36: Chapter 36 Weapon Forging

Based on a fifty-fifty split, he could personally obtain 900 Spirit Stones each year, and Qingling could obtain 150 Spirit Stones.

"Hmm?" While looking through the ledger, Chen Changqing discovered a problem with the income of the past year.

Originally, the annual earnings were 2,100 Spirit Stones, but now nearly 300 were missing.

He continued to look through it and finally found the reason. It turned out that the price of animal skin, one of the raw Materials for making Talisman paper, was more expensive than before, so under the condition that the price of the Talisman remained unchanged, the earnings naturally decreased.

Chen Changqing immediately found a servant and sent him out to inquire why the price of animal skin had suddenly increased.

After a while, the servant brought back the news. It turned out that this year, the Yao Beasts in the southern Monster Mountain Range began to migrate northward. Therefore, after the number of Yao Beasts surged, the difficulty of hunting Yao Beasts became higher and higher. However, every northward migration of Yao Beasts meant that a beast tide was about to erupt again—fast in seven or eight years, slow in over a decade. The time seemed long, but in reality, it was not long at all, because the outbreak of a beast tide would always produce some Tier 3 Monster Beasts comparable to the Purple Mansion. Although Qinghe County was not the main battlefield here, dozens of Tier 2 Monster Beasts had once attacked the periphery of Qinghe County.

Fortunately, every beast tide did not involve only the Cultivators of Qinghe County participating; all county towns under the jurisdiction of Taihe Prefecture had to join the battle. If the Xuantian Sect of Taihe Prefecture had not led other Cultivators to support Qinghe County, Qinghe County would have fallen countless times long ago. Once Qinghe County fell, the southern gateway of Taihe Prefecture would be wide open, and at that time, they would directly face the beast tide.

Of course, it was also very difficult for the beast tide to take Qinghe County, because the surrounding dozens of miles of Qinghe County were surrounded by countless peaks, making it difficult for the beast tide to effectively organize a charge.

Even so, Qinghe County had once almost fallen into the hands of Yao Beasts, but that was already hundreds of years ago.

If it were in the past, the outbreak of the beast tide would not have mattered much to their Chen Family, but now, over the past five years, the Chen Family had expanded its territory toward the Monster Mountain Range, and two new Qi Refining Families had been added under its command. If not handled well, their Family might face huge losses, and might even return to the ranks of ordinary Qi Refining Families.

Thinking of this, Chen Changqing immediately took out a messaging Talisman and notified the clan members stationed in the market town.

After a while, Chen Changqing set his mind at ease. Fortunately, the Family had discovered this matter earlier than he did, and had already made preparations.

In addition, they also instructed him on some matters, such as that the Tier 1 High Grade Talismans refined in the future would no longer be sold in large quantities to the outside world; a portion would be left and sent back to the Family treasury to be exchanged and used by clan members during the beast tide.

With Chen Changqing being able to refine more than 300 High Grade Talismans every year, even if he only sold ninety percent of them, he could guarantee the Family a stable profit of 720 Spirit Stones.

Of course, the ones generally sold to the outside world were inferior Tier 1 High Grade Talismans, whose power was equivalent to the full-strength strike of a Qi Condensation 7th Layer Cultivator. The selling price reached 30 Spirit Stones, with a cost of 15.

As for those of qualified and excellent quality, they were stored in the Family treasury and generally not sold to the outside world. Even if these two levels of Talismans were sold externally, their prices were 50 Spirit Stones and over 100 Spirit Stones respectively, and their powers were equivalent to the full-strength strike of the 8th Layer of Qi Refining and the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining respectively.

Several more days passed, and Li Qingling had not yet emerged from seclusion, so Chen Changqing stopped waiting for her and decided to learn Artifact Refining first. Although he currently possessed a Tier 1 High Grade Magical Artifact, it was completely insufficient for his current needs. However, if he went to ask someone else for Artifact Refining, his weakness would be held in other people's hands, and the highest-grade Magical Artifact the Family could refine was only of Tier 1 High Grade.

Chen Changqing first went to the market town to buy over a thousand Spirit Stones worth of Artifact Refining Materials, and upon returning to his room, he began to study them hands-on.

