The night sky was calm.
A bright moon hung in the sky. It scattered cold and pale moonlight on the earth below.
As the moonbeams shone on the valley, the rays were refracted and focused toward the pond.
The water in the pond was an unnerving blood color.
The moonlight seemed to have given a layer of white frosting to the blood-colored water in the pond.
Tang Hao stood next to it and observed it for a long time. He nodded his head satisfactorily.
The spirit jade pool was done. What was left was to wait.
It did not require too much attention. He only had to come every few days to top up the fertilizer.
According to Tang Hao’s estimations, the pieces of jade in the middle, especially that imperial jade, should be ready in about ten days.
It would mean that the mundane jade would be transformed into a piece of thousand-year spirit jade.
The next morning, Tang Hao went to the replica maker and bought a lot of bronze. He also ordered many bronze pieces of various sizes for practice.
Jade was a precious material. He could not afford to work on it immediately. He would rather practice on bronze first.
When Tang Hao returned home, he began practicing.
The first step of crafting an Artifact was molding the item into the desired shape.
The next step was to inscribe runes on it.
Finally, a cultivator had to channel qi into the Artifact to activate its powers.
The process seemed simple, but actually doing so was anything but that.
The hardest step was the second step.
Crafting an Artifact required a cultivator to carve many runes on the material, many times more than the runes on a jade talisman. The position of each rune had to be perfect.
Every millimeter of difference would result in useless scrap.
Tang Hao started to practice carving a defensive spell on a piece of bronze.
First, he practiced focusing his qi into a sharp carving blade. That took a lot of time, but fortunately, his qi reserves were high.
After mastering that skill, he started to carve the runes.
He encountered many failures, though each failure sharpened his skills. It took him six days of practice before he saw any real progress.
Six days later, he successfully crafted his first Artifact.
The amount of wasted bronze he used could fill up an entire room.
Tang Hao continuously ordered more bronze items from the replica maker. The boss was extremely happy and worked overtime to fulfill his orders.
After his first success, his second and third successes came more easily.
After mastering the basics, Tang Hao ramped up the difficulty. He started carving smaller and more intricate runes.
Jade items were usually smaller than bronze items. He needed to carve very tiny runes to make jade Artifacts. For example, the runes on the blood jade bead could hardly be seen by the naked eye.
He spent another five days mastering that skill.
Tang Hao was fully engrossed in crafting Artifacts. Other than any necessary trips, he spent his entire time in his home.
Even when he was outside, he could not stop thinking about crafting Artifacts.
Twelve days after his first attempt at crafting Artifacts, Tang Hao had mastered the basics of crafting.
Some of the jade pieces inside the pool had transformed into spirit jade. He took a piece, had it crafted into bracelets, and started his first serious attempt in crafting an Artifact.
All the previous attempts were only practice.
It was late at night. Tang Hao sat cross-legged in the living room.
He held a jade bracelet in his left hand.
The bracelet was translucent white. It seemed to be enveloped by a thin halo of light, which made it look brilliant and dazzling.
That was the difference between spirit jade and mundane jade. Not only its appearance had changed after soaking in the spirit jade pool, it was also a lot stronger.
As he held the bracelet in his left hand, he lifted his index finger on his right hand, focused his qi into a small needle, and started carving the runes.
As he moved his finger slightly, tiny runes appeared on the bracelet.
That continued for half an hour.
Suddenly, Tang Hao’s finger trembled and accidentally added an extra stroke.
“Tch!”
He grimaced in frustration. It was already his fifth failure.
He tossed the jade bracelet aside, rested for a while, picked up another one, and started the process again.
He encountered several more failures before finally succeeding in his twelfth attempt.
Tang Hao could not hide his excitement as he beheld the jade bracelet in his palm.
He eventually managed to calm himself down and started to channel qi into the bracelet.
The jade bracelet gradually glowed. The carved runes on the bracelet were projected in the air and shimmered.
It was like a scene from a dream.
“It’s done!” Tang Hao cheered, unable to contain his excitement.
He could not stop looking at the jade bracelet. He was very happy.
He only managed to calm down a long while later. He kept the bracelet somewhere safe and continued making more.
In the entire night, he received four successes out of more than thirty attempts.
Tang Hao repeated the processes over the next few days. He had his fifth success and his sixth. His success rate grew, and more and more Artifacts were produced.
When he accumulated twenty jade bracelets, he started crafting jade pendants.
Jade pendants were easier to carve than bracelets, and the rate of success was higher.
One, two, three…
Many jade pendants were crafted into Artifacts.
Tang Hao had become a master of the craft.
Meanwhile, he also contacted Master Wu Qifeng and handed him the piece of imperial jade to be made into bracelets and necklaces.
Tang Hao requested that the design be plain enough for everyday usage.
Tang Hao received the items five days later. There were fifteen pairs of bracelets and fifteen necklaces in total.
Tang Hao did not immediately start working on them. Instead, he continued practicing to improve his carving skills.
He only started working on those jade items when he felt that he was ready.
He managed to craft nine pairs of bracelets and eleven necklaces out of those items.
That was better than Tang Hao had expected. He was only aiming for eight successes.
He wanted to have them replace the eight blood jade beads he had given out.
He gave a pair of bracelets and a necklace to Sis Xiangyi.
The spirit jade accessories and the blood jade bead granted a lot of defense. Even Tang Hao could not break that easily.
After sending Sis Xiangyi off, Tang Hao called Liu Dajun and the other bosses and requested them to meet in the company.
After a round of calls, he placed his phone down and breathed a sigh of relief.
He looked at the calendar and was surprised.
Before he knew it, he was already back in Westridge for a full month. He spent the past twenty days crafting Artifacts.
Those twenty days passed by in the blink of an eye.
He shook his head as he stood at the door, then went into the house and packaged the spirit jade Artifacts into several intricate boxes.
He went out of the house and drove to the company.
