Chapter 26: I Am Actually a Artificer

Two years after Qu Yi disappeared, he returned to Beast Village alone.
Xu Qiang, the village chief, and Tian Duo, who had followed Qu Yi into the mountains two years ago, still hadn’t returned. When the villagers saw Qu Yi back but the other two not, no one came to inquire.
The people of Beast Village were only concerned about two things: their planting tasks and cultivation.
The safety of Xu Qiang and Tian Duo didn’t draw much attention from the villagers. Especially after seeing Qu Yi kill Meng Hu with a single strike, no one dared to provoke him.
Thus, after returning to his wooden house, Qu Yi was not disturbed by any villagers, nor did they dare to use their spiritual senses to sense his whereabouts.
Previously, these villagers had dared to use their spiritual senses to sense Qu Yi because they didn’t know his strength. But now that they knew he possessed 80,000 Wood Spirit Entities within him, it meant his strength was far greater than theirs, so their attempts to sense him would surely be detected by him. Daring to sense him despite knowing they would be discovered would only anger him.
“It’s so pointless. I have to put on a show every time, and I can’t plant all 30,000 Divine Crystal Trees at once. Never mind, I’ll just plant 3,000 this time,” Qu Yi said helplessly as he sat on the wooden bed.
Although he already had over 60,000 Divine Crystal Trees inside the Realm Ball, Qu Yi couldn’t bring out all the trees belonging to himself, Wu Yuan, Qing Wu Gui, and Meng Hu at once. He could only plant 40,000 trees in batches.
However, he couldn’t plant hundreds of trees at a time either, as that would take too much time. So, this time, he planned to plant 1,000 more trees than before, deciding to plant 3,000 in total.
Soon after, Qu Yi left his wooden house and took out two swords, quickly digging 3,000 pits in the open space behind the house.
In no time, he used his storage ring to bring out fully mature Divine Crystal Trees and planted them in all 3,000 pits.
Now, Qu Yi had completed planting 5,000 Divine Crystal Trees.
Although Qu Yi carried out all this openly, the villagers of Beast Village were unaware of it. They didn’t dare to use their spiritual senses to monitor his activities, so they didn’t notice that he had planted another 3,000 trees.
Qu Yi quickly returned to his wooden house.
“I’ve finished planting the Divine Crystal Trees. Now, I’ll spend ten years refining artifacts properly,” Qu Yi said as soon as he entered his room.

Immediately, Qu Yi took out a cauldron—gray in color with raised patterns on its surface, having three legs and standing one meter tall—it settled steadily on the ground. This was a cauldron crafted by Qu Yi using the Xingluo Cauldron in the mountainous region. At his current level of strength, he couldn’t bring out a divine artifact of Xingluo Cauldron’s caliber, as that would cause a sensation in the divine realm. After all, the Xingluo Cauldron was once used by the God of Crafting; if Qu Yi were to use it, it would surely attract the attention of powerful figures in the divine realm. Even with his Unbounded Stars, he wouldn’t be able to escape their capture.

The cauldron Qu Yi had crafted was called the Sanfang Cauldron, only at the Divine Human stage, and could only be used to forge divine artifacts of that same stage. Since Qu Yi was currently at the Divine Human level, he could only create divine artifacts of that stage, so the Sanfang Cauldron was sufficient for his current needs.

To forge a divine artifact, four conditions were required: a cauldron, divine fire, materials, and a formation. Qu Yi had the Sanfang Cauldron, the Black Tidal Divine Fire generated by his chaotic energy, which was among the strongest among Divine Human cultivators. His familiarity with crafting materials also ranked among the top, not to mention his mastery of formations—having been personally taught by the God of Crafting—and his prior grasp of the Five Elements principles, which had already enabled him to achieve some success in forming techniques.

Taking a deep breath, Qu Yi remained calm, smiling faintly as he looked at the Sanfang Cauldron. “Ignite the fire!” With a short command, he channeled chaotic energy into the cauldron, and instantly, a completely black flame rose within—it was the Black Tidal Divine Fire possessed by Divine Human cultivators.

Though black in color, the flame emitted a rhythmical, wave-like flow, akin to tides. The Sanfang Cauldron was filled entirely with the Black Tidal Divine Fire. Once the fire appeared, Qu Yi quickly ordered, “Insert the materials and form the artifact core.” Suddenly, various materials flew out of his space ring—morning-colored stones, seepstone mud, golden horns, and more—entering the Sanfang Cauldron and being rapidly melted by the Black Tidal Divine Fire. At the same time, Qu Yi’s consciousness controlled the fire within the cauldron, adjusting its intensity in different areas to swiftly melt the materials.

While other cultivators added materials one by one when crafting, Qu Yi was different. After all, when using the Xingluo Cauldron, he could control hundreds of thousands of parallel spaces, making his control over the flame extremely proficient and powerful.

