It took me three months to completely master my base elements so that I could use them independently with only a thought and apply them in combat.

After that month, I went to the Blue Flaming Leopard to ask about the possibility of going to the Beast Continent. The answer I received was that I, like the others, would have to wait for an envoy to pass through. They pass at irregular intervals, with a maximum delay of five years. Since the last one passed through three years ago, the next one could arrive between tomorrow and two years from now.

Since I didn’t know when the envoy would arrive, the only option was to wait.

I took out the ring of the elder of the Thunder Furnace Sect and started skimming through it. Inside other than some clothes and some middle-grade spirit stones there were three carved, long and narrow pieces of jade, a mini furnace, some materials, and a bunch of artifacts.

I took out a piece of jade wondering why an elder would bring with him something seemingly as useless as this.

‘Unless…’

I tried inserting my spirit sense inside the jade and found out a lot of information was stored within. This piece of jade contained the Fiery Hammer Refinement technique.

It consisted of an advanced way of coating the hammer with fire qi and in a striking method that would allow the user to better remove the impurities from the metals.

I skimmed through it and quickly went to check the other two jade slips.

The first detailed the advanced ways to enchant an item while crafting it. While the second contained the blueprints for some low and high magical items.

‘I didn’t know crafting could be so difficult, I can barely understand anything on these jade slips. Let’s check the other disciples' spatial rings that Lea (the Blue Flaming Leopard) has given me.

There were a total of five spatial rings but only three contained jade slips

The first jade slip was a compendium with a description of various materials, their usage, and the classification of items and weapons.

The second contained the basic hammering and smelting technique of the sect.

The last one was instead a technique to precisely control the fire inside a furnace.

‘Well, at least now I know what I will do now other than mental cultivation. Let’s start with the compendium.

And like so months passed and I started to understand the advanced materials of the core elder. Now I understand a lot more about weapons and items. They are divided into normal magical, earthly, and heavenly items and weapons. Each rank, except for normal, is ulteriorly divided into two grades: low and high. Each cultivation level has a corresponding rank and grade of items that he can use without penalties. The penalties can go from not being able to use the item to its full potential, to needing an increased amount of qi to use it.

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The cultivation levels needed to use an artifact properly are as such:

1. meridian clearing → normal

2. dantian formation → normal

3. qi gathering → normal

4. foundation establishment → low magical

5. core formation → high magical

6. nascent soul → low earthly

7. soul formation → high earthly

8. dao seeking → low heavenly

9. mortality shedding → high heavenly

Other months passed and I felt confident enough in my skill to take a try in artifact refining.

I took out the furnace from my inventory. Then I lit it up using my Yang Fire and put it inside some iron. I didn’t need tongs, the fire came from me so it wouldn’t burn me. When the iron was glowing I picked it outside this time with tongs and, picking a hammer that I found in the elder’s ring by sticking it to my paw, I started hammering the impurities out of it. After an hour of continuous hammering I couldn’t spot any more impurities so I put it inside the furnace for a reheating before starting striking it with my hammer again this time shaping it like a saber.

It took me a while but the work was complete. The result was… horrible.

It was shaped and the blade was nonexistent. It could be considered a half-low-grade magical artifact only because of the Yang Fire that I infused in it with each strike. My ability in itself was garbage.

‘Well, no one starts capable. I guess I need to keep going and try again and again, learning from my mistakes until I am good enough.’

And a year and two months later the envoy of the Beast’s continent finally arrived.