Book 2, Chapter 116 - Refining Armor

Immortal Soaring Blade

After Zhao Jiuge entered the cave and walked into the mountain, his vision darkened. After a few steps, the darkness disappeared and was replaced with a faint glow.

At this moment, Zhao Jiuge noticed that the interior of the mountain looked like a work of uncanny workmanship. The center of the mountain had been hollowed out and the edges of the walls had a staircase that spiraled downward into the mountain. The stairs and the walls of the mountain were one.

On the left side of the stairs was a chain as thick as an arm that followed the stair downs. Zhao Jiuge looked down but could not see where the stairs ended. At the right side of the stairs was the wall of the mountain. Every 20 meters or so, there was a manmade depression with a box inside that contained a dark red Night Pearl. Each Night Pearl was the size of a baby’s first and glowed dark red. These pearls lit up the staircase and made it look like a dark red dragon coiling inside the mountain.

Zhao Jiuge looked down from above and was stunned. It took him a while to recover, then he slowly walked down the stairs. The middle of the mountain had been hollowed out. Even with his Foundation Realm eyesight, he couldn't see the bottom. The walls of the mountain were covered in various marks, displaying the mountain’s age.

Zhao Jiuge originally couldn’t wait, but now he was climbing down the stairs slowly. After descending for almost half an hour, he could hear the sounds of metal being hit down below.

It seemed like the temperature was slowly rising, and Zhao Jiuge could see some figures below. Soon, Zhao Jiuge arrived at the bottom and stepped onto the uneven ground. The dark red light made it feel like the temperature here was a lot higher than outside.

The space below was much larger. Zhao Jiuge saw a stone door that was about seven or eight meters wide. The sounds were coming from inside there.

Seeing someone arrive, the two figures standing around the stone door looked at Zhao Jiuge. At the same time, they muttered to themselves, “More business has arrived.”

The two young men were wearing the sword robes of outer sect disciples. The tall young man unknowingly revealed a sad expression and the slightly shorter young man’s clothes were messy. He had a smile on his face, but that smile felt a bit treacherous.

“Hehe, Little Brother, looks like you haven’t been here for long. Are you here to refine a flying sword?” The sloppy young man’s face was red and he smiled at Zhao Jiuge. It was unknown if his face was red due to being here for too long, but even Zhao Jiuge could tell that his smile was somewhat treacherous.

Zhao Jiuge smiled but didn’t speak. He took out 10 spirit stones and silently stuffed them into their hands. Although Zhao Jiuge was young, he understood how things worked. Besides, Zhao Jiuge now had a decent amount of savings, so he didn’t care about 10 spirit stones.

When the two young men saw the spirit stones stuffed into their hands, even the tall young man who had a frown on his face smiled. The sloppy young man laughed and thought that this kid really knew how things worked and was generous.

The two of them were only outer sect disciples. They had failed to enter the inner sect and could only remain in the outer sect. Other fellow disciples that hadn’t entered the inner sect had gone to earn sect contributions to buy treasures and spells to improve their cultivation. However, these two were afraid of death and relied on doing work at the Sword Casting Hall to earn spirit stones to cultivate. This created a vicious cycle, and the gap between them and the others naturally grew wider and wider. Generally speaking, if you failed to enter the inner sect, that meant that the sect had given up on you and would no longer give you any resources—everything would depend on yourself. Their quality was ordinary and they would not be able to go far, so they simply did simple tasks around the sect. There were a lot of people like them who spent their time in the sect earning meager resources while wasting away.

Zhao Jiuge took their expressions to heart and then asked, “Two senior brothers, where do I get treasure refined here at the Sword Casting Hall?”

The sloppy young man asked, “What do you want to refine? A flying sword?”

Zhao Jiuge shook his head. “I want to refine armor.”

His words startled the two young men, and their eyes widened from shock. The sloppy young man pointed at Zhao Jiuge and said, “You want to make armor? You look like a new disciple that has only been here for a few years. How did you get the materials to refine armor?”

They were puzzled at how Zhao Jiuge had gotten so many materials. It has to be said that refining armor was rarer than refining flying swords. The Mysterious Heaven Sword Sect focused on swords, so people paid more attention to flying swords, but the practicality of armor was indisputable. If you couldn’t even preserve your life, then no matter how powerful your attack was, you would not have a chance to use it before you died.

