Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

To make the sword, Steelmind first needed to melt the metal. The metal he had was not a perfect half like it was with the scythe. Since he had experimented so much with it, the metal was in bits and pieces, each with different types of aura that needed to be flushed out, and overall everything had to be melted to put back together. Steelmind hadn’t thought he was going to be making another weapon out of this metal, but after the last time, he was prepared for it. He had a stronger formation now that could help melt the metal and also keep the heat away from himself, making it easy to work.

He looked through everything he had prepared and made sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. With the Death Sage standing in the room, with the two eggs ready to be deployed, he got to work.

The formation activated, sending out a pulse of coldness. As it spread out, the heat from the room was immediately brought into the center, where the pieces of metal were beginning to heat up.

Other formations activated, creating more heat to melt the metal as well. The intensity of the heat was so much that even with the much better formation, Steelmind could still feel his hair getting singed.

He looked toward the Death Sage. “Start adding the aura now.”

The Death Sage was strong enough in their own right, with a cultivation base even higher than Steelmind’s, so they were safer than him.

The Death Sage activated the two eggs, and the aura flew into the melting metal. As the metal melted and formed into one single molten blob, Steelmind began working.

Since the metal was molten this time, he was able to use a mold to shape it into a sword almost immediately. He dropped the temperature a bit, and the shape took on a slightly solid form, at which point he brought out his hammer and began striking it.

The entire sword, from its pommel to the tip of the blade, was one single piece of metal. Even as he hit it, the sword continued taking shape.

Steelmind was surprised by how much easier it was this time compared to when he made the scythe. Of course, he had yet to fill in the Qi-lines, but the Qi-lines he was going to add would be in the hundreds this time, not in the thousands.

He continued hammering away, adding edge to the blade as well as balance, while the Death Sage continued pouring both Death and Darkness aura into the sword.

Steelmind had a slight fear in the back of his mind that the two auras might fight each other for dominance in the sword, but since they were both a sub-category of Yin aura, they seemed to complement each other quite well.

As the sword took shape, he slowed down, letting the two auras fill it up. The sword was a sponge, continuously sucking in the aura. Steelmind worried that the two eggs might not have enough aura as required, but the Death Sage had come prepared. There was still

much to go.

Steelmind waited until he was certain the two auras had hit the limit within the metal, at which point he finally added the Qi-lines. Since there were only a few hundred Qi-lines to be added, it was child’s play for him.

The task took some time, but only because he needed to be

methodical and careful, not because it was difficult. When he was finally done, he took away his Qi, feeling a strain on his mind but far from enough to make him fall unconscious.

The Death Sage had long since closed the eggs and was now watching the sword as well.

The formation deactivated, and heat quickly filled the room again as the sword began to cool down. As it cooled, the sword finally took a proper shape.

And as it did, Steelmind heard a rumble.

His eyes widened in shock as he immediately turned his head upward, seeing past the ceiling and into the sky where the clouds had

gathered.

‘An Artifact Tribulation!’ he thought in surprise. It was a very rare phenomenon that had an incredibly low chance of happening when the nascent spirit inside an artifact evolved to become a proper spirit.

While spirits evolved all the time, the tribulation itself was so rare that Steelmind had only heard of it happening three times in his entire life, of which two had apparently failed. And he had been around to see not a single one of them.

And here, his own creation was bringing on an Artifact Tribulation.

‘How could an artifact that was just created do such a thing?’ he thought. ‘How great is this sword going to become?’

“Step back!” he told the Death Sage when he saw them moving forward to protect the sword. “It needs to go through the tribulation on its own. If we interfere, it could turn out badly for all of us.”

The Death Sage didn’t move back immediately, but when the sky rumbled with a threatening aura, they could only obey.

The first lightning struck down from the heavens with a threatening aura. But the sword withstood it without a single protection. More lightning bolts fell from the sky, hitting the sword, and yet it showed not a single sign of failure.

Steelmind wondered if he would succeed today. If he did, the war against the demons would essentially come to an end with this one sword. It could be the ultimate weapon to fight off any and all Undying Gods in the future, no matter how many were reborn. When the ninth lightning struck the sword and failed to harm it, the sky began to disappear.

The Death Sage didn’t act immediately, still wary of another lightning

bolt, but Steelmind had already appeared next to the sword in that moment of hesitation.

He reached for the sword, now fully black with an ominous aura around it. He grabbed onto it, wishing to learn how it had changed after the tribulation.

As soon as he did, black veins crawled up his hand, and Steelmind immediately understood that something had gone wrong.