Chapter 21

21 Chapter 21: Rune Combinations

Translator: 549690339

Xu Fan cleaned up the room a bit, then began to sit in meditation and rest. Although spiritual power could recover quickly, using spiritual force with a big hammer to forge metal would consume a lot of mental power.

At this moment, someone knocked on the door.

Xu Fan opened the door, only to find the supervisor of this area, a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, looking old.

“This is your first time refining an artifact, young man.”

“Yes, do you have any advice, supervisor?” Xu Fan nodded and said, he was wondering why the already-formed artifact exploded.

“Not bad. Just by listening to the sound, you reached the final stage of artifact forging on your first attempt.”

“Not bad, not bad.”

The supervisor began to size up Xu Fan.

“Do you know why my final step went wrong?” Xu Fan’s eyes brightened, it seemed like the supervisor intended to give him some pointers.

At that moment, the supervisor held out a hand and said with a smile, “I am a First-tier Artifact Refiner; I charge 10 spirit stones for the guidance on a single question and 100 spirit stones for an hour of guidance.”

“You won’t waste your money; I guarantee it’s worth it.” The supervisor grinned sinisterly. With this business, he could afford to buy a house outside Quetian City.

Xu Fan instantly felt insulted.

After handing over 10 spirit stones, the supervisor revealed a happy smile.

This kid has a bright future.

“Just by listening to the sound, I know that during your refining process, you didn’t consider the compatibility issue between runes. They can repel or attract each other.”

“When your runes start to repel each other, combined with the unstable state of the newly-formed artifact, it will cause an explosion.”

The supervisor’s words suddenly enlightened Xu Fan, and the content in the jade slip started to make sense.

“Actually, this kind of mistake is easy to solve.” Just as Xu Fan was pondering how to solve it, the supervisor spoke again.

“I got it; I know how to fix it now. Thank you for your kindness, supervisor.” Xu Fan said, not willing to let the supervisor take more advantage of him.

“It seems that you have your own ideas, young brother. If you have any more problems, don’t hesitate to ask me.” The supervisor said with a touch of disappointment, he didn’t get to make a deal. No big deal, he would just patrol around the area in a while.

After the supervisor left, Xu Fan’s spirits were restored.

“Spirit control, breaking armor, solid, lightweight feather, silence, breaking spirit, heart imprint, flowing light, transformation, spirit storage, attach fire,” Xu Fan said, while drawing in void.

Due to the lack of a carrier, the spiritual runes in the air disappeared after a moment, and the spirit light dispersed in mid-air.

“It’s interesting that there is indeed a repulsion between runes. Let me try changing the order.” Xu Fan continued to practice in the air, changing the order, for more than 5 hours.

“It feels like the rune path is more complicated than alchemy.” Xu Fan frowned and said.

While arranging the runes, Xu Fan found combinations without repulsion, but still had a feeling of incompleteness.

Xu Fan decided not to refine the artifact until he figured out the order of the runes, so as not to cause more damage. He would use his secret weapon later.

When he left the Earth Heart Square, Xu Fan sighed, “Just like that, I lost 100 spirit stones.”

“No wonder they say that refining artifacts is more expensive than alchemy.”

Back at his little hill, Xu Fan began studying runes again.

The next day, Xu Fan went straight to the Hall of Enlightenment at Refining Equipment Peak, where many people who encountered problems during artifact refining gathered.

There were many smaller halls within the Great Hall, such as the Rune Hall, Fire Control Hall, Spiritual Ore Hall, Unique Talent Hall, Array Hall, and Quenching Hall.

Xu Fan knew that each hall corresponded to a specific issue.

He went to the Rune Hall, showed his token, and entered.

The entire Rune Hall had over a hundred seats, all of which were occupied by people seeking answers.

“One question per person, no more than a quarter of an hour.”

“Questions will be asked in seat order.”

At that time, the Outer Sect Refining Elder spoke.

Sitting in the first seat, a Foundation Building Early Stage cultivator quickly asked, “Elder, can the Explosion Flame Rune really not be merged with the Extreme Ice Rune in the same magical treasure?”

“You already have the answer, and you still come to ask me. I know about your little schemes,” the elder on the main seat said indifferently.

“First is the material of the magical treasure that carries the runes, and second is the use of Flowing Rune to transition. These two need to be paid with a huge price.”

“Alright, next.”

As the cultivators in the seats asked their questions, Xu Fan also got part of the answers he wanted, deepening his understanding of the ways of runes.

Two hours later, it was finally Xu Fan’s turn.

“Elder, is there a perfect state between the arrangement of runes?” Xu Fan asked his question.

At this moment, the Outer Sect Elder looked deeply at Xu Fan.

“Young man, give me your name.”

“Outer Sect Qi Refining Disciple, Xu Fan,” Xu Fan said, indicating that he was just a disciple of the Outer Sect and had not yet become a reserve disciple for any peak or hall.

“Being able to ask this question means that you can go further on the path of artifact refining,” the Outer Sect Elder said with satisfaction.

The Outer Sect Elder looked at all the disciples present and said, “You are all just entering the path of artifact refining. In the future, after many years of immersion in artifact refining, you will discover a limitation, or the limitation of Heavenly Dao.”

“Magical treasures have three components: material, runes, and formation.”

“When all three are perfectly integrated, your magical treasure will attract Thunder Tribulation, whether it’s an artifact, a treasure artifact, or a Dao tool.”

“Then your refined magical treasure will inevitably be destroyed by the Heavenly Dao.”

“It is said that perfectly formed magical treasures can evolve on their own, and may even become immortal tools.”

Seeing the longing expression of the others, the Outer Sect Elder continued, “Alright, this is just a legend. Now back to the main point.”

“There is a degree of compatibility between rune combinations. When your rune combination presents the most perfect state, congratulations, your magical treasure will be at the top level among those at the same tier.”

“For example, a Qi Refining Peak cultivator with such a flying sword artifact could easily slay a Foundation Establishment Early Stage cultivator.”

“Cross-tier battle is quite easy, of course, such magical treasures are difficult to forge. It is already a great fortune to refine one in a lifetime of an artifact refiner.”

“To draw such runes, you need the right timing, right place, and right people.”

After getting the answer, Xu Fan went home and began practicing rune carving.

He drew five Spirit Control Runes in the air before staring at the floating runes in a daze. Then he practiced the remaining ten runes several times.

It took five days for Xu Fan to come out of his research state.

“Knowledge makes me happy.” Xu Fan was excited, after five days of experimenting, he had finally found a relatively perfect combination of runes.

He couldn’t grasp that perfect state described by the Outer Sect Elder.

There were only four days left before the Secret Realm opened.

After sleeping soundly, Xu Fan brought all the materials with him, confidently entering the Earth Heart Square.