After arriving at an open furnace, Grandmaster Ma Fan asked, “Are all the materials ready?”
“En,” Yang Kai nodded.
In fact, the material requirements for the Soul Rending Thorn weren’t high. Apart from one or two rare items, it was mostly comprised of ordinary materials.
On second thought, it was not surprising since it was created by an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master who was hiding in seclusion in the Shattered Heaven. He naturally had to consider his access to materials, and if the materials needed were too rare, then he would not be able to get them.
After taking out all of the materials, Grandmaster Ma Fan’s Divine Sense surged for a while, and then he tossed the jade slip back to Yang Kai, “I made a few modifications that may enhance their power, but considering that there is still an accompanying Secret Technique, I dare not guarantee that the modifications will be compatible. Have a look at it yourself. If it’s fine, then we will refine the artifacts based on this.”
Yang Kai received the jade slip and looked over it. After a moment, a delighted look appeared on his face, “Sure enough, Grandmaster has discerning eyes. These changes are subtle, but enough to increase the power of these things by about 10%. As for the Secret Technique, it is relatively flexible so it won’t be affected.”
It could be said that the Secret Technique would not be troublesome to perform for anyone as long as they were a cultivator. Only, not everyone could afford the cost of casting it.
So, Grandmaster Ma Fan’s changes had no negative effects.
Since it was confirmed that everything was fine, Grandmaster Ma Fan began refining without dallying.
In fact, Yang Kai himself could have refined them; after all, he was also a Grandmaster Artifact Refiner. However, he was going to be using them against Territory Lords, so having Grandmaster Ma Fan work on them would naturally help to guarantee the Soul Rending Thorns’ might. Moreover, if he were to refine them himself, it would take far longer.
Day after day, Grandmaster Ma Fan refined Soul Rending Thorns while Yang Kai provided some help from the side.
Various subtle Artifact Refining techniques were performed by Grandmaster Ma Fan’s hands, and he did not try to avoid being seen either, oftentimes working with the intent for Yang Kai to observe more closely.
Under these circumstances, Yang Kai was able to make a considerable improvement in the Dao of Artifact Refining, which he had to admit was a surprise.
The first Soul Rending Thorn took Grandmaster Ma Fan a month to complete. The completed Soul Rending Thorn was just like a long needle the length of a finger. It was dark all over, as if it had been coated with a strong poison.
But in fact, this thing was not poisonous at all.
Yang Kai picked it up and studied it, using his Spiritual Energy to refine it a little and found that nothing unusual happened, which meant that the refinement was a success.
He thought that Grandmaster Ma Fan would be able to refine the Soul Rending Thorn faster and faster as time went on, but every single Soul Rending Thorn took him an entire month to finish.
This proved one thing, that though it was Grandmaster Ma Fan’s first time refining this artifact, he had still achieved his limit from the very start, which was why the time consumed in its creation did not decrease with subsequent attempts.
A year later, 12 Soul Rending Thorns were successfully refined and the materials Yang Kai prepared were all used up.
Only then did Grandmaster Ma Fan’s hand stop, “Is this enough?”
Yang Kai grinned, “It’s enough.”
He trusted that the Territory Lords also would not be foolish enough that he would be able to use the Soul Rending Thorns 12 times. It would be best if he only had to kill off a few Territory Lords before they all retreated.
12 of them had been created just in case the unfortunate happened.
Now that the Soul Rending Thorns were ready, Yang Kai bid farewell to Grandmaster Ma Fan and returned to Dawn’s courtyard so he could begin refining them.
The courtyard was still quiet with all of Dawn’s members busy with work outside; however, he did happen to bump into Feng Ying who had returned to check on Ning Qi Zhi’s injuries.
After a brief exchange with Feng Ying and making sure that Ning Qi Zhi’s injuries showed no signs of deterioration, Yang Kai did not find the need to visit him again either.
It was hard enough for a badly injured member to be left to recuperate quietly by himself while everyone was out busy, so it was not good to visit him constantly either.
Just as he was about to walk away, Feng Ying pulled him to a quiet place and whispered, “Squad Leader, can our Squad take on any more people?”
Yang Kai had no idea why she suddenly brought this up and replied, “Blood Crow and two others are joining Dawn so we just happen to have 50. We’re already full, you know that.”
Feng Ying said, “I know, but can’t you go and have a talk with the Army Commander and ask if we can add one more person?”
Yang Kai did not understand, “Who is it that you are so concerned about?”