Chapter 9

The artifact workshop fell into a brief silence following Zhao Qiong’s remarks.

Mu Jigui cleared his throat again. "We checked with the deacon at the ore vein, and it seems you didn't find any stone suitable for refining."

Though Mu Jigui’s words were tactful, the underlying implication was identical to Zhao Qiong’s.

Qi Miao remained silent for two seconds before saying dryly, "I used those very stones to refine the artifacts."

Qi Miao had been quite frank initially, but the blatant disdain from the others made her lose confidence. She took out the glass she had refined that night and pursed her lips in the flickering lamplight. "I melted the stone down, then controlled my energy to cause instantaneous condensation, altering the stone’s structure and form... isn't that refining?"

The three elders of the artifact workshop stared at the glass in Qi Miao’s palm from different angles. Zhao Qiong was the first to act, picking up the square, transparent sheet.

The glass Qi Miao had refined was uniform in thickness, smooth to the touch, crystal clear, and completely free of impurities.

Lan Xuejing tilted his head toward Qi Miao. "Did you really refine this using those... ahem, worthless stones?"

The stones discarded in the ore vein possessed similar characteristics—they had low melting points and couldn't be used to reshape anything of value. That was precisely why they were shunned. This was the first time Lan Xuejing had seen anyone refine something decent out of such junk.

Qi Miao didn't know what quartz was called here, so she simply pulled a piece from her storage bag. "Yes, I refined it using these translucent stones."

Zhao Qiong’s eyes darted, and she held out her hand. "Let me see."

Upon receiving the quartz, Zhao Qiong inspected it closely; it was indeed scrap material. "Tell me again how you refined it."

Qi Miao detailed the glass-making process, and once she finished, Zhao Qiong immediately set to work. Under their watchful eyes, the quartz was stripped of impurities, melted, and rapidly formed.

Zhao Qiong stopped and frowned at the glass in her hand. Compared to Qi Miao’s, hers looked fragile and prone to shattering. Qi Miao watched with envy, clearly sensing the gap; Zhao Qiong had produced a result on her first try without knowing the underlying principles. Qi Miao remembered that on that first night, it had taken her eight attempts to refine quartz to that degree.

"It’s still inferior to yours."

Zhao Qiong’s voice interrupted Qi Miao’s thoughts. She came to her senses and explained, "When the temperature drops, the viscosity of this liquid increases rapidly. If it doesn't condense in time, the quality and performance of the glass will be poor. You have to control the cooling speed of your energy even faster."

Zhao Qiong looked thoughtful and took another piece of quartz from Qi Miao. This time, the glass she produced was nearly perfect.

Only then did Lan Xuejing ask, "Well?"

Zhao Qiong nodded. "It can indeed be used for refining, though it is harder to work with than standard materials. The process truly tests one’s ability to control energy and stone."

With that, her shimmering phoenix eyes turned to Qi Miao, and she smiled, praising her. "We had eyes but failed to recognize a treasure, never realizing that trash stones could have such unique methods of refinement."

Qi Miao scratched her cheek, looking well-behaved. "I didn't discover it myself; where I used to live, we often processed this kind of stone, so I just picked some up that day to experiment."

It was no secret that Qi Miao was an outsider; the elders of the Cangwu Sect were all aware. Hearing this, Zhao Qiong curled her lips. "You are quite honest."

Qi Miao blinked innocently.

Zhao Qiong and the others didn't press for more details about her origins. They kept her for a while, gave her two books on stone materials, and then let her go. Qi Miao dawdled while packing her things, looking up at Zhao Qiong from time to time.

Zhao Qiong noticed her gaze and glanced at the young girl. "Is there something else?"

Qi Miao hesitated, but under Zhao Qiong’s impatient urging, she spoke up shyly. "Elder Zhao, you used two of my stones just now..."

*Teaching materials should be replenished, right?*

Zhao Qiong: "..."

Her beautiful brows arched, and she said with a straight face, "Do you think I would embezzle your things? Come back tomorrow, and I’ll give you ten."

Upon hearing this, Qi Miao’s eyes immediately curved into crescents, and she flattered sweetly, "Elder Zhao is magnanimous."

Then, she was promptly shooed out by Zhao Qiong.

Watching Qi Miao’s joyful back as she left, Lan Xuejing couldn't help but sigh. "The little girl is so easily satisfied."

Zhao Qiong scoffed. "You prepare ten stones for her tomorrow as well."

Lan Xuejing turned back in surprise. "Why?" It wasn't as if he were the one who took her stones.

