The Divine Painter's Journey Volume 1 Chapter 49 Forty-Nine, The Painting Array

  "You're as sneaky as a thief, always appearing without making a sound and not following the normal path." For several months, Xiao Yao had been focusing all her attention on refining equipment, but she hadn't made any progress, and it was inevitable that she would feel frustrated. Seeing someone she didn't want to see again, her face showed a normal expression, but her words were full of sarcasm.

  "It's been half a year again, and you still haven't made up your mind, isn't that impatience on my part?" Zidong was already accustomed to her cold words and didn't feel the slightest bit improper about his own behavior, using the same old phrase as he sat down with a swagger, "Good disciple, when are you going to formally present me with the tea of respect?"

  People like Zidong, once is not enough, there will be a second time. Facing this second "surprise", Xiao Yao was much calmer, anyway, it's impossible to guard against it, unless she leaves Meishan Floating Island, otherwise, just open up and don't bother herself. Fortunately, she had some understanding of his temperament, knowing he had no ill intentions, so she wasn't afraid, and simply said: "I won't worship you as my master." After finishing speaking, she didn't even look at him, continuing to work on the unfinished pottery in her hands.

  It was Zi Dong, who had been rebuffed several times and was quite depressed. He slightly curled his lip and thought to himself: "Why doesn't this girl appreciate me?" If it were outside, as long as he, Zi Dong, said he wanted to take someone as a disciple, probably no one wouldn't kowtow three times and be grateful to the point of tears, immediately kneeling down to pay respects. But only this girl would discard him like a worn-out shoe. At that moment, his heart felt greatly wronged: "I'm saying, good disciple, aside from not discussing the teacher's morals, do you think there's anything else wrong with me as a teacher? Why are you always so cold every time we meet? It really makes me feel deeply wronged!"

  Xiao Yao's whole body trembled, and the heavy hammer in his hand almost struck askew. Does this guy have any self-awareness at all?! He broke into someone else's cave, played with others at will, and was full of despicable behavior. Is it necessary to ask again? He thought he was just playing with people again and didn't bother to pay attention.

  Zi Dong waited for half a day without seeing any response, and he also had no interest, so his gaze swept to other rooms in the cave. He remembered that last time he came in, he directly entered the void from the crack in the wall of the cave, and didn't carefully examine this cave. This time when he looked again, he found that except for the alchemy room, other places were too clean, with only a stone table and several stone chairs in the front hall, and a stone bed in the inner chamber, there was nothing else.

  After a moment, he withdrew his gaze and said with a sense of defeat: "My dear disciple, this doesn't look like the boudoir of a female cultivator at all. If someone didn't know better, they'd think it's an abandoned cave. At this rate, you'll never find a Dao partner."

  Xiao Yao remained focused on refining her equipment, continuing to treat him as if he were nothing. Suddenly, a surge of annoyance rose up in Zi Dong's heart. He swept his gaze over the discarded, failed attempts at crafting and the broken artifacts scattered across the floor of the refinement room. His eyes narrowed slightly as he smiled mockingly, saying: "Good disciple, are you trying to infuse your vital energy into an artifact? Unfortunately, if you continue to force it in like this, I'm afraid you'll spend a lifetime trying to refine even one decent piece."

  Finally, there was a reaction in the refining room, and the voice was full of doubt: "Do you understand refining?"

  Her eyes sparkled with a hint of sharpness: as long as there's a reaction, it's fine, what I'm afraid of is no reaction. She raised her smile and proudly said: "Of course, among the five techniques, there isn't one that I don't know. Generally, refiners will choose to condense during the casting or grinding process, which is relatively easy, but like you choosing to condense the yuanqi during the furnace refining process, although it's not impossible...” As he spoke, he suddenly stopped and looked at her with a mischievous grin.

  Xiao Yao was secretly shocked in her heart. This guy had only taken one glance, yet he could see that she was trying to condense her yuanqi during the furnace refinement process. He might not be inferior to Array Master in terms of his mastery of equipment refinement! Over the past few months, she had indeed tried to condense her yuanqi at every step of the equipment refinement process. As he said, it was easiest to condense yuanqi into the embryo and polishing processes, but the yuanqi that entered the artifact was scattered throughout the embryo and could not fill the pattern on the artifact. During the furnace refinement process, although it was extremely difficult for yuanqi to enter the artifact, she didn't know if it would be affected by the heat of the flames. Once the yuanqi entered, it would surge into the pattern on the artifact and form a path. Over the past few months, she had spent almost half her time trying to condense her yuanqi during furnace refinement, but the effect was minimal. No matter how much yuanqi she poured into the furnace, the embryo found it difficult to absorb.

  Now someone can see the problem at a glance, she is eager to learn and hastily asks: "But what?"

  "But... " Zi Dong's eyes gleamed with delight, his tone slightly teasing, "You bow to me as your master, and I'll tell you the rest, then teach you how to refine equipment, okay?"

  Xiao Yao stared at him for a moment, knowing that this person's bad habit had relapsed again. She casually dropped a sentence: "Love to say or not." Then she turned her head and continued to mold the pottery.

  "Hey, you... how can you just drop it like that?" Zidong saw her instantly let go, not even willing to say a few comforting words to herself, and was deeply hurt.

