Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 452
After saying that, he sat on his knees again and gazed at the furnace with his hands holding his chin, not moving anymore.
Xie Qianhe returned his jade chip to his pocket and smiled casually. "That's alright. I will be waiting for Fellow Cultivator Sand to show us your technique to build the seven core components!"
After that, he went to the door of the workshop.
According to the deal yesterday, the seven of them would show their techniques to Sand Scorpion first, and then they would watch Sand Scorpion displaying the secret art for forging the components together.
When he was about to exit the room, Xie Qianhe could not help but turn around.
With only a single glance, his eyeballs froze.
Sand Scorpion's hands were folded into a square pyramid, with the ten fingers tangled together and the palms far away from each other, in exactly the same gesture that he had made just a moment earlier!
In only three seconds, Sand Scorpion changed seventeen different hand gestures that were all loaded with spiritual energy and not simply for show.
As long as his palms collided, the power contained in the seventeen gestures would all be released!
These are the seventeen most difficult gestures in the Dividing Gold Splitting Jade Art!
He has only seen me perform once, and he grasped all of them?
Xie Qianhe was dumbfounded.
Although he could tell that Sand Scorpion's gestures were still not precise, did not follow the standard, and would probably ruin the materials inside a furnace if the gestures were activated, the guy had definitely grasped the essence of the Dividing Gold Splitting Jade Art. The only thing he needed was repetitive practice!
Xie Qianhe felt that his head was dizzy.
Before he came back to himself, Sand Scorpion shook his hands and suddenly formed new gestures in a more primitive, traditional, and fluent style!
This is not the Dividing Gold Splitting Jade Art but another secret art to eliminate the impurities in materials that he knew before.
No. It is not right. His gestures are quite weird and give me a very familiar feeling.
He is trying to incorporate the Dividing Gold Splitting Jade Art into his own skills of refining!
Xie Qianhe was greatly shocked.
What he did not know was that Li Yao had practiced dozens of secret arts to purify materials in the Heavenly Refining Tower of the Hundred Smelting Clan in Ou Yezi's memory pieces.
However, most of the secret arts were too ancient to be implemented in the modern furnaces.
Li Yao had agreed to barter with Xie Qianhe not because he desired the Dividing Gold Splitting Jade Art itself, but because he wanted to study the tricks to use such an ancient technique in modern furnaces.
The Dividing Gold Splitting Jade Art was too sophisticated and boundless. Even for Li Yao, he was not able to grasp all of it in several minutes after watching Xie Tianhe practice it.
However, by observing the entire process, Li Yao was enlightened and found a brand-new approach to applying ancient techniques to modern furnaces.
The methods of purification had been practiced hundreds of times in his memory. Naturally, they were now fluent and flawless when Li Yao showed them in reality.
Born in a noble family of refining, Xie Qianhe was a man of integrity. He would not pry into other people's arts of refining and quickly stopped watching Li Yao.
He did not know how he left the refining workshop and simply sat down like the previous refiners did.
He did not even notice that Master Huangpu was walking to him.
When he was back to himself, Master Huangpu had walked out of the furnace with a complicated expression. It seemed that he was somewhat shocked by Sand Scorpion, too.
"Everybody, let's go inside now. It's time for Fellow Cultivator Sand to demonstrate his technique for us."
With mixed feelings, Xie Qianhe entered the workshop again with the other refiners.
The workshop had been cleaned. A booth in a corner of the room, which had been sealed by rune arrays, was now opened, revealing an anvil carved with complicated patterns that both looked like clouds and swirling thunderbolts.
Inside the furnace, the alloy made of the Heavenly Fire Wolfram, the Moon Tear Germanium, and the Electric Brewer Bronze was revolving rapidly. The irritating spiritual waves that were spreading out of the materials were shaking the furnace hard.
