Chapter 61: Material Substitution

"Upper Grade Profound Iron ore, five jin for two Lower Grade Spirit Stones. The price is firm," Nan Qiuchun reminded him, leaving no room for Fang Yun to haggle.

Fang Yun nodded, showing he completely understood.

Haggling was only possible under certain conditions. In the Disciple Marketplace, it was obvious that materials of this caliber were no longer easy to bargain for.

Unless the other party’s asking price was truly exorbitant.

Two Lower Grade Spirit Stones for five jin of Upper Grade Profound Iron ore was a reasonable price.

"Senior Sister Nan, do you have fifty jin of Upper Grade Profound Iron ore?" Fang Yun asked.

The small piece of Upper Grade Profound Iron ore on the stall was clearly not enough.

"I do."

"I’ll take fifty jin."

As he spoke, Fang Yun had already taken out twenty Lower Grade Spirit Stones.

"You got it."

Nan Qiuchun took out pieces of Upper Grade Profound Iron ore; they were all small chunks, no large ones.

After taking the Spirit Stones Fang Yun handed her, she weighed out a full fifty-two jin of Upper Grade Profound Iron ore for him.

Seeing this, Fang Yun immediately thanked her, "Thank you, Senior Sister."

He hadn’t planned on haggling for materials of this level in the first place, plus Nan Qiuchun had already set the expectation that the price was firm.

He hadn’t expected Nan Qiuchun to give him an extra two jin of Upper Grade Profound Iron ore.

Even though those two jin of Upper Grade Profound Iron ore weren’t even worth one Lower Grade Spirit Stone, Fang Yun was overjoyed, feeling as if he’d gotten a great bargain.

"No need for thanks. If Junior Brother Fang really wants to thank me, then don’t refuse my invitation to a friendly Magical Combat match if we run into each other on Battle Peak later."

"Of course, of course." Fang Yun agreed after briefly probing Nan Qiuchun’s aura.

Nan Qiuchun’s Cultivation was at the Qi Refining Seventh Layer.

He was now at the Qi Refining Sixth Layer. Given his previous performance on Battle Peak, if he went there now, it was very likely that some Inner Sect Disciples would want to test his defensive capabilities.

"Good. Then it’s a deal."

After completing the transaction, Fang Yun began to search for supplementary materials.

Based on the characteristics and quality of the materials for refining the Upper Grade Profound Iron Shield, he planned to use Spirit Melting Powder, secondary Profound Crystal, and Black Gold Stone as supplementary materials.

But after searching the entire Disciple Marketplace, he couldn’t find any Black Gold Stone.

In the end, he had to settle for a second-best option, using Stubborn Gold as a substitute for Black Gold Stone.

With inferior supplementary materials, the difficulty of refining an Upper Grade Magical Artifact would decrease slightly.

’The refining process will be smoother this way,’ Fang Yun consoled himself.

He had spent twenty Lower Grade Spirit Stones on the Upper Grade Profound Iron ore, and the other supplementary materials cost a total of thirteen Lower Grade Spirit Stones.

The material cost alone was thirty-three Lower Grade Spirit Stones, but during the actual refining, he wouldn’t need to add all the supplementary materials he’d bought.

"Do you know when Junior Brother Fang broke through to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer?"

"Senior Sister Nan, why are you asking about that?"

"Junior Brother Fang is already at the Qi Refining Sixth Layer."

"What! How long has it been? From what I heard, Junior Brother Fang broke through to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer... that was a little over three months ago."

"Is that so? It seems Junior Brother Fang’s Alchemy Talent is far greater than we imagined."

Not long after Fang Yun left the Disciple Marketplace, the news of his breakthrough to the Qi Refining Sixth Layer began to spread, all because Nan Qiuchun had brought it up.

Thanks to Fang Yun’s existing reputation, some disciples enjoyed discussing the topic, which accelerated the spread of the information.

As for Fang Yun, after leaving the Disciple Marketplace, he headed to the Artifact Casting Peak as fast as he could.

