Chapter 178: Preparing to Refine
Seven days later, Yu Nianzhen opened his eyes. He looked at Jiang Yue across from him, and his eyes softened.
"How are you?" Jiang Yue asked.
His brows were creased in a frown, and his face was tense with concern.
"I am fine." Yu Nianzhen answered.
After double cultivating for three days, he retreated to extract three drops of lifeblood.
However, losing lifeblood was not a simple matter.
He only dared to extract three drops at once because he had the tree of life and many blood-replenishing pills.
"Don’t worry." He assured.
Yu Nianzhen pulled his lover into his arms, and the two hugged for a while.
"How about you?"
Jiang Yue pulled away from Yu Nianzhen’s arms, and his lips curled in a smile.
"Everything is good." He said.
He then pulled down his collar, and Yu Nianzhen saw ten leaves imprinted on his husband’s chest.
Now that the tree of life had aged and grown many leaves, Jiang Yue took the chance to refine ten while Yu Nianzhen was recovering from extracting lifeblood.
"Ten is my limit." Jiang Yue said and frowned.
He tried to refine more leaves, but unfortunately, his body couldn’t take it.
"The tree of life is a primordial tree. It’s already good to be able to refine ten leaves at the origin forging realm. You can add some more after you break through."
"I will try it later." Jiang Yue nodded before he continued.
"There is a refining room on the second floor." He said.
While Yu Nianzhen was recuperating, he took the chance to thoroughly explore the ancient palace when he was free.
Other than the weapon refining room, there was also an alchemy room, a talisman room, a library, and many others.
Jiang Yue didn’t know if the previous owners of the ancient palace were proficient in so many arts, but he was grateful to them.
Without their blessing, the two would need to prepare everything from scratch, which would require a lot of spirit stones.
"Let’s go if you are ready."
"I am ready." Yu Nianzhen said and stood up.
They quickly exited their room and went to one of the rooms on the second floor.
"It turns out there is a beast fire in the weapon refining room. You can contract it." Jiang Yue informed.
However, Yu Nianzhen didn’t like the idea.
When he broke through to the nascent soul realm, a natal fire would be born in his sea of consciousness.
Until then, he planned to borrow Jiang Yue’s primordial yin-yang flame or use external fires whenever necessary.
"You can let your flame swallow the beast flame." He said instead.
When he heard his husband’s refusal, Jiang Yue was not surprised.
He had expected the other to refuse because Yu Nianzhen didn’t want his body to be contaminated by too many daos.
However, he had still kept the fire and waited for the other to refuse before swallowing it.
"I was thinking about refining it instead of swallowing it." He said.
"Is it possible?" Yu Nianzhen asked with a frown.
On one hand, Jiang Yue had the primordial yin-yang flame. The flame was dominant, and Yu Nianzhen was worried it wouldn’t take kindly to another fire in his husband’s body.
If things went badly, the two flames would fight within Jiang Yue’s body, which would cause him to explode.
On the other hand, Jiang Yue’s body had a perfect balance of yin and yang due to the primordial flame.
If he refined the beast flame, the balance would be broken, which was not ideal.
"Right now, both of us are weak and can’t protect the primordial yin-yang flame. If someone discovers the flame, I may not be able to keep my life." Jiang Yue said and sighed.
Next to him, Yu Nianzhen also frowned and clenched his hands.
He understood the truth of his husband’s words.
At the moment, Jiang Yue could not afford to expose the yin-yang flame.
However, he was still worried that refining the beast fire to use as a camouflage would affect his lover’s body.
"Don’t worry about my body." Jiang Yue assured.
"The beast fire is weaker than the yin-yang flame. It won’t affect the balance of my body."
Yu Nianzhen looked at Jiang Yue and saw that the other was sure. He then nodded and rubbed his lover’s head.
"It’s good if you are sure."
"Let’s get ready to refine your natal sword."
After that, the two got busy.
They used dust-removing talismans to clean the room and everything needed for weapon refining.
When they were done, they sat in front of a large refining furnace and adjusted their breath.
"I am ready." Yu Nianzhen said after two hours.
Without a word, a flame appeared on Jiang Yue’s palm. Soon after, the flame detached from his palm and flew under the refining furnace.
At the same time, Yu Nianzhen removed two boxes and three bottles from his storage ring.
"We are lucky to find soul water." Jiang Yue said and looked at one of the bottles appreciatively.
While searching for treasures, they came across a bottle of soul water.
However, soul water was extremely precious in the Cangxing world, and the two didn’t dare to sell it. Even if they dared, they didn’t want to sell it because they also needed the soul water.
With this bottle, they could refine their souls to the third level, which was beneficial to their cultivation.
Other than soul refining, soul water could quickly replenish soul power. With it on hand, Yu Nianzhen was not worried that he would exhaust his soul power and affect the refining of his natal weapon.
"You are right. We are very fortunate." Yu Nianzhen agreed.
Among the treasures they left for themselves, soul water was one of the more precious.
"Let’s take a grand tour when we have time in the future." Jiang Yue said.
He could already imagine visiting all the stone gambling places in the Cangxing world and gaining thousands of treasures.
However, he didn’t lose his reason.
He understood that cultivation could not be forced and treasures should be used moderately.
"I will listen to you." Yu Nianzhen agreed, and his eyes softened.
This time, they didn’t travel as they wished, but their future was long.
When the time came, they would travel to all sixteen regions without a worry in their hearts.
"Did you read the jade slip I gave you before?" Yu Nianzhen asked.
"I read it."
The mentioned jade slip contained information about refining a natal weapon.
After reading it, Jiang Yue learned how to moderate his yin-yang fire at different refining stages.
"Let’s start then." Yu Nianzhen said.
He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, they were devoid of emotion.
The lines of his body were relaxed but not languid, which showed that his mind was extremely focused.
"Increase the temperature by half a point." He said, and Jiang Yue cooperated without a hitch.
A moment later, the refining furnace exuded hot air, and Yu Nianzhen grabbed a black metal box from the ground.
He dropped the metal box into the furnace and closed the lid.
Simultaneously, he began to chant while his hands formed seals close to the furnace body.
One hour later, a thin sweat formed on his forehead, but he did not stop.
Instead, the speed of forming seals increased, and a whistling sound emanated from the furnace. At the same time, black smoke escaped from the furnace’s opening.
This continued for half an hour until all the black smoke was expelled from the furnace. At this time, Yu Nianzhen opened the furnace and Jiang Yue retracted his flame.
"How is it?" Jiang Yue asked.
"The metal box has melted, and a lot of impurities have been expelled. However, I want to purify it several more times." Yu Nianzhen said.
He didn’t know the level of the refining furnace he was using, but he was only in the origin forging realm. Even if the furnace was powerful, he could only bring out a little of its power.
In that case, he needed to purify the metal several times to remove as many impurities as he could.
"Replenish your soul power first." Jiang Yue said, and Yu Nianzhen nodded.
If he was refining an ordinary metal, Yu Nianzhen’s soul power wouldn’t be consumed to the point of exhaustion.
However, he was using a primordial metal and refining it was more difficult than expected.
"Can you identify the metal now?" Jiang Yue asked.
"It’s the mother of iron." Yu Nianzhen said.
He previously couldn’t identify the specific metal used to make the metal box, but he figured it out while refining it.
"Your luck is legendary." Jiang Yue said happily.
Of all primordial metals, the mother of iron was the most suitable to forge a sword.
When Jiang Yue thought about it, he felt that the heavens were quite biased towards the two of them.
No matter what, it was too coincidental that they encountered the metal box and flame just when they needed them.
