129: Chapter 129 Joining the Army

The Demon-Slaying Alliance's branch hall was not in the city, but in a small farmhouse in the countryside.

Along the way, the old Daoist introduced the general situation of the Demon-Slaying Alliance to Zhao Feng, which actually made him feel quite expectant.

The Demon-Slaying Alliance is a large organization, active throughout the entire Five Kingdoms. However, this organization is just a loose Alliance, concentrating many human Cultivators who hate the Yao Race. These Cultivators address each other as brothers and sisters, with those of high cultivation level being the older brothers and sisters. When the many Disciples walk outside, they recruit Cultivators who are ambitious to revitalize the Human Race.

Unknowingly, the four of them had arrived at the place. Because they had been on the move all night, the old Daoist let the two rest for the whole morning first; it wasn't until noon that the deputy hall master here received them.

The deputy hall master was a sturdy man, but his personality was very gentle. Conversing with him felt like a spring breeze. Zhao Feng could not see through his cultivation level; it must be very profound.

After the deputy hall master's introduction, Zhao Feng had a more concrete understanding of the Demon-Slaying Alliance.

The Demon-Slaying Alliance has a distinction between core brothers and peripheral brothers. They all wear waist tokens symbolizing their identity. Those who have just joined belong to the peripheral brothers. To enter the circle of core brothers, one must have a large amount of contribution.

Every day, the Demon-Slaying Alliance releases a large number of tasks. Completing these tasks allows one to obtain contribution. Contribution can be used to raise one's status, exchange for Cultivation Techniques, items, etc., and can also be used to post tasks.

Zhao Feng and the other newly joined person are only temporary peripheral brothers; they still need to complete any one of the designated introductory tasks.

"What? You want us to join the army?" Zhao Feng couldn't help but exclaim in surprise when he heard the task content.

"Yes, join the army. But it's not to send you to the front line, just to repair weapons and such." The young man who released the task was very enthusiastic. Seeing that Zhao Feng and his companion didn't understand anything, he hurriedly started to explain.

It turned out that although the Yao Kingdom was high and mighty, for some reason, they had signed a treaty with the humans. On the long and narrow border between the Jin and Tu Kingdoms, there was a fortress that had consumed countless material and financial resources. This fortress was a training ground for the Yao army. The Yao Kingdom would irregularly send Yao armies to attack, tempering a powerful Yao Race.

The Human Race knew this but had no choice. Although they knew that the Yao Race was just using the Human Race to temper their younger generation, the upper echelons of the Human Race also hoped to obtain more potential experts in the war and preserve the continuation of the race, so they acquiesced to this method of tempering.

Every day, countless Cultivators fight with monsters at the fortress, and a large number of Cultivators die every day. However, the Human Race cannot let the Yao army rush in, so they still continuously send a large number of Cultivators to maintain the battle line.

Because of such cruel war and sacrifice, this fortress is called the Bloody Fortress.

Although the Demon-Slaying Alliance is not as powerful as the top ten sects, it is also a well-known force. Every year, it issues a large number of tasks to serve the fortress.

The mineral sorting task that Zhao Feng and his companion received was a logistics task from the fortress. In the ceaseless war, a large number of implements are damaged at any time. Therefore, a logistics service team composed of Alchemists and Artifact Refiners is very important. Because of the needs of the war, Artifact Refiners simply do not have time to complete simple tasks like mineral sorting, so they outsource them to low-level Cultivators.

The reason for not refusing such a task was mainly because on the battlefield, a large number of creatures die every moment. The construction of the System's subsystem requires 100,000 transformation points. Calculated based on a Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator being able to provide 100 points, that is just the energy of 1,000 Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivators dying.

This does not even count the energy brought by the death of more powerful Cultivators. Zhao Feng urgently needed the help of the subsystem to carry out rapid cultivation; otherwise, the planting of the planet tree would not know when it would be dragged on to. Moreover, given the current survival situation of the Human Race, if those powerful Yao Race suddenly struck, when the nest is overturned, no egg remains intact—Zhao Feng would not be able to survive alone either.

After accepting the task, Zhao Feng and his companion stayed in the farmhouse, waiting for the flying boat to pick them up.

The flying boat would arrive in three days. During this period, a large number of Cultivators who accepted the task would also come. Zhao Feng could just take the opportunity to prepare. The Bloody Fortress is not a good place; necessary equipment is very important.

Handing the "Brief Discussion on Artifact Refining" to Liu Xuan for self-study, Zhao Feng also started to get busy himself.

Zhao Feng did not want to be driven back or become cannon fodder after completing the task, so he must have his own value. And an Artifact Refiner is undoubtedly a very important profession.

Of course, three days is not enough for him to become an Artifact Refiner, but it can allow him to initially possess such ability, so that he can stand out among the many Cultivators participating in the sorting task and get the opportunity to stay at the fortress.

Among the Jade Slips left by Luo Ying, several belonged to the aspect of Artifact Refining. The knowledge here is vast as an ocean, enough to make Zhao Feng satisfied.

Throughout the ages, many Artifact Refiners have explored various symbols through their own efforts. Among these symbols, the power-supplying symbol and the identification symbol are the most basic and are the core of the implements. The power-supplying symbol connects the user and the implement, providing energy to the implement. The identification symbol allows the implement to have functions such as owner recognition, friend-or-foe identification, and advanced spirituality.

Besides the basic symbols, there are also functional symbols that produce effects, such as acceleration symbols, size-as-you-wish symbols, sharpness symbols, gravity symbols, etc. Through the connection with the power-supplying symbol, these functional symbols will produce corresponding effects.

Of course, there are also some secret symbols that Zhao Feng does not know. The Jade Slips provided by Luo Ying only have basic symbols and a few commonly used ones. Even so, memorizing these symbols would take Zhao Feng a lot of time.

If one thinks that Artifact Refining is just this, then one is greatly mistaken.

Apart from these extremely important symbols, the choice of minerals is also very important. For example, if you want to refine a Flying Sword, if you choose wood and a sharpness symbol, it is generally difficult for wood to construct a sharpness symbol. Even if it is barely constructed, the effect will be greatly reduced.

Remembering the characteristics of massive minerals is also a basic requirement for an Artifact Refiner. Besides this, because an Artifact Refiner needs to construct symbols within the minerals, this requires the Artifact Refiner to have strong Mental Energy and suitable spiritual power. These are the reasons why Artifact Refiners are so rare.

For these harsh conditions, Zhao Feng, who has mixed Spiritual Roots, is quite comprehensive. For example, if it is a metal-attribute mineral, it needs a sharpness symbol, so one must use earth-attribute spiritual power to construct the symbol. Earth generates metal; these residual earth-attribute spiritual power will disappear after the first use and will not affect the artifact, but will instead have a positive effect. And if fire-attribute spiritual power is used, although the formed symbol can produce effects, because of the mutual restraint, the effect is not as good as earth-attribute spiritual power.

Although everyone knows the benefits of mutual generation of spiritual power, because multi-Spiritual Roots naturally do not have fast cultivation speed, let alone becoming an Artifact Refiner.

Zhao Feng has initially mastered the basic symbols and two simple functional symbols, so he also started his first Artifact Refining.