I Can Reap Qi Fortune from Players

Pingchang City.

Xinyi Academy.

In a private forging room, an old man sat cross-legged. Having completed the analysis report on this Demon Sword, he frowned slightly.

Indeed, it's Embers!

But how is this possible?

Jian Xin, a master swordsman, only saw through the first layer, revealing not a Demon King, but a person.

This elder, however, saw through to the next layer.

It's not a person, it's the embers of a person.

Yet, that woman appeared lively and unreliable, pretending to be a Demon King in her previous life.

However, this turns out to be an extremely worthless [Ash Artifact], yet it breaks historical conventions, possessing the potential to transcend into a Divine Weapon.

This left him feeling incredulous.

This technique was long abandoned by them, unapproved, and fraught with enormous flaws.

Suddenly, he received a transmission.

"Dean, there's a letter for you."

"Just leave it there," the old man murmured.

He was, without a doubt, the foremost Divine Craftsman of the Xinyi Continent, ranked seventh on the Xinyi Divine Artisan List.

Do not mistake being seventh as weak.

In reality, he was the foremost living person in Xinyi Continent; the top six were all ancient entities buried in graves.

Amongst which, how many past sages? How many ancient masters?

To be ranked among the great and wondrous figures of old, as a living person, attests to his prowess.

Today, this elder is renowned throughout the world, with countless disciples and apprentices.

He is also the honorary head of the Forging Institute of Xinyi Academy.

A blacksmith at the Royal Family's constant disposal.

The first in thirty thousand years of Xinyi Continent's history.

...

Numerous titles and honors, too many to count.

At his level, he has long innovated, standing at the pinnacle of his era, overlooking all else as small.

He has no path ahead because he himself represents the end of the path.

He could no longer seek learning from anyone; now he could only... forge a new path himself.

Engage in Tao discussions with past sages.

Pave the way for future generations.

This is the meaning of his life.

And now, this unknown and brand-new technique, neither transparent nor fathomable, aroused a strong curiosity within him.

He had no time for external letters, continually analyzing the combat footage, trying to fathom something out.

But the voice outside the door said, "But in the other party's letter, it seems to mention a mysterious Yin Yang Demon Sword."

The old man's cloudy eyes flashed with light, and he said in a deep voice, "Bring the letter here."

He opened the letter.

Inside was a piece of copper.

He understood that the copper was a record.

Whenever blacksmiths forge a weapon, they leave behind part of the crafting scrap to be made into a copper piece, proving their creation of that Magical Artifact.

Because every fusion, pattern, material, and proportion of a Magical Artifact will differ slightly.

Just like fingerprints, unique.

As long as the copper matches the Magical Artifact, it can prove the identity.

The old man held the copper, saying, "Take it to compare with the sword mark wear on those corpses."

Weapons incur wear during slashing.

Especially as the cultivators in this world, the body itself is an extremely formidable Magical Treasure.

He said no more, continuing to read the letter.

The handwriting was blocky, deliberately concealing identity to avoid revealing penmanship.

[Teacher, with your world-renowned reputation, you surely do not remember me as your student, nor did you teach me; I merely attended your lectures.]

[Most blacksmiths in the Xinyi Continent are your disciples or apprentices; you need not know who I am, for I have something to express.]

[Having signed a confidentiality agreement, I won't disclose the origin, internal information, or techniques of this weapon, yet I have something to say that can't be held back.]

[Outside of the contract, I will only share personal emotional content.]

[I do not seek to expose anything, only to express that this world should remember the story of such a group of people, that their sacrifices are not meaningless and should be remembered and renowned by history.]

[They might not care about fame, yet I regret for them, for their skills, charisma, and pure craftsmanship heart are truly astounding, deserving recognition on the Xinyi Divine Artisan List.]

[My role was merely an assisting blacksmith in forging a Divine Weapon, with insignificant skills, witnessing things in their forge that other blacksmiths could never imagine seeing.]

[This weapon is the culmination of generations of a family over millennia, creating a new path in human history.]

[I witnessed firsthand those enthusiastic blacksmiths in the forge, like moths to the flame, giving their lives to ignite the fiery furnace.]

[These moments of life's demise are buried in the torrent of time thousands of years in the future for this family, like the extinguished light of life in the night.]

[This heirloom weapon is both a weapon and the embers of this family burned away.]

[An expression of the romanticism buried in their blood and bones, erupting like magma into glorious flames, choosing to write a love letter to the art of forging with thousands of years filled with blood and tears.]

[Such means, such resolve, even the Holy Lands and great noble families of Nine-State, who could achieve this?]

[—We, have witnessed their story firsthand.]

[So, I hope the world can know their story.]

"Ash Artifact, is it?"

The old man's eyes clouded, gazing into the distance, "So, someone has ventured onto an unknown new path."

He couldn't trace the identity of the anonymous letter writer, who must have taken precautions against tracking.

But that weapon, if indeed an Ash Artifact, has indeed opened a new path.

"Continuing on... continuing on..." the old man murmured, as if feeling the blood and tears in the words, sensing many, many stories in the forging process of that weapon.

After all, forging with Embers is indeed worthy of deep contemplation.

Unexpectedly, besides himself, somewhere on the Xinyi Continent, another group of like-minded individuals is exploring forward, lifting the torch.

