Chapter 7: Exchanging for the Artifact Forging Notes
"These materials are still too pure."
Fang Yuan turned the Refined Iron over in his hands, probing it up and down with his Spiritual Sense.
The internal composition was extraordinarily pure — not a single impurity could be found. The purity of the Refined Iron had reached nearly one hundred percent.
Refined Iron this pure, if sold or contributed in large quantities, would absolutely draw attention.
Fang Yuan rubbed his chin and mused, "It seems I'll need to forge it into Magic Artifacts first, then exchange those Magic Artifacts for Contribution Points. That way, the abnormality of the materials won't be an issue. Even if an Elder recovers the records later, all they'll see is that I contributed some Magic Artifacts. Claiming to be a talented Artifact Refiner would be perfectly reasonable."
With that thought settled, Fang Yuan made up his mind to take up Artifact Forging himself — not just Artifact Forging, but alchemy as well. Having this kind of talent in hand and not developing a side business would be a terrible waste.
"But how do I get my hands on Artifact Forging techniques?"
Fang Yuan thought it over for a moment and came up with an idea.
The next day.
The sunlight was just right.
Fang Yuan strolled leisurely to the Treasure Pavilion.
This time, he walked straight through the main entrance. He swept a glance over the empty main hall, then turned and headed directly into the Exchange Room.
Inside the room were two transfer platforms.
One was presumably where exchanged items were delivered, and the other was where contributions were submitted.
Fang Yuan calmly placed a clump of soil onto the contribution transfer platform.
A beam of light swept over it.
Xiaobao's voice rang out from thin air, utterly mechanical in tone: "Appraisal in progress, please wait…"
Fang Yuan waited a short while.
"Appraisal complete. First-tier Spirit Soil, 50 lbs. Base value: 100 Contribution Points. Quality assessed as nutrient-rich — value doubled. Contribution Points adjusted to 200. Do you wish to contribute?"
Fang Yuan answered without hesitation: "Contribute!"
Whoosh.
The clump of soil on the transfer platform vanished.
His disciple token registered an additional 200 Contribution Points.
Satisfied that the method worked, he took out another 50 lbs of Spirit Soil and received another 200 Contribution Points.
Fang Yuan then sauntered out of the Exchange Room and headed toward the exit of the hall.
Xiaobao materialized out of thin air and blocked his path.
"Fang Yuan, aren't you going the wrong way?" it asked, puzzled. "The rear hall is back there."
"I have something to take care of outside. If anyone comes to make a deposit, send me a message!"
Fang Yuan waved his disciple token.
Xiaobao rolled its eyes. "You're already slacking off on your second day. You're even lazier than Lao Li!"
"I really do have something to do!"
Fang Yuan cleared his throat and walked out of the Treasure Hall with perfect composure.
Leaving Xiaobao to stew in its irritation.
Fang Yuan made his way around to the neighboring Scripture Repository Peak.
The place was similar to the Treasure Pavilion — it also had several scripture halls.
He found the first-tier Scripture Repository without any trouble.
The moment he stepped inside, a familiar feeling washed over him. A selection room, an exchange room, a waiting area — the layout was virtually identical to the Treasure Pavilion.
A luminous figure appeared, taking the shape of a small cat before Fang Yuan.
"I am Xiaojing, the Artifact Spirit of the Scripture Repository. To browse techniques and Technique descriptions, please proceed to the selection room. Once you have made your selection, you may head to the exchange room to complete the transaction."
Fang Yuan nodded. "Understood."
The small cat gave a mechanical nod, then dissolved into light and vanished.
Fang Yuan walked into the selection room. A luminous screen filled one wall, displaying an extensive catalogue of entries.
After a brief exploration of the interface, he figured out how it worked. He selected the Artifact Forging category and found a particularly interesting section — [Artifact Forging Notes].
He opened it, and a long list of Artifact Forging Notes appeared.
[Xue Sanping's Artifact Forging Notes: Core insights from a first-tier supreme-grade Artifact Refiner. Contribution Points: 50,000]
[Li Chengfeng's Artifact Forging Notes: Forging records of a first-tier upper-grade Artifact Refiner. Contribution Points: 5,000]
[Practical Notes on Artifact Forging: An unsigned first-tier mid-grade Artifact Refiner's experiential notes on forging the lower-tier standard Magic Artifact, the Black Xuan Sword. Contribution Points: 320]
Fang Yuan quickly found one he could afford among the many entries — the experiential notes of a mid-grade Artifact Refiner.
If his guess was correct, he would be able to decompose the forging experience of a mid-grade Artifact Refiner from it.
Fang Yuan felt that a mid-grade Artifact Refiner's level was just right. If he immediately displayed the skills of an upper-grade or supreme-grade Artifact Refiner, that would be far too conspicuous.
Showing the ability of a mid-grade Artifact Refiner, on the other hand, was perfectly natural — after all, he had spent five years at headquarters, and who would bother checking what he had studied during those five years?
Fang Yuan selected the exchange option and chose to receive the original copy, which required an additional 50 Contribution Points.
He made the decision without hesitation.
He then left the selection room and entered the exchange room.
When he approached the transfer platform, a Jade Slip was already waiting there.
