Qin Feng remembered that there was an underground stream under the spiritual well located within the spiritual orchard. The stream was connected to the Sword Cleansing Pool located within the Sword Crafting Valley of the Huang family.
Although he could not infiltrate that himself, he could send the Heaven Swallowing Toad over.
After all, the toad was the one that discovered the underground stream.
Moreover, if it were able to enter the Huang family’s Sword Crafting Valley in the past, then it should not be too heavily guarded.
That made sense as the Huang family had to come and go multiple times all day long and could not afford to keep a restriction formation going on every day. Otherwise, the Heaven Swallowing Toad would not have been able to come and go as it pleased.
Thinking of that, Qin Feng was tempted immediately.
He casually came to the entrance of the spiritual orchard and saw a clansman resting in the room beside it. Seeing that, he called out, “Nineteenth Uncle.”
The middle-aged man looked up. Seeing that it was Qin Feng, he quickly came forward to open the gates. “Oh, it’s Feng’er. What brought you here?”
Qin Feng said with a big smile on his face, “I heard the spiritual dates in the orchard are ripened. My mouth is itching and would like to try some of it in the orchard. Can I?”
“Of course. Those spiritual jujubes are meant for the consumption of our own clansmen anyway. Just make sure you don’t knock all of them out of the tree in one go.”
Nineteenth Uncle chuckled and did not think much of it. After all, it was normal for a growing young man to be gluttonous.
Furthermore, Qin Feng had stood out among the younger generation in the family and would be offered the allocation to join the Beastmaster Sect. A regular clansman like him that was stuck for decades in the Qi Refinement Realm would be eager to gain Qin Feng’s favor instead of trying to make things difficult for him over a few spiritual jujubes.
“Thank you, Nineteenth Uncle. I’ll help myself then.”
Qin Feng took a few steps, then turned around and stated, “Oh yeah, these few days I’ll come over quite often to check on our family’s spiritual fruit trees. Rest assured, I won’t touch those spiritual fruits. It’s just that I heard from my dad that the Beastmaster Sect has also planted various spiritual plants and I would like to find out more about them. Who knows if I can find some ways to earn more spirit stones after joining the sect?”
“Is that so? Sure thing. Come over as much as you want and you can ask me if there’s anything you don’t understand.”
Nineteenth Uncle agreed to it without much thought.
That was because in the past, some of the Qin family members that joined the Beastmaster Sect were indeed tasked to take care of spiritual herbs and other menial tasks.
Qin Feng thanked him and went looking for the spiritual jujube tree. He knocked a few bright red spiritul jujubes down with a bamboo stick. Casting a Water Manipulation Spell, he used his spiritual energy to direct a stream of water to clean those jujubes thoroughly.
After that, he placed one into his mouth and took a big bite. It was sweet, juicy, and crunchy.
Swallowing it after a few chews, he could feel a faint wave of spiritual energy circulating within his body.
It was a pity that the spiritual jujubes were not of higher grade and could only be considered as a lower level spiritual fruit. Moreover, the spiritual jujube trees here were already two to three centuries old and would produce around a hundred kilograms of spiritual jujubes. Naturally, it would not contain too much spiritual energy.
Regardless, his main goal was not to eat the spiritual jujubes. He quickly moved over to the spiritual well.
By then, it was already evening. Apart from Nineteenth Uncle staying back to guard the orchard, there were no other people.
Qin Feng summoned the Heaven Swallowing Toad.
The toad came out from the dark confines of the Demon Refinement Kettle. It was overjoyed when it realized that they were in a spiritual orchard, thinking that its master was about to feed it with fruits.
After all, its intelligence was only equivalent to a toddler. Add to it its gluttonous nature, it did not have much in its brain apart from eating.
However, it was quickly given quite a shock.
It detected the scent of a Jade-eyed Spiritual Snake.
Luckily Qin Feng comforted it in time. He pointed at the snake scales along the well and transferred his thoughts over, telling it to calm down. After that, he planned to have the toad investigate the Huang family’s grand elder’s progress on tool refining by sending it through the underground stream.
Although the scales still emanated an aura that made the toad uncomfortable, upon realizing the absence of the Jade-eyed Spirit Snake and having Qin Feng around, it was not as afraid.
After it understood what its master was having it do, it quickly leaped from Qin Feng’s palm and entered straight into the spiritual well.
With a splash, it quickly dived to the bottom of the well and followed the underground stream to the Huang family’s Sword Cleansing Pool.
Based on the strength of Qin Feng’s divine sense, it was impossible for him to extend it to that distance. Even Qin Long, his father, was barely able to reach that level.