He suddenly took out the communication token and spoke to the other side:

"Adjust the Xinyi Divine Craftsman List."

A voice came from the other side: "Are you crazy? Why suddenly adjust this thing?"

The old man was silent for a moment: "The one hundredth on the Xinyi Divine Craftsman List, whose famous work is: Rice Disaster Yin Yang Sword."

"Last on the list, huh? The ranking of this weapon might be higher! Did that person come to find you, what's their name, identity, address?" The excited voice from the other side asked, "I want to get to know this master! Their technique might contain something very new!"

"I don't know them." The old man replied.

The other side paused: "That doesn't follow the rules. There's supposed to be a personal appearance..."

The old man looked at the distant, fiercely burning furnace, stood up, and gazed at the thousands of lights outside the window, as if standing at the peak of the continent, overlooking all beings.

He spoke to himself:

"That divine craftsman...shall be called Anonymous."

The rankings updated, and in an instant, the Xinyi Continent was swept by wind and clouds.

...

...

Sword Casting Manor.

In the courtyard of the village at the foot of the mountain.

The forging of that Demon Weapon took more than ten days, during which Ning Zheng also successfully accumulated ten thousand Qi Fortune Value, breaking through to the Four Viscera Realm.

He chose the liver as his first viscera.

Even though he felt that choosing any would be fine.

But those blacksmiths always said they were quite liver-driven, their whole body was liver, oddly making him choose the liver first.

The functions of the liver, spleen, lung, and kidney are distinct.

The liver governs dispersion, stores blood, generates blood, harmonizes qi mechanisms, detoxifies metabolites, and ensures the circulation of qi and blood.

After cultivating the liver organ, the body becomes to a certain extent immune to all poisons, with strong detoxification ability and rapid metabolism of toxins.

Of course, Ning Zheng's poison isn't in his body, but in his soul, so even cultivating this organ couldn't increase his resistance to his poison.

Nowadays, Ning Zheng isn't afraid of general toxins anymore.

"Hoo!"

He took a deep breath.

Found his realm elevation was indeed fast.

Even for the Four Viscera Realm, each small realm only required ten thousand Qi Fortune Value.

With this inference, the Ninth Grade of the Body, Five Elements Four Viscera, are almost the same, essentially breaking through the body, tempering spiritual qi, achieving extraordinary physical transformation.

These could all be rapidly completed with the good fortune of Qi Fortune Value.

But then the Three Elements Realm.

Cultivating Essence, Qi, and Spirit might be different.

After all, it belongs to the soul. If I'm lucky, does the intensity of my soul increase?

It should adhere to energy conservation principles.

This energy cannot come out of nowhere.

"In the Three Elements Realm, luck probably won't play a core role. Maybe I'd have to take medicine to boost Essence, Qi, and Spirit? In that case, I'll need to buy Pill Medicine! This would be a huge expense, otherwise it would just be grinding patiently?"

"That would be too exhausting."

Ning Zheng sighed, feeling that things would naturally work out.

At present, one realm requires ten thousand Qi Fortune Value, he actually considered whether to delay the realm breakthrough.

Should he first accumulate 100,000 Qi Fortune Value to upgrade his server?

Upgrading to 1,000 blacksmith spectators would make his daily Qi Fortune Value income soar from 1,500 to 3,000.

Theoretically, obtaining 4,000 Qi Fortune Value, but then he'd take a portion, like 1,000 Qi Fortune Value for daily personal fortune.

He felt this group of blacksmiths were too wild, hard to control, hence more daily Qi Fortune Value would be safer.

Time to save up.

With a daily 1,500 Qi Fortune Value, he'd be done in a little over two months.

Determined to break through the Four Viscera Realm, Ning Zheng decided not to enhance the small realms so swiftly.

Looking away from the realm, Ning Zheng instead found difficulty in dealing with those 3 million Magic Coins.

This is the real strength of the three great noble families of Pingchang City, the Zhang Family?

The few tens of thousands of Magic Coins he had before seemed absolutely trivial, wasn't this the true foundation of an established family?

Actually, if you think about it.

The previous Demon Cultivators likely accumulated similar amounts.

No need to count the money from selling Magic Copper Coarse Embryos, annually mining and minting could add up to over 200,000 Magic Coins annually, accumulating over a dozen years means over 3 million.

It's not difficult at all.

But they allocated most of the minting profits to the big shots.

Over a hundred years, these Demon Cultivators might have secretly contributed tens of millions of Magic Coins, that's terrifying!

Judging from this point, these Demon Cultivators definitely have stronger wealth than the three great noble families of Pingchang City, even overwhelming them.

No wonder the city treated them as a major hidden threat.

"Come to think of it, how much Magic Coins should I reward these blacksmiths?"

Ning Zheng pondered.

Giving them all 3 million Magic Coins is impossible.

But having it on himself seemed excessive and hard to spend?

After all, this is a capital reserve that a medium-sized family in the city couldn't even imagine.

Earning it really wasn't easy.

This time, it was a convergence of time, place, and people.

Trying to earn it again would be difficult, considering one of the three great families was already emptied.

To gather another 3 million would mean emptying the other two families.

But that's impractical.

Ning Zheng struggled with how much Magic Coins to reward the blacksmiths, giving too few would seem stingy, but giving too much might make them less motivated to work.

"I need to change the way I give money."