"You plan to bring this material to the lecture hall, don't you?" Zhao Qiong cast him a sideways glance. "This stone is everywhere in the ore vein. If we use it for refining in the future, the workshop will reduce its monthly expenses. As the elder specifically in charge of teaching refining, shouldn't you reward the disciple who discovered its use?"

Cheap, abundant, and effective—the cost-performance ratio was incredibly high.

Lan Xuejing snorted. In his heart, he had already agreed to sponsor their impoverished refining genius, but he was still annoyed by Zhao Qiong’s tone. He muttered, "Can using this stuff really improve one's refining level?"

Zhao Qiong looked at him without saying a word.

Lan Xuejing felt unsettled under her gaze. "I will certainly give her some rare materials too."

Zhao Qiong rolled her eyes and tossed the two pieces of glass at Lan Xuejing. "Go find some of this stone in the mine and try it yourself, then you’ll know how hard it is to refine."

***

Qi Miao’s understanding of cultivation was too shallow, and she didn't have much time left. Once her life returned to a routine, she began a new phase of intense remedial study in artifact refining.

The three elders of the workshop were only gentle on the first day. In the days that followed, not a day went by without her being scolded.

The three elders taught her on different days, each with a completely different style. Elder Mu was strict; when she couldn't answer his questions, he would just stare at her, the pressure comparable to the mechanical engineering mentor who had once left a deep shadow on her life.

Elder Zhao’s teaching style was erratic. She would be teaching her to identify artifacts one moment, and the next, she would assign an advanced lesson on dismantling spiritual tools—much like the clients Qi Miao had encountered in the interstellar era, completely indifferent to how unreasonable their demands were.

Though Elder Lan was gentle in nature, Qi Miao was kept after class by him the most, simply because he felt she lacked too much common knowledge and needed to catch up.

Every day when Qi Miao returned to her dormitory, she was exhausted. After being dragged by the enthusiastic Gan Jinlei to practice a set of punches, she would collapse into bed and fall asleep.

Under this high-pressure teaching, she grew rapidly. Although she still attended the outer sect lectures, she was no longer in a state of constant confusion. Her spiritual power also grew quickly through day-after-day of exhaustive training, and she was faintly touching the threshold of breaking through to the next stage.

She was about to enter the Fusion Stage.

The Fusion Stage was the second stage of cultivation in this world, followed sequentially by Yuan Gathering, Spirit Silence, God Transformation, Void Return, Dao Harmony, and the Saintly Immortal Venerable.

Her situation was essentially transparent within the sect. When the news reached the ears of her creditors, they were very pleased. As Qi Miao studied, they would send words of encouragement every few days. Both sides maintained a strange harmony.

One day, it was Zhao Qiong’s turn to give her a private lesson. She was inspecting Qi Miao’s assignment on dismantling spiritual tools. Qi Miao took out the Five Elements Eight Trigrams array disc Zhao Qiong had given her a few days prior and honestly admitted that she had failed to dismantle it.

"Did you figure out why you failed?" Zhao Qiong asked with her arms crossed.

Qi Miao hadn't finished the assignment, but she had made an effort. She replied dejectedly, "When an artificer crafts a spiritual tool, they place a 'lock' on it. My strength isn't enough to force the lock, and I don't have the 'key,' so I couldn't dismantle it."

Zhao Qiong looked down at her. "Then do you still want to ask the question from last time?"

Qi Miao shook her head like a rattle.

Last time, she had asked Zhao Qiong if, since an artificer could control the interior of an object to alter its structure, they could use the same method to destroy a spiritual tool. Upon hearing this, Zhao Qiong had smiled and assigned her this very task.

Qi Miao had spent days obsessing over the array disc and her books, only then realizing how whimsical her question had been. During the crafting process, an artificer would set up a firewall that blocked other artificers from perceiving the tool, while also imposing a defensive measure on the tool itself.

Zhao Qiong was not fooled by the girl’s well-behaved appearance and raised her voice to scold her. "I told you to learn to walk before you learn to run. You haven't even touched the edge of artifact refining, yet you’re already thinking about destroying other people’s spiritual tools."

Qi Miao: "..."

Fine, she had to admit, she did like to ask outlandish questions when she was learning.

Zhao Qiong lectured her thoroughly. She knew Qi Miao had immense talent, but even the highest talent required a solid foundation. Moreover, Qi Miao often had random flashes of inspiration. If she were to target someone else’s spiritual tool when no one was looking and decide to test her ideas—regardless of success or failure—if the owner found out, Qi Miao would surely be in for a severe beating.

So, she simply gave Qi Miao a tool and let her try until she was satisfied, planning to educate her once she failed.

