Ge Zheng was startled, "This thing is the work of the master craftsman of the Fallen God?" Fallen God, referring to Arnold Welanlova's title, he could be considered as the most powerful alchemist closest to the present time and was highly renowned in the history of alchemy. "No wonder..." Ge Zheng murmured to himself. He felt somewhat regretful that his desire to meet this alchemist seemed difficult to fulfill.
Seeing Ge's expression, the Grand Duke thought he was afraid and inwardly chuckled: "You're dumbfounded, aren’t you? Although this double moon blade is only an early work of the Fallen God craftsman, it's not something that can be repaired by just a level six alchemist like you. However, he still appreciated Ge Zheng's willingness to take the blame, no matter what, Ge Zheng helped him out.
The Grand Duke chatted with the Baron for a while and then took his leave. The residence of Demont in the city of Oba is a spacious villa of the Grand Duke with an elegant scenery. The Baron ordered his people to clear out a courtyard for him to use as his laboratory. Ge Zheng listed a long list of materials and had Demont's men buy them.
To be honest, Demont did not have much confidence in Ge Zheng. Deep down, he still considered Ge Zheng to be a formidable warrior. He estimated that being a warrior was Ge Zheng's primary occupation and alchemy was only secondary. However, since Ge Zheng saved his life, and he was so proactive and enthusiastic, Demont couldn't refuse.
In fact, this weapon had been damaged beyond hope of repair. Ge Zheng had shown it to the alchemy department head of the Dongsheng Academy, Master Aquina, even he shook his head despondently, saying that there was still a gap between him and being a master craftsman, unable to replicate it. In Demont's view, the only hope for repair was to bring in the master under the cloak of the goddess of wisdom, Parachelshus.
While Demont ordered his people to purchase the materials needed by Ge Zheng, he also wrote a letter instructing his family to quickly find him another excellent weapon to prepare for the upcoming Ostadian Imperial Challenge.
The attendants who served him and were familiar with the history of this weapon were also very clear. They felt indignant about someone so blatantly "wasting" the family's money, more so than Demont himself. Therefore, the materials listed by Ge Zheng, although they bought everything, were definitely not sufficient in quantity and were still quite far off.
When Ge Zheng received the goods, he frowned, and the attendant immediately mocked him: "Oh, what's wrong? I heard that the master craftsman of the Fallen God has a famous saying: An excellent alchemist can create the desired work using any material. According to the master craftsman's theory, I think there are a few too many materials on this list." Ge Zheng's hand paused for a moment, then he seemed as if nothing had happened and collected all the materials.
Kangming was furious, and Ge Zheng could endure it, but couldn't endure it any longer. The desert fairy jumped up and roared, "My husband kindly helped you repair the weapon, and you are so stingy! I'm going to find Baron Demont. Is this how he repays his benefactor?" The attendant replied indifferently, "The master is resting and has no time to see you. The priest said the master needs more rest." With that, he tucked his hands into his sleeves and left.
Kangming was furious, and Ge Zheng grabbed him. Kangming asked in confusion, "Sir, how can you endure this?" Ge Zheng had not yet responded when the attendant had not yet left the yard. A stone suddenly fell from the sky and hit the attendant on the head, causing him to bleed profusely! The voice of the female warrior came from inside the house, "Oh, a big chunk of bird droppings!" Kangming burst into laughter, and Dunke in the kitchen knocked the ladles and pots clangorously. Ge Zheng couldn't help but smile, and the servant, not daring to linger, covered his forehead and strode out of the yard, saying angrily, “You bunch of parasites who eat and drink for free, when you can't repair the double moon blade, I'd like to see what face you have to stay here!"
"It's not that I can endure it, but..." Ge Zheng thought for a moment and explained with an analogy, "If you are good friends with someone, but that person's dog doesn't like you because you never give it bones. So every time you chat with your friend, the dog always barks next to you. Would you argue with a dog?"
"Haha..." came the female warrior's laughter from inside the house, "You say you don't care, but you just called someone a dog. This is obviously revenge." Ge Zheng shrugged, "Don't think you've exposed me."
...
The Fallen God craftsman indeed had such a saying, but the original words were: An excellent alchemist can adapt to any condition and achieve his desired goals.
Although the materials were less than Ge Zheng's budget, perhaps a different approach would result in a better effect.
On the laboratory table lay the pair of mother and son swords. The son's sword, intact and still stained with the blood of the giant lion, had turned charred. The mother's sword had been twisted, looking like a girl whose clothes had been torn by ruffians, a pitiful sight. Ge Zheng found it strange because according to the degree of the sword's strength, it should not have turned out like this just from falling into the lion's mouth. He picked up the mother's sword and used an identification technique to analyze the results systematically.
