After a long, steep hike, Zen found himself in the courtyard. As he entered, Zen saw a bronze furnace
standing taller than an adult, which he knew as the weapon refining furnace.
Once, a while back, he'd been held captive in Evil Lan's cave, and confined in the bowels of a refining
furnace, while Evil Lan tried for quite some time to refine him. Back then, Zen planned to keep Evil
Lan's refining furnace. However, it was too big and he couldn't fit it in his Space Ring. So, he had to
give that plan up.
Evil Lan was a weapon refiner at half-step into the nature level. Although his refining abilities were
unique, he couldn't be compared to the disciples at the Cloud Sect. Runes were engraved into the
shiny bronze surface of the furnace in front of Zen, and it was clear that it was more advanced than the
furnace Zen remembered from Evil Lan's cave.
There were seven or eight disciples encircling the furnace, diligently working.
Based on Zen's observation of them, it was obvious that they were divided into inner and outer
disciples like the thirty-three peaks. Yet, unlike the inner and outer disciples in the thirty-three peaks
who worked separately in different places, the weapon refining disciples in Quenching Peak worked
harmoniously alongside one another, with varying responsibilities based on level.
Most of the tasks that the weapon refining outer disciples were responsible for were the physical
chores, including lifting, fetching supplies, carrying items and running errands for the inner disciples.
While the outer disciples scurried around, bringing items to the furnace area, and removing others, the
inner disciples were as busy at the bronze furnace ensuring the heat from the blazing flames remained
consistent by spraying fire as needed.
Zen noticed as he entered the courtyard that one of the disciples in black robes up on the patio, was
crouching on his knees and had a nonstop stream of fire shooting from his hand into the opening at the
top of the furnace.
Several disciples donned in white robes, merely glanced up from the tasks they were busy at when
they saw Zen walking into the courtyard, but, one outer disciple stopped what he'd been doing, walked
over to Zen and said, "This is the Seventeenth Court of weapon refining. Strangers, are asked to keep
their distance, and not approach the furnace!"
The disciples of Quenching Peak were titled according to the courtyard door number. As Zen walked
through the compound, he'd seen each gate marked with a number, and the gate leading to the
courtyard he'd just entered bore the number seventeen.
Since the project the disciples of the seventeenth court were refining today was a top-grade mysterious
weapon, they were understandably more tense and taking precautions to be successful.
Refining a top-grade mysterious weapon was still challenging for the disciples. Although their inner fire
was far superior to what Zen had seen in Evil Lan's cave, the disciples' skill and proficiency were still
not on par with the levels Evil Lan had.
Seeing the aggressive looks of the outer disciples, Zen stopped.
One of the outer disciples approached, looking Zen up and down, noting he was a disciple from Drizzle
Peak.
Generally, disciples from one of the thirty-three peaks, came to Quenching Peak to forge weapons,
which was a good thing for them.
But Zen, wearing a white robe at the moment, was therefore commonly regarded as an outer disciple
with no money or no power. He had no money at hand, let alone points which were difficult to obtain
since there were very few tasks available for outer disciples to earn a decent point. Based on this
assessment, he wouldn't be able to afford even the cheapest low-grade mysterious weapons.
As a result, the outer disciple coming to him didn't look friendly, and simply asked broadly, "What's up?
Do you want to buy weapons?"
Zen shook his head and replied casually, "No."
He never thought highly of the mysterious weapons made by the disciples of Quenching Peak. Why
would he buy any of them?
"Then why are you at Quenching Peak? Go away! Have fun somewhere else. Don't disturb our senior
disciples from making a top-grade mysterious weapon! You can't afford what it'll cost, I'm warning you."
His words were barely out as he waved impatiently and began to drive him out of the court. When
referring to the top-grade mysterious weapon earlier, he was quite proud of it. The over a thousand
disciples of Quenching Peak were divided into more than a hundred small courts, while the ones able
to produce top-grade mysterious weapons were quite rare. Therefore, if their refining today succeeded,
it would be a great achievement for them and all the disciples of the seventeenth Court, no matter outer
or inner disciples, would receive a lot of rewards.
Of course, the rewards might be a lot, but, in Zen's eyes, it was too small to be mentioned.
Despite the outer disciple was driving him away, Zen didn't move. Instead, he stood in situ, shook his
head again and said, "I just want to borrow your refining furnace."
When the outer disciple heard Zen, he was startled, and suddenly laughed and said impatiently, "Are
you joking? Borrow our furnace? Do you want to refine any weapon yourself?"
"I don't want to refine any weapon. I just want to condense a weapon," said Zen seriously.
Weapon refining was a complex technology. Zen did not receive systematical training about it so he
was not familiar with its first few steps, but the last step, condensation only depended on a weapon
refiner's understanding of Heavenly Law. Zen might not have a deep understanding of Heavenly Law.
But as he had heavenly essence in hand now, simple condensation should not be difficult for him.
"Heh, heh..." The outer disciple sneered. There was a saying that the difference in professions made
one feel worlds apart. The disciples of the thirty-three Peaks were the practitioners of martial arts, not
weapon refiners. Of course, it didn't mean that the tens of thousands of disciples from the Peaks could
not have a weapon refiner. After all, the world was so big and there would never be a shortage of
geniuses. Some of them not only practiced high-level martial arts but also were good at weapon
refining.
"I've told you, don't joke with me here, when you are bored and have nothing to do. Just go somewhere
else to find some fun. Get out of here, immediately! I need to close the door now!" said the outer
disciple, losing his patience and starting driving him out.
Just at the moment, there was a commotion coming from the furnace.
62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda