130: Chapter 130 First Time Refining a Weapon

Although this mountain villa of the Demon-Slaying Alliance was small, it had Artifact Refining Rooms and Alchemy rooms for rent, which brought great convenience to Zhao Feng.

One must know that only upon reaching the Golden Core Stage could a Cultivator generate Alchemy fire.

Alchemy fire possessed very peculiar functions, and smelting metal ores was naturally not a problem for it.

Although those in the Foundation Establishment Stage and Qi Refinement Stage could also manipulate flames, those were Spell effects; either the temperature was insufficient, or the duration was too short. Therefore, before the Golden Core Stage, very few Cultivators could rely on their own flames to refine artifacts.

Because Zhao Feng belonged to the peripheral brothers of the Demon-Slaying Alliance, after paying five Spirit Stones, he obtained the right to use it for two days.

The Artifact Refining Room was a separate building, a small stone cottage. There were nine such cottages, and Zhao Feng was led into cottage number seven.

Both the walls and the floor of the cottage shimmered with Spiritual Qi, presumably constructed with symbols similar to 'sturdy' and 'resilient'.

Inside the cottage, apart from the Artifact Refining furnace, there was only a meditation cushion; it was extremely simple.

After the Disciple who brought Zhao Feng in taught him how to use the Artifact Refining furnace, he bid farewell and left.

Zhao Feng sat cross-legged, restored his Spiritual Qi and Mental Energy to their peak, and only then began Artifact Refining.

He took out the black iron he had obtained from the demon cave last time and placed it to the side.

Before coming, he had already decided on the artifacts he needed to refine: a Flying Sword and battle armor.

These were the artifacts that the two of them needed most right now.

Before coming, he had reviewed the symbols again, and at the same time, he had mentally gone through the entire refining process several times to ensure he was very familiar with it, so as not to waste time in the Artifact Refining Room.

First, the black iron needed to be melted.

Black iron was a very common spiritual ore, widely present on Yaoling Planet. Basically, in every large iron mine, traces of black iron could be found.

This mineral was formed when iron metal, over a long period of coexistence with Spiritual Qi, developed spiritual infiltration. Therefore, in terms of melting point, black iron was about the same as ordinary iron ore.

The properties of black iron produced in different places were slightly different. The hardest black iron was known as black steel. This kind of black steel only appeared in the scorching Earth's core or from the fall of extraterrestrial meteorites.

Zhao Feng guessed that this was because the black iron was mixed with a large amount of carbon elements. Of course, this would need to be verified after his microscope function was improved.

He opened the earth fire seal in the Artifact Refining furnace, and the dark red earth fire surged out, and under the restraint of the Artifact Refining furnace, it formed a flame over a foot high.

Hum! The symbols inside the cottage suddenly activated, resisting the incoming high temperature.

Zhao Feng's expression remained normal; such a temperature was completely harmless to him. He placed the black iron into the Artifact Refining furnace, preparing to refine it into a liquid state.

About a quarter of an hour later, the black iron began to melt, and then flowed along the diversion channel into a disc on the outer wall of the Artifact Refining furnace. Here, Zhao Feng would clean the Impurities from the black iron liquid and then shape it.

Because the density of the Impurities was different from that of the black iron, the Impurities would quickly seep out in this state, obtaining pure black iron. At this step, Artifact Refiners on Yaoling Planet would often add various substances to the black iron melt to mix, seeking to obtain better black iron.

But Zhao Feng was a poor man, and it just so happened that he needed to verify his hypothesis, so he sprinkled in carbon powder. The carbon powder needed to fully permeate the black iron, which required the use of Mental Energy.

Zhao Feng used his Mental Energy to stir the black iron melt, fully mixing the black carbon powder with it. The red-white black iron melt began to become viscous; this was because the temperature was beginning to drop.

Feeling that it was relatively uniform, Zhao Feng immediately started the shaping stage.

A Flying Sword should not be like the precious swords used by ordinary Martial Forest people. Artifact Refiners on Yaoling Planet had not broken away from the shape of such precious swords, but Zhao Feng felt that since a Flying Sword needed to fly fast, considering the factor of air resistance, it should not have a hilt structure.

