Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
At that moment, in a small, cramped room, Xu Que was sitting on the ground with a serious face, his eyes fixed on the System interface. He was extremely focused! He was searching for something related to Equipment Refining. Although he had never performed Equipment Refining, with the use of the Occupation Skill Books he had become a Nine Star Equipment Refining Master. In addition, they had given him a lot of knowledge and experience in the field of Equipment Refining!
His foundation obviously wasn’t as sturdy and firm as those who had learned and accumulated their knowledge by performing day by day and step by step! If he wanted to reach the level of Fifth Grade Equipment Refining Grandmaster in an instant without working hard, it was simply impossible!
Of course, the rationale for Xu Que to be so dedicated and willing to work hard and study was not only because he didn’t want to dishonor himself, but, to a greater extent, for his own sake. He had lost his broken sword, which meant he had lost part of his strength. Now he was in the Earth Continent where he would encounter more people, issues, and even crises than previously. There would be more uncertainties as compared to Lost City. Hence, he needed to make up for the shortcomings of his strength as soon as possible, so as to avoid being unprepared when he encountered a powerful enemy!
The broken Long Halberd was what Xu Que wanted to refine the most. The power of the Terrifying Spiritual Qi within the Long Halberd was very familiar to Xu Que. Thus, he wanted to study intensively Equipment Refining and strive for the ability to refine the broken Long Halberd as soon as possible. He wanted to fuse the Purple Sky Age Metal with the Terrifying Spiritual Qi and forge a complete sword. He believed its grade would surely surpass the broken sword.
When he had finished refining his broken Long Halberd, he would then let the Sword Spirit enter the Long Halberd. He would be invincible then; he might even kill the acesat the Earth Celestial Stage or the Heaven Celestial Stage with a single blow!
This was thus a very clear and powerful goal which motivated Xu Que; it was worthwhile to work hard to achieve it!
For three days and three nights, Xu Que was sleepless, browsing through all the things related to Equipment Refining in the System store. Among them, there were many theories on the skills of Equipment Refining and also many predecessors’ opinions about Equipment Refining!
Xu Que was well aware that if he studied old knowledge one step at a time, he wouldn’t be able to step into the stage of Fifth Grade Equipment Refining Grandmaster in a short time, let alone refine the Purple Sky Age Metal Long Halberd. He had to use a modern society’s brain to think and explore a new way of doing things!
He didn’t study all the lore he found in the System from the perspective of an Equipment Refining Master, but from the perspective of a scientist. He looked at all perspectives of a piece of knowledge, learned all kinds of theoretical knowledge, and then planned as a whole. After his research and analysis, he understood the process of Equipment Refining. In fact, if he was to dismantle the process of Equipment Refining, it was very similar to Pill Refining!
The prerequisite of Pill Refining was to extract and purify all kinds of medicinal materials—to get rid of all impurities and irrelevancies and extract the essence! The same was true for Equipment Refining, he had to refine and purify all kinds of materials to extract its essence!
Following which, the essences of all kinds of materials were fused and then carved with a Rune Mark. In the final stage, it was forged into its desired shape.
Whether it was Pill Refining or Equipment Refining, the more advanced it was, the higher the difficulty of the whole process. For example, refining, extracting, and purifying the essence of materials would test the ability to control the temperature. The higher the grade of a material, the harder it was to refine. Even the final fusing and shaping were extremely difficult!
Of course, there was also an important key point—in the process of fusing the materials, the engraving of the Rune Mark involved the cultivator’s Soul Strength and Taoist Connotation. If the cultivator’s Soul Strength and Taoist Connotation weren’t strong enough, it was impossible to even leave a faint mark on the higher grades of materials, let alone engrave the Rune Mark. Xu Que’s final analysis was thus that Pill Refining was very difficult and Equipment Refining…was very difficult too!
“Da*n, this is taking my entire life. It’s too difficult. I can’t figure out this question!” Xu Que fell to the ground with a bitter expression! Originally, he had planned to pick up his top scholar state from those days back in school, but when he analyzed and understood everything, he felt that it was beyond his capability. If he wanted to find a new solution of such a complex problem, he was afraid that even Einstein wouldn’t be able to solve it! The strength requirement for an Equipment Refining Master was absolutely rigid, and it couldn’t be compensated by his IQ at all!
Am I screwed? This is too depressing. I have something more than others—the System. There’s no reason…uh, wait a minute, the System!
Xu Que was complaining and making a fuss but he suddenly sprang off the ground and sat up. He quickly called up the System interface, opened his personal information, and had his eyes directly fixed onto one of the information corners—Essence!
