Chapter 3976 — A Weapon That Can Evolve

To his surprise, Scrap King's expression suddenly turned grave. "Not enough. Far, far from enough—this little bit of material won't do at all!"

"What?" Wei Zhao was momentarily taken aback, thinking to himself, Don't tell me this fellow has really let greed get the better of him at the sight of treasure and started nursing some notion he shouldn't. So many rare wonders of the world, all to upgrade a single plain-steel staff no better than a fire poker—how could that possibly be insufficient? Surely he isn't trying to use this as a pretext to gouge me?

However much of an amateur Wei Zhao might be, he had at least dabbled and tried his hand at the art of artifact-forging, and he understood a thing or two about it.

By his own reckoning, upgrading this plain-steel staff of his should have been well within reach with ordinary materials and a single thousand-year tree crystal. Now, with a ten-thousand-year tree crystal and the primordial pure land thrown in as well, it was absolutely more than enough.

"Brother Lin, let me be frank with you," said Scrap King, his face twisted with bitter regret. "This plain-steel staff of yours is a fine piece at the heaven tier, to be sure, but its quality is hardly anything to boast of. If you use these top-grade materials to upgrade it, then yes, it would be more than enough—and I could guarantee a ten-out-of-ten success rate. But doing so would be a sheer waste of materials the likes of which one might not see again in a lifetime."

Only then did Wei Zhao nod in sudden understanding. Just as Scrap King said, when it came to sheer value, his plain-steel staff could not even begin to compare with the rarity and preciousness of things like the ten-thousand-year tree crystal. It was like outfitting a carriage worth a few tens of thousands with top-grade fittings costing hundreds of thousands, if not millions—to call it a waste was no exaggeration at all.

"Then what's to be done? It wouldn't be right to just set the plain-steel staff aside and not use it at all, would it?" Wei Zhao said, somewhat at a loss.

Using these top-grade materials to upgrade the plain-steel staff would be a waste, yet the staff itself was no ordinary object, and he had poured a great deal of painstaking effort into it. To cast it aside just like that would be a tremendous waste as well. For the moment, he found himself caught in a dilemma.

Scrap King furrowed his brow and pondered for a moment. Then his eyes suddenly lit up, and he exclaimed excitedly, "If it were merely a matter of upgrading the plain-steel staff, then of course it would be a cruel and senseless waste. But what if we went about it a different way and let it evolve—transform utterly, as though reborn? Would that not be the best of both worlds?"

"Evolve?" Wei Zhao was startled by the word and asked in confusion, "How is that different from upgrading?"

"Of course it's different!" Scrap King burst out noisily. "Upgrading a weapon is common enough—there's no real skill to it. Practically any artifact-forger can do it."

"Upgrading a weapon is common?" Wei Zhao was only more bewildered. "But I've heard that ordinary weapons generally can't be upgraded at all—that only by using materials like the thousand-year tree crystal does a weapon even have a chance at upgrading?"

Scrap King smiled and explained patiently, "There's something Brother Lin doesn't know. What you say is both right and wrong—like any other outsider, you've only got half the picture. You may not know this, but the saying that ordinary weapons can't be upgraded actually came from the mouths of artifact-forgers in the first place. Think about it—if they made the matter out to be too easy, how would they ever profit so enormously from it?"

"That's... you artifact-forgers really are a cunning lot," Wei Zhao said, unable to decide whether to laugh or cry, once he had quickly worked out the cause and effect.

Setting aside the question of whether ordinary weapons could truly be upgraded or not, once this notion had been spread about and accepted as common knowledge, it was certainly of tremendous benefit—at least to the artifact-forgers.

After all, artifact-forging, like pill refinement, had an absolute professional barrier around it. Outsiders had no other choice but to seek out an artifact-forger. And so, with the difficulty exaggerated beyond all measure, they could naturally and rightfully charge a hefty price whenever they upgraded a weapon for someone.

And even if some people, because of this, decided against upgrading their weapons, new weapons were always in demand, and in the end they would still have to come knocking on the artifact-forgers' door—another fine piece of business right there.

So, inside and out, once this saying spread and took root as a fixed mode of thinking, everyone would be helpless against being fleeced. The artifact-forger who first dreamed up this notion truly missed his calling—he ought to have gone into business and founded a merchant guild.

Turning it over in his mind, Wei Zhao asked again, "But even if someone with an eye to profit spread this saying back then, surely not every artifact-forger would have been of one mind. A lie is bound to be exposed sooner or later—has no one seen through it in all these years?"

"If it were a lie fabricated out of thin air, then yes, it would easily be exposed. But the trouble is, this saying isn't a thoroughgoing lie—it's half true and half false, and for outsiders whose understanding has been muddled, that makes it very hard to tell the difference. Especially once the notion has taken deep root, even if a few artifact-forgers were to step forward and explain it to them, they might not be willing to accept it. Besides, this saying benefits the artifact-forgers and harms them not at all—who would be foolish enough to step forward, smash his own rice bowl, and make himself the target of all his colleagues?" Scrap King shook his head.

Wei Zhao's interest was at once aroused. "Just how is it half true and half false? Brother Wang, could you explain it to me in detail?"

"Of course—so long as Brother Lin is willing to listen." Scrap King promptly invited Wei Zhao to sit, then explained at leisure, "In the eyes of outsiders, weapon upgrading is one vague, general concept. But in the eyes of us artifact-forgers, weapon upgrading is two entirely different concepts: one is ordinary, skill-free weapon upgrading, and the other is weapon evolution, which is extraordinarily difficult."

"What's the difference between the two?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Heh heh, the difference between them is enormous. Ordinary weapon upgrading is really no different from a common man mending a hoe or patching an iron pot—just pay a little attention to the compatibility of the materials, and simply set the upgrade material into the weapon, and you're done. There's no skill in it, and of course no great result to be had. In the end, the weapon is still the weapon and the upgrade material is still the upgrade material—someone has merely forced the two together by external means." Scrap King curled his lip.

Seeing that Wei Zhao still did not seem to understand, he gestured with his hands as he explained, "With this method, the effect is at best one plus one equals two—and often even less than two. Take this plain-steel staff of yours, for instance. After an ordinary upgrade, it would at most use the upgrade material as a medium to let it withstand foundation-establishment-level true qi. The effect would be no different from before; even if its power rose somewhat, that would only be because you were expending more true qi—nothing of much use." R1152