Refinement Technique
Luo Zheng didn't care about the fact that he was demoted to a slave for the clan. He could overlook being treated as a punching back for the Luo Clan. He didn't care that Luo Peiran snatched from him the Heaven and Earth Pill, which originally should've belonged to him.
However, his sister Luo Yan, was his one and only weakness.
Luo Yan was Luo Clan's Head Family's only hope. She was recruited by the Azure Cloud Sect when she was thirteen, as an inner disciple for her incredible talent, and therefore left the Luo Clan. That was how she escaped the family turmoil.
Luo Zheng had no news pertaining to her and couldn't find out anything about her for the last two years, due to his status as a slave. He suddenly felt incomparably worried after hearing from Luo Peiran that she was apparently in a pinch.
His worry consumed him so much that he forgot to evade when the descendants of Luo Clan were practicing their moves on him. That led to him taking quite a beating before finally reacting. He returned to the cellar at night, while writhing in pain.
"This is your medicine!"
The Luo Clan steward threw the paper bag containing medicine down uncaringly and then left.
The "punching bags" weren't made of steel, so they'd die after a few days from accrued internal injuries, should their wounds not be healed. Therefore, the Luo Clan provides the "punching bags" with medicine to help them heal.
However, being ordinary drugs, their healing effects weren't very good. Luo Zheng revealed a long face when he opened to the paper bag only to find one pill. He shouted, "Steward Fang! Why is there only one pill today?"
In a neutral tone, Steward Fang replied, "It's a blessing that you even got one and you're complaining?"
Luo Zheng glared at Steward Fang and harshly shouted, "Luo Clan distributes three healing pills every day, but now there's only one. It's obvious you pocketed some for yourself! Stealing is an offence in the Luo Clan. Are you not afraid of death, Steward Fang?"
Steward Fang harshly responded, "Of course, I'm afraid. But, I'm not afraid of an insignificant slave like you. What, you want to revolt? I can't stand this attitude of yours; always thinking you're the Young Lord of the clan. Get real!"
He was angry moments ago, but Steward Fang's response calmed him down, instead. Though he looked at Steward Fang with bright eyes, a strong murderous urge hid in his eyes. That urge was akin to looking at a dead object.
Luo Zheng's gaze caused Steward Fang to feel intimidated. He stepped forward and pointed at Luo Zheng's chest, "What, you refuse to accept this reality? What's with that look? You want to eat me alive?"
Zheng Luo created a tremor by emitting a force from his chest. The tremor shook the steward, causing him to immediately fall to the ground.
"Y-You're but a mere slave in the clan. Are you planning to revolt?"
The steward managed to get up off the ground, but his panic covered his face.
Lou Zheng took two steps forward. He cracked his finger and in a loud voice asked, "You're not a member of the Luo family, yet you sure are acting haughty. Did you really think that I wouldn't dare to hurt you?"
The steward no longer wanted to stay after seeing his reaction, so he fled the cellar and shut the iron door with a loud bang.
Luo Zheng sneered, "Contemptible people doing contemptible things!"
He then shook his head. He didn't want to bother with such pathetic people. He quietly sat down and took out a wick to light up the lamp. He flipped through the pages of a book, but due to his concern for his sister, Luo Yan, he was unable to focus on the contents of the book.
'I can't continue staying at Luo Clan! The problem is that I've only reached the Flesh Refinement Realm. Forget the Azure Cloud Sect; I can't even get one foot out of this small Luo Clan.'
Luo Zheng walked through the narrow cellar at a quick pace. He breathed heavily, causing his chest to rise and fall, similar to a trapped beast that couldn't find an exit.
'I'm weak. I'm still too weak. I wouldn't be trapped in this small clan's grounds, otherwise.'
'The issue is that everything in the world of cultivation must follow a set procedure, step by step, while I happen to be a slave. That means I have to be a punching bag every day. I don't have time to practice like this. If this continues, I'll be beaten to death, sooner or later….'
The more he thought about it, the more worried he became. He cast his gaze onto the table. The old and tattered Heavenly Principles book lay there. "This tattered book has an entire bunch of principles, but serves me no purpose. What good does reading it do me?"
Luo Zheng resentfully picked up the book, tore it down the middle and held it over the oil lamp to burn it. The fire instantaneously set the book ablaze, creating a violent flame.
