The Cultivator's Reborn to 1970s-Chapter 181 - 148

After half a year, the scenery of Wuhua Mountain remains as beautiful as the Immortal Realm. With the enhancement of the Spirit Gathering Array, the spiritual energy in the valley has become richer. After running the array for several years, this valley can be considered a small Cave Heaven Blessed Land, sufficient to support her Foundation Establishment.

Lan Tian, like a queen inspecting her territory, toured around the valley. The transplanted Cha Huas were blooming vibrantly, with flower buds as big as bowls fluttering in the wind, as if welcoming Lan Tian’s arrival. The herbs in the valley, nourished by the spiritual energy, underwent mutations, and several of them evolved into Spiritual Medicines.

The peach trees planted initially had grown sturdy, almost thick enough for a person to embrace, with branches full of flower buds that were soon to bloom. The mutated grapevines, like ivy, covered half of the mountain side with clusters of green grapes dotted amongst the greenery, looking extremely attractive.

Lan Tian was very satisfied with such results over half a year.

She opened the prohibition, entered the cave dwelling, activated the Array Formation, and headed towards the Artifact Refining Room.

Upon entering the Artifact Refining Room and setting up a Barrier, Lan Tian didn’t start refining immediately, instead she sat down cross-legged, practiced the Calming Heart Technique with a focused mind, and waited until her heart was as calm as still water and her Sea of Consciousness was clear. With a flick of her hand, materials from the Sleeve Universe poured onto the ground with a clashing sound.

This was Lan Tian’s first time refining artifacts, both in her past life and current one, and she felt a bit nervous mainly because some materials were too rare, such as Space Stone and Yun Meng Soil, which she had only gathered a small portion over the years.

According to the records in the comprehensive guide to artifact refining in her Sea of Consciousness, the basic condition for refining requires Spiritual Fire or Abnormal Fire. A ranking list of Abnormal Fires appeared in her mind, and without looking, Lan Tian knew she didn’t have any Abnormal Fire. As for Spiritual Fire, Lan Tian rubbed her fingers together and a cluster of grey flame danced on her fingertips, which should count as a type of Spiritual Fire.

With Spiritual Fire, she could refine the materials, extracting impurities before starting the actual artifact refining process.

The materials were hard to come by, and it was sheer luck that she found a few types on this plane; who knows if she could be so lucky next time.

Lan Tian dared not be careless. She started with some common metal materials to practice extracting impurities. Artifact refining wasn’t like Array Formation which could be replicated just like drawing a gourd from a model; it could still form an array, but the effect was mediocre.

Refining artifacts required gaining experience through practice. With no one to guide her, Lan Tian was feeling her way through, and this resulted in either burning up the materials with too much fire, or still ending up burning them with less fire. After the third or fourth attempt, Lan Tian gained some experience and experimented by drawing a small flame from the Spiritual Fire, but the materials still slowly burned away.

Staring at her empty hands, Lan Tian was stunned—what kind of Cultivation Technique was this Chaos Technique producing such a domineering Spiritual Fire?

Necessity is the mother of invention; Lan Tian, although impatient, couldn’t change at will. She supported her chin and thought of a solution, conjuring a Flame Fireball in her palm about the size of a fist, the fire red flame dancing like a sprite. Watching it, Lan Tian had a sudden inspiration, then drew a small spark from the Spiritual Fire into the Flame Fire Technique.

She laid a piece of metal material on top to bake it for a moment, two moments, three moments, and the material showed no change. Lan Tian was delighted, it seemed this method worked. She added a bit more starfire into the Flame Fireball and continued experimenting until the material changed, only then did she stop adding sparks of Spiritual Fire.

Initially, her handling was rough, either not fully extracting the impurities or leaving the job half-done, and without spiritual energy in her Dantian, the material would be ruined, resulting in a pile on the ground. Fortunately, the materials for practice were common, otherwise, watching those ruined materials would break Lan Tian’s heart.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, half a month passed. During this half month, from morning till night, Lan Tian only practiced refining materials. Practice makes perfect, and now the success rate of her material refining was not 100%, but Lan Tian could still achieve a 90% success rate.

Feeling it was about time, Lan Tian started preparing materials for the Storage Basin.

She sat cross-legged to cultivate, silently reciting the Calming Heart Technique, her heart calm and peaceful, then she picked up the materials and slowly refined them.

In a flash, another half month passed, and Lan Tian successfully refined all three portions of the materials. Then, she simulated the steps of artifact refining thousands of times in her mind to ensure they matched the steps in the Sea of Consciousness before she started refining the first portion of materials.