  Xiao Yao didn't intentionally target him or put on airs, she just had different attitudes towards different people. If it was someone like the master of Jin's Refining Equipment Shop, she would be extremely respectful and no matter how hard she tried to please him, it wouldn't be enough. But with Zi Dong... She curled up the corner of her lips: "You don't want to say, I won't force you."

  "How can you be so rigid, say a few more nice words and maybe I'll tell you." Zidong was extremely depressed, she said one sentence that he loved to say but didn't say, directly suppressing the well-prepared speech in his stomach.

  Xiao Yao didn't believe him, if he really spoke up to please her, this person would probably be over the moon, it's better to drop the topic and forget about taking a shortcut.

  It is said that without desires, one will be strong. Xiao Yao's method really left Zi Dong at a loss for words. For a moment, the two were silent, and in the silence, only the crisp sound of the instrument remained.

  Zi Dong narrowed his eyes, gazing at Xiao Yao's focused back, the two lines of sight almost burning a hole through him. After a moment, he suddenly smiled, seemingly thinking of something, with an air of nonchalance, saying slowly: "Forget it, since you want to take on an apprentice, I should show some sincerity and dignity as a master. I'll tell you this: while it's not impossible to condense the yuanqi during furnace refinement, it's difficult to succeed. Most equipment refiners wouldn't bother with such a troublesome method. As a senior refiner, my advice is to choose either casting or polishing to condense the yuanqi. Of course, relying solely on brute force won't work; you need to use your brain too. Think about it carefully yourself. If you really can't figure it out, you can come find me and I'll teach you a few methods for condensing the yuanqi. Hehe, they're definitely not inferior to those so-called masters."

  He came down with a flourish, but still didn't get any response from the person. Zidong just smiled and left the cave without a care. Xiaoyao waited until she confirmed that he had really left before putting down her heavy hammer, turning to look at the empty cave room, and letting out a long sigh: Finally gone.

  As for the words behind Zidong, she listened carefully but only believed half of it. The smooth feeling when condensing into yuanqi during the furnace refining process was not an illusion, so compared to Zidong's warning as a "senior", she trusted her own feelings more. If she could break through the difficult stage of condensation, the quality of the instrument would definitely be better than those condensed through other steps.

  The key is what she should do next?

  Xiao Yao tossed the embryo aside, and couldn't help but think: during this period of time, she had indeed relied on brute force to seal the high-concentration yuanli in the furnace. However, no matter how much yuanli she accumulated, even directly injecting it into the embryo, the embryo was still unable to absorb it, and sometimes an opposing force would emerge from within the embryo itself.

  It's not just about brute force, but also about using your brain. This is a hint given by Zidong, but is he referring to himself needing to think carefully or is he subtly pointing at something else?

  Xiao Yao was at a loss for what to do, so she simply flipped through some jade slips related to alchemy that she had copied from the White Jade Pavilion's library, to see if she could get any inspiration.

  Above the bronze yellow stage, high-grade artifacts are different from low-grade artifacts. They are like immortal artifacts and will not be damaged unless they are destroyed by external forces. They will not rust or become useless due to depletion of spiritual energy. This is likely related to the fact that high-grade artifacts require the infusion of yuanqi during the refinement process. It can be inferred that as yuanqi flows through the artifact's internal patterns, it constantly nourishes the artifact's interior, making it seem like it is being used frequently. In contrast, low-grade artifacts such as treasure artifacts, dao artifacts, and spirit artifacts rely solely on temporary bursts of spiritual energy and yuanqi, which cannot last long.

  It is only briefly mentioned in the Jade Book that the method of condensation varies from person to person, and it is not clearly recorded. Since brute force cannot be used for condensation alone, wouldn't other aids be needed? Even if there are, this aid will certainly not be a complicated object, but rather something that can be used when refining equipment, such as fire spirit?

  No! Condensation can be done in all four steps, except for furnace refining, the other three steps don't need to use fire spirits. What else did she miss? Must think carefully, use brain... spiritual awareness?!

  Xiao Yao suddenly had an epiphany: Could it be that this condensation process still requires the guidance of a divine consciousness?!

  Although the divine consciousness is often used, it is also the easiest thing to neglect. After all, during the refining process, one must rely on the divine consciousness to control the fire, and naturally would not think of using the divine consciousness to guide the condensation at the same time.

  In this world, the minerals born from the heaven and earth have their own unique natural patterns, similar to arrays, commonly known as: mineral patterns. The more against-the-heaven minerals are, the more complex their internal mineral patterns will be. Even if the minerals are melted and re-cast, their mineral patterns will not disappear. When combined with other materials and forged together, they can rearrange the mineral patterns to create even more complex patterns, sometimes even having an array-like effect. This is known as: equipment arrays, which is also why some magical equipment comes with built-in magic when forged. However, low-grade equipment's mineral patterns are simple, so the existence of equipment arrays depends on luck and chance. On the other hand, high-grade equipment each has its own equipment array, meaning that all equipment above the bronze-yellow rank inherently come with magic!

  Perhaps she should try using her divine sense to guide the yuanqi along the array pattern during the firing process!

  The author has something to say: Today's chapter is also a transition, about alchemy...