If it were a Body Cultivator accustomed to close-quarters combat, it might be another matter, as it would be difficult to use without a hilt. But for a Cultivator who only needed remote control, a hilt structure was completely unnecessary.

Zhao Feng had a powerful physical body, so he would need close-quarters combat, but this time he was refining a Flying Sword for Liu Xuan. The blade aura could not bring out the effect of a Spiritual Artifact in Liu Xuan's hands, so Liu Xuan needed a weapon that a Cultivator at the Qi Refinement Stage could utilize effectively.

Liu Xuan was a former thief, did not know swordsmanship, and her physical body was not powerful, so it would be best to make her a long-range attack type Cultivator.

Because the Flying Sword had plenty of power, it would often fly at supersonic speeds, so the shape was quite important. Zhao Feng prepared to make it into a teardrop shape, as this shape experienced the least resistance in the air.

Mental Energy began to act upon the black iron melt in front of him, and a flat, teardrop-shaped object began to take form. Of course, absolutely no one would see it as a Flying Sword.

He used Mental Energy again to sharpen the edges, and because the black iron and carbon powder were fully mixed, there was no need to hammer the sword blank like an ordinary blacksmith.

At this point, the physical level of Artifact Refining was basically completed. Because of the Mental Energy, the surface of this sword blank was very smooth in terms of shape; it was impeccable.

The consumption of Mental Energy was quite severe, but fortunately, Zhao Feng possessed an impressive total amount and strength of Mental Energy, and he was still in high spirits at the moment.

Taking advantage of the fact that the sword blank had not yet completely cooled, Zhao Feng began to carve the basic symbols.

If one considered a Magical Artifact as an electrical appliance, then the basic symbols were the circuits; thus, one could see the importance of the basic symbols.

The basic symbols were tree-trunk shaped, which could allow Spiritual Qi to be injected mainly from the bottom. Carving the symbols into the black iron using Mental Energy could guide the Spiritual Qi to enter the Magical Artifact along the symbols, and then transmit it to the functional symbols.

This was a very delicate process. Zhao Feng's advantage lay in his frequent use of the Spiritual Qi microscope, making him very familiar with such microscopic operations, and he had his own understanding of Artifact Refining. Therefore, although sweat kept flowing down his forehead, he still carried out the construction methodically.

Hum! The Flying Sword let out a clear chime.

A faint glimmer of Spiritual Qi could be seen flashing slightly; this was because Zhao Feng's own Spiritual Qi radiance had seeped in, causing the symbols to run. This indicated that the basic power supply symbols were a success.

Next were the even more delicate identification symbols.

Because many artifacts were very small, this identification symbol was even tinier. This was also the reason why only those at the Foundation Establishment Stage could refine true Magical Artifacts; the Mental Energy of the Qi Refinement Stage was too weak.

The identification symbol was connected to the power supply symbol; this was a type of symbol capable of detecting Mental Energy fluctuations, so it was even more delicate and exquisite. Fortunately, Zhao Feng had long ago memorized every stroke very familiarly, so it did not become an obstacle, and he completed it very easily.

At this point, a Flying Sword was basically completed. However, if he stopped here, it would just be a flying ordinary sword, without any miraculous features.

Therefore, the application of functional symbols was very important.

Currently, Zhao Feng had only mastered the basic sharpness symbol, flight symbol, sturdiness symbol, and size-changing symbol. In ordinary Flying Swords, these symbols were very commonly used.

As the name implied, the flight symbol endowed the artifact with the ability to fly in the air. Seeing that it did not require drilling holes into the artifact, he estimated that this symbol might affect the magnetic field to perform anti-gravity flight. Such a highly technological function appearing among Cultivators felt very incongruous, yet it was exceptionally practical.

Spiritual light rose, and the flight symbol was completed. Next, in order, were the sturdiness symbol, sharpness symbol, and size-changing symbol. With flashes of spiritual light, this Flying Sword was finally about to be completed.