Chapter 119: Fifth-Tier Weapon-Forging Register

The Weapon-Forging Shop was located on Divine Weapon Street.

This was the most bustling street in Fucheng; every other district's streets connected to it, and to call every inch worth its weight in gold would be no exaggeration.

Once inside the city, Li Yuan took a horse carriage. Having risen early, he was craving Fucheng's snacks.

The coming and going of pedestrians, jianghu travelers carrying blades and swords on their backs, the oily aromas of all manner of food, the cries of street vendors, the storytelling voices from teahouses and taverns… all wove together into a scene of prosperity one could never see in Gao Liu County.

"The city really is more comfortable to live in."

Holding a roast chicken wrapped in a lotus leaf, Li Yuan walked and ate, and couldn't help thinking of his second brother, a faint smile at the corner of his lips:

"When my letter arrives, I wonder what expression my second brother will have… once I've gotten my footing, I'll bring my brother and sister-in-law, Fatty Sun, and Old Zhang over too."

The mountains were quiet and suited for martial training, but when it came to actually living, he still preferred the city, with its crowds and liveliness.

"From now on I should come into the city every few days, soak up some human energy… hmm, could this be what the patriarchs meant by 'leaving the world' and 'entering the world'?"

Li Yuan muttered to himself, his feet never stopping, his mouth never stopping either; he walked the whole way, eating the whole way.

His appetite was enormous, and he could take a bit of every kind of snack.

Liu Zheng could only click his tongue in secret wonder, but he jogged along the whole way; wherever Li Yuan looked, he would explain.

Although he had only been here half a year, he was already a qualified guide.

"Tongda Money House is the Valley Master's business; it spans three prefectures and rakes in money by the day…"

"Anping Grain Firm is Elder Qiu's business; his family also controls the grain transport of an entire prefecture…"

"Salt and iron are the businesses of Elder Han and Elder Withered Moon…"

"The horse ranch a hundred li outside the city belongs to Gunbingtang…"

……

After walking more than ten li, Li Yuan suddenly felt that he was actually very poor, extremely poor.

The meager rewards from the True Inheritance ceremony were, to Divine Weapon Valley, simply the tip of the tip of a single hair on nine oxen.

All the livelihood industries of the entire Fucheng were under the names of the five great elders and the nine True Inheritances.

Beyond that, of the entire Fucheng's tax revenue, Divine Weapon Valley could take more than thirty percent; what remained was the share of the prefecture government office and the imperial court.

"No wonder even the Zhao family, one of the so-called Six Great Families, still ran a dung-peddling business."

With Liu Zheng's firsthand explanations, Li Yuan gained a deeper understanding of Divine Weapon Valley's wealth.

At the True Inheritance ceremony, everyone in the hall, without exception, was worth a fortune…

"Many businesses inside and outside Fucheng, without Divine Weapon Valley's permission, outsiders cannot get a foothold."

Liu Zheng felt a touch of lament in his heart.

It was certainly not without reason that, of the tens of millions in Dragon-Hibernation Prefecture, not a single person did not take pride in being admitted into Divine Weapon Valley.

"A local lord in his own right."

Li Yuan was also somewhat moved.

Dragon-Hibernation Prefecture was like this; Dechang Prefecture, Huizhou, Mount Hengshan Dao, and indeed every dao and prefecture under heaven were likely no exception.

These great and small sects were like nations within a nation.

The Dayun Dynasty, rather than calling it a dynasty, might as well be called a 'Grand Alliance of Sects'…

Li Yuan was moved, but he accepted it quickly.

He was now also a True Inheritance disciple of Divine Weapon Valley; by rights, he was qualified to get involved in all trades and industries.

At the very least, he had the qualification to compete with other True Inheritances and elders.

"The three nearby streets, over a hundred shops, used to all be the Zhao family's properties; now half belong to the prefecture government office, half to the Divine Guard Army…"

Li Yuan noticed quite a few shops plastered with seals, and Liu Zheng explained:

"The Zhao family's properties, apart from the three shops given to us, are all closed now; those previously given to others have also been sealed."

This, naturally, was the weight of a True Inheritance.

However, Li Yuan was well aware that what the Valley had dealt with was the Zhao family; the merchants renting the shops would not be affected, and afterward, their rent would even be reduced.

