Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
But the failure did not dampen Zhou Yang’s enthusiasm. He wasn’t expecting to succeed from the get-go anyway.
Even the most talented artifact refiners would not be able to succeed on their first try.
If Artifact Refinement Technique was that easy to master, being an artifact refiner would not become the most popular profession in the immortal cultivation world.
While talent was important, most artifact refiners relied on countless materials to build up their skills. As such, there weren’t many artifact refiners among itinerant cultivators who did not belong to any sects or clans simply because couldn’t afford the materials to hone their skills.
Even for a family like the Zhou family that had Foundation Establishment cultivators, it was very difficult to nurture a Grade-2 artifact refiner that could return the investment. After all, they had to select talented disciples and invest a lot of money into them.
Before Zhou Yang, there had been quite a number of Xuan generation cultivators in the Zhou family who had learned the Artifact Refinement Technique. However, only his seventh uncle, Zhou Xuanlin, was barely able to advance to become a Grade-2 artifact refiner. This was because he had the guidance of a Grade-3 artifact refiner like Zhou Minghan and the luxury of spending several thousand spiritual stones’ worth of materials.
However, becoming a Grade-2 artifact refiner was the furthest a Qi Refinement cultivator could go. If one wanted to become a Grade-3 artifact refiner, one had to first become a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Therefore, when Zhou Minghan said that he hoped for Zhou Yang to inherit the Artifact Refinement Technique, the clan leader was actually hoping that Zhou Yang could successfully achieve Foundation Establishment.
As long as he could become a Foundation Establishment cultivator and display a bit of talent in artifact refinement, Zhou Minghan was confident that Zhou Yang would be able to become a Grade-3 artifact refiner no matter how many spiritual stones they had to sacrifice!
Of course, Zhou Yang had not read that far into Zhou Minghan’s intentions. He was currently worrying about the amount of materials he should use since he knew they were valuable resources in artifact refinement.
Therefore, he wasn’t in a hurry to try again after his recent failure. Instead, he cleaned up the waste in the cauldron then carefully reflected on his experience and lessons.
Once he had regained some confidence, he began to try again.
Failure, reflection, failure again, reflection again…
After failing seventeen times, Zhou Yang finally succeeded in refining a complete Azure Edge Sword and officially became a Grade-1 artifact refiner.
Like the snowball effect, Zhou Yang’s first success had increased his artifact refinement success rate to 10%.
Zhou Yang continued to refine and improve his Grade-1 Azure Edge Sword over a hundred times more. Once he had increased his success rate to 20%, he stopped and refined another Grade-1 magical sword, the Flaming Saber.
The main material of the Grade-1 Flaming Saber was also refined iron with another one-fifth being spiritual gold copper. Once the magical sword had been refined, cultivators in the realm of Xiantian would infuse their True Qi into it to activate the flames of the saber which would cause burning damage to the enemy. The Flaming Saber could also deal damage to some ghosts that were otherwise immune to physical attacks.
The refining process of the Flaming Saber was roughly the same as that of the Azure Edge Sword. The only difference was that when refining the Flaming Saber, the artifact refiner would have to form the Raging Flames Restriction instead of the Sharpening Restriction.
Even though Zhou Yang had the success of refining the Azure Edge Sword, he still failed when refining the Flaming Saber for the first time.
Still, he reflected on his failure and attempted a second time. He succeeded. After further improving the Flaming Saber, he successfully increased his success rate of refining the saber to above 20%.
Despite having many materials leftover from the clan leader’s supplies, Zhou Yang did not continue refining. Instead, he continued to work on those finished magical weapons to keep collecting insights from his refinement experiences. He also wrote a letter to his parents as Zhou Qi, a cultivator of the same generation had arrived to collect the refined iron ores from Qingping Mountain. Zhou Yang passed the magical swords he had refined and the letter to Zhou Qi to be delivered to the clan leader and his parents respectively.
Zhou Qi was ranked third in the Yuan generation of the Zhou family. He was thirty-two years old and born to parents who were ordinary mortals. Though he was lucky to be born with spiritual root, it was in the lower tier. As such, despite cultivating diligently, Zhou Qi’s cultivation had barely reached Qi Refinement Level 3. He probably would not have much of a chance to achieve Foundation Establishment in this lifetime.
Zhou Qi was pleasantly surprised to hear that Zhou Yang had become a Grade-1 artifact refiner. With a face full of joy, he took the ores and Zhou Yang’s letter and nodded vigorously. “Zhou Yang, don’t worry. I will definitely deliver these items safely to the clan leader and your parents.”
Then, Zhou Qi earnestly said, “But you also have to cultivate well. Don’t put all your energy into artifact refinement. You are the hope of our entire Zhou family. The elders and fellow generation mates are counting on you to successfully achieve Foundation Establishment and continue the Zhou family!”
“You’re right, Zhou Qi. I will work hard in my cultivation and not disappoint the elders!” Zhou Yang nodded with a straight face.
“Alright, I trust that you have things under control here. I’ll leave now.”
Zhou Yang reopened the path in the array for his clan brother to leave before closing it up again. He went back to his room and read the long letter his parents had sent to him through Zhou Qi.
Zhou Yang’s father, Zhou Xuanhao, had devoted himself to cultivation in his early years. It was not until he was over sixty years old that he realized he had no hope of reaching Foundation Establishment and ended up listening to the advice of his clan elders to marry and have children.
