Junior sister, I really need to control you.

Chapter 94 Forging the Vein Chain, True Person Breakthrough

Five days passed in the blink of an eye.

Li Yinsheng, along with Mu Xiaoyu and Shangguan Ling'er, settled down at the Casting Furnace Temple.

The three of them lived in adjacent courtyards. Every day, after Zhao Xuan Zhenren's niece came to find Li Yinsheng, she would go to the neighboring courtyard to teach Mu Xiaoyu how to refine weapons.

With nothing else to do, Li Yinsheng simply went over to eavesdrop every day.

Then Shangguan Ling'er seemed to enjoy joining in the fun, and starting from the second day, she also listened in.

After listening to lectures for several days, Li Yinsheng gained a basic understanding of weapon crafting.

There are three most important factors when it comes to weapon crafting.

The first one is naturally magic power and divine consciousness.

The second is one's own skill and expertise in weapon crafting. Knowledge can be learned, but skills can almost only be acquired through years of practice.

As for the third one, it didn't surprise Li Yinsheng.

There needs to be a fire technique suitable for crafting weapons.

Whether it's alchemy or weapon crafting, fire is indispensable, but the types of fire required for each are different.

Alchemy focuses more on the ease of controlling the flame, while weapon crafting emphasizes the power of the flame.

After all, compared to alchemists who mainly refine herbs and spiritual plants, weapon refiners have to deal with various ores and metals, or the skeletons of monsters and beasts, none of which are easy to refine.

The greater the power of the flames, the more impurities can be removed, allowing for the reforging of materials and facilitating subsequent solidification and the creation of enchantments.

The female deacon who taught Mu Xiaoyu was authorized by Master Zhaoxuan and directly taught her a fire technique that was said to be quite good within the Casting Furnace Temple. Li Yinsheng also learned it.

This technique isn't fancy; its main feature is its great power.

At least Li Yinsheng felt that this thing was much more powerful than his own Burning Wind Technique.

Shangguan Ling'er, who specializes in the Five Elements, naturally had no interest in this level of fire magic.

Mu Xiaoyu studied with the female deacon who taught her for five days and was considered to have mastered the basics. She was already able to use flames to purify and refine some basic ores and shape metals.

According to the female steward, Mu Xiaoyu has quite good talent in weapon crafting. Although she can't be called a prodigy, she is already considered top-notch among her peers at the Forging Furnace Temple.

At her current pace, it would probably take her three or four years to craft even the simplest, most basic magical artifact.

Actually, this speed is not slow. The female deacon is forty-eight years old this year and has been practicing weapon crafting for forty years.

She forged a mediocre magical artifact in less than four years, a low-grade magical artifact in ten years, a mid-grade magical artifact in twenty years, and a high-grade magical artifact in thirty-eight years, making her the most talented among her peers in the temple.

Although Mu Xiaoyu lacked the innate talent for cultivation, her talent in weapon crafting was by no means bad.

However, given the extreme demands of her cultivation aspirations, her progress was not up to par.

If she continues at this pace, it's unlikely she'll be able to refine a low-grade magic weapon even in ten years.

Li Yinsheng couldn't think of any way to speed things up for his junior sister, especially since she was a beginner and had very little experience with things.

He also inquired about the "quasi-magical treasure".

The female deacon was quite surprised when she heard the question. How could someone who knew almost nothing about weapon crafting know about something as obscure as "quasi-magic weapon"?

"Quasi-magic treasures" are very rare because they are relatively impractical.

When crafting magical artifacts, a craftsman needs a precious spiritual object with spirituality as the main material, and then adds a large amount of precious materials without spirituality.

Magical artifacts made from roughly the same amount of non-spiritual precious materials are called "quasi-magical treasures".

Of course, since this kind of magical artifact has already been finalized, it cannot be universally upgraded to a magical treasure by fusing spiritual elements into it in the future; in essence, it is still just a magical artifact.

It is only because the materials are precious and some of the techniques used in crafting magical artifacts are used in the process that its power far surpasses that of high-grade magical artifacts, which is why it is called a "quasi-magical artifact".

Some powerful quasi-magical treasures, in the hands of a True Person, can even rival the true magical treasures of other True Persons. Although they are no match for them, they are not entirely powerless to fight back.

