"Is this a failure?" Yu Cheng said with a wry smile, looking at the lump of iron before him, utterly speechless. He finally understood why Yu Fan had been struck by lightning. How could something as hideous as this lump of iron even be considered an artifact?
"Now, husband, it's our son's first time refining. It's only natural that it didn't turn out well," Bai Ling insisted.
"Wait, Fan'er, how on earth do you know how to forge artifacts?" Yu Cheng suddenly hit upon a crucial issue: not a single person in the entire Yu Family was an artifact refiner.
"There's an artifact refiner's journal in our family study. It seems to have been written by Senior Yu Xian," Yu Fan replied.
"Senior Yu Xian?" Yu Cheng fell into deep thought, and soon the name came to him. There indeed was such a journal in the Yu family study, but its contents were extremely profound. A Two-Star Artifact Refiner had once examined it and concluded that it was merely an ordinary practitioner's personal notes.
It was completely impossible to learn artifact refining from that journal alone; it was pure fantasy.
Ever since then, that artifact refiner's journal left behind by a Yu family member had sat gathering dust in the study, ignored by everyone.
Never had Yu Cheng expected that Yu Fan would actually find it.
As the most fundamental and crucial profession on the Cangling Continent, artifact refining was the dream of countless cultivators. Yet it demanded talent; without talent, one could not forge even a One-Star Spirit Artifact in a lifetime.
Plenty of people had browsed the journal in the study, including Yu Cheng himself, but it was virtually impossible to glean anything from it.
"Husband, who is Yu Xian?" Bai Ling asked, puzzled.
Even Yu Fan felt a twinge of curiosity at that moment. He had indeed read the artifact refining notes written by this Yu Xian.
The insights recorded within them were definitely beyond the capability of a One-Star or Two-Star Artifact Refiner to write.
Since Yu Xian had once been a prominent artifact refiner of the continent, why were there no stories of him left within the Yu Family?
It was truly perplexing.
"Yu Xian was born in the year 563 of the Cangling Era. The date of his death is unknown. He was an artifact refiner who stepped out of Qingshan City from our Yu Family. Reckoning it up, he was a figure from six hundred years ago. In his lifetime, he was a Seven-Star Artifact Refiner who forged countless Seven-Star Spirit Artifacts—a monumental figure whose name shook the entire Cangling Continent."
"However, in his twilight years, he donated all his supreme treasures to the Luo Family of the Cangling Continent. If the fortune of a Seven-Star Artifact Refiner had been given to our Yu Family, we probably wouldn't be stuck in Qingshan City today. Enraged by Yu Xian's ungrateful actions, the Patriarch at the time directly expelled him from the Yu Family, heavily purged all records of his past, and from then on refused to acknowledge Yu Xian as a member of the Yu Family."
"I only chanced to learn the name Yu Xian from a tattered record. That is all I know; as for the rest, I am completely unaware."
"The Luo Family? Why donate everything to them?" Yu Fan already felt that this Yu Xian was somewhat ungrateful. Even if he wanted to donate, he shouldn't have left his own family not a single scrap.
Even a fraction of a Seven-Star Artifact Refiner's wealth could have lifted the Yu Family up, and the family wouldn't be in such a sorry state today.
"The Luo Family was the clan of Yu Xian's dao companion, Luo Caixia, who was the Patriarch of that era."
Who would have thought that a simple artifact refining journal would unearth such a story.
As for this Yu Xian, Yu Fan had no particular opinions to offer. Without experiencing it oneself, how could one truly empathize?
Who knew what had really happened to Yu Xian six hundred years ago.
"Hahaha, I'm dying of laughter! That lump of iron is supposed to be a refined artifact?"
"A good-for-nothing remains a good-for-nothing. He can't even master cultivation, yet he's dreaming of refining artifacts? Isn't that just a crow wishing to fly up onto a branch and become a phoenix?"
"It's sheer delusion, a toad trying to eat swan meat! If Yu Fan can actually succeed in artifact refining, I'll go march through the streets eating shit."
"That's nothing! If Yu Fan can become an artifact refiner, I'll kowtow and call him my dad right here and now!"
Amidst the jeers of the crowd, Liu Shuying hurried over. Her gaze swept over Yu Fan before locking onto the lump of iron in Yu Cheng's hand. A faint red film covered her pupils, and the previously unremarkable lump of iron suddenly burst forth with a blinding brilliance.
The glare caused a sharp, stinging pain in Liu Shuying's eyes.
"Ah!" "Young Mistress, what's wrong?" Uncle Jiang hastily rushed forward to support Liu Shuying as she collapsed. Blood was actually seeping from the corners of her eyes.
Her appearance looked terrifying.
"Young Mistress! What is happening here?" In his panic, Uncle Jiang quickly pulled a healing medicinal pill from his storage pouch and pressed it into Liu Shuying's mouth.
"A Seven-Star Spirit Artifact..." Given her strength, trying to pry into a Seven-Star Spirit Artifact had resulted in a backlash from its terrifying Dao power. Those other people could not perceive the essence of this lump of iron and merely took it for discarded scrap.
Liu Shuying, however, was different. She was already a One-Star Artifact Refiner herself and was well-versed in physiognomy and divination. Just now, her divination techniques had revealed that this lump of iron was actually a Seven-Star Spirit Artifact—it was simply unbelievable.
Liu Shuying stood up and slowly walked over.
[What is this stinky woman coming over for again? Is she here to call off the engagement again? Can she be any more annoying? Can't she just make a clean break?]
Liu Shuying: ...Never mind, she was already used to it.
"Shuying, why are you here?" Yu Cheng was just about to vent his anger on those ungrateful clansmen when he saw Liu Shuying walking slowly out from the crowd.
"Uncle Yu, who forged this Seven-Star Spirit Artifact?" Liu Shuying's voice carried a hint of a tremble.
"What Seven-Star Spirit Artifact? Where is there a Seven-Star Spirit Artifact?" Yu Cheng was baffled.
If she wanted to look for a Seven-Star Spirit Artifact, she shouldn't come looking for it at their Yu Family.
How could their Yu Family possibly have any Seven-Star Spirit Artifacts? "It's this spirit artifact right in your hand."
Yu Fan looked at the lump of iron in his father's hand, then glanced back at Liu Shuying.
[A Seven-Star Spirit Artifact? Good grief, has this stinky woman lost her mind wanting a Seven-Star Spirit Artifact? This is completely a failed product, how on earth is it a Seven-Star Spirit Artifact?]
Just as expected!
Hearing Yu Fan's inner thoughts, Liu Shuying's mind was completely made up.
Feigning uselessness—he really was faking it.
This fellow was genuinely putting on an act. Any casual spirit artifact he forged turned out to be a Seven-Star Spirit Artifact; his actual strength was so far beyond even her master's that the comparison was laughable.
She couldn't let him slip away! That was the only thought running through Liu Shuying's mind right now—she had struck gold.
She had constantly dreamed of rising step by step, yet her ultimate destination had been right before her eyes all along.
This man was actually a Seven-Star Artifact Refiner.
If Yu Fan's true identity were made public, the entire Cangling Continent would likely be shaken to its core once again.
Yu Fan reached out and touched Liu Shuying's forehead, then touched his own. "That's odd, you don't have a fever."
This skin-to-skin contact instantly flushed Liu Shuying's cheeks with a layer of rosy crimson, making her immensely bashful.
In the past, she would have stopped such an intimate gesture immediately.
But now, she wasn't willing to.