svetikya Chapter 5 Spiritual Artifacts
Chapter 5 Spiritual Artifacts
"What do you think the young master has been up to lately...? Why does he always put up this sign at the door?"
Two servants of the Xiao family passed by Xiao Yan's courtyard and saw a sign that read "Do Not Disturb" standing at the door of Xiao Yan's room, surrounded by a simple fence made of wooden strips.
Such an incongruous scene was nothing new to the servants of the Xiao family. For the past two months, they had seen Xiao Yan put up this sign from time to time, then go into his room and not come out for a whole day.
"Do you think it's possible this is a protective barrier?" another servant asked, his imagination running wild. "Is young master perhaps exorcising demons and maintaining peace for the Xiao family?"
He deliberately feigned a terrified expression and said to his companion, "Strange noises keep coming from the young master's room!"
Bang! Xiao Yan's door was suddenly pushed open, and a figure rushed out and flashed past.
"Whoa—!" The two servants were so frightened that they hugged each other, their souls almost flying out of their bodies.
Once the figure had disappeared into the distance, the two of them breathed a sigh of relief.
"Go and report to the master of the household immediately!"
"What if it's not a ghost?"
"Are you stupid? Who else could be in the young master's room? It must be that the young master has regained his fighting spirit!"
……
Xiao Yan ran to Huo Yuhao's door and was about to barge in when he suddenly remembered something. He slammed on the brakes and stopped just in front of the door, then knocked.
"Thump, thump!"
"Come in."
As he opened the door, a wave of heat hit him. Xiao Yan saw Huo Yuhao and Yao Chen studying a piece of metal in front of a forging furnace.
"Master, what are you doing?"
Yao Chen glanced at Xiao Yan, then lowered his head to continue examining the metal in front of him. He said, "..."
"You've run out of the medicinal liquid, haven't you? I'll make you another one later."
Seeing that neither of them paid any attention to him, Xiao Yan was a little annoyed. He walked to the stove to see what was so fascinating to them.
Yao Chen tapped the refined steel in front of him, carefully sensing it with his spiritual power, and said:
"Now it's not much different from rare metals that possess spirituality."
"Hmm." Huo Yuhao nodded and said, "The forging method can indeed imbue ordinary metals with spirits, but that requires ten thousand forgings to achieve. I didn't expect that you could achieve it by compressing and purifying the metal using your teacher's spirit-imbuing method."
"That's a method I came up with when I was researching ways to improve the quality of pills," Yao Chen said, one hand on his hip, somewhat proudly. While showing off, he prepared the medicinal herbs with spirit-attracting properties and said to Huo Yuhao, "After completing the next few steps, this spiritual artifact will be finished."
"good!"
Huo Yuhao roused himself, pushed Xiao Yan's head aside, enveloped the forging hammer with his fighting spirit, and began hammering the piece of refined steel. Soon, a short sword appeared.
"Now!" Huo Yuhao shouted, and a carving knife appeared in his left hand, wrapped in battle qi. He engraved spirit patterns on both sides of the short knife, the blade, and the hilt.
"Is this the hand speed of someone who's been single for thirteen years?!" Amid Xiao Yan's吐槽 (tu cao, a Chinese internet slang term for sarcastic or critical comments), intricate patterns appeared on the blade.
At the same time, Yao Chen summoned the Bone Spirit Cold Fire. The medicinal herbs liquefied and fused in the fire. After ten breaths, the sky-blue medicinal liquid was refined. Huo Yuhao mobilized his spiritual power to control the medicinal liquid and integrate it into the newly engraved spiritual patterns. At the same time, he controlled the flames to lower the temperature.
After the patterns on the short sword were completely dyed blue, Huo Yuhao extinguished the flames, waited for the blade to cool down, and then infused it with battle qi.
As battle qi was injected, the spiritual patterns on the short sword shone, attracting the surrounding天地元气 (heaven and earth energy) to continuously merge into the sword.
Xiao Yan was surprised to find that the clear boundary between the pattern and the original color of the blade was gradually blurring. Xiao Yan rubbed his eyes and looked more closely. He could no longer tell that the pattern was drawn later. It was as if the steel had been naturally decorated with these patterns.
"Success!" A smile appeared on Huo Yuhao's lips as he swung the short sword in his hand. Swish! A two-meter-long blade of light appeared on the short sword, which was only half a meter long.
"According to ancient records, this sword meets all the standards in terms of its spirituality, power, and ability to mobilize the energy of heaven and earth. Yuhao, congratulations on becoming a weapon refiner!" Yao Chen said solemnly as he earnestly congratulated Huo Yuhao.
"teacher--"
Just as Huo Yuhao was about to say something, Yao Chen's tense expression suddenly disappeared, revealing a comical smile.
