Chapter 202: The Weapon Condensing Skill
It was the first time that an outer disciple of the Drizzle Peak came to the Quenching Peak to borrow the weapon refining furnace.
Harrison heard about some gifted and talented disciples that not only practiced martial arts but also had great attainments in refining weapons.
But most of those talented disciples came from the noble clans and had great family backgrounds. Moreover, the weapon refining furnaces used by the noble clans were more advanced than those used by the disciples on Quenching Peak. So how could it be that a disciple came to Quenching Peak to borrow the weapon refining furnace from them?
“You heard me right. I want to borrow your weapon refining furnace for a while. But don't worry, I'm not going to use it to refine a weapon. I just want to condense a weapon,” Zen explained in a calm tone.
Harrison was even more confused after hearing Zen's explanation.
From what Harrison could see, Zen wasn't a weapon refiner, so how could the latter be able to condense a weapon?
Condensation was a process where a weapon refiner condensed his understanding of the Heavenly Law into a weapon. Only after the condensation could the weapon be graded. Therefore, condensation was considered the most important process in refining a weapon as the amount of understanding of the Heavenly Law would determine the grade of a weapon.
There was a common belief that a thing could not exist without a basis.
If Zen wasn't a weapon refiner, how could he comprehend the Heavenly Law? And if he couldn't comprehend the Heavenly Law, how could he possibly condense a weapon?
This was the reason why Harrison was confused about Zen's plan.
But Harrison didn't see anything wrong in lending the weapon refining furnace to Zen for condensing a weapon.
After all, condensing a weapon was less risky than refining one, and the first wouldn't result in the furnace explosion. Besides, whether Zen succeeded or not was none of Harrison's business.
Moreover, Zen helped him earlier. If it wasn't for Zen, the weapon refining furnace could have exploded.
After considering all of these, Harrison finally said to Zen, “If you just need to condense a weapon, I will gladly lend you the weapon refining furnace. But you need to wait until my top-grade mysterious weapon is condensed. It will take me some time to condense it, though.”
Zen smiled and replied, “I can wait. Take your time.” With that, Zen turned and stood aside.
Harrison then sat in front of the weapon refining furnace and released the fire again.
But in reality, both fire and life vitality could be used to condense a weapon. The weapon refiner only needed to pour the life vitality into the weapon according to his own understanding of Heavenly Law to complete the process of condensation.
It was not good for condensation if the applied heat was too high. After all, there was a volcanic branch connected at the bottom of the weapon refining furnace. The said volcano continuously provided temperature to the furnace by the underground lava so the temperature in the furnace wouldn't be too low even if there was no fire released in it.
Zen knew about the underground lava and that was the reason he came to the Quenching Peak to condense his weapon. Since he didn't specialize in the practice of fire cultivation method, he was not confident that the demonic life vitality could be used to condense a weapon. Although condensation didn't require high temperature, the weapon refining furnace still needed a certain temperature to work.
Given Zen's circumstances, the weapon refining furnace on the Quenching Peak was the best and only option to condense a weapon.
Zen stood by and waited for a while. He saw Harrison poured the fire into the weapon refining furnace.
From his observation, the fire Harrison used for condensation was less powerful than for the refining. When Zen looked carefully at the fire, he sensed that the fire emitted a strange power that he didn't know how to describe in words.
Although the power that the fire emitted was extremely small, it couldn't be ignored at all.
'The power might be Harrison's understanding of Heavenly Law!' Zen thought in his mind as he looked awed at the power hidden in the fire.
The process of condensation was the most critical stage in weapon refining.
The duration of condensation depended entirely on the understanding of Heavenly Law and a little luck.
However, the duration of the condensation would not dictate the quality and the grade of the weapon after it was taken out from the weapon refining furnace.
There were stories about weapon refiners and the stage of condensation. Since this process involved the Heavenly Law, these stories became more legendary.
One of the legends said that there was someone who spent a month condensing a weapon. The weapon refiner didn't waste any time during the whole month of condensation that he ate and drank in front of the weapon refining furnace. He took that long because he thought that he hadn't condensed the weapon very well. And after a month of continuous condensation, he was able to condense a fairy weapon.
There was another story that a weapon refiner was screwed up with abnormal weather in the process of condensation. The weapon refiner had only half an hour to condense his weapon considering the lightning, thunder, and gale. But after all the challenges, he was still able to condense a fairy weapon.
These kinds of stories created misconceptions about weapon refining. They thought that the success of the weapon refining depended only on luck.
But in reality, the ability was more important than luck in the process of weapon refining.
In general, the weapon refining trainee like Harrison would take a long time in the process of condensation. It would take him two to four hours to condense a weapon.
But Zen was willing to wait. He stood aside and waited for Harrison silently.
Out of his expectation, the process of condensation was more successful this time. Zen saw Harrison withdrew the fire an hour later. He heard Harrison said, “Alas! It's done!”
