Artifact Refinement Technique Breakthrough

Zhou Yang greeted his fifth uncle Zhou Xuanbin before leaving Haoyang Cave.

Eight years had passed and a large number of desert plants had grown around the sandy slope aboveground again. And this time, the Zhou clan's mortals' green thumbs had allowed the plants to grow more luxuriously than before and with higher diversity as well. Some mortals even raised desert chickens, desert antelopes, sand rabbits, and other animals.

Not far below the sandy slope was the earth city where the Zhou clan's mortals lived. Another two thousand meters to the west of the earth city was the oasis that was still in construction, encircled by grasslands irrigated by the underground river.

Zhou Yang stood on the sand slope and took in the view. The thousands of Zhou clan mortals had been divided into four teams and assigned to each corner of the desert lake - the current state of the oasis. Those in the first team would fill wooden buckets with lake water and pass them from one person to another to irrigate the land of sand behind them.

A bucket of water could only soak through half a meter of sand. But they needed the water to soak through more than five meters on average.

If the people used such a primitive method to irrigate the land, it would be difficult to create an oasis of a hundred square meters within a year. And this was assuming the desert sand would not erode.

Therefore, it was now the immortal cultivators' turn to play his part.

Among the Grade 1 spells commonly used by immortal cultivators, there was a small spell called Cloud Gathering Rain Transformation Technique that could condense water over even the hottest part of the Boundless Sand Sea.

However, if a Foundation Establishment cultivator used this Grade 1 spell near a great lake, the resulting effect would be just like the name of the spell - heavy rain falling on an area several kilometers in radius.

Zhou Xuanyan was just a cultivator at Qi Refinement Level 9. Despite being one step away from the realm of Foundation Establishment, the effect of her Cloud Gathering Rain Transformation Technique could not be compared to that of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator.

The most Zhou Xuanyu could do as a Level 9 Qi Refinement cultivator who practiced Water-based cultivation methods was to use her Water Cloud Banner - a Water-type magical artifact that enhanced Water-type spells - to make a moderate amount of rainfall over a kilometer-square of land.

In order to create an oasis as soon as possible, Zhou Xuanyan would cast Cloud Gathering Rain Transformation Technique dozens of times every morning, noon, and evening to water the land around the desert lake until her mana was exhausted.

Therefore, the sand being irrigated by the mortals that Zhou Yang was witnessing had actually been irrigated by Zhou Xuanyan's magic. The mortals were merely adding an amount just enough to account for the amount of water being evaporated due to the desert's temperature.

"It must be really hard on Aunt Xuanyan. Such a small matter should have been done by the low-level cultivators of the family. An elder like her doing this kind of thing is not only a waste of talent but also too beneath her dignity!"

Zhou Yang couldn't help but shake his head and sigh. In the end, the Zhou clan was still too weak.

In the eyes of ordinary rogue cultivators, the Zhou clan - which occupied a medium-sized oasis and had a Foundation Establishment cultivator for Clan Leader - was an existence that they couldn't reach.

However, in the eyes of high-level cultivators, the Zhou clan was an existence they could easily step on anytime they wanted to.

If people knew that the Zhou clan now occupied a Grade 3 spiritual vein in addition to Yuquan Lake Oasis, other Foundation Establishment cultivators would definitely come knocking on their doors within a month to force the Zhou clan to give up Haoyang Cave's spiritual vein and red flame iron vein.

The more vicious and merciless cultivators among them might even decide to join hands with other Foundation Establishment cultivators or clans to break through Yuquan Peak's protective array formation and take apart the entire Zhou clan!

Such incidents were not unheard of. 

In order to prevent this kind of thing from happening, an additional Foundation Establishment cultivator was needed in the Zhou clan.

Therefore, all higher-ups of the Zhou clan who knew about Haoyang Cave were secretly looking forward to Zhou Yang's success in becoming a Foundation Establishment cultivator. He was the junior who had been indirectly entrusted with the hopes of the entire clan to one day lead the Zhou clan through their difficult times.

Seeing that Zhou Yang had come out of Closed Door Cultivation without having broken through to Qi Refinement Level 9, Zhou Xuanyan and Zhou Xuantai felt regretful but secretly relieved.

Since Zhou Yang was no longer in Closed Door Cultivation, they didn't need to assign one person to protect him every day. The redistribution of manpower meant that there would be three, instead of two, immortal cultivators sharing the work of building the oasis. Moreover, Zhou Yang would be able to help them occasionally.

Building an oasis wasn't something that could be done in a day. Zhou Yang and the others were still cultivating towards the realm of Foundation Establishment. If they really wanted to build a large oasis around Haoyang Cave, it would take at least several generations or tens to hundreds of years to do so.

Therefore, even though he was taking a break from Closed Door Cultivation, he wanted to make the best use of his time to focus on improving his Artifact Refinement Technique.

