With a heavy heart, Chen Daoxuan walked out of the laboratory.
This time, he did not even carry out his daily practice of refining artifacts. He hurriedly rode the wind and left. This was the first time in five years that he had allowed himself to be lazy.
By the time Chen Daoxuan arrived at thirteenth uncle's cave abode again, the sky was already dark.
He raised his head and looked at the bright and starry night sky. This was the sixteenth year since he arrived in this world.
Thanks to the mature soul inhabiting his body, Chen Daoxuan always felt out of place and alone in this world.
"Daoxuan!"
An old voice pulled him out of his dazed state.
When he came back to his senses, Chen Daoxuan found his thirteenth uncle, Chen Xianhe, standing in front of him, looking at him with concern.
"Thirteenth uncle!"
Chen Daoxuan hurriedly bowed and greeted him.
Chen Xianhe walked forward and gently patted him on the shoulder. He said meaningfully, "Child, it's been hard on you."
Chen Daoxuan was silent.
After a long while, he took out the three large and one small pieces of red copper ore from his storage bag. "Thirteenth uncle, these are the ores I collected from the red copper mine today. As you expected, the output of the red copper mine has decreased again."
Although he had already expected it, when he heard the news, Chen Xianhe still felt a little uncomfortable.
For the past three hundred years, the Chen clan's red copper mine had supported the cultivation of the clan's cultivators.
Now, they were going to lose it completely. Not to mention the loss of benefits, as the only immortal elder of the Chen clan of Shuanghu Island, it was difficult for him to accept it emotionally.
Chen Xianhe could still remember how carefree he was when he was talking and laughing with his twelve clan brothers.
However, as time passed, everything was like a fleeting cloud.
His clan brothers died on the battlefield, and he, the youngest clan brother, had to shoulder the heavy responsibility of managing the clan.
Chen Daoxuan did not hold much affection for the red copper mine. In his eyes, the red copper mine was just a spirit mine, nothing more, nothing less.
Chen Xianhe looked at the red copper ore that Chen Daoxuan handed over and shook his head. "You can keep these red copper ores for your artifact refining studies."
"Yes, thirteenth uncle."
Chen Daoxuan bowed and acknowledged his words.
"Oh right, how is your progress in studying artifact refining?"
When it came to Chen Daoxuan learning weapon refining, Chen Xianhe could not help but reveal a trace of nervousness on his face.
When he heard Chen Xianhe asking about his skill in refining artifacts, Chen Daoxuan said seriously, "There are a total of thirteen methods to refine artifacts in the clan's artifact refining inheritance. Among these methods, twelve are for first-grade artifacts and one is for second-grade artifacts."
"Currently, I have only mastered six methods of refining low-grade first-grade artifacts. As for the other four methods for middle-grade first-grade artifacts and two methods for high-grade first-grade artifacts, I have yet to master them."
Hearing Chen Daoxuan's answer, Chen Xianhe's eyes were filled with relief. "In just five years, you have mastered all the low-grade first-grade artifacts in the clan's inheritance. That's already pretty good!"
Chen Xianhe knew that, although the clan possessed an artifact refining inheritance, none of them had been formally taught.
Chen Daoxuan had to teach himself artifact refining based on the inheritance; Chen Xianhe was well aware of how difficult it was.
This was because all the cultivators of the "Immortal" generation had also taught themselves the second-tier artifact refining inheritance of the clan, though none of them were able to succeed.
The path of artifact refining was difficult to begin with. In addition to consuming a large amount of resources, one also needed someone to teach them properly so that they travel on this path more smoothly.
This was also the reason why there were almost no alchemists or artifact refiners among itinerant cultivators.
Just one artifact refining inheritance was sufficient to keep stump everyone, let alone the various resources required to learn how to refine artifacts.
Seeing Chen Xianhe's satisfied expression, Chen Daoxuan felt embarrassed because he had lied just now.
In fact, not only had he mastered the refinement methods of the six low-grade first-grade artifacts, he had actually mastered all the refinement methods of the thirteen artifacts in his clan's artifact refining inheritance other than the one for the second-grade artifact.
