Chapter 15: Wearing out steel shoes searching for something before finding it in front of you!
Immediately after stepping into the central flow region, Yan Zhaoge became aware of an abnormality.
Ye Jing, Si Kongqing, and the others stood to the side and watched Yan Zhaoge’s actions with curiosity.
Yan Zhaoge waved his hands as Ah Hu pulled a small incense burner out of his bag and quickly sprang into action.
Ah Hu took off the lid of the incense burner, and quickly added in many incenses and spices of varied shapes and sizes.
From the looks of some of the materials, they were not uncommon and rare materials, while others were dark and dilapidated and looked unimpressive.
After placing all the materials into the burner, Ah Hu lit the contents and gingerly placed the lid back onto the incense burner before carefully setting the lit burner onto the ground. Very quickly, several thin streams of smoke emerged from the burner.
The Broad Creed Sect disciples watched the scene unfold with great curiosity. Purple smoke slowly rose up into the air and spread out before dispersing into the murderous black qi.
As soon as the purple smoke came in contact with the violently disordered murderous black qi, it was as if the black qi became agitated as its motions become even more frightening and violent.
In this central flow region of the Sealing Dragon Abyss, the density was normally much thinner when compared to other regions of the abyss.
However, at this moment the agitated black qi in this central region was surging in waves that seemed to be denser and more violent than anything the other disciples had previously witnessed.
At first, the crowd was very startled, but quickly regained their cool. They all knew that for Yan Zhaoge to take these actions, he was sure to have a plan in mind.
Indeed, even though the black mist seemed violent and ferocious, it did not try to attack any of the disciples and instead seemed to have concentrated into whirlpools.
A smiling expression could be seen on Yan Zhaoge’s face at this time as he saw the whirlpools of black mist extend outwards into nine enormous rivers of black qi. In the middle of the nine enormous rivers, the faint outline of a roiling golden liquid could be seen.
The nine enormous whirlpools formed into beads, each of which was violently pulsating.
As soon as Yan Zhaoge slapped the inner crystal furnace and removed its cover, the inner crystal furnace instantly began to vibrate and started to exert an incredible attractive force.
The bizarre golden liquid within the whirlpools was pulled out of the whirlpools by this force, and was quickly sucked into the body of the furnace.
All of the sect disciples, upon witnessing this scene, felt that even though they didn’t really understand what was going on, it still seemed very impressive.
Yan Zhaoge’s expression at this time became very serious. Compared to when he was battling Chao Yuanlong, he was even more serious now.
Even ignoring the fact that this inner crystal furnace was created with blood and sweat, making a mistake would truly be too catastrophic.
In this area of the Sealing Dragon Abyss, if one little mistake led to the furnace exploding, it would lead to a chain explosion of all the surrounding murderous qi. In such a scenario, none of the disciples present would have a good ending.
However, Yan Zhaoge had enacted this exact situation countless times in his mind and was immeasurably prepared for any of the multitude of issues that might arise.
The golden liquid kept pouring into the inner crystal furnace with no end in sight. Gradually, it began to emit a bright light and became more and more dazzling.
The radiance poured off of the crystal furnace, to such an extent that it seemed as if even the clouds and the heavens above were being dazzled. Even the dark and clouded Sealing Dragon Abyss seemed to be illuminated.
At the side, Ah Hu immediately retrieved a long knife from his pouch and handed it over to Yan Zhaoge.
It was just a common knife, not a magical treasure of any sort. Far from even the most common treasure, it wouldn’t have looked out of place in a butcher’s shop. Yan Zhaoge grasped the knife in his right hand and crisply flicked the tip of it with his finger, causing a reverberating sound to ring out.
Muttering to himself, Yan Zhaoge then threw the blade into the crystal furnace.
Upon being cast into the furnace, the blade became suspended in the middle of the furnace by some invisible force field as the luster of the blade visibly increased. Also cast into the furnace with the blade were a bunch of miscellaneous items that Xie Jing and others could only faintly distinguish. The few that they were able to recognize were all materials for crafting artifacts.
The blade was suspended in midair, while the other materials orbited around it, causing rapid transformations.
Some of them melted into liquid, while others seemed to twist and deform. Others even shattered into pieces, while many others would spontaneously vaporize and turn into clouds of gas.
The crystal furnace continued to become more and more dazzling, to the point where it was impossible to look at directly. At last, resplendent tongues of fire burst from the furnace and engulfed the suspended blade in a wave of flames.
Outside of the furnace, the nine enormous whirlpools continued to supply an endless stream of the golden liquid, which was greedily absorbed by the furnace.
Seeing the events unfolding in front of him, the smile on Yan Zhaoge’s face became increasingly vigorous.
Time slowly elapsed, but Si Kongqing and the other viewers did not feel the least bit of boredom. All of them were concentrated on the inner crystal furnace. For many of the disciples present, this was their first time witnessing weapon refinement firsthand, let alone with the inner crystal furnace that existed only in legends.
