Chapter 60: Visiting the Artifact Forging Workshop

“Liúqíng, take these disciples back to Tongzhōu Hall. I’ll be using the spatial teleportation array,” said Huǒ Zūn from Nánxiùfēng, seeing a hundred thousand disciples fly into the starship.
Liúqíng, who had been smiling just moments ago, staggered slightly and stared at Huǒ Zūn in confusion.
“Huǒ Zūn, are you asking me to fly back to Tongzhōu Hall alone with all these people?” she asked to confirm.
“That’s right. It takes three months to fly from the Youmíng Continent to the Huǒluán Continent. You can use that time to register these disciples’ identity cards,” Huǒ Zūn replied with a smile.
Liúqíng’s expression turned grim, but she had no choice but to accept it.
Uninterested in observing her reaction, Huǒ Zūn immediately took out his own starship and flew toward the Zhìnán Mountains.
With no other option, Liúqíng gritted her teeth and flew into one of the leading starships in the air, shouting, “Everyone, follow me to Tongzhōu Hall!”
Boom!
A hundred starships created silver waves in the sky, disappearing swiftly under the envious gazes of millions of Soul Immortals.
Huǒ Zūn used the spatial teleportation array to return to his own cultivation cave as soon as possible to focus on his training.
Meanwhile, Jīn Zūn, Mù Zūn, Shuǐ Zūn, and Tǔ Zūn had been in their own cultivation caves, constantly absorbing the special spiritual energy emitted by their Spirit Bloodlines to understand the principles of cultivation, making rapid progress.
Huǒ Zūn didn’t want to fall behind. He also felt that within ten years, he would be able to reach the rank of Mid-Level Soul Immortal.
After leaving the spatial teleportation array hall of Tongzhōu Hall, Huǒ Zūn didn’t bother greeting anyone else and went straight back to his cultivation cave.
※※※
Under the arrangements of Hall Master Yúnzhōuzi and Executive Huáhǎi, Tongzhōu Hall’s ambitious artifact forging plan began in full swing.
Since it was an artifact forging task at the level of a One-Star Soul Immortal, and all of Tongzhōu Hall’s disciples were above that level—most being Four-Star Soul Immortals or higher—they were all capable of forging Immortal Artifacts on their own.
However, if each person worked alone, it would be impossible for Tongzhōu Hall to complete 270,000 Immortal Artifacts in a day. The process of setting up the formation alone took a whole day, so with its current population of 30,000, they could at most forge 30,000 artifacts per day.
Thus, Tongzhōu Hall’s most powerful artifact forging method—the Pre-Set Formation Technique—began to show its effectiveness.

After reviewing all the task requirements, Yun Zhouzi immediately assigned the corresponding disciples to gather together and began teaching them the formation techniques collectively. Once the yuan copper ore arrived, these disciples could immediately start preparing the formations by engraving them in advance. The large-scale artifact manufacturing plan officially commenced.

Hua Hai found Chang Cheng, an official from the Shang Luo Academy, and the two went to the academy to order yuan copper ore and various other materials needed for artifact manufacturing. Since there were an endless supply of materials of the one-star Human Soul Immortal level in the Di You Star Cluster, it was easy for them to get a response when they ordered these materials at the Shang Luo Academy, and the materials were delivered to Tong Zhou Hall quite quickly.

In just ten days, the Shang Luo Academy delivered the first batch of materials to Tong Zhou Hall. Luo Ning, Lan Fei, Hua Hai, Chi Yu, and Chang Cheng were all in Tong Zhou Hall. They were very curious as to how Tong Zhou Hall could be so confident in being able to produce 100 million artifacts of the one-star Human Soul Immortal level within a year. Therefore, the five of them went to see Yun Zhouzi.

“Hall Master, the Shang Luo Academy has already delivered the materials, but over these past ten days, we haven’t seen any signs of the disciples starting to manufacture artifacts. Haven’t you finished preparing yet?” Hua Hai asked anxiously.

When the materials arrived at Tong Zhou Hall, the five officials thought that the hall would immediately get busy with intense activity. However, the reality was completely unexpected—the majority of the disciples in Tong Zhou Hall were still in their own training rooms, showing no signs of starting work on artifacts. This worried the five officials greatly.

If Tong Zhou Hall failed to develop properly, their own interests would also be at risk.

Yun Zhouzi looked at the five of them calmly and smiled, saying, “My dear officials, there’s no need to rush. We will definitely let you know that Tong Zhou Hall will complete the artifact manufacturing task on time. Hehe, and we might even finish ahead of schedule.”

Luo Ning, Lan Fei, Hua Hai, Chi Yu, and Chang Cheng were even more astonished. What secret did Yun Zhouzi have that gave him such confidence?

At that moment, Hua Hai’s expression changed, and he immediately took out a communication card.

“Haha, Hall Master! So your secret is to have Liu Qing recruit 100,000 new disciples, aiming to win through sheer numbers!” After scanning the communication card with his spiritual sense, Hua Hai exclaimed happily, as if he had suddenly understood.

The message had been sent by Liu Qing on her way back. Luo Ning, Lan Fei, Chi Yu, and Chang Cheng all responded with an “oh,” seemingly having understood as well.

