Chapter 1 The Dirty Truth

Above the sky, vast white clouds, specially refined, connected to form a high platform overlooking all living beings.

Upon the high platform, palace after palace stood in rows, each temporarily inhabited by a world-renowned divine craftsman.

Though these divine craftsmen were high and mighty, most were far from idle.

Stoking flames, displaying their skills, harboring displeasure in their hearts, they all dutifully focused on forging.

Each placed their finished product, once properly handled, into an anonymous voting box before sending it onto a flowing cloud ladder.

The cloud ladder circulated through the palaces, and the participating divine craftsmen doubled as judges.

They were responsible for scoring the magical artifacts and weapons that passed before their eyes.

Ultimately, the average score determined the outcome of this round, with the highest-rated craftsman temporarily taking the lead.

Such "initial evaluations," even at the level of divine craftsmen, would continue for dozens of rounds... euphemistically said to judge the craftsman's consistent ability.

After all, there were times and situations where one inevitably performed exceptionally well.

With multiple rounds of competition, the possibility of "luck" was eliminated, leaving only pure skill.

A convincing argument.

The divine craftsmen all wore dark expressions, wishing they could curse the person who came up with this idea to death.

Below the sky, surrounding five active volcanoes, thousands of forging workshops, like small grids, were densely packed together. A large number of artifact cultivators were crowded into these workshops, waiting for their moment to shine.

They, on the other hand, did not find anything wrong with this complex and cumbersome competition mechanism.

It was only natural!

Forging was unlike martial arts. On a fighting stage, one stood as the winner, and the other lay down as the loser—simple, straightforward, and clear.

Forging was not like that.

One person forged a knife—sturdy and durable.

Another forged a magical artifact—incorporating illumination, enemy detection, illusion creation, feints, and even features to alleviate loneliness for female cultivators—truly a diverse range of functions.

Placed side-by-side, which was better, which was worse, which was superior? Was there a concrete standard?

It still depended on who needed it.

Therefore, a simple competition with continuous one-on-one eliminations was unfair to those artifact cultivators who wholeheartedly sought fame and recognition.

They needed to showcase themselves comprehensively, displaying all their signature skills.

Wouldn't an artifact cultivator who could create both sturdy, durable items and elaborate, diverse ones be superior? Directly suppressing those with specialized skills?

The laborers responsible for transporting various minerals and communicating with the fires of heaven and earth were equally busy. They were a group of cultivators who had long abandoned their human bodies. Except for their souls, every other part of them was crafted by artifact cultivators, making them the most capable assistants and henchmen.

Therefore, the laborers, who looked more like Gundams or Transformers, stood at various key nodes. Each wave of their hands or shake of the fire flag represented a significant allocation of resources.

Seemingly casual actions concealed numerous secrets, stemming from certain instructions from their masters.

The laborers' small operational privileges hid great secrets.

Some gained advantages as a result, and the Divine Weapon Manor profited immensely from top to bottom.

So many people forging together meant a crucial demand for firepower and minerals at critical moments.

With the laborers controlling the nodes, how could they truly be fair and impartial?

Ye Chuxiao saw these underhanded dealings but did not intend to interfere.

He wanted results. If the Divine Weapon Manor gave him the results he wanted, he did not care what happened in the process.

Within these small forging workshops, some artifact cultivators who wanted to rise above the others even violated the first principle of being an artifact cultivator: bringing their own "rations," adding some of their best, most treasured materials into the magical artifacts they were forging to enhance the quality of the final product.

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In round after round of intense competition, they felt their skills improving and sensed that they were only one step away from success and fame.

Driven by a frenzy of fame and fortune, they were no different from red-eyed gamblers.

So, looking at this grand competition now...

Was Ye Chuxiao really at a loss?

The Dao rhymes he invested could only be considered a lever to pry open a market.

If he were to break down and distribute the Dao rhymes into specific resources to invite people, he wouldn't be able to gather so many good materials or so many artifact masters.

Ye Chuxiao understood forging; after all, he had absorbed the memories and experiences of so many cultivators, and some of them were bound to know something about forging.

However, Ye Chuxiao's skill was not high.

Forging, like alchemy, was essentially a purely auxiliary skill. Generally speaking, it was difficult to convert it into practical combat ability. Therefore, its popularity was not particularly high in most worlds. Many cultivators knew a little... but were not proficient.

More often, they directly enhanced the power of magical artifacts and weapons through the value of the materials themselves.

