Guang Chengzi's Breakdown

Bai Ze stared numbly at the mountain of copper cauldron fragments piled beside him and said with difficulty:

"Dao Brother, how about we just forget it? Maybe I really don't have any talent for artifact refinement."

Even he had lost count of how many times he had failed. Every time, he had devoted his full attention to refining, yet every time, the furnace exploded for one reason or another.

He himself had gone numb, let alone the fact that these copper cauldrons were all valuable Dharma treasures.

He was not even Guang Chengzi's junior brother. After wrecking so many of them, no matter how thick-skinned he was, he could not bring himself to continue.

"Continue! It's just artifact refinement. I refuse to believe I can't teach you!"

Guang Chengzi's face had long since turned as black as the bottom of a pot. Gritting his teeth, he spoke as if refusing to accept defeat.

Looking at Guang Chengzi, so stubborn yet so responsible, Bai Ze only felt utterly exhausted.

He now completely understood why Duobao had said Guang Chengzi's assessment was terrifying.

That style of refusing to stop until you passed, making you take the test again and again, was simply too frightening.

It completely overturned his impression of Guang Chengzi as gentle and tranquil!

Especially when it came to assessments, he simply would not rest until he achieved his goal!

Bai Ze braced himself and fully activated his Insight Divine Ability. Forming hand seals, he summoned the Golden Flame and began preheating this new copper cauldron.

The Golden Flame danced. Before long, the cauldron body became red-hot, and wisps of heat rose from beneath its lid.

Bai Ze glanced at Guang Chengzi. Seeing that he said nothing, he began the second step—liquefaction!

He controlled the temperature of the Golden Flame, placing the surrounding materials into the cauldron one by one and adjusting the flame according to their properties.

A moment later, the materials gradually melted, and thread after thread of impurities were refined out.

Seeing that nothing had gone wrong in this step, Bai Ze held his breath and began slowly bringing the several pools of liquid together.

"What are you rushing for?! The impurities haven't been refined clean yet. Continue refining them!"

Guang Chengzi suddenly shouted with a frown.

Bai Ze's heart lurched at his words, and he immediately resumed liquefaction and impurity refinement.

Only after an hour had passed did Guang Chengzi say, "That will do."

Only then did Bai Ze dare continue merging the liquid masses.

This step went extremely smoothly. With his Insight Talent, he could clearly perceive the degree to which different attributes had fused.

After finishing this step, he began inscribing restriction formations. Inscribing restriction formations was not difficult for him; what was truly difficult was handling the degree of fusion between the restrictions and the materials.

Guang Chengzi also knew the difficulty of this step. He came to Bai Ze's side, carefully guiding him while remaining ready to intervene at any moment.

Bai Ze slowly inscribed a restriction formation into it.

"Hurry up!

This restriction formation is inherently extremely unstable. If you inscribe it so slowly, are you waiting for the restriction formation to erupt?"

Hearing that, Bai Ze did not dare be careless. After quickly finishing this restriction formation, he began working on the second one.

"Slow down!

This restriction fuses with the liquid slowly. Going too fast can easily cause the furnace to explode!"

Bai Ze nodded and inscribed it slowly.

After inscribing three restrictions, he began shaping it.

At that moment, Guang Chengzi spoke. "Stop always thinking about forming battle armor. Start with something simple and make a..."

At this point, Guang Chengzi recalled scene after scene of previous failures. After pausing, he said, "Make a large seal first!"

Bai Ze frowned slightly upon hearing that, feeling indignant. What kind of joke was this!

When others refined Dharma treasures for the first time, they made sabers, swords, staffs, or clubs.

Why could he only make a large seal for his first Dharma treasure?

It was not as though he were some street thug!

"Alright, Dao Brother. I like large seals."

Looking at Guang Chengzi's dark expression, Bai Ze ultimately chose to heed good advice.

He could not court death like Duobao. Hadn't Duobao been beaten into a pig's head for not doing his exercises properly?

After all, Guang Chengzi really did hit people, and he hit especially hard. Punches landing flesh on flesh would have been one thing, but every blow was aimed right at the face!

He did not want to become a pig's head.

As Bai Ze formed seals, the liquid within the copper cauldron slowly stretched and flattened, gradually transforming into a palm-sized... gold brick!

If not for the simple patterns inscribed on it, it would have looked just like a construction brick coated in paint!

Yet while its appearance was poor, like a mere brick, this "gold brick" was actually of the quality of a high-grade Magical Artifact!

"Dao Brother Guang Chengzi, I have not failed your expectations. I finally refined it!"

Bai Ze wiped the sweat from his forehead and handed the gold brick to Guang Chengzi.

However, Guang Chengzi merely glanced at it, then turned with a dark face and walked into the bamboo grove.

Bai Ze was left completely bewildered by this. Why had he left? Could it be that he was too excited because Bai Ze had successfully refined it?

But his expression seemed somewhat off?

"I must be overthinking it. After all, I ruined so many of his copper cauldrons. It would be strange if his face were not dark.

He must have left because he was too happy. His obsession has finally been resolved—I finally succeeded in refining something."

Bai Ze comforted himself inwardly. Then suddenly—

"Hahahahaha!"

"What the hell is this? How did a perfectly good large seal get refined into a brick?

And it's even a Magical Artifact!

This is so hilarious I can barely stay alive!"

Bai Ze's face sank as he looked at Duobao. "What brick? I am a dignified Innate Divine. How could I possibly refine a brick?!

This is a genuine gold seal!

Look carefully. My gold seal has restriction patterns on it!"

Bai Ze placed the gold brick before Duobao. Duobao studied it closely for quite a while before solemnly patting Bai Ze on the shoulder and saying:

"Little brother, you're not suited to make a living from artifact refinement. Give it up!

Even if you shoved it into my eyes, it would still just be a painted brick with a few extra doodles on it!

Hahahahaha!"

Pointing at the crooked, twisted patterns on the gold brick, Duobao clutched his stomach and laughed until tears sprang from his eyes.

Seeing this, Bai Ze rolled his eyes and curled his lips. "Tch, what do you know? This is called art!

Besides, being able to refine a high-grade Magical Artifact on my first try is already pretty good, alright?!"

"Pfft!"

Duobao could not help laughing again. Pointing at the gold brick in Bai Ze's hand, he said:

"Little brother, give it a rest.

With the materials Senior Brother gave you, refining a low-grade Acquired Spirit Treasure would have been more than easy. Even with terrible artifact-refining talent, under Senior Brother's guidance, you should at least have refined a Treasure Artifact.

Yet you really are a genius. Forget not refining a Spirit Artifact—you even refined a square, blocky large seal into a brick.

If I were Senior Brother Guang Chengzi, I would have beaten you up long ago!"

Bai Ze froze where he stood. In the Primordial World, Dharma treasures were divided into Magical Artifacts, Spirit Artifacts, Treasure Artifacts, Acquired Spirit Treasures, Acquired Supreme Treasures, Innate Spirit Treasures, Innate Supreme Treasures, and Chaos Supreme Treasures.

Each grade was further divided into high, middle, and low grades.

He had thought refining a high-grade Magical Artifact was already quite good, but seeing Duobao's reaction, he sank into deep self-doubt.

Am I really that bad at artifact refinement?

Boom!

The ground suddenly shook!

The Purple Bamboo all around them trembled and rustled.

Bai Ze looked toward the sound and saw muffled booms continuously coming from the direction Guang Chengzi had left in.

Mixed among them were repeated sounds of