Shen Yue's six-layer Qi-Refining magic power surged within him, enveloping the Green Fire Cauldron and the Fire Pattern Cauldron.
"The way of cauldrons lies in embracing a hundred rivers. With the Green Fire Cauldron as the foundation and all cauldrons as fuel, tempering fire with fire and merging cauldron with cauldron—only then can one forge the makings of a Heavenly Cauldron..."
Recalling what the scripture said, Shen Yue couldn't help but marvel.
The ancestors of the Chehou Family of Ancient Wei truly were geniuses of staggering brilliance. Not only had they devised a method for forging Green Fire Cauldrons from scrap, they had also refined it generation after generation, leaving behind the art of "Merging Cauldrons to Ascend in Rank."
Following this method, one could use a Green Fire Cauldron as the foundation and merge it with other cauldrons, steadily improving it.
The Heavenly Fire Cauldron, the Chehou Family's inherited cauldron, had been made this way.
The Green Fire Cauldron and the Fire Pattern Cauldron slowly drew together, wrapped in magic power.
At first, they seemed to resist. The cauldrons shuddered, humming without pause.
The fiery patterns on the Fire Pattern Cauldron writhed like living things, while the Green Fire Cauldron shone with surging azure light, scorching flames spilling from its mouth.
Shen Yue formed hand seals. His magic power became countless threads, wrapping around the two cauldrons layer by layer. Their resistance immediately lessened by more than half.
The Green Fire Cauldron opened its mouth first, releasing a powerful suction force.
The patterns on the Fire Pattern Cauldron began to peel away, like fire serpents being forcibly drawn out. They flowed along the threads of magic power and into the Green Fire Cauldron...
Three days later.
When the last wisp of fiery pattern merged into the Green Fire Cauldron, the two cauldrons had successfully fused.
The new cauldron retained the Green Fire Cauldron's shape, but its color had changed from its original blue-gray to a deep, dark teal. Its surface was covered in the distinctive flame patterns of the Fire Pattern Cauldron, and firelight seemed to flow faintly between them.
"This cauldron has actually reached the mid-grade first tier!"
Shen Yue beckoned, drawing over two pieces of material he had previously refined from scrap.
One gleamed with a cold metallic sheen and was exceptionally hard; the other had a fine texture and greater resilience.
Still, since they had been extracted from scrap, Shen Yue estimated that forging a pseudo-spirit artifact from them would be a good result.
He did have several fine materials for artifact forging, such as the Five-Colored Shell Pearl he had collected in the outer lake earlier, but since this was his first time forging an artifact, it was better to play it safe.
He tossed the two materials into the cauldron.
The Xin-Si Fire Seed flew to the bottom of the cauldron, and the temperature inside gradually climbed.
Melting... purifying... shaping... quenching... tempering...
Shen Yue had already done these steps hundreds of times, so they posed no problem.
But the final step, inscribing the array, was different. He deliberately adjusted his breathing until he was in peak condition, then began refining the structure bit by bit according to the modified Yin-Yang Prisoner Killing Array.
Inscribing an array required balancing the formation with the materials. The slightest deviation could cause the artifact forging to fail.
Time trickled by.
When the final ring of the killing array closed, the intricate system of array patterns inside the artifact blank was finally complete, and spiritual essence began circulating through the formation.
"It's done."
Shen Yue stared at the short blade in the cauldron.
The blade was silver-white, with a faint glint of cold light along its edge. Black patterns of the Yin-Yang Prisoner Killing Array had appeared along its spine.
"A spirit artifact?"
Shen Yue's expression jolted.
The scrap in his hands was now emitting the might of a low-grade first-tier spirit artifact, rather than the pseudo-spirit artifact he had expected.
A pseudo-spirit artifact and a low-grade spirit artifact might seem to differ by only a hair, but in truth, they were worlds apart. The former still belonged among ordinary metal objects.
"If I can forge a spirit artifact from scrap, what about materials that are already first-tier, like the Five-Colored Shell Pearl?"
Shen Yue's eyes burned with anticipation.
Mid-grade?
Or even high-grade?
Scrap waste hung over Clear-Turbid Island, shrouding most of the daylight.
With the battle between the Sword Sect and the Nether Sect raging at its fiercest, the two sides fought without pause on the front lines, and the demand for artifact forging in the rear kept growing.
