Raise a sword!

Inside the weapon-refining room.

Jiang Peng did not rush to reforge the Xuanyuan Sword, but instead chose to meditate and regulate her breathing for half an hour.

Only after he was certain that his mind was at peace did he take out the three refining materials and reduce the Xuanyuan Sword to its normal size.

His fingers gently brushed across the blade of the Xuanyuan Sword, feeling the intricate patterns that Jiang Peng had personally carved last time.

These patterns are the lines through which spiritual energy flows within the sword, and are key to how a magical artifact extends the means of cultivation.

The first step in refining a magical artifact is to destroy its runes, breaking the artifact's internal integrity.

Jiang Peng had already rehearsed the reforging of the Xuanyuan Sword countless times in his mind. Now that he had actually started, he appeared to be very familiar with the process and was full of confidence.

He threw the Xuanyuan Sword into the furnace fire in front of him, using his spiritual power to ignite the fire and slowly destroy the patterns on the sword one by one.

Several hours passed, and the Xuanyuan Sword, which was originally a first-grade high-quality magic sword, was transformed back into a magic sword embryo.

Immediately afterwards, Jiang Peng took out the Crimson Sun Stone Marrow, used the furnace fire to remove the outer shell, and extracted the essence from the center of the stone marrow. He then began to control it with his divine sense, fusing it with the Xuanyuan Sword.

Such crude workmanship would likely be condemned by any swordsmith present, who would surely call it a waste of resources and another useless sword.

However, due to the properties of Tianchen Steel, the Xuanyuan Sword was able to absorb the essence of the stone marrow quite smoothly, and under Jiang Peng's spiritual power, it slowly re-condensed the sword body.

"The Crimson Sun Stone Marrow is the foundation. The next step is to use the Fire Jade to activate the fire energy within the stone marrow, thereby achieving the level of a top-grade fire-type magic sword."

Jiang Peng carried out her plans step by step.

Several more hours passed, and the sword blank in the furnace had undergone many subtle changes compared to before it was reforged.

The originally jet-black sword now has specks of red and purple.

These red and purple hues, like stars, are scattered across the black sword blade, appearing chaotic yet actually orderly.

The red speckles are the appearance of the Crimson Sun Stone Marrow after it has been refined by the furnace fire and then activated by the Fire Jade.

The purple one was an unexpected surprise.

That was a divine creation that Jiang Peng had painstakingly nurtured over many years using the purple fire in the Purple Gold Cauldron and the true refining method to nourish the sword.

Now, the purple flames have penetrated deep into the sword embryo, and they have manifested directly during the reforging process.

This was unexpected for Jiang Peng, but in doing so, the Xuanyuan Sword would be more adaptable to Jiang Peng's purple fire, and could be considered to be more in tune with Jiang Peng's mind.

Finally, Jiang Peng crushed the Earth Flame Crystal into powder.

When the powder of the Earth Flame Crystal was placed in the furnace, it turned into a dark red liquid in just a moment.

This is the material for the new Xuanyuan Sword pattern.

The process of drawing the patterns on the artifact is extremely slow. This is crucial for the magic sword to withstand spiritual power and move freely, which is the foundation of a magical artifact's extraordinary nature.

This step took a full day and night before Jiang Peng finally drew the last stroke of the vessel's design, creating a closed loop between the patterns.

The moment the weapon pattern was completed, the longsword before him, as deep as the starry sky, suddenly trembled slightly twice, and then fell directly into Jiang Peng's hand.

The hilt of the sword was so hot that puffs of white smoke rose from Jiang Peng's bronze skin and iron frame.

Fortunately, the sword embryo had been in the furnace for quite some time, and it was no longer as terrifyingly hot as when it was first forged. Jiang Peng endured the heat and did not let go.

Golden characters flashed before my eyes.

[Xuanyuan Sword: Tier 1 Top Grade, Fire Element, Sharpness, Magic Breaking, Sword Intent Condensation]

The entry now includes the fire element, and the original sword intent has been transformed into condensed sword intent.

Jiang Peng didn't pay much attention to the entry for Xuanyuan Sword.

