Chapter 3527 — Forging a Heaven-Tier Divine Weapon

Kang Jingming threw Wei Zhao a glance, knew himself no match for him, and left with his head lowered, saying nothing more.

Wei Zhao paid him no mind. He hurried back to his room and began studying the forging of divine weapons.

Once inside, he went into the inner chamber of his suite, took out from the jade pendant's space the copy he had transcribed of the "Art of Forging Heaven-Tier Divine Weapons," and began to study it.

According to the text, forging a Heaven-Tier divine weapon made specifically for use with the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art required the following materials: refined mystic iron, black mystic iron, colored steel, crow-charcoal stone, pure yellow jade, blue crystal powder, and the blood of the Five-Bane Dragon.

It was a great many materials—far more than the refinement of the jade pendant's space or the essence necklace had required. Yet apart from the Five-Bane Dragon's blood, which he had only just obtained, Wei Zhao had gathered all the rest some time ago. During the days when he was refining Qi-Gathering Pills, he had swept up a share of everything alongside the pill ingredients, shaken out of those ancient sects and hidden clans. Now he had spare quantities of every material.

So if Wei Zhao began forging now, he had more than enough to work with.

What rankled him was that he had obtained the Five-Bane Dragon's blood too late. Had it come earlier—early enough to forge a divine weapon sooner—he could have used it throughout his entire Heaven-Tier stage.

Now he was on the verge of advancing to the Heavenly Dao stage. Whether a Heaven-Tier divine weapon could still be used above the Heavenly Dao, and whether it would retain such power if used, were all unknowns.

Still, to open the stone door of the Xuanyuan Cave Mansion, he had to forge it. That too was a kind of trial the stone door set for him.

The materials were now all assembled. Wei Zhao read on through the latter part of the forging art. It turned out that the divine weapon suited to the Xuanyuan Dragon-Taming Art was a staff, which required cylindrical refined mystic iron as its vessel—just as refining the essence necklace had required a jade pendant as its vessel.

Refined mystic iron? Wei Zhao could not help thinking of the refined mystic iron rod—the one Zhong Yongliang had given him. The fellow had done nothing but hand him fine things. Might as well keep him around, Wei Zhao mused; he might still prove useful down the road.

With the materials in hand, Wei Zhao set about puzzling out the refining method. As for the forging fire, after his two previous trials he could already command it with complete proficiency. There was no difficulty there.

What came next was more practice in earnest.

Only after reading through the forging steps for a Heaven-Tier divine weapon several times did Wei Zhao carefully arrange fixed proportions of black mystic iron, colored steel, crow-charcoal stone, pure yellow jade, blue crystal powder, and Five-Bane Dragon's blood around the refined mystic iron rod. Then he formally began forging his Heaven-Tier divine weapon.

He started by condensing the forging fire. The steps that followed were in fact very much like the methods for refining the jade pendant's space and the essence necklace.

With the experience of those two prior attempts, this condensing went remarkably smoothly. Wei Zhao's hands worked ceaselessly, condensing the forging fire, and every so often he had to reshape and reform the auxiliary materials with his hands, fusing them into the refined mystic iron rod on the ground.

One after another, the whole process went smoothly. After some time, he finally reached the most important step in forging this weapon.

This step was the most critical of all, and the one for which Wei Zhao had the least material. For the materials condensed thus far, he basically had backups in hand—but the final step was the injection of the Five-Bane Dragon's blood.

This step was also wholly unlike the two forgings before it, for the Five-Bane Dragon's blood was the single most important material for altering a Heaven-Tier divine weapon's attributes.

As everyone knew, Heaven-Tier divine weapons had attributes, and only cultivators of the matching attribute could wield them to their fullest effect.

That loose cultivator back in the marketplace, collecting materials from Heaven-Tier spirit beasts of corresponding attributes, had done so precisely to alter a Heaven-Tier divine weapon's attribute.

Wei Zhao was a cultivator of the five elements and seven attributes. Among spirit beasts, likely only the Five-Bane Dragon belonged to the five-element attributes—and Wei Zhao's divine weapon ought to be one of the five-element attributes. Hence the final step absolutely required the Five-Bane Dragon's blood to set the Heaven-Tier divine weapon's attribute.

When he reached this step, Wei Zhao was delighted as well: he had used less than five hours. Earlier he had heard Wang Xinyan and Han Jingyi come in, but the two had pushed the door open, seen him busy at something, and not disturbed him—each had gone off to rest instead.

Wei Zhao drew a deep breath. The next step was to inject the Five-Bane Dragon's blood into the refined mystic iron rod to fuse—and this was also the hardest step. It was not simply a matter of sprinkling the blood at random onto the rod; the blood had to permeate the refined mystic iron rod evenly. The slightest deviation producing an uneven distribution of the blood could leave the divine weapon flawed—and when true qi was poured in with full force, it might burst apart or snap.

Naturally, Wei Zhao did not rush. He proceeded methodically and with great care, cautious at every single step.

Fortunately, Heaven rewards the diligent. At last, by early the next morning, Wei Zhao completed this final, most difficult refining step.

Wei Zhao eyed the refined mystic iron rod before him, which had visibly grown even... blacker, with some puzzlement. The thing was pitch-black, like a fire poker. It did not look like anything fine at all. Truly—understated, luxurious, and full of substance!

Of course, though Wei Zhao looked at the rod in his hand and saw little out of the ordinary compared with its former appearance—apart from being a shade blacker, one might even say there was no great difference—he did not mind.

It was a thing for fighting, after all, not for putting on display or showing off. What did it matter whether it looked good or not?

After resting a moment, Wei Zhao began pouring true qi into the refined mystic iron rod. The rod gave a humming "buzz," and suddenly a layer of dazzling, multicolored, iridescent true qi blazed forth above it!

And that formerly dingy black iron rod, in that instant, suddenly became high-end, imposing, and thoroughly classy...

Still, Wei Zhao only poured in true qi to test the feel. He did not dare unleash it here in the inn. Sturdy as the inn appeared, how could it withstand a full-force strike from a great-perfection expert wielding a divine weapon? It would be smashed into rubble!

True, Wei Zhao bore a grudge against Ancestor Xuanchen, but this was the property of the Five Luminaries Sect. Perhaps in the future, when Wei Zhao returned from Cloud Stair Island, he would still have to ask Xuanchen to take it all back!