Chapter 201: The Explosion Of The Weapon Refining Furnace
A tinkle echoed in the air before a black smoke billowed out of the weapon refining furnace.
When the outer disciple looked back at the smoke, his face suddenly turned pale and he cried out, “Oh, Harrison. What's wrong? Is there a fire shortage?” If the fire was not enough to burn the material in the furnace, the furnace would explode.
The inside and outside pressures of the furnace were different because of the high heat. In order to resist the high pressure in the furnace, the furnace wall had to be very thick.
But it was clearly impossible to resist the high pressure by relying on thick furnace alone. Certain materials would have different reactions when put into the weapon refining furnace. These reactions must be handled accordingly. Thus, a weapon refiner had to be well-experienced and resourceful to manage these reactions well.
This was why even without proper training, a lad at half-step into the nature level like Evil Lan could refine weapons far better than any disciples in Cloud Sect. If he had studied in Cloud Sect, he would have been able to refine not only top-grade mysterious weapons but also spiritual ones.
Zen sensed that the disciple of the Seventeenth Court who was operating the weapon refining furnace was already panicking.
It would be a big disaster if the furnace exploded.
The weapon refining furnaces of Quenching Peak were expensive. Each furnace was made of refined copper and rare metals for the inner wall. If the furnace did explode, these disciples couldn't afford the loss.
Thus, all the disciples of Seventeenth Court were flurried.
“Oh-oh, I'll go get a master!” exclaimed one disciple.
“The furnace will explode any minute now. It is too late to call master now,” another shouted.
Those disciples were fussing around like ants on a hot pan.
“Harrison, try to use your life vitality to separate the sword embryo from other materials in the furnace,” someone suggested to the disciple who was operating the weapon refining furnace.
The disciple named Harrison replied, “I'm trying my best to do it, but the sword embryo is closely attached to other materials. There's nothing I can do to separate them.” He poured life vitality from his hands into the furnace to feed fire continuously. He was already sweating from the heat of the furnace and the anxiousness he was feeling that moment.
“Come on, Harrison, refuel!” the disciples encouraged. But unfortunately, Harrison was already running out of fuel.
Zen watched them without caring whether the furnace exploded or not.
But he thought that in order to borrow their weapon refining furnace, he should help them out. If the furnace was broken, there was no way he could refine his sword.
So without any second thought, Zen stepped forward to help.
“What are you going to do?” The outer disciple who had previously stopped Zen saw the latter again coming towards the furnace. He got angry at the stubbornness of Zen, and thought to himself, 'Why is this guy coming back again? Does he really want to be beaten up?'
The disciple suddenly punched Zen out of fury.
The disciples of Quenching Peak were mainly trained for weapon refinery, and not to cultivate strength. Thus, their strength in martial arts was worse than that of disciples of the thirty-three peaks at Cloud Sect. In general, Quenching Peak was weaker than the Drizzle Peak.
When Zen saw that fist coming for him, he suddenly quickened his pace to avoid the punch. He then continued to walk towards the furnace.
The outer disciple was shocked when he witnessed Zen's speed and realized that the latter wasn't ordinary. However, he didn't want Zen to disturb Harrison at any cost, so he shouted hurriedly to his mates, “Everybody, stop that guy. Don't let him get near Harrison! Hurry!”
In an instant, several disciples surrounded Zen but none of them could stop Zen.
The disciples were stunned to see Zen breaking through their siege so easily.
At that moment, one of them realized something and shouted, “Maybe he can help Harrison!”
The disciple was right. Zen intended to help Harrison in preventing the furnace from exploding. Once Zen reached the weapon refining furnace, he patted Harrison on the back before the latter even realized it.
Over time, Zen had developed his skill in utilizing the demonic life vitality.
When Zen first mastered the demonic life energy, he could not control its devouring power. But after a while, he learned how to completely control it and avoid devouring other people's life vitality. He learned that in order to do that, he should keep half of the demon life vitality and half of the purple life vitality in his belly.
