Staying Alive Cautiously in the Celestial Realm and Becoming the Strongest

Chapter 726: Chapter 726 Nine Directions Artifact Refining
 

Wang Chen rented a house located in the Seven Ridge of the Thousand Star Immortal City.

It was equivalent to the area of the Seventh Ring.

In the entire Thousand Star Immortal City, there are currently thirteen Ridges, and Seven Ridge is quite close to the core area, making the rent there very expensive.

This “峮” actually means “hem” or “fringe,” originally referring to the edge of a skirt.

The Dragon Turtle that carries the Thousand Star Immortal City grows once every hundred years, its body becoming larger, and its shell’s edges simultaneously sprouting new fringes.

That’s how the Thousand Star Immortal City expanded to its current scale.

The closer to the inner Ridges, the higher the quality of the architectural layout and the lower the density of houses and buildings.

The reverse is also true.

The residence Wang Chen rented was a part of a nineteen-story building, which included a standard-sized storefront and also featured a fully equipped small-scale casting workshop.

Plus, it came with the right to use Earth Fire!

What Wang Chen wanted to open was precisely an Artifact Shop.

Beyond the storefront and workshop, there were several rooms on the second floor for living, cultivating, bathing, and leisure.

Not to mention Wang Chen and Su Ziling, even adding a few more people would be perfectly fine.

While a yearly rent of 500,000 Low Spirit Stones seemed expensive, it was actually quite reasonable compared to other storefronts in the same area.

Wang Chen was lucky; the previous tenant of the shop had gone bankrupt due to poor management and still owed the landlord a sum of Spirit Stones, and the lease had just been put up for transfer a few days ago.

If Wang Chen had arrived just a day or two later, he might have missed his chance.

After all, such a “Move-In Ready” storefront was highly sought after.

Therefore, even though it cost him dearly, Wang Chen was still quite happy.

The sense of happiness from having a secure place to live was a mark of his previous life, deeply engraved in his Divine Soul.

It was something that couldn’t be erased no matter how many times he went through reincarnation!

Even happier than Wang Chen was Su Ziling, who, with a dusting cloth and dustpan, began cleaning with great enthusiasm, tidying up Wang Chen’s new residence.

Wang Chen let her be and went to the Earth Fire Chamber himself.

He held a Talisman Card and injected Mana into it, activating the Fire-Calling Array, and a scorching flame instantly gushed out from beneath the earth furnace.

Wang Chen summoned the ding and asked, “What do you think of this Earth Fire?”

Having just woken up, the small ding glanced at the room’s Earth Fire and said disdainfully, “It’s mediocre.”

Knowing it had high standards, Wang Chen laughed and said, “It’s enough for crafting Spiritual Artifacts.”

Wang Chen came to Thousand Star Immortal City and spent so many Spirit Stones to transfer residency and rent the shop, with the fundamental goal of earning wealth to purchase Condensing Core Treasures in this city of commerce.

His reliance was on the Immortal Cultivation panel and the Creation Cauldron!

But, even with cheats and sharp weapons at his disposal, as a “minor” cultivator from the Purple Mansion, Wang Chen had to be cautious.

So, he set his sights on the level of Spiritual Artifacts.

The reason he chose to earn Spirit Stones by refining Spiritual Artifacts, instead of Talismans—which he was best at—was that during his previous stroll through the streets, he found that the business of Talismans was extremely competitive.

If he started crafting and selling Talismans, even if his success rate was higher than others, the Spirit Stones he earned would mostly go to the local merchants—to purchase materials.

The Talisman business was too transparent, with little room for variety and very meager profits.

Especially for a small merchant like him, it was utterly unprofitable.

Artifact Refining was also competitive, but with Artifact Refining he could continually introduce new products and could custom-make for clients. Most importantly, many materials could be collected and excavated by himself.

The profit margins were relatively much larger.

Therefore, Wang Chen weighed the pros and cons and ultimately chose to engage in Artifact Refining.

