Chapter 129: The Inlay
The Nirvana Pill had the greatest value of all treasures and the other two spiritual weapons only had a relatively low value. Those were selected by Zen.
As Zen observed the two spiritual weapons, he found that the only valuable parts of them were the Phoenix Crystal and Emerald Crystal that were inlaid on each weapon.
Typically, these two crystals were useless for outsiders but very practical for Zen.
After Zen left the Imperial Army Treasury, he was given a big room to stay. After the battle was won and demons retreated, the Imperial Army continuously sent people to clean the rubble brought by the destructive fight. So Zen was going to leave the White Emperor City after two days.
He was satisfied with the big room, but what he wasn't happy about was that his room was next to Yolande's.
Dealing with Yolande was uncomplicated as he only needed to avoid her wrath. Not to provoke her or at least stay away from her so she wouldn't lock him again inside the box...
When he settled down inside the big room, he took a refreshing bath and washed away all the filth of the past few days. He felt better afterward and sat down in a dark corner of the room. Then he took out and studied the broken Jade Butterfly from the space ring.
From what Zen knew, top-grade spiritual weapons were not usually inlaid with crystals. The power of this weapon might come from the crystal itself which was similar to a fairy weapon!
Undoubtedly, the Jade Butterfly was a great knife and might have served his owner faithfully. It was such a pity that it was destroyed.
“I will remove this Phoenix crystal first!” murmured Zen as he stretched his hands and tried to snag the Phoenix Crystal out from the knife but failed. He could try again with harder force this time but was afraid that the Phoenix Crystal would be chipped. For a moment, he didn't know what to do.
The crystal was precious to him and shouldn't be taken down roughly. There must be a smart way to do it. Then an idea hit him. In the Weapon Refining Principle, there was a trick on how to take down crystals. He took out the Weapon Refining Principle in no time from his space ring and scanned the pages.
The booklet had recorded and kept well-hidden secrets and that included tricks used by Chase in his lifetime. It encapsulated Chase's skills and experience.
Zen found what he was looking for and on this specific page, the methods on how to remove crystals embedded in treasures were recorded in detail.
Zen read the method carefully, word for word, and then his face sank with disappointment. He mumbled, “According to this book, life fire is needed to take down the crystal. Oh, this is tough.”
Zen had been practicing two kinds of cultivation methods, the Purple Light Fist and the Heavenly Ogre Fist. Both methods generated life energy. Apparently, he must cultivate a new method to generate fire, if he really wanted to take down the crystal from the Jade Butterfly.
Zen was stunned for a moment as he held the Weapon Refining Principle in hands. Then a smile crossed his face, and his eyes lit. Since he needed fire, could he use the black fire from the huge furnace in his mind?
The black fire was able to extract the heavenly essence from the spiritual weapon and could imitate the functions of fire.
That left him one problem, the black fire was so powerful that it could burn everything on its way. He was afraid that the Phoenix crystal would be smelted by the black fire.
Zen was lost in his deep thought for a while, and his eyes lit up again. He made a heartfelt decision, and he decided to take the risk.
He then closed his eyes and began to communicate with the giant furnace in his mind.
“Whoosh!”
In a short while, a ray of black fire came out between Zen's brows, circling wildly around in the mid-air. Then it let out a quick, sharp sound when it saw the two broken top grade spiritual weapons and came rushing to them.
Zen's expression suddenly changed when he saw that the black fire was going to attack the weapons. He reached for the two spiritual weapons and shielded them in his hands to avoid the impact of the black fire.
“Wait, wait, wait. These are not smelted for you!” said Zen quickly.
The black fire had a soul, and it was clever and spiritual. It hovered in the air and moved around like it didn't want to heed what Zen had said.
Zen was amused when he saw that the black fire acted like a child with tantrums. Then he suddenly realized that he had a long spear called Tronson. There was a crystal embedded in the head of that spear, but the shaft was no longer useful to him.
He broke the shaft from the spear's head and handed it over to the black fire.
The black fire circled happily, flew towards Zen and swallowed the shaft.
The shaft was crafted from solid metal. Though it was very heavy and strong, it was melted like a candle. And then drops of heavenly essence appeared behind the black fire.
When he saw the heavenly essence, Zen blinked his eyes. He couldn't believe what he just witnessed!
Even though the shaft of the top grade spiritual weapon wasn't that valuable, it produced so much heavenly essence!
Zen counted them and was surprised to know that there were more than 40 drops of heavenly essence. It produced more heavenly essence compared to a top grade mysterious weapon.
It was unbelievable. It had been known that the higher the grade of the weapon, the more heavenly essence it could produce. The long spear had been battered from years of use. If it was a top grade spiritual weapon, and pristine, would it produce hundreds of drops of heavenly essence?
In his mind, he saw the black fire offered him the heavenly essence and then lit nine dragon scales. Zen summoned the black fire again.
Zen didn't intend to light the dragon scales, but rather to remove the crystal on this spiritual weapon by the power of the black fire, which the black fire didn't do yet.
Zen needed to outwit the black fire, for it was clever and unruly. Taking down the crystal was not as easy as he hoped it would be.
“Well, I've just given you a treat and now you are going to obey me!” said Zen as he held up the glistening blade of the Jade Butterfly, pointed his fingers to its runes. Then he further added, “You need to activate these runes, so I can take down this Phoenix Crystal. When it's removed, then the whole blade will be all yours!”
Speaking carefully, Zen instructed the black fire as if he was speaking to a child.
Zen raised the Jade Butterfly in front of the black fire. To his surprise, the black fire rushed to the Jade Butterfly and went straight to the Phoenix Crystal.
Seeing this, Zen was quick to move the blade of the Jade Butterfly away from the black fire.
“Ah, the black fire didn't follow my directions,” said Zen with frustration. The flickering black fire was giving him a headache. Though it resided in the depths of his mind, it didn't completely belong to him, and he was having a hard time controlling it.
But giving up so easily was never Zen's character.
He still got plenty of time, and he could patiently teach this “little guy” to understand what he meant.
It took him four long hours to teach the black fire. It seemed to him that the black fire had finally understood that he wanted it to enter the runes.
The moment the black fire entered the runes on the Jade Butterfly, it lit up a light that wasn't too vivid.
Zen could see the runes move, the outer and inner parts twirled in opposite directions. He looked closely and saw the Phoenix crystal in the center of the runes waggled.
Then he gently shook the blade.
“Flip-flop!”
The Phoenix Crystal twitched and fell to the ground.
“Thank goodness. It's finally loose!”
said Zen with a beaming smile. He then waited for the black fire to emerge from the runes. When it was out, he threw the blade of the Jade Butterfly into the air. The black fire rushed to the blade like a hungry lion and devoured his reward. The blade soon disappeared, leaving drops of heavenly essence.
The Phoenix Crystal no longer had its color and luster after it was removed from the runes. Zen put it down and planned his next step. “Now, it's time to think how to inlay it on one of my arms,” said Zen to himself.
It brought a shiver to his bones when he thought that a crystal would be deeply embedded inside his body.
Although he was a special human, a spiritual weapon in a human figure, it was still strange to inlay a foreign matter into his arm.
But he had to embrace it because it would make him more powerful.
The runes on his arm must be activated to inlay the precious gem into it. And they must be activated by the black fire. Although the black fire was a part of him, he must be very careful not to burn his arm with its powerful yet damaging energy.
“Well, I gambled once, and I will do it again!” said Zen as he made a decision to take the risk.