When it comes to skills, Yue Jinghua could be considered one of the most diversely learned Dark Practitioners on the Canglong Continent.
Alchemy, she knew, and she had even crafted rare elixir pills such as the Dark Earth Pill.
Artifact Refining, she knew, having crafted the "Soft Finger" and modified the Lianyun Great Sword.
Tattoo Master, she knew, and the reason why Feng Buhui could transform into a powerful Demon Crossbow was thanks to her improved Demon Mark.
Array, she knew, at least she wouldn’t get lost in an Illusion Array and be unable to extricate herself like others. The rightful source is N0velFire.ɴet
But the problem is, in each of these, she just knew them, not mastered them, and all without systematic training.
In layman’s terms, she was a non-professional, a jack-of-all-trades talent, broad but not specialized.
Artifact Refining was not unfamiliar to Yue Jinghua at present, but after all, she lacked systematic training.
Without guidance, she had to go to Five Saints Town’s weapon shop to purchase an artifact refining manual.
This manual, titled "Successful Artifact Master’s Handbook," detailed the various considerations an Artifact Master should take note of when crafting a spiritual artifact.
Foremost among these was material selection.
Materials capable of storing Dun Qinglian Fire certainly can’t be ordinary; traditional materials like gold, silver, copper, iron would melt into molten metal upon nearing the Dun Qinglian Fire.
Similarly, other artifact materials such as crystal, amber, glaze, yellow jade, don’t fare much better; anything bought from weapon or grocery stores can’t withstand the torment of Dun Qinglian Fire—they’d either explode or turn into a lump of charred stone.
They couldn’t even withstand a quarter-hour of refining with Dun Qinglian Fire, let alone the crafting of fire-storing equipment.
After several days of attempts, just when Yue Jinghua was at her wit’s end, she caught sight of the "Soft Finger" wrapped around her hand.
The "Soft Finger" could be considered the first weapon she ever crafted, and it was also her maiden work as an Artifact Master.
Although now, with the use of the Lianyun Great Sword, the frequency of using the "Soft Finger" had greatly reduced, this debut piece could still fetch a handsome price on the market.
Star Falling Iron! The material used, Star Falling Iron, is indeed capable of enduring thousands of hammers and hundreds of refinements.
Star Falling Iron was obtained through auction at a nightclub in Shang Kingdom and is not common in the market.
However, what was a major issue for many Artifact Craftsmen wasn’t a problem at all for Liao Yuejinghua because she had a large stockpile of Star Falling Mine resources.
The products from Star Falling Mines, sharing the same source, such as Star Fall Salt, Star Falling Iron, Star Falling Stone, and others, all possess good forging attributes.
They are water-resistant and fireproof, making them excellent materials for crafting all kinds of Fire Attribute spiritual artifacts.
In the end, the material that Yue Jinghua chose was not any of the aforementioned ones, but the even harder and more rare Star Falling Diamond Sand.
The astonishingly hard Star-falling Sand Drill, if crafted properly, could certainly produce the rare fire-storage equipment of that time.
After several trials, although Yue Jinghua had a few failures, for her, with plenty of Star Falling Diamond Sand in the Xingluo Mine, her crafting materials were practically endless; after nearly ten trials, on the eleventh attempt, she finally succeeded in altering and fusing the Star Falling Diamond Sand.
After successfully sourcing the material, the second step of artifact refining is to choose the form, that is to craft the Star Falling Diamond Sand into a certain type of equipment.
Having considered all aspects, Yue Jinghua decided to craft the first ever Fire Storage Ring on the continent.
The Star Falling Diamond Sand, fine as grit, became even more crystal clear after the second extraction by the Chaos Green Lotus Fire; within the green lotus-shaped flames, the grains gradually gathered into a complete crystal.
Following Yue Jinghua’s will, the diamond sand constantly changed its shape, stretching, extending, taking shape until finally, it formed a ring the size of a pinky ring—a Fire Storage Ring.
"The artifact is complete," Yue Jinghua let out a light cry, and a green lotus fire-shaped pattern appeared on the Fire Storage Ring.
Chi Xi obtained this ring and, after repeated trials, she successfully utilized the Chaos Green Lotus Fire.
On several occasions, she even used the lotus fire from the Fire Storage Ring to form a ring of lotus fire defense around her body’s cycle.
Yue Jinghua saw this and was very pleased in her heart.
Although the Fire Storage Ring was excellent, it was not something that everyone could use; it was only suitable for a Spiritual Food Master like Chi Xi, who, despite her average cultivation, had an exceptionally sensitive control over fire, which allowed her to fully exploit the ring’s capabilities.
Soon after the ring was refined, the month-long trial for the July Team also came to a close.
During this time, Yue Jinghua once again used the Earth Yin Escape to enter the Dark Hell.
With her prior experience, this time entering the Dark Hell, she smoothly traversed the Red Flowing Sand even without the company of the Snake-haired Gorgon; however, she did not encounter that same mysterious and cold man she met last time—he seemed to have left already.
The absence of the man left Yue Jinghua slightly melancholic. Not that she had much affection for the man she had only met once, but instinctively, she knew that this man, who could not even speak, was very strong, and if she could persuade him to join the July Mercenary Team, it would be a significant leap for the team’s overall strength.
Unfortunately, the man had departed, leaving not a single trace behind.
Since she could not find the person, Yue Jinghua had to start her second objective—expanding her army of Dark Beasts.
Her this trip to the Dark Hell was precisely to prepare for the operation to seek the Ancient Hero Treasure.
Compared to the Divine Court, the Mercenary Branch, and some powerful mercenary groups, the strength of her July Mercenary Team was as insignificant as an ant.
Under such circumstances, she could only rely on her own Dark Beast army.
When she left the Dark Hell, to compare the differences between Dark Beasts bred and hatched in the different environments of Dark Hell and the Canglong Continent, she left giant-winged mosquito eggs beside Death Lake, marked with her personal Contract Mark. This time upon her return, these giant-winged mosquitoes that had hatched were now fully grown.
To her surprise, the Giant Winged Mosquito Kings hatched by Death Lake Water in the Dark Hell were fiercer than those naturally hatched on the Canglong Continent; they were like wolf cubs, ferocious and bloodthirsty, every mosquito’s body size was like that of a bat, their proboscises as sharp as short daggers, capable of piercing through the skin of Middle and Low-level Dark Beasts in an instant.
They also responded to Yue Jinghua’s commands more sensitively than the giant-winged mosquitoes hatched on the Canglong Continent.
It seems that the extremely harsh living environment of the Dark Hell made the Dark Giant Mosquitoes even more fierce.
After successfully taming over a thousand Dark Giant Mosquitoes, Yue Jinghua also collected a large amount of Burning Poison Algae in the Dark Hell. Well prepared, she left the Dark Hell.
What she did not know was that the mysterious man she was looking for was currently undergoing a transformative trial of blood that would rebuild him anew.