Suddenly realizing, Ge Zheng discovered that the Fallen God craftsman had used a unique method of magical forging when making the mother sword. Judging from the magical forging traces left inside the mother sword, the Fallen God craftsman was likely to have fused the materials at a high temperature, and then slowly poured them onto the mold in layers. This method ensured that the mother sword had enough space to accommodate the son sword, and after treatment, the mother sword's front loading condition was extremely resilient, almost invincible; but the side was fragile and easily broken. A bite from the giant lion's side immediately twisted it.
Ge Zheng then picked up the son sword, which seemed much inferior compared to the mother sword. Crafting a magical weapon from a narrow, thin, and just one-foot long dagger, using the techniques from four hundred years ago, was not a simple task.
After considering the whole plan, an idea formed in Ge Zheng's mind. The mother sword was probably beyond repair and had to be remelted for forging, while the son sword might only need to be strengthened.
Feeling a bit itchy with anticipation, Ge Zheng couldn't help but think of the Dragon's Ice Cave. He had crafted a treasure sword that could even cut through the Sea Sink Iron for the mysterious person, and with the formula obtained from the stone tablet, he had found the dry rock ice cave guided by the map. They also obtained the laboratory made from the body of the sacred freezing ice dragon, yet since leaving the Hanluo Wilderness, it had never been used.
This time, there was finally a piece of work worthy of unleashing it.
Outside the city of Oba, there were vast fertile fields, with dense forests only in the southeast direction. The residents of Oba City called it the Back Garden Forest, meaning that this forest served as the backyard for the entire city of Oba. While this idea was good, the 1,500-mile forest nurtured countless fierce magical beasts. The outer hundred miles of the city were indeed the city's veritable backyard, but going deeper, unless you had extraordinary skills or a severe mental illness, you wouldn't be welcome there.
There was even a legend that the ruler of this forest was a powerful dragon. Although the continent had the six great races, there were also some idle people who doubted this and believed that the dragon should be classified as a magical beast. These people were called racial scholars.
Ge Zheng knew nothing about this forest, but with the Dragon's Ice Cave, who could he be afraid of? Deep in the forest, by a quiet pool, Ge Zheng summoned the Dragon's Ice Cave. When the body of the frosty ice dragon appeared, its invisible dragon might spread across the entire area within two kilometers of the pond, scaring away all living beings.
Standing under the Dragon's Ice Cave, Ge Zheng heard the surrounding bushes rustling and wildlife fleeing in panic. Unfortunately, for the fishes in the pond, they couldn't escape and were panicked, crashing everywhere in the water. Many precious carp lost their lives, confirming that a head without training was definitely not harder than stone.
The dragon's mouth opened, and its tongue-shaped ladder descended to pull Ge Zheng up.
For Ge Zheng, remelting another double moon blade was not a difficult task, but the structural design of the Fallen God craftsman clearly had a flaw that needed to be compensated for.
The mother sword was put into the melting furnace, magical flames slowly ignited, and Ge Zheng released a "Fire Magic Cloak" to monitor the temperature of the flame, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, cyan, violet, white, silver, and gold. When the color of the fire cloak reached cyan, the mother sword in the melting furnace slowly began to melt.
When the mother sword was completely melted into a liquid, Ge Zheng raised the temperature a bit and then poured in the materials bought this time. He didn't intend to turn the mother sword into a magical weapon, the most surprising aspect of the double moon blade was that the mother sword was a regular weapon, while the son sword was the magical weapon. However, with these added materials, the mother sword could become more resilient.
He made a mold by mixing gravel with adhesive and followed the method of the Fallen God craftsman, pouring the molten iron layer by layer onto the mold. After most of the pouring was done, leaving a bit of molten iron to perform the final pouring.
Then, the rough blade was encased in clay, leaving only the originally vulnerable areas on both sides of the body before being placed in the furnace for semi-exchange reaction.
The other substance for the semi-exchange reaction was the rib of the python-patterned mad crocodile. This ten-level magical beast's rib, also known as the sword rib, was extremely sturdy; even an eleventh-level master might not be able to break it with a single strike. This effectiveness was due to the snaking ridge-shaped linear protrusion on the rib, which was exceptionally tough and could withstand a huge amount of impact.
The semi-exchange reaction placed a great deal of demands on the control level of the alchemy master, and even Ge Zheng felt a bit strained. The reason for covering the other parts with clay was to control the reaction to happen only on the fragile blade.
The semi-exchange reaction was only half completed when the ridge-shaped linear protrusion appeared on the blade, indicating that the structure had been replaced, but the material hadn't undergone the mutual displacement, thus, it was promptly stopped, and the reaction quickly cooled down.
A minor mishap and all the previous work would have been in vain and a whole furnace of raw materials wasted.
However, in the Dragon's Ice Cave, the success rate increased greatly, and with Ge Zheng's control, it was indeed a success in one go.
Breaking off the clay, the blade was put back into the melting furnace then the remaining iron was poured on it. From the outside, there was no difference from before, and the internal structural changes were not observable.
