27: Chapter 27 The Birth of the Ice Phoenix Hairpin

Inside the Artifact Refining Room.

The fires of the Nine-Turn Scarlet Sun Cauldron were blazing fiercely.

The four Elders—Hall Master Liu Xi, Bai Ming, Lu Xing, and Elder Fu Gao—surrounded the Artifact Refining furnace like four guardian deities, each and every one of them intensely focused.

Their entire minds and Souls were concentrated on that young figure inside the Cauldron.

Zhao Ruoan's control over his Divine Thought had reached a supernatural realm.

Under the guidance of his threads of Divine Thought, the spiritual liquids of top-tier Materials with six different attributes perfectly completed their initial Fusion.

That exquisitely meticulous control over spiritual power and those unimaginable blending techniques caused these Grandmaster-level figures, who had immersed themselves in the Dao of Artifact Refining for centuries, to watch in absolute infatuation.

Was this even Artifact Refining?

This was clearly a demonstration of the Dao!

They felt that their long-sealed Artifact Refining Bottlenecks were showing signs of loosening within this brief observation.

As Zhao Ruoan executed his final hand seal, that multi-colored mass of fused spiritual liquid inside the Cauldron began to slowly condense and take shape according to his will.

A rough outline appeared before everyone's eyes.

Hall Master Liu Xi was the first to frown.

What is this?

It did not look like a saber, nor a sword, and even less like a Magic Treasure such as a bell, tripod, tower, or seal.

"The shape of this artifact... is rather strange." Elder Fu Gao could not help but transmit his voice to Bai Ming beside him.

Bai Ming also wore a bewildered expression.

He saw it clearly: the forming artifact was slender and elegant, with a slight curve at one end, and the other end seemed to be carved with some kind of intricate pattern.

This thing... no matter how he looked at it, it looked like a hairpin used by mortal women to tie up their hair?

Using fourth-order scarlet flame essence gold, combined with scrap pieces of Zichen Star Gold, and supplemented by several third-order top-tier spiritual Materials, just to refine a... hairpin?

What a terrible waste of heavenly treasures!

This thought popped up in the minds of several Elders simultaneously, and their expressions as they looked at Zhao Ruoan became rather peculiar.

They completely failed to understand why anyone would expend such a huge cost to refine a female accessory.

Right at this moment.

"Creeak—"

An extremely faint sound of a door opening—yet exceptionally clear within the utterly quiet Artifact Refining Room—reached everyone's ears.

Instantly.

The expressions of the four Elders changed simultaneously.

Hall Master Liu Xi's face was directly filled with rage.

Who is it?

Which blind thing dares to come and disturb at a time like this?

Didn't he already issue a strict order that no one was allowed to approach?

What is that good-for-nothing Wang Qi doing?!

A surge of anger rushed straight to his crown; Hall Master Liu Xi abruptly turned around, opening his mouth to curse fiercely.

But the words reached his lips, only to be forcefully stuck in his throat.

Through the crack of the stone door, Wang Qi was sticking half his body out, his face scrunched up like a bitter melon, frantically winking at him.

Immediately afterwards, Wang Qi turned sideways, making space for the position behind him.

Two figures, one after the other, walked in from outside the door.

The person at the front wore white robes purer than snow, possessing an unparalleled elegance.

It was Yun Qinghan.

Hall Master Liu Xi's anger instantly extinguished completely and cleanly.

His entire person stiffened in place.

The three Elders—Bai Ming, Lu Xing, and Elder Fu Gao—also wore expressions as if they had seen a ghost.

Peak Master Yun?

Why is she here?

The next breath, as if thinking of something, they turned their heads in unison to look at the jade hairpin slowly taking shape inside the furnace.

An absurd yet incomparably reasonable thought surfaced in the hearts of the four Elders.

So that was how it was!

Zhao Ruoan at the center of the Cauldron was completely unaware of all this.

In his world, only this constantly changing mass of spiritual liquid before his eyes remained.

The threads of Divine Thought, like the most delicate embroidery needles, guided Materials with six completely different attributes, weaving and fusing them in a way that defied conventional logic.

Whenever the furnace fire fluctuated even slightly, Zhao Ruoan would increase or decrease the output of his Divine Thought, forcibly smoothing away those disharmonies.

