Weapon Refining Experiments, the First Signs of Success

Zhou Changqing's face was slightly pale, and his whole body felt weak, clearly from consuming a considerable amount of dou qi.

Dou Zhe was only the first stage of dou qi cultivation, so its reserves were naturally limited, especially since he was merely a One-Star Dou Zhe.

Moreover, Zhou Changqing had poured in dou qi at his maximum output earlier. Lasting half an hour was already a testament to his endurance.

Any other One-Star Dou Zhe cultivating a method of the same rank as Zhou Changqing's would probably have been spent after just fifteen minutes of such output.

Although he had been stuck at the threshold of Dou Zhe for six years without making the slightest progress in rank, Zhou Changqing had not gained nothing.

Throughout those six years, he had persisted in cultivating dou qi, even though he could not break through.

Remaining at one rank for so long and continually honing his foundation had made Zhou Changqing's foundation exceptionally solid.

Thus, whether in the quality or quantity of his dou qi, the strength of his body, or the resilience of his meridians, he far surpassed an ordinary One-Star Dou Zhe.

But Zhou Changqing had no attention to spare for any of that. His mind was entirely focused on the blade blank.

This attempt had undoubtedly failed.

"Where did I go wrong?"

Running his hand over the cracks in the blade blank, Zhou Changqing pondered rather than losing heart.

The Dou Qi Continent did have an art of Weapon Refining; it simply lacked the brilliance of pill refining.

Of course, Weapon Refining here did not mean a blacksmith hammering iron.

That could not be called Weapon Refining.

Weapons forged that way were merely ordinary Mortal Weapons.

True Weapon Refining involved a powerful practitioner using abundant dou qi alongside impressive techniques to forge objects capable of amplifying dou qi or serving other extraordinary purposes.

Magic Core Weapons and Medicine Cauldrons were examples.

Yet in Zhou Changqing's eyes, even this sort of Weapon Refining was extremely rudimentary.

Magic Core Weapons, for instance, were merely forged by smelting special metals, then simply inlaid with magic cores to give them the ability to amplify dou qi.

Moreover, these weapons provided very little amplification and could not play a decisive role.

That was why experts above Dou Zong on the Dou Qi Continent were rarely seen using weapons.

Most of them condensed their dou qi into weapons for battle.

At their level, the meager amplification offered by a Magic Core Weapon was entirely dispensable. Cultivating a Dou Technique was far more worthwhile.

If this world's weapons were like the Magical Artifacts and Spirit Treasures of immortal cultivation worlds, how could they possibly play second fiddle to Pills?

Then there were Medicine Cauldrons.

Forging these special objects did require considerably more technical expertise, but that sophistication had developed because of people's feverish pursuit of Pills.

Of course, rudimentary though it might be, Zhou Changqing still needed to learn from it if he wanted to delve deeply into the Weapon Refining Path.

And he had drawn inspiration not only from that, but also from pill refining.

The art of pill refining was well-developed in this world, so it surely had plenty of strengths and approaches worth learning from.

For example, pill refining required fire attribute dou qi to extract the essence of medicinal ingredients, while the wood attribute tempered the flames' violent nature and helped fuse those essences.

Could Weapon Refining work the same way?

Then, in a flash of inspiration, Zhou Changqing thought of the Heavenly Demon Puppet from the original story.

Although the Heavenly Demon Puppet in the original story was not refined from metal, it still counted as a humanoid weapon.

Moreover, a Demon Puppet could evolve by being tempered with lightning.

Since a Demon Puppet could grow stronger through lightning tempering, why couldn't a Metal Weapon?

Back on Earth in his previous life, electric furnace steelmaking already existed. Its principle was to use the heat of an electric arc to refine steel and remove its impurities.

If even a mundane world could do that, why couldn't the world of Battle Through the Heavens, which had lightning attribute dou qi?

Fantasy worlds never played by the rules anyway. No matter how he looked at it, Weapon Refining with lightning was hardly impossible.

Besides, lightning and flames shared something in common. Once flames reached a high enough temperature, they became Plasma, just like lightning.

Guided by that idea, Zhou Changqing had earlier fed lightning attribute dou qi into the blade blank, hoping to remove its impurities more thoroughly.

Unfortunately, he had failed.

"Perhaps the dou qi output was too high, and the blade blank couldn't withstand the impact, which caused the cracks. Maybe reducing the output would prevent this."

After pondering for a while, Zhou Changqing rallied once more.

Although cracks had appeared in the blade blank, it was not completely ruined, so he did not forge another one.

Once he had replenished his lightning attribute dou qi, he continued pouring dou qi into the blade blank.

In the blink of an eye, two months had passed.

In a small courtyard in the south of the city.

A young man sat beside a stone table in the courtyard, his brush flying as he wrote.

A stack of papers and a blade that looked brand-new also lay on the stone table.

The papers were densely covered with writing.

A cursory glance revealed what appeared to be records of some kind.

"For weapons forged from ordinary Iron, the maximum dou qi output must not exceed seventy-five percent of a One-Star Dou Zhe's limit..."

"To make a weapon tougher and sharper, first infuse it with Metal Attribute Dou Qi, then inject lightning attribute dou qi to temper it..."

"Principle: Metal Attribute Dou Qi is highly compatible with Metal Weapons. When Metal Attribute Dou Qi remains within a weapon, introducing lightning attribute dou qi makes it extremely active and causes it to fuse with the weapon, nourishing its material. Subsequent tempering with lightning attribute dou qi can then transform that material."

"..."

After a while, the young man seemed to finish writing. He set down his brush and stretched lazily.

"Ah~ finally finished recording it all."

As the young man raised his head, a strikingly handsome face was revealed in the sunlight.

It was none other than Zhou Changqing.

Looking up at the stack of densely written papers on the stone table, Zhou Changqing could not help smiling.

Over the past two months, he had practically never left home. Apart from going out to buy supplies, he barely set foot outside his door.

Each day, aside from cultivating, eating, and sleeping, he devoted every spare moment to studying Weapon Refining.

At first, Zhou Changqing had failed time and again, ruining who knew how many weapons.

During that time, he had also drawn inspiration from Alchemists' need for dual-attribute dou qi, trying to add Metal Attribute Dou Qi to the process of tempering with lightning attribute dou qi.

Unfortunately, the results of his experiments still showed no improvement.

Yet he did not give up easily. Instead, he kept experimenting and recorded the process of every Weapon Refining attempt, letting no detail escape him.

This continued for over a month before things gradually began to change.

Heaven rewarded those who persevered. During a Weapon Refining attempt half a month earlier, Zhou Changqing had discovered the optimal output limits for the two dou qi attributes.

After that Weapon Refining attempt, the weapon had undergone a slight change.

Although the change was not obvious, Zhou Changqing's exceptional soul perception had still detected it: the weapon had become tougher and sharper.

(End of chapter)