Qian Rongzhi seemed to be extremely amused by Li Qingshan’s expression, as if she had finally found someone who would listen to her inner voice, and that person would be forced to listen too.
“As remuneration, I can investigate Chu Tian’s background for you. He won’t just leave the matter like this. Oh, and that female instructor who wants to harm Xiao An too.”
“We’ll see. The old man is about to begin,” Li Qingshan answered casually, neither agreeing nor declining. Wei Zhongyuan had to die anyway. As for the female instructor, he would kill her if he met her. It would bring him a bit of pleasure too.
However, little did he know that in the eyes of regular people, this thought of his made him seem no different from a deviant.
On the lecturing platform, the professor finally stopped drinking tea. He gently coughed twice with a satisfied expression. “Everyone, I’m Meng Xiqi…”
The two of them stopped conversing, focusing on the class.
It was fine when the professor called Meng Xiqi was quiet, but once he began, he did not stop. Words flowed out of his mouth like a river, going from the origins of forging artifacts to the development of forging artifacts. His voice echoed through the spiral lecture hall, clearly heard by everyone.
“Some people say alchemy, forging artifacts, and so on are all outer paths of cultivation, and they’re not wrong. However, it’s exactly because of these outer paths of cultivation that you can sit here in peace, without having to worry about attacks from daemons, yet those daemons that truly only practise a greater path of cultivation are forced to hide deep within the mountains or underground…”
This was basically the first time Li Qingshan had come in contact with the path of forging artifacts, so he listened extremely carefully. And just like what Zhang Lanqing had said, Meng Xiqi spoke extremely well, full of wit and humour and striking great interest in the audience. He was only at the eighth layer, but he could be regarded as an expert in the aspect of forging artifacts.
After giving a general overview on the history and significance of forging artifacts, Meng Xiqi began to teach the actual path of forging artifacts.
Li Qingshan was entranced by it. Only then did he learn just how wondrous the path of refining artifacts was. From the initial transformation and fusing of materials, followed by the infusion of glyphs and inscription of formations, every single step was extremely impressive.
He never thought that these “outer paths of cultivation” would actually be so closely linked either. The glyphs mentioned in forging artifacts were different from the glyphs from the path of talismans, but they were identical in nature.
Glyphs were characters, characters that communicated with the world. Just the common types numbered at almost a thousand, and they had a myriad of effects depending on their combinations. During the process of forging artifacts, the infusion of glyphs was a crucial step, so understanding a little about the path of talismans was critical.
And, above spiritual artifacts were arcane artifacts, which were inscribing formations into artifacts to produce even more powerful and complicated effects. Qi Practitioners obviously lacked the ability to achieve this, but if they wanted to become a real artifact smith, then they had to know some basic formations.
Li Qingshan knew he had to revise the subjects he would be taking, but he felt like he had found a direction in the darkness. He was overjoyed.
Meng Xiqi spoke for two hours before returning to the very basics of forging artifacts—transforming the state of the materials.
“A good blacksmith goes through many steps to forge a sword. The basics steps include smelting, hammering, and quenching. They need many tools, like furnaces, large hammers, small hammers, air bellows, tanks of water, grindstones, and so on. However, to us, just a single artifact forging furnace is sufficient, or even no furnace…”
Finishing up with his explanation, he picked up the wooden boxes he had brought with him. Inside were many small, square pieces of wood, arranged neatly. He made the disciples in the front row pass them backwards.
Meng Xiyi requested them to turn the wood into a sphere without destroying the wood grain. The wood was pine wood, so it was relatively soft and easy to mould. In order to learn artifact forging, they needed to be able to mould a substance with their own power.
Li Qingshan received a piece of pine wood too, and he immediately began to practice with it. He slowly channeled true qi into it, following the method that Meng Xiqi had taught him, gradually fusing the true qi with the wood.
With the purity of his true qi and the gentle nature of Gui Water true qi that made it easier to control, he succeeded on his first try with this.
As he began to mould his true qi, the piece of wood began to twist and mould with it too, as if it was not wood, instead becoming gas or water with the Gui Water true qi.
PS: Sure enough, this pace suits me better. I gotta control my own mind delicately like forging artifacts!
Chapter 302: Reincarnated Celestial | Legend of the Great Sage
Li Qingshan’s confidence swelled. After experimenting around for quite a while, he finally removed the eight corners of the piece of pine wood. However, the wood grain had cracked, reduced to a mess. Panicking slightly, he could not help but increase his input of true qi, and the wood piece immediately shattered with a bang.
He looked at Qian Rongzhi beside him. She was not doing any better either.
Qian Rongzhi casually crushed the piece of pine wood and smiled. “Looks like neither of us are geniuses.”
However, they were not doing too badly. Li Qingshan believed that as long as he was a little more steady, forming a sphere would be nothing difficult. However, he would still need to closely understand just how to avoid cracking the wood grain.
There were a lot of Qi Practitioners who even struggled with the first step, unable to imbue the objects with true qi even after numerous attempts, so they obviously could not mould the pine wood at all. If they rushed it, then they would shatter their piece of wood too.
Meng Xiqi sneered. “If you can’t achieve that, it means you have no talent for forging artifacts. There’s no need for you to attend anymore of my classes. Save yourself some time.”
The Qi Practitioners were all proud people, and this professor Meng was only a Qi Practitioner as well, so a few people stood up and left.
Afterwards, Meng Xiqi smiled. “Actually, I also failed when I tried the first time.”
Everyone was stunned. Meng Xiqi said, “Arrogance is your greatest obstacle to learning. If you’re not even patient enough for this, then there truly is no point for you to learn how to forge artifacts. Don’t forget, talent can be made up for with hard work. Alright, show me what you’ve achieved. Lift them up.”
Many wooden spheres were lifted up into the air. Of course, those who did too poorly were too embarrassed to show their handiwork. Meng Xiqi’s gaze landed on Chu Tian. His wooden sphere was perfectly round, with the wooden grain clearly visible. There was not the slightest crack; instead, it was like it had been carved out of wood.
“You there. Please stand up. What’s your name?”
“Chu Tian.”
“Nicely done.”
Chu Tian enjoyed everyone’s gazes of admiration with pride. He thought, That’s a given. I’m a genius. What talent can be made up for with hard work? That’s all just to trick fools. He even glanced back at Li Qingshan.
Qian Rongzhi said to him secretly, “What’d I say!”
“These days, there really aren’t as many enemies that are so simplistically cute.” Li Qingshan smiled, but he was uncertain whether she understood him.
There was no break in between. Only after four hours did the lecture end, and only then did Meng Xiqi stop talking. He put his hand on the back of his head and yawned. “That’s all for today. I’m getting old. I get tired just from standing a little.”
Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 301-Chapter 400)
Dream Teller's books
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 1-Chapter 100)
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 101-Chapter 200)
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 201-Chapter 300)
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 401-Chapter 500)
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 501-Chapter 600)
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 601-Chapter 700)
- Legend of the Great Sage (Chapter 701-Chapter 833)