Chapter 78: Forging a Profound Weapon

Chapter 78: Chapter 78: Forging a Profound Weapon

The "Hour of the Chosen" brought about the clearest mind, the strongest memory, and the most powerful logical analysis. It felt as if he were guided by the gods, a true child of heaven! The moment it activated, Lu Yuan became a completely different person.

Everything Yan Qing had previously explained surfaced in his mind, rapidly digested and completely absorbed. As he flipped through the books, he could read ten lines at a glance, quickly memorizing and fully understanding everything. Among the dozen or so books, most were normal-sized—only a few dozen pages and tens of thousands of words. The content wasn’t that vast. It took Lu Yuan less than fifteen minutes to finish reading and digesting all of them.

The most crucial parts were the thirty-six types of runes, each with multiple variations, along with analyses of their various use cases. Then there was the thickest book—a divine tome recording over six thousand types of common and bizarre ores, over seven hundred pages and half a foot thick. Just skimming through it would take a massive amount of time. Naturally, Lu Yuan lacked that level of ambition. He only skimmed the first few dozen pages, memorizing several hundred common and frequently used ores.

Then, his time ran out.

Closing the books, Lu Yuan felt an aching soreness in his brain. The mental exhaustion was too severe. Currently, his Gang Qi couldn’t enter his brain for nourishment, so he could only rely on blood flow. It took quite a while before he fully recovered.

[The true essence of learning lies in practice. Since you have learned it, you must unleash its value.]

[Quest issued: Forge a Profound Weapon for your father. Completion reward: 1,000 EXP.]

"Forge a Profound Weapon!" Lu Yuan stood up and headed to the forging room.

He selected some ores and some ready-made metals, then started the fire. Among the books Yan Qing had brought was one concerning experiences with the Little Heavenly Gang Meteor Hammer Technique. Therefore, under the buff of the Hour of the Chosen, Lu Yuan’s Hammer Technique had unknowingly reached Great Success. Forging a Profound Weapon wouldn’t be a problem.

The fire roared to life, reaching a sufficient temperature. The metals were placed in a crucible and quickly melted. As for the ores, he first smashed them into powder, pouring a portion over the molten metals and burning the rest in another crucible. Soon, the liquid metal alloy was perfectly mixed and poured into a mold to take shape. Since Lu Yuan wanted to forge a combat blade, he used a blade mold. After its initial shaping, he clamped it onto the workbench and began striking it with a hammer.

CLANG CLANG CLANG...

A beautiful melody echoed out. It followed no fixed pattern, ringing out solely according to the metal’s needs and Lu Yuan’s own intentions.

In the courtyard.

"He only learned for a little over an hour, and he’s already forging by himself." Uncle Yuann was surprised and couldn’t help but shake his head. Young people were always so impatient. Then again, if they weren’t impatient, they wouldn’t really be young people. The first piece would definitely—most likely—be a failure. "Wait, the sound of that hammering..."

Uncle Yuann had heard it far too many times, so he was intimately familiar with the Little Heavenly Gang Meteor Hammer. He immediately discerned the approximate skill level behind the strikes. Just an hour ago, Lu Yuan’s hammering hadn’t sounded like this at all; it had been immature, only at the level of Minor Achievement. But now...

"Is this kid’s Talent really this monstrous?" Uncle Yuann muttered in disbelief.

In the blink of an eye, an hour passed.

CREAK.

The forging room door opened. Lu Yuan walked out with a bright smile on his face.

"Done forging? Come eat," Uncle Yuann called out. He had already cooked and eaten his own meal.

"I’ll pass, Uncle Yuann, I still have things to do," Lu Yuan said with a wave of his hand, quickly leaving with two blades in his grasp.

"Is this kid worried that my cooking tastes terrible?" Uncle Yuann’s eyebrows shot up. "Wait a minute, the kid was smiling from ear to ear. Did he actually succeed on his first Profound Weapon?"

...

[Congratulations to the host for completing the quest. Reward of 10 Root Bone points and 5,000 EXP has been distributed.]

[Congratulations to the host for completing the quest. Due to outstanding performance, the EXP reward is doubled. 2,000 EXP has been distributed.]

Lu Yuan looked at the system interface prompts, unable to stop himself from grinning.

With the addition of these 10 points, his Root Bone had reached 160 points, taking a massive step forward in the intermediate tier. It was absolutely no worse than Jianng Hongfei’s. 7,000 EXP in total...

