Experiment Successful

Looking at the enormous silver-white creation before him, Chen Daoxuan felt an indescribable sense of satisfaction.

"It doesn't seem appropriate to call you a Spirit Ore Furnace anymore. From now on, you'll be called the Spirit-Melding Furnace!"

Chen Daoxuan looked at the furnace before him and gave it a new name.

The magical artifact he had spent five years developing had finally come to fruition.

The first thing Chen Daoxuan needed to do was, of course, test whether this Spirit-Melding Furnace actually worked.

He wanted to see whether the Spirit-Melding Furnace was truly as he had imagined—whether it could be controlled without expending true qi or divine sense, merely by manually operating the two control levers on the Control System.

At that thought, Chen Daoxuan grew even more impatient.

He hurriedly took out two pieces of Red Copper Mine from his Storage Bag and tossed them into the Spirit-Melding Furnace through its Feed Port.

This time, Chen Daoxuan did not use even a trace of true qi. Everything was operated manually.

He gently moved the second control lever on the Spirit-Melding Furnace's console. As Chen Daoxuan worked the lever, the Driving Formation slowly began operating under the control of spirit stones, activating the Floating Array on the Spirit-Melding Furnace.

After entering through the Feed Port, the two pieces of Red Copper Mine were controlled by the Floating Array and suspended at the very center of the furnace.

"The first step is complete!"

Seeing the Spirit-Melding Furnace operate exactly as he had envisioned, Chen Daoxuan felt greatly encouraged.

"Next comes heating and smelting the spirit ore."

He continued operating the first control lever, regulating the input of spiritual energy by controlling the distance between the spirit stones and the Driving Formation, thereby controlling the operation of the Heat-Gathering Formation.

As Chen Daoxuan slowly pushed the control lever forward, the temperature inside the Spirit-Melding Furnace rose sharply under the effects of the Heat-Gathering Formation.

Before long, it reached the temperature his usual Heat-Gathering Formation could achieve during artifact refining.

"That's it?"

Watching the Spirit-Melding Furnace run quietly, Chen Daoxuan felt an unprecedented ease.

The feeling was like watching automated machines produce goods in his previous life.

Of course, Chen Daoxuan knew that the real test had yet to come.

The most difficult problem the Spirit-Melding Furnace needed to solve was merging Spiritual Aura. Though the Spirit-Melding Formation on the furnace had come from his Enlightenment, he could not guarantee whether it would truly work.

As time passed, even Red Copper Mine could not withstand the uninterrupted high-temperature smelting within the Spirit-Melding Furnace.

Four hours later.

The two pieces of Red Copper Mine finally melted.

At this sight, Chen Daoxuan could not help but focus. He knew the crucial moment had arrived.

Under the observation of his divine sense.

Chen Daoxuan discovered that, inside the Spirit-Melding Furnace, the two Red Liquid Masses slowly merged into one under the effects of the Floating Formation.

Not only that, but the Spiritual Aura on those two liquid masses was also slowly merging.

This was not him using divine sense to suppress and fuse the Spiritual Aura. In fact, aside from observing the inside of the furnace, his divine sense had not touched the Spiritual Aura on the Red Copper Mine at all, much less suppressed the two into merging.

Clearly, the Spirit-Melding Formation was at work.

"Woooo—"

At the instant the Spiritual Aura merged, a burst of white light emerged from the top of the Spirit-Melding Furnace, accompanied by a rapid roar.

The sound was somewhat like the sound of high-pressure steam from his previous life.

This was a small design Chen Daoxuan had made based on the changes in spiritual pressure produced when the Spiritual Aura in spirit ore merged. It was equivalent to a feedback system, meant to alert ore-refining workers that the spirit ore was ready.

Otherwise, how could mortals without divine sense know whether the spirit ore had been successfully refined?

Hearing that brief wail, Chen Daoxuan was happier than if he had heard celestial music.

