Spirit Realm

Yao Tai collapsed and had no choice but to rest. He was no longer able to fix any spirit artifacts.

Qin Lie wrote the news onto a notice and stuck it on the tripod in front of the Artifact Forging Hall’s main entrance. Then he shut the hall’s main door close.

Inside the hall, there were many spirit material cabinets, and inside them there were a wide assortment of materials. The supporting materials for the ‘Terminator Profound Bomb’ he was about to create could mostly be found in there.

But Qin Lie did not plan to use Yao Tai’s spirit materials, nor did he plan to use his Fire Crystals. He was only going to borrow the furnace used to smelt artifacts.

He first went to the warehouse and used some of his contribution points to buy some of the spirit materials needed to create the Terminator Profound Bomb. Then, he took out the Fire Crystals he had gathered and moved them one at a time into the Artifact Forging Hall.

After a day’s preparation, he had gathered all of the supporting materials needed to create the Terminator Profound Bomb and filled the bottom of the furnace with Fire Crystals.

Watching the furnace, his expression gradually turned serious. He felt a little uneasy, and he had no confidence at all.

After following Yao Tai for more than half a year, he was very clear on the process of forging an artifact. He also knew all the characteristics of the spirit materials by heart.

However, he had never actually forged an artifact with his own hands before; so he didn’t really have any experience.

He stared at the furnace for a long time. After a while, because he did not plan to use the main ingredients immediately, he moved the split pieces of Ice Soul Python’s beast core away.

Seeing that time was slowly passing by, he sucked in a deep breath and finally ceased his hesitation.

“Prepare the spirit materials. Melting. Fusing. Precipitating into artifact…”

Whispering silently, he lit up the Fire Crystals, and the tens of Fire Crystals burned up. Through their flames, the furnace burned until it was crimson red.

The ball shape vessel he had prepared a long time ago had been placed at the notch inside the furnace before the fire was lit. He then watched the flames and waited until the furnace was burned completely red. Only once that happened did he begin to slowly put in the spirit materials.

“Ssssssssss!”

The second the spirit materials entered the furnace, a thick smoke immediately rose from inside it. A burning smell came quickly after.

“It’s too early.”

Qin Lie exclaimed once before hurriedly adding the Profound Cold Jade to help the spirit materials cool down, to let the furnace’s temperature lower for just a little.

He immediately put his full concentration into observing the furnace. He imagined the steps Yao Tai had taken to forge artifacts and tested them one after another.

“Oh no! I was one step too slow and wasted a Ground Crystal!”

“It’s over, the temperature wasn’t high enough and the spirit materials did not melt together immediately. They’re conflicting with each other!”

“It’s a failure!”

Inside the burning hot Artifact Forging Hall, Qin Lie was sweating all over and locking his brows deeply in a frown, carefully going through each and every step to smelt an artifact.

He had underestimated the difficulty of artifact forging. Without any experience, he repeatedly made mistakes and wasted many spirit materials for nothing. He didn’t manage to fuse all of the spirit materials even once.

In just two short days, he had splurged all of the supporting materials he needed to create the Terminator Profound Bomb.

He had no choice but to got to the warehouse once more, and with the cost of one thousand and five hundred points, he bought five times the amount of spirit materials he had last time—he was prepared to continue failing.

He then restarted the great undertaking of artifact forging…

Ten days later, two thousand contribution points worth of spirit materials were completely exhausted, and his accumulation of experience in artifact forging had improved only just a little. The number of mistakes he made were also decreasing gradually.

But he still did not manage to create an end product.

Therefore he bought yet another two thousand contribution points worth of spirit materials.

He continued to work hard.

This time, the loss of spirit materials was clearly decreasing. The furnace burned crimson red, and the Fire Crystals kept the temperature hot. He was becoming more and more adept at adding spirit materials and also adding in just the right amounts.

He continued to research painstakingly, adding to his artifact forging experience little by little while rapidly expending his spirit materials.

Seven days later.

