Shen Ying carefully measured the ores in her hand. This was her first time personally experiencing smelting ores. Even though she had seen some Rotating Core cultivators smelting before, she did not have the required power level to try and imitate them, and could only follow Si Xiu's instructions. Si Xiu had went into closed-door cultivation after she had instructed on what Shen Ying needed to do.
"Golden Miracle Ore, True Light Ore, Earth Serpent Ore..." Since she was an Earth Qi cultivator, Si Xiu wanted her to refine an Earth-type artifact for herself, which would be easier than making artifacts of other elemental types.
"Was it Everlit Dawn Ore or Moonlit Ore again?" Shen Ying continually used the paper that she was given to find the materials she needed. Once all said and done, what laid in front of her were a variety of ores, all of them reflecting a different colour each. One had cyan colour, one had magenta colour, one even had no colour at all.
There was a furnace that was located below the desk. Since Shen Ying only needed to smelt basic cultivation ores only, she only needed to add Fire Imp Essence to add magical properties to the fire. However, if she ever needed to smelt higher quality ores, she needed to get expensive beast cores to power it.
Shen Ying carried the bundle of ores in her arms, before she threw all of them in the fire together. According to Si Xiu, the ores outer layers were filled with impurities, which could be cleansed only by other impurities. By negating each other out, the Qi within them could be used to shape the artifacts.
The flames of the furnace needed to be controlled so they did not burn away the Qi that was stored inside. Shen Ying sent out only one strand of Earth Qi, which quickly subdued the flames.
The ores slowly melted, and Shen Ying could see a glimpse of the inner cores that were hidden within. The darkened impurities that were leaking out into the fire released an extraordinary foul smell, so Shen Ying retreated from the furnace quickly.
Whilst controlling the flames, Shen Ying took out the list of instructions that Si Xiu had given her. Next, she needed to extend all her Qi and constrain the cores, which would try to disintegrate as soon as they were exposed to Qi. Her Qi would then become the support line that the cores diffused into, allowing her to shape the artifact to her will.
Since it was a basic artifact, Shen Ying definitely would succeed, since she was at Body Building Tier-2. Si Xiu had said that even the weakest Tier-1 could construct this artifact perfectly.
Once the impurities were melted away, all that was left were a bunch of brilliant cores that gave off intense, compressed Qi. Shen Ying used her Earth Qi to wrap around these cores, preventing them from joining the Qi in the atmosphere.
Now, the cores were supposed to be diffusing into her Qi. However, it was out of her expectations that the cores started to rotate instead. All of them spun with an increasing speed, grinding against each other, making an unpleasant noise that hurt Shen Ying's ears.
The cores also broke free from the influence of Shen Ying's Earth Qi, but surprisingly still rotated and rotated, instead of breaking up to join the normal Qi in the atmosphere.
Shen Ying could not think of anything as the cores continued to grind. She wanted to curse at the heavens. Wasn't it supposed to be easy? Was it not supposed to be smooth-sailing? Come down here, God of Fate, I promise I won't hit you or anything!
"You can use Spiritual Sealing to salvage this situation! Quickly use it before too late!" The system's voice appeared in Shen Ying's head again.
Shen Ying wanted to shake her head. This was blatantly a scam! The God of Fate was the one operating the system, and had obviously meddled with her artifact refining to make her use up the starter pack.
However, she could not fight against a higher power, and could only be manipulated to do as he told. She reluctantly opened up the system and chose the item she wanted.
"Spiritual Sealing!" Shen Ying tossed out something that was completely white, and it expanded into a ball that sealed all of the cores inside of it.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" Shen Ying could vaguely hear the sound of objects smashing against each other emanating from the ball. She scrunched up her face as she read the instructions again.
There were no rules stating that the cores needed to smash against each other, and it even had an explicit warning not to break any of the cores that were formed.
"..." It was too late to regret her decision. There were also no rules stating what to do if the cores were rotating, so maybe this would be the right choice? Shen Ying tried to pacify herself using this argument.
"Gloop, gloop, gloop..." The noises that came from the orb now sounded like liquid was being merged together. Since it sounded like the cores were destroyed already, Shen Ying reckoned that she could maybe try putting her Qi inside now.
What was left of Shen Ying's Qi was turned into a pathetic strand that was only 1mm thick. She extended it and plunged it into the orb, which did not affect her thread of Qi, surprisingly. Even though it was through unorthodox methods, she still managed to get to the shaping stage.
"What should I shape it into?" Shen Ying thought to herself. The artifact has to be inconspicuous in order to alert someone that she had it. After contemplating for five seconds, she ultimately decided on a sword. Swords were used by everyone, so no one would ever suspect it to be an artifact.
She formed an image of the sword she wanted in her mind. A sword that was light, yet overbearing, a sword that inspired the righteous, and brought fear to the evil.
Using the strand of Qi, the sword started to take shape in the orb, forming the handle first, then the hilt, then the blad— why did it just fall apart? Let's try that again, handle, hilt, blade...
Shen Ying grew increasingly frustrated as she tried to form the parts individually. Every time it got to the blade, all the Qi that was shaped till now just melted away. A vein on her forehead was close to bursting as she repeatedly tried to form it with a forced smile on her face.
"That's it!" Shen Ying gave up on trying to form the sword piece by piece and directly shaped it according to the image she had in her head. This time, the sword managed to stay intact, as Shen Ying pumped her fist in excitement, as her efforts had finally paid off.
Since she was done, the spiritual sealing was also undone, revealing a handle, a hilt, and a dagger's blade. Upon seeing this sight, Shen Ying felt like fainting again.