"Haha! Although you're a genius, Xiao Haozi, you still owe a lot to my teaching! It seems I'm not only the number one alchemist on the continent, but I'll also become the teacher of the number one weapon refiner on the continent in the future."
"Uh." Huo Yuhao gave a deadpan look and swallowed back the thanks he was about to say. He lowered his head and continued to study the weapon he had just forged, ignoring his teacher who was clowning around.
Seeing that they had finished, Xiao Yan stepped forward, carefully examined the knife in Huo Yuhao's hand, and asked, "Is this the spiritual weapon Master mentioned? How is it different from the soul tools you made before, Yuhao?"
Huo Yuhao explained, "It did utilize a lot of knowledge about soul tools, but spiritual tools and soul tools are still different."
"First, a spirit weapon is a single, integrated device, making it far more robust than a soul tool when made of the same materials. Second, spirit weapons have lower requirements for the user than soul tools. Soul tools require learning how to use them, while spirit weapons mostly only require the injection of battle qi. Third, soul tools rely on their own stored energy and the user's energy to operate, so it is difficult to use them if one's cultivation level is insufficient. Spirit weapons, on the other hand, can mobilize the energy of heaven and earth through spirit patterns, and insufficient cultivation level will only reduce their power."
Huo Yuhao paused for a moment, then continued, "According to records, high-level spiritual artifacts can recognize their masters and even grow alongside their masters."
"That's amazing! What grade is this magical weapon?"
"This is a first-grade spiritual weapon," Yao Chen continued. "Just like alchemy, first grade is the lowest, and ninth grade is the highest."
"Actually, it's not entirely accurate," Huo Yuhao replied. "We took a shortcut. According to records, shaping, outlining the spirit patterns, and integrating the core should be done together. This step-by-step recombination, while achieving the power of a first-grade spirit weapon, can only be considered a defective product."
"By the way, Xiao Yan, what are you doing here?" Yao Chen asked, leaning closer as if he had suddenly noticed Xiao Yan.
"Tsk!" Xiao Yan shoved Yao Chen's large face away and said angrily, "Master, didn't you just say that the Foundation Establishment Elixir is used up? Are we going to continue using the Foundation Establishment Elixir for future cultivation, or what?"
Yao Chen felt a little dizzy from being pushed by Xiao Yan. He shook his head, rummaged through his Ancient Flame Ring, and took out a scroll.
"Foundation Building Elixir can be used before becoming a Fighter. Next, I will teach you a Fighting Technique to accelerate your Fighting Qi cultivation. Yuhao can also learn it. Also, you can prepare the medicinal herbs on this scroll."
Xiao Yan's attention was instantly drawn to the fighting technique. He took the scroll but didn't rush to open it. Instead, he asked, "What level of fighting technique is it? The one my master taught me must be very powerful, right?"
Yao Chen's expression turned reminiscent, and he sighed, saying, "High-level Xuan rank, I guess. If that person hadn't begged me crying, I wouldn't have bothered taking him. Sigh..."
Huo Yuhao and Xiao Yan stared at Yao Chen with deadpan expressions, refusing to respond.
Yao Chen stretched out his hands and placed them on Huo Yuhao and Xiao Yan's foreheads respectively. "Don't move, calm your mind and focus your spirit. I'll pass it on to you..."
"Ugh, my head's throbbing!" Xiao Yan clutched his head, wincing in pain. Yao Chen, seeing Huo Yuhao's lack of reaction and then Xiao Yan's groans, said irritably, "That's what happens when you don't properly cultivate your spiritual power. Yuhao's 'Concentration Technique' has been a great help to your teacher."
"Hiss—Alright, alright, I'll definitely cultivate my mental strength properly when I get back." Xiao Yan recovered and asked with some confusion, "But how can this fighting technique accelerate the cultivation speed of Dou Qi?"
Yao Chen said solemnly, "The Eight Extremes Collapse is a fighting technique that doesn't require much battle qi, but it demands extremely high physical strength. If you force yourself to use it, your body will be the first to give out."
"What should I do then? Do I have to wait until I'm fully developed before I start training?"
Yao Chen shook his head: "Of course not. Battle Qi is the most suitable energy for tempering the body. The stronger the Battle Qi, the stronger the body will be; conversely, the stronger the body, the faster the Battle Qi cultivation will be."
"I have a..." After understanding the basic principles of the Eight Extremes Collapse, Huo Yuhao came back to his senses and was about to say that he had a suitable body-refining technique when Yao Chen suddenly interrupted him.
"Unlike you, Yuhao, Xiao Yan can't use multiple cultivation techniques simultaneously." Yao Chen grinned mischievously. "So I prepared a more suitable cultivation method for him."