As soon as he got his hands on the sword hilt, the purple flames within his body were naturally activated, appearing on the edge of the Xuanyuan Sword, but quickly disappearing.

Before Jiang Peng could investigate the reason, the Xuanyuan Sword trembled slightly again, the amplitude of which was exactly the same as the amplitude of Jiang Peng's breathing.

As the sword trembled slightly, Jiang Peng felt streams of incredibly pure, yet scorching spiritual energy continuously flowing into her body from the Xuanyuan Sword.

"This spiritual power..." Jiang Peng was astonished that there was spiritual power accumulating in the magic sword. How was this different from a cultivator's dantian?

After careful investigation, Jiang Peng finally understood the reason.

"These are the accumulations I made on my daily practice of refining and nourishing the sword with the Purple Flame True Refinement, as well as the accumulations gathered when the magic sword was reforged."

"But the magic sword can actually gather spiritual energy to nourish me?"

Jiang Peng's surprise lasted only a moment.

He discovered that the spiritual energy within the magic sword was not replenishing him, but rather that this spiritual energy was strangely identical to the spiritual energy within his body.

They are all extremely pure fire elemental energy.

Forced to sit cross-legged on the spot, Jiang Peng began cultivating the Golden Flame Technique.

He sat there for three days straight.

When this training session ended, Jiang Peng opened her eyes and felt refreshed.

"The ancient swordsmanship method makes sense!"

Jiang Peng originally thought that the benefits that ancient sword cultivators gained from nurturing their swords would be gradual and slowly revealed.

But he never expected that the magic sword would have such an immediate effect after just advancing to the first-tier top-grade level.

"Qi Refinement Level 8... Peak! If this weren't the Jade Pavilion Sword Tower, I could break through to Qi Refinement Level 9 anytime, anywhere!"

Jiang Peng's eyes were filled with joy.

It's not just that their cultivation level is getting closer and closer to Foundation Establishment, but also because the path of ancient sword cultivators is viable and feasible!

For Jiang Peng, the ancient path of sword cultivators advancing in tandem with their swords was not simply about having another path to cultivation.

Jiang Peng never forgot that the Purple Gold Cauldron in her mind could not only melt magical artifacts into refining materials, but also refine magical artifacts, allowing them to advance to the next level.

"If one day in the future I encounter a bottleneck that I can't break through no matter what... this opportunity to advance my magic sword will be my last trump card for breaking through."

Jiang Peng was confident that reaching the Foundation Establishment stage should be a piece of cake.

With this trump card, he dared to say that he, with only a mid-grade spiritual root, had a chance of reaching the Golden Core stage.

...

Jiang Peng walked out of the weapon-refining room, said goodbye to Li Xiangui, and was then escorted away by Wu Kexun, who was arranged by Li Xiangui.

Throughout the entire process, Yan Zhe watched from the sidelines without saying a word.

Only after Jiang Peng and Wu Kexun had walked away did Li Xiangui look at Yan Zhe beside him with a half-smile.

"Isn't Junior Brother Yan trying to make things difficult for Junior Nephew Jiang?"

"I'm protective of my own, not stupid!" Yan Zhe snorted. "Who is that kid? Two people left marks on him... These marks are undetectable to anyone but a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Does this mean they're certain he can handle anything below Foundation Establishment? The Cangshan Sect is certainly very confident!"

"Who left the marks?" Yan Zhe asked again.

"The weakest one is Lü Lin, the famous Princess Ni Chang."

Yan Zhe's lips twitched.

"Everyone says this beast is about to form its core, and this one is still a bit weak?"

Li Xiangui's tone became distant and leisurely.

"Now you know why I treated him with such courtesy, right?"

Yan Zhe nodded seriously.

"He has already caught the eye of a Golden Core cultivator at the very beginning of his Qi Refining stage. He should be treated with respect... We cannot treat him as an ordinary Cangshan Sect cultivator. This kid will likely be someone who can influence the Cangshan Sect in the future."

Li Xiangui chuckled.

"That's exactly right."

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