses to find a favored Earth Fire, or even go to great lengths, crossing mountains and ridges, to subdue one.

Aside from Earth Fire that grew naturally in exotic locations, some sect powers that employed large numbers of alchemists and weapon-forgers would also set up Spirit-Gathering Arrays, using special diagrams to catalyze the birth of Earth Fire.

This allowed the sect to possess fire grounds specifically for alchemy and weapon-forging.

As one of the five great immortal sects of the Red Flame Kingdom, the River-Facing Sect possessed such financial resources.

Shen Mo had once heard that the sect's Weapon-Forging Hall and Alchemy Pavilion each had a vein of Earth Fire, the flames beneath the ground fueled by spiritual energy, burning day and night without ceasing.

It was just that both the Weapon-Forging Hall and the Alchemy Pavilion were in the inner sect, and outer disciples had no qualifications to enter.

Therefore, Shen Mo had never seen them with his own eyes; he had only heard Cao Ren speak of them often in the past.

Spirit Fire, on the other hand, was an existence one tier higher than Earth Fire.

It was usually born in exotic locations as well.

Or, it could be condensed from a cultivator's own dantian after many years of bitter cultivation of a certain divine ability or technique.

For instance, the legendary Samadhi True Fire belonged to the rank of top-tier Spirit Fire.

As for Heavenly Fire, it was far too rare and scarce; there was no record of its existence within the Red Flame Kingdom.

Exotic flames could not only provide significant benefits to a cultivator in alchemy and weapon-forging, but they could also amplify one's combat power.

The benefits were endless.

But wanting to get one's hands on them was not so easy.

Even the lowest-grade Earth Fire was very precious and rare.

If Shen Mo wanted to obtain one in the future, it would still require much hardship and many opportunities to have a chance.

"Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!"

Another hour and a half passed, and finally, inside the furnace, the four pieces of Mystic Crystal Essence were melted into molten Mystic Crystal iron.

The pale yellow liquid iron lay quietly within the furnace.

"The heat is sufficient!"

When Shen Mo saw that the iron had successfully melted, he hurriedly withdrew the fire and grasped with his palm through the air.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!"

The molten iron, still carrying sparks, was held aloft in his palm.

"Next, I shall begin using this molten Mystic Crystal iron to repair the Heart-Protecting inner armor!"

Shen Mo thought, placing the inner armor on the wooden table and taking out the fine brush specifically used for carving inscriptions.

"Sizzle!"

Dipping the brush into the molten Mystic Crystal iron, under Shen Mo's movements, it transformed into a faint, glowing inscription, circling in the void.