Refinement Failed

Chen Fan said, "In that case, Zheng Alin has even more reason to join our convoy. Her Seven Heroes Sword is a perfect match for our convoy's attributes."

Wu Zhiyou hadn't expected Chen Fan to be setting him up for that. He quickly shook his head. "No way. A Lin belongs to our convoy."

Chen Fan added, "It's a shame you never went to Shaolin to learn martial arts."

Wu Zhiyou paused. "You think I have a talent for martial arts too?"

Chen Fan shook his head. "Otherwise, you'd be a kung fu panda by now."

Pfft-

Beside them, Li Yuanyuan couldn't hold back her laughter.

Wu Zhiyou wasn't angry. Instead, his eyes lit up.

"Kung fu panda? Now that has potential. Sister Li, teach me a couple of moves sometime."

"Huh? What did you call me?" Li Yuanyuan shook her head repeatedly. "Don't call me sister. You make me sound old."

"Hehe." Wu Zhiyou scratched his head. "Beauty Li, then?"

Li Yuanyuan hurriedly said, "Just call me by my name..."

It was Qian Lei's turn.

A little nervous, he said, "My name is Qian Lei. My supernatural ability is [Super Delivery Rider]. It's a little complicated. I can navigate by intuition, and I can make vehicles run without electricity..."

At that point, Chen Fan shot Qian Lei a look.

The kid was far too honest. A simple introduction would have been enough; there was no need to go into so much detail.

Qian Lei caught on and dropped the subject.

By then, Zheng Alin had fetched the materials. She handed them to Chen Fan in a garbage bag.

Chen Fan took it, somewhat speechless.

Wasn't this a little too bare-bones?

He looked inside the plastic bag. There was a translucent remnant soul with an anguished human face, and a bead with a faint glow of fire.

Chen Fan recognized the translucent remnant soul as a Nightmare Remnant Soul, just like the one he had obtained by killing a Shadow Weird the night before.

He hadn't expected to get another one so soon.

Putting the plastic bag away, Chen Fan said, "I'll let you know how it goes once I've tried."

"Okay."

Zheng Alin made a hand gesture.

Nie Shufeng called out, "Now that everyone's gotten acquainted, let's eat. The food's getting cold."

"Come on, everyone, dig in. Make yourselves at home," Wu Zhiyou said warmly.

The hearty breakfast left guests and hosts alike delighted.

Chen Fan returned to his own convoy with the other two.

It only had a truck and an electric scooter, but a small convoy was still a convoy.

Besides Zheng Alin's weird materials, Chen Fan also brought back a walkie-talkie.

It belonged to the Fairness Convoy's set. Since they would be traveling together from now on, having one would make things convenient.

Chen Fan now had two walkie-talkies.

One was for contacting Qian Lei, and the other was for the Fairness Convoy.

When they returned, they saw Yan Kuan and Sun Hong slumped beside the pot, their bellies sticking out.

Someone who didn't know better might have thought they were six months pregnant.

The two had cooked a huge pot of noodles that morning, thinking there would be five people to eat them. In the end, only the two of them remained.

Neither had eaten their fill many times since the apocalypse, so they couldn't bear to waste it and had eaten the lot.

They were so stuffed they could barely stand.

Chen Fan was speechless.

"Get up and pack up. The convoy's getting ready to leave."

After giving Sun Hong a kick in the calf, Chen Fan climbed into the passenger seat and began considering how to refine a new Dharma artifact.

Before long, the entire convoy set out.

They had agreed to leave at nine in the morning, and they departed right on the dot.

If Chen Fan's guess was right, Wang Bing's supernatural ability, [Crystal Witch], should have some kind of foresight or divination ability.

It went without saying how useful an ability like that was for avoiding weirds.

Since she could see ahead, surely the safest thing was to leave at precisely the time she had foreseen.

Combined with Captain Nie Shufeng's clairvoyance and clairaudience, their team's scouting was maxed out.

So Chen Fan decided to pay more attention to the Fairness Convoy's movements when traveling in the future.

Of course, he would also ask Qian Lei for his opinion and compare the two.

Once they were on the road, Chen Fan's truck and Qian Lei's electric scooter remained at the front.

The Fairness Convoy followed behind.

