Learning the Artifact Refinement Technique

Zhou Yang really couldn't say much.

The more his cultivation level increased, the greater the gap between his cultivation level and that of his peers, and the more he realized the importance of spiritual root potential to cultivators.

The chances of a mere mortal giving birth to a cultivator with spiritual roots were one in ten thousand. The chances of a cultivator giving birth to a cultivator with spiritual roots were higher - one in ten.

Among those with spiritual roots, the vast majority would have low spiritual roots and only one in ten would have intermediate spiritual roots. Cultivators with advanced spiritual roots were even rarer - only one in a hundred.

There were more than a hundred thousand members of the Zhou clan in Yuquan Lake Oasis. However, less than a hundred of them were Qi Refinement cultivators and seven or eight of them were outsiders who married into the Zhou family.

Yet, none of them had advanced spiritual roots. Even the Advanced-Stage Foundation Establishment clan leader, Zhou Minghan, only had an intermediate spiritual root.

But how much of an impact did the potential of spiritual roots have on cultivators?

If two people were at Qi Refinement Level 1 but one had lower spiritual root while the other had intermediate spiritual root, the former would have to train for ten days in order to achieve as much as the latter would in a day, despite both cultivating with the same techniques and meditating in the same place.

The same could be said when comparing a cultivator with intermediate spiritual roots and another with advanced spiritual roots.

And it wasn't just in terms of cultivation speed. The potential of one's spiritual roots would affect the probability of one's breakthrough to the realm of Foundation Establishment from the realm of Qi Refinement, for example. Even if a cultivator with intermediate or lower spiritual roots took the Foundation Establishment Pill, they would only increase their chances of a breakthrough by 30%. A cultivator of advanced spiritual roots, on the other hand, would not even need to consume the pill to break through.

It was said that a cultivator's potential could go beyond the potential of their spiritual root. That former potential might lay in their bodies such as those with spiritual and Dao bodies.

For a cultivator with a spiritual body, it was almost a guarantee that they would be able to become a Core Foundation Grandmaster without encountering any bottlenecks as long as they did not die prematurely.

Cultivators with a Dao body, on the other hand, were so rare that they were almost legendary. There were less than a handful of cultivators with a Dao body and they were super powerhouses who ruled over an entire generation.

Other than spiritual and Dao bodies, there was also an unusual and extremely special type of body in the cultivation world called the treasured body.

Any cultivator with a spiritual root could have a treasured body and if they cultivated a technique that matched the attributes of their treasured body, then their cultivation speed would be much higher than cultivators with only spiritual roots of the same quality. As their cultivation increased, cultivators with treasured bodies would also obtain a special treasured body divine ability.

For example, Zhou Yang might have a treasured body with masculine attributes. Therefore, even though he had intermediate spiritual root, his cultivation of the Golden Sun Blazing Fire Technique, a masculine and overbearing cultivation method, would increase his cultivation speed to one comparable to that of a cultivator with an advanced spiritual root.

If nothing unexpected happened, Zhou Yang would definitely be able to reach Qi Refinement Level 9 before the age of forty.

An ordinary intermediate spiritual root cultivator like Zhou Xuanjin would probably have to wait until he was sixty or seventy years old before he could reach Qi Refinement Level 9.

And an ordinary lower spiritual root cultivator might not even be able to reach Qi Refinement Level 9, even if he lived to the upper limit of a Qi Refinement cultivator's lifespan!

Additionally, the cruel reality was that the older a Qi Refinement cultivator was, the more difficult it would be for them to reach the realm of Foundation Establishment. The probability of a Level 9 Qi Refinement cultivator above the age of sixty reaching the realm of Foundation Establishment was less than half of that of a cultivator below the age of sixty. The probability of a Qi Refinement cultivator above the age of eighty reaching the realm of Foundation Establishment would drop even further. Zhou Yang had never even heard of a hundred-year-old Qi Refinement cultivator achieving the realm of Foundation Establishment.

With Zhou Yang's age and cultivation speed, his success rate of reaching the realm of Foundation Establishment was indeed much higher than that of most others. This was also the reason Zhou Minghan, valued him so much.

It was a pity that the treasured body did not increase a cultivator's success rate of reaching the realm of Foundation Establishment. Otherwise, Zhou Yang would be able to confidently attempt to break through from Qi Refinement Level 9 regardless of his age.

Both Zhou Yang and Zhou Xuanjin knew all of these deep down. Thus, Zhou Xuanjin came back to his senses and began the handover process with Zhou Yang.

"There are three main responsibilities for those standing guard at Qingping Mountain. First, upon receiving the alarm from the mine managers assigned by the clan, you must hurry down to the mine and help the miners get rid of Grade 1 and Grade 2 demon beasts that occasionally intrude. Second, guard the miners' camp on the outer periphery and store the refined materials in the warehouse on the mountain in time for those sent by the clan to collect them. Lastly, take care of the ten-or-so acres of spiritual fields on the mountain. The health and safety of the fields are directly related to your fill during mealtimes.

"In addition, if you encounter powerful demon beasts and human cultivators that you can't deal with, don't leave the area of the array formation. The best way is to guard the array formation, use your blood essence to activate the Grade 3 Voice Transmission Talisman, and await the clan's rescue

"Finally, this is the array flag and control methods of the Qingping Mountain array formation. I can only leave after you've refined the array flag and familiarized yourself with the array formation."

As Zhou Xuanjin spoke, he handed over all the things needed by the guards to Zhou Yang and taught him how to use these things step by step.

This went on for another four to five days. Only after Zhou Yang had completely mastered how to control the Grade 2 Cloud Sea Light Diffraction Array did Zhou Xuanjin return to his clan with the progress report of Qingping Mountain's mine production over the past year.

