Chapter 122

Chapter 122: The Key to Common Weapon Changes

Although Lou Yun didn’t hear this conversation, Chang Xiang, who had secretly followed Dai Rong, heard it loud and clear. After listening, he became extremely excited. Finally, he understood the cryptic "other value" of the ice crystal jade weapon that Old Man Feng and the others had mentioned. It represented the leader of a mysterious force, the Divine Weapon Alliance!

This power naturally caught Chang Xiang’s attention. With the support of the Divine Weapon Alliance, though he wouldn’t claim Lou Yun could necessarily rival the nine great families, if aided by people like Tian Jiao and Leng Cangqiong, Lou Yun should at least be able to hold his own against one family. Therefore, Chang Xiang was now resolved to help Beichen Ming achieve his wish no matter what, ensuring Lou Yun became the leader of the Divine Weapon Alliance!

Once he made up his mind, Chang Xiang quietly returned inside Lou Yun’s body and began seriously pondering whether he should reveal some of the truth about the Lou Family matters to Lou Yun!

However, no matter how much he thought, Lou Yun’s strength remained somewhat too weak. His actual magical weapon realm was only at Intermediate-Five Stars. Although his true combat power could rival a mystery rank one-star magical weapons master, it was still far from sufficient. Without a Divine Heavenly Weapon to devour, he couldn raise his magical weapon realm further. Relying solely on weapon techniques and his physical body, he could still become stronger, but ultimately, he would still be constrained by the limitations of his magical weapon realm.

Chang Xiang muttered to himself, "The urgent priority is to first get Lou Yun’s magical weapon to devour a Divine Heavenly Weapon. That would cause a transformative change in his magical weapon realm! But, where to get a Divine Heavenly Weapon? Leaving aside whether the nine families’ Divine Heavenly Weapons were even on the Spirit Weapon Star, even if they were, sending Lou Yun into any of them now would be a one-way trip with no return!"

While Chang Xiang pondered these problems, Lou Yun remained completely unaware. He simply followed Chang Xiang’s advice, temporarily putting aside all worries and devoting all his energy to training his weapon techniques and physical body.

One week later, Beichen Ming arrived at the courtyard house. He chatted casually with Lou Yun for a bit first, asking if he was used to living there, whether the servants were attentive enough, and other such questions. Lou Yun naturally answered very positively, praising the eight servants greatly. In reality, over the past week, the eight attendants hadn’t even seen Lou Yun’s face once!

After these questions, Beichen Ming changed the tone of the conversation. "Child, could you show me your Forging Skills again? After all, you will be participating in the forging conference in six months. I’d like to get an idea of roughly what grade of skilled weapon maker you can be classified as now."

Since he had already agreed to it, Lou Yun couldn’t very well refuse. He smiled and said, "Then I’ll humbly show off!"

With a wave of Lou Yun’s hand, the Chaos Golden Cauldron emerged rotating into view amidst a light, golden radiance before slowly settling onto the ground.

Seeing the Chaos Golden Cauldron, Beichen Ming’s eyes immediately lit up. As a seventh-grade skilled weapon maker, his judgment and experience were extremely seasoned. He recognized the cauldron’s preciousness at a glance, though he didn’t know it was the Chaos Golden Cauldron!

Beichen Ming stood up and walked around the Chaos Golden Cauldron several times. He clicked his tongue and nodded repeatedly as he examined it. Several times, he even involuntarily reached out as if to touch it, but managed to restrain himself. Looking at Lou Yun, he asked, "Child, what is this cauldron called? Was it given to you by your master?"

"It’s called the Chaos Golden Cauldron. It wasn’t given by my master. It was something a friend of mine acquired unintentionally. Then, not knowing what it was, he gave it to my sister. Later, it came into my hands, heh heh!"

While answering Beichen Ming, Lou Yun couldn’t help but feel puzzled. According to Chang Xiang’s introduction, the Chaos Golden Cauldron had an immense background. Yet, someone of Beichen Ming’s status hadn’t even heard of it. Furthermore, his own master, Mr. Commoner – in Chang Xiang’s words, Mr. Commoner was practically a god-like figure. But Lou Yun had met quite a few experts by now, yet no one had ever heard of Mr. Commoner. Was Chang Xiang deliberately deceiving him, or were there other reasons he wasn’t aware of?

Thinking of Chang Xiang, Lou Yun felt another stir in his heart. Throughout this past week, completely absorbed in weapon techniques, he hadn’t chatted with Chang Xiang at all. And unusually, Chang Xiang hadn’t actively initiated conversation either. Could he be angry?

Just then, Beichen Ming nodded. "Chaos Golden Cauldron, a good name, clearly a good cauldron. Hmm, child, this cauldron is probably the only one worthy of your Fusang Fire!" Lou Yun smiled modestly. "My cultivation level isn’t high enough yet; I can’t release the full potential temperature of the Fusang Fire. Heh heh, Elder Bei, I’ll forge a high-level common weapon, is that alright?"

"Yes, yes!" Beichen Ming nodded repeatedly. "Whatever grade is fine!" So Lou Yun fetched the materials required for a high-level common weapon from his ring. Since it was just a demonstration for Beichen Ming, he decided against using spiritual crystals or beast souls.

He tossed the materials into the Chaos Golden Cauldron. Thanks to the cauldron’s nature, there was no need for Lou Yun to place them individually as he used to. Closing the lid, he released the Fusang Fire and began forging.