All of his clothing was drenched, and his red eyes stared at the furnace flickering along with the Fire Crystal’s flame. His eyes too were flashing with a strange light…

“Ground Crystal!”

While watching the furnace, he carelessly but accurately grabbed a brown-yellow crystal, and just when the flames inside the furnace rushed upwards he immediately flung the crystal into the furnace.

An enclosed explosive sound rattled from inside the furnace.

He sharply gazed at the furnace and waited for at least ten more seconds. After realizing that there were no longer any exploding sounds coming from inside, a smile finally appeared on his face.

“That is yet another step forward!” He quietly became excited.

Another three days passed.

It was early morning today, and Qin Lie’s eyes were bloodshot as he stared wide-eyed at the furnace.

The Fire Crystals beneath the furnace had died long ago, and the high temperature inside the furnace was also dissipating slowly. There were a lot less spirit materials around him, and these weren’t enough to attempt another round of artifact forging.

“I sure hope it works. Otherwise, I’ll have to immediately go and buy more spirit materials for the next bout of artifact forging.”

Qin Lie silently tensed up and waited until the last spark died inside the furnace. He then slowly moved forward and looked down at the notch inside the furnace, examining the ball-shaped vessel.

Within the ball-shaped vessel, his eyes were met with a dark green round ball about the size of a walnut. The surface of the round, dark green ball was very rough, and it had a many rice-sized protrusions. On the surface, it had no beauty and not a bit of luster either. It looked like the most normal-looking iron ball you can find, not rare at all in any way.

However, Qin Lie’s expression shook greatly as he yelled out, “It finally has a ball shape to it!”

He cheerfully took out the green round ball. It was slightly hot to touch, so it seemed that the heat hadn’t completely dissipated yet.

Narrowing his eyes, he slipped in a wisp of mind consciousness into the ball and carefully sensed the spirit materials’ compatibility…

“Uh, the spirit materials haven’t merged very well, but… this counts as my first finished product.” After a while Qin Lie cracked open a grin and began to giggle. He was very motivated. “Let’s give it a few more tries. If I can forge it into a ball again, then I will add the Ice Soul Python’s core inside with the main materials as the core and continue forging!”

Therefore, he once again went to the spirit material room.

“You still have four thousand and three hundred contribution points.” A middle-aged man surnamed Han frowned in front of the spirit material room’s door, saying, “Oh, Qin Lie, you’ve been spending your contribution points way too quickly. You’ve used over five thousand contribution points out of ten thousand. The spirit materials you’re asking for this time will require you to pay another two thousand and three hundred contribution points, so you’ll only have two thousand left…”

This person was Han Qingrui’s subordinate. Because he knew that Han Qingrui had taken a liking to Qin Lie, he took the initiative to give him a reminder, in case Qin Lie wasn’t clear on how much he was spending and wasted all of his contribution points without knowing.

“Only two thousand left…” Qin Lie smiled bitterly and said, “I got it. Please exchange them. Thank you for your warning.”

He finally understood why they said an artificer was a profession that burned money.

Of the ten thousand contribution points he had earned, he had already expended more than half of them, but to this day, he still hadn’t forged a finished product. If it wasn’t for the fact that he had seen the light of hope recently, even he would have hesitated on whether or not he should continue investing contribution points into this project.

“Alright, the spirit materials you asked for are all here. Use them well.” The man nodded his head helplessly.

After giving his thanks, Qin Lie left with five full bags of spirit materials, and he once again began busying himself inside the Artifact Forging Hall.

Seven days later.

A round ball laid at the center of his palm. The body of the ball was round and slightly bright. it was dark green in color. It was also only about the size of a walnut and was slightly cold to touch…

“The compatibility of spirit materials is okay now. There is also no conflict with the supporting materials when using the Ice Soul Python’s beast core as the main material. From the looks of it, this counts as a true finished product. Now, it only needs a compound spirit diagram to be inscribed inside, and it will be counted as a success.”

