Ninth-Rank Refiner

Chapter 146: A heavy punch, knocking the head off

The Lu Xi Giant swayed uncontrollably.

Dugu Yunshan punched the bloody crossbow arrow, causing all the arrows to embed into the Lu Xi Giant's head. Xu Fa, following up with his left hand, knocked the Lu Xi Giant's longbow, which was made of a base, out of his hand.

The Lu Xi Giant's left hand flickered slightly, and the Lu Dong Giant felt a pang in his heart. This was Nangong Nizi's self-initiated Soul attack, but such an attack, coming from a Condensing Qi Stage Level Eight Cultivator, posed no threat to an Early Stage Golden Core Cultivator; it could only be considered a distraction.

"Ah!" The Lu Xi Giant roared, struggling to take a step forward and stomping heavily on the Lu Dong Giant's injured left foot. Ning Hao gritted his teeth, doing his best to control his body, not to tremble or make a sound.

Dugu Yunshan and Xu Fa delivered punch after punch, heavily striking the Lu Xi Giant's head, unleashing dozens of punches in a single breath.

The Lu Xi Giant recovered from his daze, just as he clenched his fist, intending to smash it onto Qian Duoduo's and the others' injured left shoulder.

Dugu Yunshan delivered a heavy punch, sending the Lu Xi Giant's head flying.

The Lu Xi Giant staggered backward, retreating towards the cave entrance.

Qian Duoduo and the others chased after him, delivering punch after punch to the Lu Xi Giant's chest, until the Artifact Spirit's cold voice rang out—

"Fourth round, Lu Dong wins."

Taking advantage of the imminent teleportation, Qian Duoduo quickly took out ten Spirit Chickens from his Golden Toad and placed them at the entrance of the Spirit Fox Mountain Cave.

After this farewell, there might never be another chance to see the Extreme Fire Spirit Fox family.

Without their help, the Lu Dong Giant would not have won this round.

Returning to the Magic Treasure Vault, without time to celebrate, Qian Duoduo threw out a phrase, "You all research, I'll handle the Artifact Refining."

Relighting the cauldron, with all the materials inside already refined and forged, Qian Duoduo began assembling the parts. Dozens of parts, following a strict sequence, sometimes with intense fire, sometimes with gentle heat, or filled with Spiritual Qi, or pressed into a crescent shape…

With a hum, a soft sound emanated from the cauldron.

Everyone's eyes simultaneously turned to look. Their eyes held question marks: was the Magic Treasure ruined?

"It's done!" Qian Duoduo smiled as he uncovered the cauldron, and a crimson crossbow appeared before everyone, with Spiritual Qi flowing on it.

"Oh, Soul-Seizing Blood Crossbow!" Deng Feihong shrieked, then covered his mouth, looking upwards, fearing the Artifact Spirit might hear him.

"Dan artifact, Senior Rank!" Cao Yueying shook her head and sighed, "Junior Brother Bu Huan, you truly are a monster!"

Qian Duoduo replicated the Soul-Seizing Blood Crossbow from the vault using the materials available, but during the refining process, Qian Duoduo further purified the materials, raising its Rank by two minor levels, from a Low-Rank Dan artifact to a Senior Dan Artifact.

Qian Duoduo tossed the Soul-Seizing Blood Crossbow to Dugu Yunshan, saying, "Senior Brother, take good care of it."

"We've got this round in the bag," Dugu Yunshan said, his mouth stretched to the back of his head.

Qian Duoduo shook his head, putting on the chess instrument vest Xu Fa handed him, "No. If we don't have to use it, we still won't."

The next round was about to begin. In this round, Qian Duoduo was still the heart chess piece.

"Fifth round, begin."

With the Artifact Spirit's voice, the vault door opened, revealing a city. Above the city gate, the characters "Unnamed" were carved.

Looking through the city gate, inside the city, streets crisscrossed, and the market was bustling.

This round, was it going to be fought here?

Hesitantly, Qian Duoduo stepped forward, entering the city gate.

The moment he entered the city, the Lu Dong Giant suddenly felt a heavy sensation, and then Qian Duoduo could no longer sense anyone else's Spiritual Awareness.

"In this city, we are all Mortals," Qian Duoduo whispered softly in his mind. If Dugu Yunshan and the others could still hear, they would know. If they couldn't hear, there was nothing to be done.

Qian Duoduo tried, but he couldn't take out the gold coins, Magic Treasures, Medicinal Pills, Formations, or Talismans from his Storage Pouch and Golden Toad.

The chess instrument was fair. What applied to Lu Dong also applied to Lu Xi.

