Chapter 293 – I’ll Use My Materials
The Seven Profound Valleys’ Treasure Pavilion was located at the highest peak of the Refiner Faction. Although it seemed that the disciples of the Refiner Faction and Array Faction were absolute messes when it came to combat effectiveness, their roles within the Seven Profound Valleys were pivotal. These two factions’ annually a.s.signed resources weren’t much less than the Sword Faction’s or the Acacia Faction’s.
Of the Seven Profound Valleys’ disciples who used treasures, at least 90% of those treasures came from the Refiner Faction. As for the Array Faction, they were the ones who created all of the various array formations, like the protection formations, essence gathering formations, or any other array formation.
The Seven Profound Valleys’ seven great factions mutually depended upon each other. Although the Seven Profound Valleys had many internal contradictions and disputes arising between the factions, this was one of the main reasons that they were able to maintain a delicate balance for the last 600 years.
After Lin Ming arrived at the Treasure Pavilion, he saw an elder wearing a loose red gown waiting there for him. He was the Outer Sect elder of the Refiner Faction, Liu Xuan. His cultivation was at the early Xiantian realm, and with his current age, his had zero chance of becoming a Revolving Core master before he died. But even in terms of combat prowess, he was one of the lowest of all the Xiantian powerhouses, thus he did not throw his time and energy into learning combat-related martial skills, but instead devoted his entire being to refining. This was the reason that all the treasures that came from his hands were of the highest quality.
Seeing Lin Ming fly in on the Heavenly Wind Eagle, Liu Xuan smiled and said, “Haha, Apprentice Nephew Lin, this old man has been waiting for you for a long time.”
With Lin Ming’s current status, he could be described as a high and mighty figure within the Seven Profound Valleys. Although Liu Xuan was an elder, he still had to be respectful towards Lin Ming.
“Greetings, Elder.” Lin Ming respectfully bowed.
Seeing Lin Ming respectfully bow, Liu Xuan was also in a good mood. He said, “Apprentice Nephew Lin, please follow me. I shall lead you to choose whichever low-grade earth-step treasure you would like. As long as you take a fancy for it, you may select it.”
A high-grade human-step treasure was already very precious and rare, the one who crafted it needed to be a refining master with a minimum cultivation of the early Xiantian realm. This sort of treasure could not be bought in some city in a small country. Only someone like Zhang Guanyu could obtain one by relying on his connections through the Allied Trade a.s.sociation.
As for a low-grade earth-step treasure, one needed to have a cultivation at least at the middle Xiantian realm. Even a late Xiantian refiner master would have a very high chance of failure. Although this was the Seven Profound Valleys’ Treasure Pavilion, they didn’t have many earth-step treasures. As for the better quality ones like the Zhang Family’s Blood Wave Saber, even a late Xiantian master would be jealous of it.
Liu Xuan then took out a hexagonal key from his spatial ring and inserted it into the array disc at the Treasure Pavilion’s front door. There was a ‘longlonglong’ sound, and the Treasure Pavilion’s front door began to slowly swing open.
As the door opened, it revealed a pitch black s.p.a.ce, a surge of chilling wind blowing out from within. As these high quality treasures had been stored here for too long, their cold and murderous aura had been bottled up.
“Apprentice Nephew Lin, what sort of treasures would you like to look at?”
“Spears!” Lin Ming said without any hesitation. Now when he fought masters, their treasure weapons were at least at the high-grade human-step rank. Not only that, but they were of the best quality within their grade; they weren’t too far from an earth-step treasure.
In this sort of fight, the Heavy Profound Soft Spear was becoming increasingly weak. After the battle with Jiang Baoyun, even though Lin Ming had wrapped his spear in the protection of his true essence, there were still many sword cuts on his Heavy Profound Soft Spear.
If he met a stronger opponent in the future, his Heavy Profound Soft Spear might even be directly cut in half.
“Alright, come with me.” Liu Xuan brought Lin Ming to pa.s.s through rows of weapons on racks. Finally, they came to a small side room, and he opened the door. There was a room inside that was 100 feet wide and long.
Within were 10 rows of racks, with a wide range of spears set up on them. There were dark spears, bright silver spears, and all of their spearheads glowed with a dense cold, with a thick murderous air blowing off of them, causing the temperature in the room to drop by several degrees.
