Chapter 939: Alchemy-Artifact Hall; Embryo Refined; Fortunate Trouble (I)
The Alchemy-Artifact Hall had been quiet, and the cauldron there unused for a while.
The great doors opened with a low rumble. Luo Chen walked in first, with Heavenjade following behind, as they stepped into the oddly crowded hall.
"Master, all the materials you asked for are ready. Just in case something goes wrong, I had the Zhang family prepare some extra as well."
Luo Chen gave a brief acknowledgement and looked over the materials laid out on the floor. There were over ten thousand jin of Copper Essence and Iron Essence. These were the most common first-tier materials used for artifact creation. Then there was the second-tier Flowing Silver Tin. It was liquid at room temperature and was kept in glass bottles. They had prepared five bottles in total. At market prices, each bottle would cost 700 low-grade spirit stones. But this batch had been purchased early, at the very start of the war, and they only cost 580 per bottle.
Most of the materials were second tier. Luo Chen examined them carefully, one by one, and found all of them to be of excellent quality.
Next, he settled on the third-tier material he cared about most. Greenfield Kelp was not a mineral but a spirit plant. It grew only in the deep sea and required specialists with proper tools to harvest, which made it expensive. Incorporating a spirit plant into an item made mostly of metal seemed odd, but the kelp had its own purpose. Once it passed the age of one hundred, it came to possess excellent elasticity. When included in an enchanted treasure, it allowed the finished item to perfectly integrate with the Compliance Formation.
The defensive enchanted treasure that Luo Chen wanted to create would be an armored robe, something that combined the toughness of plate armor with the versatility of a robe. More importantly, he wanted something that could change size and adapt to his body. The reason for this requirement was that unleashing his peak battle strength almost always involved taking the Sky Roc True Form. The transformation greatly increased his attacks, but it also exposed countless openings. Back at the Great Snow Mountains, when he was still a late-stage Initiate, he fought the Grand Elder of the Lianyun Trade Alliance in his Sky Roc True Form and had been struck by a third-tier talisman, the Ten-Thousand-Sword Talisman. Though it did not kill or maim him, he was soaked with blood, and that alone showed his defense while in that gigantic form was truly lacking.
In fact, the same thing happened during the battle at the Mo family's fishery on Coldlight Island. The mountain lord of Hundred Craft Mountain drove an enchanted-treasure mountain down upon him, and he could only meet it head-on. Was his fighting style that direct and overbearing? No! It was simply because, in his Sky Roc True Form, he was full of weaknesses. Against something of that scale, there was no way to dodge, so he had no choice but to clash directly. After blocking that strike, he was almost completely exhausted. He then fled for thousands of li, but halfway through, he was so drained that he had to stop and find a secluded spot to recover.
In short, in his human form, Luo Chen had balanced offense and defense in his human form. Even if he was not particularly outstanding in either respect, he was adaptable and could control his movements at will. Meanwhile, the Sky Roc True Form granted him overwhelming power, but his defensive means dropped to almost nothing, leaving him to rely solely on his physique to bear attacks. And although it was formidable, his body had its limits.
Therefore, the armor he was about to create had to meet the needs of both forms. He could easily reach ten, twenty, even thirty zhang in size with his Sky Roc True Form, and that was far beyond what ordinary Compliance Formations for robes could handle. And this was where the Greenfield Kelp, a specialty of the Northern Sea cultivation world, came in.
Right now, the dried yellow Greenfield Kelp had been stacked into a pile one zhang tall, like a small hill. One could easily imagine how much it would expand during the crafting process when soaked in specially prepared seawater. With so much fused into the enchanted treasure, its capacity for expansion would reach an astonishing level.
"Seven jin of high-quality Tracing Mud; I got some from the Jadecold auction and some from the second Wu Brother's inheritance. And those five pieces of Fire-Avoiding Lava are worth several thousand spirit stones each!"
Luo Chen counted through the materials one by one as he ran through the crafting process in his mind. Third-tier materials were crucial, as they determined the foundation of the enchanted treasure. Its true potential, on the other hand, depended on the high-tier materials. Under Heavenjade's watchful gaze, Luo Chen flicked his fingers, and streaks of light flew out from his storage ring.