However, Qin Feng had planned to nurture the toad as one of the Nine Great Demon Lords of the Demon Refinement Kettle, therefore the connection between the toad and the kettle was extremely strong. He could extend his senses to view through the kettle to share the toad’s vision.
Of course, due to his lack of strength and the kettle being damaged, it would not work if it was too far away. However, his location was only roughly six kilometers away from the Huang family’s Sword Crafting Valley. That meager distance was nothing for the kettle.
Sword Crafting Valley was an important location in the Huang family, but it was not as important as they imagined.
It was just a place for them to refine ores and forge magical tools. It was not a family heritage site, nor the treasure vault.
Add to that the constant traffic of their clansmen going in and out, the defenses were not as tight. Having a toad jumping in occasionally would not be too eye catching.
Waves of heat permeated through the doors and windows from the biggest forge in the middle of all that. Once in a while, one could hear a series of hammering sounds coming from it as well.
In the field of refining, only the regular tool refiners forging metallic magical tools would require the usage of a hammer. It was used to remove the impurities within the refining materials and fuse together the special properties of the individual materials. Finally, they would let it set in shape and engrave the formations on it to be refined as magical tools.
A true grandmaster tool refiner would rarely use a hammer. They would prefer to forge with spiritual fire and hammer it with their special abilities, hammer with special abilities, refine with spells, and form it with divine sense. Only with that they could refine a truly powerful magical treasure.
Apart from that, a lot of tool refiners of other schools would not even use hammers. For example, those specialized in refining magical clothing, wood and water type magical treasures would not use a hammer as well.
Otherwise, it would not be refining treasures, but instead intentionally ruining materials.
Deep in the night, the moon was high in the sky and covered everything with a sheen of silver.
Suddenly, a bright golden light shone through from the forge right in the middle, covering the entire smithing room in a golden glow.
Although it quickly dissipated, that intense aura attracted the attention from others in the Sword Crafting Valley.
“Hahaha, it’s done! I’ve finally refined the Gilded Executioner!” an old voice exclaimed. It brought great joy to the cultivators that rushed over.
Even though the grand elder was already advanced in age and could not refine spiritual tools as often, he would still be able to give them guidance and help improve the refining standards of these clansmen when he was not refining tools.
“Grand Elder, congratulations for the successful refining and official advancement as a tool refiner.”
The few Huang family clansmen quickly offered their praise.
“Don’t just stand out there. Come in.”
The old voice rang out once more and was followed by the opening of the room’s doors, inviting them inside.
Inside the room, a few clansmen from the Huang family gathered around an old man with white hair as they examined the spiritual sword floating before them.
Flying sword Gilded Executioner. It was a low-grade flying sword.
However, even though it was considered low-grade, it had extraordinary power, much stronger than a high-grade magical tool.
Moreover, if a sword cultivator nurtured it with their true essence, it would then grow in strength along with the sword cultivator’s growth.
Of course, if one wanted to refine it into a magical treasure, that would require the help of a master tool refiner.
“Grand Elder, now that spiritual tool is completed, should we deliver this news to the patriarch as soon as possible?”
“Of course. Once the patriarch hears of this, he would surely be happy.”
The clansmen watched for some time and started their discussions.
“Nonsense.”
The grand elder reprimanded, “It’s in the middle of the night. Doesn’t the patriarch need to cultivate? Why are you disturbing him at such an hour? Just invite him over tomorrow morning instead.”
“Yes, of course, Grand Elder is right.”
The cultivators quickly followed along.
“Alright. I’ve been going many days without rest for this spiritual tool and I’m very sleepy. I’m going off to bed. You guys help me clean this forge up. Also, the spiritual tool is just freshly forged. It would be better to nurture it for some time in the Spirit Tempering Formation. After you’re done cleaning, just activate the Spirit Tempering Formation on the forge station and let Gilded Executioner nurture in there.”
“Okay. Please relax and leave it to us.”
The group respectfully sent the grand elder out of the forge. After he retired to the room at the back, they finally returned to the forge.
They were in no hurry to clean. Instead, they took Gilded Executioner and played with it for a while before unwillingly placing the freshly refined flying sword on the forging station. They then used some spirit stones to activate the Spirit Tempering Formation. Following that, they put out the flames in the forge and cleaned the room before leaving, finally going back to their own places to rest.
Time passed slowly. The entire Sword Crafting Valley was quiet and still. Only when it was at the last hour of darkness before dawn that a slight ripple appeared on the Sword Cleansing Pool.