Chapter 624 - 622: For What?

Evening fell as the sun began to set.

Flame Dragon and Black Fire Crow, who had been standing guard all day, Xiaotian, who had been lounging in a chair, and Xiao Jun and Mr. Jiao, who had talked themselves hoarse, all gathered at the counter, staring at each other in dismay.

They all looked at Jiang Chen, who was dressed like a farmer in coarse linen robes.

Each of them wore a look of resignation.

Finally, Mr. Qiu Shui was the first to speak. "Young Master, we really didn’t sell a single thing."

Jiang Chen remained silent.

Xiaotian immediately pointed at Flame Dragon and Black Fire Crow, tattling to Jiang Chen, "Master, it must have been these two! Their terrible attitudes must have scared off all the customers."

Flame Dragon and Black Fire Crow looked incredibly wronged.

"Master, we absolutely did not drive away any customers."

"Boss, Xiaotian is framing us!"

Finally, Jiang Chen turned to Mr. Jiao and Xiao Jun.

The two Martial King Experts had put in a great deal of effort today.

They, too, looked troubled.

"Young Master, we did our best."

"I talked until I was blue in the face, but no one’s buying anything."

Jiang Chen was finally starting to understand. Doing business with Magical Treasures in Xingyuan City was genuinely difficult.

It was simple, really. There were too many shops selling Magical Treasures in Xingyuan City, and all the major factions were in the business.

What’s more, two major Artifact Refining Families practically monopolized the Magical Treasure trade in Xingyuan City.

"Alright, this isn’t your fault."

"I know you all did your best."

"It’s fine. We’ll take it slow. We didn’t open this shop to make money, after all."

Everyone turned to look at Jiang Chen.

"Then why are you doing this, Young Master?"

"Why are we working ourselves to the bone?"

Jiang Chen wiped some dust from his face. "To hone my Artifact Refining Technique. If the Magical Treasures don’t sell, then they don’t sell."

The others broke out in a nervous sweat.

This master of theirs was simply too willful. There was nothing to be done.

"Alright, I have one last Magical Treasure to refine today. Do you all want to watch?"

Jiang Chen stood up and headed for the back room.

In the back, there was a space set aside specifically for Jiang Chen to refine Magical Treasures.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Clearly, observing his Artifact Refining Technique was a chance to learn something new.

They closed the shop door and followed him into the back room.

Dressed in his coarse linen robes, Jiang Chen stood before a huge furnace. It was an Artifact Refining Furnace he had bought specifically for this purpose.

Refining Magical Treasures required tools, and an Artifact Refining Furnace was essential.

Jiang Chen picked up a piece of Iron Ore from nearby, hefting it in his hand.

Then, without another word, he tossed it into the Artifact Refining Furnace.

Instantly, Black Fire blazed to life, and the flames began to roast the Iron Ore.

The first step in artifact refining is selecting the materials. The second is smelting, which removes all impurities—unless, of course, the material is already pure.

After that comes the formation of the Artifact Embryo.

The purified material is then shaped into an Artifact Embryo, which is the basic form of the Magical Treasure.

The Artifact Embryo is crucial, as it determines the final power of the Magical Treasure.

Next is forging, and then, finally, it becomes a Magical Treasure.

Under the heat of Jiang Chen’s Black Fire, the Iron Ore quickly melted and took the shape of a longsword.

Having learned Tian Du’s Artifact Refining Technique, Jiang Chen had already practiced it many times in the Fire Sparrow Kingdom. He was a perfectionist.

Therefore, he hadn’t put any of his creations up for sale until he was confident he could refine high-quality Magical Treasures.

But now that he could refine fairly decent Magical Treasures, he had come to Xingyuan City to both hone his skills and sell his wares.

In the process, he had wasted a tremendous amount of materials, spending nearly ten billion Yuan Crystals in total.

He recalled winning nearly twenty billion Yuan Crystals back in Gambling City, most of which he had hardly touched.

Now, most of that money had been left for the Jiang Family in the Dragon-locking Realm. Since they couldn’t leave to do business and earn Yuan Crystals, Jiang Chen was their sole provider for the time being.

