Refusing the Spirit Weapon

A yellow oriole in the distance suddenly flew before the stone wall, circling and chirping incessantly as if calling to its own kind; the corners of Sanbao's mouth curled into a unique arc—this must be the realm of "making the false look real" that the Saint Ancestor spoke of.

Four years. He had spent four full years studying the stone carving painting, and he had barely reached the stage of minor success. Heaven does not disappoint those who try.

"Who is it?"

A highly obscure aura suddenly intruded into Sanbao's senses. He turned his head toward a spot behind the stone wall and shouted sharply.

"It is me, Sanbao." A cold, stern woman leaped down gracefully; it was actually his master, Elder Jing Yifei.

"Master!" Sanbao bowed slightly in greeting.

"Not bad. I have watched you work on this carving for a year, but I never expected such results. For a mere Spirit Scholar, to be able to detect my presence—your soul power is likely not much inferior to your master's." Jing Yifei gestured for Sanbao to sit, and the two sat side by side on a bluestone bench in front of the stone wall.

"Master, you also know about soul power?" Sanbao asked with a laugh.

"You brat, asking questions you already know the answer to. Ordinary Spirit Cultivators do not care about soul power, but for a Treasure Refiner, it is like a person's own arms; its importance goes without saying." Jing Yifei laughed and scolded.

"What? A Treasure Refiner? Could it be that Master is a noble Treasure Refiner?" Sanbao was stunned, his voice rising in surprise.

"Hmph, you brat, playing dumb again. Don't think your master doesn't know—you've likely studied that bronze cauldron of mine over a hundred times. With your intelligence, how could you not have guessed?"

"This disciple did not know. Please, Master, enlighten me."

Sanbao decided not to guess and simply waited for Jing Yifei to explain. Sure enough, the following words from Jing Yifei finally confirmed the suspicions that had been brewing in Sanbao's heart for a year.

Treasure Refiners are divided into two types: Alchemists and Artifact Refiners.

Beyond powerful soul power, becoming a Treasure Refiner requires intensive cultivation of two specific types of spirit power. Alchemists require fire and wood spirit power, while Artifact Refiners require fire and metal spirit power.

Whether it is an Alchemist capable of refining medicinal pills or an Artifact Refiner capable of forging Spirit Weapons, both are as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns in the world of spirit cultivation. High-level Treasure Refiners, in particular, hold extremely noble status.

In fact, Jing Yifei was an Artifact Refiner who cultivated both metal and fire spirit powers. It was precisely because of her unique status as a Treasure Refiner that even the various sect leaders in the Cloud Saint Sect treated her with great courtesy.

The giant cauldron in the Earth Fire Hall was actually Jing Yifei's primary furnace for refining artifacts. Generally speaking, refining a Spirit Weapon involves three steps.

First, one must gather all the raw materials needed for the Spirit Weapon and use True Fire (Bright Fire) to remove impurities from each. Then, the purified materials are melted together to form the embryo of the Spirit Weapon. The final step is to use Gentle Fire to slowly hammer and refine it until its spirit is tempered out. Only then can a powerful Spirit Weapon be considered a success.

Each of these three steps is crucial, but in terms of time consumption, the third step—tempering with Gentle Fire—is the most demanding.

Gentle Fire is also known as Void Fire; it is an illusory thing. Just like the earth fire within the Earth Fire Hall, only weapons tempered continuously by Void Fire can develop a spirit and thus become a Spirit Weapon. Generally speaking, the better the quality of the Void Fire and the longer the tempering time, the higher the quality of the Spirit Weapon.

Even for the most ordinary low-grade Spirit Weapon, it requires at least a hundred days of tempering. This is the origin of the saying, "a thousand hammerings and a hundred refinements."

Only then did Sanbao understand why every Spirit Weapon was so precious.

"Sanbao, I have said what needs to be said. Is there anything you still do not understand?" After the explanation, Jing Yifei looked at Sanbao earnestly.

With his suspicions confirmed, Sanbao could no longer play dumb. He knew that Jing Yifei had explained so much because she intended to take him as a disciple. For him, this was a rare opportunity. He immediately stood up, knelt on the ground, and shouted heavily, "Master is above, please accept this disciple's kowtow."

Unlike a year ago, when they had entered the sect and chosen masters with mutual reservation, this time, they had truly accepted one another.

The inheritance of a Treasure Refiner is actually not easy. It is difficult for a talented disciple to find a master, and just as difficult for a master to find a talented disciple.

After discovering Sanbao's immense potential, Jing Yifei had been moved to take him on as a disciple. Through nearly a year of observation, her resolve had only strengthened.