There was absolutely no redundant emotion on Li Yao's face. Passion for the arts of refining was all there was. His eyes that seemed to be on fire licked every refiner, as he said, "Thank you for all your wholehearted enlightenments, everybody. In a moment, I will show you how to combine the three tyrannical materials together manually and how to carve rune arrays on them with the hidden rune technique and the stroke switching technique!"
He!
On Li Yao's body, the refining uniform made of mustard-seed materials with such a high elasticity that it could be lengthened to more than ten meters away was now torn apart into various pieces as if it had decayed for a hundred years and blossomed in midair, revealing bright gold, magnificent muscles behind it!
There were no tattoos on Li Yao's body, but colorful brilliance was vaguely flowing inside his veins and nerves that were slighting protruded, like nine dragons that were raging and roaring silently!
Chapter 674: Star Basher, Divine Anvil! |
The seven refiners all took a step back.
As pure creation-type Cultivators, they found it hard to stand so close to a human-shaped beast like Li Yao.
Li Yao waved his right hand. Black brilliance suddenly shined on the Cosmos Ring on his little finger and formed into a giant hammer in midair that was covered in bumps and hollows and seemed to be made of a meteorite.
"This is 'Star Basher'. It was forged with 'Lackluster Star Rock', a meteorite from outer space, as the main material and 145 other Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures including the Crescent Moon Essence, the Black and Red Jade, and so on, after being baptized with nine drops of blood from my heart every day for 49 days!
"The 'Divine Anvil' over there was made by the Iron Heart Powder of a high density that had accumulated for billions of years ten thousand meters under the spot where the five great mountains of Iron Plateau overlapped.
"Everything has to behave nicely when it comes to the Divine Anvil, be it a dragon or tiger. They will have to be flattened and reshaped even if they are deities."
Carrying the Star Basher on his shoulder, Li Yao seemed to be able to melt metal with his eyes, which were glittering along with his veins and nerves. He looked more intimidating than ever!
The three aggressive materials inside the furnace were just melted together. The performance parameters on the operation light beam were shining. It was time to extract them.
Li Yao extended his left hand. Bright gold spiritual gas leaked out of his pores and condensed into a giant hand in midair, which snatched into the discharge pipe of the furnace and picked out the alloy that was thousands of degrees in temperature.
All seven refiners exclaimed in shock, including Master Huangpu.
Remote manipulation was not a marvelous skill for experts at their level.
But remote manipulation could be very different, depending on the object to be manipulated.
They could snatch metals that were at a normal temperature and were relatively steady, even if the object weighed hundreds of kilograms.
However, the alloy in front of them was at a high temperature of thousands of degrees. Besides, it was made up by three aggressive materials. The repulsion between the ingredients were very strong, and earsplitting noises were already echoing as they left the furnace, as if three ferocious beasts had been locked in the same narrow cage and were about to start brawling.
But Sand Scorpion had grasped such untamable materials steadily by remote manipulation!
He sniffed and closed his left hand. The bright gold hand in midair immediately shrank in size, putting an end to the noises coming the irritating alloy, which was now as timid as a mouse.
Li Yao threw the alloy at the Divine Anvil.
The Divine Anvil was originally a black, lackluster anvil. However, when it was in contact with Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures that contained tremendous spiritual energy, all the spiritual stripes on its surface started shining!
Clouds were flowing, thunder was rumbling, and lighting was flashing. Hundreds of electric arcs were generated on the Divine Anvil and tied up the alloy like countless ropes.
"Hiss—"
Li Yao took a deep, deep breath.
His inhaling was like the absorption of a giant whale. More than half of the air in the workshop was absorbed into his chest, which immediately expanded to twice its usual size. Two swirls in the air seemed to be forming before his nose!
Everybody immediately felt short of breath, as there was not enough oxygen in the room.
Hum! Hum! Hum! Hum!
The ventilation rune arrays on the ceiling, sensing that the workshop was short of oxygen, immediately functioned and sent in new air.
