Chapter 28

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Chapter 28: First Time Forging Weapons

Lou Yun was sitting in the cave at the back mountain, unconsciously playing with the Fusang Fire in his hand, a fireball the size of an orange, like an agile spirit, flipping nimbly back and forth in his palm, but his mind was preoccupied with the events of that day.

To be honest, he felt no regret over the loss of the spiritual crystal mine, and he had even less interest in the interest disputes among the three families. What he thought of was when he stepped in to save his Second Uncle that afternoon, facing Lin Yongdu and Wang Feng. If they had attacked him at that moment, at such close range, no one could have come to his aid except himself.

But could he withstand the combined attack of those two high-level magical weapons masters?

After some thought, Lou Yun shook his head—it was impossible. Although he had defeated Lou Fei, a primary three-star magical weapons master, and had diligently trained and strengthened his foundation for three months, he was definitely not at the level of a mid-level magical weapons master. How could he be a match for a high-level magical weapons master?

Moreover, during the day, his father, in order to save Lou Tianzhi, had used all his strength to throw out his magical weapon, the Sky Crystal Spear, but then fell to the ground because he was exhausted. This scene deeply troubled Lou Yun.

In Lou Yun\’s heart, his father had always been like an unshakeable mountain, strong and powerful, giving a sense of security and steadiness. But now he had become like this, which made him, as a son, feel extremely heartbroken. Of course, it also further motivated him to become stronger quickly so he could repair his father\’s magical weapon promptly.

\"Now, even in the small Lingjiang City, there were so many people stronger than me. By the time I got to the Ancient Weapon Academy, that place considered sacred by all magical weapons masters, who knew how many masters there would be there. To stand out and gain their respect, I needed to speed up my cultivation!\"

Next, Lou Yun carefully analyzed what he needed to cultivate and the steps involved.

Absorb spiritual energy, train the body, and then cultivate the magical weapon. However, cultivating the magical weapon required the assistance of common weapons. But common weapons needed to be forged by oneself, which in turn required gathering materials, spiritual crystals, and beast souls.

Thinking of spiritual crystals, Lou Yun\’s eyes suddenly lit up—if he had spiritual crystals, he could speed up his cultivation. Yet spiritual crystals were expensive, and he couldn\’t afford them at all.

When money was mentioned, Lou Yun felt his head spinning even more. Just then, Chang Xiang appeared before him: \"I say, aren\’t you supposed to be cultivating urgently? What are you muttering to yourself here?\"

Scratching his head in distress, Lou Yun said, \"I was just thinking about how to quickly improve my cultivation speed so I could become stronger sooner.\"

\"Oh!\" Chang Xiang seemed very interested and squatted down, saying, \"So what did you think of?\"

\"I thought of cultivating by absorbing spiritual crystals, but they\’re expensive. Right now, I didn\’t even have the money to buy materials for forging a common weapon, let alone extra money to buy spiritual crystals for myself. It\’s a headache!\"

Letting out a long sigh, Lou Yun lay on the ground, staring blankly at the cave ceiling. But Chang Xiang\’s words made him sit up immediately.

\"Wanting money is simple. Although spiritual crystals are hard to find, beast souls are very easy to get!\"

\"That\’s right! How come I didn\’t think of that!\" Lou Yun suddenly became excited.

Indeed, beast souls were crystallizations of energy from demon beasts\’ bodies. They were not only excellent materials for forging weapons or refining medicine, but the energy they contained could even be directly absorbed to improve one\’s cultivation. However, because the energy came from demon beasts, it had many beast-like characteristics and wasn\’t suitable for humans. Direct absorption could cause humans to become beast-like and have other side effects, so the energy had to be purified during absorption.

Yet purifying beast souls was an extremely complex task. With a small mistake, they might vanish into nothing. It could be said that it was laborious and unrewarding. Over time, people stopped absorbing the energy from beast souls and instead directly sold them to those who needed them.

\"Starting tomorrow, I\’ll go hunt demon beasts to get beast souls!\"

\"Then what are you planning to do today?\"

\"Today!\" Looking at Chang Xiang, Lou Yun said, \"Today, I want to give it a try at forging a common weapon!\"

\"Good, first give it a try on controlling the fire!\"

Lou Yun hurriedly sat up straight, then extended the Fusang Fire that he had been playing with in his hand, making it burn in his palm. Immediately after, Chang Xiang grabbed a stone and threw it onto the flame.

Over the past few months, Lou Yun had burned countless stones. He knew the temperature limits that stones could withstand intimately. So as soon as the stone entered the Fusang Fire, he had already adjusted the temperature.

Without a sound, the gray stone instantly turned into a pool of gray liquid. As Lou Yun continuously adjusted the Fusang Fire\’s temperature, the stone kept changing shape between liquid and solid. Only after Chang Xiang nodded in satisfaction did Lou Yun suddenly increase the temperature.

With a \"sizzling\" sound, the stone turned into a puff of green smoke!