To be precise, Chen Daoxuan could now be considered to be a high-grade first-tier blacksmith.
He did not truly want to hide his accomplishments, but his progress had been far too shocking.
His cultivation was only at the third level of the Qi refinement realm, but his refining level had reached a level that many senior first-tier blacksmiths at the ninth level of the Qi refinement realm could not reach. Moreover, he had been completely self-taught.
He was no longer considered a genius, but a monster!
Of course, due to his limited cultivation base, although Chen Daoxuan had mastered the refining methods of the high-grade first-grade artifacts, the success rate of successfully refining one was still rather low.
The reason for this was that a high-grade first-grade artifact required more first-grade spirit ores to be refined, and the refining of these would take even longer. With Chen Daoxuan's true Qi and spiritual sense level, it would be very difficult for him to hold out until the end.
As for the subsequent shaping and fusing arrays stages, those were not too difficult for him.
He had studied artifact refinement for five years, and only occasionally managed to successfully refine a high-grade first-grade spiritual artifact.
With his cultivation, refining a low-grade first-grade spiritual artifact posed no problems at all, but refining a middle-grade first-grade spiritual artifact was a bit of a stretch; refining a high-grade first-grade spiritual artifact was entirely dependent on luck.
It was not that his refining level was not good enough, but rather that his cultivation base was insufficient, and his true Qi and spiritual sense were lacking.
This was also the reason why Chen Daoxuan was so eager to develop the furnace.
With the help of this furnace, he could save on the true Qi and spiritual sense consumption during the material refining stage, allowing him to more easily deal with the shaping and fusing stages of the refinement of the artifact.
At that time, not to mention a first-grade high-grade artifact, it was even possible for Chen Daoxuan to try his hand at refining a second-grade artifact.
An embarrassed expression flashed across Chen Daoxuan's face. He quickly adjusted his state of mind and said sincerely, "I don't dare to claim full credit for this. Over these past few years, if it weren't for the support of the clan, my refining level wouldn't have improved so rapidly."
Chen Daoxuan was not spouting nonsense.
Over the past five years, the Chen clan of Shuanghu Island had invested all kinds of spirit ore materials into his artifact refining studies. If these expenses were converted into spirit stones, it would total up to at least five thousand spirit stones.
Even ordinary cultivation clans could not afford to spend so extravagantly, much less itinerant cultivators.
The Chen clan of Shuanghu Island could afford this not only thanks to its three hundred years of accumulation, but also because of the wealth accumulated by its immortal cultivators on the battlefield.
Even so, Chen Daoxuan's study of artifact refining still resulted in heavy pressure on the clan, so much so that the patriarch Chen Xianhe had no choice but to consider giving up the red copper mine to support Chen Daoxuan's cultivation.
Hearing Chen Daoxuan's words, Chen Xianhe smiled and nodded. "Not taking credit for yourself and not being arrogant, very good!"
As he said that, Chen Xianhe changed the topic. "Daoxuan, you know that our clan is poor, so you must cherish the opportunity our clan is giving you to study artifact refinement."
"Nephew, always remember this!"
After that Chen Daoxuan finished his report to Chen Xianhe regarding the matter of fully excavating the red copper mine, and then left riding on the wind.
Chen Xianhe watched Chen Daoxuan leave before walking back into his cave abode.
As the current leader of the Chen clan, although the spiritual eyes in Chen Xianhe's cave abode were exhausted, the size and grandeur of the cave abode far exceeded that of Chen Daoxuan's cave abode.
Of course, the reason why Chen Xianhe did not build Chen Daoxuan's cave abode with such grandeur was to prevent Chen Daoxuan from becoming overindulgent and reliant on such luxuries at a young age.
His painstaking effort was destined to be forgotten by others.
After pacing a few rounds, Chen Xianhe walked over to a wall made of broken dragon stone.
He stretched out his palm and, with the activation of his true Qi, the array patterns on the wall suddenly lit up.
Then the wall made of broken dragon stone slowly slid to the side, revealing a secret chamber behind it.
As Chen Xianhe walked into the secret chamber, spiritual light shone brightly, and there were densely packed spirit stones inside that were all the size of a baby's fist...