Even if a cultivator whose cultivation level is very close to that of a True Person is able to launch a sneak attack using a quasi-magic weapon, it would still pose a slight threat to a True Person.

However, besides being expensive to manufacture, quasi-magical treasures also have very high requirements for cultivation level.

A high-grade magic weapon can be used with only thirty or forty years of cultivation, and with sixty or seventy years of cultivation, it can be used with ease.

However, for quasi-magical treasures, seventy years of cultivation can only barely activate one or two aspects of their power, and even eighty or ninety years of cultivation may not be enough to use them freely.

For cultivators who have the potential to break through to the True Person realm, it would be better to save this money for crafting a true magic weapon in the future, rather than refining a quasi-magic weapon.

For cultivators who have no hope of breaking through to the True Person realm, once they reach the level of being able to activate quasi-magic treasures, they basically don't have many years left to live. Buying such things for combat is not very meaningful.

Even quasi-magical treasures cannot be left to future generations, otherwise, if their descendants' cultivation does not reach seventy years, then possessing such a treasure is a crime.

Those who truly want to leave an inheritance for their descendants have many better options.

Therefore, the existence of quasi-magic weapons is very rare, even rarer than magic weapons.

However, Shangguan Ling'er did have one, which, according to her, she had basically never used. It was just given to her by her family elders as a precaution.

Later, after she broke through to the True Person realm and obtained a real magic weapon, she completely forgot about this thing.

Li Yinsheng could only sigh that this cave heaven was still somewhat kind, because there really was a quasi-magic treasure grade, so even though he and his junior sister didn't know about the existence of quasi-magic treasures, the cave heaven still included them in the reward criteria.

Without this "quasi-magic weapon" level, one would directly lose the reward of 120 years of cultivation.

On the evening of the fifth day, the female deacon finished her lesson to Mu Xiaoyu for the day.

Mu Xiaoyu put away the strangely shaped ores she had melted and returned them to her Qiankun bag. She stretched and planned to go back to cultivate.

Although she didn't want to cultivate, she dared not stop.

However, she could feel that half of the almost solidified energy in her body had been refined in the past three months.

If she can persevere for another three months, she won't have to work so hard to cultivate anymore!

She can finally relax and be lazy!

Even though she wouldn't need to train intensely for three months, Mu Xiaoyu still felt that the future was bleak.

Because crafting weapons is so tiring!

The step of quenching and purifying materials requires using intense fire to refine the materials while simultaneously using divine sense to precisely remove impurities.

Maintaining the raging fire consumes a lot of magical power, and precisely removing impurities is also very taxing on spiritual energy, resulting in double the exhaustion.

She even felt that refining weapons was more tiring than practicing swordsmanship, since practicing swordsmanship mainly consumed mana and not much spiritual energy.

"Senior brother~" Mu Xiaoyu grabbed Li Yinsheng's sleeve, "I don't think I'm suited for weapon crafting, I'd rather learn something else in the future~"

For example, alchemy and drawing talismans sound like much easier things.

"How could it not be suitable? Young friend Shen said you have great talent," Li Yinsheng looked at the female deacon, "right, young friend Shen?"

"Senior Li is right," the female deacon said. "Fellow Daoist Mu's talent in weapon crafting is already stronger than 80 or 90 percent of the disciples in my sect."

Mu Xiaoyu looked miserable.

This is the thing she regrets the most—when she first started learning weapon crafting, she even learned a new fire technique, which she found quite interesting, so she studied it very diligently.

After she realized how tiring weapon crafting was, the female steward had already praised her for being "very talented," and it was too late for her to pretend that she had no talent.

Just as Mu Xiaoyu was mentally attacking her past self from a few days ago, a crimson streak of light landed in the courtyard.

Master Zhaoxuan emerged from the ethereal light, gestured for his grandniece, who was bowing to him, to rise, and walked towards Li Yinsheng with a loud laugh.

"Fellow Daoist Li, look what this is!"

He raised his hand, and a coiled, snow-white rope appeared.

The rope should be three or four zhang long, but it is less than half an inch thick.

Li Yinsheng glanced at Shangguan Ling'er's hand. Her fingers were already very slender and long, but the rope was even thinner than her little finger.

"Is this Fellow Daoist Zhaoxuan's Forging Vein Rope?"

Li Yinsheng took the snow-white rope and wrapped it with his magic.