The seven refiners looked at each other in bewilderment. They were all the top experts of the trade and had witness various kinds of bizarre skills of refining, but they had never seen such an impressive performance before.
The real refining was not yet begun, but the aura was already so appalling!
BOOM!
While they were startled, they suddenly heard a heaven-splitting explosion. Nobody saw how Sand Scorpion took action, but the enormous Star Basher suddenly vanished into thin air. It turned into an unpredictable black dragon and mauled the Divine Anvil time and time again.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The noises, each one louder than the last, seemed to be threatening to destroy the workshop at any point like an invisible tsunami.
The mystic rays emanated from the Divine Anvil were even more dazzling.
Xie Qianhe's eyes suddenly shone, and he seemed to see a soul-stirring illusion where the Divine Anvil turned into a high platform that was hundreds of meters tall, and the serial lightning was hitting it nonstop!
The Star Basher struck the Divine Anvil a thousand times in only one minute from various directions.
As the tide-like spiritual energy crashed and cleansed them, the three aggressive materials finally lowered their proud heads under Li Yao's crazy attack and were fully combined.
As the temperature dropped, the alloy gradually hardened, and the round metal balls were knocked into complicated facets.
Suddenly—
The Star Basher was completely gone; Li Yao had put it back in his Cosmos Ring. He slightly opened his legs, and his toes clutched the ground like sharp claws, making the ground shiver as if an earthquake was coming. Every muscle and vein on his body was jumping crazily like simmering magna. The nine dragons on his body were all roaring and about to soar into the sky.
Shua!
The nine dragons crawled out of his body of flesh and blood!
"Ah!"
Xie Qianhe lost calmness and shouted. He thought that Li Yao's body had exploded.
But when he looked more carefully, he found that it was actually the liquefied spiritual energy in Li Yao's veins and nerves that had just burst out.
Li Yao's control over his spiritual liquid far exceeded the best of the Building Foundation Stage Cultivators. Under the command of his soul, the nine 'dragons' split and gathered again, forming a giant that seemed to be made of sophisticated capillary vessels!
The bright gold giant, which only had veins and nerves, was more than three meters tall. Its head against the ceiling and its feet stomping on the ground, the workshop seemed like it could crack at any moment!
Li Yao bit the tip of his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood. He then waved his hands and covered the mist of blood with his hands. He drew runes in the air with the blood as the ink. However, the final runes were not red but bright gold!
Behind him, the transparent giant condensed by his spiritual liquids was copying his gestures and drawing exactly the same runes. In a moment, the giant finished a hundred extremely complicated runes!
"Sealing the runes with the gold spirit, and drawing runes in the void, now!"
Li Yao suddenly bulged his eyes and roared when the alloy on the Divine Anvil was cooled down a certain temperature and put on a red color on the surface.
With his bellow, seven electric arcs flooded out of the Divine Anvil and pushed up the alloy like a spring.
The hundreds of runes in the air as well as the bright gold giant behind Li Yao all turned into streaks of brightness and crowded toward the alloy in a hurry!
BOOM!
A small sun seemed to be rising inside the workshop. There was nothing but blankness that Xie Qianhe could see. When the blankness gradually faded, he found that the runes and the gold giant were all gone, and a newly forged component was swirling slowly in midair. Tiny and delicate runes were appearing and disappearing on the surface of the component, until they gradually sank down.
"Everyone—"
Li Yao wiped his sweat and was quite satisfied about his performance. He asked with a smile, "Do you have any questions?"
The seven refiners were all dumbfounded.
Speechless for a long time, the refiner from the Red Line School, looking at Li Yao's scary muscle, which apparently boasted tremendous strength, managed to open his mouth. "Fellow Cultivator Sand, it appears to me that your secret art has a high demand on physical strength, doesn't it?"
Li Yao smiled and admitted frankly, "Indeed. This secret art of mine is easy to practice, but to achieve the best performance, you will have to boast enough physical strength.