The materials for refining the Upper Grade Profound Iron Shield had been purchased, so naturally, he had to begin the refining process right away.

"Fang Yun, you’re here."

"Steward Cai, I need to rent an upper-grade Artifact Refining Room this time."

"You’re already starting to refine an Upper Grade Magical Artifact?" Steward Cai asked.

Some disciples would also rent an upper-grade Artifact Refining Room for difficult-to-refine Middle Grade Magical Artifacts, so Steward Cai needed to confirm.

"That’s right."

"To refine an Upper Grade Magical Artifact, it’s best to have..."

Steward Cai stopped mid-sentence. He had already scanned Fang Yun’s aura.

It wasn’t the Qi Refining Fifth Layer anymore, but the Qi Refining Sixth Layer!

He had been about to advise Fang Yun that for refining an Upper Grade Magical Artifact, it would be better to wait until his Cultivation reached the Qi Refining Sixth Layer.

Now, those words were clearly unnecessary.

In his mind, Fang Yun shouldn’t have been able to cultivate and break through to the Qi Refining Sixth Layer until February or March of next year. Yet, he had already achieved the breakthrough before this year was even over.

’Fang Yun’s Alchemy Talent...’

’Regardless of his Alchemy Talent, starting to refine an Upper Grade Magical Artifact now indicates that his Artifact Refining talent is still better than his Alchemy Talent.’

As he thought this, Steward Cai smiled and nodded.

’Fang Yun is now at the Qi Refining Sixth Layer. Based on my understanding of him, he wouldn’t be attempting to refine an Upper Grade Magical Artifact now if he wasn’t confident.’

At this moment, Steward Cai had already assumed that Fang Yun’s attempt to refine an Upper Grade Magical Artifact would definitely be a success.

If Fang Yun were to fail, he would have to admit that Fang Yun’s Artifact Refining talent was inferior to his Alchemy Talent.

That would put him at a disadvantage in his verbal spars with Steward Zhou.

"Steward Cai, um..."

"Oh, right, right. An upper-grade Artifact Refining Room costs three Lower Grade Spirit Stones a day to rent. Here’s the Token for Artifact Refining Room number four, take it."

Snapping back to his senses, Steward Cai handed a Token for an upper-grade Artifact Refining Room to Fang Yun.

After taking the Token and saying his thanks, Fang Yun headed to the corresponding Artifact Refining Room.

Watching Fang Yun’s departing figure, Steward Cai looked forward to Fang Yun emerging from the Artifact Refining Room with good news—that he had successfully refined an Upper Grade Magical Artifact.

Just then, another thought occurred to him.

’Once Fang Yun can refine an Upper Grade Magical Artifact, won’t there be very little left for him to learn from my assistance in the future?’

"That’s talent for you!" Steward Cai couldn’t help but exclaim.

Not long after entering the upper-grade Artifact Refining Room, Fang Yun activated the Earth Fire and began the process of purifying and extracting the Upper Grade Profound Iron ore, after which he moved on to processing the other supplementary materials.

With his previous Artifact Refining experience, coupled with his own talent.

Even when purifying and extracting the Upper Grade Profound Iron ore, Fang Yun’s process was nearly flawless, yielding almost eleven jin of Upper Grade Profound Iron.

Fang Yun began to process the supplementary materials.

’These materials should be enough for nearly eleven jin of Upper Grade Profound Iron.’

Originally, Fang Yun had planned to use ten jin of Upper Grade Profound Iron for this Profound Iron Shield, but now he had changed his mind.

Since he was using more of the main material, he naturally had to add a bit more of the supplementary materials to achieve a better balance.

After processing all the materials, he sat in meditation to restore his Spiritual Power. Only when his Spiritual Power was fully replenished did he officially begin refining the Upper Grade Profound Iron Shield.

「As time passed.」

A day and a half had passed since Fang Yun entered the upper-grade Artifact Refining Room.

Even with a better Artifact Refining Room, refining an Upper Grade Magical Artifact took much longer than refining a Middle Grade one.

"It’s finally done!"