Eternal Cultivation Of Alchemy

The Artifact God took Alex into her workshop and shut the barrier behind him.

”You broke through once again,” she said with a slight chuckle. ”Why am I not surprised?”

Alex smiled back. ”How have you been, senior? Is my robe done?”

”Done? Hah!” she let out a chuckle. ”I barely finished refining the threads and have only just started turning them into sheets. It will still take some time before I get anywhere with the sheets, and only after that will I get started on your robe. All that is to say, it’s not getting made anytime soon.”

Alex more or less understood that would be the case. That was not to say that he wasn’t disappointed, though. He really wished he would’ve had the robe by now.

”What about you? Ready to make your sword now?” she asked.

”Yes, I am,” Alex said with a soft sigh.

He brought out the Demon Killing Sword, which was now much less black than it used to be. The Artifact God noticed that as well.

”It’s changed somewhat, hasn’t it?” she asked.

”The Reduction process changed its color slightly. I believe it has somewhat removed the Death and Darkness aura that had given the sword its original color,” Alex answered.

The Artifact God was quite fascinated to see that. ”I wish I got to see it as it originally was, without whatever aura contaminated it,” she said. ”Can you do that, by the way? How do you plan on removing the aura inside it?”

”Well... I sort of don’t plan on doing that at all,” Alex said. ”Instead of removing the aura, I plan on destroying it while also replacing it.”

The Artifact God narrowed her eyes. ”Death and Darkness would require you to use a lot of Yang aura,” she said.

”That is the plan,” Alex said with a serious nod. ”I’m hoping the Sunhearts I have will be enough to overwhelm the aura inside the sword. I will obviously be using Sunfire the entire time, so that should help as well.”

”And if it doesn’t?” the Artifact God asked.

”Well, may Heaven help me at that point.”

Shen Yaojia shook her head slightly. ”So, what do you need from me?” she asked, preparing to get to work.

”For now, I just need you to sit back and watch, senior. Let me know if I’m doing something wrong, or help me if I fail at some important task,” Alex said. ”I’m hoping I won’t, but I would rather not take the chance.”

The woman nodded.

”Alright, begin whenever you are ready.”

Alex nodded and looked down at the sword. There was no point in wasting any more time. So, he immediately used Sunfire and began blasting the sword with it.

The Artifact God took a step back because of the heat. She was surprised at just how intense the fire actually was. She looked at Alex, whose cultivation base was still only at the Immortal Transcendent 9th realm, but the fire he produced was so much stronger.

She believed he was using more than just his Qi to fuel the fire here. He was using his spiritual energy as well. She wondered if he had eaten some sort of pill, but now was not the time to ask that.

Alex poured his entire focus into the sword, making sure as little of the heat from his Sunfire as possible was wasted. The more he heated the metal, the more malleable it became.

The memory of the first Artifact God, Steelmind, had been at the forefront of his mind for some time now, as he constantly replayed the memories of when he forged the scythe and the sword. There, he had to melt the metal to give it shape.

Here, the shape was already there. All he needed to do was fix it a bit, which was why he was confident he could do it. And with the Reduction aura, it made everything all the more possible.

The sword slowly started glowing as it absorbed more and more heat from the Sunfire. Alex immediately brought out his hammer and started striking the sword. From the very first hit, the sound that rang through the workshop was so sonorous that Alex almost thought it was the gong of a massive bell.

Each hit brought on an ethereal ringing sound that placed Alex into a rhythm that he did not even have to work for. With each hit, the sword was slightly refined, becoming more and more workable.

After nearly 10 minutes, when he believed it was as good as it could get, Alex brought out the black metal shards of the shattered Midnight, placed them all on top of the current sword, and hammered them in as well.

With Sunfire, the shards of Starforged Tungsten practically melted into the current sword. And as Alex hit it more and more, he could almost smell the metal evaporating off the surface of the sword.

To the side, the Artifact God quickly began activating all sorts of formations to keep the heat from the sword from affecting too many of the things inside the room. The heat was so intense at that point that everything that wasn’t protected was in danger of melting, boiling, or simply burning away.

Part of Alex was worried that the tungsten evaporating would mean something bad for Midnight. However, so long as the essence of the bond Alex had with Midnight’s spirit was transferred onto the new sword, it would all be fine.

Alex continued striking his hammer against the sword, refining Midnight’s shards into it. However, the more he continued, the more disharmonious everything became. What at first sounded like the chimes of a sonorous bell slowly began sounding sloppy and dull.

Alex slowed down a little, looking at the sword and wondering what he had done wrong. That was when he saw the hammer in his hand drip slowly.

The heat required to forge the sword was so intense that his hammer and the anvil below it had begun melting as well.