Chapter 13: Six Yang Refined Fire Cauldron

Winter has arrived, goose-feather heavy snow falls, inside the Azure Moon Sect everything is draped in silver, the world between heaven and earth is a vast white expanse.

The Azure Moon Sect cultivates in accordance with heaven and earth's nature; therefore, they do not use magic to dispel the wind and snow.

Cultivators inhale and exhale the spiritual qi of heaven and earth; over time, their bodies become immune to cold and heat.

To ordinary people, such wind and snow could be called a natural disaster; to them, it is merely a rare opportunity to enjoy the scenery.

In this freezing winter season, three or five close friends gather, tasting tea and brewing wine amidst the wind and snow, most delightful.

Goose-feather heavy snow falls, most peaks within the Azure Moon Sect are already covered by wind and snow.

Only Crimson Flame Peak is an exception.

From afar, the mountain, entirely crimson-red, is currently covered by a vast white mist.

If one approaches and looks closely, one will see that snowflakes falling onto Crimson Flame Peak evaporate directly, forming a wisp of mist.

Little by little, these wisps of mist gather, forming this strange sight.

Twenty li outside Crimson Flame Peak, three cultivators stand in the air, gazing from afar at the peak's strange sight.

"Senior Brother! Look at this situation—Chiyanzi has fully activated the earth fire within the peak; he must be refining another treasure!"

Amidst the wind and snow, the young cultivator standing on the left among the three, gazing at Crimson Flame Peak's sight, said to the middle-aged man standing in the middle:

The middle-aged man is none other than Jiang Haitao, the master of Instrument Peak; the two beside him are Foundation Establishment cultivators of their lineage.

Jiang Haitao had his hands behind his back, silent, merely staring at Crimson Flame Peak with a blank expression.

The two men flanking him exchanged a glance, secretly thinking their peak master's mood was probably not good.

Crimson Flame Peak has opened its furnace again to refine a treasure; this matter concerns not only the hearts of the Refining Peak cultivators, but the entire sect is watching.

Magic tools are easy to forge, but treasures are hard to find; searching throughout the Zhao State cultivation world, even the Xichui Three Kingdoms cannot find ten artifact refiners capable of crafting treasures.

Yet the Azure Moon Sect suddenly has two such refiners.

It's a pity that these two are not on good terms; otherwise, with their full cooperation, the Azure Moon Sect would not now have twenty or thirty Foundation Establishment cultivators lacking a treasure.

Actually, both know that although refining treasures is difficult, the root cause is that the Xichui Three Kingdoms' resources are too barren, with hardly any materials for treasure refinement.

The Azure Moon Sect is in the same situation; other Foundation Establishment cultivators outside the sect are even worse off—more than half lack a treasure, and most still use only top-tier magic tools.

"I heard a disciple entered Crimson Flame Peak a year ago? Isn't it true that for a year no disciple has been willing to enter Crimson Flame Peak?"

Jiang Haitao seemed to recall something, furrowed his brows and asked.

"Yes, Peak Master! That disciple possesses inferior fire-wood dual spiritual roots, just broke through; likely wanting to learn artifact refinement, he was lured to Crimson Flame Peak by the Mission Hall's Zhang family youngster."

The Foundation Establishment cultivator on the left, seeing the peak master's question, hastily spoke to explain.

His name is Li Qian, also a Foundation Establishment cultivator; however, though both are Foundation Establishment, his early-stage Foundation Establishment pales compared to the peak master's perfected Foundation Establishment.

Moreover, their statuses within the sect differ vastly.

Therefore, he usually holds the peak master in great reverence.

Jiang Haitao maintained a blank expression, but upon hearing of the fire-wood dual spiritual roots, his face finally showed a hint of surprise.

"Fire-wood dual spiritual roots? Very rare!"

Another Foundation Establishment cultivator then hurriedly said:

"Sect Leader, this boy originally possessed only inferior fire spiritual roots, and his roots were so poor they were about to fall out of the grading; however, he had fortunate destiny, contracting the Reverse Fire Curse, which reversed the five elements, using fire to produce wood—he not only survived but also gained a wood spiritual root, while his original fire spiritual root steadily entered the inferior grade."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Haitao's expression changed; he turned his head for the first time and asked, "Reverse Fire Curse? You mean… back then…!"

Speaking of this, he seemed to have reservations and fell silent.

Li Qian beside him also said, "It's that very matter; ultimately, Wang Ping entered the sect because of it."

After a pause, Li Qian spoke again:

"I must say, this boy's fortune is excellent; given his inferior spiritual root quality, he would likely only reach mid-stage Qi Refining after ten years, yet he actually encountered a spirit vein transfer, and with the qi of a third-grade spirit vein, broke through to mid-stage Qi Refining."

