Chapter 1074

At this moment, in a small, cramped room.

Xu Que was sitting on the ground, his expression grave, his gaze fixed on the system interface, incredibly focused!

He was searching for some things related to artifact refining. Although he had used a skill book before, allowing him, who had never come into contact with artifact refining, to directly become a Nine-Star Artifact Refining Master and endowing him with a lot of knowledge and experience in artifact refining!

This allowed him to take many fewer detours than others, but it also destined his foundation to not be as solid as those who had mastered it step by step!

Now, wanting to suddenly soar to the level of a Five-Grade Artifact Refining Grandmaster, if he didn't put in the effort, it was simply wishful thinking!

Of course, the reason Xu Que was so attentive and willing to put in the hard work this time, besides not wanting to lose face, was more for his own sake.

He had lost his broken sword, which meant he had lost part of his strength. Now that he had arrived at the Earth Continent, the people and things he would encounter, and even the crises, would be more than in the Lost Land, so he had to make up for this strength defect as soon as possible to avoid being unable to fight back when encountering powerful enemies!

That broken halberd was what Xu Que most wanted to refine. The evil aura power within it made Xu Que very envious, so he wanted to study the way of artifact refining, striving to have the ability to refine that broken halberd as soon as possible, fuse those Geng Metals and evil auras, and forge a complete sword. Its level would definitely exceed that of the broken sword.

By then, let the Sword Spirit enter it, and he would be invincible, perhaps even able to kill Earth Immortal or Heavenly Immortal experts with one sword!

So, this was a very clear and awesome direction, making Xu Que think it was very worth it to put in the hard work to realize it!

For three whole days and nights, Xu Que didn't sleep or rest, flipping through everything related to artifact refining in the System Mall, which not only contained many artifact refining techniques but also many insights and theories from predecessors on the way of artifact refining!

Xu Que knew very well that if he learned old knowledge step by step, he definitely wouldn't be able to step into the level of a Five-Grade Artifact Refining Grandmaster in a short time, let alone refine that Geng Metal halberd. So he still had to think with a modern brain and explore a new path!

He didn't study from the perspective of an artifact refiner, but looked at all knowledge points with the eyes of a scientist, learning various theoretical knowledge, and then coordinating and planning.

After studying the whole thing, he roughly understood the process of artifact refining, which was actually very similar to alchemy!

The prerequisite for alchemy is to refine various medicinal materials, remove impurities, and take their essence!

Artifact refining is the same; it requires refining various materials and taking their essence!

After that, it is to fuse the essence of various materials, engrave rune imprints, and finally forge and shape them.

Whether it is alchemy or artifact refining, the higher the level, the higher the difficulty of the whole process. For example, refining material essence is very demanding on the control of heat. The higher the level of the material, the harder it is to refine. Even the final fusion and shaping are extremely difficult!

Of course, there is also a very important key point, which is that when fusing materials, one must engrave various rune imprints, which involves the strength of one's own divine soul power and Dao Rhyme strength. If the Dao Rhyme and divine soul are not strong enough, it is impossible to leave marks on high-level materials, let alone rune imprints.

So in the final analysis, alchemy is difficult, and artifact refining... is also damn difficult!

"Damn, this is going to be the death of me. It's too difficult, I can't solve this problem!" Xu Que instantly fell to the ground, looking miserable!

Originally, he had planned to pick up the academic state from his school days, but after understanding everything, he felt his head was getting big. With such complex things, wanting to walk a new path, I'm afraid even a genius like Einstein wouldn't be able to solve it!

The requirements of artifact refining for a cultivator's strength are completely rigid requirements; it's simply not something that can be compensated for by IQ!

"Is it just going to end like this? Too unpleasant. At least I have a system more than others, why... eh, wait, System!"

Suddenly, halfway through his complaint, Xu Que bounced up from the ground again.

He quickly summoned the system interface again, opened his personal information, and locked his gaze directly onto one of the information points — Essence!

When the system first opened the recycling function for him, it could recycle various techniques, medicinal materials, and artifacts, etc., and finally convert them into various corresponding essences. For example, technique essence could be used to improve technique proficiency, and medicinal material essence could be used to improve herb age or pill level. As for artifact refining essence, it was directly used to improve the level of artifacts!

Over the years, Xu Que had never played with alchemy or artifact refining, but he often used the technique essence part, and gradually forgot about this part of the function.

