Chapter 1486: Forging System

When he saw the closing spatial vortex, Wu Liang frantically flapped the small wings on his back. At the same time, white silk suddenly shot out of his hands and through the vortex, then rapidly began to contract. It pulled Wu Liang through to the other side, his chubby body disappearing quickly.

Zu An’s group was amazed. This fatty really did have a lot of treasures! Just how many tombs had he looted? The tool he had used resembled spider silk. Perhaps he had gotten it from looting some great Spider race ancestor.

However, Zu An didn’t waste any time even while speculating about such things. He quickly used Grandgale, instantly sending himself and the three women into the spatial vortex. Almost as soon as he passed through, the vortex shrank to a point too small for anyone to pass through.

The next moment, the group emerged from the spatial vortex, and they quickly looked around. When they saw the familiar giant Fiend Ancestor statue before them, they knew they had finally returned to the Fiend races’ Imperial Tomb. They sighed in relief. They were finally back! They had been worried that they would be trapped in that world forever.

Yan Xuehen quietly left Zu An’s arms. She looked around and said with a sigh, “I thought we would reappear in that pool we first entered from, but we actually appeared here. It is good that there are no Fiend Race guards around, or else it would have been a bit troublesome.”

Suddenly, a low, muffled voice said, “This place is a restricted area. Normally, only the emperor and crown prince have the right to enter. Of course there are no guards assigned here.”

They followed the source of the sound and saw a chubby man sticking to a wall like a pile of mud that had been flung at it. When he finally freed himself from the wall, they saw that his face was swollen and blood was dripping out of his nose. The spider silk had clearly stuck to the wall and pulled him into it.

Zu An couldn't help but remark with a chuckle, “Chubby master, you have a bag full of tricks, don’t you? It’s almost as if they never run out.”

“It’s really not worth mentioning at all. You were able to escape easily even with three women with you. I’m really nothing special,” Wu Liang said. His tone was very humble, but his expression was full of pride, as if to say ‘please keep praising me, please’.

Zu An completely ignored that and asked, “Chubby master, what do you plan on doing now?”

As Zu An had begun talking about more important matters, Wu Liang’s expression turned serious as well and he replied, “I was about to ask you that. Considering how outstanding you all are, why don’t you just follow the Second Prince? You would all definitely be put in important positions. Furthermore, with your grudge against the crown prince, the only one who can face him right now from among the Fiend races is the Second Prince.”

Either way, after the events in the Unknown Region, Zu An’s group already knew that it was the Second Prince who had sent him to assassinate the Golden Crow Crown Prince. There was no need to hide that fact anymore.

Zu An said with a smile, “Thank you for your good intentions, chubby master, but we’re already used to our freedom, so we really can’t get used to serving another. I’m more curious as to why someone like you would actually serve another.”

𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

Wu Liang wasn’t surprised by their refusal. He replied, “What do you mean, serve him? I didn’t want to stick to him either, but that guy just paid so much… If you ever found some divine weapon for me, I’d even pretend to be your father.”

Zu An’s group was completely speechless. As expected, this damned fatty didn’t have any moral principles!

Wu Liang cupped his hands and said, “I was really scared pretty badly in that secret dungeon. This chubby master’s heart is still pounding. I need to loot this Imperial Tomb a bit more to calm down, so I won’t stick around to chat with you guys. I’m sure we’ll meet again some day!”

Immediately afterward, he turned into a spinning ball. A hole opened up in the ground, and he disappeared.

Yun Jianyue couldn't help but say with a sigh, “The Pangolin race’s Earth Escape skill really is unmatched.”

Yan Xuehen nodded. She remarked with a strange smile, “If the Second Prince were to learn that his ancestor’s tomb was cleaned out by that man, I wonder what kind of expression he would have.”

The others all smiled knowingly when they imagined that happening.

Zu An said, “There’s a huge army standing guard outside of the Imperial Tomb. All of you should take some time to stabilize your condition here. Then, we can figure out a way to leave.”

He had just spread out his spiritual senses. Even though there was no one in the tomb, the exterior would no doubt be heavily guarded. Leaving without anyone noticing would be difficult, so there would definitely be conflict.

The three women nodded. They brought out various pills to take, then sat down in place to stabilize their condition.

Zu An stood guard nearby to watch the surroundings. He had to admit that even though he couldn't see their beautiful eyes anymore because they were meditating, it didn’t take anything away from their beauty.

Yu Yanluo was as gorgeous as a rose. Even more valuable than her beauty was the gentle and peaceful aura that surrounded her, which could make anyone who saw her feel a sense of intimacy. No wonder she had left so many men infatuated.

Yun Jianyue wasn’t surrounded by her usual killing intent. Now, it was replaced with a poised and elegant demeanor. She was like a newly blossomed peony… Ah, her chest is really big.

Yan Xuehen’s pure and flawless face was like a freshly cooked egg, to the point that one could hardly help wanting to take a bite. Hm? Why is her face a bit red? The hint of pink makes it look even more appetizing.

Yan Xuehen’s long eyelashes trembled gently. Her thoughts didn’t seem to be very peaceful.

Zu An thought, She’s known for her Unshakable Daoist skill and normally cares about tranquility of mind more than anything. Why does she seem to be the most uneasy of the three?

