Cultivating immortality begins with discerning the secrets of heaven.

"Uncle Hai Rong is getting married?!"

After reading the letter, Lin Yun's eyes widened, revealing a surprised expression.

Lin Hairong is only three years younger than his father, but he has never found a partner. In the past, his family had found him a few, but he rejected them all.

Because of this, several elders of the Ji clan, including his grandfather, were extremely angry.

They believed that Lin Hairong, at his age, was not thinking about having children and was all alone, which was the greatest act of filial impiety.

Ji Mai's elders had reprimanded Lin Hairong many times over this matter.

"My marriage partner is a female cultivator from the Chen family... I see."

Almost instantly, Lin Yun understood his family's intention: they wanted to use this opportunity to improve their relationship with the Chen family in advance.

To avoid the situation where, after Chen Guan successfully forms his core, the Chen family becomes an aristocratic family with a thousand-year history, making it difficult for the Lin family to form a marriage alliance.

The news that Lin Hongye had reached the ninth level of Qi Refining had spread some time ago. With such talent, it was practically a certainty that she would advance to the Foundation Establishment stage.

The Lin family gained some prestige from this, and the Chen family was naturally willing to marry off one of their daughters to get closer to the Lin family.

It was a typical family marriage, and it's likely that the Bo family was involved; otherwise, Lin Hairong wouldn't have compromised so quickly.

"The wedding date is set for a month from now, so it's not far off."

With that, Lin Yun put the letter away.

Lin Hairong naturally had no choice but to be there. As his nephew, he was bound to be present, and also to see what kind of person his future aunt was.

  

...

Several days later, after a six-month hiatus, Master Mo finally began teaching again.

However, this time there were three fewer registered disciples. Two disciples from minor Qi-refining clans were very self-aware and believed that they could not achieve anything in the art of weapon refining, so they chose to leave early, thus saving the spirit stones needed to rent a place in Fire Cloud Valley.

Six spirit stones a year is indeed a considerable expense.

The Qi Refining Family has a shallow foundation and lacks a stable source of income from spirit stones. They also have to pay tribute to the Taiyuan Sect, making them far inferior to Foundation Establishment families like the Lin Family, which have stable industries.

Among the remaining disciples of the weapon-refining families, there was one who left a deep impression on Lin Yun.

This man is from the He family and his name is He Gang.

His talent for forging weapons was mediocre, but he was extremely persistent and determined. Lin Yun had heard the clanging sound of blacksmithing coming from the courtyard where He Gang lived more than once in the middle of the night.

"The He family..."

He recalled a piece of information he had obtained earlier through the Book of Insight, which was related to the He family.

The He family discovered that one of their spirit fields had an unusually high yield and prepared to try planting other, more precious crops.

He had never forgotten this piece of information, but due to his limited abilities, he was unable to influence the family's decisions, so he kept it buried in his heart.

A year has passed, and He Gang is still able to stay in Huoyun Valley to learn martial arts, which shows that the He family has indeed become quite wealthy.

"The subsequent Book of Insights never provided any information related to the He family. If He Gang hadn't been my fellow disciple, I might have almost forgotten about this matter."

However, he knew only a limited amount about the He family, and didn't even know the name of the person in charge of the family.

Just as Lin Yun was lost in thought, Master Mo slowly said, "You have been here for a year now. As you can see, two of you knew that you had no talent for weapon crafting and asked me to leave long ago."

"If anyone still feels they cannot master the skills, they can tell me, so I won't waste my time here and I can save a few spirit stones."

Upon hearing this, the disciples below remained silent. Since they were still willing to stay, they must have some confidence.

"Very good, let me see the results of your studies over the past six months."

As he spoke, Master Mo waved his right hand in the air, and several prototype magical artifacts that had undergone spiritual tempering and character refinement appeared on the table.

They are: a small copper bell, a stone dagger, a white silk net, and a large iron shield.

"These magical artifacts were made from some scraps. Come up one by one and choose one to inscribe spiritual runes on."

There's even a mini-test!

"Master Mo, I'll go first!" Zhong Jie of the Zhong family exuded confidence as he stepped forward, picked up the large iron shield, and prepared to inscribe spirit patterns on it.

As for the others, they all watched attentively.

Only Lin Yun was a little restless. He subtly glanced at He Gang several times, thinking about how to get the name of the head of the He family from him.

Zhong Jie's technique was very skillful; he immediately began to inscribe earth-covering patterns on the large iron shield.

However, not long after, the spiritual patterns spreading from his fingertips dissipated and vanished.

I tried several times, and the result was the same.