As she reached the final stages, Lan Tian was not nervous anymore, her heart calm as water. Following the steps of artifact refining, she melted and combined the materials in sequence, added more materials, melted and combined again, and finally added Yun Meng Soil and Space Stone, completing the process in one go. With a hand maneuver, three mini grayish pots lay in the palm of Lan Tian.

The pots were only the size of a fingertip, strangely shaped like a night pot, and frankly, not very good-looking. However, Lan Tian was very happy; these were the Storage Basins she had refined, and holding the odd-looking gray basins gave her a strong sense of achievement.

It was her first time refining artifacts, and she forgot to shape them at the last moment of refining, hence the odd appearance. She would remember to shape the next batch of materials during refining.

Meditating to restore Spiritual Energy, Lan Tian brought over the second batch of materials. Having gained experience from the first time, the second Artifact Refining went much smoother. When quenching the fire, Lan Tian visualized the image of a clamshell half-opened, and the final five Storage Basins took on the shape of a half-open clamshell with layered patterns on the surface. Due to the addition of Cloud Fire Stone, the color was brilliant, resembling the sky on fire at the horizon, stunningly beautiful.

Inputting Spiritual Energy, the clam-shaped Storage Basin slowly grew larger until it was the size of a washbasin before it stopped. Lan Tian held it and looked over and over, very fond of it; it could be used for growing vegetables and also served as a decorative piece in the house.

Lan Tian did not use the third batch of materials and stored them in the Sleeve Universe, waiting for her Cultivation to increase in the future before refining, which could possibly result in a higher grade of Storage Basins.

Counting the days, this Artifact Refining took over two months, and school had already started over half a month ago. Lan Tian knew that being absent for so long, Mo Yuanle must have asked for leave on her behalf. Since she was already late, she did not care about these few days anymore.

Having refined for such a long time, she felt mentally and physically exhausted. First, she decided to sleep in the bedroom, planning to return after a good rest.

While Lan Tian spent her days leisurely, Mo Junhua’s days could only be described as terrible.

In the battle at the Boundary River, Mo Junhua rose to fame. Many people heard of his deeds; valiant and adept at fighting, clever and decisive, with tricky tactics, he led his men to break through a nearly fatal encirclement and even launched a successful counterattack.

For this defense battle in the Northern Territory, after deliberation, the breakthrough point was identified at Heisan River. If they could breach the defense line at Heisan River, it would mean they had torn open a gap in the enemy’s defences.

The enemy also recognized the importance of Heisan River and dispatched a battalion to guard it. After multifaceted deliberation, the decision was made to have Mo Junhua lead a vanguard to break through the enemy’s defense lines at Heisan River.

"Battalion commander, don’t you find it odd?"

In a makeshift command tent, Ding Lei, known as Wise Star, pointed at the map and spoke.

Holding the map and studying it, Mo Junhua did not lift his head, as if he hadn’t heard Ding Lei’s words, his brow furrowed in thought. Zhang Tian walked over, looked at the map of Heisan River, and asked, "What’s strange?"

"Look, after we arrived at the battlefield, the superiors instructed us to first support the 16th Army at Wind Ridge. When we got to the 16th Army, they treated us like cannon fodder. Obviously, we could fight in a roundabout manner, but they insisted on a head-to-head clash with the enemy. What was the result? Killed a thousand enemies, lost eight hundred ourselves, and then they accused our battalion of not following commands, leading to heavy losses on our side, and pushed all the blame onto us."

Zhang Tian nodded, indeed that was the case.

"And this time, they asked us to encircle and suppress an enemy supply unit from the rear, but it turned out it was hiding a battalion’s strength, clearly the main force. We reported and requested reinforcements, but the superiors claimed we were faking and really just scared, fearing death. If not for the battalion commander’s sudden insight, at least two-thirds of our men would have perished there."

"I wasn’t sure about those first two incidents, if the first was a mistake and the second a coincidence, but with this operation at Heisan River, I am now sure..."

"Sure of what?" Su Qing asked blankly as he looked at Ding Lei.

A glint of coldness flashed in Ding Lei’s eyes, "Someone is deliberately putting us in a deadly situation."

"I see it now." Mo Junhua folded the map in his hands, glanced at Ding Lei, "You’re not too foolish."

"Commander, you knew already?" Surprised, Su Qing stared wide-eyed, then looked up to Mo Junhua with admiration, unable to believe someone would plot against them.

"Commander, what do we do?" Zhang Tian spun the military knife in his hand, a fierce look appearing in his eyes.

"Following orders is the soldier’s duty; going to Heisan River is a must. But as for how and when we go, it’s not for them to dictate." In the depths of Mo Junhua’s eyes flashed a ruthless fierceness; he not only planned to go but also to seize the military achievement, making those plotting behind frustrated enough to gnash their teeth in anger.

"Report, commander, Nurse Zhou is here to see you."

This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om