Luo Zheng felt a tinge of regret as he watched the book burn. He lamented to himself, 'Luo Zheng. Luo Zheng. Why are you angry at a book? What wrong did the book commit by teaching one how to be a virtuous character and have a sense of shame? The problem is your own lack of strength. Your lack of strength is why you're at the mercy of others and used as a scapegoat…'
Unfortunately, the fire was too intense, so it had already reduced the book to ashes.
During his moment of distraught, Luo Zheng glanced toward the pile of ashes to discover a golden light located within.
"Eh? What's this?"
Luo Zheng brushed the ash away and pulled the golden object. What he found was a thin sheet of foil.
'I didn't notice this golden foil when I read this book, previously. It must've been hidden inside the book. What good is a golden sheet of foil? The one thing that is least lacking in this world is gold, especially for the Luo Clan, who have as much gold as dirt particles!'
However, when Luo Zheng focused his eyes on the golden foil, his eyes widened, all of a sudden.
There were letters etched into the foil closely together. The characters resembled tadpole drawings. Luo Zheng didn't recognise a single character.
As he looked over the characters, the sheet of golden foil rapidly disintegrated into thousands of smaller bits of golden foil. Each small piece contained a special symbol that resembled a tadpole. The small bits of golden foil glued themselves to Luo Zheng's skin; they spread to his face, eyes, neck, arms, body and legs…
Every inch of Lou Zheng's entire body became covered in the small bits of golden foil.
The last piece went directly into Luo Zheng's brain. His entire body trembled violently as though he was smashed with a big iron hammer. While that was happening, the pieces on his body began to emit a bright light. By the time the golden lit emitted, eventually, faded out, the thousands of pieces had seeped into Luo Zheng's body and hidden themselves inside. Some memories that didn't belong to him, surfaced into his mind out of thin air.
"The supreme refinement art…"
"The first refinement art in ancient times…"
"Let one's flesh be the medium. Let one's self be the soul. Thoroughly temper and rinse thy body to turn it into natural energy…"
'Is this a weapon refinement manual?'
While Luo Zheng can't refine weapons, he knew that weapon refinement was a popular occupation that could earn well. The Luo Clan itself, uses its vast wealth to try and recruit the lowest ranked weapon refiners to no avail. That is evidence of how popular the weapon refiners are.
'But what does it mean to use one's flesh as a medium? Could it be… that this is a manual to turn my body into a weapon?'
The, literally, unfathomable speculation soon became a reality.
He suddenly felt his body temperature rising rapidly, as though he had a fever.
'It's so hot! I'm going to be burnt if this continues!'
Due to the dire situation, he ran to the vat he got water from, located at the end of the cellar. He jumped into the vat without a second thought.
*Sizzle…*
Steam came from the vat. It didn't take long before all of the water in the vat evaporated, as a result of his rising body temperature, thereby covering the cellar with mist.
Despite being soaked in so much water, Luo Zheng's temperature didn't decrease. To the contrary, it continued to rise. His skin glowed red, resembling a piece of metal being burnt. Finally, he spun around twice in place and looked up overhead to discover the entire cellar covered in mist. Unbelievable changes occurred in Luo Zheng's mind, at that very moment.
Suddenly, a completely dark blue cauldron with nine dragons carved onto it, appeared in his mind.
Every dragon was a different colour. There was a indigo, black, white, purple… The dragons were carved in a way that made them appear as if they were live dragons. Of the eight dragons, only the indigo dragon had its eyes open. Its eyes were fixed intently on Luo Zheng. Those pair of eyes seemed as though they had existed for thousands and millions of years were on Luo Zheng. They made him feel an imposing nature.
*Rumble. Rumble. Rumble. Rumble. Rumble…*
The eyes of the dragon caused Luo Zheng's soul to quake non-stop. Cracks, which were signs that his soul would crumble appeared on his soul. In the instant his soul was about to crumble, the indigo dragon let out a roar. The huge cauldron then began to spin continuously, while the flame inside the cauldron lit up, for some strange reason.
It was a type of black flame!
'I never expected a flame with this colour to exist in this world. It could virtually burn the entire world!'
Luo Zheng didn't have time to marvel at it, for the huge cauldron came down onto his head, enveloping his soul with the intense black flame. The pain of the being burnt isn't something the ordinary man can withstand, yet due to the status quo of Luo Zheng's soul, he couldn't even pass out. He, therefore, no choice but to clench his teeth and put up with the pain
"Aaahhh! Just let me die!"
In those moments, Luo Zheng had only one wish but to die, as a means of being relieved of the agony.
