"You want me to use these?" Yun Jiang asked, a faint smile of excitement hidden behind his question.
"Yeah, I obtained them by chance over at Lucky Strike, have you heard of it?"
The moment Shu He mentioned the name, Yun Jiang's expression turned sour.
"Yes I have, I thought that place was a scam! Back when I first wanted to look for materials to use I heard about the prizes there and gave it a try multiple times yet not once did I get anything!" He frowned as remembered all the points he basically chucked down the drain back then.
He then looked Shu He directly in the eyes and asked, "How many times did you try to win these?"
"A-a few, I don't quite remember" Shu He decided to not reveal he only bought 10 stones, bragging about winning in front of a broke gambler would only invite trouble after all.
"Hmph, you must have gotten really lucky then, but I would suggest not wasting money there in the future" Yun Jiang grumpily gave him some advice.
"I wasn't planning on it" Shu He merely nodded and smiled back.
'For an entirely different reason though!'
"Let's see what we've got here then…" He reached over for the blue-silver coloured rock first, it had a crystalline like structure with square formations making up its small size, he lifted it up and gave it a good look around.
"This is definitely Spiritual Metal, this is quite a sizeable chunk, they're rather generous giving this as a prize…" He rubbed the surface of the metal and nodded.
"I haven't seen any of higher grade, but this is definitely mortal rank with a medium quality" He explain.
"So… is that bad? Good?" Shu He didn't have any idea what that rank meant in terms of materials.
"It's good, at least for people our rank, I've only ever seen any Spiritual Metal at the High Mortal rank at most and even that was a sight to see… I hear the sect master's weapon is made using Earth rank material though, not sure what rank; Either way this metal here is quite valuable."
"I see, out of curiosity how much would it sell for?"
"Sell? Shu He do you not know about Spiritual Coins?" Yun Jiang asked with a bit of confusion.
"I've heard of them, but I've never seen one nor used any, why?" Shu He asked, wondering why he was being questioned about that now, but then he stared at the ore in Yun Jiang's hand and suddenly it clicked.
"Spiritual Coins are made of Spiritual Metal?" He asked in turn.
Yun Jiang nodded.
'Of course! I somehow overlooked that connection…' Shu He felt like banging his head on the wall.
"The question that you should ask is not how much it could be sold for, but how many spiritual coins you can turn it in to, for this chunk let's see…" Yun Jiang went and grabbed a pair of scales off a tabletop near him and placed the chunk on it, he added weights on the other side until the two sides were balanced and nodded before bringing it back over.
"You could turn this in to around 6 medium mortal grade coins, that's quite a fortune for a new cultivator like you if I'm honest".
"But I can't even leave the sect to spend them yet, how much is that compared to low grade or high-grade coins anyway?" Shu He asked, not knowing the general conversion rate.
"That's not too easy to explain honestly, there is no set value of these coins because their value varies cultivator to cultivator, some of the larger cities and sects may offer exchange for lower ranked coins to higher ranked coins, but to the average cultivator they'll only want ones that are suitable rank for them".
"Because they can use them as more than money?"
"Correct, they're used as a core currency for us cultivators because spiritual metal is valuable no matter what specialisation you have, all sorts of equipment, disposable items and formations make use of it" Yun Jiang explained.
Shu He stared intently at the blue-silver rock that was sat shimmering on the table in front of him.
'Turn it in to coins, or make something out of it…' He was stuck thinking; he didn't know which would be better for him in the long run.
"If you want my advice, I'd say have a useful tool made for you out of it; In the sect you have points to use and by the time you start leaving the sect you may have enough currency to use anyway, a nice tool will last you a very long time if made with this though".
"Tools… is your hammer made out of this stuff as well?" Shu He remembered the ornate hammer that he had seen Yun Jian using in the forge, it seemed incredibly well crafted and didn't even get a scratch from the work he was doing.
"Yes, that hammer was given to me by the division head, he made it himself; Coincidentally it's almost made of the same rank as this metal, good thing as well or I'd be unable to put a dent in it while forging ahahahaha" Yun Jian laughed with a bit of embarrassment.
'If that's the case…' He made him mind up.
"Then I'll make a tool from it, have you handled this level of material before?"
"Honestly? No, I've handled stuff similar to the low mortal rank before, but this will be a challenge for me" He said with an excited smirk.
"Well, I'll trust you with it then…" Shu He looked over to the other piece of ore that was laying on the table "What about this one?"
"This? This is Igneous Crystal, it's quite a widely used material that heats up and emits flames when enough Qi is fed to it" He explained before he gave a demonstration, he held it up and as he did it started to glow as the temperature rose before tongues of flame began licking the air around it.
Shu He looked at it thoughtfully, he could thing of many ways an on-demand flame would be useful but couldn't settle with a single image.
"What can you do with it?"
"Normally it's cut down and embedded in equipment as a slotted stone, if ground up it can be used in charms and such as well but they're more one-time use".
"Something like a lighter then or such…" Shu He murmured.
'Sure that'd be useful, but it feels like a waste…'
"What about the abnormal ways to use it?" He asked, and as he did he saw a fire light up in Yun Jiang's eyes while his mouth turned in to a great grin.
"There is a way to use it that I haven't had the chance to try yet…" He said as he grabbed both materials and pushed them near each-other, holding them up.
"One of the greatest uses of spiritual metal is that it's incredibly malleable and reactive during the forging procedure, that's why it can be fused with other materials to take on their properties, creating a special alloy!"
"What's the catch?" Shu He asked, clearly understanding it wouldn't be abnormal if it was this good.
"That… it requires an arduous amount of time spent forging, the skills of the smith must be perfect, there must be no breaks, nor must there be a lack of qi, if any of these are lacking the materials will be wasted in entirely and the smith can face a backlash from volatile materials, so only the most confident can do it."
"And are you confident?" Shu He asked, staring directly into Yun Jiang's eyes.
"…I have yet to perfect my forging technique, nor have I handled such materials before… but I want to, no, I MUST, please let me use these materials to forge you something!" Yun Jiang spoke sincerely, even going as far as bowing his head slightly.
Shu He could feel a burning will beneath his words and nodded.
"Go ahead, I want to see you skills".
'I didn't spend that much on them anyway' He remarked in his mind, keeping it to himself.
A grand smirk became plastered on Yun Jiang's face as he jumped up.
"Great! Then, first of all I need to know what you want made!"
"Right…" Shu He lent on his hand as he started thinking.
'The two materials being used together changes things, it will be a tool that can emit heat and fire, wasting it on something like a lighter would be an absolute waste, maybe I should have a weapon made instead? Something like a sword… no I don't think there's enough to make a full sword, I don't have much practice with them anyway'.
"What kind of weapon do you use right now Shu He? Is it still the bow?" Yun Jiang asked.
Shu He nodded "Is it possible to use it to make arrow heads?"
"It's possible, but don't you think that'd be a waste?" He replied doubtfully.
"That's true…" Shu He pushed aside that idea.
"I can't really make a bow from this material either, metal isn't a great material to make bows after all".
'As a cultivator my weapon is the bow, followed by my own body… maybe a pair of gauntlets? No they'd get in the way of my bow… what else…'
Shu He's mind tracked back to everything he usually uses, eventually a bright light went on in his mind.
He knew what he wanted.
"Made you mind up?" Yun Jiang asked, seeing Shu He's expression change.
"Yeah."
"I want a knife".