Coincidentally, at that time, his mother, Lin Yuting, was being chased by enemies and had escaped to the vicinity of Yuquan Lake Oasis. Zhou Xuanhao saved her and eventually the two became husband and wife. Then, they gave birth to Zhou Yang a few years later.
Since they were both immortal cultivators, their first child was lucky enough to be born with intermediate-tier spiritual root. From then on, Zhou Yang became the apple of his parents’ eye. They were very protective over him, afraid that he was too fargile for the world. That was how precious he was to his parents.
It was also because of the love he had received from his current parents that he was able to let go of his past memories and put them behind him. He accepted and acknowledged his parents and the Zhou family from the bottom of his heart.
Zhou Xuanhao and Lin Yuting wanted Zhou Yang to cultivate further than they did. As such, they did not have any other children after him. Instead, they put all their energy into earning spiritual stones and taking care of Zhou Yang.
When they realized that Zhou Yang was naturally intelligent from a young age, the couple left him in the care of the clan elders while they kept watch over the shop the clan had opened in an immortal cultivator market. His parents put their mastery of the Alchemy Technique and Wine Brewing Technique to earn spiritual stones for the clan and their son.
Zhou Yang had a similar upbringing in his previous life so he never questioned his current parents’ decisions.
His past parents had left their hometown to work in the city when Zhou Yang was young to earn the money that would help support his education. Zhou Xuanhao and Lin Yuting were basically doing the same thing but for him to advance his cultivation to Foundation Establishment instead of his studies.
Therefore, he was never upset over not being able to see his parents all year. Instead, he would write many letters to them, delivered through the elders, to update them about his daily life. Despite the seemingly mundanenes of his daily life, he knew that those were what his parents wanted to know about the most.
“Yang, Qingping Mountain is far away from the family. You must think twice before you do anything. Always protect yourself first…”
“Son, the business of the restaurant has been getting better and better recently. This is all because of the idea you gave me last time. My son is indeed a genius. You will become a Foundation Establishment cultivator in the future. No, you will definitely become a Core Foundation grandmaster!”
Zhou Yang looked at the letter his parents wrote to him and a sincere smile appeared on his face. Such a simple letter from his parents was far more valuable to him than a thousand of words from others.
After reading the entire letter, he carefully put it away and muttered to himself, “There are still two years left until I complete my guard duty. After that, I will return to the clan to prepare for the breakthrough to Qi Refinement Level 7. As long as I am able to do so and enter the realm of Qi Refinement Advanced Stage, I will request the clan leader to assign me guard duty at the market. Then, I will finally be able to reunite with my family!”
In the meantime, Zhou Qi returned to the clan and handed over the magical swords and notes to the clan leader. The sight of the items piqued Zhou Minghan’s interest.
He personally inspected the magical swords that Zhou Yang had refined and noted shortcomings as well as suggestions for improvement. He also answered the questions Zhou Yang had asked in the notes. Once Zhou Minghan was done, he had an elder of the Light generation personally make a trip to Qingming Mountain to deliver more higher-grade refining materials and notes to Zhou Yang.
“Oh, Zhou Yang, you really live up to our expectations. I have lived for more than a hundred years and this is the first time I’ve seen the clan head value a junior so much. Your nickname as the Zhou clan’s unicorn child has spread. Even the clan members in the outer world are talking about you!”
The Zhou clan’s Light generation elder in charge of making the delivery to Zhou Yang was Zhou Quan. He was ranked third among his peers and was the second oldest among the eight elders of the Zhou clan.
The old man was already 112 years old and was very close to the end of the lifespan of a Qi Refinement cultivator. If it wasn’t for Zhou Minghan’s personal instructions to make the trip, no one in the clan would have dared to disturb him.
“How could I make Third Grandfather journey here? I have sinned!”
Zhou Yang looked at the old man who was smiling so much that his cheeks should be aching by now. He was touched but Zhou Yang sighed in his heart.
He knew that if the cultivators in the realm of Qi Refinement Advanced Stage had not been sent out on their own missions, the clan leader would never have requested Zhou Quan to make such a trip.
The clan leader’s decision not only showed how much he valued Zhou Yang, but also the lack of manpower in the clan.
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m already this old and I get to see such an outstanding junior as you appear in the clan. Even if I pass away tomorrow, I will be able to go in peace!”
Zhou Quan chuckled and reached out to gently pat Zhou Yang’s shoulder. The former had long treated life and death lightly.
However, Zhou Quan couldn’t help but sigh with some regret. “What a pity that I won’t be around when you reach Foundation Establishment. Otherwise, I would at least be able to face the ancestor of Yuquan when I go!”
Zhou Yang fell silent as the mood turned heavy.
In the past hundred years, several generations of cultivators of the Zhou clan had been stuck in Qi Refinement. As a result, elders like Zhou Quan had always obsessed over seeing another Foundation Establishment cultivator appear in the Zhou clan within their lifetime to replace the clan leader and protect the clan.
In fact, Zhou Yang’s father, Zhou Xuanhao also had this kind of obsession. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have worked so hard to earn spiritual stones away from his child.
Just as Zhou Yang was thinking about how to break this heavy atmosphere, a ball of flame suddenly passed through the sea of clouds from beyond Qingping Mountain and landed in front of him. The panicked voice of a mine manager came from within.. “Save us, Master Immortal Cultivator! A powerful demon beast has attacked the mine!”