He was expounding the supreme Law of an artifact coming into existence from nothingness in a way ordinary people could not comprehend!

Yun Qinghan just stood like that at the doorway.

On her eternally frozen face, an emotion named "bewilderment" appeared for the very first time.

Before coming, she had imagined countless possibilities.

Her little disciple was arrogant and overestimating his abilities, making a complete mess of the Artifact Refining Room.

Or perhaps he merely had a three-minute passion and found some place to slack off and sleep.

The only thing she hadn't expected was this scene before her eyes.

That youth at the center of the flames with an intensely focused expression, whose every movement carried a certain profound rhythm... was he really her little disciple who had only entered the sect seven days ago?

She thought she had seen through his Fifth-Order Sword Intent, and seen through his extraordinariness.

And what was the result?

Changing tracks, he was still a Genius.

Luo Li was also completely dumbfounded.

She gently tugged at Revered Master's sleeve.

"Revered Master..."

Yun Qinghan raised her hand, signaling her to be quiet.

She chose to wait and see how things developed.

She wanted to see just how great of a "surprise" this disciple of hers could bring her.

Seeing that Yun Qinghan had no intention of throwing a fit, the hearts of Bai Ming, Lu Xing, and Elder Fu Gao that had risen to their throats finally dropped back into their stomachs.

Elder Fu Gao cast a glance at the petrified Feng Chuan.

"Close the door, don't let the wind disturb it."

Feng Chuan mechanically turned around, using all his strength to finally close that heavy stone door once more.

"Creeeak—"

The door was closed.

The room fell into silence once more.

The refining had entered the final and most critical step.

Shaping was complete; next came inscribing the Formation patterns.

This was the step that endowed the artifact with a Soul.

Zhao Ruoan took a deep breath, his Divine Thought condensing abruptly into an invisible carving knife, probing toward the hairpin that was already beginning to take shape.

He wanted to carve his very own unique imprint onto it.

Complex, profound runes far exceeding the understanding of this era began to rapidly take form on the small body of the hairpin.

Hall Master Liu Xi and the other three widened their eyes, fully spreading out their Divine Thoughts in an attempt to capture and study the ghostly and unpredictable trajectories of the Formation patterns.

Then.

They failed.

The complexity of those Formation patterns and the direction of the energy circuits completely exceeded the scope of their cognition.

"Th-This... Are these ancient runes? No, they're even more obscure than ancient runes!" Bai Ming transmitted via Divine Thought, his voice trembling.

"Inscribing at least sixth-grade, or even higher-grade Formations on fourth-order spiritual Materials... Is this kid crazy?!" Lu Xing felt that his worldview on Artifact Refining was being repeatedly rubbed against the ground.

This completely violated the Law of conservation of energy!

Time seemed to be elongated at this moment.

Finally, as Zhao Ruoan dropped his final stroke, his Divine Thought abruptly pulled back.

"Hum—"

A distant, resonant hum, as if coming from the primordial primeval wilderness, boomed out from within the Nine-Turn Scarlet Sun Cauldron.

In this single instant, the fiercely burning red fire inside the furnace completely transformed into a deep, tranquil ice-blue.

An ultimate chill rolled backward, instantly sweeping away all the scorching hot air in the room, replacing it with a bone-chilling cold as if falling into an ice cave.

At the center of that deep blue flame, an artifact slowly rose.

It was a hairpin.

Its entire body was crystal clear, resembling something carved from ten-thousand-year black ice. At the head of the hairpin, a lifelike ice-blue Phoenix stretched its neck as if about to cry out, every single feather clearly visible, as if it would spread its wings and fly high the next moment.

Rings of soft blue halo radiated outward from the body of the hairpin.

But what truly made the scalps of the four Grandmasters of Artifact Refining go numb was the aura it emitted.

That was not the sharpness of a Spiritual Artifact, nor the heaviness of a Magic Treasure.

That was a charm of the Dao.

A majestic Concept belonging to extreme cold and utter loftiness.

"This pressure... this spiritual charm... has transcended the category of High Grade Spiritual Artifacts!" Hall Master Liu Xi's voice completely lost its composure.

"It's a top-grade Spiritual Artifact!" Elder Fu Gao roared directly, "Using fourth-order Materials, he refined the limit of the fourth-order... a top-grade Spiritual Artifact! The legendary theoretical limit!"