After the rough blade was made, the only tasks left were to polish and attach the hilt, which were simple tasks.
The son sword could only emit first and second-grade magic, which was indeed a bit lackluster. Crafting a magic weapon was something Ge Zheng excelled at, and transforming such a small weapon into a magic weapon in the Star Forging World was not such an easy feat, even in today's standards four hundred years later. However, Ge Zheng wasn't from the Star Forging World, but from a different civilization, where cultivators' flying swords could even transform into a lead pellet. Such a small object can be inscribed with countless formations; what about this one-foot long magic blade?
Ge Zheng was facing a new challenge: using alchemy tools for the first time to forge a magical artifact in the Star Forging World. With Ge Zheng's current level of Internal Dan cultivation, he couldn't create outstanding magical artifacts, nor did he have high expectations for himself.
The magic flames in the melting furnace were still burning, and Ge Zheng withdrew his magic power. As the magic flames gradually weakened and were about to extinguish, there was a sudden whooshing sound, and then they blazed up again—Ge Zheng had used his True Yuan Li! With the support of True Yuan Li, the magic flames could still burn vigorously, even more so than before. Using magic power, Ge Zheng had to exert all his strength to raise the temperature of the flames to the highest gold level for the fire cloak. But now with True Yuan Li, the color of the fire cloak changed from cyan, purple, white, to silver then, without suspense, lightly jumped to become the highest-temperature gold color!
Ge Zheng was greatly surprised: He didn't expect that combining True Yuan Li with magical flames had such an effect! Enlightened by what had just happened, a thought jumped into his mind: if he cultivated the Triple Fire of True Nature, would using magic power to support it have a similar effect?
He was excited for a while. If his guess was correct, using the three-flavored True Fire with magical power to refine instruments and create elixirs would undoubtedly yield twice the results with half the effort!
Suppressing the distractions in his mind, Ge Zheng cleared his mind and once again wholeheartedly engaged in the alchemy process.
The magical flames were burning vigorously. When they turned to gold, Ge Zheng increased the input of his true elemental force. With his current cultivation, even if he elevated it by two levels, he could still persist until the end of the alchemy process.
Unexpectedly, something unexpected happened. When he increased the input of his true elemental force, the magical fire suddenly experienced a slight tremor. After the tremor, the golden color of the fire garment faded, reverting back to the lowest level of red. However, it was immediately apparent that this red was different from the usual, as it contained a hint of silver thread, like a bright red robe tied with a silver ribbon.
The magical fire garment had upgraded! Not even Paracelsus had ever mentioned that the magical fire garment would upgrade. In the history of the Starry Sky Continent, such a thing had never happened before—at least not within this civilization era.
A tremor came from his feet, leaving Ge Zheng perplexed. He felt a tingling sensation in his fingers, but at the moment, he had no time to worry about other matters.
The magical fire garment had reached a new height, meaning the temperature of the magical flames had reached an unprecedented level. It was the perfect time for alchemy. Ge Zheng placed the sub-blade into the flames, turning it into a liquid mass that further refined the impurities. Ge Zheng slowly added the prepared materials, and as he did, the liquid mass devoured the new materials, then condensed further. Despite adding a significant amount of valuable materials, the volume of the liquid mass did not change.
Finally, he abruptly cut off the supply of his true elemental force, quickly extinguished the magical fire, and then threw a freezing spell, rapidly cooling the liquid mass back into the shape of the sub-blade. Before it was completely cooled, Ge Zheng had already imprinted several complex magic arrays on the blade.
Ding! The ice melted, and the sub-blade fell to the ground. He went over to pick it up: the blade appeared more refined compared to before, and a flame-like glow flowed along the blade as it swayed, as if it could burst out at any moment. This short blade was like a fire dragon.
He gave it a try. Four ping-pong ball-sized fireballs circled around the short blade, their cores glowing dark red, much stronger than the previous second-level Flame Art.
Ge Zheng was very satisfied. Unexpectedly, using alchemy to create the instrument had produced a better result than expected. After refinishing the sub-blade, its sharpness was comparable to the main blade. Previously, the sub-blade was just an ordinary magic weapon, except for its compact size and compatibility with the main blade, it did not have any outstanding features. Now, the sub-blade itself had reached the level of a quasi-artifact weapon.
In terms of magic, when filled with magical power, it could unleash the twelve-tier fifth-level magic spell "Wheel of Magic Fire," surpassing the Beidunola's Beheading Saber by one level.
"Crack!" Ge Zheng inserted the sub-blade into the main blade, and they merged seamlessly, with no trace of a short blade within the long blade. He frowned: six thousand gold coins, this deal was a bit of a loss. Essentially, he had re-refined a weapon for himself. While this weapon only had the standard of a magic equipment, it was even more powerful than a magic spirit equipment.