The first step was to thoroughly master all the Artifact Refining knowledge within the Family before starting Artifact Refining, beginning first with the Tier 1 Low Grade qingyang sword.

He first used the Fireball Technique piece by piece in order on all the Artifact Refining Materials to refine them into molten iron, and then condensed them into the shape of a qingyang sword, followed by cooling and solidification.

Bang!

With a loud crash, the molten iron that had not yet completely solidified was blasted everywhere.

Looking at the mess all over the floor, Chen Changqing frowned slightly.

"It is completely different from Talisman crafting. Talisman crafting only requires guiding Spiritual Qi into the talismanic patterns bit by bit, whereas Artifact Refining requires dividing more of one's mind and soul to achieve Fusion of various Materials. During this process, the Impurities in the Materials must also be refined completely, and there cannot be the slightest mistake along the way; even a slight deviation in the temperature of the released Fireball Technique will result in all previous efforts being wasted."

Chen Changqing sighed, waved his hand to cast a cleansing spell, and cleaned up the iron slag on the ground.

"Although my Divine Soul is very strong, this is still the first time I've divided my attention to operate so many things at once, and I am indeed somewhat unaccustomed to it," Chen Changqing muttered to himself. "However, the main thing is still the lack of understanding of the Artifact Refining Materials. How much heat is needed for the Impurities, and how long does it take to truly refine them away cleanly?"

After a quarter of an hour of repeated deliberation, he had already identified the vast majority of his own problems.

"Again!"

A trace of determination flashed in Chen Changqing's eyes. He once again took out a portion of Materials for refining the qingyang sword and continued the refining process.

Under the control of his magic power, a pile of Artifact Refining Materials slowly rose into the air. Then, he released a fireball to envelop all the Artifact Refining Materials, slowly refining them as the Impurities within the Materials were refined out bit by bit.

After another moment, Chen Changqing sensed the condition within the Materials, and then gave a low shout.

"Fuse!"

The originally cyan and crimson Ores became increasingly crystal clear at this moment. Immediately afterwards, under the dual action of the raging fire and spiritual power, the two slowly underwent Fusion together, emitting a faint cyan-gold glow.

"Solidify!"

Guided by the spiritual power, the liquid cyan-gold metal slowly rotated in mid-air, emitting a humming sound.

Fine beads of sweat oozed from Chen Changqing's forehead. Maintaining this high-intensity spiritual refinement was even more exhausting than drawing ten Talismans in a row.

No wonder the price of Artifact Refining was much higher than that of most Talismans.

The cyan-gold droplets converged in mid-air and gradually elongated, forming the prototype of a long sword.

Sword body, hilt... every detail gradually became clear under Chen Changqing's spiritual power.

"Set!"

For the final step, Chen Changqing withdrew the fireball, and his spiritual power transformed into a warm current that instantly enveloped the sword body.

As the fireball dissipated, white qi rose from a foot-long cyan-gold Flying Sword, and the sword body cooled down rapidly.

This time, there was no sound of explosion, only the humming sound of success.

Supported by Chen Changqing's magic power, the cyan-gold Flying Sword slowly hovered in front of him.

"Success!"

Chen Changqing reached out and grabbed the hilt. It felt warm to the touch and had a heavy, textured feel. He swung it twice, and the sword wind howled, carrying a faint sound of tearing through the air.

"Tier 1 Low Grade Magical Artifact, qingyang sword." Chen Changqing felt the fluctuating spiritual power on the sword body, nodded, and continued, "The quality is fair, and under a Cultivator's magic power activation, it can also transform into a three-foot-long Flying Sword."

Although he succeeded this time, Chen Changqing was not overly excited. This was only the most basic Tier 1 Low Grade Magical Artifact, which was still far from his inner goal. Moreover, this was just due to his good luck, because even a Tier 1 High Grade Artifact Refiner would not dare claim a hundred percent success rate when refining Tier 1 Low Grade Magical Artifacts.

Taking advantage of the insights gained from his recent successful refining, Chen Changqing continued with Artifact Refining. Over the course of three full months, he spent around a hundred portions of Artifact Refining Materials and successfully raised the success rate of the Tier 1 Low Grade qingyang sword to sixty percent, successfully refining about thirty qingyang swords in total.