"Profound Link Celestial Crystal, Three Yin Lightning Wood, Colorless Sunken Sea Sand..." Luo Chen muttered to himself. This batch of fourth-tier materials had not been looted but purchased at great cost from the Jadecold auction with his savings. He had even bought several sets of them, just in case. This went to show how dedicated he was to this endeavor.
The price of enchanted treasures was not especially high, and even high-tier artisans could not rely on sales alone to make a profit. The only way to make real profit was to reduce costs to the absolute minimum. Defensive enchanted treasures carried a high risk of failure; for that reason, most high-tier artisans rarely made them, and when they did, they only accepted custom orders. In such cases, the client had to bear the cost of materials and pay for additional labor. Luo Chen had experienced that himself in the past.
When Luo Chen carefully placed three items resembling white camellias on the table, Heavenjade finally could not hold back and asked, "Master, what are these?"
As she looked at them, especially at the silver-white arcs of lightning that flickered across their petals, her eyelids twitched uncontrollably. She felt a tremor from the depths of her soul that made her realize that this thing posed a natural threat to her.
He did not even look at her and simply said softly, "Millennial Lightning Essence."
Heavenjade gasped. She had been taking human form for many years now, and she had taken up her master's habit of reading everything he could get. She was no longer the ignorant fledgling she had once been. She was aware that Lightning Essence was among the finest fourth-tier minerals; any cultivator crafting a life-bound treasure would hope to obtain even a single piece, yet most never could. And yet her master had just produced three pieces at once, and millennial ones at that! In other words, comparable to fifth-tier materials!
Luo Chen ignored her shock and silently thought about how many he had left. In Bai Ye's pocket world, he had picked up eighteen pieces of millennial Lightning Essence. Three had been used to make the Primordial Unity Cauldron. Later, he had given three to Nether Spring and two to Azure Frost; then, during the chaotic battle at Green Parasol Mountain, he had given one more to the Lightning Prison Roc. Now he had only nine pieces left. He intended to use at least one to refine his new defensive treasure, maybe as many as three.
The reason he wanted to add the Lightning Essence was that he had extremely high expectations for it. Ordinary enchanted treasures could at most rise one or two grades and sometimes not even that. Even his Moonbreak Wings had only reached the middle grade after many years. The Forsaken Chess Piece had been nurtured for even longer, yet it remained at the low grade, with no signs of improvement. This showed how difficult it was to raise the grade of an enchanted treasure. But there was one exception. An enchanted treasure infused with Lightning Essence not only endured the intense fire of the artisan, but was also tempered by lightning during the creation process. Over time, they became not just flawless, but also capable of improving alongside the cultivator.
This was why people wanted Lightning Essence for their life-bound treasures. As the name implied, these were items cultivated in tandem with themselves. From the moment they acquired a life-bound treasure, cultivation meant not just the concurrent refinement of spirit and body but also the shared growth of the cultivator and the treasure. The item he was about to create right now would use the remains of a Demon Emperor, a being comparable to a Sage. How could such a treasure be treated as ordinary? If the refinement succeeded, it would become Luo Chen's greatest trump card after the Primordial Unity Cauldron, and it would remain with him for a long time. If it could not keep pace with his cultivation, that would be a waste.
"Three will go into the Demon Emperor's remains, and I'll be left with six. I can't waste them. Once the Primordial Unity Cauldron is fully clear of impurities, I'll add more into it and push its limits even further."
Luo Chen had made up his mind. If an enchanted treasure was not infused with Lightning Essence from the beginning, it could not be added later. It was a pity for the Moonbreak Wings and the Forsaken Chess Piece. But if Lightning Essence was used during its creation, more of it could be added in the future, which meant that his cauldron still had a long way to go.
When everything was ready, Luo Chen glanced at Heavenjade. The latter immediately nodded. "Master, don't worry, I'll take care of everything outside. This time, I won't let anyone disturb you."
Then, she bowed and left the Alchemy-Artifact Hall. The heavy bronze doors closed with a rumble. After she left, Luo Chen took out two items: the Primordial Unity Cauldron, which landed heavily on the ground, and the Black Tortoise Shell, which floated in midair. This time, he did not place the shell into the cauldron but left it suspended in the air.
"This is basically the crystallization of a powerful demon's entire life; it can't really be judged by the normal grading system anymore. Ordinary methods won't do much when refining it. Luckily, the Penglai Immortal Sect's blueprints were good enough and I could work something out."