After finishing her scolding, Zhao Qiong began the day’s lesson. Today was about how to fuse two materials to maximize their properties. This lesson once again shattered Qi Miao’s preconceived notions. Zhao Qiong brought out two stones with opposing natures—one extremely cold and one extremely hot. Once fused, by inputting spiritual energy, one could toggle between a hand warmer and an ice block.

Qi Miao’s eyes shone. She couldn't help but let her imagination run wild. If she applied this knowledge, could the designs she had previously abandoned due to poor stability finally be realized?

After the lesson, Zhao Qiong tested Qi Miao, who answered everything correctly. Zhao Qiong was very satisfied, but Qi Miao, not knowing when to quit, asked, "Elder Zhao, is it true that if one refines and fuses one or more materials and then shapes them, one can forge a spiritual tool?"

As soon as she asked, she saw the look on Zhao Qiong’s face and knew she was in trouble.

She shrank her neck back, and Zhao Qiong couldn't help but laugh in frustration. "Now you know to be afraid? You didn't take a word I said to heart."

Zhao Qiong tapped the table with her index finger. "Since you’ve already figured out how to refine, forge your first spiritual tool before our next class."

Qi Miao: "...Elder Zhao, isn't that a bit of a leap?"

Zhao Qiong looked at her in surprise. "Is it? I didn't even ask you to forge a tool capable of both offense and defense."

"..."

Qi Miao knew that if she kept talking, Zhao Qiong would only make the assignment more difficult.

Zhao Qiong looked at the wilted girl. "I’m going down the mountain tomorrow and will return in ten days."

It was a small buffer period. Qi Miao saw a glimmer of hope and slunk away.

The three elders had an unspoken agreement not to interfere with each other’s teaching methods, so Elder Mu and Elder Lan just pretended not to see Qi Miao devouring books on refining for the next few days. After soaking in books for three days, Qi Miao decided to consult her fellow disciples.

Yue Huai pointed at himself, somewhat flattered. "You want to ask me about my specialty in spiritual tools?"

"Yes, yes." Qi Miao nodded. "This is my first time forging a spiritual tool, and I can't find my direction."

Since being in the outer sect, Qi Miao had gradually gotten to know several disciples. She didn't interact with them much, but she knew of some, like Yue Huai—a disciple with excellent martial talent who preferred to be the bottom-ranked student in the artifact workshop rather than become a personal disciple of a master in the Martial Arts Hall. She sought him out for a simple reason: if Yue Huai could forge a successful spiritual tool, she certainly could too.

Yue Huai didn't know what kind of "ulterior motive" Qi Miao had. He was simply immersed in the joy of being asked for advice for the first time. He looked at Qi Miao with immense kindness. "You’ve asked the right person. For your first time, you must pick something simple. You could forge a sword, a bow, or an alchemy furnace."

These were the most basic spiritual tools.

Qi Miao considered them one by one. She didn't know how to forge a sword, but she knew how to make a lightsaber. It had "sword" in the name, so it counted, right? But that was hard to make, she didn't know if she had the materials, and... she felt that even if she made one and showed Elder Zhao, she would likely be scolded. She was even less familiar with bows; she had only seen such traditional weapons in ancient books.

An alchemy furnace... she had seen them in the infirmary; they were just medicine pots. This was standard and shouldn't go too wrong.

Without much hesitation, Qi Miao settled on her first spiritual tool. She thanked Yue Huai, who was still pouring out advice, "Thank you, Senior Brother Yue, I have a direction now."

With that, she took off running. Yue Huai’s eyes followed her back. "Hey, wait, I haven't finished yet!"

Qi Miao flipped through several books related to alchemy furnaces. At the same time, she logged onto the trading section of the spiritual tablet and secretly peeked to see what kind of furnaces the medic-cultivators wanted.

By evening, she messaged Qiu Tu on the spiritual tablet, saying she wanted to ask some questions about alchemy furnaces.

Qiu Tu was puzzled. "Why ask me?"

Qi Miao said shyly, "Senior Brother Qiu, you look like a good person." Although he was a bit short-tempered, he had given her a lot of spiritual herbs.

Qiu Tu: "...Don't think that just because you say nice things, I’ll let you pay back less money."

"…Senior Brother Qiu, I’m not that kind of person." After clarifying, Qi Miao said sincerely, "Senior Brother Qiu, please, do me a favor. Helping me is helping yourself; once I learn to refine, I can pay you back sooner."

