novelaction Chapter 314 Meteorite Spirit Arrow
Chapter 314 Meteorite Spirit Arrow
Chapter 314 Meteorite Spirit Arrow
"The next step in the refining process is meticulous. We first need to cut the alloy sheets into small pieces, carefully adhere these small pieces to the surface of the weapon, and then send them into the furnace for re-firing. The furnace temperature control is the most critical part. The temperature cannot be too high or too low. If it is too high, the alloy sheets will evaporate, and the desired effect will not be achieved. If it is too low, the alloy will not be fully fused, and the quality of the final product will be defective."
These alloy plates are like the scales and skin of a magical artifact; the artifact is only complete once the entire alloy plate is integrated into the meteorite weapon.
During the break, Tieqiao explained the key points of the next step to Mo Yuming.
Following Tieqiao's instructions, Mo Yuming carefully attached the alloy sheet to the arrowhead. The paper-thin sheet wasn't soft; it required meticulous pressing and shaping to adhere to the main body, a process akin to embroidery. Each small arrow took Mo Yuming a quarter of an hour. Once fully attached, Mo Yuming carefully used his spiritual power to wrap the arrowhead and placed it into the furnace, controlling the spiritual fire to forge it. As the temperature rose, the alloy sheet attached to the arrowhead began to melt. Mo Yuming slowly rotated the arrowhead to maintain a balanced temperature. When the entire arrowhead turned red-hot, the alloy sheet on its surface began to melt, adhering to the arrowhead like a layer of shimmering spiritual liquid. A quarter of an hour later, with Mo Yuming carefully controlling the furnace temperature, the molten alloy completely merged into the meteorite iron. Moments later, the entire arrowhead seemed to undergo a dramatic transformation, no longer a simple weapon component. Mo Yuming suddenly felt that the arrowhead possessed a divine quality, a distinct sharpness at the tip. Although the final rune inscription is not yet complete, this weapon, as a top-tier weapon, already possesses its own formidable power.
Once all nine arrowheads are plated with alloy, the smelting of the arrowheads is finally completed. The next step is to finish and assemble the arrow shafts and engrave runes.
Mo Yuming used wing feathers from the Ironwing Wind-Riding Owl, a special material for Wind-Chasing Arrows. The Ironwing Wind-Riding Owl's feathers are extremely hard and light, and also possess wind attribute enhancements. Each feather is over three feet long, making them the best material for arrow shafts with minimal modification. However, the Ironwing Wind-Riding Owl is a level four magical beast, extremely ferocious, and being a bird, it is very difficult to hunt. Only the ten feathers at the very tip of each Ironwing Wind-Riding Owl are usable, making each feather extremely rare and expensive. Nevertheless, compared to all the materials used to craft meteorite artifacts, it is the cheapest.
After completing all the steps, Mo Yuming still entrusted Tieqiao with the final rune inscription. Although he had previously drawn the runes needed for arrows when making hidden blades, so inscription wouldn't be too difficult, his skill was relatively weak, and he rarely inscribed runes. Even with his exceptional performance, he couldn't compare to Tieqiao, who was already a fourth-level Heavenly Rank weapon-refining master. Normally, it wouldn't matter if the Xuan Tie weapons were slightly inferior; he could make do. But meteorite iron weapons were top-tier weapons, and the quality of the rune inscription directly affected the weapon's grade. Mo Yuming didn't want to fail at the last step.
By this time, Tieqiao had also finished forging the Mountain-Suppressing Mace and was preparing for the final touches and rune inscription. He then took the nine arrows with him. Inscribing the runes required a very quiet environment, so Tieqiao instructed Elder White Ape, who was still assisting in the magic array, to build an earthen wall next to the array to create a soundproof, independent space. This way, Mo Yuming could continue forging the arrows and bows without disturbing each other.
The crescent bow is two feet eight inches long, one and a half inches wide, and weighs eighteen pounds. With accessories and attachments, it weighs at most twenty-odd pounds, which is very light for the people of the Tianxuan Continent.
Mo Yuming took out eighteen catties of molten meteorite iron from the remaining twenty-odd catties of meteorite iron and began to refine it. Arrows and bows are much more complicated than arrowheads, and the difficulty of refining them is several times greater. In addition, meteorite iron is ten times more difficult to refine than black iron. After refining it once, Mo Yuming felt that he could not take it anymore and had to stop to rest and recover his strength.
Just then, a metallic sound came from the other side of the earthen wall, and then a beam of light as thick as an arm broke through the earthen wall and shot straight into the sky. The beam of light was blocked by the defensive array above and then refracted several times within the array before disappearing.
Mo Yuming and Elder White Ape were both taken aback, wondering what had happened.
"It's the strange phenomenon that occurred when the meteorite artifact was formed. The legends are true. There are always strange phenomena when a meteorite treasure is born. I never expected that such a small arrow would produce such a strong phenomenon! It's truly an eye-opener!"
