WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
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◈ Carefree Tale of Cultivation ◈
Chapter 29: Easier Than Expected
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The cauldron set atop the conical vent surrounding the earthfire installed in the floor, much like a gas stove from his past life, looked nearly like a mid-grade magical artifact itself.
It had no particularly flashy decorations, but the dragon pattern circling the entire cauldron and the four thick supports beneath it carried a weighty majesty.
A stone table beside it held a perfectly sized lid adorned with a fish ornament.
It looked enormously heavy even at a glance, but moving it with the Object-Controlling Art should not be a problem.
“Was it made to maximize heat resistance and durability while distributing heat and spiritual power evenly?”
Jin Hyeon walked around the cauldron, examining it.
He had never refined an artifact himself, but he had watched Ha Seung and Myeong Seokho work from nearby often enough to roughly understand the basic structure of magical artifacts.
He also noticed that he could barely feel any heat.
After inspecting the earthfire vent beneath it for a moment, he protected his hand with spiritual power and touched the cauldron.
It was not hot at all. Rather, it felt like ordinary cast iron, with a hint of chill.
“I never realized it because Martial Uncle Ha’s cave dwelling is always hot, but you can control the earthfire’s output too.”
Jin Hyeon looked at the two iron rods installed in the floor beside the cauldron.
According to the explanation written on their surfaces, they controlled the strength of the earthfire and whether it erupted at all.
Jin Hyeon tried operating them.
Fwoosh.
When he pulled one of the rods, earthfire began to leak from the vent in the floor.
The vivid red flames, thick enough to pass for lava, slowly rolled and began heating the cauldron.
Soon, the stone chamber filled with familiar heat.
An ordinary person would have been unable to endure it, sweating and collapsing to the floor, but as a cultivator, Jin Hyeon blocked the heat by covering his skin with spiritual qi.
“It may not compare to Martial Uncle Ha’s earthfire, but it should be enough to refine even high-grade magical artifacts.”
Leaving the flames blazing, Jin Hyeon drew over the storage pouch beside him.
Then he took out a very thin booklet.
It was not some remarkable cultivation method, but a simple manual explaining how to make magical artifacts, fitting its slim size.
What he intended to make this time was an extremely simple, basic magical artifact.
Jin Hyeon planned to make something below low grade, an artifact of a level lower than the Scorching Sun Sword the sect distributed to everyone, barely worthy of being called a magical artifact.
Artifact refinement was originally a time-consuming process.
Even a genius like Ha Seung, who had devoted nearly his entire life to artifact refinement and reached late Foundation Establishment before turning one hundred, needed nearly a month to make a single high-grade magical artifact.
His usual refinement work only took a short time when he finished or reinforced something he had refined in advance. If he were to make something properly from scratch, it would take no small amount of time.
That was why Jin Hyeon had rented the stone chamber for only two weeks, a brief period in which he could expect some result, success or failure, from making a low-grade magical artifact.
He was only practicing to refresh his mood anyway, so that would be enough.
He had no interest in the spring or snacks prepared in one corner of the chamber, and he had no use for the supplied tools. Jin Hyeon immediately began making the artifact.
Once the bottom of the cauldron began glowing red, he took a pure white bone from his storage pouch.
The bone was as long as his torso, and its thickness far exceeded that of his arm.
It was one of the many demon beast materials he had received from Seol Ga-yeong, selected and set aside. It was the leg bone of an enormous lizard demon beast.
It had not been a particularly powerful demon beast, but its bone was impressively hard, so he had decided to use it as material.
The artifact manual said that as long as the main material exceeded a certain standard of durability and contained enough spiritual qi, the final product should not have any problems.
After placing the leg bone in the cauldron, Jin Hyeon took a small box from his storage pouch and tossed in several ores stored inside.
“Let’s see... Hyeonwol Stone, Toseom Stone, and...”
Flipping through the booklet beside him, Jin Hyeon added the materials one by one. After putting in the first batch, he moved the lid into place and closed it.
All that remained was to refine the materials within the cauldron using spiritual power and shape the artifact.
Sitting cross-legged opposite the cauldron, Jin Hyeon felt his spiritual perception push through its heat and cautiously wrap around the materials.
Then five days passed.
* * *
“Hmm...”
Jin Hyeon was still seated in the Azure Forge Pavilion’s stone chamber.
