"What kind of shamans come to watch you fight to the death for their amusement?" Wei Yuan asked.
Hunter Thirty-One recalled, "I've encountered them twice. Each time there were about six or seven dignitaries, accompanied by dozens of guards. Among the dignitaries were Desolate Shamans, as well as Nether Shamans and Spirit Shamans, and occasionally even young Great Shamans. They come to watch the fighting aboard specialized flying boats."
"How high are the flying boats, and how far are they from you?"
"Usually a hundred zhang up, around several li away from us."
Wei Yuan felt that his plan had gained a bit more feasibility. At that distance, a Shaman Hunter's heavy bow and enchanted arrows could reach. However, grand schemes like exporting revolution and liberating the Power Shamans were still merely rudimentary notions; Wei Yuan felt that securing survival supplies was far more pressing for the time being.
The most valuable piece of equipment on Hunter Thirty-One's person was a covering cloth capable of blocking sunlight. When he needed to roost, he could drape it over himself to rest. In addition, his suit of armor also possessed effects that concealed and attenuated sunlight. With this covering cloth, Wei Yuan and the two shamans could take turns sleeping.
Yet upon examination, Wei Yuan discovered that the sun-blocking effect of both cloth and armor actually stemmed from the sacrificial power of the Shamans, which meant one had to return every two or three months to have the enchantments reapplied. The cost of such spellcraft went without saying—an exorbitant sum once more.
Hunter Thirty-One had no home in the Desolate Realm; his entire worldly possessions consisted of that pack containing a meager trace of spatial power. While houses had indeed been built in the market settlement, they were entirely beyond what Shaman Hunters could afford.
To go to the market, one needed goods to trade. So Wei Yuan had Zhengang retrieve all the iron arrows Hunter Thirty-One had loosed. The quality of these iron arrows was quite ordinary, far inferior to the tower shield Wei Yuan had crafted by hand. Leaving aside being deflected upon striking the shield, most of the arrowheads had dulled, requiring them to be taken back to the market to hire a craftsman to melt and reforge them.
Needless to say, craftsman fees were also sky-high.
Now that Wei Yuan had a full set of tools on hand, he prepared to reforge these ruined iron arrows with added materials. As long as their quality reached the level of the tower shield, the price of these arrows would skyrocket several times over. Selling them at the market would net a modest profit.
Wei Yuan was a man of action. Setting out the anvil stand directly, he placed an arrowhead upon it, silently murmured in his heart, "Let me make some money," and brought down his hammer.
A resounding clang rang out, echoing far across the wilderness!
Sparks burst beneath the iron hammer like fireworks blossoming for the New Year, giving both Hunter Thirty-One and Zhengang quite a fright. Such was the momentum of this strike that Wei Yuan himself was startled. Focusing his gaze, he saw that after this single hammer blow, the dull black of the arrowhead had shifted to reveal a tint of dark red; a great deal of impurities had actually been beaten out of it.
Wei Yuan then discovered that with this single hammer strike, his karmic luck had actually decreased by ten strands!
Karmic luck could be used like this? Greatly intrigued, Wei Yuan swung the forging hammer once more. The falling blow echoed across the wilds again, sparks raining down. Wei Yuan swung his hammer repeatedly, each blow blasting fiery bursts like setting off fireworks.
After nine strikes in total, when the tenth hammer blow landed, several hundred strands of azure qi abruptly vanished, and a brilliant red light rose from the anvil stand, shooting straight toward the sky!
Wei Yuan ceased his strikes and looked closely. The arrowhead on the anvil stand had shrunk by a size, yet it was dark red throughout, with a faint luminescence circulating within. From its appearance alone, one could tell it was no ordinary item.
Hunter Thirty-One stammered in a trembling voice, "Th-this is desolate steel?!"
Hunter Thirty-One took up his quiver, pulled out the iron arrows inside, tossed them aside, and then fished an arrowhead from the very depths of the quiver. It had been hidden so well that even Zhengang had failed to find it when searching him.
Hunter Thirty-One vigorously wiped the grease and grime off the arrowhead, whereupon a reddish luster emerged as well. However, this arrowhead of his still bore numerous dark patches, its purity and appearance clearly inferior to the arrowhead Wei Yuan had reforged.
When ordinary Desolate Realm iron had its purity elevated past a certain critical point and was then forged with specialized techniques, it became desolate steel. Unless one was a true master craftsman, it was impossible to forge desolate steel at all. Furthermore, the quality and properties of desolate steel forged by different craftsmen bore subtle distinctions, which had given rise to quite a few different schools.
At present, there was only a single master craftsman in the entire market who could forge desolate steel gear, and what he produced was the lowest grade of desolate steel. Even so, the price of a single desolate steel arrow was astronomical—worth at least a hundred fine iron arrows.
Against a molten ox, Hunter Thirty-One would have to loose more than ten arrows in succession to kill it. But with a desolate steel arrow, a single shot could pierce its defense and severely wound the beast.