Tieqiao's cheerful laughter came from the other side of the earthen wall. It turned out that Tieqiao was worried that it would be difficult to engrave runes on the meteorite iron, so he did not dare to be reckless. Therefore, he used the arrows made by Mo Yuming to test his skills. After all, the arrows were small, weighing only a few ounces each, which was no match for the more than two hundred pounds of the Zhenshan Mace. Moreover, there were nine of them, so even if one was ruined, the loss would not be significant.
Unexpectedly, engraving on meteorite iron was not as difficult as he had imagined. Although it consumed much more soul power than using black iron weapons, it wasn't too difficult for Tieqiao with his current cultivation level. He finished engraving all the runes on the meteorite iron arrow in half an hour. However, unexpectedly, when he used his spiritual power to check the quality of the runes, he activated the arrow, causing a considerable disturbance. If it weren't for the protective array, the strange light would have shot into the sky.
"It seems that all the meteorite iron spirit treasures we create in the future will need to be activated in this composite array first. Otherwise, activating them outside will cause too much of a commotion!"
"Iron Bridge said with emotion."
After a moment of admiration, everyone's enthusiasm soared, and they continued their work with even greater passion without lingering. Mo Yuming attempted to forge the crescent bow again, but found that the second attempt was already nearing his limit, realizing he couldn't complete the task independently. Although the bow weighed only a dozen kilograms, Mo Yuming's current strength allowed him only a few forgings. This was because the meteorite iron's toughness and hardness doubled after each forging, and the bow would require at least nine forgings to take shape, with the physical exertion increasing with each subsequent attempt. Knowing he couldn't continue, Mo Yuming didn't force himself and left the task to Tieqiao.
After careful consideration, Mo Yuming concluded that with his current profound martial arts skills, he could at most independently forge a meteorite iron weapon weighing around five jin (approximately 2.5 kg). There were still about eight to nine jin (approximately 4.5 to 5 catties) of meteorite iron remaining in the furnace. He could choose to forge two small weapons.
After a moment's thought, Mo Yuming split the molten iron in two and used his skills to forge a pair of small ox-horn knives. He planned to craft a pair of protective weapons for Xiaoxiao. Xiaoxiao usually had Qimei and Qingwei protecting her, so she rarely encountered any danger. However, if she were to participate in this Dragon Chef Competition, he would have to prepare some.
Mo Yuming was able to forge two small knives weighing less than five pounds each by himself, and after two full days of continuous forging, the two knives were finally completed. After careful finishing, it took another two hours to fuse the alloy sheet into the blade.
Mo Yuming examined the pair of knives with satisfaction. The blades were two fingers wide and a foot long, thin and slender, with slightly upturned tips. The lines were exceptionally light and smooth. The handles were carved from nephrite jade, adorned with exquisite auspicious cloud patterns.
It's now evening of the fifth day since they started smelting the meteorite iron. For these five days, Mo Yuming and Tieqiao have barely rested, working day and night except for meditation to recover their strength when their spiritual energy is depleted. However, only nine arrows are truly finished so far. Tieqiao is currently concentrating on carving the Mountain-Suppressing Mace, which he estimates will take another seven to eight hours to complete. But this mace isn't considered finished yet, because Dugu Xian cultivates an earth-attribute profound technique, so it needs to be inlaid with an earth spirit pearl that Dugu Xian specifically left behind to be considered truly complete.
Mo Yuming couldn't offer any help at the moment, so he placed the two small knives into the furnace to nurture them. Then, he took the nine arrows and left the magic array to find Pu Yazhu.
Ever since Mo Yuming found a way to allow the orphans of the Witch Clan to leave, these children have been preparing for their departure. Pu Yazhu, in particular, has been practicing archery day and night. Her Witch Clan techniques cannot be used freely, and their physical constitution limits their ability to master other profound arts. Therefore, besides consistently training to improve their agility, archery is their only option.
After more than two months of hard training, Park Ah-joo can now be considered a fairly good archer, but she still has a long way to go before becoming a master archer.
At this moment, Park Ya-chu was practicing archery, using a bow forged from black iron by Tie Qiao. This type of bow was four feet five inches long and weighed about fifty kilograms. It was the standard bow and arrow used by soldiers on the Tianxuan Continent, but Tie Qiao had reinforced it during its manufacture, making it more powerful and with a greater range than ordinary bows and arrows. For Park Ya-chu, whose cultivation was only equivalent to the second level of Xuan Gong in the ordinary realm, this bow was very difficult to use, and shooting it was quite strenuous.
However, it is best used for cultivation. Extraordinary training often stimulates the body's latent energy, making cultivation twice as effective with half the effort.
"This is a meteorite iron arrow. Try refining it with your blood!"
Mo Yuming came to Pu Yazhu's side and handed her the arrow.
