The young girl turned and walked away. The gates of the Ice Pole Faction were nearby.
She walked through the protective array of the gates as countless sharp gazes looked attentively at her. These were the protectors of the gates. They looked at her until she stepped into the castle town.
Many more pairs of eyes looked at her along the streets of the castle town. Some of these gazes contained fear, but they contained more indescribable evil. They were afraid of her but were also greedy for her secret.
Everyone was different as they came from different ice races. The only similarity was that they had a powerful attendant by their side.
A large majority of these attendants were ice corpse demons who had used ice elemental powers to resuscitate the bodies of experts. These ice corpse demons came in all kinds of shapes, but the majority of them took on the form of cruel beasts. In particular, many of them were strange insects from the insect race.
Meanwhile, this young girl that seemed unremarkable was one of the top 10 experts in the Ice Pole Faction. She was a genius born in the Icicle Year and was a rare existence who could refine massive ice monsters. She was Julienne Xeah, the Ice Witch.
Julienne coldly checked her naked war trophy. This celestial had a perfect physique but seemed slightly weak. From the signs of frostbite, she could tell that his spiritual power was very weak when he had been alive. She had sacrificed her last opportunity to search for an ice demon only to obtain a defective product.
Julienne started to check the chilling point of the materials. Gradually, her gaze became slightly strange… In the end, this turned into shock. Then, she hugged the ice sculpture and fiercely kissed it.
Her chance to become an overnight celebrity had arrived!
She quickly obtained relevant information about the colossus from checking the divine territory patterns on the material. It was a creature from a low-leveled civilization, which meant that there would not be many obstacles in the future.
It was perfect!
She decided to remember this name —— Vladimir.
...
Everything had been sufficiently prepared. The two of them headed towards the Equipment Refinery Workshop in high spirits. Lao Wang was rather excited. The workshop was located at the side of the Equipment Refinery Hall that hovered in midair.
Like the Pill Refinery Hall, there were also various standard equipment refinery houses that were specially prepared for equipment refinery pupils. However, unlike the pill houses, these equipment refinery houses were often rented out for long periods of time.
Pill refinery was different from equipment refinery. Pill refinery was particular about various matching of pill furnaces to the pill. For example, when refining the Yin and Yang Pill, one would be able to perform better if one chose the Abstruse Ice Bronze Furnace. However, when one refined the Life Extending Pill, one had to use the Jiuli Heaven and Earth Furnace. One could change pill furnaces at one's will. Thus, renting the same pill house for long periods of time did not occur. But what about equipment refinery? The same large furnace was connected to every individual equipment refinery workshop. The same fire was in common use by everyone as control and adjustment of fire did not have to be as detailed or as exquisite as in pill refinery. Furthermore, the various tools often used in equipment refinery were all rather big, such as casting hammers, various molds used for shaping, instruments used for carving runes, and so on. One would only be able to use these items smoothly if they belonged to them. Under normal circumstances, it would not be easy to bring them around. Indeed, one needed an individual equipment refinery house.
Jhonas also had an equipment refinery house that belonged to him. However, the various equipment prepared inside were all used to refine illusion equipment. What about refining swords? This was really not something that Jhonas's equipment refinery house could deal with. He did not even have a complete set of equipment.
This equipment refinery globe had a zero-gravity design. Jhonas pulled Lao Wang and flew into a ring in the middle. Then, the feeling of weightlessness around them instantly ceased, and they landed on solid ground.
When they looked at the rings from the outside, it seemed as if these rings were constantly spinning. However, when one actually stepped into the rings, one could not feel that the space was rotating. On the contrary, the sun core outside slowly moved like the rising and setting sun. It was relatively mystical.
This was also Lao Wang's first time coming here. Thus, he felt that everything he saw was interesting, especially the contrast between what he observed inside and outside the rings. Somehow, this made him comprehend the enigma of stars. This reminded him of some celestial phenomena, and he was rather touched.
Meanwhile, Jhonas was not as moved. He had been here long enough to be familiar with this place. He did not go to his own equipment refinery house, which was not of importance now. Instead, he pulled Lao Wang along and went several rounds around this ring. He looked around and happened to see the door of an equipment refinery house being pushed open. A girl from the Fire Demon race walked out of the house with a weary expression on her face.
Jhonas's eyes lit up as he pulled Lao Wang along to catch up with her. "Senior Lavel!"
