Lord of the Rending Stars

Duanxingge Jiazi Jiufeng Workshop.

Qingyang stood before the Zhuochen Cauldron, his consciousness sinking into the light screen of the human race's treasure vault in the virtual universe. Qingyang clicked to search for "Time-Space Flowing Gold" in the Special Materials category.

"Time-Space Flow Gold Ore, 10 Treasure Points, 3 in stock"

"Do you wish to exchange for a Time-Space Flow Gold Ore?" The virtual universe system prompted.

"Exchange for two sets," Qingyang adjusted the exchange quantity, spending 20 Treasure Points, leaving a balance of 18.4 Treasure Points in his account.

Three days later, the Time-Space Gold material delivered by Virtual Universe Company arrived at the mountain peak where Qingyang of Forging Star Pavilion was located.

The two pieces of Time-Space Gold in his palm had been lying quietly for several days. Qingyang was not in a hurry to start refining them. So far, he was still missing some materials to refine an ordinary palace-type treasure.

Qingyang's reputation for being able to forge ordinary heavy treasures has spread through Venerable Gu Yi of the Star Forging Pavilion. Previously, only a dozen senior Universe Venerables in the Star Forging Pavilion could reliably forge ordinary heavy treasures. Now, with the addition of King Lie Feng, Universe Venerables and Immortals with the strength to reach the King-level invincible realm have more options.

During this period, Qingyang's virtual universe mailbox received seventeen inquiry letters. He opened them one by one, skipping those that were testing the waters and those that were bargaining, and finally focused his attention on two of them.

The first letter was sent by Venerable Yan Ge: "King Lie Feng, I have heard that you can refine a treasure of the Law of Fire. For nearly a hundred years, I have searched for a Grade A weapon refiner in the Star Forging Pavilion, but no one is willing to take it on. If you dare to take it on, I will reward you with a Void Divine Crystal that has been treasured for hundreds of millions of years."

The second letter was from Venerable Cangyin: "Master Qingyang of the Nine Peaks of Jia, I am not good with words. I know you need the Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Jade Marrow, while I need a treasure for escaping with the attribute of time and space. I will provide the materials myself, and I will bear the consequences of failure. If you are willing to accept, I will come to your door in three days."

Qingyang stared at the two emails, not replying immediately. Instead, he got up and walked to the training room on the west side of the workshop. "Two powerful treasures to forge, in exchange for two precious materials. A fire-attribute treasure from Venerable Yan Ge, and a spacetime-escape treasure from Venerable Cangyin—which should I choose?"

After a while, Qingyang walked to the main hall and logged into the virtual universe's Star Forging Pavilion. With a light tap of his finger, two reply emails were sent simultaneously.

"Venerable Yan Ge, I have accepted your request."

"Venerable Cangyin, in three days, the Nine Peaks of Jia will await your arrival."

Venerable Yan Ge's sacred site is not located within the territory of the Virtual Universe Company; it lies deep within the core of a dead star. When Qing Yang set foot on this star, all he saw was a scorched and cracked earth. He descended three thousand kilometers along a fissure in the Earth's core.

Deep within the Earth's core, a slender figure stood with his back to him, his surroundings radiating intense, hellish energy – it was none other than Venerable Yan Ge.

"King Liefeng, do you know why no one dares to take my sword?" He didn't turn around, his voice like rolling lava.

Qingyang stopped three zhang behind him. "Because its secret pattern structure is derived from the inheritance of the Ancient Flame Demon Clan."

Qingyang continued, "The fire laws cultivated by our human weapon refiners are mostly about comprehending the fire of laws. But the Ancient Flame Demon's fire is a fire of destruction, a fire that burns all things."

Venerable Yan Ge slowly turned around, revealing an aged yet sharp face with high-set brow bones, deep-set eyes, and two clusters of undying crimson flames dancing in his pupils.

Venerable Yan Ge's gaze fell on Qing Yang, like a red-hot iron blade scraping against bone. "Knowing it's the path of the Ancient Flame Demon Clan, you still dare to accept it?"

Qingyang calmly looked back, "Senior Yange is a human."

This single sentence caused the crimson flames in Venerable Yan Ge's pupils to momentarily pause. Qing Yang raised his hand, his divine power condensing into a line, and touched an extremely subtle branch of a secret pattern at the end of the hilt of the diagram sword.

