Chapter 31: The Blacksmith

Master Chen, a cultivator of the eighth layer of Qi Refining, is over a hundred years old. His beard and hair are half white, and he has a sturdy build. His face, constantly smoked by the furnace fire, is pitch black, but his spirit is hale and hearty, and his voice is very loud.

Master Chen is currently watching several disciples forge iron. Perhaps some aspects of their work are not right, as Master Chen glares and scolds them loudly. The several tall and sturdy tool-refining disciples obediently endure the scolding, not daring to lift their heads.

After a round of scolding, Master Chen personally swings the large hammer to demonstrate. His sturdy body swings the large hammer with a powerful force. Sparks fly in all directions as he hammers the red-hot refined iron, gradually forging the prototype of a knife.

After finishing the hammering, Master Chen only wipes away a bead of sweat. His breathing is even, and he seems not to have used much strength.

Naturally weak-bodied Mo Hua looks on with extreme envy. If only he could have such strength!

"Look carefully! The iron should be hammered like this! What were you doing earlier? All energy, no strength! Even a young girl embroidering flowers has more spirit than you!"

Master Chen scolds the disciples again, then turns his head and sees a child with rosy lips and white teeth, with sparkling, watery eyes, looking at him with an envious expression.

Master Chen hesitates for a moment and asks, "Little child, do you also want to learn tool refining?"

The livelihood of rogue cultivators is difficult. Upon leaving the sect, they must seek a living. Some who haven't learned practical skills within the sect must find their own way and learn a skill.

Cultivators often send their children to Master Chen to learn tool refining so they can be self-reliant in the future.

Master Chen only casually collects some spirit stones. If there are no spirit stones, he collects some spirit grain and other items as tuition.

Mo Hua looks at the several tall and strong disciples, then looks at his own small arms and legs, and shakes his head helplessly. He then says directly,

"Master, do you help people refine furnace here?"

"Furnace?" Master Chen looks at Mo Hua. "Why do you, a small child, ask about this?"

"I'm asking for my mother."

"I naturally refine furnaces, but refining a furnace requires a lot of refined iron. Converting it into spirit stones is not a small sum."

"So if it's smaller, will it be cheaper?"

Master Chen says, "That is natural. A smaller furnace requires much less refined iron and labor, so it is naturally cheaper. However, very few people in this Tongxian City refine small furnaces. The array needs to be separately designed and engraved by someone, which also requires quite a few spirit stones."

"Then how many spirit stones would it probably cost to refine the smallest furnace?"

Master Chen doesn't just casually dismiss Mo Hua because he is a child. Instead, he seriously takes out a piece of paper and notes down the prices of various materials one by one, then calculates them uniformly. Finally, he lists the spirit stones required for furnaces of different sizes and scales.

Master Chen hands the paper to Mo Hua and then says,

"Of course, this is only the cost of materials. We tool-refining masters also calculate our working time. It's calculated by the day. We charge for as many days as it takes to refine this furnace."

"Oh, okay," Mo Hua notes them down one by one, then says his farewell,

"I've noted it down. I'll go back and discuss it with my dad and mom, and then come find you once we've decided how big a furnace to refine."

Master Chen gives a sound of assent and waves his hand, saying, "Go back early. Be careful on the road, little child!"

He doesn't take Mo Hua's words to heart. Many cultivators ask for prices for refining tools from him but then don't follow up. The majority say they'll go back and consider it, and then there's no subsequent action.

What's more, this is a child of ten-something years, and he wants to refine a time-consuming and labor-intensive spirit tool like a furnace. There will likely be no follow-up.

After Mo Hua returns home, according to the price list given by Master Chen, he chooses a suitable size and a furnace within his financial means. The material cost alone is likely around one hundred fifty spirit stones.

There's also the labor fee for refining the tool, which needs to be discussed later.

Mo Hua doesn't know how long it will take Master Chen to refine this furnace. But he estimates it will take at least ten days to half a month, which would be between fifty and seventy-five spirit stones.

This somewhat exceeds Mo Hua's budget. He might need to ask his dad and mom for some spirit stones, or borrow some from someone.