Yan Xuehen suddenly opened her eyes. She stared at Zu An in annoyance and protested through ki transmission, “Stop staring at me!”

Zu An smiled and replied, “It’s your fault for being so pretty.”

Yan Xuehen bit her lip, feeling that there was nothing she could do about Zu An’s mischief. She could only close her eyes again and try to ignore him.

“Alright, alright, I won’t look at you then, okay? You should get some good rest,” Zu An replied. In truth, he knew that the White Jade Sect’s cultivation method was special. It would be bad if he ended up messing with her to the point that she began to vomit blood, like Xiaolongnu[1].

Yan Xuehen felt warm inside when she heard the concern in his voice. However, she quickly gathered her thoughts and didn’t let herself get distracted anymore.

Zu An withdrew his gaze, intending to take the chance to look at the newly unlocked Forging System he had received after registering the Rune Weapon Chart. A holographic image of a furnace appeared in his sea of consciousness. Its surface was covered in profound runes. Zu An didn’t know much about runes and couldn't recognize them at all, so he thought, I should copy these runes and study them with Yan Xuehen later.

He read the related explanations in the meantime. The furnace was indeed a place where magic weapons could be forged. However, it couldn’t be used with normal fire, and had to have a true flame.

Well, things that come from the Keyboard System are always extraordinary. If normal flames could forge magic weapons, the results wouldn't be that strong anyway.

Fortunately, he had just obtained the White Lotus Flame. He had previously stored it in the Nine Cauldron, but after Yu the Great took the cauldron, he had begun to store it in his tailbone. That acupoint could store a flame, and he had the right attribute, anyway. However, he would risk cultivation deviation by doing so; if the flame grew out of control, it would become dangerous.

When the White Lotus Flame entered the furnace, the runes suddenly lit up. The entire furnace seemed to have come alive, radiating brilliant light. It had successfully been activated!

Then, Zu An noticed that the White Lotus Flame had turned into a small ember at the bottom of the furnace; it made no attempts to leave, as if it had found a home. He thought, This is great. Otherwise, he would have had to find some other way of storing the violent true flame.

A new message appeared in Zu An’s mind, and he quickly checked it. It said that the Forging System had three key functions.

The first was that if one had a forging blueprint and the corresponding materials, it could create a weapon or magic artifact. Zu An focused on the words ‘forging blueprint’. Materials were easy enough to understand, but what was that?

Standard-issue weapons used by the army or large clans often had corresponding blueprints. However, heaven-grade, immortal-grade, and deity-grade items were all created through coalescing the essence of the world. Why would they have blueprints?

Zu An looked at the second function, which was to repair, upgrade, or even advance the weapon to a higher grade. He was truly happy to see it. The Tai’e Sword had been damaged, so he could use the function to repair it.

Upgrading an item improved its quality. Just like the games he had played, there would be differences in strength between weapons of the same grade; upgrading a weapon could greatly increase its power within the range of its grade.

As for advancement, as long as enough materials were provided, a weapon could have its grade improved. For example, heaven-grade could be turned into immortal-grade. Immortal-grade could even be turned into deity-grade.

Zu An began breathing heavily when he saw that function. Didn’t that mean he could mass-produce deity-grade weapons in the future? If he played around with a bunch of normal-grade weapons in the spring, he could harvest a batch of deity-grade weapons in the fall!

However, when he saw the conditions required, his excitement soon faded. Advancing the grade of an item required a ridiculous amount of resources, as well as some special, rare items. Such things were so rare that they were as hard to obtain as a weapon of the same rank. For example, the Great Origin Calamity Gold he had obtained was one of them. Such things had monetary value on paper, but would never appear for sale. Even if one had the money, one wouldn’t necessarily be able to find it.

Other than the ridiculous resource cost, whether or not a weapon could break through into a higher level depended on whether it even had enough growth potential to begin with. With sufficient potential, an item could be taken all the way to deity-grade; however, for most items, advancement by a single grade was all one could possibly hope for. An ordinary weapon couldn't reach deity-grade no matter how many resources one poured into it, and it wouldn’t necessarily be able to reach even earth-grade.

The third function of the Forging System was to melt down and reforge weapons. One could combine several weapons, along with the necessary resources for reforging, and a new weapon would emerge. It would at least be of the same grade, but its attributes and abilities would be completely random, not connected to the original weapons.

It could produce a weapon worse than the ones that were thrown in, or one that was substantially better. However, there was no consistency involved; all the results would be random. Even throwing in the exact same weapons and materials in twice would result in completely different results, with no correlation whatsoever.

However, the reforging function had a very small chance to produce a weapon that was higher-grade than the components. For example, throwing in several immortal-grade weapons could even produce a deity-grade weapon! Of course, the Keyboard System strongly warned the user that the chance was low, and to strongly reconsider making any such choice.

Zu An thought, Who in the world would put precious immortal-grade weapons in just for that tiny chance of getting a deity-grade weapon?!

Freaking gambling dogs again! I hate gambling dogs!

1. Xiaolongnu is the female protagonist of the wuxia novel ‘The Return of the Condor Heroes’ by Jin Yong. ☜