Of course, before officially opening the shop for business, he had to “level up” his Artifact Refining skills.

This was, in fact, the simplest part.

In the following days, Wang Chen scoured every corner of the vast and small alleys of the Thousand Star Immortal City, collecting a massive amount of low-tier refining materials.

For example, Black Iron, Wind Copper, Silver Sand, Beast Horn, Rhinocero Skin, and so on.

In the Thousand Star Immortal City, these materials were considered bulk trade items, and as long as one purchased in quantities that met the standards, one could get them at wholesale prices, which was incredibly cost-effective for grinding experience points.

Additionally, Wang Chen purchased a tome on Artifact Refining — Nine Directions Refinement — from the Four Seas Commerce Association.

It’s worth mentioning that both the Four Seas Commerce Association and the Myriad Treasures Pavilion had branches in the Thousand Star Immortal City, and even though they were not members of the Thousand Star Commerce Alliance, their businesses were still booming, which clearly demonstrated their powerful backing.

It’s said that the “Nine Directions Refinement” was the legacy Dharma Technique from the Nine Directions Sect, the premier Artifact Refining Sect of the Haotian Realm a myriad of years ago.

However, the Nine Directions Sect had long since vanished into the annals of history, leaving the “Nine Directions Refinement” manuals to spread far and wide. Over time, and after countless iterations of cultivator revisions, it had become significantly different from the original, much like Wang Chen’s Five Elements Skill.

But for an Artifact Refiner, “Nine Directions Refinement” was undoubtedly an excellent primer and master-class tome.

This manual covered the fundamental Artifact Refining Dharma Techniques for Magic Artifacts, Spiritual Artifacts, and Magical Treasures, including both theory and practical methods. It also contained over a thousand refining formulas involving various types of armor, weapons, and auxiliary equipment.

Moreover, the price of “Nine Directions Refinement” was quite affordable; it was practically the standard textbook for Artifact Refiners.

The version sold by the Four Seas Commerce Association was their own annotated edition, which was priced a bit higher than others’, but it also offered more detailed and concrete content.

After acquiring the manual, Wang Chen immediately immersed himself in studying and learning, forsaking sleep and food.

Actually, the easiest way for Wang Chen to earn Spirit Stones through refining was to simply feed the materials to the small Ding and let it control the Creation Cauldron for refinement, without any need for him to personally intervene.

But now Wang Chen rather preferred to master the skill himself.

That way, he would know what he was refining in the future and wouldn’t be worried about the small Ding making exorbitant demands.

It’s still better to keep a treasure like the Creation Cauldron under his own control!

Plus, Artifact Refining was in line with the path of cultivation.

Worth learning.

Wang Chen’s character had always been resolute and determined; once he made a decision, he devoted all his time and energy, outside of his daily cultivation practice, to Artifact Refining.

In the workshop of the shop, the Earth Fire Chamber had the blazing Earth Fire burning for four to five hours each day.

This Earth Fire was not free, just like the natural gas pipelines in Wang Chen’s previous life, the fee was based on actual usage.

And the “fire gauge” for Earth Fire was the Array set up inside the room.

Every activation was recorded.

By the end of the month, Wang Chen’s expenditures on refining materials and Earth Fire usage were quite a significant figure.

But his “Nine Directions Refinement” had not only been incorporated into the skills category of his panel but had also been leveled up to Proficiency, just a bit shy from achieving Minor Achievement.

So Wang Chen pressed on with determination, continuing to purchase materials and grind for experience. Soon enough, he broke through to the Minor Achievement Realm.

However, upon reaching the Minor Achievement Realm, the speed of gaining experience points slowed down significantly.

The main reason was that the quality of the materials he was using for refinement had increased, thereby increasing the difficulty of refining and naturally slowing down the rate at which points were accrued.

Even though Wang Chen had invested heavily to date, he had yet to sell a single item from his shop.

But he wasn’t in any rush, continuing his practice at his own pace.

———-

Here’s the second update.