Although the Fairness Convoy had stronger perception abilities, theirs didn't depend on "positioning."

Being farther ahead in the convoy didn't make their perception any stronger.

Qian Lei's supernatural ability, on the other hand, worked better at the very front, so it made more sense for them to lead.

If perception could be divided into melee and ranged types, Qian Lei's was a classic "melee," "brute-force" type. It depended entirely on being at the front and sticking his own head out to scout the way.

Nie Shufeng and the Crystal Witch, meanwhile, were clearly ranged types.

The witch's divination even involved the future and fate, making it ultra-long-range.

In the truck, Li Yuanyuan and Yan Kuan stayed in the cargo compartment, Sun Hong focused on driving, and Chen Fan sat in the passenger seat studying how to refine Dharma artifacts.

So far, every Dharma artifact he had refined had immediately recognized him as its master, which was why he could store them in his sea of consciousness.

He wanted to try interrupting that automatic process and refining a masterless Dharma artifact.

That way, he could trade some junk Dharma artifacts-the less powerful ones-for supplies in the future.

Zheng Alin had said she wanted a defensive Dharma artifact, so Chen Fan spent a long time considering what would be suitable for protection.

"Got it!"

His eyes lit up, and he rummaged out a drinking glass.

He turned it upside down on the center console.

Wasn't this the perfect prototype for a bell-shaped Dharma artifact?

Nothing wrong with that!

[Spend 100 points of origin artifact materials to refine the drinking glass into an immortal Dao Dharma artifact?]

Chen Fan concentrated, trying to control the refinement process.

Refine!

[Spent 100 points of origin artifact materials to refine the drinking glass into the low-grade Dharma artifact Golden Light Glazed Shield]

He had 2,200 points of origin artifact materials left.

After a burst of white light enveloped the glass, a translucent, glass-like Dharma artifact appeared in Chen Fan's hand. It was upside down and faceted, with a golden glow all over it, resembling both a bell and a cup without quite being either.

At the wheel beside him, Sun Hong was seeing something like this for the first time.

He was dumbstruck.

Even so, he only looked twice before he stopped, afraid to look any longer.

If he had a choice, he would rather have seen nothing at all.

He understood the rules. Looking too much could easily get him killed.

Chen Fan held the Golden Light Glazed Shield in his palm and sensed it briefly, only to discover helplessly that he had failed.

He had also figured out why.

It was actually very simple: what he wanted to do was impossible.

At its core, his refinement of Dharma artifacts relied on his supernatural ability, [Immortal Master of the Artifact Dao].

His Dharma artifacts seemed independent, each with its own abilities.

But in reality, all of them depended on [Immortal Master of the Artifact Dao] to exist.

Trying to make a Dharma artifact masterless and sell it to someone else was the same as trying to give part of his supernatural ability to another person.

Put another way, it would be like Zheng Alin dividing her Seven Heroes Sword among seven people to use.

The Seven Heroes Sword was not, in essence, a weapon that physically existed, but Zheng Alin's supernatural power.

No one else could take it away or use it.

It was like someone whose supernatural ability was breathing fire. Someone else couldn't simply use a match to take a flame and become a new fire-breathing supernatural himself.

Only then did Chen Fan realize he had taken things for granted.

He looked at the two portions of weird materials Zheng Alin had given him.

He began considering which one to keep.

They had agreed beforehand that he would only return one if he failed.

Now that he knew this method wouldn't work, he could still get a portion of weird materials for free. Wonderful.

After some thought, Chen Fan decided to keep the Nightmare Remnant Soul.

He had already planned to try refining one into a Dharma artifact the next time he obtained a Nightmare Remnant Soul.

He wasn't familiar with the material of the fiery bead, so he would return it to Zheng Alin.

It was no use to anyone else anyway, so it would probably end up back in his hands eventually.

No, not necessarily. There might be other supernatural abilities that can make use of weird materials...

Chen Fan silently warned himself not to get too arrogant.

His own supernatural ability might already be invincible under heaven, but what if there were knockoff or budget versions of it?

Chen Fan took out the Nightmare Remnant Soul and refined it into a Dharma artifact.

[Spent 100 points of origin materials to refine the Nightmare Remnant Soul into the low-grade Dharma artifact Nightmare Battle Cloud]

He had 2,100 points left.