“In here.” Liu Xuan said.
Seeing so many treasure spears, Lin Ming sucked in a breath of cold air. Martial artists loved weapons – Lin Ming was no exception. There were many martial artists who had gathered collections of weapons they loved, even though they could only use one.
There were over several hundred different kinds of spears here. There were short spears, long spears, thick spears, thin spears, hard spears, bendable spears, an incomparable variety of spears.
However, as Lin Ming looked at them, he was a bit disappointed. These treasure spears were worse than the weapons outside. Most of them were at the medium-grade human-step, and there was a small rack of high-grade human-step spears. As for earth-step spears, there were only three in total.
Liu Xuan saw Lin Ming thinking and said, “The Seven Profound Valleys doesn’t have a faction that uses spears, so within all the generations of the Seven Profound Valleys’ refiner masters, there were very few of them that forged spears. These spears here were mostly taken by the disciples of the Seven Profound Valleys and acc.u.mulated here over 600 years, all within this room. If you wish to choose a low-grade earth-step spear, then there are only three spears to choose from. In truth, of these three low-grade earth-step treasures, their quality is relatively at the bottom compared to other low-grade earth-step treasures.”
Three spears, all of them at the lowest quality among earth-step treasures. Not only that, but as Lin Ming looked at these three spears, he discovered that they were actually all hard spears, none of them having elasticity. To him, this was unacceptable.
Not to mention that a hard spear would place extreme restrictions on his spear style, but the Flow like Silk he practiced had to have a flexible spear in order to display its greatest power.
Seeing that Lin Ming wasn’t satisfied with these three spears, Liu Xuan said, “Apprentice Nephew Lin, I have a suggestion… Apprentice Nephew Lin is still young, it’s not too late to switch over to using a sword. My Seven Profound Valleys happens to have a Sword Faction. If you join the Sword Faction, all of the core cultivation methods will be made available to you, and they also have many good treasures to choose from.”
Listening to Liu Xuan’s words, Lin Ming didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. For just an earth-step treasure, he would have to switch over to a third-grade sect’s cultivation methods and cultivate the sword?
When Lin Ming had first chosen the spear as a weapon, it wasn’t on a random whim. The cultivation method that he studied, the ‘Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians’, was the most Yang and light-attributed of all cultivation methods. To display its true power, a spear was the best.
As for a swordsman, their emphasis was on speed, their sharp moves, and interchangeable styles. It clearly didn’t suit him.
And Lin Ming also had the power of the True Dragon. ‘Saber like tiger, spear like dragon’, were not some random words. Among weapons, the spear’s imposing and indomitable manner best fit the extreme force and extreme Yang energy of a dragon.
Lin Ming thought for a moment and then asked, “Elder Liu, if I provide materials, may I request the Refiner Faction seniors to forge an earth-step spear for me?”
“Mm? What materials?” Liu Xuan was doubtful. In order to create an earth-step treasure, one needed priceless materials. Lin Ming came from a civilian background, how would he possibly have any?
“Spear shaft materials.” In creating a treasure spear, the most difficult and arduous part was the spear shaft. If Lin Ming could provide the materials for a spear shaft, creating a spearhead was no problem.
And that spear shaft material was the Violet Electricity Spirit Bamboo that he had obtained from Thundercrash Mountain’s Flood Dragon cave.
Violet Electricity Spirit Bamboo.
At 90 years it would be a bamboo shoot, at 900 years a young bamboo, and at 9000 years a mature bamboo.
A mature Spirit Bamboo would be able to release bamboo shoots, and these bamboo shoots could sneak into magnetic ore, drilling their way in and hatching within.
At first, Lin Ming had found a 900 year old red bamboo in a mountain cavern, and then he had found the parent bamboo within the Flood Dragon’s Cave.
That young bamboo was already 900 years old. That meant that this Violet Electricity Spirit Bamboo that he had found was nine thousand nine hundred years in age. It was almost the same age as Thundercrash Mountain, which had existed for 10,000 years!
The Violet Electricity Spirit Bamboo had the flexibility, and there was no need to mention how tough it was; 900 year old bamboo was already exceedingly difficult to damage with a saber or sword. As for 9900 year old bamboo, even an early Xiantian realm master would find it difficult to damage.