Thus, Qu Yi’s technique of adding all the crafting materials into the cauldron at once is truly unique among the divine realm’s blacksmiths. The duration of the crafting process is mainly determined by two factors: heating the materials and forming the array. In terms of heating the materials, Qu Yi is undoubtedly the fastest in the divine realm. Another advantage of controlling the crafting materials simultaneously is the ability to monitor their uniformity at any time, allowing one to decide when to combine them to form a core. Only when the materials are perfectly combined can they better absorb the array energy. This is yet another advantage for Qu Yi. Indeed, it took only ten days for him to completely melt all the materials in the cauldron and distribute them evenly throughout its space, ready to form a core. “The core is formed!” Qu Yi shouted loudly. Immediately, the Black Tide Divine Fire began to fade steadily, and the materials in the cauldron slowly combined. Under Qu Yi’s control via chaotic energy, these combined materials took on the shape of the weapon he intended to craft. In just one hour, a gray-colored short sword core was formed. Inside the triangular cauldron, the Black Tide Divine Fire had already gone out, and before the core could settle at the bottom, it flew out and landed on a square platform Qu Yi had prepared. The moment the core was formed, the array formation began. “Wood element law, Swift Flight Array, activate!” Qu Yi quickly uttered these words, enveloping the short sword core with chaotic energy. This energy followed the patterns of the Swift Flight Array and was injected into the core. As soon as the core absorbed this chaotic energy, it turned colorful, and the entire sword seemed to come to life, filled with vitality. Qu Yi’s array formation technique was completed in an instant—completely unlike other blacksmiths in the divine realm, who needed decades, centuries, or even thousands of years. This is the uniqueness of chaotic energy. When other blacksmiths form arrays, they must steadily emit divine essence to mimic the array patterns, and not a single detail may be missing, which takes a great deal of time. In contrast, chaotic energy, being superior to the elemental primordial energies, allows Qu Yi’s chaotic energy to instantly respond to the array patterns in his mind without any loss. Therefore, Qu Yi’s array formation time is by far the fastest among all blacksmiths in the divine realm.

In terms of refining materials and forming arrays—two factors that determine the duration of artifact creation—Qu Yi was the fastest. Thus, it’s certain that Qu Yi is the fastest artisan in the Divine Realm. Moreover, since Qu Yi forms arrays as soon as the artifact core is created, it’s also certain that the quality of the divine artifacts he produces is the best. Of course, this is only in comparison to other artisans at the same level of cultivation; after all, Qu Yi is not yet capable of creating divine artifacts at the Divine Weapon level or above. What’s most astonishing is that Qu Yi doesn’t even need to temper his artifacts after refining them, thanks to the uniqueness of chaotic energy. At this point, Qu Yi simply picked up the short sword and began admiring it. “This Xunfei Sword looks really beautiful. Let me test its effectiveness,” Qu Yi said happily while holding the sword. With a push from chaotic energy, the Xunfei Sword flew like a buzzing bee, leaping straight toward the wooden door and breaking through it silently without making a sound, flying out of the room. “It can pass through objects silently. Among divine artifacts at the Divine Human level, this Xunfei Sword is definitely a top-quality artifact,” Qu Yi exclaimed in surprise, then smiled joyfully. With a perfect artifact core, a perfect array, and the infusion of chaotic energy, it would be hard for this Xunfei Sword not to be of high quality. Qu Yi stepped out of the room, took the Xunfei Sword in his hand, and admired it happily once more. Just then, a villager from the Hundred Beasts Village approached Qu Yi’s wooden house, seemingly coming specifically to look for him. This villager was a handsome man with sharp eyebrows and big eyes, exuding an extraordinary aura and a natural sense of generosity as he walked. He had just witnessed the Xunfei Sword flying out of the house. “Qu Yi, my name is Sun Bufan. I heard you’ve returned to the village recently, so I came here specifically to make friends with you,” the man said, quickly suppressing his surprise. Naturally, as soon as Sun Bufan saw the Xunfei Sword, he knew it was a divine artifact, which surprised him greatly. In the Hundred Beasts Village, no villager yet owned their own divine artifact—only after becoming a true member of the Divine Realm could one accumulate wealth and purchase them from the artifact shops in the towns. Seeing that Qu Yi already possessed a divine artifact, Sun Bufan was naturally astonished. Qu Yi glanced at Sun Bufan, then generously extended his right hand with a smile, saying, “Sure, I really like you.”

From the previous conversation and Qu Yi’s secret observations, he already knew that Sun Bufan was a straightforward person who spoke plainly and got straight to the point, without any circumlocution. It wouldn’t hurt to get to know him.

Qu Yi wasn’t afraid of trouble but did dislike complications, especially those with ulterior motives.

Saying “I really like you” was already Qu Yi’s highest form of approval for Sun Bufan.

Sun Bufan hadn’t expected Qu Yi to be so friendly. He had spent many days struggling with doubts about whether approaching Qu Yi would result in rejection. It seemed now that Qu Yi was an easy person to get along with.

“Qu Yi, I just saw this sword fly out of your wooden door without making a sound. It must be a divine artifact,” Sun Bufan blurted out his guess.

Unaccustomed to Sun Bufan’s directness, Qu Yi smiled helplessly and replied, “Yes, it’s a divine artifact I just created. How does it look? Pretty, right?”

With that, Qu Yi threw Xunfei Sword to Sun Bufan.

Sun Bufan took the sword and nodded immediately, his eyes shining as he said, “It’s beautiful—not just beautiful. In my opinion, its quality is among the top among divine artifacts at the Divine Human stage. Oh… What did you say just now? That you created this short sword?”

A divine artifact? Created by himself?

Sun Bufan was momentarily stunned. Qu Yi had only ascended to the divine realm twenty years ago—where would he have found time to learn array techniques or the materials needed to craft artifacts? And more importantly, could an artifact really be created in just over ten days?

Qu Yi nodded.

“Qu Yi, you’re truly amazing! How could you return to Bai Shou Village and create a divine artifact in just over ten days?” Sun Bufan exclaimed in astonishment.

At that moment, Sun Bufan still couldn’t believe it.

“Actually, I’m an artifact craftsman. My talent for crafting has always been excellent since I was in the lower world,” Qu Yi replied with a smile.