Master Mo said calmly, "If a weapon refiner only follows the rules blindly, he won't go far. I think even if the Taiyuan Sect wants to recruit weapon refiners, it probably won't choose mediocre people."

Mediocre people!

Upon hearing this assessment, Zhong Jie's face showed embarrassment, something he simply could not accept.

"How could that be? Some time ago, I also forged a small iron shield myself, and the inscription on it was the Earth Covering Pattern, which is mainly for defense."

"I've clearly mastered the earth-covering pattern quite well..."

However, Master Mo did not give a clear answer, but calmly said, "Next."

Then, Chen Xianjun from the Chen family stepped forward and chose the stone dagger.

He chose to inscribe the sharp gold pattern, but the result was still a failure. The sharp gold pattern only spread a small inch on the tip of the dagger before it dissipated in an instant, and a large part of its spirituality was also lost.

Several people went up to try to inscribe the spirit runes, but all of them failed.

"Could it be that the basic Five Elements spiritual patterns that Master Mo taught us couldn't draw upon the spirituality within?" He Gang asked, completely bewildered after his failure.

Lin Yun had been watching for a while, and he shook his head, saying, "It shouldn't be. If the basic five elements spirit patterns are useless, then what's the point of this assessment?"

Not everyone can obtain other weapon-refining inheritances, and Master Mo only taught them the basic five elements spirit patterns.

The answer is definitely in there!

"You are learning weapon crafting, not alchemy. Don't get bogged down in superficial forms." Master Mo shook his head, then continued, "If you can't even pass my small test, how can you expect to participate in the Ascension Ceremony?"

These words caused many people's faces to turn pale and then red, clearly indicating that they had been severely shocked.

Next, Zhong Mo stood up, picked up the white silk net, and stroked it with her slender jade fingers for a while, without inscribing spirit patterns.

After a long while, her brows relaxed, and a look of understanding appeared in her eyes.

Immediately afterwards, Zhong Mo's fingertips brushed across the silk net, again and again, and before anyone knew it, a layer of light blue aura appeared and disappeared.

It is the soft water pattern taught by Master Mo!

However, her method of inscribing spirit patterns was unique, suggesting that she had studied other weapon-refining traditions and possessed a unique inscription technique.

After about half an incense stick's time, a pale blue spiritual light seeped into the silk net, and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth within the cave immediately stirred.

A low-grade magic weapon was thus forged.

"It's a success!"

"So this silk net is to be engraved with soft water patterns. I thought it was to be engraved with wood patterns to enhance its binding properties and make the threads more resilient, so that it could better bind the enemy."

"It's a soft water ripple... What's the principle behind that?"

Master Mo nodded approvingly: "Quite quick-witted, not bad, not bad."

"Thank you for your praise, Master Mo!" Zhong Mo politely clasped his hands in a fist salute and then stepped back.

After pondering for a moment, Lin Yun stepped forward, meeting everyone's gaze.

He picked up several prototype magical artifacts one by one, calmly sensing them for a long time, and even used his own spiritual power to explore the properties of the materials.

"really..."

Lin Yun muttered to himself that those who had failed earlier did not lack a deep understanding of spirit patterns, but rather misjudged the characteristics of spirit materials.

With Master Mo's superb skills in crafting weapons, it would be extremely easy for him to tamper with these materials.

"The spirituality within is very special, not what it appears on the surface."

"This fine iron shield contains a very deep fire elemental spirit. If it were inscribed with earth-covering patterns, it would actually suppress that fire elemental spirit."

"If you want to refine it into a magic weapon, you must activate the fire element within it."

The most direct way is to inscribe the Fiery Pattern, but Lin Yun has the Guiding Pattern. After thinking for a moment, he placed his hand on the refined iron shield.

A mysterious guiding pattern first emerged, then outlined a dim wood-like pattern, followed by a bright fire pattern.

Wood is used as a secondary element, while fire is the primary element, which implicitly conforms to the principle of wood generating fire in the Five Elements theory.

After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the spirit runes engraved by Lin Yun took shape and were firmly fixed on the fine iron shield.

boom!

The spiritual energy between heaven and earth stirred up again, lasting for a long time before gradually calming down.

A low-grade magic weapon has been successfully crafted!

Master Mo smiled and nodded in approval, saying, "Excellent!"

The crowd below gasped in amazement, their faces showing disbelief.

Zhong Mo also gave Lin Yun a strange look, staring at him intently for several moments.

Unexpectedly, this member of the Lin family also possesses exceptional talent in weapon crafting; he has kept it well hidden.

"Impressive," He Gang muttered to himself.

...