"It's a meteorite iron treasure! For me?"
Park Ya-joo took the nine meteorite iron arrows, which were entirely gray-black, and asked in surprise, somewhat incredulously.
"This was specially made for you, along with a bow. It's not finished yet, so you should refine these arrows first. We've never refined meteorite iron spirit treasures before, so we can't say how good they are. You'll only know once you try them yourself."
“I’ve heard of meteorite iron treasures. Even the Feather Emperor’s Palace doesn’t use arrows made of meteorite iron. In the Feather Emperor’s Palace, even a piece of meteorite iron the size of a fingernail is considered a priceless treasure and kept hidden away. Even the elders who once held important positions in the Feather Emperor’s Palace are not qualified to possess meteorite iron treasures. This meteorite iron arrow is far too precious for Ya Zhu to dare to covet! Please, Young Master, take it back!”
"Hehe, that depends on the situation. The Feather Emperor Palace treasures it because they don't have any, while I have plenty. These few arrows are nothing to me, so they're not really valuable. However, refining meteorite iron spirit treasures takes a lot of time. There are less than two months left until the Dragon Chef Competition, so time is tight. I can only refine nine for you for now. I'll refine more for you when I have more time later."
Park Ya-joo felt embarrassed to push it away again, so she generously accepted it. She found a place to sit down, pricked her finger, squeezed out some blood, and began to refine the arrows.
Park Ya-joo lined up the nine arrows in a row, using her soul power to levitate them in front of her chest. Then, she raised her index finger and flicked drops of blood from her fingertip onto each arrow, communicating with them through her soul power.
A moment later, all nine arrows simultaneously emitted a faint glow and absorbed a large amount of spiritual energy and Pu Yazhu's soul power. Soon, a small vortex of spiritual energy formed on the nine arrows.
This situation lasted for about fifteen minutes. Suddenly, the nine arrows emitted a buzzing sound, then flashed with light and disappeared together, turning into a beam of light that vanished between Park Ya-joo's eyebrows.
A moment later, Park Ya-joo let out a long sigh of relief, and then excitedly said to Mo Yu-ming, "It's a success!"
"Because your witch clan does not cultivate elemental mystical arts, these arrows are not imbued with elemental treasures and do not have the ability to inflict elemental damage. They may not have the power of elemental spiritual treasures, but these elementless meteorite spiritual treasures can exert their power even more in your hands."
Seeing that Park Ya-joo had successfully refined the arrow, Mo Yu-ming said with delight.
"Without attribute bonuses, the characteristics of meteorite iron treasures can actually be brought out more effectively, and they will be able to be nurtured and advanced faster in the future. Meteorite iron is already a top-grade treasure, and treasures with other attributes will only overshadow its own value. For those cultivators who only practice a single attribute of profound art, it may increase some damage, but it will also limit the other characteristics of meteorite iron treasures."
Park Ah-joo said.
"Let's give it a try and see how it works! Let's see how much better it is than the Black Iron Arrow!"
Mo Yuming was eagerly anticipating the performance of the Meteorite Spirit Arrow. The rumors about the Meteorite Spirit Treasure were too mysterious, and no one had truly witnessed its power. Mo Yuming couldn't wait to see it for himself.
"Ok!"
Park Ya-joo picked up the black iron bow, held it up with her left hand, and strung it with her right hand, pulling the bowstring taut as if to shoot an arrow. Just as Mo Yu-ming was wondering why Park Ya-joo was strung without a bowstring, a faint fluorescent light suddenly flashed between the bowstrings, and a faint arrow shadow appeared. As Park Ya-joo released her right hand, a streak of bluish-gray light flashed and disappeared.
'bang'
A loud bang came from thirty feet away, followed by a oak tree about a foot thick being snapped in half.
"Why did the arrow explode?"
The oak tree is extremely hard; it can snap a tree a foot thick in half with a blast, its power comparable to the Demon-Slaying Arrow. When Mo Yuming saw the tree broken, he assumed the meteorite arrow had exploded. This was not what Mo Yuming wanted. Although the power was considerable, to have it destroyed so easily was worse than using the Demon-Slaying Arrow; the price difference between the two was enormous. A single meteorite arrow could easily be exchanged for hundreds, if not thousands, of Demon-Slaying Arrows. If he had known the meteorite arrow was disposable, Mo Yuming wouldn't have bothered with the effort of crafting it.
"No, it's because I didn't control it well and shot it into the soil behind the tree. The arrow got stuck in the soil, and I didn't have enough soul power to summon it back in time!"
Park Ah-joo said shyly.
"Oh, is that so? I thought this Meteorite Spirit Arrow was the same as the Demon-Slaying Arrow, that would be too...that! Hehe!"
How did that tree explode? Could this be the power of the meteorite magic weapon?
Mo Yuming was somewhat puzzled as to why this was the effect.