How to dispel the fallout, the Valley was very familiar with.

In the middle-to-late section of Divine Weapon Street, where several streets intersected, three shops had been knocked into one,

and the renovated Weapon-Forging Shop sat right there.

From afar, Li Yuan could already hear the faint, indistinct sounds of hammering.

"Brother Liu, go on with your business; I'll look around on my own."

Once here, Li Yuan no longer needed Liu Zheng to accompany him.

The layout here was exactly the same as the Weapon-Forging Shop in Gao Liu County, just a bit smaller.

He first took a turn around the forging room; looking at the furnace and the forging table, Li Yuan felt quite a sense of familiarity.

However, he did not disturb the busy blacksmiths; after watching for a while, he turned and went to the back courtyard.

Liu Zheng was very reliable; in the shopkeeper's small courtyard, all kinds of iron materials were neatly arranged.

To one side hung the meat of the five livestock, the blood of the five livestock, the bones of the five livestock, the innards of the five livestock…

"The Weapon-Forging Shop has only just gotten on track; Liu Zheng must have owed quite a bit of silver gathering this batch of materials, so I can't requisition any more for the time being."

Li Yuan was very satisfied. He closed the room door, moved everything into the house, shut the doors and windows tight, and made sure no one could see.

Only then did he take out the remaining materials from the gray stone platform and place them together:

"Advance!"

Li Yuan reached out a hand, and the neatly arranged iron materials, gold, and silver instantly shimmered with a faint light, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Boom!

Then, he heard that familiar thunderous roar again.

This thunderous sound seemed to explode directly inside his head; even though Li Yuan's sinews and bones were now strong and robust, it was of no use at all. His vision went black, and he nearly toppled to the ground.

He forced himself to hold on until he collapsed onto the bed.

Hum!

Li Yuan felt an intense weightlessness, as if he were falling from the sky into a bottomless abyss.

"Here it comes again!"

In the dim void, Li Yuan sensed a terror that made his hair stand on end; the murmuring after that thunderous roar seemed to be drawing closer, growing clearer.

The sensation was so overwhelming that even after experiencing it several times, Li Yuan still couldn't adapt; the back of his neck felt cold.

"Huff!"

After quite a while, the murmuring vanished, and Li Yuan opened his eyes.

The Soldier-Forging Register hung like a star chart, with five great stars shining brilliantly above; below, the gray Dingxin Dingxin Shitai expanded once more, doubling in size.

"Huff!"

Standing on the gray Dingxin Dingxin Shitai, Li Yuan stared blankly in a daze. The surrounding gloom surged like tides, emanating an extremely eerie aura that gave him a chill rising from the depths of his soul.

"That thunderous roar, that murmuring — did they come from the darkness?"

Li Yuan muttered to himself, feeling a bit creeped out, and forced himself to shift his attention.

【Fifth-Rank Soldier-Forging Master: Li Yuan】

【Number of Weapons Forgable: Five】

Without any ripples, the advancement succeeded.

Li Yuan sensed it briefly: the interval for switching forged weapons had once again been halved, down to three hours, enough to switch eight different forged weapons in a single day.

This further expanded the range of combinations available to him.

And besides that…

"A pleasant surprise?"

Li Yuan's heart skipped a beat.

On the gray Dingxin Dingxin Shitai, which had expanded by more than double, one large and two small incense burners occupied only half the space.

At the edge of the Dingxin Dingxin Shitai, a stone furnace as tall as a person had suddenly appeared, taking up the other small half.

"What's this thing?"

Li Yuan focused his perception, and the information about this stone furnace slowly surfaced in his mind.

【Fifth-Rank Divine Fire Weapon-Merging Furnace】

【Divine fire as the guide, gold and silver as charcoal; it can transform the rotten into the miraculous, merging weapons into one】

A Weapon-Merging Furnace!

After digesting the function of this furnace a little, Li Yuan's heart skipped a beat, overjoyed.

Its use was as its name suggested: this furnace actually possessed the ability to merge weapons.

"Divine fire as the guide, gold and silver as charcoal; it can merge three weapons into one, with a fairly high probability of a rank leap?!"

Li Yuan was first startled, then Yu Yu Xuanji felt great joy in his heart.

The Soldier-Forging Register had already reached fifth rank, but the weapons he forged were still stuck at second or third rank.

