Chapter 2941 — The Forging Flame

No wonder one of the prerequisites for refining the jade pendant space was mastery of the second layer of the Xuanyuan Dragon Taming Art. It turned out that only with the second layer perfected could one become an Artifact Forger—it was just that the method for refining the jade pendant never mentioned the concept of an Artifact Forger at all.

Next, Wei Zhao began attempting to refine the forging flame. Unlike pill fire, the forging flame could not be refined into metal, wood, water, fire, and earth elemental variants; the forging flame was of only one kind. But successfully refining it was far from easy.

Within the method for refining the jade pendant was an incantation for refining the forging flame. Following that incantation, Wei Zhao prepared to make his first attempt at refining the forging flame.

At first, Wei Zhao assumed that since all his prerequisites were satisfied, refining the forging flame would be a matter of moments. Only when he actually began did he realize he had oversimplified things.

The forging flame was not so easily refined. Though it lacked the many elemental variants of pill fire, through the incantation Wei Zhao could tell that this forging flame was plainly the fusion of the metal, fire, and wood attributes into a single flame—and only that was called the forging flame.

The process of refining the forging flame was in fact very similar to that of pill fire, but fusing flames of three attributes into one made it considerably harder.

The refining process itself was simple—one might even say extremely easy. After all, the incantation for refining the forging flame was in truth a branch of the Xuanyuan Dragon Taming Art: the process of converting the universal true qi within one's body into a metal-attribute forging flame, a fire-attribute forging flame, and a wood-attribute forging flame.

This process was far easier than refining pill fire. The only difficulty lay in this: to become a qualified Artifact Forger, one had to be able to refine, in the palm of one's hand, the forging flame in which all three attributes were united.

Moreover, to forge artifacts, one had to be able to freely manipulate the intensity and temperature of each attribute's flame within the forging flame. For when forging, there were times when more of the metal attribute was required, times when more of the fire attribute was required, and times when more of the wood attribute was required—this was not fixed, but changed at any moment according to the needs of the forging.

As things stood, leaving aside Wei Zhao's ability to freely alter the intensity and temperature of a single attribute's flame—even refining a forging flame that united metal, fire, and wood simultaneously was a very difficult feat.

Wei Zhao experimented for a long while, and managed only to refine forging flames containing a single attribute. That posed no difficulty for him at all; a single turn of the incantation accomplished the conversion. But to refine a forging flame containing three attributes was not so easy.

After trying for a long while, Wei Zhao was drenched in sweat, head and body alike, and in the end could barely refine a forging flame containing two attributes. The moment he added the third, he found himself at his wit's end—or rather, unable to divide his attention three ways—and one of the attribute flames would invariably extinguish.

As for altering the forging flame's intensity and temperature, in the single-attribute case Wei Zhao could do it with ease, for it was simply a matter of controlling the Xuanyuan Dragon Taming Art—child's play. But a forging flame containing two attributes was another matter.

When Wei Zhao tried to alter one attribute's intensity and temperature, the other attribute's flame would inevitably die out because his attention had strayed—let alone three attributes.

This state of affairs left Wei Zhao, after a whole day of struggle, utterly vexed—and with no solution in sight.

He knew well enough that Rome was not built in a day and that all things must advance step by step. But his earlier training in martial techniques had gone exceptionally fast, giving him the confidence that whatever he set his hand to, he would master. Now that confidence had taken a beating, and he felt rather dispirited.

Fortunately, when he thought of his sorry attainments in alchemy, this small setback seemed to count for nothing.

"Elder Jiao, this forging business... it's simply too hard. A forging flame of three attributes, and on top of that you have to be able to alter any one attribute's intensity and temperature at will—only a madman could pull that off!" Wei Zhao had been at it for half a day, and refining the forging flame was itself a task that consumed great physical strength and true qi. So after exhausting both, he returned to the jade pendant space to replenish his losses, and upon seeing Jiao Yazi, he could not help venting his complaints.

"Hard? You call that hard? You truly have no idea how hard it is to be an Artifact Forger," Jiao Yazi sneered, casting Wei Zhao a look of contempt. "Falter at a trifling difficulty like this, and a real Artifact Forger might as well give up living!"

"What do you mean by that?" Wei Zhao was rather put out by Jiao Yazi's attitude. This old fellow was always the same—if you did not ask, he would not answer; and once you did ask, he would either claim his memory was incomplete or give you a round of sarcasm... truly insufferable!

"My memories have not yet fully returned," Jiao Yazi said instead.

"...Could you not toy with me?" Wei Zhao smiled bitterly.

"Still, do you not have the crafting method for the Spirit Essence Necklace in your possession? It should contain the Artifact Forger's incantation. Look at it yourself and you will understand," Jiao Yazi said.

Though Wei Zhao was grinding his teeth in frustration at Jiao Yazi's manner, he knew that the Jiao Yazi before him was only a phantom, and that brooding over it was nothing but tormenting himself for nothing. So he had no choice but to let it go.

Yet his curiosity about what Jiao Yazi had said remained keen, so he opened the drawer, took out the crafting method for the Spirit Essence Necklace he had obtained earlier from the Taganlong family's scripture pavilion, and began leafing through it.

The beginning was much the same as the jade pendant's refining method—explanations of the required materials, a description of Artifact Forger ranks... and so on. Artifact Forgers had ranks too? Wei Zhao stared at the introduction to the Spirit Essence Necklace's refining method, his eyes wide.

No such introduction appeared in the jade pendant's refining method. Either the Xuanyuan Dragon Taming Art classified Artifact Forger ranks differently from ordinary Artifact Forgers, or the refining of the jade pendant space could be accomplished by the lowest rank of Artifact Forger alone—which would explain why the jade pendant's refining method contained no such explanation. After all, that method was aimed solely at cultivators of the Xuanyuan Dragon Taming Art, not at Artifact Forgers.

For an Artifact Forger could never possess the jade pendant that Wei Zhao carried.

It turned out that Artifact Forger ranks were the same as cultivator ranks, divided into the four tiers of Heaven, Earth, Mystic, and Yellow—Heaven the highest, Yellow the lowest. The only difference from cultivator ranks and alchemist ranks was that Artifact Forgers had only these four tiers! (To be continued)