Troublemaker’s Guide to Immortality

Inside the Earthfire Chamber, the black iron Yun Jin had purchased had already been delivered and stacked to one side.

Since black iron was the lowest-grade ore, it was incredibly cheap. With just ten mid-grade spirit stones, she had obtained enough to form a small hill—more than enough to practice with for quite a while.

Yun Jin swept her gaze over the chamber's equipment.

"Natural second-grade earthfire, specially refined. Stable heat output, endlessly replenishing, capable of smelting second-grade ores. A great aid to artifact refiners."

"Control system: allows adjustment of earthfire intensity. Can reduce the heat, but not increase it. The maximum output equals a second-grade flame."

"Forging station..."

"A plain and unremarkable iron hammer..."

"Quenching furnace..."

After scanning everything, Yun Jin had a basic understanding of the setup. She then picked up a chunk of black iron and tested its weight in her hand.

It looked dull and pitch-black, but it packed a satisfying heft.

A sudden thought struck her.

If she kept hammering iron like this, wouldn't she end up like one of those legendary muscle-bound blacksmiths?

She rubbed her chin, amused. Not that she feared becoming a "King-kong Barbie," but the idea did remind her of the body refinement path. She disliked having any weak points. Her soul was strong, her spiritual power profound, and her physical body needed to keep pace.

Of course, she couldn't go about it like Long Yi, refining her body with spirit beast blood.

But now she wondered.

Forging ores was, in a way, physical training too.

Just like in the modern world, people who exercised consistently ended up much stronger than average. And blacksmiths who worked the forge daily also developed exceptional strength.

Applied to a cultivation world, it would follow that artifact refiners should, theoretically, possess more physical strength than the average cultivator.

So this was, in effect, a roundabout way to strengthen her body.

Still...

This method was gradual, without focused direction. It wouldn't truly count as embarking on the path of body refinement.

Yun Jin felt a trace of regret at that. But body refinement was a problem for another day, not something she needed to rush.

She placed the black iron on the forge table, then reached for the nearby hammer. Its weight was staggering. Even as someone in the Foundation Establishment stage, whose physical capabilities far surpassed mortals', she found she couldn't lift it without exerting all her strength.

Even then, the hammer refused to budge.

She was forced to infuse it with a bit of spiritual power just to pick it up. Yun Jin didn't use the Simplification System right away. She wanted to try things on her own first. She brought the hammer down with full force. The black iron didn't show much change.

Frowning, she tried again, this time channeling spiritual power as she struck.

Strike after strike, a hundred in total. At the end of it, the iron only showed a shallow dent. It was far from being refined into hundred-tempered iron.

She raised an eyebrow.

So the key was speed.

Only by delivering a hundred strikes in rapid succession could she hope to temper the iron properly. Yang Hui hadn't exaggerated—getting started with artifact refining really wasn't something one could master in a year or two.

Yun Jin sighed.

If she could, she wouldn't have minded being a regular person, sweating and struggling for three or five years to slowly grind her way into the field, then enjoying the joy of finally grasping the basics.

But she couldn't.

She had a cheat.

And she had already thought of a faster way in.

Once again, she picked up the hammer. This time, rather than merely infusing it with spiritual power, she used the force-generating method from the Gale Sword Art.

The Gale Sword Art was one of the sword techniques demonstrated by the five senior brothers earlier. In order to master the Azure Lotus Sword Art, Yun Jin had already comprehended the sword intent behind the Gale Sword Art: Gale Intent.

Despite the name, sword intent was more like a conceptual domain. When applied to swordsmanship, it became Gale Sword Intent. When used in forging, it transformed into Gale Hammer Intent. This sword intent excelled in boosting speed through wind-elemental force. And since refining hundred-tempered iron demanded speed above all, the Gale Intent was perfect for it.

Spending a few Simplification Points, Yun Jin had the system modify the technique slightly to suit the weapon change. The Gale Sword Art was seamlessly converted into the Gale Hammer Art. She used a few more points to transfer her swordsmanship proficiency over to this new hammer technique.

Now equipped with Gale Hammer Intent, she tried again.

Under the influence of the wind-aligned domain, her spiritual power consumption increased. The hammer in her hands blurred into afterimages, falling strike after strike on the black iron.

Ten breaths. One hundred strikes.

[Objective achieved.]

Beads of sweat dotted Yun Jin's forehead.

This time, she hadn't simplified the forging process itself. She had only transformed her sword intent into hammer intent. Every strike she had landed, she had done with her own effort. Looking down at the iron, she noticed its color had shifted slightly. A faint violet sheen appeared across its surface. Under the glint of its polished luster, she could even see her own reflection.

Still, this wasn't yet true hundred-tempered iron.

One hundred strikes alone weren't enough.

So she began again.

Only after repeating the process one hundred times did Yun Jin finally exhaust her spiritual power and produce her very first piece of real hundred-tempered iron. It was no longer as blocky and heavy as before, now as thin and dense as a thirty-page book. Its entire surface glowed faintly violet.

Yun Jin felt a rare sense of pride.

For someone who usually relied on her system cheat, getting to sweat for something with her own hands felt... amazing.

She was still basking in that feeling when a system notification echoed in her mind.

[Host has independently advanced to Grade One Artifact Refiner. Sub-profession unlocked: Artifact Refiner. Current rank: Grade One Artifact Refiner. Proficiency: 1%.]

Yun Jin blinked.

Just like that, she had become a Grade One Artifact Refiner?

She had even unlocked the sub-profession herself?

It felt like she had saved quite a few Simplification Points compared to her previous upgrades.

Her thoughts turned to her other sub-profession: Alchemist.

It seemed the upgrade paths for Alchemist and Artifact Refiner were different.

To advance as an Alchemist, she had to pass formal exams administered by the Alchemy Association. Even her system wouldn't update her status until she completed that assessment.

But with Artifact Refining, the system had simply recognized her progress on its own.

Yun Jin rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

To her, both professions were essential. Whether it was refining pills or forging tools, each offered tremendous benefits.

However...

In this world, alchemical formulas were rare, and pill refining was notoriously difficult. This made the status of Alchemists unusually high.

Artifact refining, on the other hand, had a much lower entry barrier. Anyone with decent physical strength could at least try their hand at it. As a result, low- and mid-level Artifact Refiners were seen as far less valuable than their Alchemist counterparts.

It was simply a matter of supply and demand.

Still, Yun Jin believed that once one reached the pinnacle, a Grade Nine Artifact Refiner and a Grade Nine Alchemist would stand shoulder to shoulder.