This item is crafted from the energy of Geng metal and has no physical form. It feels weightless in the hand and appears to be pure white, but is actually semi-transparent.

Moreover, like the Blood Refining Pivot, if it is not continuously enveloped with magical power, the Geng metal energy within it will slowly dissipate.

However, the Geng metal energy within it is much denser than the Bing fire energy of the Blood Refining Pivot. Even if left unattended, it would probably take more than ten years to dissipate.

"This item is similar to the Blood Refining Pivot," Master Zhaoxuan explained. "It integrates into the body and is distributed throughout the body in the manner of meridians, assisting in body tempering during cultivation."

"The Blood Refining Pivot uses the fire element of Bing, so it causes the pain of burning the body. The Vein Casting Cord uses the metal element of Geng, so it causes the pain of being pierced by swords and blades, or even being cut into a thousand pieces."

Master Zhaoxuan advised, "Fellow Daoist Li, please act according to your abilities and do not neglect your normal cultivation."

"I understand," Li Yinsheng nodded.

Shangguan Ling'er, standing to the side, stared wide-eyed.

So this is what you bought! Your cultivation method is way too extreme!

Just as she was about to say something, an extremely powerful aura suddenly erupted from the southeast corner of the Casting Furnace Temple.

The aura was fierce and explosive, and after it rose, the surrounding temperature rose significantly, even affecting this courtyard which was quite far away.

"Senior Sister!" Master Zhao Xuan's eyes lit up, his face full of excitement, almost dancing with joy. "Senior Sister is finally about to break through to the Divine Travel Realm!"

A realm of divine travel?

Li Yinsheng was taken aback.

Should the Divine Realm cause such a commotion?

When he broke through to the Divine Travel Realm, although he was in a cave and had nothing to do with the outside world, it was still very quiet in the cave.

After gesturing wildly for a while, Master Zhaoxuan came to his senses and looked at Li Yinsheng and Shangguan Ling'er somewhat embarrassed.

"I have been a little out of line, please forgive me, fellow Daoists. Since the passing of my Uncle-Master Huoyun, our Furnace Forging Temple has been without a Grand Master to oversee it. I was a little too excited about my Senior Sister's breakthrough this time."

"I understand," Li Yinsheng said with a smile. "Congratulations, Fellow Daoist Zhaoxuan, and congratulations to the Casting Furnace Temple."

"Congratulations to you too!" Master Zhaoxuan beamed with joy.

With the Great Master by their side, they will be much more assertive when discussing cinnabar matters with Shouyi Temple in the future.

While Master Zhaoxuan was excited, he saw Shangguan Ling'er staring at the direction from which the aura burst forth, her brows furrowed and her face showing no joy whatsoever.

"Something's not right," she whispered, her brows furrowing deeply. "That aura—it's about to get out of control."

She looked at Master Zhaoxuan: "Your senior sister cultivates an extremely violent fire-based technique?"

"Yes, Senior Sister is also a weapon refiner—" said Master Zhaoxuan.

"How much of her lifespan is left?" Shangguan Ling'er interrupted him, pressing for an answer.

Master Zhaoxuan's joy froze for a moment, and after hesitating for a moment, he truthfully said, "Senior Sister is going into seclusion this time because her lifespan is nearing its end. She wants to take a gamble and if she can break through, her lifespan will be extended considerably."

"Her lifespan is insufficient, her three treasures are weakened, and her cultivation technique is too violent," Shangguan Ling'er said seriously. "If this continues, before she breaks through, her cultivation technique will go out of control, causing her to suffer a qi deviation, or even—"

Zhao Xuanzhen's face turned pale.

Shangguan Ling'er didn't continue speaking, but the consequences were not hard to imagine.

At the critical moment of breakthrough, such a violent fire-based technique could go out of control, resulting in either self-immolation or self-destruction.

"Is the weakening of the Three Jewels due to insufficient lifespan?"

Li Yinsheng patted Shangguan Ling'er on the shoulder: "Miss Shangguan, what do you think—"

He still had a small portion of his withered and flourishing spiritual energy remaining, and Shangguan Ling'er was naturally very clear about the effects of this withered and flourishing spiritual energy.

She immediately understood what Li Yinsheng meant, and her eyes lit up: "It's worth a try!"

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