He had spent another large portion, nearly all of it, on purchasing Artifact Refining Materials.

He didn’t have many Yuan Crystals left on him.

Once the Artifact Embryo was formed, Jiang Chen took a Big Iron Hammer from a nearby workbench. He placed the embryo on the surface and began to strike it with heavy blows.

This step was the forging.

Refining a Magical Treasure required immense concentration and effort.

Moreover, Tian Du’s Artifact Refining Technique required the refiner to pour their very spirit into the process, forming a spiritual connection with the treasure as it was being made.

A Magical Treasure refined in this way would possess more Spiritual Qi.

It might even take on some of the artifact refiner’s own temperament.

CLANG!

With each strike of the hammer, the heavy Black Cloud Stone anvil vibrated unceasingly.

Furthermore, one could not use their Cultivation Power for this part of the process; the forging had to be done with pure physical strength.

It was an incredibly strenuous task.

Mr. Qiu Shui and the others could only stare, wide-eyed.

CLANG!

After countless strikes, Jiang Chen was drenched in sweat.

His entire body was soaked through.

The sword on the anvil gradually began to take on the appearance of a Magical Treasure.

Finally, Jiang Chen stopped.

He tossed the hammer aside.

He picked up the sword he had just forged and plunged it directly into a nearby pool filled with black water.

The Black Water in the pool wasn’t the ordinary river or well water used by most artifact refiners. It was Black Water that Jiang Chen had brought back from the Black Water World on the second level of the Ghost Temple.

He had discovered that soaking his newly refined Magical Treasures in this Black Water as a final step made them significantly more powerful.

HSSSSSS!

With a muffled hiss, bubbles rose continuously from the black water.

After a few moments, the Magical Treasure had completely cooled.

Jiang Chen reached into the Black Water and pulled out the sword.

The sword now pulsed with a faint blue light and looked exceptionally sharp.

"Young Master, that actually looks quite impressive,"

Mr. Qiu Shui remarked with awe. It seemed there was nothing Jiang Chen couldn’t do.

’His Alchemy Skill is better than mine,’ he thought, ’and now he’s somehow managed to make his Artifact Refining Technique look just as professional.’

"Of course. It has to be," Jiang Chen replied confidently.

"Here, Xiao Jun. Imbue this Dharma Artifact with your Magical Power."

Unlike Treasure Artifacts, Dharma Artifacts are the lowest tier of Magical Treasure. They are not created with innate attributes; their power can only be unleashed after being imbued with Magical Power.

The final might of the artifact depends on the amount of Magical Power it is imbued with.

Xiao Jun’s cultivation was at the Third Heaven of the Martial King realm. If he were to imbue the artifact with all of his Magical Power, its resulting strike would be powerful enough to rival a blow from an ordinary Third Heaven Martial King Expert.

However, Xiao Jun only imbued the Magical Treasure with twenty percent of his Magical Power.

"Young Master, it’s done."

"With twenty percent of my power, it’s strong enough to unleash a strike on par with a Martial King Expert," he said, handing the sword back to Jiang Chen.

A typical Dharma Artifact can only hold an amount of Magical Power equivalent to that of a Martial King.

It’s impossible to imbue it with any more power than that.

Only a Treasure Level artifact could handle a greater amount of power, but Treasure Artifacts don’t need to be imbued with Magical Power in the first place.

The materials used to refine a Treasure Artifact possess powerful innate attributes.

Although Jiang Chen could have asked someone from the Jiang Family in the Dragon-locking Realm to imbue the artifacts, he had quickly abandoned the idea. He had no intention of refining such ordinary Dharma Artifacts to begin with.

Jiang Chen took the Dharma Artifact and inspected it, very satisfied with the result.

"Alright, we’re closing up for today. We’ll continue this tomorrow."

Besides refining artifacts, Jiang Chen also needed to focus on his Cultivation, and he certainly couldn’t let his Alchemy Skill grow rusty.

So, his routine became refining artifacts during the day, cultivating for a portion of the night, and spending any remaining time researching his Alchemy Skill.