The Fire Demon race were experts at controlling fire. However, they were typically not suitable for pill refinery as they had explosive personalities. However, they were definitely the top race in the Equipment Refinery Hall and were also experts who specialized in refining combat equipment. Lavel was an expert among them. Even though she still remained in the Heavenly Gates as a pupil, she was an outstanding figure from the previous batch. All the seniors who remained in the Heavenly Gates were here for one objective —— the Heavenly River tides. Of course, this had nothing to do with Lao Wang and the Flying Pig.
With this kind of identity, Lavel had a relatively high status among the Equipment Refinery Hall pupils. She was a rare one as this senior did not have the brutal personality of most Fire Demons. One could not say that she was a soft person who never offended anyone, but to the juniors below her, Lavel was famous for being cold on the outside and warm on the inside.
"Senior, are you done? Could I borrow Senior's equipment refinery house?" Jhonas was full of smiles. Members of the Illusion race were often direct when asking others for help, but they controlled their tone to be satisfying and had proper attitudes. As a result, others felt that they were extremely sincere.
He was the only member of the Illusion race among the new pupils in the Equipment Refinery Hall, and it had been recently revealed that he was from the Babi family. Thus, Jhonas had a certain fame in the Equipment Refinery Hall. Furthermore, his relations with others from the Equipment Refinery Hall could not be said to be very good, but with his sweet mouth, they were definitely not poor either. One had to weigh their own identity before thinking about bullying the Flying Pig.
Lavel had seen this little fellow several times, and he was relatively respectful both in front of her and behind her back. She smiled. "Has the Illusion race changed their profession? You mainly refine illusion equipment, so why are you borrowing a sword house?"
"Senior, could we have a word with you in private? Let me tell you. I feel like crying when I talk about it…" The Flying Pig adjusted his expression and was prepared to start acting.
"Be direct. Don't act." Lavel showed some disapproval.
"Ahem ahem… Nothing can be hidden from Senior's eyes. It's like this…" Jhonas did not seem to feel awkward at all. Lao Wang, who was beside him, was like a prop that quietly looked on as Jhonas elaborated.
Since the Illusion race was able to become the leading tycoons in the divine territory, they had many points that were worth praising and learning from, such as their speaking skills and ability to organize their language. They were rather able to capture the important points and were relatively adept at influencing others. Of course, their understanding of the cultures and habits of other races formed the foundations for this. When Lao Wang heard how Jhonas added vivid details to his half-true argument, even Lao Wang felt as if he would wander about the streets and be lonely for the rest of his years if he did not obtain this sword. It sounded as if he would lead a miserable life otherwise.
"Earthlings really don't have it easy!" Jhonas was sentimental. "Senior, not only are you pretty, but you are also famous in the Equipment Refinery Hall for being loyal and for taking care of us. You know that my equipment refinery house can only refine illusion equipment. It is hard for me to be fully prepared in a short period of time. Thus, I can only ask Senior for help. Please let me use your place and create a piece of equipment for this Earthling. At least, allow this poor Earthling to feel some warmth and friendship from the divine territory!"
Lavel smiled. In reality, while Jhonas was coaxing her, Lavel's attention was focused on Wang Zhong instead.
Lavel was a Fire Demon. Many people in the Fire Demon race knew that Balor was the illegitimate child of a great figure in the Fire Demon race. However, no one dared to openly raise this within the race out of consideration for that elder's reputation. This time, Balor had been slaughtered in the Life and Death Arena of the Heavenly Gates. Lavel could not imagine how difficult this had been, and thought that the Earthling had three heads and six arms. Looking at him now, he seemed extremely gentle and did not look like a brutal fellow.
To be honest, she was disgusted with the actions of that great figure. Within the Fire Demon race, there were many different judgments towards this situation. Thus, many people secretly applauded this situation. This Earthling with the surname Wang had helped the Fire Demon race eliminate a sore point that they could not bring into light themselves. Furthermore, Jhonas had mastered the skills of speaking. As well, with his information network as a member of the Babi family, it was not difficult for him to find out that Balor was an illegitimate child, yet he did not raise this issue. This was a fellow who had a sense of propriety.
Besides that, this human called Wang Zhong was very interesting. He was from a level-3.5 civilization and was a Foundational Stage fellow. Not only was he able to defeat Balor, he had also been able to receive the favor of an elemental spirit. That's right. She had also heard that he was a member of the Law Enforcement Association. A body of flesh had been able to mix extremely well with the Machinery race and the insect race. As a result, many felt that he was rather interesting.
