Chapter 64: Three Thousand at a Time

Qu Yi flew into the artifact-forging hall.
Behind him, Zhen Nantian followed closely, constantly asking, “Fire Lord, are you really going to forge artifacts?”
Since Zhu Yanxing, Zhen Nantian had never seen the Fire Lord help Juehuo Peak craft a single immortal artifact. Hearing Qu Yi say he intended to forge artifacts himself, he was truly puzzled.
Qu Yi turned around, raised his right hand, and said with a smile, “Fat guy, if you doubt me again, I’ll hit you.”
Zhen Nantian immediately closed his mouth, forced a smile on his face, and said playfully, “Fire Lord, I’m not doubting you. I just want to ask—what kind of immortal artifact do you plan to forge?”
To avoid provoking Qu Yi, Zhen Nantian quickly changed his approach.
Qu Yi chuckled and said, “Take me to the material warehouse. I want to see what kinds of materials are available.”
Zhen Nantian immediately flew ahead and led Qu Yi to the nearby material warehouse.
The 1 billion one-star Human Soul Immortal-level artifact-forging tasks assigned to Tongzhou Hall required the creation of no less than ten thousand different types of immortal artifacts. Naturally, these various artifacts needed different kinds of materials. As the largest artifact-forging peak within Tongzhou Hall, Juehuo Peak received the most materials, filling the entire warehouse.
The material warehouse was built along the mountain, with caves carved into the cliffs, occupying an entire small mountain range.
Qu Yi simply flew in the air, while his immortal sense entered each cave to examine the properties of the materials inside.
All the caves were searched thoroughly.
Qu Yi stopped in mid-air and said to Zhen Nantian beside him, “Fat guy, I want a sample of the materials from each of these caves. You don’t object, do you?”
Since he was determined to gain more experience in artifact forging, Qu Yi naturally wanted to become familiar with as many materials as possible to craft as many immortal artifacts as feasible, which required a large amount of material.
Zhen Nantian was stunned again, showing an expression of incomprehension. But having already been shocked by too many things from the Fire Lord, he had long since gotten used to it and recovered quickly after this shock.
“No problem. Fire Lord, take as much as you want—just go get it,” Zhen Nantian said generously.
Qu Yi smiled faintly, flew into the first cave, took a pile of materials, and then immediately flew into the second cave.
He entered all 1,000 caves, taking a pile of materials from each.

Zhen Nantian was somewhat puzzled. He didn’t understand why Qu Yi needed to take a sample of each material—could Qu Yi really become familiar with so many materials at once and know so many cultivation techniques? Yet, Zhen Nantian decided not to ask further. He was convinced that Qu Yi’s background was too mysterious. Since Qu Yi had always helped him and was beneficial to him, there was no need to keep probing into his identity.

After collecting the materials, Qu Yi returned to Zhen Nantian and said with a smile, “Fat guy, I’ve taken all these materials. I’m going back to my cultivation cave to forge immortal artifacts. Later, I’ll give you the ones I’ve made, as a way for me to fulfill part of Juehuo Peak’s artifact-forging task.”

Due to the Xingluo Ding, Qu Yi naturally couldn’t show them in front of others. He had to take the materials back into the Cunjie Ball and start studying the properties of various materials.

Zhen Nantian was once again confused. He had been to the Fire Lord’s cultivation cave, where there wasn’t even a trace of geothermal fire. If crafting artifacts required using the Ziye Tianfire from the human soul immortal’s body, that would consume too much immortal essence. Moreover, since Qu Yi had taken so many materials, he would surely forge many artifacts, which would require a huge amount of Origin Stones to replenish the immortal essence.

However, the confusion on Zhen Nantian’s face disappeared quickly, and he decided not to ask more about the Fire Lord’s secrets.

“Fire Lord, I’m really looking forward to seeing how many immortal artifacts you can forge. I hope I can see them when you give them to me,” said Zhen Nantian with a smile.

Qu Yi simply smiled lightly and replied, “Fat guy, just look forward to it.”

After saying that, Qu Yi tried to fly away but suddenly turned around and said, “Fat guy, go tell Lin Po, Yan Yang, Feng Ming, Wen Chong, and Fei Hong to have Lin Po create a cultivation cave on a branch of the Tongzhou Plateau. Yan Yang, Feng Ming, Wen Chong, and Fei Hong should create caves on a side branch. I’ll extend the spiritual veins there to fill their caves with special spiritual energy, helping them improve their cultivation.”

Lin Po was a Six-Star Human Soul Immortal who needed Fa’ao spiritual energy to advance to a lower-level Human Soul Immortal, so he needed to create a cave on a branch of the plateau. Yan Yang, Feng Ming, Wen Chong, and Fei Hong were only Three-Star Human Soul Immortals who needed Origin Energy spiritual energy, so they needed to create caves on smaller side branches.

Upon hearing this, Zhen Nantian immediately understood Qu Yi’s intention and laughed loudly, “Fire Lord, don’t worry. I’ll go arrange for the five of them to create caves right away.”

Qu Yi nodded and flew away immediately.

