Chapter 106: Eldest Senior Brother Also Wants to Pass the Buck (10th Update)

The Eldest Senior Brother waved his hand and said, "I don't have any other intentions; I simply don't want to see Seventh Senior Sister continue to blame herself and feel anxious over this matter. I have already asked the three Elders about your use of Soul Beads in alchemy; it indeed has the effect of nourishing the soul, and I have even heard it can temper the physical body. If one could truly refine a powerful, genuine Spirit Pill, it would be an unprecedentedly good thing for anyone in the sect. Furthermore, you know that whether it is artifact refining or alchemy, the requirements for soul strength are very high. The further one progresses, the more obvious this becomes as the grades of pills and Magic Treasures increase. Seventh Senior Sister wants to use ordinary soul-power pills to improve her cultivation and attempt Foundation Establishment, but I suspect it won't have much effect. Therefore, I intend to help her, but I will ultimately need Little Junior Brother's help."

Xu Chen hurriedly said, "Eldest Senior Brother, please just say what you need to say. What do you need me to do?"

The Eldest Senior Brother waved his hand, and a large pile of Spirit Medicine and Spirit Grass swirling with Spirit Qi landed in front of Xu Chen.

Xu Chen scanned them with his Divine Sense and said with a face full of surprise, "Three-Leaf Seven-Star Grass, Jinyang Fruit, Blood Lingzhi, Dragon Armor Vine... these are all second-tier or even third-tier Spirit Medicines. Senior Brother, you really seem to have quite a lot of good things. Are you hiding even better things in your Storage Bag?"

The Eldest Senior Brother nervously covered his Storage Bag and shook his head, saying, "No more. My savings from over ten years are all here. These Spirit Medicines were all obtained through my years of trading in artifact refining. I originally intended to save them for when I attempt Golden Core, but now I am giving them all to Little Junior Brother. When you are able to refine Second-Grade Spirit Pills, try infusing them with soul power; perhaps there will be some miraculous effect."

Xu Chen asked in surprise, "Eldest Senior Brother, do you want me to give the soul-power Spirit Pills refined from these Spirit Medicines to Seventh Senior Sister?"

"Yes!" The Eldest Senior Brother nodded slightly.

Xu Chen could not help but bow with a face full of admiration, saying, "Eldest Senior Brother is righteous and noble, truly a role model for this junior brother. Please rest assured, Eldest Senior Brother. In a few days, the Third Elder will begin teaching me how to refine Second-Grade Spirit Pills. Recently, I have also been preparing to start refining a batch of First-grade Spirit Pills using soul power, which happens to be a perfect way to test the effect first. If it succeeds, I will have more confidence; if it doesn't, these Spirit Medicines won't have been wasted on reckless experiments."

The Eldest Senior Brother was overjoyed and bowed, saying, "Then I will trouble you, Junior Brother. Let me know when you refine the pills, and I will go to help guard the dharma!"

"Alright, I will notify you, Senior Brother, once I am prepared. I won't disturb you today!" Xu Chen raised his hand to store the pile of Spirit Medicines swirling with Spirit Qi into his Storage Bag and prepared to take his leave.

"Don't rush off, Junior Brother. Since you want to learn artifact refining, I will first give you some basic artifact refining tools so you won't be at a loss when the time comes!"

As he spoke, the Eldest Senior Brother waved his hand, and several hammers, shears, axes, chisels, and saws landed in front of Xu Chen. Among them were even several rough blanks for Flying Swords and Array Disks, along with some common metals like Essence Iron and spirit copper.

"These tools are for daily use and are sufficient for processing and crafting ordinary first-tier Spirit Materials and First-grade Magic Treasures. The other few semi-finished products are Magic Treasure blanks I made simply when I had nothing to do. Junior Brother can take them to observe and contemplate, and try to integrate arrays into them; you will quickly become familiar with the basic methods of artifact refining. As for other rarer Spirit Materials or Magic Treasures above the second grade, you will need some specialized manufacturing tools, such as smelting furnaces, forging tables, lathes, planers, etc. If you have anything you don't understand or need help with, feel free to come and find me."

