Volume 16 – Marriage – Chapter 21 – The Path of Artifact Crafting
Translated by: Pumpkin
Edited by: Phillip and Robin
Exactly like how it was millions and millions of years ago, snowflakes still covered the Utmost Northern Region’s Floating Snow City. Upon landing on the ground, the snowflakes were absorbed by the black slab that covered the streets. The majority of the citizens of Floating Snow City were bustling with noise and activity. However, the ancient Wood Mansion was as tranquil as usual.
The people outside had no idea there were now a couple more people in the Wood Mansion.
Qin Yu was determined to enter his own Cosmos and start researching the ‘Artifact Crafting Path.’ As for Li’er, she wanted to go with Qin Yu. She said that as Qin Yu researches his Artifact Crafting Path, she would be beside him and comprehend the spatial comprehension left behind by Zuo Qiumei.
Underneath the willow tree, beside the stone table.
“BIg brother Qin Yu, I truly do not wish to be separated from you for a long time again.” Li’er stared at Qin Yu.
How could Qin Yu possibly refuse her?
Furthermore, this was also what Qin Yu wanted.
“I have placed the Bewitching God Temple within my cosmic space. I will be studying the art of artifact crafting in the Bewitching God Temple’s Refining Flames Palace. You can train beside me.” Qin Yu made his decision.
Li’er immediately blossomed into a sweet smile. Seeing that Qin Yu and Li’er were so reluctant to part, Jiang Lan also started smiling.
“Cough!” Hei Yu deliberately coughed.
Hei Yu then looked to Jiang Lan. “Uncle Lan, allow me to go into the Jiang Lan Realm so that I can start training. I truly cannot continue to watch the scene here anymore.”
Qin Yu cast a side eye glance at Hei Yu. As for Hei Yu, he merely laughed.
“Little Hei, your Flowing Light Spear Path does indeed contain a portion of the temporal laws. Although I am unable to understand how you managed to comprehend that, there must be a reason for it to exist. You should just continue to study it. I truly want to see what sort of level you’ll be able to reach.” Jiang Lan looked to Hei Yu and said with a smile on his face.
After that, Hei Yu entered the third layer space of the Jiang Lan’s Realm.
“Uncle Lan, we shall take our leave too.” Qin Yu and Li’er stood up simultaneously and said.
Seeing Qin Yu and Li’er standing up together, Jiang Lan felt very pleased. He nodded and said. “Good. Little Yu, you continue on your study of artifact craftsmanship. I will wait for you to become the new Craftsman God.”
Qin Yu looked to Li’er beside him. He then slightly nodded.
New Cosmos. New Mystic Purple Star. In the Hidden Dragon Continent’s East Hazy Mountain.
Qin Yu had directly placed the Bewitching God Temple on the waist of the other side of the East Hazy Mountain. It just happened to be on the other side of the Misty Mountain Villa.
Inside the courtyard of the Bewitching God Temple.
“This is the Bewitching God Temple? I have heard about the distinguished name of the Bewitching God Temple before. However, I have never seen it before.” Li’er was surveying her surroundings. She was unable to refrain her gasp of admiration.
“Li’er, follow me.” Qin Yu directly led Li’er to the Refining Flames Palace. As Qin Yu knew that the Refining Flames Palace was the location where the Craftsman God Chehou Yuan usually create artifacts in, he figured that there would definitely be some utensils within it.
However, after he broke through the formation array that covered the Refining Flames Palace and entered it, he discovered…
“Eh, what’s going on?” Li’er also looked to the Refining Flames Palace in shock. “Big brother Qin Yu, there doesn’t seem to be anything here.”
“I am also confused myself.” Qin Yu carefully surveyed the Refining Flames Palace.
The outside of the Refining Flames Palace appeared to not be very large. However, its inside was over a thousand meters in both length and width. It was an enormous hall. This Refining Flames Palace did not have any rooms. All it had was a large hall.
Black surface. Four golden pillars.
However, in the center of this great hall, there was only a single golden scroll.
“There are definitely tools in the Refining Flames Palace. However, why is it that Senior Chehou Yuan did not leave behind a single tool?” Qin Yu extended his hand. The golden scroll floated to his hand. At the same time, the golden scroll also opened up.
Qin Yu swept it with his Divine Awareness.
“Junior who have inherited my Bewitching God Temple. I am truly sorry… this time, in order to create an Exalted Celestial’s Spiritual Treasure, I am required to have abundant preparations. As this set of tools is the one that I am most familiar with, I have brought along with me all the tools I use to craft artifacts with.”
Seeing this, Qin Yu was unable to refrain his shock.
It would appear that he was overjoyed in vain. However, Qin Yu continued to read.
“However, you also do not have to be too disappointed. That is because a true grandmaster artifact craftsman will not use another’s tools to craft artifacts. He uses the tools that he crafts by himself. That is because one will always be most familiar with the tools one has created. Only through numerous experiments and wear, will you be capable of making a tool flawlessly compatible with you. Thus, the first difficult problem for an artifact craftsman, is to craft a set of tools for yourself…”
After reading this, Qin Yu now understood everything.