※※※

Inside the Inch Realm Sphere, Qu Yi had already taken out the Star Luo Ding. Qu Yi still couldn’t fully determine the grade of the Star Luo Ding, but he knew it surpassed top-tier immortal artifacts—those at the Heavenly Immortal level—and was surely a treasure from a world of a higher rank than the Immortal Realm. As an ancient artifact of the Artifact God, Qu Yi also understood its origin, which must be from another, higher-ranked world. He set these clues aside for now; since he wasn’t even a Heavenly Immortal yet, thinking about another world was useless. As a treasure, the Star Luo Ding could greatly enhance the grade of certain materials. Moreover, it contained numerous parallel spaces within, and as Qu Yi’s cultivation improved, he could control more and more of these spaces simultaneously. Now, he could activate three thousand parallel spaces inside the Star Luo Ding, allowing him to craft artifacts in all of them at once. Although it seemed like Qu Yi had brought a large amount of material from the Juehuo Peak’s material repository, once placed in these three thousand spaces, it was all used up instantly. All the materials were only sufficient for one crafting session. Of course, it was because these materials were only at the level of one-star Human Soul Immortal artifacts that Qu Yi dared to use so much at once. If they were six-star Human Soul Immortal-grade materials, he wouldn’t be able to use this much at once. As for materials like the Yulin Ore, which were Earth Soul Immortal-grade, his current cultivation level made it impossible even for him to craft an immortal artifact. Once all the materials entered the Star Luo Ding, Qu Yi immediately brought his hands together and brought them close to the artifact. Although his body was filled with chaotic energy, it could quickly transform into Fire-type Immortal Essence, which could also be used for crafting. The Fire-type Immortal Essence was poured into the Star Luo Ding. The entire artifact’s aura changed abruptly, with a mighty surge of flame erupting, even heating up the space inside the Inch Realm Sphere. However, since Qu Yi was the ruler inside the sphere, these flames couldn’t harm him and instead flowed around him. In the three thousand parallel spaces, the materials, under Qu Yi’s Immortal Awareness, were already adjusted to various crafting requirements. Then, under the burning of the different Ziyue Heavenly Flames, the materials melted, liquefied, mixed, and combined, with impurities quickly removed, and the core of the artifact gradually taking shape. Each parallel space required different amounts of time, but Qu Yi controlled everything precisely and methodically. The core that formed first naturally assembled its formation structure first.

Another remarkable use of the Star Luo Ding is its ability to mobilize the energy stored within it, allowing arrays to be formed directly in the emerging artifact embryo according to Qu Yi’s immortal consciousness. This time, Qu Yi did not use the pre-set array method; instead, he followed the conventional steps of artifact refinement in the immortal realm—first forming the artifact embryo and then establishing the array. Establishing the array meant implanting the appropriate arrays into the embryo as required by the refinement task. One array after another was continuously transmitted from Qu Yi’s immortal consciousness into the Star Luo Ding, which immediately incorporated them into the embryo. One after another, the artifact embryos emerged from the Star Luo Ding and flew straight into the lake inside the Dimension Sphere. The lake water in the Dimension Sphere was filled with abundant primordial energy, making it highly effective for tempering artifacts. When the embryo fell into the lake, waves of heat rose, and after a few bubbles appeared, they sank to the bottom of the lake, where the immortal artifacts were completed. For ten consecutive days, Qu Yi relied on the Star Luo Ding to refine immortal artifacts, and finally, he used up all the materials from the three thousand parallel spaces. Naturally, he also successfully refined all three thousand immortal artifacts of the One-Star Human Soul Immortal level at once. During these ten days of refinement, Qu Yi did not take a single break, as he controlled all the energy in the Dimension Sphere and absorbed it into his own body. In his dantian, it quickly transformed into chaotic energy, which in turn instantly turned into fire-type immortal essence. Thus, his immortal essence was never depleted, continuously supporting his refinement efforts. All three thousand immortal artifacts sank to the bottom of the lake, but Qu Yi did not retrieve them immediately. After finishing the last artifact, he simply sat on the ground, crossed his legs, and began meditating in silence. Having refined three immortal artifacts in one go and rapidly implanted various arrays into the embryos, Qu Yi needed time to calm down and reflect on the entire process of refining the three thousand artifacts, so as to summarize his experience. Organizing, sorting, analyzing, and absorbing—Qu Yi’s expertise in artifact refinement improved dramatically. ※※※ Three years had passed since Qu Yi went to the Extinct Fire Peak to collect materials. Although he quickly refined three thousand immortal artifacts of the One-Star Human Soul Immortal level at once, it took him nearly three years to fully absorb the experience from refining them. Naturally, Qu Yi was now at a master level in crafting such artifacts. His next step was to familiarize himself with the refinement of Two-Star Human Soul Immortal level artifacts.

However, over these three years, Mu Zun, Huo Zun, and Tu Zun also managed to raise their cultivation to the level of Mid-Level Human Soul Immortals, following in the footsteps of Jin Zun and Shui Zun. Within Qu Yi’s dantian, the chaotic energy mass underwent further changes.