Chapter 4060 — Something Went Wrong

Yet over these seven days, not a single mishap had marred the forging process. Everything proceeded in orderly fashion, exactly according to the script the Scrap King had laid out in advance. The unease Wei Zhao had felt at first gradually receded, and he grew steadily more confident, secretly congratulating himself that he had indeed found the right man.

The first step is always the hardest. Having passed through the most critical opening stage, the forging was now as good as half complete. Wei Zhao had assumed it would continue smoothly to the very end—but on the eighth day, everything ground to an abrupt halt.

"It's... it's over just like that?" Staring at the gradually calming forging pool, Wei Zhao could only gape. This was nothing at all like the plan the Scrap King had described to him.

At that moment, even the Scrap King himself was on the verge of tearing his hair out. He could not have predicted precisely how long the forging would take, but this was only the eighth day!

By the experience of most artificers, the mightier the divine weapon, the longer the forging tended to take. For any weapon of even modest caliber, several months—or even several years—was entirely normal. And this forging had employed supremely rare materials like the myriad-year tree crystal and the primeval pure soil. Surely it could not possibly turn out weaker than other weapons?

Yet the fact was undeniable: the forging pool had now settled. Under normal circumstances, that only happened when the divine weapon was finally taking shape.

But this was only the eighth day. Looking at that shapeless lump in the forging pool, to claim it was already a finished divine weapon—hell, not even a ghost would believe that!

"So what do we do now?" Wei Zhao's mouth twitched. He turned to the Scrap King. "This thing... am I supposed to use it to bash people over the head?"

"Impossible! Impossible! Impossible!..." The Scrap King pounded his own skull with his fists, pacing frantically round and round the forging pool, muttering like a man demented.

Watching this maddened spectacle, Wei Zhao could not help worrying that the fellow might, in a fit of despair, plunge headlong into the forging pool—and that would truly be the death of him.

Wei Zhao found it just as unbelievable. Though the Scrap King alone had conceived and designed the forging plan, he had analyzed and discussed it with Wei Zhao in exhaustive detail along the way. To guarantee the success rate, the preparatory work they had done beforehand had been far from trivial.

Those premium forging materials Wei Zhao had gone all the way to the Far Northern Isle to bid for—their ultimate purpose in the forging plan was really only one: to ensure stability and a high success rate throughout the process. Even the Scrap King's earlier request that Wei Zhao contribute a few heaven-tier weapons he no longer used, to be melted into the mix, had stemmed from the same consideration.

And yet, despite such thorough preparation, the result had still come to this.

"So this counts as... a failure, doesn't it?" Wei Zhao asked. Reality was cruel, but it had to be accepted.

Just then, the Scrap King crouched down and pressed his face right up against the rim of the forging pool, giving Wei Zhao a violent start. Surely the thing wasn't really going to do something rash? Never mind that the pool had settled—its temperature was still terrifyingly high. Even a Foundation Establishment expert could not have withstood it.

Just as Wei Zhao was about to intervene, the Scrap King's eyes suddenly lit up. "No, no—I know the reason now. We haven't failed after all!"

"We haven't failed?" Wei Zhao was taken aback.

"Right! We haven't failed—more precisely, we haven't completely failed!" In an instant the Scrap King was brimming with vigor again. Pointing at the forging pool, he explained, "Look closely and you'll see it: the pool hasn't fully cooled, and the divine weapon hasn't fully set. The way it looks now, if we don't find a solution, it'll just stay stuck in this lukewarm state—which means we still have room to salvage it."

At those words, Wei Zhao's spirits lifted. After observing carefully for a while, he confirmed that it was indeed as the Scrap King said: the divine weapon was still changing, at a rate too slow for the naked eye to discern. He asked at once, "Solve what problem?"

"The attribute clash between the myriad-year tree crystal and the primeval pure soil!" the Scrap King declared with certainty. "Brother Lin, I told you before—forging has one most basic requirement: all the materials must be attribute-compatible. And if they aren't, you must find some way to neutralize them with other auxiliary materials. That's exactly the problem we're facing now."

"How can that be? The myriad-year tree crystal is of the wood attribute, and the primeval pure soil is of the earth attribute. How could there be any clash between the two?" Wei Zhao asked, puzzled. Wood and earth generate each other—that was common knowledge.

The Scrap King shook his head. "Wrong. These two materials are far too rare, and their precise origins are very hard to pin down, so we both made a mistake on the most basic point. The myriad-year tree crystal is indeed of the wood attribute—but the primeval pure soil is not purely of the earth attribute!"

"Not earth attribute? Then what else could it be?" Wei Zhao asked in confusion. Even without knowing its origins, how could something as quintessentially earthy as primeval pure soil be of any other attribute?

"I once saw primeval pure soil mentioned in my master's handwritten notes. It didn't state its attribute explicitly, but it did note that primeval pure soil generally appears only in ancient volcanic craters!" the Scrap King said excitedly. "Now do you see? The primeval pure soil does have the earth attribute, but it also carries the fire attribute. So with the wood-attribute myriad-year tree crystal, there is to some degree an attribute clash!"

Only then did Wei Zhao understand. He nodded. "No wonder the situation turned out so bizarre. Normally, a simple attribute clash would mean total failure—it wouldn't just drag on in this lukewarm state. So it's because the primeval pure soil's dual earth-and-fire nature both clashes with and harmonizes with the wood nature of the myriad-year tree crystal."

"Exactly so. Fortunately, my mistake wasn't too fatal. Otherwise, we wouldn't even have a chance to salvage it this time, and I'd have even less face to show you, Brother Lin." The Scrap King looked embarrassed.

"Don't say that. If only for the painstaking effort you've poured into this, Brother Wang, I'd be deeply grateful to you even if it failed. Hearing you say that puts me in an awkward spot," Wei Zhao consoled him with a smile. "Since we've already used materials like the myriad-year tree crystal and the primeval pure soil, there's bound to be no precedent to follow. How could anything go off without a single hitch? Besides, we still have a chance to fix it—it's not yet time for gloomy talk." (To be continued..) R527