"Good, stand up. As a welcoming gift, you may choose one of the Spirit Weapons I have recently refined." Jing Yifei smiled as she helped Sanbao up, suddenly producing several shimmering Spirit Weapons from her person.

A saber, a sword, a shield, and a hammer.

Sanbao was stunned. He hadn't expected Jing Yifei to hide so many Spirit Weapons on her. He thought to himself, My master has quite the fortune; not only does she possess a storage space, but she also has no shortage of Spirit Weapons.

"What? Are you surprised at where I pulled my things from? It is quite simple. This is a low-grade Spirit Weapon I refined specifically for myself—a Storage Bag." Seeing Sanbao's shocked expression, Jing Yifei took out a small, pitch-black cloth bag and shook it at him.

Although a Storage Bag is only a low-grade Spirit Weapon, because it belongs to the category of spatial Spirit Weapons, it is not easy to refine. It is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and has a low success rate, making it more valuable than an average mid-grade Spirit Weapon.

While the Storage Bag was precious, to Sanbao—who had seen the even higher-level spatial Storage Ring—it was nothing out of the ordinary.

What Sanbao cared about more was the sincerity of his master, Jing Yifei, and he felt somewhat touched by it.

Jing Yifei was actually far from the cold and aloof person described in the Master Selection Manual. In Sanbao's view, she was actually quite a spirited person; at least, she was truly good to him. Of course, toward ordinary people, as a Treasure Refiner, she certainly had the capital to be cold and aloof.

"Thank you, Master, but I have no use for these for the time being. The Spirit Skills I cultivate are centered on my hands; using a saber or sword would actually be counterproductive."

Sanbao politely declined his master's gift. In his heart, he always remembered a piece of advice from Thirteen: one's own cultivation realm is the foundation of strength. Relying on external objects too early might provide temporary advantages, but it often leads to dependency, which is ultimately more harmful than beneficial to one's future growth.

As the former rulers of the Tianlan Empire, the Luo Clan certainly possessed no shortage of rare treasures. But in reality, aside from that mysterious True Spirit Feather, the Tianlan Luo Clan—including Thirteen—had not left Sanbao anything else.

Before Sanbao came to Cloud Mountain, Old Luo had also offered to give him a set of personal soft armor for protection, but Sanbao, remembering Thirteen's warning, had ultimately refused. If he wore that soft armor every day, his vigilance would likely drop significantly, and that was not the result Sanbao wanted.

Furthermore, Sanbao felt his current strength was too low. Even with the help of a Spirit Weapon, his power wouldn't increase much, and it would only make him a target for those who covet wealth. It was better to simply not have them.

"What, you don't want them? Good, good. I didn't expect you to be even more arrogant than your master. Sanbao, tell me honestly, are you truly from a remote little town?" Jing Yifei had not expected Sanbao to refuse these Spirit Weapons, which were treated as treasures by other Spirit Cultivators.

"I am indeed from a small family in a southern town. Why doesn't Master teach me how to refine artifacts now?" Sanbao's answer was watertight, and he quickly changed the subject.

"Very well..."

Jing Yifei did not force the issue. The master and disciple talked for a long time before departing together.

Jing Yifei had first confirmed that Sanbao's soul power was indeed extremely powerful and that he could manipulate his metal and fire spirit powers with ease. These were the two most important conditions for becoming a Treasure Refiner. As for the specific techniques and principles of artifact refining, they would only come through long-term polishing and tempering.

From that day on, in addition to his various cultivation routines, Sanbao took on a new job: artifact refining.

Strictly speaking, the process of a Treasure Refiner refining treasures is also a process of cultivating spirit power, as well as a process of cultivating soul power.

The entire process requires extremely strict control over spirit power and soul power. Because of this, artifact refining is not an easy task; on the contrary, it is an exceptionally arduous and tedious endeavor, one that cannot be described to outsiders without having experienced it firsthand.

Autumn faded and winter arrived; in the blink of an eye, it was the end of the year. By this time, Sanbao had become a five-star Spirit Scholar, only a single step away from the Spirit General realm.

Although a five-star Spirit Scholar was merely a bottom-tier existence in the world of Spirit Cultivators, at Sanbao's age, it was already monstrously talented.

Around the end of the year, Sanbao received an anonymous letter. The content was very simple, consisting of only four characters: "Everything as before." In addition to this, there was a strange mark in the bottom right corner of the letter, which was the unique "Luo" character of the Luo Clan.

Upon receiving news that the Luo Clan was doing well, Sanbao felt immense peace of mind. The mysterious and warm Luo Clan in Deer Mountain town had long since become his spiritual home.

ps: 5 chapters completed. Thank you for your support, brothers. We made it onto the new book rankings. I will continue to release more chapters tomorrow, and I hope we can stay on the list. Please help me out, brothers.