Forging Requires Strength of One's Own

Zhu Jin tossed a third-tier magic core into his mouth like a snack. He chewed magic cores not to improve his cultivation or acquire Dou Techniques, but to speed up the recovery of the Dou Qi within his body. While the effect was certainly not as fast as using medicinal pills to restore Dou Qi, it was still far quicker than normal recovery. And right now, he desperately needed Dou Qi, because he was about to start making money.

Zhu Jin was an Ancient Void Dragon. Although the magical beast race had little talent for alchemy, those who could not refine pills could still forge artifacts. Zhu Jin planned to forge some items to sell, then buy a ticket for the spatial wormhole and head to Jia Nan Academy.

What he intended to forge was not a medicinal pill, but it was closely related to pills: a medicinal cauldron!

On the Dou Qi Continent, the wealthiest and most prestigious profession was that of an alchemist. It stood alone at the very top, and any profession connected to alchemists was likewise highly esteemed, such as herb cultivators and artifact refiners who specialized in forging medicinal cauldrons.

Zhu Jin clearly remembered that in the original story, Xiao Yan and Yao Lao had gone to Ya Fei's Mittel Auction House and purchased a two-mouthed cauldron made from Flame Essence, forged by the renowned Master He Er of the Jia Ma Empire. Not only did it significantly enhance Dou Qi flames, but the rare metals mixed into it could also increase the success rate of alchemy.

That two-mouthed medicinal cauldron had been worth 150,000 gold coins! Yet at the auction in the original Black-Corner Region arc, even a sword perfectly embedded with a third-tier ice-element magic core had cost only 150,000 gold coins. This showed that medicinal cauldrons were pricier than weapons and magic cores. Meanwhile, a Two-Pattern Green Spirit Pill cost between 400,000 and 600,000 gold coins.

After all, medicinal cauldrons were the weapons alchemists used when going into battle, and alchemists were the richest people around. Naturally, the price of medicinal cauldrons rose accordingly. Besides, ordinary medicinal cauldrons could explode after prolonged use, making them consumable items. When Xiao Yan refined Two-Pattern Green Spirit Pills to sell in the book, his cauldron had exploded in the end.

Therefore, what Zhu Jin was about to refine was a medicinal cauldron—a four-mouthed one.

Standing in the crater within the Wild Mountain Range that had once belonged to the Flame Wolf Unicorn, but was now his own territory, Zhu Jin nodded to himself. "The weather is good today. Today it is."

Zhu Jin took out all the ores, strange bones, and essence stones from his storage space. He had obtained all of them during that trip to the dragon cave, when he used the spatial power of the Ancient Void Dragon to scoop them up. Everything inside those magical beasts' storage rings was here.

Over the past few days, Zhu Jin had smelted materials with Dragon Flame and hammered them with dragon claws. After several days of experimentation, he had gradually found his own method. Deep within the mountain ranges of the Beast Domain lay many precious mineral veins, but most magical beasts did not know their value. They tossed valuable materials into their storage rings and used them as stones to sharpen their claws. With the innate sense of smell of an Ancient Void Dragon, Zhu Jin had dug out quite a few good things from those storage rings.

"Black Iron Red Copper Cauldron. A four-mouthed cauldron, weighing 132 jin, three chi and four cun tall, with a belly diameter of one chi and six cun, and walls three fen thick." Zhu Jin's Dragon Sense and soul power began reading the medicinal cauldron forging blueprint he had found in a storage ring. Like pill formulas, medicinal cauldron forging blueprints were imprinted with soul power and had to be read with soul power.

In an instant, a vast and intricate manufacturing blueprint appeared in Zhu Jin's mind through soul perception.

"Materials: twenty jin of black iron ore, three jin of red copper ore, one section of a fourth-tier Green-Scaled Python's spine, a fist-sized piece of cold iron ore, a palm-sized slab of ice essence raw stone, one bottle of third-tier Iron-backed Wild Boar back fat, one bottle of third-tier Flame Rock Lizard belly fat, one bottle of third-tier Silvermoon Wolf marrow oil. Three sulfur-removing herbs and three red copper fruits." Zhu Jin recited the materials listed on the blueprint, then took them out of his storage space. He had prepared all of them long ago.