The disciples of Seventeenth Court who were standing nearby also cheered when they saw Harrison finished the condensation process. “Harrison, you did it!”
“Come on! Let's open the weapon refining furnace and look at the first top-grade mysterious weapon of our Seventeenth Court!” someone said in an excited tone.
Harrison walked towards the weapon refining furnace and took off its lid. Right now, the temperature in the furnace was quite high, so he had to condense a fire on his arm to protect himself from being burned in the high temperature of the furnace.
When Harrison retracted his hand from the furnace, he was finally holding a sword in his hand.
The silver sword was shining, and it glittered under the ray of the sun.
“It's an actual top-grade mysterious weapon! I'd like to name this sword the Water Seeking Sword!” Harrison said as he took the sword in his hand and looked at it carefully. His junior fellow disciples rushed to him like a swarm of bees trying to get a look at the top-grade mysterious weapon.
Meanwhile, Zen walked slowly towards Harrison. He complimented him with a smile on his face, “You did it, Harrison! You have refined a top-grade mysterious weapon.”
Harrison saw the casual glance that Zen threw at the top-grade mysterious weapon he just refined. It seemed that Zen wasn't really interested in it at all, so Harrison asked, “I have finished the condensation now. So, when will you use the weapon refining furnace to condense your weapon?”
“I'll do it now,” replied Zen in a calm tone.
Harrison stood aside and stretched out his hand, gesturing for Zen to take over the furnace, “Take all the time you need.”
Harrison was also curious about what Zen was about to do. He wanted to know what kind of weapon a non-weapon refiner could condense.
Zen tapped his space ring gently and took a sword out of it.
Harrison and other disciples of the Seventeenth Court were surprised at the sight of Zen's sword.
As for weapon refiners, they had good eyes for any weapon that they saw.
The sword in Zen's hand wasn't a common weapon although it hadn't been condensed. They knew the sword must be a masterpiece from a master of weapon refiner when they looked at it.
Just as Zen was about to put the sword into the weapon refining furnace, Harrison stretched out his hand again and stopped him. “Zen, this sword in your hand is of extraordinary quality. If you ask a master of weapon refiner to condense it, you can get a top-grade spiritual weapon out of it!”
What Harrison was trying to say was that Zen shouldn't condense this sword himself. The latter wasn't a weapon refiner, so Harrison was afraid that he could just destroy the extraordinary sword if he condensed it himself.
Since Zen had the ability to acquire such an extraordinary sword, Harrison thought that he could also afford a weapon refiner. A qualified weapon refiner could do the trick and condense a top-grade spiritual weapon. Just the thought made Harrison excited.
But Zen shook his head.
He didn't want to waste his time and energy to ask someone just to condense the sword for him. If he wanted a top-grade spiritual weapon, he could just buy it. Moreover, he had the chance to get a top-grade spiritual weapon in the treasure house of White Emperor City. But he let that chance pass by and just chose two crystals instead.
The reason he wanted to do it himself was to condense a fairy weapon with the use of the heavenly essence.
“Harrison, I appreciate your thoughtfulness. But I have to try it myself. I want to know whether I can succeed in condensing it or not,” replied Zen with a smile. Harrison felt sorry for the sword after he heard what Zen said.
Zen was indeed a prodigal young man. Even though it was an extraordinary sword, Zen still wanted to condense it on his own without thinking what would happen to the sword if he failed.
Weapons couldn't be condensed repeatedly. If Zen wouldn't succeed in condensing it the first time, the sword would be ruined. Harrison still couldn't believe that Zen wanted to condense the sword by himself. It all sounded to him like a joke.
He wanted to stop Zen from condensing this sword himself. However, he wasn't the owner of the sword after all, so he wouldn't be able to convince Zen not to do it. And by the expression in Zen's face, there was nothing Harrison could do right now.
The other disciples of the Seventeenth Court didn't know what else to say. Just like Harrison, some of them were resentful for Zen's decision to waste such an extraordinary sword.
Zen just ignored the pitiful and angry looks of the disciples around him and put the sword in the weapon refining furnace.
“Zen, don't you need the fire to protect yourself from burning?” Harrison inquired in confusion. Harrison found another peculiarity of Zen. He noticed that Zen didn't get burned even if he put his hands in the furnace without any protection.
“Oh, the temperature in this furnace is not too high, so I don't need to protect my arm with the fire,” Zen replied and smiled.
Harrison was suddenly at loss for words.
Although he knew Zen was a man of great power when he delivered the life vitality to help him earlier, he didn't expect that Zen could stand such high temperature. There was underground lava connected at the bottom of the weapon refining furnace, and he just condensed a weapon with the fire in it. How could it be possible that the temperature in the furnace wasn't too high?
The temperature was so high in the furnace right now that it might take only two seconds to make a pig roast if you threw one in it.
But Zen's arms weren't burned after he put the sword inside the furnace. There wasn't even a scratch on his arms. How was it even possible?