Scrap piled up like mountains, and waste fumes spread like fog.
Changqin Wuming had to spend more than half of every day collecting waste fumes.
The work was dull and tedious, but it paid well: each month, he could earn as many as five or six spirit stones, and sometimes even seven or eight.
For a guardian of Refining Lake, that was already a very generous income.
But Changqin Wuxuan, an artifact-forging master, thought little of such a meager sum.
She stood in the courtyard, clad in white as pure as snow, a green spirit sword hanging at her waist.
"When I return from the Sword Sect, you're going to learn artifact forging from me, Imperial Brother."
Changqin Wuming furrowed his brows. "I am the emperor. How could I place myself beneath another?"
"Chen Yunxi failed at Foundation Establishment. She said it was because her state of mind wasn't fulfilled," Changqin Wuxuan said coldly.
Changqin Wuming's expression changed.
What was she implying?
Could Chen Yunxi's state of mind have been left unfulfilled because they had taken her from the mortal kingdom and forced her to wash Shen Yue's feet?
Was this woman going to kill them all so that her state of mind could finally be fulfilled?
Otherwise, why would his imperial sister suddenly bring that up?
Outrageous!
"My imperial sister is a true phoenix among women. It is my honor to help ease her burdens."
"Mm." Changqin Wuxuan nodded indifferently. That was his imperial brother, all right.
"What about Minister Shen..." Changqin Wuming didn't forget Shen Yue.
Changqin Wuxuan gave a cold laugh. "Can't General Shen forge artifacts on his own?"
"You and Minister Shen are betrothed, after all. Can you really bear to watch—"
Before Changqin Wuming could finish speaking, Changqin Wuxuan's brows arched sharply, and a fierce Sword Qi burst from her.
She summoned her spirit sword and stepped onto its light. Before leaving, she tossed out one last sentence:
"Chen Tong is Chen Yunxi's cousin from the same branch. You'd better watch yourselves!"
Sword light cut through the gray sky, vanishing in an instant.
Changqin Wuming stood in the courtyard, gazing in the direction his imperial sister had gone, his face full of misery.
"Alas, Minister Shen, you've brought ruin upon me..."
Half a month later.
The steward's courtyard at Refining Lake had a white-jade floor, and a spiritual spring burbled nearby.
Chen Yunxi wore a white dress, her aura cold.
She had failed at Foundation Establishment not long ago. The spiritual power in her body was still somewhat disordered, but her eyes were sharper than before—and colder.
"I hope you'll do me a favor, Cousin. I only want those two people, and I'll repay you handsomely."
She handed over a jade slip, engraved with the auras and appearances of two people.
Chen Tong swept it with his divine sense and gave a faint smile. "Don't worry, Cousin. Leave this to me."
Chen Yunxi nodded slightly and turned to leave, her white skirt fluttering in the wind, her back cool and proud.
Once she was out of sight, the smile on Chen Tong's face turned mocking.
"So what if you went to the Jade Void Sword Sect? You wore the title of a prodigy, yet you still failed at Foundation Establishment."
"If those resources had been given to me—no, even half of them—and I, Chen Tong, would have achieved Foundation Establishment by now!"
"But did those two really come from a mortal kingdom and wash Chen Yunxi's feet?"
Chen Tong stepped onto his spirit sword, rising into the air and sweeping over the emerald waves of Refining Lake toward the courtyard district along the shore.
A quiet room in a small courtyard by Refining Lake.
The Xin-Si Fire Seed returned to his dantian. A pair of silver-white rings flew out of the Green Pattern Cauldron, spiritual light flowing around them like spilled mercury.
"The seventeenth piece... I'll call them the Mystic Light Heaven-Deriving Rings."
Shen Yue lifted the rings and examined them for a moment. After confirming their quality, he casually put them into his storage pouch.
These past few days, he had immersed himself in artifact forging, working day and night without rest. At first, forging a single low-grade spirit artifact had taken more than half a day; now, he could finish one in half that time.
He was becoming increasingly proficient with the Green Pattern Cauldron, and the Xin-Si Fire Seed had also grown considerably. He could now forge low-grade spirit artifacts with ease.
"It's about time I tried forging with the Five-Colored Shell Pearl."
Shen Yue flipped his hand, taking out the pearl and several other materials.
"Shen Yue, come out!" A sharp shout suddenly came from outside the courtyard.
Before you continue