Looking at the materials filling the entire cave before him, Zhu Jin's expression grew solemn. Forging and alchemy had much in common. Both required flames to temper materials before fusing them together.

Zhu Jin took a deep breath. The dragon Dou Qi within him began circulating at once, and a mass of Dragon Flame surged from his mouth, precisely enveloping the heaviest material: twenty jin of black iron ore.

Fortunately, Zhu Jin's Dragon Flame had evolved to the low Earth Class. If it had still been the most primitive ordinary Dragon Flame, he would probably have needed to breathe fire for a very long time. The temperature of Zhu Jin's Dragon Flame climbed above a thousand degrees almost instantly. The ore's surface rapidly cracked and peeled away, while the dark silver patterns melted into scorching molten iron that churned in midair.

Ordinary magical beasts were scattered and unable to focus, but the Dragon Flame of an Ancient Void Dragon was like an invisible hand, maintaining a steady temperature at all times. Zhu Jin closed his eyes and extended his soul perception into the molten iron, sensing the impurities rising and sinking within the ore.

If the molten iron was not pure enough and contained too many impurities, the medicinal cauldron forged from it could easily crack or explode, and its quality would also suffer. With a thought, Zhu Jin intensified the dragon Dou Qi in his body and raised the temperature of the Dragon Flame.

Once the molten iron began boiling, Zhu Jin took a sulfur-removing herb and tossed it inside. The greatest impurity in black iron ore was sulfur, and sulfur-removing herbs were used to eliminate it. Just like modern ironmaking, removing impurities did not rely solely on high temperatures; chemical agents were needed as well.

Zhu Jin repeated the same process three times before finally clearing the impurities from the molten iron.

After removing the impurities from the black iron ore, Zhu Jin maintained the molten iron's state with one stream of Dragon Flame while breathing out a second stream, using the same steps to process the red copper ore. The more mouths a medicinal cauldron had, the higher its grade and the more troublesome it was to process, requiring more time.

Furthermore, different ores had different melting points, which greatly tested Zhu Jin's control over the stability of his flames. However, Ancient Void Dragons were born able to breathe fire. Dragon Flame was like another pair of hands to him, so controlling flames posed no difficulty.

Zhu Jin controlled both masses of flame at once, slowly guiding the molten iron and molten copper into the same sunken stone trough. The molten iron was steady and heavy, while the molten copper was lively and light. The instant they met, they gave off sizzling sounds and sent up a shower of fine sparks.

Zhu Jin instantly condensed his Dou Qi, using his dragon claws like stirring rods to rapidly mix the iron and copper together. His movements were swift and even, his force steady. As he stirred, he also had to grind the strange bones and essence stones into powder and add them bit by bit. In modern terms, he was creating a superalloy that combined hardness and toughness.

That was right. The first step in forging a medicinal cauldron was essentially forging an exceptionally strong alloy.

While heating the mixture with Dragon Flame, Zhu Jin used Dragon Sense to monitor the fusion of the molten iron and copper, mixing them according to the proportions on the blueprint. As time passed, Zhu Jin slowly lowered the temperature of the Dragon Flame until he stopped breathing fire altogether. Once the alloy liquid solidified, a purple-gray metal ingot roughly the size of a water bucket appeared before him.

Next came the key to forming the medicinal cauldron—hammering. It was similar to forming a pill during alchemy, except pills required their medicinal properties to be fused, while the final step of forging was shaping!

Unlike ordinary blacksmiths, who swung massive hammers and smashed away wildly, the Ancient Void Dragon Clan had its own "hammering technique." It required no hammer at all. An Ancient Void Dragon's claws and scales were the most powerful hammers, and a dragon's body was the hardest thing in the world!

To forge iron, one needed strength of one's own.

"Chaotic Wind Hammer Technique, take this!" Zhu Jin quipped, borrowing the hammering technique from the book next door.