Xu Chen was even more overjoyed. After accepting the tools and Magic Treasure blanks and expressing his thanks, he left in high spirits.

Watching Xu Chen's disappearing back, the Eldest Senior Brother felt both happy and conflicted. He stroked his bristly beard, sat down, and muttered, "If Little Junior Brother really gets obsessed with artifact refining and neglects alchemy, I wonder if the Third Elder will beat me to death. Sigh, I can't worry about that now. I've had enough of staying on this mountain; it's great to have someone to take over!"

Xu Chen did not know that his unintentional act of wanting to learn artifact refining had also made the Eldest Senior Brother's heart flutter, preparing to dump the great cause of Taiyuan Sect's artifact refining onto him as well.

Having obtained the various basic knowledge and insights on artifact refining gifted by the Eldest Senior Brother, he felt as if he had found a treasure. He ran back to his small wooden house in one breath and immediately took out a Jade Slip to begin studying.

A few days passed in a flash. After Xu Chen felt he had basically finished reading the basic knowledge, he took out the Magic Treasure blanks gifted by the Eldest Senior Brother to observe and contemplate, and began trying to carve arrays into them.

Compared to alchemy, artifact refining requires far fewer raw materials. Sometimes a single piece of material is enough for one Magic Treasure, but the processing tools and the process itself are much more complex. It not only requires a powerful soul to support the Divine Sense but also a large amount of vital energy to support the use of various tools for careful processing and polishing. Especially in the later stage of integrating arrays, it is by no means easier than alchemy; one could even say it is more difficult.

Alchemy generally only requires an Alchemist Furnace. By utilizing the Five Elements Array within the furnace and the appropriate Spirit Fire temperature, almost all Spirit Medicines can be refined. This process is reflected in the alchemist's familiarity with the pill formula and the furnace. As long as one can precisely control the array and the Spirit Fire temperature, there will basically be no problems.

But artifact refining is different. Every Spirit Material has different properties, sizes, shapes, growth ages, and even different parts. This means one must make reasonable calculations based on these differences in the Spirit Materials, applying methods according to the material, and achieving a perfect fit for the material's properties to finally bring out the effect of the Spirit Material and create a good Magic Treasure.

In the cultivation world, alchemy has fixed pill formulas, so as long as it is the same variety of pill, they are basically much the same.

But artifact refining has never had a fixed method. The same Spirit Material in the hands of two different artifact refiners might result in a finished product with completely different styles, properties, effects, and power.

Therefore, artifact refining values and emphasizes the artifact refiner's own skill more than the Spirit Material itself.

And for complex Magic Treasures, it might involve the fusion and crafting of several Spirit Materials with completely different properties, which places even higher demands on the artifact refiner.

How to optimally combine properties, how to perfectly fuse these different materials together, and how to make the integrated arrays communicate perfectly to release the greatest power while consuming the least amount of vital energy—this is the truly profound knowledge.

Therefore, in the entire Immortal World, just like alchemy, many people can make ordinary First-grade Magic Treasures. If one doesn't consider aesthetics and practicality, and just needs something that can be used simply, at least eight out of ten people can make one; the threshold is much lower than alchemy.

But for complex items like Array Disk and Array Flag sets, the number of people who can make them drops to less than one in a hundred.

As for Magic Treasures above the second grade, there are no more than fifty people in the entire Great Song who can make them. And for third-grade Magic Treasures, even many powerhouses in the Danyuan Realm cannot make them; at most, they can make some one-time-use Spirit Talismans.

And fourth-grade or fifth-grade Magic Treasures are top-tier skills that only Spirit Realm Great Cultivators can touch. Both cultivation support and powerful talent are required; neither can be lacking.

However, those who can cultivate to the Spirit Realm are all outstanding individuals, all people of exceptional talent. Therefore, their alchemy and artifact refining are naturally not too bad, but those who can truly make high-quality goods are still as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns, and the production rate is extremely low.

