After the attendant verified the token, he showed a bit of respect, "Please come this way."
There were four examination rooms in the Wuzhu City Refining Association, with signs hanging on their doors respectively: "First Grade," "Second Grade," "Third Grade," and "Fourth Grade."
Entering the Second Grade examination room, an old man sat inside, his robe embroidered with three complete, glowing red furnace fires.
Judging by his robe, this Elder on duty was a Third Grade High-Level Artifact Refiner. Inside the room, there was a cauldron and a small table.
Seeing someone enter, the old man raised his white eyebrows, "Who is here for the examination?"
Elder Miao pointed at Qian Duoduo.
When the old man saw it was Qian Duoduo, his eyebrows furrowed, "Young man, know your limits."
Qian Duoduo was only fourteen or fifteen years old; at this age, let alone a Second Grade, even a First Grade Artifact Refiner was rare.
The attendant nodded slightly to the old man, indicating that the token had been verified.
The old man flicked a small bell on the wall with his finger, and soon three Artifact Refiners entered.
One Artifact Refiner placed three Jade Slips on the small table.
"Please."
The old man said softly, then closed his eyes.
"One Jade Slip contains an Magic Treasure for an artisan artifact. Choose one, refine it three times, and succeed once to pass the assessment," the Artifact Refiner explained.
The Magic Treasures in Wuzhu City should be more abundant than in Kongfang City, Qian Duoduo thought, and casually picked a Jade Slip.
His Spiritual Awareness entered, and the task on the Jade Slip was to refine a low-level artisan artifact, the Soul Locking Chain, using Ming Iron, Profound Ice Paste, and Spiritual Beehive.
Lighting the furnace fire, Qian Duoduo began to ponder how to refine the Soul Locking Chain.
According to the Magic Treasure's introduction, the Soul Locking Chain was a low-grade soul weapon that could set up a protective shield around the Upper Spirit Sea, reducing or even completely eliminating Soul attacks.
The Soul Locking Chain was not large, but the difficulty lay in its central protrusion, which concealed a Spiritual Beehive and was coated with Profound Ice Paste.
While he was studying the Magic Treasure, an Artifact Refiner placed three sets of materials in front of the cauldron.
Lifting the lid, Qian Duoduo threw in the Ming Iron ore, not daring to operate the Eternal Wealth and Nobility Art, and instead, according to his normal Foundation Establishment Initial Stage cultivation, he burned the furnace fire to its maximum.
Using rotating purification and dross removal techniques, he repeatedly purified the Ming Iron three times, stopping only when he was relatively satisfied.
After casting the shape, he placed the Spiritual Beehive inside and evenly coated the outside with Profound Ice Paste, completing a perfect Soul Locking Chain.
The Elder on duty opened his eyes to a slit, glanced at it, and said nothing.
"Test the artifact."
An Artifact Refiner brought over a corpse puppet.
Pang Yunxiao was utterly bewildered by the Artifact Refining that had just taken place.
When he saw the corpse puppet, he became energized.
Qian Duoduo used his Spiritual Qi to retrieve the Soul Locking Chain from the cauldron and, while it was still hot, inserted it into the corpse puppet's Shen Ting acupoint on its head.
The reason for coating the Soul Locking Chain with Profound Ice Paste was to prevent burning the corpse puppet's body and Spiritual Veins.
Upon reaching the corpse puppet's Upper Spirit Sea, Qian Duoduo's Spiritual Awareness unlocked the Soul Locking Chain.
The middle of the Soul Locking Chain sprang open, forming an olive shape, perfectly enveloping the corpse puppet's Upper Spirit Sea.
An Artifact Refiner projected his Spiritual Awareness into the Soul Locking Chain, hiding it within the Spiritual Beehive.
Another Artifact Refiner activated his Spiritual Awareness and launched an attack towards the corpse puppet.
He was a Foundation Establishment Great Perfection, and his Soul attack held nothing back.
"Buzz."
A silent wave surged towards the corpse puppet's Upper Spirit Sea, and upon striking the Soul Locking Chain, it was immediately weakened by more than half.
The attack wave passed through the Ming Iron outer casing, entered inside, and was further weakened layer by layer by the Spiritual Beehive within; after three layers, it had no power left at all.
"Passed on the first try."
The three Artifact Refiners exchanged a glance.
Pang Yunxiao's eyes gleamed as he muttered, "This thing is good."
His thoughts were obvious: if his corpse puppet were equipped with a Soul Locking Chain, its defense against Soul Cultivators would increase significantly.
Taking the Second Grade Initial Stage token and robe handed to him by the Artifact Refiner, Qian Duoduo wiped his non-existent sweat from his forehead and looked at the Elder on duty.
"I want to continue to test for Second Grade Mid-level."
The Elder on duty snorted lightly, "Young man, going too fast makes it easy to fall."
"Am I not young? If I fall, I'll get back up," Qian Duoduo replied respectfully.
But in his heart, Qian Duoduo was secretly unconvinced, "I'm already a Four-Rank Refiner; my demeanor isn't as grand as yours."
The Elder on duty glanced at the Ba Ling Sect patterns on their robes, pursed his lips, and said, "Then go ahead and test. A newborn calf fears no tiger; Cultivators on the Lower Road have plenty of tiger-like strength."
This was a subtle jab, implying they were overestimating themselves, a bit reckless and foolish.
The three Artifact Refiners couldn't help but laugh.
They also didn't believe Qian Duoduo could pass consecutively.