An unknown amount of time passed, upon which the inner crystal furnace let out a resounding boom and the fire suddenly dissipated.
Following this, an intense ling qi wave came from the inside of the furnace, after which a clear black blade slowly rose from the furnace.
The blade’s ling qi aura and suppressive might far surpassed that of the artifacts belonging to Xie Jing and the other disciples.
Si Kongqing gazed at the blade: “A genuine middle grade artifact…”
The other Broad Creed Sect disciples were also able to understand what had happened and gasped with admiration.
“How much time did this refinement take in total?” One of the disciples suddenly asked. Many of the other disciples exchanged looks of dismay as they mentally calculated the time that had elapsed, before they all breathed in a breath of cold air.
At this moment, each and everyone one of them believed that Yan Zhaoge possessed the ability to refine sixteen magical artifacts within a month’s time. Even more so, within that month, it was only during times when he had free time from cultivating—so the refinement was completed during his breaks.
Looking at Yan Zhaoge, and then at the crystal furnace, the other disciples’ gazes erupted with an unprecedented fervor.
“It truly is the inner crystal furnace from the legend! How formidable!”
“Yan Zhaoge is modest and doesn’t speak of his achievements, yet is constantly striving towards the peak. This inner crystal furnace is getting stronger and stronger, and is stepping closer and closer to the legends themselves! Earlier, it was lower grade artifacts, now it is middle grade artifacts, in the future high grade artifacts—anything related to artifacts, it is a possibility!”
“As long as Senior Brother Yan is given sufficient time, and our Broad Creed Sect is given enough time, how will the future turn out? What Sun Saint Sect? In the future, our Broad Creed Sect will stand foremost among the eight holy grounds!”
“Even supposing Senior Brother Yan’s cultivation never once improved again, just this inner crystal furnace is enough for him to be remembered as a pivotal figure in the history of our Broad Creed Sect!”
“Rather, how could Senior Brother Yan’s cultivation not progress? With his attainment in the martial dao, he was able to make the Sun Saint Sect’s Chao Yuanlong eat dirt!”
“Trampling other so called geniuses and cultivation monsters underfoot, Senior Brother Yan can be counted as a genius among geniuses, a monster among monsters!”
Yan Zhaoge gestured with his hands, causing the pitch black blade to fly into his hands. After carefully examining it, he lightly nodded his head: “Mhm. My previous deducation was correct, this trip to the Sealing Dragon Abyss was truly not wasted. The more preparations I make now, the easier it will be for this daddy to set out in the future.
He drew a flower with his sword strokes, causing streaks of glistening blade qi to surge through the air, causing the onlookers to subconsciously tremble.
With a wave of his hand, Ah Hu instantly took hold of the middle grade artifact and stowed it away in his bag.
The enormous black whirlpools suspended in midair continued to spin without any signs of stopping. The golden liquid within also continued to be sucked out into the inner crystal furnace.
“Artifact refinement requires one to persist for some time. All of you can explore freely,” Yan Zhaoge spoke out. The disciples inclined their heads, but the majority of them continued to gaze at the inner crystal furnace, unable to avert their stares.
Yan Zhaoge did not obstruct them and continued to monitor the inner crystal furnace on one side and addressing Ah Hu on the other: “Chao Yuanlong just returned from elsewhere, and is likely to have come to complete some other task.”
“The Sun Saint Sect must have sent disciples to come check on all the strange happenings that have recently happened in the Sealing Dragon Abyss. Go research their reason for coming here.”
Ah Hu nodded his head: “Of course, young master.”
Translator Notes:
I definitely want to thank everyone who donated! I was originally going to finish up this chapter later this week and post it on the weekend, but after seeing people donate I decided to finish it up early and release it today! (There'll be another release later this week as well).
In other news... I have a big announcement... I've decided to start accepting 'sponsored' chapters! That said, I'm still probably going to be pretty busy with my coursework, so I won't be able to release a ton of chapters per week. However, every sponsored chapter will be released in addition to the weekly chapter... with at least 2 chapters per week and up to some unknown amount if I don't have much work... but probably 2, or at most 3...
With regards to the sponsored chapters, (for now) I won't implement the sponsored chapter bar or whatever, since I don't really want to pressure people into donating. If you appreciate my work and are able to donate, that'd be awesome. As long as people donate, I'll try my best to release extra chapters!
Oh yeah, also, I read a bunch of comments in the previous chapter about the formatting of the idioms, translator notes, etc. and I have to say that many of you make a good point. This chapter, the amount of these things was way lower, and I made an effort to be clearer so that the chapter is easier to read. Soooooo, this chapter actually doesn't have any TN notes, though if I need them in the future I might consider formatting them as expandable tooltips inline or maybe stick them all at the end. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
If you appreciate my work...I'd really appreciate anyone who wants to donate. You can send money to my paypal or Venmo me @fanyi-t. If you do decide to be so kind, I'll definitely acknowledge you in some way when I release the next chapter! And maybe I'd be extra motivated to do more chapters...