Cultivating immortality begins with discerning the secrets of heaven.

Faced with the three choices Lin Jinnan offered, Lin Yun pondered for a moment before asking:

"If I regain my status as part of the main branch, could I also remove my father from the branch branch?"

Although the old man was a bit disappointing, he was still his father in this life, and he couldn't bear to see his father spending his days cultivating spirit fields on the outskirts.

However, Lin Jinnan shook his head and said, "Your father's mistakes were too great, and you were only implicated. Therefore, this merit can only be given to you to return to the main branch."

Upon hearing this, Lin Yun sighed inwardly and ultimately chose to inherit the legacy.

"Then I'll choose a weapon-refining inheritance, preferably one with a lot of fire-based spirit patterns."

The reason he didn't choose to regain his status as the main branch was because his family would soon obtain the mining rights to the Purple Pattern Copper Mine, at which point he would have plenty of opportunities to accumulate merit.

Moreover, as long as he can improve his weapon crafting skills, he will have a greater chance of passing the Ascension Conference three years later.

At that time, he will be able to join the Taiyuan Sect and become a weapon-refining disciple of Hundred Refinement Peak.

This identity is far more desirable than any family main branch identity.

"Good lad, you have ambition."

"Your grandfather had previously asked me to give you one of the family's recommendation slots, but now it seems that your grandfather had gone to all that trouble."

Lin Jinnan exclaimed in admiration. He naturally understood that Lin Yun had made this choice because he wanted to enter the Taiyuan Sect on his own merit.

"The weapon-refining inheritance you requested may have to wait for a while. The family will need to search Zhongling Market for some time."

In fact, the Lin family did have a tradition of weapon crafting, but it was severely incomplete, especially the part recording the spirit patterns was seriously missing.

Therefore, the Lin family has never trained a weapon refiner over the years.

However, if a family wants to truly begin to grow stronger, it must develop in a more comprehensive direction, ideally including alchemy, artifacts, arrays, and talismans.

  

"Thank you, Elder Jinnan!" Lin Yun let out a long sigh, bowed, and clasped his hands in thanks.

"Alright, I won't disturb you two any longer." Lin Jinnan walked out of the cave, leaning on a bamboo cane.

Lin Yun and his grandson saw them off for a long time before finally stopping.

"Sigh, Yun'er, don't worry so much about your good-for-nothing father."

"Putting him on the outskirts to help the family cultivate spiritual fields is a good way to temper his character."

Lin Jing shook his head and sighed repeatedly, his eyes filled with disappointment and frustration.

However, Lin Yun chuckled and said, "Don't worry, Grandpa, I know what I'm doing."

Lin Yun then stayed at Huangzhu Mountain for several more days before returning to Huoyun Valley at the appointed time.

Lin Yang of Zhongmai set off before him, and the two did not travel together.

Fortunately, the journey was relatively peaceful, without any major setbacks, and Lin Yun returned to Fire Cloud Valley smoothly.

Seven days later, in Master Mo's cave, a group of registered disciples listened attentively to Master Mo's lecture.

"The combination of spirit patterns is not static. It is necessary to consider not only the principles of mutual generation and restraint of the five elements, but also the characteristics of the spirit materials."

"In addition, there are some spirit patterns with different attributes, such as wind, thunder, and ice. Although they are not among the five elements, they also have unique spirit pattern combinations."

"..."

In this lesson, Master Mo did not set any further tests for them, but instead shared some of his experience and insights in weapon crafting.

Although no new material was taught, Lin Yun still studied with great eagerness, not wanting to miss a single piece of knowledge.

And just like that, several months passed in the blink of an eye.

Lin Yun has slowed down his cultivation of magical power during this period and devoted more of his attention to the art of weapon crafting.

He spent most of the day in the courtyard constantly refining magical artifacts and studying the artifact refining manual that Lin Hongye had given him.

He had almost thoroughly learned the contents of that weapon-refining manual and mastered two more spirit runes.

These are respectively the Fire Gathering Pattern and the Stone Armor Pattern.

The former is also a fire-attribute spirit rune, which can accumulate fire energy and enhance the explosive power of magical artifacts.

The latter is a variant of the Earth Dao Spirit Rune, which can make defensive magic artifacts more robust.

Soon, his family sent over his reward.

A complete weapon crafting manual! It also includes a crafting diagram for magical artifacts!

"So fast, the family is really efficient."

Lin Yun was overjoyed. He quickly glanced through the records of the weapon-refining inheritance and found that there were more than ten kinds of weapon-refining spirit patterns recorded in them!

What surprised him most was that the contents also involved mid-grade magic artifacts. If he could thoroughly understand them, he would be able to try to refine mid-grade magic artifacts.

"Trapped Beast Network..."

This is a standardized magical artifact that can be mass-produced. As long as you follow the crafting diagrams, the success rate will be extremely high.

This weapon-refining manual details the entire process of creating the Beast-Trapping Net, from material selection and tempering to inscribing spirit patterns. It's all very detailed and easy to understand, almost like a hands-on tutorial.

"This is a good thing. According to the description, once this net is activated, it can even temporarily trap a mid-stage first-tier demon beast."

"It's only slightly insufficient for dealing with cultivators in the mid-stage of Qi Refining."

However, it is still a low-grade magic weapon, and its materials are very simple, and it is not difficult to make.

"The Fire Cloud Valley trade fair is coming soon, I can refine some Beast Trapping Nets to sell."

With this in mind, Lin Yun quickly began to gather the materials needed to refine the Beast Trapped Net.

The main material is insect silk, whether it is spider silk or silkworm silk, but it must be the silk spun by a spirit insect.

There are two auxiliary materials: kapok sand and spirit wood sap.

Seven days passed in the blink of an eye, and Lin Yun traded three sets of auxiliary materials with other cultivators living in Fire Cloud Valley.

However, not a single spider silk or silkworm silk was seen.

These are materials made from spirit insects, so they are naturally not as common as other materials.

Fortunately, Chen Guan had just returned to Fire Cloud Valley. He had been missing for some time, even skipping Master Mo's lectures.

"What does Brother Lin Yun need the spirit insect silk for?" Chen Guan asked curiously.

Lin Yun truthfully replied, "I'm short of spirit stones lately, so I plan to refine some magic artifacts and sell them at the Fire Cloud Valley Trade Fair."

Upon hearing this, Chen Guan looked enlightened and chuckled, "I do have what you're looking for. I found a few green-eyed silkworms that had spun cocoons back in the Northern Region."

"The spirit silkworms are gone, but I've kept those few cocoons until now."

As he spoke, Chen Guan took out three pale green silkworm cocoons, with silk threads on them resembling jade threads.

"Three silkworm cocoons, and I'll charge you for forty-five spirit stones. Is that fair?"

It is indeed the fairest of all. Silk threads from a cocoon are the most resilient and can even be used to make inner armor.

A silkworm cocoon costs fifteen spirit stones, which isn't really expensive.

However, Lin Yun was short of spirit stones. After buying all the auxiliary materials, he only had thirty spirit stones left.

Having no other choice, he had to use the remaining spirit rice he had to pay the debt.

"Hehe, then it's a deal. I wish Brother Lin Yun a successful weapon forging."

"Thank you for your kind words, Brother Chen!"

Lin Yun clasped his hands in a fist salute and left Chen Guan's courtyard.

"Sure enough, you can't go wrong by asking him for anything. After all, he was once a Core Formation cultivator who controlled a city of rogue cultivators..."

He muttered something to himself and quickly returned to his courtyard to begin trying to refine the Beast Trapping Net.

...