In a world like the Desolate Battle Realm, nine and a half out of ten divine weapons were the result of stacking materials and the owner's dedicated nurturing and development, resulting in exclusive divine weapons.

The remaining universal divine weapons were protected and surrounded by a group of Intent Realm cultivators, making it impossible for Ye Chuxiao to snatch them.

If it weren't for the high risk and trouble, Ye Chuxiao would have long schemed to snatch a few universal divine weapons. Why would he go through so much trouble?

After observing these Immortal Treasure Realm cultivators forging, Ye Chuxiao had to admit that the forging methods he had encountered before were all too crude.

Forging, like many cultivation skills, was either pure or extremely complex.

The artifact cultivators of the Immortal Treasure Realm had clearly taken "complexity" to the extreme.

Through various methods of stacking and encircling, even ordinary materials could bloom with a unique brilliance in their hands after careful arrangement.

As the competition progressed intensely, a large number of finished spiritual weapons, after being scored, reviewed, and having images and data recorded as evidence, were sent into the now-empty Weapon Cleansing Pool.

Everyone accepted this result.

The explanation given by the Divine Weapon Manor was also grand and righteous... They would never extract the unique skills of the craftsmen from the finished magical artifacts and weapons, nor would they seek personal gain from these magical artifacts and weapons with independent imprints, so as to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and conflicts in the future.

All finished products, after being reviewed, would be "destroyed" without exception, leaving nothing behind.

Deep within the Weapon Cleansing Pool, lay Ye Chuxiao's Yuanyang set, which had already been upgraded to a divine artifact embryo.

The newly born spiritual weapons, before they could display their brilliance and reveal to the world the craftsmen's efforts condensed within them, were manipulated by the Divine Weapon Manor's giant puppets, using the Divine Artifact Breaking Ruler to destroy them in a regular, patterned manner.

While dissipating spiritual energy, the destroyed spiritual weapons could continue to recover and condense spiritual energy for a considerable period, effectively extending their lifespan.

If they were completely destroyed directly, although they would burst forth with more spiritual energy in an instant, the usage time would be very short. In terms of total amount, a large portion would be lost.

These scattered, firefly-like spots of spiritual energy, rising from the destroyed spiritual weapons, needed to pass through layers of Spirit Cleansing Nets under the guidance of the formation.

The mist-like "nets" would wash away the creator's will attached to these spiritual energies, making them purer.

Finally, they would flow into a colorful river, at the bottom of which the Yuanyang set was submerged, absorbing these pure, unowned spiritual energies, desperately seeking weapons and magical artifacts to attach to, like a vortex.

With the addition of these vast spiritual energies, Ye Chuxiao's Yuanyang set could transform from a divine artifact embryo to a truly spiritually sentient divine artifact in a very short time.

"You guys are playing a really dirty game!" Above the clouds, a divine craftsman from the Myriad Treasure Association shot two streams of fire from his nostrils, then sneered.

This divine craftsman had a physique that set him apart from the others, with solid muscles, a tall stature, and a rough appearance... more closely aligned with people's traditional image of a refiner.

However, upon closer inspection, it was not difficult to find that his expression lacked a hint of true agility.

Perhaps this was merely a puppet body, with the true divine craftsman hidden inside, only able to control the puppet's actions.

"If you think it's dirty, you don't have to come, old brother!" Ouhua Zi of the Divine Weapon Manor sneered.

After this grand competition, the Divine Weapon Manor would become the undisputed number one weapon forging workshop in the world, perhaps even famous throughout the myriad realms.

Countless orders would flood in from all over, even from different worlds.

At the same time, many scattered "talents" from the Immortal Treasure Realm would be recruited by the Divine Weapon Manor and join the Divine Weapon Manor's big family.

The Divine Weapon Manor's strong rise, even its domination of the world, was already a visible trend.

If this were not a world dominated by craftsmen and refiners, a vast cultivator war would probably have already broken out.

Although there was no war at this time, the atmosphere among these divine craftsmen was not friendly.

The air was equally thick with gunpowder, on the verge of exploding.

On the eve of the Divine Weapon Manor's rise.

The only way to snatch a piece of the cake from the Divine Weapon Manor's mouth was to forcefully seize the title of the number one divine craftsman on the Heavenly Ranking during the grand event they were hosting.

By slapping their faces hard, making the Divine Weapon Manor's grand event less than perfect.

