Ninth-Rank Refiner

Chapter 157: The fourth-grade weapon refiner is a cabbage

Wang Shuhuo gave Jiao Yuefei a thumbs up. “The City Lord is indeed impartial in enforcing the law. However, our Refining Association still has one matter that requires Jin Buhuan to handle.”

Jiao Yuefei’s expression turned ugly. “Are you saying that because the Refining Association has business to attend to, I, the City Lord, cannot arrest someone? Is your Refining Association’s business more important, or are the city’s rules more important? The city’s rules are also observed by the Association, right? As the Association’s President, you can’t turn public affairs into private ones and seek personal gain through power, can you?”

Wang Shuhuo smiled, shook his head, “Right here, just for a moment. After it’s done, the City Lord can do whatever he deems fit. If Jin Buhuan dares to escape, I will be the first to stop him. If he escapes, the City Lord can come to me for him. If you can’t get him, then tear down my Refining Association.”

Jiao Yuefei was half-convinced. “Here?”

Wang Shuhuo nodded.

Qian Duoduo felt a chill in his heart: What does this President want me to do?

Jiao Yuefei asked again, “Just for a moment?”

“At most, the time it takes for an incense stick to burn,” Wang Shuhuo smiled slightly.

“Alright. Then I’ll give you some Face and wait for a bit,” Jiao Yuefei said loudly. “Everyone heard it. If the murderer disappears, the Refining Association will be responsible.”

Wang Shuhuo smiled and said to Han Shunwen, “Later, I’ll ask Boss Han to guard the area and not allow anyone to disturb Jin Buhuan. There will be a reward afterward.”

Han Shunwen, fiddling with his abacus, said, “For reasonable and lawful matters, I, Han, am willing to support. Rewards or no rewards, I don’t value them.” After speaking, an aura of a Nascent Soul Cultivator emanated, drawing a circle around the cauldron.

Wang Shuhuo cupped his hands towards the Cultivators watching from afar, “I also ask everyone to bear witness. Our Association will be holding an assessment here. Third Grade High-Level Artifact Refiner Jin Buhuan will be taking the Four-Rank Refiner examination here, and I invite everyone to observe. Please come closer, get to know the Four-Rank Refiner, so you can ask him to Refine Artifacts in the future.”

The Cultivators watching the excitement from afar, hearing him, moved much closer, standing outside the circle drawn by Han Shunwen. Some even recognized Qian Duoduo as having been the Jin Zhendian of the Refining Spirit Sect.

Jiao Yuefei’s Face, however, changed drastically, and he pointed at Wang Shuhuo, “You, you, you…”

Wang Shuhuo slowly turned his head to look at him, feigning surprise, “What, City Lord, are you going to go back on your word? Are you going to try and take back spilled water?”

Jiao Yuefei sneered, “Do you think a Four-Rank Refiner is as common as a cabbage, that even that young brat can pass the test?” Generally speaking, a Four-Rank Refiner’s Cultivation must at least reach the Golden Core Realm. However, Qian Duoduo was only at Condensing Qi Stage Level Eight.

“That’s not for the City Lord to worry about, is it?” Wang Shuhuo said with a smile.

With a wave of his hand, a cauldron appeared in front of Qian Duoduo, and a Hundred Item Recipes for Profound Weapon flew into Qian Duoduo’s hand.

“Old rules, pick one,” Wang Shuhuo said to Yu Yixiang, “Please stand over here, young lady. Don’t panic, I’ve got everything handled.”

Yu Yixiang looked at Qian Duoduo, who nodded. She walked over and stood with Wang Shuhuo.

Qian Duoduo casually flipped to a page, on which was drawn a three-pointed, two-edged blade. This blade seemed simple, but in fact, it subtly contained the Five Elements. The three points represented Metal, Wood, and Earth, while the two edges represented Water and Fire. By perfectly unifying the Five Elements, no matter what attribute the opponent’s Magic Treasure possessed, it could be specifically countered.

And whether the Five Elements operated in an orderly manner, with swift generation, overcoming, and restraining, was the key to evaluating the success and quality of refining a three-pointed, two-edged blade.

Seeing that Qian Duoduo had drawn the task of refining a three-pointed, two-edged blade, Jiao Yuefei snorted. This Magic Treasure was quite difficult; for Qian Duoduo, who was currently a Third Grade High-Level, it was a small leap in difficulty, and the probability of success was not high.

The discussions among the surrounding Cultivators also grew louder.

“In our Lower Road, I’ve never heard of anyone refining a Profound Weapon.”

