272: Chapter 272 Second Refining

With the minor episode behind him, Nie Ning successfully rented a room where he could use earth fire.

It was just a bit expensive.

Would you believe it?

You can easily obtain earth fire just by finding a volcano, yet Danqi Workshop actually dared to charge 20 mid-grade magic crystals!

It was barefaced robbery!

And that was only for one day of usage rights; if the time exceeded even one second, he would need to pay another 20 mid-grade magic crystals. It was faster than robbery.

Although the density of Elemental Power had led to the proliferation of numerous magic crystal veins,

the price of magic crystals had not actually decreased because the number of Transcendents had increased.

Don't be fooled by how he spent thousands at a time; in reality, a Third-Ring Wizard wouldn't even use up 20 mid-grade magic crystals in a month under normal consumption.

Even when crafting alchemy items, a third-tier item could be bought in a store for at most one hundred mid-grade magic crystals, and many fourth-tier items weren't even worth that much.

Yet the cost for Nie Ning to craft a god-forbidden ring himself was nearly 100 high-grade magic crystals, and that was just for the first stage.

For an ordinary wizard, excluding the necessary promotion potion, that would likely be enough to reach the fifth tier.

...

"My lord, since we have arrived, I will take my leave. If you need to buy anything in the future, you can look for me. I am very familiar with this area."

The female shop assistant said, blinking coquettishly.

If she could latch onto Nie Ning, even just a casual tip would be enough for her not to worry about magic crystals for a long time.

"Thank you. I will look for you next time."

Nie Ning smiled slightly, tossed a mid-grade magic crystal to the female shop assistant, and then walked directly into the refining room.

The female shop assistant looked at the magic crystal in her hand, a look of delight appearing in her eyes.

As expected of a wealthy person; not only did he not haggle when buying things, but he also gave more tips than others.

In reality, Nie Ning just couldn't be bothered to haggle...

Besides, his money came from unknown sources, so there was no need to be frugal.

...

Nie Ning walked into the room equipped with the Earth-Vein Fire-Condensing Array.

The room was quite large, about three hundred square meters. Besides the Earth-Vein Fire-Condensing Array that drew in earth fire, many experimental instruments were placed on the left side.

Nie Ning walked around once, then returned to the front of the Earth-Vein Fire-Condensing Array.

The floor was paved with special black stones, and there was a stone platform two meters in length and width, engraved with many profound runes, with a Sun-Essence Stone placed in the center for gathering fire.

Nie Ning nodded: "Not bad at all. They actually can afford to use a Sun-Essence Stone."

The Sun-Essence Stone was the main material for many fire element equipment and items.

It could enhance the power of flames and weaken the fire element damage of enemies; this single Sun-Essence Stone alone was worth ten high-grade magic crystals.

Nie Ning immediately tested it, and the Earth-Vein Fire-Condensing Array could indeed draw in the power of earth fire.

Then, it used the Sun-Essence Stone to condense the flames to increase the temperature of the earth fire's power.

After confirming everything was correct, Nie Ning placed Xiao Guang on the experimental table and then began the refining work.

Some materials had just been bought, so they needed to be processed first.

However, ever since using the World Tree remnant leaf last time, Nie Ning had made significant progress in his sub-profession skills.

It only took about half an hour to complete the processing of the materials.

As the Earth-Vein Fire-Condensing Array was activated, the temperature in the entire room instantly rose, and then a translucent barrier separated it from the rest of the laboratory.

At this moment, a faint purple flame began to condense on the Sun-Essence Stone.

Seeing this, Nie Ning began to place the materials into the flames one by one in order.

Because of the experience from last time, plus the improvement in his refining skills, crafting the god-forbidden ring was much easier than he had imagined.

Moreover, compared to the array he had set up at the volcano, the Earth-Vein Fire-Condensing Array made controlling the flames much simpler.

It must be said that expensive things have their benefits; it was indeed worth 20 mid-grade magic crystals.

It didn't take long for the materials to condense into a ball of silver liquid.

Seeing that the timing was about right, Nie Ning threw the pre-prepared chaos crystal into the silver liquid, and all that was left to do was to wait quietly.

...

As the days passed, three days had gone by in the blink of an eye.

Compared to when he first crafted the god-forbidden ring, his strength was now much greater, and the Earth-Vein Fire-Condensing Array had also shortened the refining time.

At this point, the silver liquid had turned white.

Following the previous operation, Nie Ning condensed it into a white ring and then began to use his Spiritual Power to engrave runes onto it.

After the runes were finished, the next step was the most important one.

split soul!

Recalling the experience from last time, Nie Ning couldn't help but take a deep breath.

Only then did he remember a very embarrassing matter.

In reality, he shouldn't have crafted the god-forbidden ring first; he should have broken through to the fourth tier first.

Once his soul fell into a weakened state, it would take at least a month to heal the soul injury.

But because he had stayed in the mountains for too long, and coupled with the female shop assistant mentioning that there was earth fire available here, he had completely forgotten about this matter for a moment.

However, things had reached this point; if he didn't hurry up and perform the split soul now, then the materials worth one hundred high-grade magic crystals plus the chaos crystal would be wasted in vain.

With his methods of earning money, it would probably take him several years of normal operations to earn that much.

Next, Nie Ning used the split soul technique to once again remove a wisp of his soul.

Although the entire process was still agonizing, Nie Ning felt that his soul seemed tougher compared to last time.

In the end, Nie Ning could only attribute it to the soul recovery technique of the Stairway to Godhood.

After all, it was a secret technique that came with the method of attaining godhood, so it naturally couldn't be anything mundane.

When everything was ready, Nie Ning placed the split soul into the semi-finished god-forbidden ring.

...

Outside.

The sky suddenly changed color.

Dark clouds gathered over the west side of the city, with blue lightning traveling through them.

This scene immediately attracted the attention of Transcendents; after all, it didn't look like a normal phenomenon in any way.

Just then, a bolt of lightning struck directly toward Danqi Workshop.

But just as the lightning was about to strike, a barrier emitting yellow light rose above Danqi Workshop.

The surrounding Transcendents were startled by the sight and stopped to watch the scene.

Those who could become Transcendents were naturally not dull people.

If it were just the weather changing, it wouldn't be a big deal; perhaps some powerhouse was using weather-altering witchcraft.

But the target of the strike was Danqi Workshop, which inevitably made people suspicious, wondering if someone was refining some heaven-defying item.

In the end, the lightning did not break through the defensive barrier of Danqi Workshop.

Just when everyone thought it was over, the dark clouds in the sky began to churn violently, with large amounts of lightning flashing continuously within them.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning, thicker than the previous one, struck down from the sky.

The barrier trembled violently under the lightning, and the flickering shield meant that it could not hold for much longer.

In just a moment, the barrier became dim and lusterless, but the lightning also gradually dissipated in this confrontation.