It was precisely because they realized this that those divine craftsmen from other places felt increasingly stifled in their hearts.

That was why the divine craftsman of the Myriad Treasure Association made that comment about being "very dirty."

They were unwilling to be exploited and driven by the Divine Weapon Manor, but they were even more unwilling to have the entire cake swallowed by the Divine Weapon Manor alone. They could only jump into the pit knowing there was one.

Watching their meticulously crafted magical artifacts and weapons being sent into the Weapon Cleansing Pool.

As for not participating?

If it was the initial rumors spread by the Divine Weapon Manor, those with broader minds could ignore them. Rumors would naturally dissipate over time.

But once this grand event became a carnival for the entire Immortal Treasure Realm, if they still did not come, they probably wouldn't be able to continue in the industry.

No matter how famous a divine craftsman was, they were still a refiner.

With half the nature of a business... unable to be reclusive.

High-level refiners in some worlds could cultivate a reclusive persona because there were few, or even no, competitors at that level.

Cultivating a reclusive persona raised their image, allowed them to raise prices, and avoided being overwhelmed by too many people seeking magical artifacts and weapons, which would be difficult to deal with.

There were at least dozens of divine craftsmen in the Immortal Treasure Realm, possibly even exceeding a hundred over time. This competition alone had more than sixty participants, which even shocked Nangong Ju Hong.

With so many peers at the same level, there would naturally be competition for benefits.

"Taking turns to score, then calculating the average score, and after dozens of rounds, judging the total score..."

"It sounds reasonable, but everyone here is a master, and their eyesight is good. Wouldn't they know whose work is whose, even if it's anonymous?" One divine craftsman questioned from the crowd.

Nangong Ju Hong hammered the sword in his hand into shape, then threw it into the Mystic Ice liquid for quenching. The rising water vapor obscured his expression. "Are you questioning our Divine Weapon Manor's behind-the-scenes operations?"

That divine craftsman said, "I didn't say that. Don't misunderstand. I'm just offering my opinion."

Nangong Ju Hong said, "Good! Then I'll add another temporary rule. As everyone knows... no divine craftsman can directly forge a divine artifact."

"If there is, then he is the undisputed number one divine craftsman in the world, and no one will disagree."

"I'll put my words here. Who will take it on?"

The divine craftsmen were all silent.

They were also worried that the divine craftsmen of the Divine Weapon Manor might secretly cheat, taking advantage of their home-field advantage.

They wouldn't even need to bribe other divine craftsmen. It would be very simple... sending the right magical artifact to the right divine craftsman. As long as the timing was right, the overall rating of the magical artifacts and weapons forged by the Divine Weapon Manor's divine craftsmen would be slightly higher.

Accumulating more would result in a higher overall rating.

This was something the Divine Weapon Manor could easily do.

But directly creating a divine artifact without a long period of spirit nurturing... not to mention the Immortal Treasure Realm, even the myriad realms seemed to have never heard of such a precedent.

Perhaps there was... but they had never seen it, or even heard of it.

Ye Chuxiao, who was also observing from the side, smiled.

These divine craftsmen probably never imagined that the one who jumped out to question... was actually a plant arranged by Nangong Ju Hong.

The purpose was to make these divine craftsmen put in even more effort, even to "dedicate" their family assets.

At this point, these divine craftsmen were forced into a "dead end."

Whether they gambled or not, they would lose.

Unless someone could truly turn the impossible into reality and forge a divine artifact on the spot.

The four divine craftsmen of the Myriad Treasure Association exchanged glances and saw the helplessness in each other's eyes.

Within the Immortal Treasure Realm, the Divine Weapon Manor, Myriad Treasure Association, Craftsman Sect, and Spiritual Artifact Mountain were all entities of the same level.

The Myriad Treasure Association's predicament was also faced by the other forces.

Once the Divine Weapon Manor grew stronger, they would be the first to suffer.

"Isn't it just creating a divine artifact on the spot?"

"I wonder if I can!" An old divine craftsman, who looked so withered and frail that he was close to his end, took out his pipe from his mouth, then glanced at Nangong Ju Hong and said.

"What?"

"Are you really confident?" Ye Chuxiao, like many divine craftsmen, turned his gaze to the old divine craftsman upon hearing this.

And the old divine craftsman's fellow sect member seemed to quickly understand the situation and said, "Ancestor Shao! Are you going to jump into the furnace to sacrifice yourself to the sword? This... absolutely not!"