Precious Radiance Spirit-Tempering Cauldron
With the help of Daoist priests, Daoist soldiers, and militiamen from Peach Tree Village, Lin Xu, with ample manpower, began to build a defensive perimeter Azure Cloud Mountain.
Centered on the cave halfway up the mountain, he directed the militia to cut down trees and build simple wooden watchtowers, which were placed on the hilltop.
They also set up defensive points along the main roads leading up the mountain and organized a combined patrol team of soldiers and militia to regularly inspect the inner ring defense line.
With the help of the four Evil Eye Dharma Protector filled in any gaps, the defense line was basically established in one day.
The next day, after the supplies were delivered to the military camp and moved to Azure Cloud Mountain, the round trip could be completed in half an hour due to the shorter transport distance.
Upon returning to Azure Cloud Mountain, the Black Tiger Demon came to report that the three thousand catties of Xuan Iron Ore had been prepared.
The Spirit-Nurturing Cauldron was delivered to the quiet room. Lin Xu sat cross-legged on a futon, his spirit lamp flickering as he manipulated the spirit fire within the cauldron.
The Black Tiger Demon placed heavy chunks of black iron ore into the cauldron, where Lin Xu controlled the smelting process.
The Spiritual Qi here is abundant, Spirit-Nurturing Cauldron Spirit Gathering Formation draws a large amount of Spiritual Qi into the cauldron, greatly reducing the consumption of magical power.
Lin Xu manipulated the furnace, using spiritual fire to refine the black iron ore. The solid ore was melted, and impurities were extracted and fell to the bottom of the furnace, turning into slag.
Unlike ordinary fire smelting of metals, Lin Xu only discovered the secrets of smelting metals by truly controlling the furnace.
Guided by spiritual awareness, even the finest impurities in the black iron ore were clearly identified. As the spiritual fire focused on the impurities, it vaporized them, cooled them, and caused them to fall as slag.
"Huh? This black iron ore also contains a small amount of Black Copper Essence and purple gold." Lin Xu's spiritual sense detected the liquefied black iron, keenly sensing the "impurities" in the spiritual material.
In minerals, the mixing of spiritual materials is a common phenomenon; sometimes dozens of different spiritual materials may be mixed together.
With a thought, the trace amount of metal was extracted and condensed into two different liquid spheres according to its properties.
Once all the impurities in the liquid black iron had been extracted, Lin Xu stopped the spiritual fire. The spiritual array quickly extracted the heat from the molten metal, and three metal ingots of different sizes solidified in the spiritual cauldron.
Lin Xu activated his magic power to remove the smelted metal ingot from the Spirit-Nurturing Cauldron, and cleaned away the impurities at the bottom of the cauldron. He looked at the finished metal ingot:
"I remember that black iron is the lowest grade of spiritual material, a common quality blue-green, so why did I refine a rare quality one?"
Lin Xu glanced at it and was immediately surprised.
He glanced at the purple gold ingot; the blue one was of ordinary quality, while the Black Copper Essence was of rare cyan quality.
"I remember that Black Copper Essence was a fine cyan color, which was upgraded by one grade, and Purple Gold was a rare cyan color, which was upgraded by a major grade..."
Changes in the quality of materials will directly affect the final finished magical artifact.
For example, the refining furnace he originally designed was expected to be of rare cyan quality, but now it might be upgraded.
"This is an unexpected bonus, perhaps because I've extracted all the impurities from the metal..." Lin Xu said thoughtfully.
This situation reminded him of the Spirit Grain Pill he had refined before. This kind of pill was classified as ordinary blue-green, which must be because most alchemists refined spirit pills of this grade using the same materials.
However, the Spirit Grain Pill he refined were not only numerous, but their quality was also improved by one grade. Considering that he also refined all impurities when refining the Spirit Rice Paste, perhaps this is the truth.
"So, why don't these alchemists and weapon refiners remove all the impurities from the materials?" Lin Xu shook his head, signaling the black tiger demon to continue.
