Taoist Antecedent of the Yellow Court - Chapter 28

Chapter 28: Crimson Furnace

“Thanks for your hard work.”

Lu Qingfeng carried the Pill Refining Furnace outside. He wanted to try out its efficacy.

During the past eight years, all his efforts in Tool Refining had been concentrated on this Pill Refining Furnace. Now that it had finally been realized, it was time to give it a test.

He went outside of the Pill Refining Chamber.

Suddenly, Lu Qingfeng stopped short.

Bang!

Ding!

Clang!

He kept hearing rhythmic pounding at a fixed tempo.

Taking a closer look, he noticed that there was a Smithing Table in the middle of one of the Tool Refining Chambers. A shirtless man was wielding a hammer that looked like it weighed about 200 pounds and was constantly striking the Smithing Table with it.

The action looked rough and unrefined, but actually every strike he made was as accurate as Zhang Fei’s embroidery!

The hammer was swinging in his hands ever so delicately like an embroidery needle.

Lu Qingfeng couldn’t help himself. He had to watch this fascinating display of rhythm.

Perhaps amateurs might not have noticed, but Lu Qingfeng could vaguely perceive that every time the burly man dropped his hammer, the tool on the Smithing Table would undergo a sizeable change.

Sledgehammer, small hammer, sledgehammer, small hammer!

Alternating, the hammers were constantly being cooled down with cold spring water. Relying solely on the hammers, even patterns on the tools were being carved out.

Lu Qingfeng was enthralled.

It wasn’t until the burly man had stopped and placed all the forged swords into the cold spring that Lu Qingfeng came back to his senses amid all the sizzling sounds.

He saw that the burly man had already noticed him and was now walking toward him.

“Qingfeng, have you come to refine your Pill Refining Furnace again?” Zhang Zong walked up to Lu Qingfeng, speaking casually while wiping off the sweat that had gathered on his forehead.

“Yeah, it’s finished.” Responding to what Zhang Zong had said, Lu Qingfeng waved the Pill Refining Furnace he was holding.

The person who was standing before him was the owner of the Onyx Tool Refining Chamber, Zhang Zong, one of the two vice guild leaders of Singularity.

While Lu Qingfeng had been studying Tool Refining, naturally, he would also have been taking part in combat practices. Thus, the only Tool Refining Chamber in Singularity, the Onyx Tool Refining Chamber, had become a place that he had often visited over the past few years.

Over time, the familiarity between Lu Qingfeng and Zhang Zong had become about the same as that between him and the two top-level Pill Refining Apprentices, Wang Tao and Yue Ran.

“Not bad.”

A trace of surprise flashed across Zhang Zong’s face as he took the Pill Refining Furnace from Lu Qingfeng. Soon, the size of the Pill Refining Furnace was fluctuating, surging in Spirit Energy and flickering with flames.

This was Zhang Zong conducting tests.

Sometime later, the surprise in Zhang Zong’s eyes intensified. “Qingfeng, I never thought that as well as Pill Refining, you would have such a great talent for Tool Refining also.”

“You flatter me, Brother Zhang.”

“I was watching your Tool Refining Technique just now, Brother Zhang. It was truly mesmerizing,” Lu Qingfeng said, praising him.

“That is the Cyclone Hammering Technique. I trained in it for a few decades and have barely gotten into the novice level,” Zhang Zong replied casually.

His attention was still on the Pill Refining Furnace that had been crafted by Lu Qingfeng. “Qingfeng, how did you come up with the idea to change the sequence of the few Runic Arrays? That alteration is truly fantastic. It is like a finishing touch that instantly propels the ordinary Pill Refining Furnace up to a whole new level!”

In the arts of Tool Refining, Zhang Zong proclaimed himself the best in Singularity.

And today, he had been astonished by Lu Qingfeng’s work.

“It was a flash of inspiration. I thought it would fail initially, but it turned out pretty well,” Lu Qingfeng said with a smile.

Naturally, he wouldn’t tell him that this was because he had expended experience points to enhance it.

“A flash of inspiration…”

Zhang Zong nodded subconsciously.

It was true that inspiration was often needed in Tool Refining. Sometimes, when one was struck by inspiration and was in the right mood, performance could far exceed its normal level,

“It looks as if you truly have talent in Tool Refining. If Yuanyi learns about this, I think he won’t come to pester me so much anymore in the future,” Zhang Zong said to Lu Qingfeng with a smile.