He hadn't been able to do so in the past eight years since he had been focused on his Qi Refinement cultivation. As such, he felt a little rusty.

However, his foundation was still there. After refining a few times to refresh his memory and feel of the artifacts, he had more or less gotten the hang of artifact refinement again.

During the battle to exterminate the Venomous Fire Scorpions, the Zhou clan had obtained a large amount of Grade 2 demon beast materials. As an Intermediate Grade 2 artifact refiner, Zhou Yang had also received quite a large share of the spoils. Thus, there was no lack of refining materials for him.

However, this was still his first time using the materials of demon beasts for artifact refinement, which would prove to be quite a big challenge for him.

The materials from demon beasts were not like metal ores that could be melted into a liquid and shaped. Artifact refinement with demon beast materials meant that one had to first decide on the type of magical artifact based on the appearance of the materials.

For example, the stingers of the Venomous Fire Scorpion could only be used to refine flying needles.

If the stingers were melted, the venomous fire unique to the Venomous Fire Scorpion's stingers would also dissipate and the materials would be wasted.

But demon beast materials had an advantage over metal ores as the former had been refined by the demon beasts' demonic power over the years. Not only were there fewer impurities, but it was also more convenient for artifact refiners to set up restrictions within them. When special demon beast materials were refined into magical artifacts, they would also be attached with some kind of magical ability that the demon beasts had mastered when they were alive.

Since he had never used demon beast materials for artifact refinement before, Zhou Yang did not dare to use the precious Grade 2 materials. Instead, he used the materials from the Grade 1 Venomous Fire Scorpions to first practice with. There were plenty more of those stored in the warehouse of Haoyang Cave anyway so it would not be a pity to waste them.

Only the pincers and stingers of Grade 1 Venomous Fire Scorpions could be used for artifact refinement. The pincers were suitable to be refined into the unique Iron Arm Divine Hook while the stingers could be refined into Venomous Fire Flying Needles.

Between the two, the bulky and heavy Iron Arm Divine Hook was undoubtedly more suitable for beginners to refine. It was also known as Exoskeleton Armor, a mechanical arm.

Zhou Yang took out the pincers in stock and first shaved off all the air-dried meat shreds left in them before throwing them into the furnace. After that, he poured the products into a special solution that was mixed with a variety of acidic ores and plant juices. Then, he lit the furnace fire to soften the pincers.

At this time, he sent his Divine Sense into the furnace to observe the degree of softness of the pincers. When the pincers began to soften under the effects of the high temperature and the acidic solution, he began to perform the relevant refining techniques recorded in the artifact refining books, making minor adjustments here and there to mold the softened pincers into the shape of an Iron Arm Divine Hook.

After the molding was completed, Zhou Yang maintained the temperature of the flame while using the Artifact Refinement Technique of forming a Vibration Restriction in the Iron Arm Divine Hook.

Once the restriction had been set up, he used the Object Capturing Technique to retrieve the Iron Arm Divine Hook from the furnace and threw it into the quenching pool that he had prepared beforehand. With a strong hiss, a white mist rose and the magical artifact was considered to have been successfully refined.

There was no need to refine the magical armor to Grade 1. Zhou Yang simply needed to inject True Qi and mana into a cauldron, place the Iron Arm Divine Hook in, and dozens of thin and long cracks as thick as chopsticks appeared in the cauldron with a loud boom. Then, two pale yellow spiritual lights struck the Iron Arm Divine Hook and shook the entire refining room, almost knocking the cauldron to the ground.

"Oh, this power is almost close to a Lower Grade 2 magical artifact. It seems that I am quite close to reaching the level of Advanced Grade 2"

With a wave of his sleeve, he shot out a streak of mana to straighten the refining cauldron. Zhou Yang took out another set of materials and threw them into the cauldron, continuing to refine.

After about half a year and hundreds of refining attempts, Zhou Yang finally succeeded in breaking through to become the youngest Advanced Grade 2 artifact refiner in the history of the Zhou clan.

Zhou Yang immediately passed on the good news to the clan leader and his parents. Not long after, he saw his travel-worn parents rushing over to Haoyang Cave.

Zhou Yang looked at his parents who had suddenly arrived. He was slightly stunned for a moment before he immediately understood why the two of them had come over.

"Father, have you made up your mind?"

"Why? Can't I come over to see you just because I miss you?"

Zhou Xuanhao smiled faintly as if he did not see Zhou Yang's suddenly solemn expression.

"Alright, don't act like enemies the moment you meet. Why are you talking about such depressing things on this joyous day?" Lin Yuting saw that the atmosphere was not right, so she quickly interjected to ease the atmosphere.

After saying that, she grabbed Zhou Yang's hand and smiled. "Let's go, Yang, bring me to your cave. This time, I brought you a lot of local delicacies that are only available in the marketplace."