Such bamboo would become the highest grade material for a spear shaft. Especially since Lin Ming was a thunder-attribute martial artist. The attribute and nature of the Violet Electricity Spirit Bamboo just happened to match him.
“Spear shaft material?” Liu Xuan was stunned. He hesitated and then said, “Whether a spear is good or bad mainly depends on its spearhead. As for these three spears’ shafts, in truth they aren’t too bad, there isn’t any need to forge another one. For instance, this spear shaft here is made with Aged Gold mixed with Cold Star Iron, and then refined with a Flame Essence. It was folded and hammered for nine periods of nine days for a total of 81 days. It has supreme power, even an extreme Xiantian master would find it difficult to destroy!”
Lin Ming said, “Elder Liu is correct. However, a spear’s quality doesn’t depend on just the spearhead, but also the spear shaft. Looking at these spear shafts, none of them are flexible, so they aren’t what I want.”
“You want a low-grade earth-step flexible spear?” Liu Xuan didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. As a refining master, he was aware of just how difficult it was to forge a low-grade earth-step flexible spear. Let alone making one as Lin Ming wished, even finding the materials themselves was a nigh impossible task.
As for the materials that were needed to create a low-grade earth-step flexible spear, Liu Xuan had never seen such materials; he had only read about their descriptions in the ancient texts.
With this near-idiotic request from Lin Ming, Liu Xuan was speechless. If Lin Ming were just some common disciple, then Liu Xuan would have already told him off. However, Lin Ming currently had a very lofty status, it was best if he did his best to give him a convincing explanation.
“Apprentice Nephew Lin, you are not a refining master so you don’t understand how difficult it is to create a low-grade earth-step flexible spear. This sort of treasure would be several times more rare and expensive than the Zhang Family’s Blood Wave Saber! Our Seven Profound Valleys doesn’t have the necessary materials to forge one.”
Lin Ming said, “Elder Liu, I just said that I have the material.”
“What material do you have? Heavy Profound Soft Silver? Hundred Hammer Pure Gold?” Elder Liu casually listed two materials. These two materials were top quality materials in forging bows, staffs, and spears, but they still fell far short of being able to create an earth-step treasure.
Although Lin Ming’s talent was clearly heaven-defying, Liu Xuan still subconsciously thought that Lin Ming was just a little farm boy from a small town. Not only that, but he was very young. A mere 16 year old from a humble mortal background, just what sort of concepts would he have of an earth-step treasure? Lin Ming probably didn’t understand how difficult refining truly was, so he thought he could casually pull out some decent materials to create an earth-step treasure.
Lin Ming hesitated, not sure if he should tell Liu Xuan anything more. Well, since he was in the Seven Profound Valleys, as long as the other party wasn’t crazy, then they wouldn’t do something so foolish as killing someone to rob them of their property.
But at this moment, a small flame suddenly s.h.i.+ned in front of Liu Xuan. It was a sound transmitting talisman. Liu Xuan was stunned. This sound transmission was actually from a Deputy Valley Master, and he had been ordered to immediately bring Lin Ming to the Seven Profound Valleys’ Grand Hall, at the highest peak, where he would have an audience with the Saint Envoy of Divine Phoenix Island.
Why would someone with such a status come from Divine Phoenix Island? Liu Xuan thought to himself. He naturally knew what status this so-called Saint Envoy had. He said to Lin Ming, “Apprentice Nephew Lin, let’s put this treasure selection off for now. First, we shall go to the highest peak and have an audience with the Divine Phoenix Island’s Saint Envoy.”
Divine Phoenix Island Saint Envoy? Lin Ming was stunned as soon as he heard this. The word ‘saint’ caused his heart to stir… surely it couldn’t be…
Liu Xuan also tried to attempt his friendly persuasion, “Apprentice Nephew Lin, if you want to forge a flexible treasure spear, how can it be easy? Even if Valley Master s.h.i.+ could collect the materials for you, who would there be to refine it? Our Refiner Faction has many masters who can create G.o.dly swords, but there are only a few who can refine spears. It is very difficult to be able to practice multiple things, what would happen if something went wrong?”
As soon as Liu Xuan said this, Lin Ming’s heart was startled. He was right! No matter how good his materials were, if something went wrong in the refining process, then it was useless. Then what should he do?
Right… would Divine Phoenix Island have a refining master? If they personally forged a weapon, its effects would probably be much better…