However, the cauldron heated by earthfire was cooling, and the spring in one corner of the cave dwelling had sensed that the earthfire was being suppressed. It released cold air, driving away the heat.
Jin Hyeon sat before the open cauldron, examining the pure white dagger in his hand.
It was slightly longer than his palm and appeared easy to grip and wield.
Its hilt had the characteristic gleam of metal, while its blade looked carved from bone and curved slightly.
It did not give off particularly powerful spiritual qi, but when infused with spiritual qi and swung, it was a weapon that could cut through steel with ease.
It was the completed magical artifact Jin Hyeon had intended to make, the Short Curved Sword.
Yet Jin Hyeon merely stared at it while holding it.
It was not because he wondered why it was so small compared to the materials.
After all, apart from the necessary elements for making the magical artifact, the many materials he had added, including the leg bone, had been impurities burned away by the heat of the earthfire.
It was simply far easier than he had expected.
“No matter how I look at it, there are no flaws. I checked while making it, so there was no problem with the process either, and it accepts spiritual qi smoothly...”
Jin Hyeon poured spiritual power into the Short Curved Sword in his hand and lightly slashed at the stone table beside him.
The dagger sank directly into the stone, leaving a deep mark.
Jin Hyeon had expected the work to consume the full two weeks or produce something close to a failure, considering his nearly nonexistent artifact-refinement skills. This result left him bewildered.
He had felt the process advancing smoothly without any difficulty, but the finished product looked better even at a glance than the mass-produced artifacts sold at Hundred Treasures Pavilion. Moreover, after emerging from his focused state and checking, he found that it had been completed in only five days.
“It didn’t feel like the black stone embedded in my soul reacted...”
Then this result was not thanks to his “fortuitous encounter.”
Had he simply been lucky?
The sensibilities of a modern person, buried within Jin Hyeon, cried out for him to immediately ask everyone around him, “I succeeded in making a magical artifact on my first try at artifact refinement and even cut the time down. Is that a good thing?”
Shaking off the silly thought, Jin Hyeon calmly settled his mind.
Whether it was luck or talent would become clear if he tried once more.
“There are nine days left... If I go over, I can just pay additional spirit stones. Let’s make one more.”
Jin Hyeon rummaged through his storage pouch.
He had acquired books from many fields during his visit to Jade Cloud Tower. Among them were several booklets recording simple methods for making magical artifacts, including the manual for the Short Curved Sword he had just made.
Myeong Seokho had also given him a few, so Jin Hyeon was soon able to decide what artifact to make.
The Cold Hawk Disc, a low-grade magical artifact.
Like the Scorching Sun Sword, it was a magical artifact with a special property, capable of attacking opponents with frigid cold.
He happened to possess the materials needed to make it, and its difficulty was relatively low, so Jin Hyeon chose it.
Ordinarily, making it would take more than a month with his ability, but based on his recent success, Jin Hyeon decided to attempt it with a strange confidence.
He activated the earthfire again and prepared the materials.
The main material was Azure Mercury, a mineral formed underground through contact with water-aspected spiritual qi.
Jin Hyeon took out an ore the size of two fists that gleamed silver and placed it in the heated cauldron.
Beneath the lid he immediately closed, Jin Hyeon sensed the Azure Mercury soften under the earthfire’s heat and the spiritual qi he poured into it.
Refining the Azure Mercury alone took three days.
Carefully ensuring that he did not destabilize it, Jin Hyeon opened the lid with the Object-Controlling Art while increasing the pressure of his spiritual power on the Azure Mercury. Then he added the secondary materials.
Unlike pill refining, where one mishandled instant could ruin everything, artifact refinement allowed materials to be reused to some extent even after failure. Still, Jin Hyeon did not wish to experience such failure, so he devoted himself fully to every step.
As the number of materials that needed to be handled with the weak spiritual perception of a Qi Refining stage cultivator increased, so did the difficulty and pressure.
Yet Jin Hyeon did not find it particularly difficult.
Naturally, the fatigue from dividing his spiritual perception increased, but though he felt strained, he did not think it was hard.
Part of that was likely due to his superior spiritual perception and mental strength, presumably from the stone fragment embedded in his soul.
Even so, the process simply did not feel all that difficult to him.
In his past life, he had once heard chefs on television say that grilling meat was not a matter of skill but of talent. Jin Hyeon felt that his current artifact-refinement process was similar.
