As he spoke, he took out a wooden box from the Storage Ring, opened it, and inside lay a piece of steel covered with natural frost patterns, from which wisps of cold air emanated.
"This spiritual material is extremely hard and can absorb water-element spiritual power by itself, nourishing the core and making the puppet’s reaction more agile. However, this shop doesn’t have much of it, only ten pounds. The price is twenty Spirit Stones per pound!"
Chen Ye clicked his tongue silently.
To craft his three hundred-pound Iron Sword with Cold Pattern Steel would cost him six thousand Spirit Stones!
Of course, in the Cultivation Realm, heavier isn’t always better, as the density of materials can vary greatly.
If you forge an Iron Sword with Cold Pattern Steel, the sword might end up bigger than Chen Ye.
Usually, six pounds of Cold Pattern Steel is enough to forge a Tier One Upper Grade Magic Sword.
"Let me think about it first." Chen Ye maintained a calm demeanor.
He inquired further about joints, spiritual power conduction, and other materials.
The Shopkeeper also offered different options, from ordinary Demon Beast tendons to Water Ape Tendons containing spiritual power, from basic Spirit Silk Circuits to Silver Marrow that conducts faster.
"Hiss... there’s so much to consider?" Chen Ye clicked his tongue.
He felt that crafting puppets was like assembling a desktop computer in his previous life.
For each component, with a bit more money and reluctance, an upgrade was possible.
With each stomp of the foot, the initial budget of five thousand for the computer became ten thousand.
"Haha, puppetry is no trivial matter; the Ten Thousand Puppet Sect was founded on puppets, with many intricacies involved."
The Shopkeeper laughed and stroked his beard.
After some comparison, Chen Ye made his decision.
He decisively purchased all ten pounds of Cold Pattern Steel.
Then he spent forty Spirit Stones to acquire a portion of Silver Marrow, which enhances spiritual power conduction efficiency by the Third-Layer.
As for the puppet’s main body, he planned to directly use the Profound Iron from a disciple of the Ten Thousand Puppet Sect.
The total expenditure was two hundred and forty Spirit Stones!
The Shopkeeper, overjoyed, also gifted additional essential materials for puppet crafting.
Although these materials were also expensive, their prices were far less than those of the main body materials.
The fact that the Shopkeeper gifted them made Chen Ye suspect he had made a considerable profit from him.
The complexity of the human mind is truly this.
...
In the following days, the Pill Room once again transformed into an Artifact Refining Room.
No matter how much the little girl protested, she couldn’t change her master’s intention of using the Pill Furnace as an Artifact Refining Furnace.
"Stupid master! Annoying master! The Pill Furnace is for refining candy beans, how can it be used for forging iron!"
The little girl dearly loved this Pill Furnace and angrily clung to her master’s back, biting his shoulder.
"Shoo, shoo!"
Chen Ye’s face was reddened by the furnace fire, and he spoke righteously,
"The Hundred Herbs Furnace was once a Tier Two Magical Treasure; refining these spiritual materials is a piece of cake, so why can it not be used?"
"Ugh... Qing Jun didn’t say it couldn’t be used, but... but..."
The little girl ran out of words.
It’s like using a cooking pot to burn stones; using a vegetable washing basin to wash feet!
Chen Ye let his young disciple hang on his back and proceeded with his iron forging.
The first step of artifact refining, and also the most spiritually exhausting step, is melting the materials.
Chen Ye placed batches of the ten pounds of Cold Pattern Steel and the Profound Iron dismantled from a broken Soldier Puppet into the Hundred Herbs Furnace.
He activated the Grandmaster-level Evergreen Technique, continuously infusing the furnace bottom with pure Wood Element Spiritual Power to stoke the flames.
"Hmm? The Grandmaster-level Evergreen Technique, rich with vitality, when used to refine iron, allows the fire to burn continuously, saving me quite some effort."
This was an unexpected delight for Chen Ye.
Generally, melting spiritual materials consumes much more spiritual power and time than refining herbs; he had originally prepared to take it slow.
But the Grandmaster-level Evergreen Technique maintains the flame for a long time with minimal spiritual power, significantly reducing Chen Ye’s exertion.
"Boom!"
Though the Hundred Herbs Furnace was a damaged Tier Two Magical Treasure, its foundation remained.
The furnace fire rose, and the crimson flames instantly illuminated the inside of the furnace, where the hard Cold Pattern Steel and Profound Iron began to slowly soften and melt in the high heat.
Chen Ye focused his Divine Sense intensely; he didn’t rush the process but carefully controlled the intensity.
The Hundred Refining Technique operated alongside, turning spiritual power into an invisible giant hammer, repeatedly tempering the molten metal inside the furnace.
"Boom! Boom!"
With each tempering, it was as if an invisible hammer struck in his sea of consciousness, making his head spin, while the molten metal in the furnace churned violently.
This process was monotonous and tedious, with a massive consumption of spiritual power and Divine Sense.
Even with the support of the Evergreen Technique, after half a day, Chen Ye was drenched in sweat, his face pale.
"No, the efficiency is too low."
Chen Ye rested briefly, swallowing a Qi Recovery Pill.
He focused his mind, retrieved the repaired General Puppet Core, and gingerly placed it at the auxiliary fire port of the Hundred Herbs Furnace.
The core to a puppet is like the Dantian to a cultivator.
A Second Tier General Puppet Core could serve as a temporary Spiritual Power Amplifier.
Sure enough, once the General Puppet Core was activated, a more stable and immense spiritual power flowed into the Pill Furnace, greatly accelerating the tempering speed!
[Hundred Refining Technique Minor Achievement: 78/100]
[Hundred Refining Technique Great Success: 5/200]
For three full days, Chen Ye hardly rested, attending to the Spirit Plants at the Herb Pavilion or crafting the puppet.
In the Artifact Refining Room, the constant roar of the blower and the sound of metal clashing could be heard.
When hungry, he would nibble on the food prepared by his disciple; when tired, he would meditate briefly to recover spiritual power.
Three days later, all the metal materials were tempered to the Fifty-Four Refining degree, turned into masses of metal essence glowing with dark gold and ice blue, quietly suspended in the furnace.