Helping him was as easy as lifting a finger.
"Go." Lavel waved her hand and threw a small sign at Jhonas. "Remember to clean the place up after you're done using it. Just ask your messenger to send the room sign back to me afterwards."
"Thank you, Senior! Long live Senior!"
When they walked into the equipment refinery house, the arrangement inside was completely different from the style he had imagined, one filled with steel and sweat.
Everything around them had feminine characteristics. On the whole, it was clean and tidy, and a faint fragrance wafted through the air. There was a recliner covered in a soft pink cushion. Of course, this was a personal item. The Flying Pig and Lao Wang both understood and acted like outsiders.
The equipment on the shelves were very neat, making Flying Pig excited when he looked at them. In reality, he had never expected that Lavel would agree. As expected, their family motto spoke the truth. Even if there was only a 1% chance, opening one's mouth might bring about 100% of the results.
Wang Zhong casually picked up the casting hammer to weigh it and found that it was relatively heavy. Furthermore, as the casting hammer had been used for long periods of time, he could feel the extremely dense fire elemental energy within the hammer just by holding the handle. It was as if he could cause a sea of fire to form if he casually pounded the hammer on empty ground.
"Good stuff! Good stuff!" Jhonas was inspecting various instruments. He was overjoyed and did not stop his praises. To an equipment refinery master, when they saw various good instruments, the feeling seemed no different from an alchemist's admiration towards top-grade pill furnaces.
Without another word, he turned on the furnace and started casting the equipment!
The casting furnace was a massive fire hole smelter that was connected to the fire channels outside. Typically, the smelters were isolated by several thick layers of fire-isolation boards. When Jhonas pushed away the boards, even with the shielding of the protective array, Lao Wang could sense a wave of flaming fire energy blowing against his face. Immediately, he felt as if his mouth and throat were dry.
This fire energy was relatively frightening. While Jhonas carried out a series of operations, Lao Wang observed Jhonas's so-called fire-control methods. Controlling the fire in the smelter while refining tools was completely different from controlling the furnace fire while refining pills.
In general, his surface impression of Jhonas's fire control was that it was crude, unlike the minute adjustments when controlling the fire in pill refinery. It was said that when the fire energy was maximized, it could melt all the materials in this world. This control could allow one to roughly adjust the temperature in the furnace. This adjustment was rather crude as it seemed one only needed to roughly understand the melting point of the material they wanted to refine and simply flip a switch.
However, this was obviously only on the surface. The smelter controlled the entire furnace, but the tool refinery master controlled the parts and details.
The smelter also had an array, as well as small mechanisms and designs that were similar to the empty and earth holes in pill furnaces. Similarly, one could use spiritual power to control some details. Obviously, simply melting materials at high temperatures was not the pursuit of a qualified, high-leveled tool refinery master as they also had to control the melting point. When different materials were used to refine tools, they needed to be adjusted in different material states. One did not simply melt everything into liquid.
For example, among the main ingredients that Jhonas had chosen to use this time was the Netherworld Gold Extract. Its normal melting point was 7,000 degrees, and while it would quickly melt into liquid at this temperature, it would also accelerate the changes in density of other materials in the smelter. When the liquid cooled down, it would no longer be the original Netherworld Gold Extract. A further example was another material called the Red Fire Bronze. This material had a strong property: it could not be reshaped. If one simply smelted it into liquid, one should not think that one would be able to turn it back into solid-state. Furthermore, one had to reach a standard "70% melting point" before achieving the best molding results. This was similar to how one ate 70% or 80% well-done steak… There were various peculiar materials. Similarly, this demanded many smelting techniques. This was no less exquisite than refining medicinal ingredients in pill refinery.
Furthermore, what was even more difficult was that most of these diverse materials had to be smelted in the furnace fire at the same time. They would enter and be taken out of the furnace at the same time. Even materials with completely different melting points had to be completely integrated in their different states within the furnace. This was only possible if one was able to control the furnace fire at a high level.
Control of the smelter seemed very free and easy, but there was finesse in this roughness, like a needle hidden in cotton. Perhaps there might be an extremely large difference between these fire-control methods and that for pill refinery, but they were the same thing in essence.