Vessel of Worlds

After about another incense stick's worth of walking, Lu Wen finally said: "Here's the entrance."

Andy saw two Qi Refinement cultivators standing guard before a small formation array, barely two or three zhang in diameter. There was nothing resembling an "entrance" in sight.

Could this formation be— Andy's thought was cut short as Ma Gao exclaimed: "A teleportation formation!"

Lu Wen glanced at Ma Gao. "Some knowledge, at least. Yes, it's a teleportation formation—used exclusively for entering and leaving the forging chambers." He produced a red token and addressed the two guards: "Brothers, these three are new artifact disciples, here on Artifact Master Kuang's orders. Please assign three lower-tier forging chambers and send us through."

The two guards examined the token carefully, confirmed it was genuine, and one of them produced three smooth, round blue jade discs from his storage pouch, handing one to each of the three newcomers.

Andy examined his closely. One side was engraved with the number "125," while the other was densely covered in tiny characters—presumably the usage instructions and incantation.

The other two discs were marked "126" and "127" respectively.

"The formation can only transport one person at a time. I'll go first—follow immediately after." Lu Wen gave his instructions and stepped into the center of the formation array. The two guards pressed low-grade spirit stones into the array's focal points, then cast a technique into the formation. A blinding white light rose from all sides. When it faded, Lu Wen was gone.

"You—step in." One of the guards motioned to Andy.

Andy entered the formation and stood at its center. White light flashed. For an instant his mind went completely blank. He squeezed his eyes shut, and when he opened them again, he was standing in a stone corridor that stretched away in both directions with no end in sight. Lu Wen and two other Qi Refinement cultivators were standing nearby.

"Step out, quickly." Lu Wen motioned. Andy hurried forward a few paces and realized he had been standing inside another formation array.

Moments later, Ma Gao and Fang Fu were transported through as well.

"These two formations are a paired bidirectional set. To leave this place, you must also use this side's formation," Lu Wen explained. Then he produced three storage pouches and tossed one to each of them. "The jade disc you received is the key to your forging chamber. The number on the front corresponds to your chamber number; the back has the operating incantation—it's very straightforward, figure it out yourselves. Once you're inside your forging chamber, no one will disturb you. Every chamber is protected by the large-scale formation array. Without your jade disc, even a Core Formation cultivator would have difficulty breaking in. Each storage pouch contains twenty jin of refined copper ore. In one month, Artifact Master Kuang will personally inspect your results. Make the most of your time."

With that, Lu Wen nodded to the two formation guards, stepped into the array, and vanished in a flash of white light.

Ma Gao said: "Brother Zhao, Brother Fang—I'll take my leave here." He headed off down the stone corridor, glancing at the numbers on either side as he went.

Andy and Fang Fu exchanged farewells and set off in their own directions.

Stone chambers lined both sides of the corridor, built from some unknown material that, despite the intense underground heat, still felt faintly cool to the touch. Andy checked the number on the first chamber: "45." Across the corridor: "10." A few steps further: "62" and "28." There was absolutely no discernible pattern. He would have to check them one by one.

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After passing seventy or eighty chambers, he finally found "125."

The incantation on the back of the jade disc was indeed simple—two readings and he had it down. He placed the disc into a circular slot in the stone door, a perfect fit, then murmured the incantation and directed a pulse of spiritual power into the disc. Blue light rippled across its surface. A moment later, with a grinding, creaking sound, the stone door opened to reveal an entrance roughly half a zhang wide. Andy retrieved the disc, slipped inside, and sent another pulse of power into the disc. The stone door ground shut behind him.

Only then did he examine the forging chamber's interior.

The chamber was not large—only a few dozen zhang across. The walls and floor were all constructed from the same unknown stone. Set into the north and south walls were two pairs of dragon-head carvings with gaping mouths, labeled "Earth Lung Fire." On the western wall was another dragon head, this one labeled "Spirit Spring Water," beneath which sat a pool lined with jade-green stone.

The fire and spring water would apparently be drawn from these dragon heads.

Beyond that, the forging chamber was completely bare.

Andy extended his spiritual sense to its fullest, carefully scanning every corner of the chamber. Once he was satisfied there were no hidden mechanisms, he sat down on the floor. He didn't rush to study the jade slip Artifact Master Kuang had given him. Instead, he took out the little bowl he hadn't used in days, placed a Marrow-Washing Sub-grade pill inside it, then gripped a brilliant blue high-grade water spirit stone in both hands and settled into meditation.

Andy did not leave the forging chamber once for the entire month.

As a Qi Refinement cultivator, he hadn't yet reached the Grain Abstinence state that Foundation Establishment cultivators could achieve, and normally still needed to eat. But back at Liuyun Market, he had stocked up on a good supply of Grain Abstinence Pills. Five low-grade spirit stones per pill, and a single pill eliminated the need for food for a full month. For a Qi Refinement cultivator, this was a considerable luxury—most would rather eat every three to five days than spend five spirit stones a month on Grain Abstinence Pills. Only when an extended, uninterrupted meditation session was absolutely critical would anyone resort to them.

Andy was short on many things, but spirit stones were not one of them. He had quietly bought enough Grain Abstinence Pills to last him several years.

This month was both intense and productive.

During the first half, he used the bowl to upgrade a batch of pills, then consumed them during meditation. The forging chamber truly lived up to its reputation as a dedicated workspace—there was absolutely no outside interference. The perfect silence made cultivation a genuine pleasure. In his spare moments, he studied the purification techniques from Artifact Master Kuang's jade slip.

It wasn't until the second half of the month, when he actually began purifying the refined copper ore, that he understood why they had only been given twenty jin.

Purification was backbreaking work.

It required an enormous expenditure of spiritual power just to suspend the ore in the Earth Lung Fire and melt it slowly. On top of that, vast amounts of spiritual sense were needed to precisely control the fire's intensity, guide the separation of pure refined copper liquid from impurities, then gather the individual droplets of copper liquid into a single larger mass. Finally, the liquid mass had to be rapidly plunged into the spirit spring water to cool, yielding a small block of purified refined copper.

The spiritual power consumption was manageable—Andy had an inexhaustible supply of high-grade spirit stones to replenish himself. But the drain on his spiritual sense was something else entirely. He had no pills or elixirs that could restore spiritual sense. The only way to recover it was through rest and quiet meditation—and there simply wasn't enough time.

Working flat out, he could only purify about a fist-sized block of ore per day. Twenty jin would take at least ten days to two weeks, leaving him no time for proper rest. As a result, three consecutive purification attempts went wrong—his spiritual sense ran too low, his control slowed, and the refined copper liquid stayed in the Earth Lung Fire a fraction too long. The resulting copper was darker in color with noticeably less spiritual energy. These were clearly failed products.

Andy began to worry about Artifact Master Kuang's inspection at the end of the month. If his output was too low and his failure rate too high, the artifact master might revoke his status as an artifact disciple—and he could end up saddled with whatever unwanted assignment nobody else was willing to take.

He looked at the little bowl beside him and muttered to himself: "This is all because of you, little bowl. You're the reason I need a hideout this secure for cultivation. I finally find the perfect place, and it turns out I have to work this hard for it. Nothing in this world is ever truly perfect."

Then he paused, and his eyes widened. "Wait—the bowl. That's it!" Something had just occurred to him, and his deflated mood surged with sudden excitement.