Upon hearing this, Yun Zhouzi was stunned for a moment, which further convinced Luo Ning, Lan Fei, Hua Hai, Chi Yu, and Chang Cheng that Tongzhou Hall’s method of completing tasks was by bringing in large numbers of newcomers. “One hundred thousand new disciples? I had no idea about this,” Yun Zhouzi suddenly exclaimed in confusion. Hearing this and seeing his expression, the five of them realized he truly didn’t seem to be pretending and seemed genuinely unaware of it, leaving them even more puzzled. “Hall Master, could it be that Tongzhou Hall doesn’t rely on a mass tactics approach to complete weapon-forging tasks?” Hua Hai pressed further. Yun Zhouzi shook his head decisively and said, “Gentlemen, even with our current thirty thousand disciples, we can complete one billion weapon-forging tasks.” Luo Ning, Lan Fei, Hua Hai, Chi Yu, and Chang Cheng stared at him in astonishment. “Hall Master, what exactly is your method? Could you show us?” Luo Ning, eager to know the specifics and unwilling to wait any longer, asked again. Seeing their persistence, Yun Zhouzi realized that if he kept delaying, they might team up to beat him. Moreover, he didn’t want to offend them, so he came up with an idea. “How about this? In ten days, I’ll take you all to observe the weapon-forging process at Tongzhou Hall,” Yun Zhouzi said with a smile. Hearing this, the five of them relaxed and smiled. ※※※ Ten days later, Luo Ning, Lan Fei, Hua Hai, Chi Yu, and Chang Cheng rushed to Yun Zhouzi’s residence and called out, “Hall Master, please take us to see the weapon-forging process at Tongzhou Hall right away!” Yun Zhouzi emerged from his residence with a smile, didn’t respond, and flew straight to one of the weapon-forging peaks at Tongzhou Hall. This peak was precisely Juehuo Peak, under the responsibility of Zhen Nantian. At that time, ten weapon-forging facilities had been built on Juehuo Peak, barely enough to accommodate three thousand disciples. Yun Zhouzi led the five attendants to one of these facilities. “Hall Master, attendants!” At the foot of a high mountain, a grand and imposing weapon-forging hall stood tall. The two disciples guarding the entrance immediately greeted them respectfully upon seeing the six of them arrive. Yun Zhouzi nodded in approval, then led the five attendants inside the facility. Two hundred disciples on Juehuo Peak were crafting the Dream-Catching Blade, a simple-grade immortal weapon that induced illusions.

Sunstone, Phantom Cloud Crystal, and the scales of the colored-scaled mouse—these are the raw materials for the Dream-Catching Blade. For the material melting step, 150 disciples were working skillfully. Naturally, in addition to these three basic materials, the yuan copper sheets with the array already engraved were also mixed in with the melted materials. Luo Ning, Lan Fei, Hua Hai, Chi Yu, and Chang Cheng watched the material melting process but saw nothing unusual; they had not yet discovered the secret of the yuan copper sheets. Without paying much attention, the five of them moved on to the next step. The next step was forming the core of the blade. Naturally, after watching the entire process, the core of the Dream-Catching Blade was already complete, and they also found no difference between the refining method at Juehuo Peak and those used in other refining schools. So, they decided to check out the next step. Forming an array? Suddenly, they realized that according to common refining knowledge, the next step should be forming an array. But the disciples at Juehuo Peak had already thrown the blade core into the clear spring water to quench it directly. “Ah, Hall Master, do you people from Tongzhou Hall not form arrays when refining?” Hua Hai immediately turned around and shouted in surprise at Yun Zhouzi. “Yun Zhouzi, you said you were confident in completing a task of producing one billion refined items—turns out you skipped the time-consuming step of forming an array. But can the immortal weapons you produce meet the requirements of refining?” Luo Ning was shocked and asked urgently. Without an array, an immortal weapon cannot exert its power and is essentially useless. Hua Hai and Luo Ning, one from the Refining Academy and the other from the Sect Affairs Office, were both worried that Tongzhou Hall might act recklessly, which could cause great trouble to Youhan Sect and the Refining Academy. Lan Fei, Chi Yu, and Chang Cheng also watched Yun Zhouzi anxiously. Seeing their expressions, Yun Zhouzi suddenly burst into laughter. Without answering, he took a Dream-Catching Blade that had already been refined and threw it to Hua Hai. “Executive Hua Hai, try its effect,” Yun Zhouzi said with a faint smile, looking completely relaxed. Hua Hai immediately activated it and was surprised to see a ten-meter-wide illusionary dream scene appear in front of the blade’s edge—filled with mist and clouds, making it impossible to see directions. “This… is indeed a Dream-Catching Blade,” Hua Hai said in awe. Yun Zhouzi smiled again and then asked, “Five executives, I can’t reveal the specific secrets of refining. You understand, right? I just want to ask you—after watching the refining process just now, have you noticed how many immortal weapons our group of 200 people can produce in one hour?”

As soon as this question was asked, Luo Ning, Lan Fei, Hua Hai, Chi Yu, and Chang Cheng all fell silent and thought carefully.
“Haha, Hall Master, I get it! In just one hour, these two hundred people seem to have crafted over two hundred pieces,” Lan Fei quickly called out.
In an instant, Luo Ning, Lan Fei, Hua Hai, Chi Yu, and Chang Cheng realized that if these two hundred disciples were used as a reference, then with the Hall having thirty thousand disciples, they could produce thirty thousand immortal artifacts in one hour. If half a day were spent on crafting immortal artifacts each day, then thirty-six thousand could be produced in a single day—far exceeding the twenty-seven thousand.
Luo Ning, Lan Fei, Hua Hai, Chi Yu, and Chang Cheng were utterly shocked and excited at the same time. They now understood just how great of wealth such an efficient artifact-crafting hall could bring them in the future.
The frustration from Fire Venerable taking half of their profits no longer mattered to them at this point.