“The three-pointed, two-edged blade, even in the Middle Road, is considered a good Magic Treasure. Even the Refining Spirit Sect, Ba Ling Sect, and Shengling Sect don’t have many, do they?”

“This Jin Buhuan is indeed a powerful Artifact Refiner, but whether he can refine the three-pointed, two-edged blade is still a concern. Of course, I most hope he does what he did before and holds a discounted auction. That way, we’d have a chance to make a fortune.”

“What are you thinking? Still an auction? The City Lord wants to arrest him. If he succeeds in refining it, we must voice our support for Jin Zhendian. How can a Four-Rank Refiner be put in Jail?”

The sounds of chatter grew louder and louder.

Qian Duoduo calmed himself down, then looked up and smiled at Yu Yixiang, who was looking at him anxiously.

Seeing this, Wang Shuhuo waved his hand, and two Artifact Refiners from the Association stepped forward, placed three sets of Materials, and then exited the circle.

Each set of Materials contained twelve types of implements: two types for each of the Five Elements, and two types of carrier implements.

The moment his hand touched the implements, Qian Duoduo forgot where he was; his Spiritual Awareness was solely focused on the Magic Treasure for the three-pointed, two-edged blade.

The implements entered the cauldron one by one; those that needed to be refined were refined, those that needed to be purified were purified, those that needed to be reduced were reduced…

With all twelve types of implements prepared, Qian Duoduo let out a long breath. Such a complex Magic Treasure tested too many things.

The twelve types of implements included roots of spiritual plant, bones of Spirit Beast, feathers of Spirit Birds, and Ore from spiritual mines. Each was incomparably precious, and their Spiritual Qi was much stronger than that of artisan artifact and Dan artifact. To produce three sets at once, only the Refining Association could afford it.

There were three types of spiritual plant roots. Ten-thousand-year ironwood, fire spirit vine heart, and indeterminate ice grass whiskers. Ten-thousand-year ironwood was harder than Profound Iron. Fire spirit vine heart was a small root that only grew after a fire spirit vine had grown over a thousand feet. The characteristic of this root was that when wood-attribute Spiritual Qi was focused, it could automatically generate intense fire. And the indeterminate ice grass whiskers were extremely rare, even harder to find than Black Velvet Soft Purple Artemisia. Its characteristic was that it could absorb water-attribute attacks and transform them into wood-attribute Spiritual Qi.

There were also three types of spiritual Ore. For attack implements, there was hao gold Ore. To refine hao gold Ore, one needed a high-temperature and abundant furnace fire. Under normal circumstances, an Artifact Refiner’s Cultivation would need to reach the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage. Fortunately, Qian Duoduo had Cultivated the Ever-Rich and Noble Art, and his compressed Spiritual Qi was sufficient to generate high-temperature furnace fire. There were two types of auxiliary spiritual Ore: one was Ming Iron Ore, which communicated with both metal and water attributes of Spiritual Qi. The other was inverse iron Ore, also called donkey iron; its characteristic was that it became harder the more it was burned, as stubborn as a donkey. To refine it, one couldn’t use fire; one had to use hot water at body temperature.

Refining the bones of Spirit Beast and the feathers of Spirit Birds was even more complex.

For example, the spine of the Spirit Whale Shark used the skull of a Spirit Whale Shark that had reached the Xuan Beast level. First, the skull had to be crushed into extremely fine powder, then pressed into a very elastic blue bone strip. When pressing, water ripples also had to be carved into it.

Shaking his head, Qian Duoduo cleared his mind and began to assemble the twelve refined implements.

The handle was made of an alloy of hao gold and Ming Iron. It was both sturdy and weighty, yet not cumbersome.

The complex blade body was the most testing of Spiritual Awareness; the twelve implements were neither too big nor too small, neither too many nor too few, and their arrangement order could not have a single mistake, otherwise, their attributes would clash, and the blade would be ruined.

“Ding!” A crisp sound came, and a five-colored light suddenly shot out from the cauldron.

The onlookers immediately erupted into excitement. The Cultivators standing at the back only heard the sound and saw the five-colored light emerging, not knowing what had happened, desperately craning their necks to look forward. The Cultivators standing in the front row actually didn’t know if it had been successfully refined or not. They had Wang Shuhuo and Han Shunwen’s Spirit Qi-drawn circle in front of them, and Cultivators pushing from behind.

They could only whisper, “Don’t push, don’t push, someone’s going to get hurt if you keep pushing!”

On the North Gate city tower, Jiao Yuefei also didn’t know the result. After a few moments of restraint, he couldn’t help but ask, “Has it been refined?”