Chapter 1666: Is He Refining Artifacts?

Where the innate fetal poison had been, the thing that had troubled him for over a year was now gone, replaced by a mass of black gas.

This thing was not large, just a single strand about the length of a finger, lying quietly in the meridian without moving.

"Burn!"

He continued to surge heavenly fire in to burn it for a while, but the black gas showed no change, as if the heavenly fire, which could burn anything, had no effect on it.

"What exactly is this?"

His spiritual power and true energy spread out, trying to force the gas out of his body, but found that it was rooted like a plant, unmoving.

"Could this be... what Master Kong mentioned back then, the thing hidden within the poison?"

His heart stirred, and his brows furrowed.

When refining the Hall Master token, he had seen the will of Master Kong left within it. The latter had said that the innate fetal poison was easy to resolve, but the thing hidden within the poison was not so easy to expel...

Now the fetal poison was gone, leaving behind this black flow of air. Could it be exactly what he had spoken of?

Even Master Kong said it was troublesome; this thing was probably not simple.

"This black qi is in a meridian too small for my soul body to enter, and unlike the previous fetal poison, it doesn't act recklessly. The library cannot investigate it..."

After a moment, he frowned.

He had used the Eye of Insight and the library just now, but still couldn't tell what this thing was.

"Forget it. It seems different from the fetal poison and harmless to people for now. I'll ask Master Kong when I see him next time..."

After studying it for a while and finding that it was not toxic and should not cause him harm, Zhang Xuan finally breathed a sigh of relief and stopped paying attention to it.

He didn't know exactly what it was, but for him, the disappearance of the innate fetal poison had resolved a major worry, and he felt much lighter.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

At this moment, the dark clouds in the sky also began to show signs of dissipating, as if they might scatter at any time.

"The heavenly fire no longer poses a threat to me now..."

When it was at its fiercest, it couldn't harm him; now that it was about to dissipate, naturally he wouldn't be injured.

"Heavenly fire burns everything; it can't be wasted... Otherwise, who knows when I'll be able to summon it again!"

His heart stirred, and with a flick of his wrist, a round platform about three meters in diameter appeared before him.

Gold Origin Spirit Stone!

Back in the ruins of Sage Ran Qiu, the Dragon Bone Divine Spear had given him this refining treasure. Because he lacked a suitable flame to melt it, he had kept it unused. Now, seeing that the heavenly fire in the sky remained and was no longer of much use to him, he decided to take the opportunity to melt this thing and refine the Gold Origin Cauldron anew.

This cauldron had followed him for a long time, but as his cultivation advanced too quickly, it had become less useful and was left idle. Since there was a chance to upgrade it, he naturally wanted to help it.

Whoosh!

As soon as the Gold Origin Spirit Stone touched the heavenly fire, this precious metal, said to be hard to melt even with earth fire, began to soften gradually, turning into liquid in less than ten breaths.

"Gold Origin Cauldron, out!"

Zhang Xuan flicked his wrist again.

Whoosh!

The Gold Origin Cauldron appeared abruptly. As soon as it came out, it cheered excitedly: "Master, why did you think of me? Did someone bully you? Watch me refine them into slag in no time..."

Before it could finish its shout, it sensed something wrong and its voice changed in fright: "What is this thing? Why is it so hot? Master, are you displeased with me and want to melt me? Don't kill me, I can warm your bed..."

"..."

Zhang Xuan was speechless: "Shut up! I'm helping you improve your strength. If you talk nonsense again, I'll leave you here to be burned alive!"

"Yes..."

Hearing that the young master wanted to help it improve its strength, the Gold Origin Cauldron finally breathed a sigh of relief. It wanted to say something more, but felt the scorching heat rushing at it, and the entire cauldron began to warp and gradually melt.

With a flick of his palm, the melted Gold Origin Spirit Stone flew over and began to merge with the cauldron.

"No... the Gold Origin Spirit Stone is too advanced. The forging techniques I learned before didn't involve it. How much should I fuse for maximum power?"

Zhang Xuan suddenly froze.

His understanding of forging had only reached the peak of eight stars; he hadn't even taken the exam for nine-star forging master before becoming a nine-star master teacher.

In forging, the ratio of various ores and metals is fixed; the more precise, the greater the power.

He had never encountered a Gold Origin Spirit Stone before; it was extremely rare. He had only heard of its name and knew nothing about how to ratio it with other metals or how to forge it better.

"A miscalculation..."

His face twitched, and Zhang Xuan felt somewhat embarrassed.

If the ratio was off, even if a large amount of good material was used, the quality of the treasure might not be high.

Earlier, he had only thought that the Heavenly Fire was about to end and he had to forge as quickly as possible, without considering this aspect. Now that he was halfway through forging, with the Gold Origin Cauldron and Gold Origin Spirit Stone beginning to fuse, wouldn't it be too frivolous to think about it now?

"Forget it. The Gold Origin Spirit Stone is a good thing; surely the more, the better. The Gold Origin Cauldron's previous material was too poor; if it can fuse and replace, it will definitely increase in grade..."

After hesitating for a moment, he cast the thought aside.

Anyway, both were good things; as much as they could fuse, let them fuse!

Sizzle sizzle sizzle!

The two molten substances began to fuse. After forming a circular platform three meters in diameter, the Gold Origin Cauldron no longer looked like its former self; it had become a lump.

Whoosh!

Just then, the dark clouds reached their limit, and the surrounding Heavenly Fire began to extinguish with a "whoosh!"

"Damn, the Heavenly Fire disappeared too quickly; I haven't tempered it yet..."

The corner of his mouth twitched.

The two had fused, but before he could temper them, the Heavenly Fire went out. He was trying to upgrade the Gold Origin Cauldron, but this shape was too ugly!

With a flick of his wrist, a hammer appeared in his palm. He hurried over and struck.

Ding-ding-dang, ding-ding-dang!

The sound of hammering rang out.

...

Outside Confucius's shrine.

Ren Qingyuan and the others looked at the dark clouds covering the sky, their faces filled with worry.

"The Supreme Heavenly Fire Tribulation is hard to withstand even for true Golden Body realm cultivators, and even I would have to avoid it... Can Teacher Zhang, who just broke through, succeed?"

"I don't know, but... isn't he able to control lightning tribulations? Maybe he has a way with the Heavenly Fire Tribulation too!"

"Lightning tribulations and Heavenly Fire Tribulations are different... Huh, look, he's charging into the dark clouds!"

Seeing Zhang Xuan charge into the dark clouds as before after the Heavenly Fire had fallen for a while, instead of feeling relieved, everyone became even more worried.

"Charging into lightning might be manageable, but in the Heavenly Fire Tribulation, the flames are so scorching—how can he resist?"

"Not sure, hopefully nothing will happen..."

Amid the discussion, the dark clouds shook a few times and began to dissipate.

"The Heavenly Fire Tribulation is about to disperse..."

"Dispersing so quickly, it should be fine..."

Everyone looked up at the sky, wanting to see whether this super genius, rare in tens of thousands of years, could survive such a powerful Heavenly Fire. Then they saw a back view holding a hammer, striking continuously.

Ding-ding-dang, ding-ding-dang!

The sound was rhythmic and pleasant to the ear.

"He... he's forging?"

Silence fell all around.