After Zhou Xuanjin left, Zhou Yang held the highest status at Qingping Mountain.

He first summoned a few managers of the Zhou family in charge of the mining and smelting of the ores to have a preliminary understanding of operations. Then, he handed a few Voice Transmission Talismans that contained his own aura to them so that they could immediately inform him if something happened.

Though they were cultivators in the realm of Xiantian from the Zhou family and had been assigned as managers at the mines, they did not have spiritual roots and were unable to cultivate mana to become Qi Refinement cultivators. These managers would remain in the realm of Xiantian for the rest of their lives.

Of course, to mortals, the strength of a cultivator in the realm of Xiantian was impressive enough.

Mortals who became cultivators in the realm of Xiantian were able to cultivate True Qi in their bodies, move as fast as a horse, carry cauldrons with their bare hands, and easily fight against one hundred people. They also had a great resistance against various diseases.

Unfortunately, they were mortals without spiritual roots. Even if they cultivated True Qi in the realm of Xiantian, they would not be able to use even Grade 1 spells.

True immortal cultivators with spiritual roots would not recognize these mortals as immortal cultivators, nor did they bother to communicate with them.

These people had been discriminated against by immortal cultivators for a long time. The concept of superiority and inferiority had been deeply rooted in the hearts of both sides. Though Zhou Yang did not discriminate against mortal cultivators, none of them would dare treat him as a fellow clansman even if he took the initiative to invite them over for a chat with him. Therefore, in the end, he could only let these people leave.

Zhou Yang's following days were simple.

Every morning, he would meditate and breathe for six hours in front of the sun, then practice the five spells he had learned from the Scripture Cave depository for six hours. By the time evening came, he would allocate an hour to weed and get rid of the pests in the spiritual fields to keep the crops healthy.

The spiritual vein on Qingping Mountain was man-made and only at Lower Grade 2. After supplying the daily spiritual Qi needed by an Advanced-Stage Qi Refinement cultivator, only 20-30% of the spiritual Qi was left in the spiritual vein.

As such, only about fifteen acres of spiritual fields had been tilled there and the spiritual grains harvested were meant specifically for the cultivators stationed there. There was simply not enough to return to the clan.

The spiritual grains planted in these spiritual fields were called Golden Pearl Rice due to the fruit's pearl-like shape. Its appearance was similar to the cotton trees of Zhou Yang's previous world. The plant bore dozens of fruits once a year which would be harvested and peeled open to remove the grains within.

Since Golden Pearl Rice grew in spiritual fields, it needed to absorb spiritual Qi to survive and mature. Therefore, apart from being rich in nutrients and having an excellent taste, the rice also contained a small amount of spiritual Qi, further providing another easy source of spiritual Qi for cultivators to absorb.

Qi Refining cultivators would eat Golden Pearl Rice as a staple. A small bowl would be enough to fulfill two or three days' worth of nutrition, in addition to slightly increasing their cultivation levels.

Even the food eaten by Foundation Establishment and Zifu cultivators had mostly consisted of Golden Pearl Rice.

When Zhou Yang first started cultivating at four years old, he had only spent three years reaching Xiantian Level 9. Apart from his spiritual root and body's potential, his parents served him Golden Pearl Rice for his meals, which complemented well with low-level demon beast meat.

Since he wasn't a farmer, Zhou Yang didn't know many of the spells that spiritual farmers had to learn to increase the production of their spiritual fields. Alas, he could only water the Golden Pearl Rice, remove the weeds, and catch insects like an ordinary farmer. So long as he did not have a black thumb, the harvest of this fifteen acres of Golden Pearl Rice would be sufficient to sustain him with some surplus.

Zhou Yang knew that this surplus was a bonus allowed by the clan for the cultivators standing guard. After all, it was the duty of every adult clansman to go down the mountain to complete the clan's mission with no expectation of any extra rewards.

After taking care of the spiritual fields on the mountain for an hour every day, Zhou Yang would spend the rest of his evening learning the Artifact Refining Technique.

But he did not start refining anything substantial immediately. Instead, he carefully read the artifact refining books and the notes given by the clan leader. Once he had his artifact refinement basics down, he used some of the refined iron to practice with.

The passing of such simple and fulfilling days eventually turned into three years.

Once Zhou Yang had fully comprehended the knowledge recorded in the artifact refining books as well as completely mastered the basics of the Artifact Refining Technique, he finally took out the materials given to him by the clan leader to refine his first artifact.

To save materials, he chose to refine the simplest Grade 1 magical sword, the Azure Edge Sword.

The main material of the Azure Edge Sword's blade was refined iron while its hilt was made from the spiritual century-old ironwood. Its magic came from the infusion of True Qi from a cultivator in the realm of Xiantian. The cultivator's level of cultivation would determine the glow intensity of the sword which could range from three inches to one foot to injure the enemy.

Refining the magical sword was quite simple. First, the refined iron would be tempered with spiritual fire to form the blade. While maintaining the temperature of the blade with the flame, the immortal cultivator's mana and Divine Sense would be used as the guide to form a Sharpening Restriction around the blade.

The restriction would be removed once the blade had been tempered, i.e. the edges and tip of the blade had been sharpened into a double-edged sword. If the body of the tempered sword glowed with the unique spiritual light of a magical sword, it meant that the artifact had been successfully refined. Otherwise, it would simply look like a typical sword without any glow.

All of this sounded simple, but it was not easy to do. Even though Zhou Yang had already envisioned the refinement process countless times in his head as well as practiced the formation of the Sharpening Restriction countless times prior, his first attempt at refining the sword ended in failure, unsurprisingly, with an explosion from his cauldron.

As such, his first refining attempt had ended. He did not even reach the flame-tempering stage.