"The original word here should be 'devour'."

"The senior changed it to 'burning'."

"But the core logic of the Ancient Flame Demon Clan's weapon forging has never been to make the fire burn brighter, but to make the fire devour and destroy everything."

"In that case, let's begin," Venerable Yange nodded.

Three days later, the taciturn Venerable Cangyin arrived at the door, leaving only the words, "I want a knife that can help me escape," before placing the weapon blueprints, refining materials, and a piece of "Ten Thousand Year Cold Jade Marrow" in the hall and hurriedly leaving.

Six months later, the Zhuochen Cauldron emitted a deep hum, and the fire-attribute treasured battle blade took shape. It was a battle blade entirely of crimson gold, with dark red veins faintly visible on the blade edge. At the hilt, an extremely fine branch of secret runes meandered like a snake; it was the only pattern on the entire blade that remained unchanged and completely preserved from the original demonic blueprint.

After the sword was completed, Venerable Yange arrived upon hearing the news. He stood in front of the Zhuochen Cauldron, looking at the sword and the secret pattern on the hilt, and raised his hand to grip the hilt tightly.

"I have instructed my servants to deliver the promised Void Crystals to your workshop's storeroom," Venerable Yango said, turning to walk out of the hall. He paused at the doorway, his back swaying slightly. "Thank you for your help this time!"

After seeing off Venerable Yan Ge, Qing Yang unfolded Venerable Cangyin's crafting blueprint. This was a powerful escape weapon with spacetime attributes. Its blade was as thin as a cicada's wing, its laws and patterns were extremely simple, with almost no redundant design. Its only function was this: in special secret realms where teleportation was not possible, upon activation of divine power, it could tear through space and escape a distance of at least thirty million kilometers.

Qingyang understood, and manipulated the azure halo within the Zhuochen Cauldron, which carried the inscriptions of the laws of time and space, to float quietly above the blade blank. Half a year later, the blade was complete.

When Venerable Cangyin stepped into the Nine Peaks of Jia, Qingyang was placing the slender, wing-like battle sword on its rack.

Venerable Cangyin stepped forward, grasped the hilt of the sword, and released a slight burst of divine power. The space around the sword suddenly distorted, and in an instant, his figure appeared three hundred billion kilometers away.

Not long after, Venerable Cangyin returned to the hall. He looked down at the knife in his hand, and a faint smile finally appeared on his usually calm face.

"What a cunning blade. It might have miraculous effects in some special secret realms." He sheathed the blade and looked at Qingyang. "You've received the Ten Thousand Year Cold Jade Marrow, haven't you?" Qingyang nodded.

Venerable Cangyin paused, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he just nodded and turned to leave.

After completing the crafting requests from the two Venerable Ones, Qingyang waved his hand, and three orbs of light appeared floating before him. These were Time-Space Flowing Gold, Void Divine Crystal, and Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Jade Marrow. The final auxiliary material, Chaotic Primordial Soil, was still missing.

Qingyang's consciousness sank into the virtual universe, opened the virtual universe auction house interface, and adjusted the filter criteria to "Venerable Level", "Rare Materials" and "Space-Time Attributes".

The page refreshed, and the second line displayed information about the Primordial Chaos Land.

"High-quality Chaos Prime Earth"

Starting bid: 2.5 Treasure Points

"Bidding period remaining: three days"

"Current highest bid: 4 Treasure Points"

Qingyang stared at the simple numbers, remained silent for a few seconds, and scanned his account: "18.4 Treasure Points, 0 Supreme Treasure Points".

Qingyang did not hesitate and entered the bid price.

"5 heavy treasure points"

The page has been refreshed, and the price offered by Qingyang has been moved to the top row.

"Current highest bid: 5 Treasure Points"

Three days later, in the final quarter of an hour before the auction ended, the page refreshed.

Auction ended

"Transaction Successor: Liefeng Wang"

"Transaction Price: 5 Key Points"

"Item: Top Grade Chaos Prime Earth"

Qingyang stared at those lines of text and let out a soft breath. His account balance was now only 13.4 Treasure Points.

At this point, all the core refining materials for ordinary palace-type treasures, with Time-Space Flowing Gold as the main material and Void Divine Crystal, Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Jade Marrow, and Chaos Primordial Soil as the three auxiliary materials, have been gathered.