Chapter 192: Grades of Forging

Mo Hua nodded proudly.

Master Chen stared in shock, "How long has it been? You can already draw a Grade-One array?"

"It's nothing much," Mo Hua waved his small hand, then continued:

"With a Grade-One forging furnace and a Grade-One melting-fire array, we should attract plenty of forge masters."

Drawing a Grade-One array is nothing much…

Master Chen's heart churned with mixed emotions; he sighed and said, "Don't worry—a Grade-One forging furnace plus a Grade-One array? No forge master could refuse."

A forge master's skill depends heavily on their furnace; in the entire Xiancheng, there are barely a handful of Grade-One forging furnaces, let alone ones engraved with Grade-One arrays.

Who would refuse that if not a fool?

"Good," Mo Hua finally relaxed.

Then he remembered another question: "Master Chen, how is the grade of a forging item determined?"

"Grade?"

"Yes," Mo Hua nodded. "Like array masters—nine array lines make a Grade-One array. What standard must a spiritual weapon meet to be called a Grade-One spiritual weapon?"

A forging furnace is itself a type of spiritual weapon, but one used for cultivation production, unlike the offensive or defensive spiritual weapons ordinary cultivators wield.

The wandering cultivators of Xiancheng cannot forge a Grade-One forging furnace; the one Elder Yu promised would have to be bought from outside.

But there must be Grade-One forge masters among the wandering cultivators—why can't they forge Grade-One spiritual weapons?

"That's a long story…" Master Chen said.

Mo Hua sat on a small stool, his expression eager to hear a tale.

Master Chen took a sip of wine, gathered his thoughts, and began:

"First, ranking array masters is the hardest—only a Qi Condensation ninth-layer cultivator can become a Grade-One array master…"

Master Chen paused, glanced at Mo Hua, and coughed. "Generally speaking, only a Qi Condensation ninth-layer cultivator can become a Grade-One array master."

He continued: "Compared to array masters, forge masters, pill masters, and talisman makers have much looser ranking standards. As long as one reaches late Qi Condensation, hones their skills, accumulates experience, and can forge a Grade-One spiritual weapon, they're generally recognized as a Grade-One forge master."

"Then why do so few wandering cultivators forge Grade-One spiritual weapons?" Mo Hua asked.

"Many reasons—Grade-One spiritual weapons are expensive, materials are rare, ordinary wandering cultivators can't afford them; or they lack lineage—many forging blueprints are simply unavailable to them; some forging techniques can't even be learned…"

Master Chen sighed. "But the most important reason is still that we lack good forging furnaces."

Mo Hua's eyes lit up. "Are forging furnaces that important?"

"Of course," Master Chen sighed. "A forging furnace is a forge master's weapon—just like a sword cultivator's sword. What sword art can you learn without a sword? Without a forging furnace, what spiritual weapon can you forge?"

Mo Hua nodded repeatedly, finding this utterly reasonable.

Master Chen pointed to his furnace. "Don't look down on my furnace—it's worn out and small—but among the wandering cultivators' forge shops in Xiancheng, it's already quite decent."

Master Chen looked proud. "Many covet my furnace, begging to borrow it to forge spiritual weapons—I've never agreed. This is my livelihood—how could I lend it out casually?"

"So, many wandering cultivators can't become Grade-One forge masters simply because they lack good forging furnaces and can't forge Grade-One spiritual weapons?"

"Exactly," Master Chen said. "Without a forging furnace, you have no chance to forge a Grade-One spiritual weapon—how could you ever become a Grade-One forge master?"

Mo Hua was curious. "Are forging furnaces really that crucial?"

Master Chen said: "In the cultivation world, refined iron ore and even demonic beast bones are extraordinarily tough—they must first be melted by furnace fire before they can be forged. Qi Condensation cultivators have no alchemical fire; they rely entirely on furnace fire. If the furnace's grade is low and its heat weak, it can't even melt the materials—let alone forge them…"

Mo Hua understood, then asked: "But if you had a good forging furnace with strong fire—how would you actually forge a Grade-One spiritual weapon?"

Master Chen sighed. "This part gets complicated."

Mo Hua poured him another cup of wine. "Drink up, take your time."

Master Chen looked at Mo Hua's curious eyes and sighed helplessly. "Since you want to know, I'll explain simply."

"The grades of spiritual weapons are defined by standards set by the Dao Court. A Grade-One spiritual weapon must contain a specific amount of refined iron or equivalent materials, undergo a set number of processes, and be forged a certain number of times—all these are criteria."

"The most important is the number of forging strikes. Generally, a Grade-One spiritual weapon requires a hundred strikes. Then, adjustments are made based on the hardness of the material, the complexity of the weapon's shape, and the intricacy of the forging technique. After consensus among most forge masters, these standards become customary—and are then formally codified by the Dao Court and recorded in the grading regulations."

"Sounds really complicated…"

"That's only because you're not a forge master. To you, it sounds tedious. But if you became a forge master and swung a hammer for days on end, pounding iron day after day, you'd understand it all naturally."

Mo Hua glanced at his tiny arms and legs, then decided against it.

Master Chen chuckled. "Simply put, it's about how many times you strike the iron. The more strikes a spiritual weapon endures, the higher its grade. As the saying goes: 'A thousand hammerings, a hundred temperings—a hundred temperings forge the weapon.' That's the principle."

"It's just like drawing arrays—draw more lines, include more array markings, and the grade rises. It seems the principles of the world are all interconnected," Mo Hua nodded.

Master Chen smiled too. "I don't understand arrays, but by your logic, it does make sense."

Mo Hua asked again: "What about pill-making and talisman-making? Are they similar?"

"Pill-making and talisman-making… I suspect they're similar, but I've never studied them—I don't know the details. Different trades are like different mountains; I can't speculate blindly."

Mo Hua nodded—that was true.

He was somewhat proficient in arrays, but regarding forging and pill-making, he only knew surface-level details. Many of the intricacies, he'd never learned firsthand or forged himself, so they remained hazy to him.

Not just forging and pill-making—even with arrays, complex arrays differ greatly from single arrays. He was familiar with Five-Element arrays, but if it came to other array cores or attribute types, he wasn't particularly clear.

For example, the Three-Celestial Array, and others Master Zhuang had mentioned—the Yin-Yang Array, the Four-Symbol Array, the Seven-Star Array, the Eight-Trigram Array, and so on.

I suspect studying and applying them properly would differ greatly from Five-Element arrays.

Not to mention Mo Hua had heard of cruel, heretical arrays—demonic arrays, demonic beast arrays, evil arrays, ghost arrays, corpse arrays—prohibited outright by the Dao Court.

Then Mo Hua had another question: "Master Chen, are you familiar with talisman-making?"

"Not really," Master Chen admitted honestly.

"But you know a little, right?"

Master Chen frowned. "What do you want to know?"

"What's the difference between talisman-making and array-drawing?"

When Mo Hua trained at the Xiantian Gate, he'd taken introductory courses on talismans, but they were too superficial and overly theoretical, diverging from actual cultivation practice.

While studying arrays, Mo Hua always felt the arrays he drew on paper were very similar to the "talisman" he remembered from his other life.

Mo Hua never quite understood what the difference between them truly was.