“Big brother Qin Yu, what’s going on?” Li’er asked. She was thinking that Qin Yu was disappointed because there was nothing in the Refining Flames Palace. “Big brother Qin Yu, don’t be disappointed. It is luck to if you were to obtain it. If you were to be unable to…”
Qin Yu smiled and stroked Li’er’s beautiful hair. “It’s okay. I am not disappointed. Mn, Li’er, you can stay there and train. I’ll be beside you and start reading those golden scrolls that contain information of artifact crafting first.”
Qin Yu pointed at a place.
In the vast and spacious hall of the Refining Flames Palace, two jade colored cloud beds had appeared. Li’er slightly nodded her head and then flew and sat on top of one of the bed.
As for Qin Yu, he sat cross-legged on top of the other cloud bed.
With a wave of his sleeve, numerous golden scrolls instantly started flowing before Qin Yu. There were close to two thousand golden scrolls. All of these golden scrolls contained information about artifact crafting. Among them, over half of them were bestowed to Qin Yu by the Utmost East Sage Emperor.
Li’er slightly smiled to Qin Yu. She then closed her eyes and started comprehending the comprehensions left behind by Zuo Qiumei.
“The flow of time, I’ll directly increase it to the max.” Qin Yu controlled the flow of time in the Refining Flames Palace to the max.
Thus, two thousand years in the Refining Flames Palace was a single year outside.
After that, Qin Yu started to carefully read the golden scrolls one by one. Qin Yu was currently a Mid Level Heavenly Deity. His Divine Awareness was much more powerful than before. His reading speed was also a lot faster. However, it still required him to spend a lot of time to read close to two thousand golden scrolls.
As he read.
A new, vast and boundless world of artifact craftsmanship was unfolding before Qin Yu’s eyes. Qin Yu had completely immersed himself in it. He continued to absorb the experience left behind by his seniors.
“So this was the case, so this was the case!”
Qin Yu involuntarily gasped in admiration. If one did not receive an introduction to artifact crafting, then one would only be able to hover around the outside of the entrance of the artifact crafting one’s entire life. However, once one went past the entrance of the artifact crafting, one would be able to discover exactly how vast and beautiful the world of artifact crafting was.
Artifact crafting, if one was to describe it in the simplest terms, then it would be separated into three steps.
Step one: Achieve Artifact Embryo!
Step two: Tempering!
Step three: Spirit Awakening!
Among these three steps, the first step of achieving an Artifact Embryo was the hardest to accomplish. The Artifact Embryo was in fact the artifact’s foundation. If the foundation was bad, then regardless of how great the tempering and awakening process was, the artifact that was formed would still not become a treasure.
If the first step were a success, then the artifact crafting would already be eighty percent done.
Close to two thousand golden scrolls. Over ninety percent of these golden scrolls talked about how to refine a good, a perfect Artifact Embryo.
The so called ‘artifact crafting technique’ could even be considered as being the method of creating an Artifact Embryo.
The first prerequisite for the quality of the Artifact Embryo was the material being used. If the material was to be lacking, then regardless of how skillful one was, it’d still be useless. Even the cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice!
The second prerequisite was flames!
The so called ‘flames’ not only referred to the strongest power of the flames. After all, Godking level experts were capable of using the Void Flames. Just because one possessed Void Flames, did not signify that one would be able to pass the aspect of ‘flames.’
That was because for some materials, the temperature at which they dissolve and vaporize are not necessarily going to be very high. However, the temperature at which its impurity dissolves might be even higher than the material itself.
An unrefined artifact craftsman might even vaporize the actual material and leave behind only the impurity. Thus, the ‘flame’ aspect referred to one’s ability in controlling the flames.
One must be able to control Void Flames, White Pure Flames, and Black Divine Flames to a degree of purity at which they could be even be used together at the same time. One must reach the most perfect state of flame usage.
The third prerequisite; the matching of the materials!
There were indeed a lot of hard and tough materials in the Divine Realm. However, in the Divine Realm, there were very few people who would craft an artifact using a single material. In a hundred Heavenly Divine Artifacts, ninety nine of them were created through the mixture of different materials.
Only through the matching of different materials where one material’s strength make up for another’s weakness would one be able to be able to craft an even more perfect weapon.
Over a dozen different kinds of materials. They would all possess different dissolving temperatures and properties. To match them to a state of perfection, the requirement for that was frighteningly high.
Even the matching process was extremely complicated.
That was because… in the Divine Realm, there was rarely anything that was completely pure and unmixed. Almost all materials possessed impurities. The only difference was the amount of impurity they possessed.
A matter might appear completely pure for a Deity. However, before a Heavenly Deity, the Heavenly Deity would be able to discover impurities within it. That was because the impurities were truly too hard to discover.
