Chapter 21 - Rune Fusion

Xu Fan tidied up the room briefly and began to meditate to rest. Although his spiritual strength could recover quickly, using his spiritual strength to control the sledgehammer to temper metal would consume a large amount of spiritual energy.

At that moment, someone knocked on the door.

Xu Fan opened the door and found that it was the supervisor of this area. He had a Foundation Establishment cultivation base and looked old.

"Young man, is this your first time refining weapons?"

"Yes, does Supervisor have any guidance?" Xu Fan nodded and asked. He was thinking about why the Dharma artifact that had already taken form would explode.

"Not bad. Judging from the sound, you were able to reach the last stage of the weapon refinery, forming the weapon, on your first attempt."

"Not bad, not bad."

The supervisor began to size up Xu Fan.

"Supervisor, do you know why I made a mistake at the last step?" Xu Fan's eyes lit up. This supervisor seemed to want to give him some pointers.

At this moment, the supervisor stretched out his hand and smiled. "I'm a Level-1 master blacksmith. I'll charge 10 Spirit Stones for every question you ask and 100 Spirit Stones for an hour of guidance."

"The money will not go to waste. I guarantee that it will be worth it," said the supervisor with a chuckle. With this business, he could buy a house in the outer sect of the Heavenly Imperial Sect.

Xu Fan instantly felt that his intelligence had been insulted.

After handing over 10 Spirit Stones, the supervisor smiled happily.

The lad had a bright future.

"From the sound of it, I knew that you didn't consider the compatibility of the runes when you were refining. Some runes can mutually repel or attract each other."

"When the repulsive force appears between your runes, coupled with the unstable state when the Dharma artifact is just formed, it will cause an explosion."

The supervisor's words enlightened Xu Fan. In an instant, the contents of the jade slip seemed to have integrated into his thoughts.

"Actually, this kind of mistake is very easy to solve." Just as Xu Fan was thinking about how to solve it, the supervisor spoke again.

"Alright, I know what to do now. Thank you for your kind intentions, Supervisor," said Xu Fan. It was impossible for the supervisor to take advantage of Xu Fan again.

"It seems that little brother has his own thoughts. If you have any more problems, you can continue to look for this old man. I will tell you everything I know." The supervisor was a little disappointed as he said this. He had only made a transaction. This would not do. He would patrol the surroundings in a while.

After the supervisor left, Xu Fan recovered his energy.

"Spirit Control, Armor Break, Sturdy, Light Feather, Silence, Spirit Break, Heart Seal, Flowing Light, Form Transformation, Spirit Accumulation, Enchantment Fire," chanted Xu Fan as he drew the runes in the air.

Due to the lack of a vessel, the spiritual force runes lingered in the air for a moment before dissipating into specks of spiritual light.

"There really is a repulsive force between runes. Interesting, let's try changing the order."

Xu Fan changed the order and continued to draw runes in the air. This continued for more than five hours.

"I feel that the path of runes is much more complicated than alchemy," said Xu Fan as he furrowed his eyebrows.

When arranging the runes, although Xu Fan found a combination sequence that did not produce repulsive force, he had a feeling that it was not perfect.

Thus, Xu Fan decided not to refine any weapons before he figured out the order of the runes to prevent more losses. After all, he had his secret weapon he could use later on.

After exiting the Earth Core Workshop, Xu Fan sighed and said, "A hundred Spirit Stones are gone just like that."

"No wonder people say that refining weapons requires more energy than refining pills."

After returning to his small mountain, Xu Fan began to study the runes again.

The next day, Xu Fan went straight to the Doubt Dispelling Hall at the Weapon Refinement Peak. This place was filled with people who encountered problems while refining weapons.

The main hall was divided into many smaller halls. There were the Rune Halls, the Fire Control Hall, the Spirit Ore Hall, the Talent Hall, the Array Formation Hall, and the Tempering Hall.

Xu Fan knew that every hall here corresponded to a type of problem.

Xu Fan walked towards the Rune Hall. After taking a token, he walked into the hall.

There were more than a hundred seats in the entire Rune Hall. All of them were people who had come to clarify their doubts.

"Each person can only ask one question and take at most one minute."

"I will answer your questions according to the order of your seats."

The Weapon Refinement elder from the outer sect spoke at this moment.

A Foundation Establishment cultivator sitting at the first seat hurriedly asked, "Elder, can the Exploding Flame rune really not fuse with the Extreme Ice rune in the same Dharma artifact?"

"You already have the answer, yet you're still asking me. How could I not know what you're thinking?" The outer sect elder on the main seat answered indifferently.

"Firstly, you need to consider the material of the Dharma treasure that will store the runes. Secondly, you need to engage in excessive circulation of the runes. These two require a huge price to obtain."

"Okay, next."

Following the questions from the cultivators, Xu Fan also obtained a portion of the answers he wanted. This deepened his understanding of the runes.

Two hours later, it was finally Xu Fan's turn.

"Elder, with regards to the arrangement of runes, does a perfect state exist?" Xu Fan asked his question.

At this time, the outer sect elder looked deeply at Xu Fan.

"Junior, state your name."

"I'm an outer sect Qi Refinement Stage disciple, Xu Fan," said Xu Fan. This meant that he was purely an outer sect disciple and had yet to become a reserve disciple of any peak or hall.

"To be able to ask such a question, it means that you can go further in the path of weapon refinement," said the outer sect elder in a gratified manner.

Then, the outer sect elder looked at all the disciples present and said, "All of you have just entered the path of weapon refinement. In the future, after you have immersed yourself in the path of weapon refinement for many years, you will discover a restriction, or perhaps a restriction of the Heavenly Dao."

"Dharma treasures are made up of raw materials, runes, and array formations."

"When all three of them are combined perfectly, your Dharma treasure will trigger the Thunder Tribulation. Be it Dharma artifacts, rare treasures, or dao treasures, they will all trigger the Thunder Tribulation."

"Then, the Dharma treasure you refined will definitely be destroyed by the Heavenly Dao."

"However, it's said that perfect Dharma treasures can evolve on their own and can even become immortal weapons."

Looking at everyone's yearning expression, the outer sect elder continued, "Alright, this is only a legend. Let's return to the main topic."

"There is a compatibility score for each combination of runes. When the runes you combine are in the most perfect state, congratulations. Your Dharma treasure will be the top among treasures of the same level."

"For example, if a peak-stage Qi Refinement cultivator had such a flying sword, he would be able to kill an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.

"It's very easy to fight across stages with a perfect treasure. Of course, it's very difficult to refine such a Dharma treasure. It's a great fortune for a master blacksmith to produce one in his lifetime."

"In order to draw such a rune, the timing, geographical location, and person have to be perfect. Nothing can be missed."

After Xu Fan received the answer, he went straight home and began to practice drawing runes.

He drew five Spirit Control runes in the air consecutively. Xu Fan looked at the runes in the air and started to stare blankly at them. Then, he carved the remaining 10 runes multiple times.

This state lasted for five days before Xu Fan came out of his research state.

"Knowledge makes me happy," said Xu Fan excitedly. After five days of experimenting, Xu Fan finally tested out a relatively perfect combination of runes.

However, Xu Fan had never been able to catch the perfect state that the outer sect elder had mentioned.

There were still four days left until the journey to the mystic realm.

After a good night's sleep, Xu Fan charged into the Earth Core Workshop with complete confidence.