\"Hmm, you\’ve mastered controlling the fire\’s temperature. But remember, so far, you\’ve only learned about the temperatures common stones can handle. As a skilled weapon maker, you\’ll encounter countless materials, and you can\’t know each one intimately. So you must learn to change the fire\’s temperature more swiftly and delicately according to the material. Understand?\"

Lou Yun nodded, with excitement and a bit of nervousness, and said, \"Now, can I start refining the Taoli Stone?\"

\"You may!\"

Lou Yun flipped his left hand and took out the Taoli Stone from the ring on his hand. He was about to throw it into the Fusang Fire when he paused, glanced at the Fusang Fire, and its flame visibly lowered a bit. Then, he placed the Taoli Stone into the Fusang Fire.

As Chang Xiang saw this scene, he couldn\’t help but let out a light laugh. He knew that because Lou Yun didn\’t know how much heat Taoli Stone could endure, he had first set the Fusang Fire to its lowest temperature and then constantly adjusted it by watching the changes in Taoli Stone within the flames.

Lou Yun was now like a child who had just learned to walk, acting with extreme caution. His eyes were fixed unwaveringly on the Taoli Stone in the fire, not daring to blink even once, afraid that a single blink might cause the Taoli Stone to vanish completely.

The stones he had tried earlier were common and scattered everywhere; losing them was no big deal. But this Taoli Stone was a gift from Xu Yangteng, and he only had a few pieces. If it was gone, even with money, he wouldn\’t know where to find replacements.

While observing the changes in Taoli Stone, Lou Yun carefully raised the Fusang Fire\’s temperature bit by bit.

However, since he truly didn\’t grasp Taoli Stone\’s maximum heat tolerance, Lou Yun\’s careful efforts still failed—the temperature rose slightly too high, causing that piece of Taoli Stone to turn into a wisp of blue smoke.

Staring at the rising smoke, Lou Yun felt so heartbroken he could hardly bear it. After reviewing his experience, he took out another Taoli Stone and placed it into the Fusang Fire.

With one round of forging experience and the lesson from that failure, Lou Yun increased the temperature much faster this time, slowing only when near Taoli Stone\’s heat limit.

Seeing Taoli Stone gradually melt into a puddle of light red liquid, Chang Xiang nodded repeatedly and offered guidance: \"Good job, remember this temperature. Next time you refine it, it will shorten the forging time.\"

\"Hmm, what now?\"

Though slightly excited inside, Lou Yun was extremely tense, fearing he might make another mistake.

\"Don\’t rush, keep refining for a bit. Any material suitable for crafting a common weapon always has some impurities. To create the best common weapon possible, you must remove those impurities during this stage.\"

Sure enough, as Chang Xiang explained, Lou Yun soon noticed many black impurities of varying sizes appearing in the red melted liquid from Taoli Stone.

\"See, those black things are impurities. A high-tier skilled weapon maker could melt them away by controlling temperature at multiple flame points right now. But since you lack that skill, just use spiritual energy to clear them. Never touch them with your hands—your skin carries far worse impurities!\"

Lou Yun nodded, extended a finger, aimed at a slightly larger impurity, gave a soft flick, and used spiritual energy to shoot into the flame, directly expelling that impurity.

Larger impurities were easy to remove, but the smaller ones proved very difficult. They were so tiny that even the gentlest spiritual energy flick would carry away some of the main Taoli Stone solution.

\"Get it now? Using spiritual energy like this often wastes material. It doesn\’t matter for the moment, but if you face a situation where you have just enough for one common weapon, even a little loss could lead to failure. So practice controlling multiple flame points swiftly to melt impurities away.\"

Lou Yun nodded because experience showed Chang Xiang was absolutely right.

After a long struggle, he managed to remove most impurities, though a few spots smaller than sesame seeds remained beyond his ability.

\"Hmm, that\’s acceptable. Part one, refining, is finished. Next is molding—designing a shape for your upcoming common weapon. Think it over in your mind, then use your innate sense to control the Taoli Stone liquid, shaping it according to your idea.\"

Lou Yun thought to himself: Since this was his first weapon forging, a simple shape made sense—anything too complex might flop.

For him, the most familiar and straightforward common weapon was the Stone Sword!

Lou Yun didn\’t need to recall its shape; it was already burned into his brain. He immediately started using innate sense to guide the Taoli Stone liquid.

Though innate sense was invisible and intangible, strangely, under Lou Yun\’s control, the liquid seemed held by an unseen hand, slowly stretching and reshaping as he imagined.

\"Alright, now attempt the simplest multi-point flame control. If you finalize a section\’s form and won\’t alter it, lower the flame temperature there to let it solidify. But maintain the original temperature everywhere else unchanged. Okay, give it a try!\"

Flame temperature was governed by innate sense, and molding required it too. Now Lou Yun fully grasped Chang Xiang\’s earlier point: to become a skilled weapon maker, superior innate senses, especially innate sense ability, were the primary requirement.

Understanding was one thing, but controlling multi-point temperatures proved brutally tricky. Just as Lou Yun stabilized one spot, the other cooled off; once the other was under control, this one overheated. After endless back-and-forth struggles, Taoli Stone liquid dwindled drastically—it took immense effort to barely finish.

However, seeing what should have been a molded semi-finished common weapon in Fusang Fire, Chang Xiang couldn\’t resist laughing out loud. Lou Yun himself wore a look of total defeat, utterly lost between tears and grins.