Qi Miao was well-versed in "securing" material funding and knew exactly what to say to make an investor (a creditor) help. Sure enough, a few seconds later, Qiu Tu replied with two cold words: "Ask away."

With permission, Qi Miao immediately fired off all the questions she hadn't found answers to in the books.

"Senior Brother Qiu, what is the typical temperature when you refine pills?"

"I heard that sometimes there’s an impact inside the furnace during the refining process."

"How strong is this impact, and what kind of hardness is needed to resist external damage?"

"Do the herbs placed inside have corrosive properties? Does your alchemy furnace need to be corrosion-resistant?"

"Also..."

"Junior Sister Qi."

Qiu Tu finally lost his patience and interrupted her. "Are you really trying to ask me something?"

"Can you ask some questions that a human can understand?"

Qi Miao: "..."

"Fine, one by one. What is the temperature when you refine pills?"

Qiu Tu: "Very high."

"..." What kind of vague answer was that?

The two communicated stumblingly. Qi Miao grasped some data—whether accurate or not, she didn't know—and asked Qiu Tu eagerly, "Senior Brother Qiu, after I make the alchemy furnace, could you test it to see if there’s anything that needs improvement?"

Qiu Tu agreed readily. He also wanted to see Qi Miao’s skill level—to see if he could live to receive her repayment.

***

Qi Miao moved quickly. After talking to Qiu Tu, she began working on the materials for the furnace. She went to the Fortune Pavilion and, now that she didn't need to show her disciple badge, she entered the warehouse smoothly.

As she looked at the materials, she thought distractedly about how to forge the furnace. The medicine disciples’ furnaces always exploded; ultimately, it was because the heat resistance wasn't up to par. Based on Qiu Tu’s description, she couldn't determine the exact high temperature... regardless, she would assume it was very high.

Her gaze wandered over many materials before she suddenly turned back. *Got it!*

The deacon at the entrance of the Fortune Pavilion registered her, and seeing that she had selected quite a few materials, he guessed her intent and asked with a smile, "Starting to refine? What do you plan to make?"

Qi Miao nodded and answered truthfully, "I plan to start by making an alchemy furnace."

The deacon glanced at the materials she had selected and reminded her, "You don’t seem to have chosen any cold-natured stones." Without fusing cold properties, the furnace would easily explode.

Qi Miao blinked and said vaguely, "I’ll try with these first."

This was a last-minute decision after seeing the available materials. To others, the things she chose were hard to associate with an alchemy furnace. But when Qi Miao saw them, a thought occurred to her. She prepared to add a little "black technology" to the furnace.

These materials were for a thermal barrier coating. As the name suggests, it could block high heat, protect the internal structure, and extend the life of the item. It was an old acquaintance of every mechanical engineer. Rocket launches, mechs carrying high-damage thermal weapons, spacecraft traversing planetary orbits—none of these could do without thermal barrier coatings.

Now, combined with artifact refining technology, the efficacy of the thermal barrier coating would become more durable. How perfect it was for an alchemy furnace!

Of course, Qi Miao didn't know if she could successfully create the coating. She was gambling. For the first time in a long while, the sound of her own racing heart thundered in her ears.

***

Qi Miao’s first attempt at refining didn't go too poorly. She had asked the right person in Yue Huai; an alchemy furnace was, after all, just a vessel for herbs.

Qi Miao made the furnace quickly; most of her time was spent on the thermal barrier coating. Her efforts over the past few days hadn't been in vain. The moment she finished the coating, a huge sense of accomplishment welled up in her heart. Unfortunately, there was no one around to share her joy.

Qi Miao had to hold it in and speed up the process, applying the thermal barrier coating to the furnace. As soon as it was finished, she asked for Qiu Tu’s opinion. Since they were both busy during the day, she had a spiritual beast deliver the furnace to Qiu Tu’s room.

The day passed as quickly as usual. Qi Miao returned to her dormitory with half a breath left and immediately opened her spiritual tablet. Qiu Tu hadn't messaged back, so fearing he had forgotten, she sent a reminder. Qi Miao wanted to wait a little longer, but exhaustion finally overcame her, and she fell asleep.

Time ticked by. The night wind rustled the leaves. The dark sky gradually revealed a hint of light. Qi Miao was fast asleep when her spiritual tablet rang frantically. Still half-asleep, she found the tablet under her covers and turned it on.

A flood of messages hit her eyes.

Qiu Tu: "?"

"Is this the alchemy furnace you made?"

"Can you tell me..."

"Why did I refine pills for an entire night, and when I opened the furnace this morning, the herbs were exactly as I had placed them last night?"

"Is this furnace of yours actually meant for refining pills?"