As he patted Harrison, he softly said to him, “Relax!” The demonic life vitality started to pour from Zen's hands through Harrison's body.
Harrison got nervous at first, he felt relieved when he realized Zen's intention. He didn't expect that a strange young man would help him in this way. He had already reached his limit but thanks to the stranger, he could feel that his life vitality became powerful again.
The only solution to avoid the furnace from exploding was to use the life vitality to form a fire net and tie the sword embryo and other materials together.
The more intense the chemical reaction of the sword embryo, the faster the fire would be consumed. Once the life vitality of the weapon refiner was exhausted, the sword embryo would be freed from the fire net, then the explosion would occur.
At such circumstances, there was often no better way but to hold on despite the pain or abandon the furnace and run for life.
Zen's life vitality was pure that the fire in the weapon refining furnace burnt up again.
The red flames were crackling in the furnace. With Harrison constantly pouring the life vitality, the fire net was soon reinforced, and the sword embryo was firmly fixed in the fire net.
The disciples of the Seventeenth Court were relieved when they saw the fire strengthened and the reaction in the furnace came to a slow standstill.
They all looked at Zen with grateful eyes.
But still, they were surprised to see that this outer disciple had marvelous strength that helped Harrison through the big difficulty.
Harrison fed fire into the furnace for a long time then gradually stopped when a burst of white smoke billowed out of the furnace–indicating that the weapon refining was in good condition.
Before the furnace was opened, a weapon refiner would judge the success rate of refining based on the color of smoke that the furnace emitted.
A pure black smoke indicated that the success rate was at ten percent to twenty percent or in other terms, poor. While the grey color indicated that the success rate was from twenty to fifty percent. On the other hand, a pure white smoke indicated that the impurities in the sword embryo and materials were burned sufficiently, and the success rate was above eighty percent.
It was the first time for the disciples of the Seventeenth Court to refine top grade mysterious weapon, so they were not confident on the success rate. They didn't mind the black or grey smoke if the furnace wouldn't explode. But they were ecstatic when they saw that the furnace emitted a pure white smoke.
The disciples of the Seventeenth Court cheered noisily as the white smoke continued to rise from the furnace.
They celebrated as their first attempt to refine a top-grade mysterious weapon succeeded. It was going to be big news at Quenching Peak and the other disciples would envy them.
Although the white smoke was not an assurance that the refining would be a success, it was a good start for them and enough to make them happy.
With a satisfied smile on his face, Harrison sat on the ground and sighed of relief. They were able to save the situation of the furnace almost blowing up. He was grateful to have survived that life-and-death situation. But first, he must thank the person who helped him.
So Harrison stood up and bowed to Zen, “Thank you so much for your help, my friend. If it weren't for you, the furnace would have blown up and we'd be in great trouble. My name is Harrison Xu, the eldest disciple of the Seventeenth Court.”
Zen returned the gesture by bowing and introduced himself, “I'm Zen Luo, the outer disciple of Drizzle Peak.”
After greeting each other, Harrison asked, “Did you come to Quenching Peak to refine a mysterious weapon?” He waited for Zen to respond, but when the latter wasn't saying a word, Harrison continued. “I haven't mastered the skill of weapon refining. As you can see, we're in the middle of making a top-grade mysterious weapon, but it almost ended in a furnace explosion. Fortunately, you're here to help us. But if you're looking to refine low and middle-grade mysterious weapons, we can help you to make one.”
Zen helped Harrison escape from the danger of a furnace explosion.
And to show his gratitude, Harrison was willing to refine a mysterious weapon for Zen.
But Zen wasn't looking to refine a mysterious or spiritual weapon. After considering Harrison's offer, he said, “I appreciate your kindness, Harrison. But I don't want to bother you. I just like to use your weapon refining furnace for a while.”
“What?” Harrison exclaimed, looking at Zen with suspicious eyes. “But you are neither a weapon refiner nor a disciple of Quenching Peak.”