But now, he finally remembered that there was such an awesome function, and he couldn't help but feel excited.

"Hahaha, heaven never closes all doors. That's why I say, to be a person, you have to be as hardworking as me. Only after putting in sweat will there be a reward!" Xu Que shouted excitedly.

He had read books for three days and nights, and the final harvest was that he accidentally remembered the system's recycling function, and even treated this as the reward for his hard work, without feeling that there was anything wrong with it at all!

But this does make sense. Sometimes, if you don't work hard, how would you know despair? Without despair, how could he have remembered the system's recycling function at the last moment!

"Haha, this time it's definitely stable, let's refine one and try!"

Xu Que regained his motivation, full of interest, and immediately selected a big, ugly-looking machete from the few half-grade immortal artifacts he had extorted in the Good and Evil Village, and gave it to the system for recycling!

"Ding, recycled one 'half-grade immortal artifact', congratulations to the host for successfully obtaining 300,000 points of artifact refining essence!" The system prompt sounded immediately!

"Holy crap, so much?"

Xu Que instantly widened his eyes. Back then, he had tinkered with so many techniques, but the technique essence only amounted to a few tens of thousands of points.

Now, one useless half-grade immortal artifact actually brought back 300,000 points of artifact refining essence?

"Ah, what a huge loss. If I had known, I shouldn't have given that half-grade immortal artifact to that kid Lan Hetu!"

Xu Que said with incomparable heartache. Back then, he just felt that these half-grade immortal artifacts were useless, so he threw one to Lan Hetu to act cool. Now that he thought about it, it was a huge loss!

However, he had already given it away, and plus Lan Hetu's life or death was still unknown, so Xu Que could only sigh with heartache, but he wasn't crazy enough to want to find Lan Hetu and ask for it back.

Now that he had a reserve of 300,000 artifact refining essence, Xu Que was also full of confidence, directly exchanged for a big furnace from the System Mall, and turned it into a forging platform.

Following closely, he tinkered with a few pieces of Black Iron and other materials, all of which were automatically sorted out by the system from the storage rings of those people he had killed over the years.

"Alright, the forging platform is ready, the basic materials are also ready, and there's no need to mention the fire. Those Strange Fires are enough to handle everything. Now everything is ready, only missing..." Xu Que stood in front of the forging platform, his eyes slightly narrowed.

What was missing now? It was a formula!

Artifact refining is the same as alchemy. It's not that you can just throw a bunch of materials in and refine them. Some metal materials, like medicinal materials, have mutually exclusive attributes. You must follow the formula of predecessors' research results to refine them, and even the amount of materials must be precise, otherwise, you can't ensure whether the quality and hardness of the refined object can reach the best.

"Creak!"

Immediately, Xu Que pushed open the wooden door and poked his head out.

Feng Lanwu and Xiao Ru were also outside. Upon hearing the movement, they immediately turned around and looked over, their hearts filled with excitement.

Three days, they had waited for three whole days and nights, and this guy finally came out.

Could it be that he really succeeded?

Anticipation filled their faces, and they looked at Xu Que with eager eyes.

Xu Que instantly narrowed his eyes and said with a smile: "Miss Feng, you can rest assured this time. I have an eighty percent certainty of being able to refine a dharma treasure, but now I'm just missing one thing!"

"What?" Feng Lanwu and Xiao Ru were instantly overjoyed upon hearing this.

Although Xu Que wasn't what they had imagined, that he had already succeeded in refining.

But since this guy opened his mouth to say he had eighty percent certainty, it meant that success was not far away!

"Fellow Daoist, what materials are you missing? Just say it, we will definitely find them for you!" Feng Lanwu said immediately. She was the Second Miss of the Feng Chamber of Commerce and had quite a few rare materials on her. Even if she didn't have what Xu Que wanted, she could go to some ancient cities nearby to exchange for them.

"It's not materials, I'm just missing an artifact refining formula now. Do you have any on you? Just find one and bring it to me!" Xu Que waved his hand and said.

Feng Lanwu and Xiao Ru were instantly stunned, and then they felt terrible, almost wanting to vomit blood.

An artifact refining formula?

As a Five-Grade Artifact Refining Grandmaster, he didn't even have an artifact refining formula?

What kind of Five-Grade Artifact Refining Grandmaster is this?

【Second update delivered!】