In the entire Great Song, there are fewer than ten fourth-grade Magic Treasures in total, all in the hands of the four True Monarchs of Yuqing Hall and Longmen Mountain.

Among them, the fourth-grade Eight Extremes Sea-Suppressing Disk in the hands of Taiwuzi suppresses the Spirit Fox Valley.

And there are only two fifth-grade Magic Treasures, both in the hands of Chixia Zhenjun of Yuqing Hall, among which the Five Elements Illusion Cloud Flag is used to suppress the Black Wind Ridge.

Since Xuanchen Zhenjun reached Spirit Transformation, he still does not have a fourth-grade Magic Treasure, which is to say, the Taiyuan Sect does not have a single treasure that reaches the fourth-grade level. The only one, the Soul Returning Wood, has already withered and died.

Therefore, during this period after Spirit Transformation, Xuanchen Zhenjun has been staying in the back mountain in seclusion, refining artifacts, preparing to create a fourth-grade Magic Treasure that he can show off.

As for a life-bound Magic Treasure, the requirements are even higher. Not only must one find high-grade Spirit Materials that match one's own cultivation technique and cultivation attributes, but one must also slowly polish and nurture it through the Nascent Soul, which cannot be sloppy in the slightest.

Of course, Xu Chen does not need to consider such distant matters at all.

He spent an entire day and finally integrated the first flight array into a Flying Sword blank gifted by the Eldest Senior Brother.

Integrating an array is relatively not difficult, but it is mainly tedious, and it must be engraved in the appropriate position according to the material and size of the Magic Treasure.

An array is actually a vital energy channel similar to the meridians of the human body. The difficulty of engraving such a complex array out of thin air onto a Spirit Material can be imagined; it is much more complex than alchemy.

And for a Magic Treasure to be used normally, it requires at least three to five arrays; flight control is only the most basic function.

Offensive Magic Treasures need attack arrays, defensive Magic Treasures need defensive arrays, and to make the Magic Treasure easy to control, various auxiliary arrays for balance, increasing power, reducing weight, and increasing speed are also needed.

If one wants so many arrays to be harmonious and unified, then array fusion is the key.

From the processing of the raw Spirit Material to the final completion of a Magic Treasure, it requires at least a dozen steps.

Xu Chen only used half a day to refine the Great Origin Pill for the first time, but it took him a whole day to engrave the first and simplest flight array onto a pre-made Flying Sword blank.

This is the simplest comparison between alchemy and artifact refining; the difference in difficulty is clear at a glance.

Therefore, after successfully engraving this first array, Xu Chen was very excited, controlling the Flying Sword to fly up and down in front of the small wooden house, as if he had discovered a remarkable big toy, laughing so much that Xiaobai was a bit worried he had gone insane, constantly jumping and yelping on the side.

However, he hadn't been happy for long before a green Escape Light came from Zhaoyang Peak and landed in front of the small wooden house in an instant. Zhao Xuan jumped off the Flying Sword and saw Xu Chen shouting and playing with a Flying Sword blank, immediately feeling both angry and amused.

"Senior Sister, why are you here!" Xu Chen hurriedly retracted the Flying Sword and bowed.

Zhao Xuan scolded, "You still have the face to ask! The Third Elder has been waiting for you to learn how to refine Second-Grade pills for three days!"

Xu Chen suddenly remembered, his face turning red, and he sheepishly put away the Flying Sword, saying, "I just started learning artifact refining these past few days and got a bit carried away. Please, Senior Sister, go back and tell the Third Elder that I will definitely go to the Danyuan tomorrow."

Zhao Xuan stamped her foot and said, "Tomorrow? Come with me right now! The Third Elder had me prepare all the materials for the Gathering Qi Pill. A Second-Grade pill can't be refined in a day; it will take at least three days. Hurry, let's go!"

Thus, Xu Chen could only follow her to the Danyuan with a bitter face.

Finished with the work, I will continue the ten-chapter explosion tomorrow. I ask fellow book friends for your support. If you have monthly tickets, please help cast them. Thank you.

(End of chapter)