Having served as a Shaman Hunter for decades, the entire fortune Hunter Thirty-One had accumulated amounted to no more than a hundred-odd fine iron arrows and a single desolate steel arrowhead kept for saving his life.
Wei Yuan carefully inspected the arrowhead's material properties, arriving at a definite conclusion after a moment. Materially speaking, Desolate Realm iron was a dharma idol-tier material; Zhengang's original little iron knife had at least twenty percent stony impurities, making it merely an entry-level magic treasure that hardly matched Zhengang's cultivation.
Yet top-grade iron could brush against the lower boundary of a Scenery Command spirit treasure. Such material was everywhere across the Desolate Realm, practically giving one the sensation of walking upon gold.
Meanwhile, the material properties of desolate steel had undergone a complete rebirth; it was a bona fide Scenery Command-tier spiritual material. Thus, after a few blows of Wei Yuan's hammer, its value had surged by over a hundred times, yielding a spirit treasure-grade piece of equipment outright—at the mere cost of around a thousand strands of azure qi.
Because it was forged with karmic luck, Wei Yuan felt as though he had entered an extraordinary state at this moment. His divine sense grew remarkably acute toward material properties, vaguely able to see right through the desolate steel's internal structure and the flow of spiritual power.
Wei Yuan was in peak form, so he picked up another arrowhead, sprinkled some iron material over it, and began hammering. Forging with karmic luck in the same manner, nearly a thousand strands of azure qi vanished on the ninth strike this time, followed by another beam of red light shooting straight into the sky.
Looking at the second desolate steel arrowhead, the two shamans were completely dumbfounded.
Wei Yuan's heart stirred suddenly as two strands of karmic luck, earthy-yellow tinged with pale red, descended from above and materialized out of thin air within his sea of consciousness.
These two strands of karmic luck came entirely as a surprise to Wei Yuan. Only upon careful inspection did he realize that one came from Hunter Thirty-One, and the other from Zhengang. So this was what a Power Shaman's karmic luck looked like! Then a question suddenly crossed Wei Yuan's mind: he had known Tianyu for so long, yet had he ever received any karmic luck from him?
Perhaps Tianyu had given some, but Wei Yuan couldn't recall, so he could only assume Tianyu hadn't.
And from these two strands of karmic luck, Wei Yuan discovered another thing he had overlooked: Zhengang's professed loyalty had sounded clear as the sun in the sky, but in reality, he hadn't contributed a single strand of karmic luck until just now, alongside Hunter Thirty-One. Evidently, Zhengang was a sly rascal as well.
Regardless, having their karmic luck bestowed upon him proved the two Power Shamans' current loyalty. It was just that their loyalty was not offered to Wei Yuan's martial strength, but to his prowess as a master craftsman.
At this moment, an odd thought occurred to Wei Yuan: if he were to sit upon the Golden Chime Hall one day, he would probably be the most unpopular sovereign among his ministers. After all, whether someone was truly loyal could be known simply by seeing whether karmic luck was given; sweet talk was utterly useless.
Looking at the arrowhead before him, Wei Yuan suddenly knitted his brows. He sensed instinctively that this was not yet the end; its material properties were like freshly molded porcelain greenware, still in need of being fired in the kiln.
Wei Yuan immediately channeled the Heavenly Luck Spirit Forging Method, a secret art of the Hall of Heavenly Secrets. He cast down one of the newly acquired strands of Power Shaman karmic luck, but it was clearly not enough, so he threw in the other strand as well. Then, with a loud shout, he brought his hammer down!
When this hammer blow landed, it unexpectedly struck out a melodic tune, after which countless flying birds burst forth from beneath the hammer and scattered into the sky!
Even Wei Yuan had not anticipated such a transformation. Slowly lifting away the hammer, he saw an arrowhead as translucent as jade resting on the anvil stand. It was bright yellow and brilliant red throughout, and within it, a pale-yellow bird the size of a rice grain was joyfully flitting about.
Possessing greater breadth of knowledge, Zhengang gasped sharply on the spot, crying out in disbelief, "Great Desolate Divine Iron!"
Two strands of karmic luck—sandy yellow with a crimson core—fell once more into Wei Yuan's sea of consciousness. Thus Wei Yuan learned what advanced Power Shaman karmic luck looked like.
The arrowhead had generated its own spirituality, already becoming a mid-stage Scenery Command spirit treasure. A Power Shaman's karmic luck was indeed naturally suited to the Desolate Realm; combined with the Palace of Grand Beginning's Hall of Heavenly Secrets spirit luck forging technique, with just two strands of ordinary dharma idol-grade karmic luck invested, Wei Yuan had transformed an ordinary Scenery Command spiritual material into a mid-stage spirit treasure endowed with spirituality.
Looking at this arrowhead brimming with spirituality, Wei Yuan had a sneaking feeling that for this journey into the Desolate Realm, the general style was about to go completely off the rails.
Chapter 874