Speaking of Mu Yuanyi, Lu Qingfeng couldn’t help laughing.

Over the past few years, he had been distracted by Tool Refining and had not been paying attention to the refinement of the various low-level pills. This had had a great influence on Mu Yuanyi’s plan to use the low-level pills refined by Singularity and Qingfeng to monopolize the pill market.

More than once, Mu Yuanyi had gone to talk to Lu Qingfeng to try and persuade him to focus all his energy on Pill Refining. However, it was simply that all his words went in Lu Qingfeng’s left ear and out of his right. Lu Qingfeng would verbally promise him to start refining pills again, and, on the very next day, he would visit the Onyx Tool Refining Chamber as usual.

This had even caused Zhang Zong to become annoyed by Mu Yuanyi.

…

After conversing with Zhang Zong about his experience in Tool Refining for a moment, Lu Qingfeng returned to the Emery Pill Refining Chamber.

After eight years, the Emery Pill Refining Chamber presently had a total of six low-level Pill Refining Apprentices, 42 Herb Handling Apprentices, and one advanced-level Pill Refining Apprentice, who was Lu Qingfeng himself.

“Master.”

“Elder Lu.”

Entering the Pill Refining Chamber, the apprentices greeted and bowed to Lu Qingfeng.

Lu Qingfeng nodded faintly and headed right toward his own Tier 4 Pill Refining Chamber.

The layout of this Pill Refining Chamber was simple. It had a Tier 4 Runic Equipment Grade Pill Refining Furnace in the middle, and some bottles, jars, and handled medicinal herbs randomly placed around it. There was a round cushion placed on the side where Lu Qingfeng could meditate and regain his Chi or cultivate when he wasn’t refining pills.

“Let me try out the Crimson Furnace.”

Lu Qingfeng placed the Pill Refining Furnace, the Crimson Furnace he was holding, onto the ground. Placing both his hands on it, his inner Chi surged outward.

In an instant…

The Crimson Furnace flickered with a spectral light. It abruptly got larger. Soon, it was as tall as a person.

“Runic Array for size manipulation is stable!”

Lu Qingfeng stretched out his hand, clapped on the wall of the Crimson Furnace, and funneled in a gust of his inner Chi.

With the Crimson Furnace as the center, a faint Spirit Energy began to amass. As Lu Qingfeng wasn’t in the Foundation-Building-Chi-Drawing Phase just yet, he could only feel it vaguely.

At the very next moment,,,

Boof!

Flames started burning within the three legs of the furnace. The flame was red in color, and the temperature wasn’t low.

“Runic Array for amassing Spirit Energy is stable!”

“Runic Array for generating crimson flames is stable!”

Lu Qingfeng moved his hands away. The red flames underneath the furnace were still burning. Although it was only flickering now, it had never extinguished.

“A job well done!”

Lu Qingfeng was beaming with delight. He was ecstatic.

The Crimson Furnace had originally been a Tier 1 Runic Equipment Grade Pill Refining Furnace composed of nine runes. Lu Qingfeng had expended hundreds of experience points to enhance its refining method by five times.

The nine runes that had originally been scattered and unorganized had been immediately optimized into three sets of Runic Arrays.

While its stability had been greatly enhanced, the effects of Spirit Garnering and Flame had also been greatly improved.

Although, in fact, it was only a Tier 1 Runic Equipment that was comprised of nine runes, even a Tier 2 Runic Equipment composed of more than 30 runes was far behind it.

This was the reason that Zhang Zong had been so amazed.

“Due to the limitations of the materials used, the number of runes that can be contained in the Runic Equipment is limited. Once exceeded, the materials will be overwhelmed. They will collapse, and the refinement will fail. With materials of better qualities, more runes can be incorporated, and, naturally, the power and quality of the refined Magical Artifact will be higher.”

“A good Tool Refiner and a good refining technique can use ordinary materials to reasonably arrange runes so that, even when the materials can only contain a limited amount of runes, the maximum effect of these runes can be unleashed.”

“This is the principle behind the refining method of the enhanced Crimson Furnace.”

Lu Qingfeng stroked the Crimson Furnace with pride.