One month later.
In a storeroom-like stone chamber, Wang Yu held an open book as he crouched before a pile of metal ingots in assorted colors. From time to time, he picked one up and felt it, comparing it against the book.
In the Artifact Refining Room several rooms away.
Xiao Wei stood before a furnace blazing with fierce flames, using the golden engraving blade in her hand to continue carving a third silver inscription pattern into the massive blade atop the furnace. Sweat was faintly visible on her forehead, revealing the strain she was under.
Sizzle!
The first two inscription patterns on the massive blade flashed simultaneously, dragging the short-haired woman's wrist down and throwing the lines beneath her engraving blade off course.
Her expression immediately darkened.
Inside another Artifact Refining Room not far away.
The pale-faced young man was laboriously swinging an iron hammer. On the anvil, several metal ingots of different colors were gradually merging into one, beginning to emit a faint white glow.
Suddenly, the white light on the ingots' surface flared. The young man struck them with his hammer, and his expression changed drastically as the hammer rebounded straight back, flying out of his hand.
The metal ingots, which had already fused together, split apart once more.
The young man's face filled with dejection.
That evening, in the earthfire chamber, Xiao Wei handed a white jade case to the gray-robed elder opposite her and respectfully said something.
Master Sun accepted the jade case and opened it for a look. Satisfaction appeared on his face, and he took a thin booklet from inside his robe and tossed it to her.
An afternoon a month and a half later.
In the Artifact Refining Room, Wang Yu poured some multicolored powders into a wooden bowl before adding