There were some occasions where Heavenly Deities were unable to discover impurities in certain materials, however, a Godking would be able to discover impurities. Although the impurity might be extremely small and would only occupy an area only a thousandth of the entire material, because of that single bit of impurity, the artifact that is created might drop two or three quality levels.
Artifact crafting, it was an extremely rigorous profession that did not allow a single bit of negligence!
This was also the reason why even the Godkings of the Divine Realm were inferior to Craftsman God Chehou Yuan in the matter of artifact crafting. Even the Exalted Celestials were incapable of crafting an Exalted Celestial’s Spiritual Treasure. However, Chehou Yuan dared to take on that challenge. Just by that, one could tell how powerful he was in the aspect of artifact crafting.
There were two main points that must be remembered.
One. If two ordinary black stones were placed before you, although they are both ordinary black stones, the impurities within them will be different. One must definitely not determine the amount of impurities through a fixed ratio.
Two. Although the seniors have given a fixed ratio of many items, those fixed ratios can only be used as reference and cannot be used as actual determination. If one were to use those as actual determination, then one would at the very most be able to become an ordinary artifact craftsman.
In order to craft an Artifact Embryo, other than the three prerequisites above, there was still another very important prerequisite; the ability to control the heat of the flames!
This ability to control the heat of the flames was different from the second prerequisite ‘flames.’ One’s ability to control the heat of the flames was mostly determined by one’s experience, Divine Awareness’ perfection and so on.
Of course, all four of these were prerequisites.
By having these four prerequisites, it signifies that you have the potential to become a grandmaster of artifact crafting.
However, as to becoming a true grandmaster of artifact crafting, this was merely the beginning.
In order to successfully craft an Artifact Embryo, the four prerequisites were extremely important. After that, one would have to comprehend one’s own set of methods to remove the impurities and allow the materials to match each other perfectly.
This method was the ‘artifact crafting technique.’
Craftsman God Chehou Yuan possessed his own artifact crafting method. The golden scrolls the Utmost East Sage Emperor gave Qin Yu also contained a lot of different artifact crafting methods of many different seniors.
Chehou Yuan’s artifact crafting method was called ‘Tempered Through Thousand Hammers.’ Although its name was simple, the process was incomparably complicated.
“If you want to become a new ‘Craftsman God,’ you cannot imitate a predecessor’s artifact crafting method. You must create your own artifact crafting method that suits you the most!”
The sentence left behind by Chehou Yuan in the ‘Tempered Through Thousand Hammers’ caused Qin Yu to feel exactly how difficult it was to become the new Craftsman God.
“Remember, there is no material that is completely pure. Even if a Godking determines it to be pure, that would be because the Godking was incapable of discovering the impurity. Even if an Exalted Celestial determines it to be pure, that would also be because the Exalted Celestial was incapable of discovering the impurity!”
This sentence left by the Craftsman God Chehou Yuan in the ‘Tempered Through Thousand Hammers’ brought a great shock to Qin Yu.
In the golden scrolls given to Qin Yu by the Utmost East Sage Emperor, some seniors have mentioned that although majority of the materials in the Divine Realm are not pure, there were still some materials that were pure.
However, Chehou Yuan’s point of view was completely contrary to that.
“There is no material that is completely pure. If you keep this in mind, it will allow you to unceasingly pursue the final goal, unceasingly look for where the impurity is! Like this, it will allow you to be able to know how to use your senses to determine where the impurity is. Remember, it’s through your senses. A true expert artifact craftsman would be capable of determine how much impurity a material has with merely their senses!”
What the Craftsman God Chehou Yuan was talking about was the ‘Skeptical Mindset.’
Regardless of what sort of material it were, one must always have a skeptical mindset.
As he continued reading, Qin Yu started to admire Chehou Yuan more and more. To Qin Yu, what was most precious was not Chehou Yuan’s artifact crafting method. Instead, it was Chehou Yuan’s sense of thinking that was completely different from the masses.
“The ability to draw and carve is also extremely important.” This was something that practically all of the expert artifact craftsmen recorded in their golden scrolls.
An Artifact Embryo, although it was called the Artifact Embryo, its appearance was already completely formed.
A weapon was in reality a work of art. Only through creating a perfect appearance and obtaining a perfect composition would this weapon be able to achieve a better result in the ‘Spirit Awakening’ process.
The first step of the three steps of artifact crafting: Crafting an Artifact Embryo.
If everything above was successfully achieved, then the first step would be be achieved.
Although the second and third steps seemed to not be as important as the first step, that was only because… the second and third steps did not test one’s experience greatly. Instead, what it tested… was the factor that one could supply!
“This second step is truly crazy.” As Qin Yu continued to read, he started realising more and more about how difficult it was to craft an artifact.
The bold, visionary words of ‘I am confident in becoming the new Craftsman God’ that he had said back then, it now appeared that if he wanted to achieve that goal, the difficulty was extremely, extremely high!