He hurriedly operated the control lever, and the refined liquid spirit ore slowly floated out from the Discharge Port.

"Good!"

Chen Daoxuan was beside himself with excitement.

He used true qi to draw the refined Red Copper liquid mass before him and carefully inspected it with divine sense, only to find that it was no different at all from the Red Copper Mine he had refined himself.

"Wonderful! With enough Spirit-Melding Furnaces, my artifact refining efficiency can increase by at least several dozen times."

Chen Daoxuan could not help saying.

Take the refining of the Crimson Shadow Flying Sword, for instance. Materials that had originally required Chen Daoxuan three days and three nights to refine now only required him to shape the magical artifact and perform Fusion of Formations.

And the shaping and Fusion of Formations for a First-tier magical artifact were both relatively simple. Even if the Fusion of Formations was somewhat more difficult, it could be finished in an hour at most.

In other words, a workload that had originally taken three days and three nights was now compressed into two hours, increasing work efficiency thirty-sixfold.

Chen Daoxuan alone, as an Artifact Forger, was equivalent to thirty-six Artifact Forgers outside.

Even more frightening, this efficiency could be replicated.

Once this revolutionary magical artifact was widely adopted, whenever the family produced one Artifact Forger in the future, it would be equivalent to producing thirty-six Artifact Forgers outside.

With this thing, would they still need to worry about lacking spirit stones? Would they still need to worry about lacking cultivation resources?

At this moment, Chen Daoxuan felt more relaxed than ever before.

The family's decline and the dwindling number of cultivators within the clan had once weighed on his heart like a mountain, never allowing him a moment of ease.

But at this moment, the clouds parted to reveal blue skies, and all pressure drifted far away from him.

"However, for the Spirit-Melding Furnace to function, an Earth Fire Chamber connected to an Earth Fire Vein is indispensable. Otherwise, the Heat-Gathering Formation cannot function."

After saying this, he surveyed the "cramped" Earth Fire Chamber around him and shook his head. "This Earth Fire Chamber definitely won't do, and the terrain here is unsuitable for constructing an Artifact Forging Workshop."

After careful consideration, he still felt Changping County was a good location.

Changping County lay in a plains region with vast room for development. Even if they wanted to expand the Artifact Forging Workshop in the future, it would only take a word.

However.

The prerequisite for all this was money!

But Chen Daoxuan knew that the family no longer had much money.

Over the years, to support his study of artifact refining, the family had invested at least five thousand spirit stones before and after.

Five thousand spirit stones were an enormous fortune even for a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

At the very least, few Foundation Establishment Rogue Cultivators could produce that many spirit stones.

But if he did not rely on the family, who else could Chen Daoxuan rely on?

Though he had been in this world for sixteen years, he had never once left Twin Lakes Island since growing up.

All these years, aside from cultivation, he had basically only studied artifact refining.

Thirteenth Uncle had rarely let him worry over family matters.

For the Chen Family of Twin Lakes Island, Chen Daoxuan becoming an Artifact Forger was already the greatest repayment he could offer the family.

After pondering for a long while.

Chen Daoxuan ultimately decided to borrow the family's strength. Even if he truly could not receive any help, he could at least ask Thirteenth Uncle for advice.

After all, compared with a novice like Chen Daoxuan in the cultivation world, Chen Xianhe—who had participated in cultivator wars and made his way through the cultivation worlds of the Myriad Star Sea and even Xianyun Continent—was vastly more experienced than him.

He acted as soon as he decided!

Chen Daoxuan quickly set down the Spirit-Melding Furnace and flew toward Clan Leader Chen Xianhe's Cave Mansion.

Chen Xianhe's Cave Mansion.

At this moment.

Having finished inspecting the Family Secret Vault, Chen Xianhe held a cup of clear tea, humming a little tune as he lay comfortably in a reclining chair and basked in the sun.

"Achoo!"

Suddenly, Chen Xianhe sneezed violently and sat up from his reclining chair with a bewildered expression.