Besides the forging conditions being hard to meet, this was also because weapons above third rank were expensive and—

rare.

But with this Weapon-Merging Furnace, things would be very different.

Although limited by the Soldier-Forging Register, the Weapon-Merging Furnace could at most merge into a fifth-rank weapon at this stage,

but a fifth-rank weapon — but it's superior-grade, a famous weapon. Someone of Han Han Chuijun's status only had one of those.

"A top-grade sharp blade costs around a thousand taels, a famous weapon costs five thousand taels or more; merging three into one is still a huge bargain!"

Li Yuan automatically ignored that 'fairly high probability' and leaned closer to the Weapon-Merging Furnace, examining it carefully.

The Soldier-Forging Register advancing to fifth rank wasn't as attractive to him as this furnace, but…

"This divine fire?"

Li Yuan muttered to himself: "Could it be incense fire?"

He approached the furnace, sensing the Soldier-Forging Register, and faint, indistinct information flooded into his mind.

"When the human heart harbors thoughts, faith gathers… Divine fire can burn all manner of weapons; it is a wondrous fire within the universe…"

It really was incense fire?!

Li Yuan was startled, then a bit vexed — incense fire, that stuff, invisible and intangible, how was he supposed to gather it?

"Wait, that's not right?"

Li Yuan suddenly turned his head, looking at the one large and two small incense burners in the corner:

"Faith gathers — wouldn't these incense burners count too?"

Inspiration struck Li Yuan.

Hum!

Almost the instant the thought arose, he felt wisps of pale smoke rising from the incense burners, drifting into the Weapon-Merging Furnace.

Huff!

In an instant, the stone furnace lit up, solid white flames leaping within, with blue mixed in among them.

"This actually works?"

Li Yuan felt a surge of pleasant surprise. Watching the blue-and-white flames in the stone furnace, enlightenment rose in his heart:

"The color of this fire corresponds to first- and second-rank weapons, so the weapons that can be merged are only first- and second-rank — right, and unranked ones too."

Whine~

As Li Yuan stood dazed, the flames in the stone furnace gradually dwindled, and he suddenly jolted awake:

"Add fuel!"

Gold and silver—Li Yuan swept the incense burner, fetched some, and tentatively tossed in one tael of silver; the flames immediately flared larger.

"Gold and silver as fuel, that's far too extravagant…"

After a short while, the flames dwindled again. Li Yuan tossed in another tael of silver, his heart aching a little at the waste.

His gaze swept left and right across the various weapons. With no time to think, he threw three pairs of first-tier Six Harmonies Boots into the furnace.

The way the Weapon-Fusing Furnace worked: the more similar the items, the easier they fused into one.

Whoosh!

The instant the three pairs of Six Harmonies Boots were tossed into the stone furnace, Li Yuan felt a wave of heat. He hurriedly stepped back, then tossed in another three taels of silver one after another.

"These three pairs of boots have identical Wu Gong effects—they should fuse for certain!"

Watching the stone furnace with its billowing flames, Li Yuan felt a slight tension in his heart. If even items this similar couldn't fuse, he'd truly have to doubt just how big this 'fairly high probability' really was…

Hum!

After a short while, the flames suddenly died out, and a single pair of boots was 'spat out' by the trembling Weapon-Fusing Furnace.

【Superior-grade Six Harmonies Boots (Second-tier)】

【Forged by the Weapon-Fusing Furnace through divine fire as primer, gold and silver as fuel, by the hand of the Weapon Master…】

【Wu Gong Requirement: Mastery of any one Lightness Body or Vaulting Art】

【Wu Gong Effects: Fleet as the Wind (blue), Tread as Flat Earth (blue), Swift as a Galloping Steed (blue)】

"It worked!"

The instant he glimpsed the blue light, Li Yuan's heart settled. Yu Yu Xuanji he then realized that the changes after the Weapon Register advanced to fifth tier seemed to be far more than he'd imagined.

"The Wu Gong effects are now tiered too? That's much more intuitive—first tier white, second tier blue, third tier deep blue, fourth tier pale cyan…"

Li Yuan looked around, only then noticing that the Wu Gong effects of every weapon had changed.

He discovered that the same Wu Gong effect, due to differences in weapon tier, also had differences in color.

"Now this is truly intuitive! Good, that silver was well spent!"