Fang Yuan gave it a quick inspection, confirmed it was the experiential notes, and departed.
After returning to Treasure Peak, he finally made his way back to the rear hall of the Treasure Hall to start his shift.
After waiting for some time, a group of disciples arrived to deliver goods.
"Huh, Lao Li isn't here?" The group's leader looked surprised.
"I'm the one working here from now on. My name is Fang Yuan," Fang Yuan said calmly.
"Oh, I see." The leader gave a simple nod of understanding.
He then placed the Storage Bag on the counter, clearly not interested in further conversation.
Fang Yuan didn't mind. He picked up the Storage Bag and looked over the inventory list Xiaobao displayed for him.
[Pill Hall Ten-Day Production Intake List:]
[Peak Qi Refining Stage Pills: 12]
[Late Qi Refining Stage Pills: 280]
[Mid Qi Refining Stage Pills: 1,340]
[Early Qi Refining Stage Pills: 2,480]
[Waste Pills and Residue: 5,782 lbs]
'That's quite the output!'
Fang Yuan marveled inwardly. Nearly four thousand Pills produced in ten days — that was twelve thousand a month, and one hundred and forty thousand Pills a year.
Fang Yuan sorted all the incoming goods into their respective storage rooms, then returned the receipt and Storage Bag to the group leader.
The leader gave a nod and turned to leave without another word.
Fang Yuan shrugged, settled back into his seat, and quietly circulated the Mingqi Art to cultivate.
Work hours had become his cultivation time — there was no need to return to his Cave Dwelling for dedicated practice.
Spiritual Power grew steadily with each cycle of cultivation, filling Fang Yuan with a quiet sense of contentment.
Two more groups arrived later to deliver supplies — not finished products this time, but raw materials. Medicinal herbs and ores were brought in, in staggering quantities measured in the tens of thousands of pounds.
Fang Yuan noticed that the Spiritual Sense expenditure from simply unloading items from Storage Bags alone was comparable to what he spent during cultivation.
For an ordinary Fourth Layer of Qi Refining disciple, this job would surely cut into their cultivation time after returning home.
"I'll need to exchange for a cultivation technique focused on Spiritual Sense later — though that kind of technique won't come cheap, and the training difficulty is extreme."
Fang Yuan muttered to himself.
The day passed quickly.
When his shift ended, Fang Yuan took 2,500 lbs of Pill waste and scrap material and made his leisurely way back to his Cave Dwelling.
He entered the Artifact Forging Chamber and first took out the Jade Slip to examine it.
He pressed the Jade Slip to his forehead, and streams of information flowed into his mind.
He rapidly committed the knowledge to memory.
The Jade Slip contained a summary of experiential notes on crafting the [Black Xuan Sword] — not a detailed step-by-step forging process, but rather a collection of precautions, guidance on controlling the heat at critical moments, and key-point analyses of pivotal stages.
For someone who had already forged a Black Xuan Sword before, reading these notes would certainly yield valuable insights.
But to Fang Yuan, it was all a blur.
He simply couldn't understand it.
He had no idea what any of it meant.
All he could do was force himself to memorize it.
A cultivator's mind was remarkably sharp, however — in just half an hour, he had crammed the entire contents of the notes into his memory, even if he hadn't truly digested them.
Then, Fang Yuan pressed a finger to the Jade Slip.
"Decompose!"
Flash.
The Jade Slip transformed into a jade fragment and a glowing orb of light.
[Spirit Jade] + [Artifact Forging Experience and Insights]
He pressed his finger to the orb of light.
[Item]: Artifact Forging Experience and Insights
[Grade]: First-Tier, Mid-Grade
[Effect]: Contains the creator's artifact forging experience and insights. Can be absorbed.
Without a moment's hesitation, Fang Yuan pressed it against his forehead.
Wave after wave of experience and insights surged into his mind.
Just as Fang Yuan had anticipated, the orb contained a wealth of Artifact Forging experience — not only the complete forging process for the Black Xuan Sword, but also the forging experience for nine additional Magic Artifacts!
Fang Yuan's lips curved into a smile. "When an Artifact Refiner writes their experiential notes, they inevitably review their entire forging experience in their mind. So when the Jade Slip is created, it captures not just the Black Xuan Sword insights they intended to record, but the impressions of all their other forging experiences as well!"
This was a theory he had formed when he obtained the [Mingqi Art Cultivation Insights] and unexpectedly received the complete contents of the Mingqi Art — and now it was confirmed.
These additional insights were never committed to writing, yet they were imprinted within the Jade Slip's markings all the same. His decomposition talent had extracted them, giving rise to a complete and expansive body of experience and insights.
Fang Yuan slowly sorted through and absorbed everything. He now had a thorough understanding of the forging processes for ten different Magic Artifacts, including the complete crafting methods for four mid-grade Magic Artifacts.
Even so, while he had absorbed this experience, truly converting it into mastery under his own control would still require hands-on practice and refinement.
This was not the kind of ability one could acquire with a single keystroke — it was knowledge and insight that needed to be digested and internalized.
But with the vast resources at his disposal, how could Fang Yuan ever worry about lacking opportunities to practice?