Given Lou Yun’s current level of forging skill, creating high-level or lower common weapons was almost as simple as eating a meal. However, for mystery rank common weapons, despite possessing sufficient spiritual energy to forge them, he had never dared to try. He still didn’t know how to endow a mystery rank common weapon with flight capabilities, similar to mystery rank magical weapons.

After just a short while, the common weapon took shape. According to the process, it was time for awakening the spirit. Unable to perform the Chaos Seal technique, and with the Azure Cloud Seal requiring the Azure Cloud Cauldron to unleash its power, Lou Yun resorted to the first technique Chang Xiang had taught him to complete the spirit awakening.

As the spirit awakening concluded, the lid of the Chaos Golden Cauldron floated into the air by itself. A rectangular mass of white light drifted out from the cauldron, containing a common weapon within. This method of a weapon’s emergence was something Lou Yun hadn’t seen before; evidently, it was a special function of the Chaos Golden Cauldron.

The common weapon flew automatically into Lou Yun’s hand. The white light surrounding it vanished. Lou Yun gave it a preliminary glance: judging by the energy it contained, it should be High-Level Five Stars. Only then did he hand the weapon to Beichen Ming.

Beichen Ming accepted it, but instead of a cursory look like Lou Yun, he inspected it meticulously several times over before nodding. "Not bad, high-level five-star quality. Adding spiritual crystals and beast souls should easily push it to high-level five-star." He paused briefly before continuing, "Child, your forging skills are flawless. You execute every step excellently. The only thing lacking is experience and… well, you also seem unable to imbue the forged common weapon with characteristics of a magical weapon."

Hearing this, Lou Yun quickly nodded. "Yes, so far, I don’t know how to make a common weapon possess special abilities like those of a magical weapon!"

"Heh heh!" Beichen Ming’s face spread into a smile. "Then, do you wish to learn?"

"Yes!" Lou Yun answered honestly. He genuinely wanted to know. While Chang Xiang could teach him too, before today, he hadn’t forged any weapons during the past week, so hadn’t had the chance to ask Chang Xiang. Now that Beichen Ming was offering, he naturally wouldn’t decline.

"Good. Pack up your things, and come with me!" Lou Yun hurriedly stored the Chaos Golden Cauldron and followed Beichen Ming out.

The two arrived in front of a building, its most striking feature being its height. It wasn’t that it was tall in terms of floors, but the single-story structure had an exceptionally high ceiling, reaching close to five meters.

Beichen Ming smiled. "This is where I usually forge weapons."

"Oh!" Considering the wealth Beichen Ming possessed, a forging room this large wasn’t particularly surprising.

Upon entering, Lou Yun found the place somewhat reminiscent of his master’s dwelling, yet far more luxuriously decorated.

The room was vast. In its very center stood an enormous cauldron nearly three meters tall. Its entire body was a deep crimson color, supported by three tiger-head-shaped feet, giving it a fierce, imposing appearance.

The rest of the space was meticulously organized. Shelves held various forging materials for common weapons, of course including sections for spiritual crystals and beast souls, though their quantity was noticeably less than what Mr. Commoner had left for Lou Yun.

Pointing with evident pride, Beichen Ming introduced it to Lou Yun. "This cauldron is called the Tiger Head Cauldron. If there were a ranking for cauldrons, this one, if not first, would at least be second."

Lou Yun’s knowledge of cauldrons was indeed limited, but he trusted Beichen Ming wasn’t lying.

Beichen Ming then briefly introduced the surrounding materials. Extending his hand, he gestured casually through the air, and a piece of spiritual crystal and a beast soul flew into his palm.

"Child, to give a common weapon capabilities of a magical weapon requires adding something during the forging process." As he spoke, Beichen Ming opened his palms, revealing both the spiritual crystal and the beast soul for Lou Yun to see.

Lou Yun asked, puzzled, "Spiritual crystals and beast souls?"

"Heh heh, of course not. Let me do it this way: I’ll forge a high-level common weapon for you. Watch carefully using your spiritual sense!"

While saying this, Beichen Ming extended another hand and made grasping motions through the air, plucking several materials, which he tossed into the Tiger Head Cauldron. He then raised his hand and released a stream of flame.

Lou Yun specifically checked Xiao Huo’s reaction. Receiving none, it confirmed Beichen Ming had used ordinary fire, not a Sky Fire.

Despite being ordinary flame, the materials melted into liquid extremely fast, coalescing into the shape of a sword. That was when Beichen Ming suddenly threw both the spiritual crystal and beast soul in his palm into the Tiger Head Cauldron.

Lou Yun noticed something odd. Earlier in Beichen Ming’s hands, they were two distinct items – one spiritual crystal and one beast soul. But now, flying into the cauldron was only a single piece! Looking closer, it vaguely resembled both yet neither. Glancing back at Beichen Ming’s hands, they were now empty.

"Watch closely!" Beichen Ming warned.

Lou Yun focused his gaze intensely. He saw that undefinable piece – neither quite spiritual crystal nor beast soul – fly straight into the center of the liquid sword taking form within the Tiger Head Cauldron. Immediately, the common weapon solidified rapidly.

After Beichen Ming performed the hand seals required for awakening the spirit, the common weapon flew out of the cauldron and landed directly in his hand. Without looking at it, he passed it straight to Lou Yun. "Examine this carefully. What do you find within this common weapon?"

Lou Yun took it and activated his spiritual sense. He clearly saw that though this newly forged common weapon appeared utterly unremarkable on the outside, inside it was a transparent, rhombus-shaped stone.

"What is this?"

"A Weapon Core!"