Li Yuan came

and went over every weapon once, his heart immediately satisfied.

The changes of the fifth-tier Weapon Register over the fourth tier were far too vast.

"These three incense burners still have 'incense fire' in them. I reckon they can still be lit another ten or so times? Hmm, is that a lot or a little?"

Incense fire was invisible, so Li Yuan found it hard to judge directly. He decided to visit other temples later.

In the Great Yun, other things might not be plentiful, but divine temples truly were everywhere—inside and outside Fucheng, there were at least forty or fifty temples large and small.

"After these three pairs of Six Harmonies Boots fused into one, an extra Wu Gong requirement appeared, but compared to ordinary second-tier items, it seems much lower…"

Li Yuan keenly perceived the benefit.

Over the past two years, he had handled and examined several hundred, even a thousand, weapons, and had a rough understanding of each weapon's Wu Gong requirements.

Normally, a complete second-tier weapon would require at least a Wu Gong at Great Completion as its condition.

"Let's test the effects!"

Li Yuan didn't hesitate. He tossed the boots up, and the instant the Weapon Register glimmered, he opened his eyes.

Boom!

Li Yuan gave a light lift of his foot, without any force at all, and had already burst out of the room, arriving in the courtyard.

"These boots are better than the combined Wu Gong effects of the previous three pairs!"

Li Yuan's eyes lit up as he leapt and dodged about the courtyard.

He only felt wind beneath his feet, his movements indescribably light, smooth, and agile—one unit of effort could produce the effect of three.

In the courtyard, Li Yuan tried it over and over, his mood greatly pleased.

The appearance of the Weapon-Fusing Furnace had given him an enormous surprise. As long as he had enough incense fire, gold and silver, and weapons of the same type, commanding five famed weapons—or even Zhi Shang Pin famed weapons—was not impossible.

After all, famed weapons were certainly rare, but sharp blades and superior-grade sharp blades were plentiful enough.

"If I could command five Zhi Shang Pin famed-tier heavy hammers' augmentation…"

His thoughts scattered, and Li Yuan felt his heart surge, growing more and more excited the more he thought.

He thought of the heavy armor of the Divine Guard Army—within the Valley of Divine Weapons, there were as many as three hundred sets!

"Three hundred sets of Standard heavy armor!"

At the slightest thought, Li Yuan wished he could immediately go touring around the various Divine Guard Army posts.

The Divine Guard Army had not only Standard heavy armor, but also Standard longbows, Standard blades and swords…

"Calm down, calm down…"

He took several deep breaths, suppressing the excitement in his heart, and only after a good while managed to settle down.

……

"Disciple Li Yuan, prays to the heavens to bestow the Register!"

In the small room, Li Yuan bowed again and again, using up all of the five sacrificial beasts' blood, flesh, bone, and entrails.

Every time the Weapon Register advanced, he would offer sacrifice to the heavens—alas, there was no response.

"Even fifth tier isn't enough?"

Li Yuan felt some regret, then immediately felt himself too greedy—this Weapon-Fusing Furnace had already given him surprise enough.

Only…

"The materials needed for the Weapon Register to advance to sixth tier have skyrocketed."

Li Yuan's teeth ached a little.

Ten thousand jin of refined steel, a thousand jin of cold iron, thirty thousand taels of silver, a thousand taels of gold, a hundred taels of red gold, and two taels of fine gold.

"If I sold all the rewards from being a true disciple, do you think I could scrape together enough?"

The thought had just risen when Li Yuan dismissed it himself.

The things the Divine Weapon Valley bestowed upon true disciples—even if he dared to sell them, no one would dare to buy them.

"Still broke. If I had Old Han's family fortune, I could level up right away, couldn't I?"

Li Yuan was calculating in his mind how to make money, and also, refined gold.

Refined gold is extracted from yellow gold and red gold, a rare material used to forge superior grade and ultimate grade famous weapons.

"There's refined gold inside the Weapon Forging Valley. Good, good…"

Li Yuan let out a long breath.

After the Heaven Worship failed, he had no heart to linger. He stuffed the remaining gold and silver on him to Liu Zheng, asking him to buy a batch of pills back.

He himself called for a horse carriage, didn't even eat, and hurried back to Huishan, heading straight for the Weapon Forging Valley.