CHAPTER 2313  NOBLE AND TARNISHED SHAFTS

Minute after minute passed as Lin Mu watched the Immoral Green Gold shaft with unmoving eyes.

And once thirty minutes had passed, he finally blinked.

"It's actually resisting it." Lin Mu muttered as a part of him relaxed. "At least on the surface it doesn't seem like there's any effect of the curse. But there's always a chance it could be internal…" he didn't become carrels just yet.

He also couldn't use his Immortal sense to check for any internal defects, as such he ended up using the previous method of testing its durability.

~CLANG~CLANG~CLANG~

He hammered the shaft and saw as it soon became deformed.

"That won't do… while it doesn't crack and break, it has become very pliable. The arrow will simply buckle under the tension of the bowstring at this state." Lin Mu understood that this was only half a success. 'I'll have to test out more methods. But the Immortal Green Gold does seem to offer at least a partial solution.' He thought before looking at the last few remaining shafts.

There was one metal and three crystalline shafts remaining.

The final metal shaft was something he had the toughest time making, even more than the Crystalline Shafts. It was also made from a metal he had obtained very recently.

"The Null Iron Ore… it came in handy earlier than I thought." Lin Mu picked up the rather heavy shaft that was made from raw Null Iron Ore. It had a mix of black and grey color along with a dotted pattern all over it. But the dots weren't textured but rather just smooth against the shaft. It was part of its own natural structure and was rather unique. It had taken quite a bit of an effort to make this as Lin Mu was simply unable to smelt it.

He wasted a decent amount of time in trying to smelt it but eventually gave up and used Meld to cut out a shaft directly. Lin Mu didn't have any particular expectations with the Null Iron Ore, but from what he had learned so far, he at least knew it was highly durable and hard. And since it had managed to endure all that time under the muddy lakes that were filled with Murkwater Qi, he hoped that it could resist the effects of the curse too.

~SHICK~

Upon slotting the Arrow Tip, Lin Mu saw an almost instantaneous effect.

"What?" he hadn't expected the curse to spread this fast.

The Null Iron ore became several shades darker and started to emanate a grayish smoke from it. The effect was certainly different from before but Lin Mu didn't know what it exactly meant.

"Did it rust or tarnish? Or is this entirely something else?" Lin Mu was confused.

Of course, he had to test it out, so the metal rod did its work again.

~CLANG~ CLANG~

He first tapped it with the metal rod to test its durability. The Null Iron Ore shaft gave a resounding clang, showing that it wasn't brittle like the others.

'Its not rusted… tarnished then?' he started to hit the shaft harder. owns this.

~CLANG~CLANG~CLANG~

He did this for a minute and increased his strength by every hit. ~CRACK~

It was at this time that a cracking sound was heard.

~THUD~

"Huh?" but what had broken wasn't the shaft. "The rod broke?" Lin Mu was surprised.

So far the rod hadn't been broken even while hitting the previous shafts but now it had without a notice. He observed it closely and saw that the part where it had broken had turned darker. "It actually got tainted by the curse?" This hadn't happened before, as the contact time was short and the curse was also not coming directly. Thus the rod had been intact all the while. At first Lin Mu wondered if this had been a collective effect, thus he picked up another metal rod to test it out. ~CLANG~CLANG~CLANG~

He hit the shaft again, and in less than a minute the shaft broke again!

"This is surely the effect of the Null Iron Ore Shaft." Lin Mu guessed that the effect of the curse had somehow become stronger. "The smoke coming from it might be the effect of the curse. The Null Iron Ore retained its durability but became conducive to the curse." He analyzed.

This was the same as trading off one effect for the other. 'It went in the opposite way of the Immortal Green Gold.' Lin Mu realized.

The Immortal Green Gold stopped the curse but was also weaker in strength. On the other hand, the Null Iron Ore was very rigid, but it also increased the effect of the curse.

Regardless of this, Lin Mu knew it was a complete failure.

"No way I can use Null Iron Ore shaft for this. The curse will end up spreading to me." Lin Mu shook his head.

This finally left him with the three crystalline shafts.

The first shaft was made from an Immortal Earth Elemental crystal. It was dark brown in color and was one of the more durable crystal among Lin Mu's stores. It was also among the only few crystals that Lin Mu had large enough chucks to make entire arrow shafts from. Most of the others were far too small to make a full shaft from.

"Let's see…" Lin Mu slotted in the arrow tip and wondered what kind of effect the curse would have on it.

~BOOM~

The answer was very violent as the shaft exploded almost immediately.

"Yeah… definitely not this." Lin Mu crossed out any kind of energy containing crystals from the list.

Thankfully, he had been cautious from the start and had the Longgui Bulwark Armor active, so he wasn't injured at all.

The next crystalline shaft was a non-energy mineral and was actually a gemstone.

"Misty Mirror Quartz… Known to be able to disperse various energies." Lin Mu hoped that this shaft might perform better.

He slotted in the arrow tip and held his breath for the result.