Clang! Clang! Clang!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Since the day the Blackstone had finally melted and the dark stone liquid had begun to flow, Jian Dan and Han Pengfei had not rested. Day and night, they took turns hammering, refining the molten metal into usable form.
Their first batch of liquid ore had shrunk considerably after Jian Dan's relentless forging. Impurities had separated out in large clumps, making the output look pitifully small.
The second batch, however, marked a turning point. This time, both of them had the foresight to channel the mysterious energy they'd cultivated directly into their hammers. And the results spoke for themselves—the impurities were drawn out even faster, and the metal became purer by the moment.
Realizing they were on the right track, the two cultivators no longer hesitated. They threw themselves fully into the refining process—a thousand strikes, a thousand tempers.
That day, Brother Parrot had been flung by a burst of furnace heat. It had scared Jian Dan more than she cared to admit. Even though she knew the little guy was tough, she refused to let him roam freely afterward, keeping him close.
Not that Brother Parrot minded. The cavern wasn't large, and he had long since flown every inch of it. Now, he sat on Jian Dan's shoulder, cheerfully giving suggestions for what kind of artifact she should forge.
"Xiao Zhuzi, make a sword! I've seen sword cultivators from the Heavenly Sword Sect—they're terrifying!"
"I've no shortage of swords," Jian Dan mused. "And it's not yet time for my lifebound artifact. Think of something else."
"Then what do you want?"
"Hmm… something befitting a fairy. Elegant, yet deadly."
Brother Parrot's feathers ruffled in exasperation.
"Since when do you care about elegance? You usually just punch first and ask questions later! When does that 'fairy' show up—after the bruises fade?"
"…Touché."
Unable to argue, Jian Dan fell silent. Then her eyes lit up.
"A pair of gauntlets, then. Let's go with that."
"If it makes you happy!"
And so, Jian Dan fully committed herself to forging her first artifact: a weapon suited for close combat and raw force.
In her previous life, Jian Dan had reached the Divine Transformation stage, aided by fortune and chance. Naturally, she had studied artifact forging. Though the material this time—Blackstone—was unfamiliar to her, she saw it as an opportunity to experiment.
After thirty days of continuous hammering, the Blackstone she had mined was reduced to two fist-sized crystal cores. Translucent and dark like black crystal, the stone glimmered faintly with starlight inside, like miniature galaxies. Jian Dan was extremely satisfied.
Now came the shaping.
She envisioned something sleek: a bracelet-shaped artifact she could wear at all times. It would instantly deploy a protective membrane around her fists in battle—enhancing her strikes while shielding her hands.
She engraved it with power-enhancing and force-absorption runes, wrapping them in overlapping layers. At the core, she placed a defensive array, allowing the artifact to supplement her strength during combat. However, if incoming force exceeded the artifact's limits, the conversion array would fail, and the bracelet could shatter.
Three days passed.
When the molten stone finally formed a stable loop, Jian Dan poured her cultivated Verdant Flame energy into her fingers, using them as a brush to carefully carve the rune patterns.
As she completed the final stroke, the bracelet began to shimmer with light, floating before her and spinning gently—but it still hadn't solidified.
Brother Parrot, watching from nearby, started pacing.
"Xiao Zhuzi, did it fail?" Brother Parrot fretted.
"Ancestor above, can't you say something hopeful for once?"
"Try feeding it blood! Maybe it's waiting to form a bond with you."
"Right! How'd I forget?"
She bit her ring finger, flicking blood onto the bracelet. The metal drank it greedily, its form stabilizing at last.
"Does it feel… incomplete?" Jian Dan frowned.
Brother Parrot scratched his head. "Dunno. But my elder brother said forging's like nest-building—you need main and supporting materials."
Her eyes lit up. "Of course!" The blackstone was primary—what was the secondary component?
In this Spiritless Land, storage pouches were useless. The supplement had to be local.
She closed her eyes, reviewing everything she had seen since entering the this realm. A cultivator's memory was near-perfect. Image after image flickered past—until she paused on one detail.
The purple thatch covering the workers' grass huts. The same plant that had warded off the rats.
"Brother Parrot, do you remember that purple grass on the roof of the huts?"
"This one?" Brother Parrot plucked a small, dry twig from beneath his wing.
"You really are my lucky charm!"
She snatched the twig and tossed it into the floating bracelet.
It was a gamble.
The purple fragment darted through the liquid bracelet like a wild spirit, smashing against its inner walls. The loop twisted and warped, its color cycling from gold to green to violet—then finally settling back to black.
BOOM!
A golden lightning bolt struck the bracelet, nearly shattering it.
Jian Dan surged her energy into the artifact, steadying it. No second bolt fell. At last, the bracelet cooled, dropping into her palm.
Prismed light danced across its surface.
Jian Dan beamed with satisfaction. This was her first true artifact since stepping into the cultivation world.
"I'll call you… Obsidian Bracelet."
The bracelet twitched in her palm, then quietly slid onto her right wrist, as if it had always belonged there.
"Come with me."
At some point, the old crone had silently reappeared at the cave entrance.
[Notes]
The Obsidian Bracelet is a growth-type artifact that will stay with Jian Dan for a long time—eventually becoming famous across the battlefield. So I've described its forging process in detail. I hope you don't find it too long-winded!