No need for the complexity of mortal craftsmen; with An Jing’s control over metals and precise manipulation abilities, he could lift his hand and purge all impurities from the spiritual material, refining it instantly.
After the purging, it only took a thought for the golden-red molten iron to fly out of the crucible and fall into a mold to set.
In this process, if it were a mortal blacksmith, he would have to forge the material as it gradually cooled, further tempering out impurities to form the alloy.
But for an artifact cultivator, their task is not "to forge the embryo" but to imprint prohibitions using their spiritual power into the raw material.
Just as An Jing created countless Taibai Law Prohibitions within his body, gradually filling his whole body, he also needed to infuse his spiritual power into the artifact embryo, branding it with various desired effects.
In an instant, An Jing infused a total of one hundred and eight strands of Taibai Fiend Qi into the artifact embryo—this was already the carrying limit of the Mysterious Iron Mountain Copper, and these strands of Qi condensed into prohibitions at an astonishingly fast rate, so fast that even Subdue Evil was surprised.
The time for imprinting prohibitions on the artifact embryo was limited; if it completely cooled, it would be like a child growing into an adult, already set in shape and unable to perfectly meet the cultivator’s requirements, though still functional, it was considered a waste.
And if reheated, the imprinted prohibitions would be destroyed, meaning everything had to start from the beginning, like resetting a game account.
Only within a brief window could all prohibitions be imprinted swiftly to create a fine Magic Artifact—thus, most artifact cultivators have a need for sharp vision and speedy actions.
An Jing was different, however, he possessed Grasping Heavenly Moment.
With accelerated thinking, for other cultivators, a fleeting window was enough time for him to settle all his plans before calmly acting to imprint all the prohibitions on the artifact embryo.
For an Artifact Refining Cultivator, the pain points of mortal skills did not exist; the only thing that limited their ability to refine artifacts was purely their level of cultivation, along with their ability to minutely control.
For An Jing, the typical difficulties faced by ordinary artifact cultivators didn’t exist—this was the true marvel of Grasping Heavenly Moment, not only applicable in combat and cultivation but also in artifact refining, alchemy, and even drawing talismans and setting formations.
It was truly a universally divine ability, as long as An Jing still needed to think and act, Grasping Heavenly Moment would inevitably be his greatest aid.
Finally, An Jing grabbed the now-formed artifact embryo, a scorchingly hot long sword blade, bare-handed and plunged it into the Tempering Fire Pool; in an instant, plumes of white steam arose, with a trace of invisible killing intent hidden within.
Raising his hand, the entirely black iron blade of the sword had been forged to completion, and although the edge was not yet sharpened, evil qi overflowed from it, with strands of white golden qi falling from the edges like clouds and mist yet sharp beyond compare.
"Qi Blade" and "Jian Heng."
After completing all this, An Jing looked satisfactorily at the blade in his hand: "Two practical prohibitions, I didn’t expect that my first time refining would yield a dual-prohibition artifact. It looks like my talent for this isn’t too shabby."
—What do you mean not too shabby? You’re a freak?
Subdue Evil mainly had no body; if it had, it would have shown a surprised expression—because it actually hadn’t started teaching An Jing how to refine artifacts yet, it had only discussed a few fundamentals with him.
Then, based on those fundamentals alone, An Jing actually created a Magic Artifact!
What does this imply? It’s roughly equivalent to a person reading through the of a book, then figuring out the general plot summary and understanding the core philosophy of that book from that alone!
"Subdue Evil, Subdue Evil!" Sensing that the attitude of the Sword Spirit was a bit off, An Jing raised his eyebrows, curious as he asked, "How did I perform? Good or bad?"
"...I was going to say ’not bad.’
Subdue Evil was silent for a while before slowly saying, "I was tempted to play it down, say it was ordinary, to encourage you to continue striving—but upon reflection, it was I who promised you, allowing you to become a monster surpassing geniuses, so there’s no reason to hold you back now that you’ve truly become a monstrously beyond-normal freak."
"So I’ll tell you the truth, An Jing. You’re simply born to refine artifacts; I have never seen anyone who could pick up the essentials of artifact refining and start creating a Magic Artifact straight away... The Seven Fiend Tribulation shouldn’t have boosted artifact refining, right? You weren’t a blacksmith in your previous life, were you?"
An Jing grinned, he only knew he was a martial arts practitioner and a Battlefield King adept with various weapons, capable of disassembling guns blindfolded; but assembling and disassembling firearms had nothing to do with blacksmithing: "As long as you’re not disappointed, that’s good."
"Disappointed? I’m more surprised." Subdue Evil could only sigh: "With your talent, I think you could probably create the Dragon Storing Bottle by tomorrow afternoon."
But it still underestimated An Jing’s talent.
Because it took him only a morning to create the Dragon Storing Bottle.