Training Dou Techniques, Envisioning Magic Weapons

South City Courtyard.

In the open courtyard, a youth practiced his punches without pause.

As he twisted and shifted, his fists struck the air again and again, whipping up gusts of wind.

Straight punches, hooks, swings... every move the youth made brimmed with power!

Faint flecks of golden light shone on his arms, as though golden snakes were slithering beneath his flesh!

"Gold-Crushing Elbow!"

Bang!

At one point, the youth abruptly turned toward a brick secured to the courtyard wall. He suddenly accelerated and drove a ferocious elbow strike into it!

The brick fixed to the wall exploded beneath that single blow!

Broken pieces flew everywhere, and a faint cloud of dust rose from the wall!

"Whew!"

Drawing back his elbow, the youth stilled the Dou Qi circulating within him and gently exhaled a stale breath.

Looking at the shattered brick, Zhou Changqing's eyes filled with satisfaction.

Clearly, he was quite pleased with the power of that strike.

"To bring Gold-Crushing Elbow this far in just over a month... it seems my talent for Dou Techniques is no worse than my talent for Dou Qi."

After brushing the brick dust from the sleeve over his elbow, Zhou Changqing cleared away the scattered fragments. Then he sat beside the stone table in the courtyard and poured himself a cup of tea to quench his thirst.

Two months had passed since his second visit to the Mittel Auction House.

Two months earlier, after the Iron-Cleaving Mortal Weapons rose to fame, he had visited the auction house again to sell four newly refined and nurtured weapons.

This time, rather than selling them outright, he had chosen to auction them.

Granted, the outright selling price of an Iron-Cleaving Mortal Weapon had already reached around twelve thousand.

But as the first three Iron-Cleaving Mortal Weapons entered circulation, the excitement surrounding the "Iron-Cleaving Treasure Weapons" steadily grew, and countless mercenaries flocked to them like ducks to water.

According to Ya Fei, if they held another auction, she was confident she could push the price of each treasure weapon above fifteen thousand.

That meant the four Iron-Cleaving Mortal Weapons would bring in at least sixty thousand gold coins!

A full twelve thousand more than selling them outright!

Zhou Changqing hardly had money to burn. He had already lost nearly fifteen thousand gold coins the first time.

Was he supposed to do it again? He was no sucker.

The first time, he had urgently needed money to buy supplies, and he had not expected the Iron-Cleaving Treasure Weapons to be so popular. By his second visit, everything on his list was already in hand, so naturally, he was no longer in such a hurry.

After resting for a while.

Zhou Changqing picked up one of the books piled on the table and began reading.

These were books on formation crafting, the manufacture of medicine cauldrons, and related subjects that he had asked the auction house to purchase for him.

Since receiving them, Zhou Changqing had added reading through these books to his daily routine of cultivating and refining and nurturing weapons.

The Iron-Cleaving Mortal Weapons were merely products nurtured with metal- and lightning-attribute Dou Qi. Strictly speaking, they did not yet qualify as true weapon refining.

That was also why Zhou Changqing had always called them mortal weapons. As for the term "treasure weapons," that was merely a way to fetch a better price.

He had long since formed an idea of how to expand his pursuit of weapon refining.

In essence, formation crafting was a means of using special materials or Dou Qi to activate different formation patterns and achieve different functions.

Put plainly, formation patterns were special energy-conducting pathways. Because those pathways conformed to the laws of heaven and earth on the Dou Qi Continent, they could produce different effects.

The principle was the same as the chips, circuit boards, and other modern technology of his previous life.

Thus, Zhou Changqing wondered whether he could inscribe formation patterns with special functions into weapons, embed magic cores as their energy sources, and use Dou Qi as a switch to give the weapons all sorts of different capabilities.

For example, making a weapon sharper or heavier, to name just a few.

Such Magic Core Weapons would be more practical and powerful than the Dou Qi Continent's existing weapons, which simply had magic cores embedded in them to amplify Dou Qi.

Zhou Changqing's idea was not mere fantasy, because implements like that already existed on the Dou Qi Continent.

They were Medicine Cauldrons.

A Medicine Cauldron's fire port could transform an Alchemist's fire attribute Dou Qi into tangible flames. Was the principle behind that not a form of utilizing formation patterns?

Clearly, it was.

Although the books Zhou Changqing had purchased covered only the most basic aspects of Formation Crafting and Medicine Cauldron manufacture, they still proved that his idea was correct.

After confirming that he was on the right path, Zhou Changqing began delving deeper into formation patterns and the techniques used to make Medicine Cauldron fire ports, using them to improve his Weapon Refining Technique.

Although two months of intensive study had yet to yield a breakthrough, he had made considerable progress. He believed that, in the not-too-distant future, the Dou Qi Continent's first true Magic Core Weapon would be born from his hands.

Of course, Zhou Changqing had not spent those two months solely researching the Weapon Refining Technique. He had also practiced Dou Techniques!

One of them was the Gold-Crushing Elbow he had used earlier.

After the auction of the second batch of four Iron-Cleaving Mortal Weapons concluded, Zhou Changqing had asked Ya Fei to find suitable Yellow Tier Mid-Grade Dou Techniques for him, along with more special metals and books.

Not long afterward, he obtained two Yellow Tier Mid-Grade Dou Techniques from Ya Fei: Gold-Crushing Elbow and Thunderclap Flash.

One was an offensive Dou Technique, and the other was a movement Dou Technique.

This made up for Zhou Changqing's previous lack of Dou Techniques, allowing him to better bring his strength into play.

He would have liked to practice more, but unfortunately, those two Dou Techniques had nearly exhausted his earnings from the second auction.

Zhou Changqing could only abandon that idea.

Still, after more than a month of practice, he could use both Dou Techniques with ease. For Zhou Changqing as he was now, they were barely sufficient.

He could not grow fat from a single mouthful. He simply had to take it slowly.

"Brother-in-law, when are we making our move? We've been watching this place for almost a month."

In a deserted alley, three men kept casting seemingly casual glances toward a small courtyard nearby.

Just then, the youngest of them could no longer hold back. He turned toward the only middle-aged man among the three and complained.

The middle-aged man frowned at his words, then looked at the young man in displeasure and scolded him quietly. "What do you mean, brother-in-law? When we're outside, call me Shopkeeper Liu!"

"What are you so impatient for? This is an important matter, personally ordered by our lord. If anything goes even slightly wrong, do you think any of us will come out well?"

"Have you forgotten what happened to those who botched their work two months ago?!"

"I... understand, brother-in-law. But do we really need to be this cautious? That brat is just an orphan. How capable could he be? I reckon I could easily subdue him all by myself."

The young man shuddered under the reprimand. When he saw the amusement in the other young man's eyes, he felt he had lost face, but he dared not lash out and could only mutter under his breath.

"You don't know shit!" The middle-aged man glared fiercely at him, then turned his gaze toward the courtyard and said in a low, measured voice, "He may be an orphan, but you need to remember that he's the seller of the Iron-Cleaving Treasure Weapons!"

"Those Iron-Cleaving Treasure Weapons are treasures on par with Second-Rank Pills. If an orphan can produce thirteen treasures of that caliber, how could he possibly be ordinary?"

(End of chapter)