However, death was a wish he couldn't be granted, for he was unable to bite his tongue to suicide, as a spiritual body.
Each time his soul couldn't withstand it and got to the brink of destruction, the cauldron would shine a seven-colour sunrise ray of light, which would immediately repair Luo Zheng's soul.
Burning, breaking, repairing, then burning again, breaking again, repairing again… This process repeated itself over and over endlessly.
The loop of life and death repeated itself for a long time, though the exact length was unknown. Nevertheless, it finally stopped.
"I finally got through it."
Luo Zheng let out a long exhale. He felt a lingering fear when he thought back to the pain he just went through. At the same time, his soul, surprisingly, emitted a faint golden light. He finally escaped from his mind after a long while and weakly woke up.
The large cauldron in his mind had stopped spinning, but the black flame still burned. However, the fire was now focused, as opposed to being dispersed in all directions as before and no longer looked so frightening.
Luo Zheng had understood that his soul and flesh had most likely just been tempered by the cauldron.
The world is a big place with no wonder too much to imagine. Some weapon refiners resort to all sorts of unscrupulous means in order to refine weapons. Some don't hesitate to kill people for the sake of refining a magic weapon, and consider it perfectly normal. Some collect human blood for reinforcing purposes. Some go as far as to seal peoples' souls inside weapons, turning them into a type of evil weapon.
A method that allowed one to turn their own body into a magical weapon, however, was unheard of and, frankly, insane…
Luo Zheng had received a blessing disguised as misfortune.
After calming himself down, Luo Zheng came to realise that it wasn't a bad thing for this to happen to him.
The magic weapons in this world are classified into five tiers: Profound Tier, Spirit Tier, Immortal Tier, Divine Tier and Inner Energy Tier. Further, within each tier are low, mid and high tiers.
Luo Zheng's body that had just been tempered into a magical weapon was merely a Low Profound Tier.
Indeed, describing oneself with weapon tiers was a most peculiar behaviour. Luo Zheng revealed a helpless smile. He looked out in the direction of the only opening in the cellar to find that it was already daybreak. The tiring night had passed without him being aware.
Come to think of it, it was strange that he didn't feel tired at all, despite not getting any sleep. Instead, he was full of vigour and spirit. His emotions had also calmed down. He was no longer feeling the agitation he felt last night. The principles of the books were spot on. One cannot get what is denied him by Blessings, no matter how hard he tries. Only by calming yourself down, may you be able to face it calmly.
He cleaned the ash remains of the burnt book, ensuring it was cleaned up properly, before moving the vat back to where it originally was. The sound of the lock being unlocked then came from the entrance of the cellar. It was time to take a beating, again…
Glossary
*The indigo dragon here is the colour 青. I'm only discussing the function of the character as a colour descriptor, given the context it's used in this chapter. The character can be interpreted as both "blue" and "green". To explain 青 and my reasoning for using it as indigo, we need to discuss 蓝 and 绿, first and foremost.
蓝 is somehow vague. It was originally used as the name of a kind of plant that had a greenish/blueish colour, which could be used to extract dye, hence the 艹 radical, which means herb.
There's a famous poem with the line 春来江水绿如蓝. Translation: In spring, the river water is as green as as Lan (the plant 蓝 we just spoke of). If you interpreted蓝 as a colour then this line would be incomprehensible. You could argue that the poet was comparing river water to the colour of the herb itself, or the dye extracted from the herb. While I don't know that there's a definitive answer, I would reason it's the herb.
青出于蓝而胜于蓝 -青(indigo dye) was extracted from 蓝(the herb) but the colour is better. Note: I am not interpreting this as "The pupil will surpass the teacher".
From that, I reason that 青 is indigo.
Okay, so what about the line青山绿水? Because here, 青 is used to mean "green".
In the 五行 （Five Elements) theory used in traditional Chinese philosophy, the five major colours are 赤 (red), 白 (white), 青, 黄 (yellow), 黑 (black). As you can see, there's no 绿 or 蓝 or whatever other colours of green/blue/indigo hue. 五行 was designed to be a theory of everything, a system to describe all phenomenon in the world. Therefore 青 has to take over the responsibility to cover all greenish/blue-ish items. Especially, in 五行, 青 is related to 木(woods/trees/herbs, one of the five 五行), so later on people started to use 青 for green colour.
Given that we're not discussing plants in this context, I, therefore, reason that it should be indigo and not green.