"That's fine," Qian Duoduo muttered to himself. Returning to being a Mortal, Qian Duoduo didn't feel anything. At most, it was like returning to You Sha Village, that poor, starving village.

However, now that he was empty-handed, he still needed to find a tool. Just like hitting a dog, you still need a sturdy wooden stick.

Thinking of this, Qian Duoduo quickened his pace. He walked past breakfast stalls, silk shops, and even luxurious restaurants. In front of the city's citizens, he was of average height, dressed ordinarily, a genuine passerby.

Finally, Qian Duoduo heard a clanging sound.

This was it, the blacksmith's shop, the place he was looking for.

Bypassing a row of shanties, Qian Duoduo found a small, squat house. Inside, a burly middle-aged man was swinging a heavy hammer, pounding on a cleaver.

Qian Duoduo walked up to him, "Uncle, do you need any help?"

The middle-aged man seemed deaf, his heavy hammer not pausing in the slightest.

"I know how to forge iron," Qian Duoduo moved to face the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man spat on the ground, narrowed his eyes, and his expression turned cold.

Qian Duoduo squatted down and picked up the bellows' handle. The middle-aged man was about to speak, but then saw the furnace fire suddenly flare up.

At this moment, the cleaver he was forging coincidentally needed heating.

The middle-aged man clamped the cleaver and inserted it into the furnace fire.

Qian Duoduo pushed the bellows, and the furnace fire was neither too big nor too small, perfectly enveloping the iron part of the cleaver. As soon as the iron turned red, Qian Duoduo immediately stopped the bellows.

The middle-aged man's mouth twitched, "Grab a hammer." Qian Duoduo's skill in controlling the fire was satisfactory. As an Artifact Refiner, if one couldn't even control the temperature of the fire, then one was unqualified.

Qian Duoduo picked up a medium-sized hammer he had already eyed, and stood opposite him. As the middle-aged man's heavy hammer lifted, Qian Duoduo's hammer immediately fell. Following his rhythm, according to the cleaver's inherent grain, he forged its shape and refined its quality.

This kind of heavy object forging was the most primitive method of Artifact Refining. It was often used in the Artifact Refining process. It was just that Qian Duoduo used Spiritual Qi condensed into a hammer in a cauldron. Now, he was simply doing what he originally did in the cauldron, but outside.

This ten-person combined body was still quite good, able to keep up with the middle-aged man's rhythm.

As the middle-aged man's hammer stopped, Qian Duoduo grabbed the tongs beside him, picked up the cleaver, and plunged it into the cold water nearby. The blade was inserted three times and pulled out three times, then placed on the workbench.

The middle-aged man smiled slightly, "You really do know. Want something harder?"

"Sure."

Qian Duoduo agreed verbally, but in his heart, he thought: In the Mortal world, what could be difficult? When Mortals say something is difficult, it's usually because they don't know the complexity of the Immortal Cultivation World.

The middle-aged man took out a drawing from a wooden box and hung it to the side. Qian Duoduo turned his head to look and was immediately stunned—

It was the structural diagram of the Soul-Seizing Blood Crossbow!

Qian Duoduo's mind was shaken as he looked at the middle-aged man in front of him. Could this Mortal, whose face was covered in black ash, have another secret?

Seeing Qian Duoduo's eyes flickering, the middle-aged man asked with a smile, "Don't understand?"

"No problem," Qian Duoduo replied loudly. This structural diagram of the Soul-Seizing Blood Crossbow was different from the one Qian Duoduo had disassembled in the Magic Treasure Vault; it was purely forged from a single piece of common iron.

Could it really be refined this way? Qian Duoduo expressed his doubt.

"Then let's go," the middle-aged man picked up a large, pumpkin-sized piece of common iron from the ground and put it into the furnace.

Qian Duoduo pushed the bellows, and the flames, like tongues, swallowed the common iron.

As the surface of the common iron turned red, the middle-aged man clamped it out of the furnace. The two of them hammered it little by little according to the hanging structural diagram, and gradually, a Soul-Seizing Blood Crossbow took shape.

The iron hammers they used were arranged in a row beside them, ranging from as large as watermelons to as small as fingertips, totaling dozens of hammers.

It was unknown how many times it was quenched, but when Qian Duoduo took the Soul-Seizing Blood Crossbow out of the cold water, he knew the refining was successful.

There was an iron arm, an iron crossbow mechanism, a steel string and a steel bow, and three quenched iron crossbow arrows.

Qian Duoduo shook his aching arm and held up the blood crossbow with his right hand. In front of the crossbow, he saw a familiar face.

The Lu Xi Giant had found his way here. Although called a giant, his height was actually the same as everyone else's.