After finishing the six forks, the lead raftsman took out a Compass. Made of solid wood, it was black and yellow, its surface unusually smooth from long use, with the sheen of a well-handled antique.
The Compass bore the Four Symbols, the Eight Trigrams, and the sixty combinations of the heavenly stems and earthly branches. At its center was a round rotating needle engraved with the Big Dipper. He set it on the table, and the needle spun to a stop. At a glance, Pan Long calculated that a line extending five times the length of the Dipper's bowl pointed due north.
This was Northern Star Enfolding the Pole. The Compass was clearly no decorative trinket belonging to an ordinary geomancer, but a genuine immortal treasure.
The lead raftsman blew a mouthful of Primordial Qi onto the Compass, and it expanded in midair. He arranged all six flying forks upon it and began chanting. Six beams of light slowly rose from the Compass and gradually merged with the forks.
Pan Long found it fascinating. He had never seen a Sorcerer refine a Mystic Artifact before.
He had imagined that refining a Mystic Artifact meant sitting cross-legged and breathing mouthful after mouthful of Primordial Qi onto it, washing it with one's own qi until it gradually became attuned to its owner. Finally, one would draw the Mystic Artifact into one's body, and the work would be done.
But the lead raftsman's method showed no sign of making man and artifact one. He had just taken that Compass out of a box.
Could it be that a Mystic Artifact like the Six Ren Flying Forks was meant to unite the forks and Compass instead?
What would be the point of that?
Pan Long pondered it but could not make sense of it.