Even with techniques built through endless practice, one needed excellence in the realm of instinct to achieve a better result.
Maintaining intense concentration, Jin Hyeon slowly refined the materials and merged them into one over more than a week.
* * *
“Hmm... He really is taking longer.”
Do Do-ryeo checked that Jin Hyeon had been using the refining chamber for over two weeks and muttered as if he had expected it.
An ordinary Qi Refining stage disciple would need at least a month just to make a low-grade magical artifact.
He had heard roughly when Jin Hyeon had entered the sect, so he knew his progress was extremely fast.
But even a genius who cultivated quickly would have difficulty standing out in the cultivation arts at the same time.
Such talent belonged to geniuses like Ha Seung, who was still valued by the sect even after losing his sect elder master, or the biological grandchild of a sect elder...
“Martial Uncle Do.”
Do Do-ryeo came to his senses at the soft voice from in front of him.
After seeing who stood before the reception desk, he welcomed her with an overly broad smile.
“Ahahaha, Martial Nephew Jegal! It has been months since I last saw you.”
She was a girl of modest height who looked no older than twenty.
Yet her beautiful face and the splendid crimson robes embroidered with gold gave her an aloof air that made others hesitate to treat her carelessly.
She was at Qi Refining, Level 11, outstanding even among late Qi Refining disciples.
However, Do Do-ryeo had reasons beyond her talent for welcoming her.
“Is the Elder doing well? I recently acquired some precious spirit wine, so before long, I ought to pay a visit and offer my greetings...”
“Grandfather is always in good health. I will convey Martial Uncle’s greetings.”
The person who replied with an expressionless face and flat tone was Jegal Yeong, granddaughter of Jegal Gwon, the Blue Willow Sect elder with the highest cultivation, known as the Jade Cloud True Person.
Being the granddaughter of the sect’s second most powerful figure already gave her immense standing. Yet she had also possessed outstanding aptitude since childhood, rapidly raising her cultivation while achieving exceptional results in artifact refinement.
Do Do-ryeo had known her ever since she began visiting Azure Forge Pavilion. As always, he was desperate to gain even a word of guidance or a handful of cultivation resources from the Jade Cloud True Person through her.
“I came to use an A-class refining chamber. I will use it for around three months.”
“Ah, of course. Just a moment...”
Do Do-ryeo took out a green, glasses-shaped magical artifact from his robes, placed it over his eyes, and checked for a moment. Then his words trailed off at the unexpected situation.
All the A-class refining chambers were currently occupied.
Apart from the one Jin Hyeon was using, all were in long-term use by cultivators of his senior brothers’ generation who had reached Foundation Establishment.
Breaking into a slight cold sweat, Do Do-ryeo started to speak awkwardly.
“Er, ahem... All the A-class rooms are in use right now. But one of them may finish soon. I’ll go check.”
Do Do-ryeo assumed that Jin Hyeon had failed at artifact refinement around this point and was probably struggling desperately with the remaining scraps.
Jin Hyeon had only been allowed to use the chamber because of a little preferential treatment anyway. If Do Do-ryeo soothed him by offering to reduce the price for his extra time, he would surely be content to give it up.
“Is that so? Ah, a Qi Refining stage disciple is using one. I have not heard of any Senior Brother recently showing enough achievement in artifact refinement to use an A-class chamber. If it would not be an imposition, may I accompany you and greet them?”
However, as Do Do-ryeo was about to head for Jin Hyeon’s stone chamber, Jegal Yeong picked up Do Do-ryeo's magical artifact and checked the chamber rental status. Her words stopped him.
After considering the matter with the quick mind of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, Do Do-ryeo decided that even if Jegal Yeong learned he had given Jin Hyeon special treatment, she would not tell anyone because of her personality.
As long as he had not harmed the interests of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, nobody would have much reason to criticize him even if it became known.
Thus, Do Do-ryeo led Jegal Yeong underground, ignoring the disciple in the A-class corridor who was startled by their arrival.
Before long, the two reached the passage leading to the A-class refining chambers.
“Hahaha! It’s finished! With talent like this...”
There, they came face-to-face with Jin Hyeon, who had just opened the stone chamber door and roared joyfully.
Their eyes met, and amid the awkward atmosphere, Jin Hyeon closed his mouth.
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