Lu Yuan glanced at the interface and, without any hesitation, dumped it all into the Nine Glories of Archery.

[Congratulations to the host. Nine Glories of Archery has reached Perfection. Rewarded Talent: Eagle Eye.]

[Eagle Eye allows one to effortlessly see objects over a thousand paces away, and it will continuously strengthen as the host’s Cultivation improves. There is a certain probability of it evolving into the Martial Arts Celestial Eye.]

"Eagle Eye! Martial Arts Celestial Eye!" Lu Yuan felt the rapid changes within himself as his eyesight sharply improved. Before long, he could clearly see a tiny bug fluttering about on the street over a kilometer away. The Martial Arts Celestial Eye was a divine eye said to be capable of seeing through the laws of heaven and earth—even more heaven-defying!

[Host: Lu Yuan]

[Age: 40]

[Root Bone: Intermediate (160)]

[Cultivation: Eighth Grade (Blood Exchange)]

[Martial Arts: Little Heavenly Gang Meteor Hammer (Great Success 4653/10000), Cyan Gang Fist (Perfection), Wind-Breaking Nine Slashes (Perfection), Cloud-Brushing Hand (Perfection), Nine Glories of Archery (Perfection)]

[Talent: Undying Martial Body, Unyielding Will, Intermediate Blade Dao, Two-Handed Communication, Eagle Eye]

[EXP: 0]

Lu Yuan hurried back home.

"I’m back, is there any food left?"

BANG.

Wei Huiling dashed out of her room. "There is!" She immediately turned and ducked into the kitchen to heat up the food.

"Young Master, you’re back!" Yaoyao ran over on her little short legs. She had just been practicing her boxing. Now that she had a fist technique, she wouldn’t spend nearly as much time woodcarving.

"Open your mouth." Lu Yuan pulled out a Qi Nourishing Pill and a Nourishing Essence Pill, popping them right into her mouth.

"Young Master..." Yaoyao’s eyes misted over with tears. He was giving her precious pills to eat again... Which family’s master treated their servants like this?

"Train hard," Lu Yuan said, patting Yaoyao’s head before walking into his own room.

"Mhm." Yaoyao nodded vigorously. She then went back to continue practicing her punches. In just over a day, her fist technique had already improved significantly. Her punches were forceful, seemingly having grasped a tiny bit of its essence.

Lu Yuan set down some of his things, then carried two bottles of pills into the kitchen. "Mother, my mission this time yielded a massive harvest. Here are two bottles of pills for you to take."

"What do I need pills for? It’s a waste. Keep them for yourself," Wei Huiling said with a smile, glancing back over her shoulder.

"How could it be a waste? Your Cultivation is very important too. You have no idea how many pills I got this time," Lu Yuan said, grinning rather smugly.

"How many?" Wei Huiling was intrigued. If it was enough to make her son act this cocky, it must have been a lot.

"Many, many." Lu Yuan cleared his throat lightly. "Just to name one, I got over thirty Qi Nourishing Pills in total."

"How many? Over thirty?" Wei Huiling was dumbfounded. "That many? Did you go rob someone?"

A Qi Nourishing Pill cost fifty taels of silver each; thirty of them equated to a whopping 1,500 taels.

"What kind of nonsense are you saying? It was a mission! A mission! A mission to slay demons and eradicate devils!" Lu Yuan quickly corrected her. "You don’t know this, but I showed off incredible might with my Archery Skill this time. I shot and killed tons of demonic villains, which is why I got such a big share."

SWISH.

Wei Huiling suddenly reached out, patting Lu Yuan down all over his body. "Are you hurt?"

"No, not a single scratch!" Lu Yuan stepped back slightly to dodge her hands. "Didn’t I just say? I used a bow and arrow. I was staying in the back, over two hundred meters away."

"Were the ones you killed all Ninth-Grade Martial Artists?" Wei Huiling asked. Eighth-Grade Martial Artists weren’t that easy to kill.

"Eighth Grade," Lu Yuan answered with a smile.

"Bull." Wei Huiling didn’t buy a word of it. Eighth-Grade Martial Artists possessed True Gang to protect their bodies; piercing that with a bow and arrow would require a Five-Ton Bow or higher. On top of that, it would take a barrage of arrows and exceptionally superb Archery Skill just to shoot down a single one.

"Just treat it like I’m bragging, then."