Qin Lie’s face beamed with a smile. After a moment of thought, he decided to not inscribe the spirit diagram immediately, but to use the remaining spirit materials and make a few more end products.

With the experience of his first success, the artifact forging afterwards suddenly turned into a very smooth ride. He finished up the last of his spirit materials and successfully forged yet another five “artifacts.”

“The last step will be to inscribe a spirit diagram in them. If this step succeeds, then the forging of the Terminator Profound Bomb can be successfully concluded.” Qin Lie’s expression was one of excitement “… Terminator Profound Bomb. It’s quite the good name; I hope the power of its explosion will truly surprise me.”

He decided to take a little break first. After he had restored his state of mind and calmed down his heart, then he would continue to finish with the final inscription of a spirit diagram.

This last step was too critical that he didn’t dare to not treat it seriously. That was why he was going to face it in peak condition.

“You’ve worked for such a long time, and all you made are these little balls?” Yao Tai suddenly showed his face. He was standing behind one of the hall’s pillars, staring with an odd expression at the Terminator Profound Bombs. “What kind of spirit artifact is this?”

Qin Lie was shocked on the inside as he laughed sheepishly. “I forged these just for fun.”

Yao Tai nodded, walked over, and curiously looked at a Terminator Profound Bomb that still wasn’t inscribed with a spirit diagram. He then said, “Let me have a closer look?”

Qin Lie gave him a smile and passed one over. “It’s no big deal, I’m just giving it a try. I did not use any of the spirit materials or Fire Crystals here; all of the forging materials were bought using my own contribution points. I hope you don’t mind, Great Master.”

“You don’t need to explain, I understand.” Yao Tai accepted the round dark green ball and carefully played with it in his hand. He earnestly sensed the components inside it.

After a while, he nodded again. “This is forged pretty well. The materials’ compatibility are still acceptable. The real time you’ve studied under me was at best more than half a year, and I have not instructed you in anyway either. Your talents can be counted as astounding for you to be able to reach where you are.” He looked towards Qin Lie before frowning suddenly. He continued, “Unfortunately, this is unusable. Without a spirit diagram to become its soul, this is just a round ball. It can never become a real spirit artifact.”

Naturally, Qin Lie understood, and after giving him a smile he replied, “I know.”

As he stroked the round ball, Yao Tai suddenly turned quiet, and it was only until after a while later that he said, “Ten days ago I’ve already recovered, but I didn’t want to continue fixing spirit artifacts for the people inside the pavilion, so I did not show up. I also found out about the matter of you borrowing the furnace to forge an artifact. Since you did not use my spirit materials, I am fine with it, and I also want to see how far you can go…”

He raised his head and said, “I admit that, in terms of your talent in artifact forging, you exceed all of my previous followers, and you are also a hard worker.”

Qin Lie’s expression was calm. “You flatter me, Great Master.”

“Learning spirit diagrams is not as easy as it looks, and in truth, there isn’t much that I can teach you because the spirit diagrams that I’ve mastered are all very low level…” Yao Tai said with a frown. After a moment’s thought, he seemed to have come to a decision and said, “If you really want to learn, then work as my helper for another year. Once you have reached a full year, I will teach you the few basic spirit diagrams I’ve learned.”

Qin Lie was shocked.

“What kind of spirit diagram did you want to inscribe in this round ball? I can help you,” Yao Tai asked for his opinion.

“I-it’s fine. I just made it for fun, for practice. There’s really no need for master to worry about it.” Qin Lie felt a bit flattered, but he quickly stopped him. “Since Great Master is here, I do not need to continue stand guard any longer. I’m really tired as of late so I’ll be going back to rest.”

Once he finished, he took the round ball away from Yao Tai’s hands and left the hall with a smile.

“This bastard!” Once he hurriedly left, Yao Tai scolded with an angry face, “This is the first time I’ve truly wanted to take an apprentice, and I just have to run into an ungrateful one. I was even prepared to teach him how to inscribe spirit diagrams, and yet he still ran away without even saying anything. Dammit, why do I have to run into such an idiot!”