Jiang Haitao nodded, ceased questioning, and ordered, "Constantly monitor Crimson Flame Peak's changes."

"Yes, Peak Master!"

Jiang Haitao nodded, his form moved, he rode a beam of light and departed.

Inside Crimson Flame Peak, the Refining Room.

Outside, the bitter wind howls; inside the Refining Room, however, heat waves roll.

Streams of red-hot vapor continuously rise; the temperature here is frighteningly high.

Chiyanzi's eyes are crimson-red, his splendid robes already soot-black, his hands move incessantly, while his powerful divine sense constantly sweeps over the Refining Furnace.

At this critical moment of artifact refinement, even though Chiyanzi has already forged over thirty treasures, he cannot help but feel somewhat tense.

What he is now refining is not an ordinary treasure, but a counterfeit of a spirit treasure listed on the Spirit Treasure List—the Six Yang True Fire Cauldron.

That Six Yang Fire Dragon Cauldron possesses boundless power, capable of trapping foes and slaying them; it is a rare spirit treasure that combines offense and defense.

Within it, the six fire dragons can spew True Solar Fire; even a Nascent Soul cultivator who touches a trace will be reduced to ashes.

Thirty years ago, Chiyanzi accidentally obtained the damaged refinement method for the Six Yang True Fire Cauldron.

Even though it is a damaged method, Chiyanzi was overjoyed, as if he had obtained a supreme treasure.

After thirty years of research, based on the damaged method, he finally deduced the imitation of this spirit treasure: the Refined Solar Fire Cauldron.

A single character difference between Refined Fire and True Fire makes a world of difference in power.

The flames that fell from the nine heavens are called True Solar Fire; the flames that fell from the nine heavens and scattered across the earth are called Refined Solar Fire.

For this Refined Solar Fire Cauldron, he traversed the Xichui Three Kingdoms, gathering six clusters of Refined Solar Fire.

After his search, the Refined Solar Fire of the Xichui Three Kingdoms has almost been completely exhausted by him.

This is because, in his youth, he had a fortuitous encounter and obtained a Fire-Seeking Manual, which allows him, within a certain range at home, to seek out extraordinary flames.

Otherwise, he would fundamentally be unable to find so many flames.

Now his imitation spirit treasure, the Refined Solar Fire Cauldron, has reached the most crucial step.

Chiyanzi's expression is solemn; his hand seals constantly shift, and the Earthflame Stone sensed inside the furnace by his divine sense has begun to melt under the scorching of the Refined Solar Fire.

If people saw Chiyan's refining method, they would surely be shocked; he actually didn't use earth fire for refining, but directly used Sun Essence Fire to forge the spiritual material.

Sun Essence Fire is violent and hard to control; Chiyanzi naturally knows this, but to successfully forge his Sun Essence Fire Cover, it must be tempered with Sun Essence Fire.

Only spiritual material that has been repeatedly tempered by Sun Essence Fire can withstand the terrifying high heat emitted by the Sun Essence Fire year after year.

Especially the place where the fire is stored must be sturdy and resistant to high heat.

Now the fire cover embryo in the furnace is the one he has been most satisfied with over the past year.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but glance at Wang Ping in the corner, bare-chested, wielding a large hammer and repeatedly striking the surface of a piece of spiritual material.

Over the past year, the performance of this disciple named Wang Ping has exceeded his expectations.

He once worried that this kid wouldn't be able to persevere, which would delay his refining progress.

Who would have thought that over the past year, no matter how demanding his requirements were, this disciple could complete them, and even when exhausted, would hand the task over to him.

Even with Chiyanzi's violent temper, he had never lost his temper with Wang Ping more than a few times.

His gaze actually showed a rare expression of admiration.

The forging of the Sun Essence Fire Cover demands extremely high purity of the spiritual material.

Before beginning the refining, one must use ancient methods to hammer out a rough embryo, filtering out most impurities, before proceeding to melt with Sun Essence Fire.

Otherwise, with too many impurities, his divine sense would be unable to cope at that point.

Since Wang Ping entered the forging room, he has already forged one hundred eighty rough embryos of spiritual material, and this is now the last one.

Thud!

A heavy hammer sound rang out, then ceased.

Wang Ping shouted loudly, "Old Ancestor, the forging is complete!"

Chiyanzi was overjoyed and likewise shouted loudly: 'Good lad, the Old Ancestor will reward you then.'

Having said that, he gestured with his right hand, and that piece of metal spiritual material had already been thrown into the furnace before him.