Also, armor consumed the most materials. This was not just due to the volume, it was that the refining process was very difficult. One mistake would result in the loss of a lot of materials.

“Hehe, I got lucky during a mission and got some, so I thought I would make a defensive treasure to improve my safety.” Zhao Jiuge had a happy smile on his face. Even now, when he thought about his harvest, he couldn’t help but feel excited.

The sloppy young man suddenly became interested and asked, “Oh? What material did you obtain?”

“Purple Ji Spirit Stone.” Zhao Jiuge had a mysterious smile on his face.

The tall young man and the sloppy young man both frowned and began to think. A few seconds later, both of them looked at each and said in unison, “Purple Ji Spirit Stone!”

Their eyes were wide and no words could not describe their surprise. The sloppy young man was the first to react, and he carefully observed Zhao Jiuge. He quickly began to calculate many things in his mind. At first he thought he would try to get something from Zhao Jiuge, but who knew that Zhao Jiuge would be so generous as to give them five spirit stones each right away. Now he had learned that Zhao Jiuge had come to refine armor and was using such precious ores. Zhao Jiuge was also very young, and he was uncertain about Zhao Jiuge’s identity. He considered all this information carefully and gave up on the idea of taking advantage of Zhao Jiuge. It was better to build a good relationship for the future.

Thinking about this, the sloppy young man’s previously treacherous smile disappeared and he was now filled with concern. “Brother, are you sure you have enough Purple Ji Spirit Stone? Aside from the aluxility materials, just the ore required for the embryo is not a small amount.” Among treasures, only weapons and armor required an embryo to be refined first. Then auxiliary materials would be added to forge them. Both embryos generally required ore filled with spirit force.

“I have enough.” Zhao Jiuge nodded lightly. Before he came here, he had learned from Bai Qingqing the amount of ore required to refine an armor treasure. 150 kilograms was more than enough, the premise was that there was no failure.

Seeing how confident Zhao Jiuge was, the sloppy young man was even more uncertain of Zhao Jiuge’s background. His intent to forge a good relationship became even stronger.

“We charge a fee for all the treasures refined here. Also, there are only about a dozen or so Earth Heart Fires here, so treasure might not be refined right away. Later on, you will take your wooden token to register and leave the materials behind. You can come back later to pick up the treasure.”

After hearing the sloppy young man’s words, Zhao Jiuge pondered a bit and nodded. He believed the sect would not pocket his things. The Mysterious Heaven Sword Sect was a large sect, so it would not eye his things.

Zhao Jiuge politely said, “Then I’ll have to ask you two senior brothers to lead the way.”

The sloppy young man was very happy and quickly led the way for Zhao Jiuge. The tall young man silently followed. His eyes were still a little dull; it was unknown what he was thinking about.

The sloppy young man turned his head and said, “After going inside, you can select a master to refine your treasure. Since it’s your first time here, how about I recommend you one?”

This time, it was Zhao Jiuge’s turn to be surprised. He was somewhat puzzled and asked, “What? Isn’t there just one master for refining treasures? Are there a lot of masters?”

The sloppy young man was surprisingly patient with Zhao Jiuge. “Yes, there are more than a dozen, and they are divided into different grades depending on their experience and skill. The few ranked at the top work purely based on their mood. No matter what materials you offer, if they aren’t willing to work, there is not much you can do. As for the rest, they generally don’t do the work themselves and let their apprentices refine instead. Unless it's very difficult or high quality, they will not do it personally. As for us two, we aren’t even apprentices, we just run some work for the Sword Casting Hall. It’s unknown when we will be able to become apprentices.” After he finished speaking, he became a bit depressed. Even the tall young man sighed.

“Oh, that’s fine. Then I’ll let Senior Brother recommend one.” Zhao Jiuge didn’t care about who refined it, as long as it was good. This was his first time here, so there were too many things he didn’t know.

“Okay, I believe that with how precious Purple Ji Spirit Stone is, a master will be willing to refine for you. After all, the apprentices will only refine low quality treasures.” The young man continued to talk about refining treasures.

After walking for a few dozen meters, the three of them arrived before a grey, stone door. Because someone had to stay guard outside, the tall young man stayed outside to wait for other people who wanted to refine treasures to come.

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