"By my estimation, with two to three times of the strength of battle-type Cultivators in the peak of the Building Foundation Stage, one will be able to fully bring out the potential of the manual forging technique."
The seven refiners were all rendered speechless. The same thoughts popped up in their minds.
We were fooled!
Is he serious? A skill of refining requires the combat ability of the peak of the Building Foundation Stage?
This skill is absolutely useless for us!
How many people in the entire Flying Star Sector are in such a level?
And how many of them are talented in refining?
As it turned out, they had traded seven techniques for one technique that they could not practice at all!
But this was how the exchange of techniques worked.
Sand Scorpion had shown every detail of the skill and even illustrated the circulation routes of spiritual energy inside the body with a bight gold giant. They could only blame themselves for being unable to learn it.
Everybody could not help but sigh to themselves.
Such an unreasonable manual forging technique was totally tailor-made for Sand Scorpion. No wonder he was so generous and agreed to barter with everybody quickly.
Master Xue and Master Huangpu might have been better at the arts of refining than Sand Scorpion was and could see through the tricks of the technique, but they did not have the physical strength to perform such a savage technique even if the two renowned experts of the trade were combined.
The more quick-minded refiners immediately realized that Sand Scorpion was about to rise to fame in the circle of refiners.
Such a manual forging technique was impossible to be duplicated by anyone else, which meant that Sand Scorpion had work on every Unparalleled Extension in person!
Ares Extensions were all extremely expensive. Those who had the funds to purchase Ares Extensions were all the top experts in the world of Cultivators.
But right now, they had to make friends with Sand Scorpion first if they wanted to buy an Unparalleled Extension!
Moreover, such a manual forging technique could be utilized to improve the performance of the key components of many other kinds of magical equipment.
Other than everything else, the secret art he had just shown alone was enough to make countless experts rush to adulate him!
"Fellow Cultivator Sand's marvelous skill is indeed a great eye-opener for me. The barter with Fellow Cultivator Sand has proved my trip to the Edge Sharpeners' Meeting worthwhile!"
Master Huangpu gave a very high remark for Li Yao.
Xie Qianhe felt even more frustrated hearing that.
There was one thing that had been bothering him. He tried to hold it back, but he finally couldn't contain himself and asked Li Yao, "Fellow Cultivator Sand, the arts of refining you demonstrated today show that you are definitely a super expert.
"I do not believe that you couldn't tell the Radiating Crystal from the Grey Crystal in the auction yesterday.
"Then, why did you spend tens of millions of dollars on a useless meteorite that contained a lot of Grey Crystals?"
Chapter 675: The Best Master! |
The seven refiners all looked at Li Yao suspiciously.
They had all heard that Li Yao had spent a fortune on Grey Crystals.
It had spread among the circle of refiners and became a joke for many of them.
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao retrieved the meteorite, which was like a lump, from his Cosmos Ring and put it on the Divine Anvil.
"This is the Red Streak Gold Hair Stone that I bought in the auction yesterday."
Of the seven refiners, five did not participate in the auction yesterday. They all went close and studied the material carefully.
Xie Qianhe took out a magnifying lens from his pocket and put it to his right eye. He observed the pattern on the surface of the meteorite while he touched the 'hair' with his two fingers.
The refiner from the Red Line School, in the meantime, retrieved a glittering gem from his Cosmos Ring. It was emitting dozens of different colors like a lantern.
When the brilliance of the gem reached the Red Streak Gold Hair Stone, it would be reflected into entirely different shades.
The refiner from the Red Line School observed the reflection, deep in thought.
"In my opinion—"
Master Huangpu did not resort to any examination magical equipment but simply sniffed his fingers after scratching the surface of the stone casually. He said certainly, "It is beyond a doubt that Grey Crystals are stored inside the stone. Besides, 60% of them are corrupted by impurities, which means that they are of a low quality even among Grey Crystals."