Verifying his hypothesis was simple. This time, after removing all the useless impurities from the metal, Lin Xu stopped and examined the smelted black iron ingot. Sure enough, it was a fine, blue-green ingot.
After he separated a small amount of Black Copper Essence and purple gold from the black iron ingot, the black iron ingot turned into a rare blue-colored ingot.
"Just as I thought..." Lin Xu was overjoyed and continued to refine new metals.
When the three thousand catties of black iron ore were used up, a pile of metal was neatly stacked in the room.
"Next, it's time to forge a suitable refining furnace." Looking at the refined metal ingot before him, he breathed a sigh of relief. "It's a pity that the Xuanwei Monastery doesn't have the inheritance of the Grotto-Heaven Method, otherwise the refining furnace could be designed to be smaller."
As Lin Xu's understanding of alchemy and weapon crafting deepened, he realized that to craft magical artifacts and elixirs, one must have the right tools.
He only used the Spirit-Nurturing Cauldron he exchanged from the Xuanwei Monastery for half a month before he realized its limitations.
The cauldron to be forged was too enormous, so after careful consideration, Lin Xu decided to set up the forging site at the entrance of his cave.
The Spiritual Qi in the meditation room is concentrated by the Spirit Gathering Formation and then transmitted to the platform at the entrance of the cave to supply the enormous energy consumed during the weapon refining process.
Led by the Ghost Bride and her Red-Robed Ghosts, Lin Xu set up numerous checkpoints around the cave for protection before sitting cross-legged on the futon and beginning to refine this massive magical artifact.
With a complete design blueprint, the crafting of the magical artifact was relatively simple. He first controlled the Spirit-Nurturing Cauldron to melt all the raw materials, then used a magic array to fuse them into a whole, and finally stretched it into a large cauldron.
With a thought, the auxiliary spiritual materials were liquefied, transforming into seal script and array patterns, which were then condensed into the still unsolidified refining cauldron.
Thanks to the Xuanwei Monastery for their strong support, the consumption of auxiliary spiritual materials is very small. A reasonable amount from the military supplies is enough to forge this cauldron.
Yan Jingshu stood guard to the side, looking up at the giant red cauldron slowly rotating in mid-air, her gaze slightly fascinated.
The process of forging the treasure cauldron is extremely complex. Almost every second, Lin Xu has to condense hundreds or even thousands of seal characters and imprint them inside the cauldron.
Complex array patterns are engraved on the body of the cauldron. The combination of seal script and array patterns forms a complex spiritual array within the heavy cauldron.
Different types of basic spirit arrays are nested and combined to form more complex functions.
By the time the entire tripod was completed, it was already the early morning of the third day.
After finishing the transport of supplies, Lin Xu looked at the enormous treasure cauldron before him and a sense of pride welled up in his heart.
This giant refining furnace is shaped like a three-legged round cauldron. Its surface is engraved with the sun, moon and stars designed by Lin Xu, corresponding to the constellations in the eastern sky. It is 12.2 meters high, 8.3 meters in diameter, and weighs nearly 3,000 jin (1,500 kg).
Compared to ancient bronze artifacts in reality, the cauldron crafted by Lin Xu is thinner, but with the enhancement of formations and materials, it is far more sturdy than ordinary objects.
"Good treasure~" Looking at the attribute panel of the treasure cauldron, Lin Xu stroked the cauldron legs that were glowing with spiritual light with satisfaction.
This giant refining cauldron contains the essence of the Daoist techniques he has learned so far. Unlike traditional refining furnaces, Lin Xu has set up a more complex array inside the cauldron to generate spiritual fire and spiritual water, thus achieving both water refining and fire refining simultaneously.
By combining the two refining methods, Lin Xu was confident that he could improve the quality of the pills and magical artifacts he produced.
Of course, the most important thing is that it is big enough. He still vividly remembers the experience of opening the furnace 20 times in a row to refine the Spirit Grain Pill.