Previously, the System activated the Recycling Function for him so that he could recycle all kinds of Magic Art, medicine, and magical weapons and finally transform them into all kinds of corresponding Essences. For example, the Skill Essence could be used to improve the skill of the Magic Art, and the Medicinal Herbs Essence could be used to increase the age of the Medicinal Herbs or the grade of a Medicinal item. As for the Weapon Refining Essence, it could be used to increase the grade of an artifact!
For many years, Xu Que hadn’t engaged in any Pill Refining. Instead, he used the Skill Essence frequently, but then he gradually forgot about that function too. But now, when he finally remembered that there was such an awesome function, he couldn’t help but get excited.
“Ha, ha, ha, when one door shuts, another opens. Everyone should be like me and work extremely hard! It’s only after you put in lots of effort that you’ll get something in return!” Xu Que shouted excitedly.
He read books for three days and three nights, and his final achievement was to remember the function that he had carelessly forgotten. He regarded it as a reward for his efforts. He didn’t find anything amiss at all!
But he did make sense. How could you taste despair if you didn’t work hard at times? Without despair, how could it have reminded him of the System’s Recycling Function at the last second!
“Ha, ha, it’s definitely a smooth ride from now. Let me try and refine one first!”
Xu Que, his motivation restored, became very enthusiastic. He immediately screened out an ugly Big Chopper belonging to the category of Inferior Celestial Artifact that he had extorted from the Good and Evil Village and gave it to the System for recycling! The System prompted immediately:
Ding! “Recycled an Inferior Celestial Artifact. Congratulations to the Host! You have received 300,000 points of Weapon Refining Essence!”
Da*n it, so much?
Xu Que suddenly glared at the interface. In the past, he had used so many Magic Arts, but the result was only tens of thousands of points of Skill Essence.
Now, a useless Inferior Celestial Artifact had actually recovered 300,000 points of Weapon Refining Essence?
Oh my god, I’ve suffered great losses. If I knew this, I wouldn’t have given that Inferior Celestial Artifact to Lan Hetu!
Xu Que was regretting his past generosity. He had felt that those Inferior Celestial Artifacts weren’t useful to him. He had given one Inferior Celestial Artifact to Lan Hetu as a way of Acting Tough. Now, when he thought about it, he couldn’t believe what a great loss it had been!
But he had already given it, and he didn’t know whether Lan Hetu was alive or dead now. Xu Que could only feel sorry for himself in that moment. Moreover, he wasn’t crazy enough to think about finding ways to recover it from Lan Hetu.
Now that he had 300,000 points of Weapon Refining Essence as a reserve, Xu Que was full of confidence. He exchanged a large stove from the System store and transformed it into a Smithing Table. Following this, he took out several pieces of tungsten and refined iron stone. He had all kinds of materials, all of which were automatically sorted out by the System from the Storage Rings of those he had killed over the years.
“Well, there’s a Smithing Table, basic materials, and flames, not to mention those Mystical Fires are enough to deal with everything. Now everything is ready, I still need…” Xu Que stood in front of the Smithing Table and peered around.
What was he missing? He needed a formula!
Equipment Refining was similar to Pill Refining, it wouldn’t work by casually throwing in materials. Some metal materials were similar to medicinal herbs, they had mutually exclusive attributes. It must be refined according to the formulas based on previous research results, and even the amount of materials must be precise. Otherwise, the top quality and hardness of the equipment couldn’t be guaranteed after the refining.
Creak!
Xu Que pushed open the wooden door and stretched out his head. Feng Lanwu and Xiao Ru were just outside. When they heard his movements, they immediately turned around and looked at him. They were thrilled. It had been three days, a full three days and three nights; he was finally out.
Is it possible that he had succeeded?
Immediately, expectations were written on both of their faces, as they looked at Xu Que with eager eyes. Xu Que said with a grin, “Miss Feng, you can rest assured that I am 80 percent sure I can refine a magical weapon, but now I’m just short of one thing!”
“What is it?” Feng Lanwu and Xiao Ru were instantly delighted although Xu Que hadn’t succeeded in Equipment Refinement yet. He said he was 80 percent positive, it meant that he was not far from success!
“Fellow cultivator, which materials are you short of, just tell us, we’ll certainly find them for you!” Feng Lanwu immediately responded. As the Second Miss of the Chamber of Commerce, she had a lot of precious materials with her. Even if she didn’t have what Xu Que wanted, she could go to some Ancient City and exchange for them.
“No, it’s not material. I’m missing a formula for the Equipment Refining right now. Do you have it? Any formula is fine!” Xu Que waved his hand and said.
Feng Lanqu and Xiao Ru were stunned and felt unwell and frustrated.
The formula for Equipment Refining?
As a Fifth Grade Equipment Refining Grandmaster, you don’t even have one formula?
What kind of Fifth Grade Equipment Refining Grandmaster are you?
…..