The next most crucial part is the array.

Mo Hua spreads the Melting Fire Array diagram on the table and begins to research it carefully.

The Melting Fire Array diagram contains five fire system array patterns. The strokes of the array patterns are mostly located at the Fire position. Looking at the complex array patterns alone, they are not a little more complex than the Gold Stone Array and the Solid Earth Array.

Mo Hua sighs slightly, clears his distracting thoughts, and begins to concentrate on remembering the array patterns and the order of the strokes.

Mo Hua concentrates on learning. Unconsciously, the sky turns dark.

Even during mealtime, Mo Hua is thinking about the array patterns of the Melting Fire Array. He chews on a steamed bun a few times, then drifts into thought, holding the steamed bun in a daze.

Liu Ru Hua looks on, both angry and amused. She pinches his cheek. "Eat properly during the meal, and then think about things after you're done."

Mo Hua comes back to his senses, laughs, then concentrates on eating. After finishing, he runs back to his room again.

Mo Hua has already almost memorized the array patterns of the Melting Fire Array. He then spends an hour practicing with ink that doesn't contain spirit power on rough paper. After that, at Zi Shi, he enters the sea of consciousness and begins practicing the array on the stone tablet.

Looking at the array patterns alone, although they are relatively complex, the basic construction logic is no different from other arrays. Remembering the array patterns is not difficult. The difficult part should be the divine sense.

Mo Hua's divine sense may not necessarily be enough to support him in drawing out a complete Melting Fire Array diagram.

Mo Hua begins to draw the Melting Fire Array on the remnant stele.

The first three array patterns are all very smooth. It becomes noticeably strenuous by the fourth array pattern. His divine sense gradually becomes sluggish, feeling as if it is gradually drying up.

Mo Hua's small eyebrows furrow.

Until the fourth array pattern is finished, waves of stinging pain are transmitted from his sea of consciousness, as if the riverbed at low tide is beginning to have mottled cracks.

Mo Hua quickly stops, rapidly wiping the array patterns off the remnant stele. Only then does the stinging pain in his divine sense alleviate.

Mo Hua slumps onto the seemingly illusory ground of the sea of consciousness, gasping for breath.

"Finished, my divine sense is a bit short..."

Mo Hua's divine sense is only enough to draw out four array patterns. After finishing the four array patterns, there is fundamentally no spare strength to draw out the fifth array pattern.

It seems to differ by only one array pattern, but divine sense cannot be quickly enhanced in the short term. This single array pattern might hold him up for a very long time.

"What to do?"

Mo Hua ponders in his heart.

There is no shortcut to the growth of divine sense. This is a widely recognized common sense in the cultivation world.

At least for Qi Refining Realm cultivators in Tongxian City, this point is recognized.

Mo Hua once asked Instructor Yan, and Instructor Yan also said that the growth of divine sense mostly relies on the elevation of cultivation. The higher the cultivation realm, the naturally stronger the divine sense.

Secondly, it relies on the use of divine sense to enhance it. The more frequently and extensively cultivators use their divine sense, the naturally stronger it becomes. For example, array masters often draw arrays and need to use divine sense frequently, so their divine sense is naturally much stronger than general cultivators.

Mo Hua also once asked if there were methods specifically for cultivating divine sense. Instructor Yan straightforwardly said no.

Whether in ancient books or in the records of various families' methods, there are no safe and reliable methods for cultivating divine sense. Some of them are mostly evil demonic path kung fu. Once practiced, one will mostly go mad and enter demon, becoming a demon cultivator that everyone wants to capture and execute.

As for whether there truly are none, or if they are secretly collected by large families, that point is unknown.

But even if there were, Mo Hua certainly wouldn't be able to get it. Even if he did get his hands on it, he wouldn't dare risk going mad and entering demon to cultivate it.

Mo Hua is currently at the third layer of Qi Refining and cannot break through to the fourth layer of Qi Refining in the short term. It's impossible to rely on cultivation growth to enhance his divine sense.

That leaves only one method:

Continuously draw arrays.

The method without a shortcut is precisely the best shortcut.