Chapter 200: The Quenching Peak
Not spending a single piece of cubic crystal and much effort, he now got an unfinished weapon. What good luck he had!
Still, he knew nothing was for free, and sooner or later he would have no choice but to pay when they charged him.
Unlike the last time when Zen bought weapons from here, he realized that neither the shopkeeper named Qi nor the female boss of the Weapon Pavilion were to be regarded as normal people this time.
He wasn't that curious about the shopkeeper, but the woman's strength was powerful, and Zen couldn't detect the peak of her real strength, which made him more curious about just how strong she could be. Adding to her mystique was the fact that she'd raised a Fire spirit which was a very rare creature.
'Here, the Weapon Pavilion, such a small organization to handle weapon dealings, has so powerful people like them. Wow, the Burning Sky Empire is truly a good place with so many hidden talents!' thought Zen.
However, presently, Zen wasn't aware if there was another reason why these two were hiding out in the Weapon Pavilion.
Now that he was aware of them, he would keep a close eye on them.
It was early morning later, when Zen was back at the Cloud Sect, and he saw the peaks were covered with heavy clouds.
He didn't head to Drizzle Peak after passing through the gates into the Cloud Sect.
Instead, he strode toward the back gate, toward Quenching Peak.
Quenching Peak was adjacent to Perdition Mountain and not included as one of the thirty-three Peaks.
One of torture Mountain's active volcanic branches extended to Quenching Peak. It was used to refine weapons for disciples of the Cloud Sect.
Even though Quenching Peak recruited disciples too, it was a place to learn the art of refining weapons, and not to study martial arts.
As such, while the disciples of thirty-three peaks were assessed on their martial arts aptitude, within the Quenching Peak, the disciples' skills in refining weapons were gauged.
However, the Cloud Sect was not one of the prominent factions for refiners to study the art of weapons refining, so, there wasn't much of an influx of disciples pouring into Quenching Peak. On the other hand, there was always an issue with overcrowding at the thirty-three peaks with more than ten thousand outer disciples residing in each peak only at any given time.
Taking a tally of every disciple at Quenching Peak resulted in just about one thousand disciples.
However, that didn't mean the disciples at Quenching Peak weren't popular.
In all of the Eastern Region, there were very few people who followed the path to become a weapon refiner, and while none of the refiners at Quenching Peak was at the master level, quite a few of them were highly skilled.
Each disciple in all thirty-three peaks at the Cloud Sect was required to train in boxing first when they joined the Sect. Midway through the training period, the disciples had to have a weapon of their own. However, the average disciple wasn't able to afford to purchase one, since the price of weaponry was so steep, and a single piece of random mysterious weapon could set a disciple back a few hundred cubic crystals.
Therefore, the disciples at Quenching Peak were entrusted with the auspicious task of building weapons, and in reality, it was the only option for those disciples who weren't wealthy.
As a further incentive to support the Quenching Peak weapon refiners, the officials at Cloud Sect enacted a policy that granted perks for any of the weapon refiners that assisted in creating a weapon for the disciples from the thirty-three peaks. The perks included some extra points, which largely spurred enthusiasm for the weapon refiners at Quenching Peak.
The resident weapon refiners ranged from rich to poor. Refining materials were really expensive, and a failed project was more than a setback with the precious materials being nothing more than a pile of waste, leading many of the prospective weapon refiners to suffer losses they weren't able to recover from, and leaving them destitute.
Considering how few could afford trial and error at such excessive costs, the potential weapon refiners would first take their family finances into account, not their talent or passion in the art of weapon refinery.
Quenching Peak was not far from Hell Mountain and looked not so high in altitude. Zen stood at the foot of Quenching Peak, looking up. A shadow hung over Quenching Peak and Zen's gaze was drawn to the side, and he craned his neck further back, looking up at the towering Hell Mountain. Standing in the shadow of Mountain, people thought Quenching Peak resembled nothing more than a hill.
Zen noticed a plume of black smoke, steadily rising from the Quenching Peak which indicated the disciples were busily honing their refining skills. Throughout the tempering process, they had to maintain control to keep the core temperature of the fires within the furnace so the heat would be uniform. The thick, black smoke produced rising into the air now indicated that some disciples were not having a good control of the fire temperature.
If the fire temperature in the furnace was controlled properly, then soon the materials being refined in it would be burned completely, the fires would be extinguished, and no more smoke would rise up into the air above.
Walking along the flat, lower path leading up Quenching Peak, Zen soon saw the many buildings sporting identical roofs. Regardless of how long he had been in the Cloud Sect, it amazed him to see such distinctive steel and stone buildings. He was also left slightly in awe when he reached the top and the first thing he realized was that not even a single building was made of wood.
When he walked up the peak, he asked himself, 'Why aren't there any wooden houses here?' There were two reasons, Quenching Peak was an offshoot, yet, still part of an active volcano, Hell Mountain, which maintained unusually high temperatures year round. The second reason was the inevitability that in the process of weapon refining, sparks would be sent through the air, and a wooden building was nothing more than kindling for a prospective blazing inferno.
Zen had traveled to Quenching Peak in hopes of being permitted to use a refining furnace. He was grateful that it wasn't difficult to find a refining furnace at Quenching Peak. Zen didn't even need to know the way as he had to merely look skyward and make his way towards the rising black smoke.
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.