Chapter 65: The Heavenly Craft Pavilion and the Inherited Sacred Artifact!
"Miss, I have two pieces of news—one good, one bad. Which would you like to hear first?"
As Xiao Xun'er returned to her residence, the voice of Shadow Guard Ling Ying echoed beside her from within the shadows.
"Hmm?" Xiao Xun'er was a little surprised—Ling Ying knew how to play suspense now? Still, she didn't seem displeased and asked, "Let's start with the good news, then the bad."
From the shadows, Ling Ying replied expressionlessly, "The good news is that Jiang Lin is no longer the strongest Dou Practitioner in the Jia Ma region."
Just like that, Ling Ying coldly and mercilessly stripped Jiang Lin of his title.
"Oh? For such a tiny empire like Jia Ma to produce prodigies one after another…" Xiao Xun'er was clearly surprised. What was going on in Jia Ma Empire lately? The talent pool seemed rather impressive.
Ling Ying was silent for a moment, then added, "The bad news is that Jiang Lin is now a one-star Dou Master."
Xiao Xun'er: "…"
"Ling Ying… are you teasing me now?"
"Your subordinate wouldn't dare!" Ling Ying denied it flatly. Could he admit that? If the sky fell, he still couldn't admit it!
"…But there's even worse news," he added.
Xiao Xun'er gritted her teeth. "…Speak."
"Jiang Lin appears to possess a tier-three Dou Artifact. Which means… he might already be a tier-three blacksmith."
Ling Ying stated it truthfully. As a shadow guard, his intel-gathering abilities were top-notch. If he couldn't even dig up something about a low-level Dou Master, he might as well bash his head into tofu. And if that couldn't kill him? Then maybe he was just being too dramatic.
Since blacksmiths rarely appeared in remote regions, after realizing Jiang Lin was one, Ling Ying had used his connections to obtain detailed blacksmith-related materials for Xiao Xun'er. The book she now carried around everywhere was essentially a blacksmithing encyclopedia.
If Xiao Xun'er ever gave that encyclopedia to Jiang Lin, with how his moral standards had been rising lately, he might very well drop to his knees on the spot in gratitude.
As they say, the first step is the hardest. Jiang Lin was once too proud to kneel to his "Big Bro" Peso, but eventually he let go of his pride and respectfully bowed to Senior Whitebone. Ever since then, his heart had grown more serene.
"A tier-three blacksmith… This man clearly has his own opportunities. Ling Ying, I don't think we can interfere anymore." When she heard Jiang Lin had reached that level, Xiao Xun'er's eyes only flickered slightly before she sighed.
She had originally thought about recruiting Jiang Lin to be her, well… her personal guard. Or more accurately, for Ling Ying's next-generation shadow guard. But now, with Jiang Lin's blacksmithing talent, if she really tried to make him her "dog", the senior blacksmiths of the Central Plains' guild would not take it kindly.
"If his talent's that good, once the Jia Ma Blacksmith Guild records him, and he reaches Xuan-tier blacksmith level, the Central Plains' Heavenly Craft Pavilion will surely try to recruit him directly," she said with a shake of her head.
The Heavenly Craft Pavilion, also known as the Central Plains' Blacksmith Guild, was filled with tier-six blacksmiths. It gathered geniuses from all corners of the Dou Qi Continent, most of them eccentric and extremely protective of their own. Their numbers were few, but if even one blacksmith went missing, they would raise a storm to investigate.
Still, the Heavenly Craft Pavilion wasn't a formal power—it was more like a hobbyist club composed of blacksmiths from various factions. Many of them were Dou Zun-level experts who, when not helping their respective sects, simply researched new technologies in peace.
That said, some elder members of the pavilion did want to elevate it to the level of the Pill Tower. These elders were obsessed with teaching disciples and believed that one day, when the world's environment shifted again, the Heavenly Craft Pavilion would rise and surpass even the Alchemist Tower.
Of course, no one in the Central Plains took this dream seriously. They just considered the pavilion a glorified research division. Still, credit where credit is due—the pavilion did produce a few remarkable Dou Technique scrolls every few years.
"Sigh… it's said that if one can forge, they can usually refine pills as well. The encyclopedia even says that many blacksmith elders from the Heavenly Craft Pavilion secretly moonlight at the Pill Tower, collecting monthly resources. No one knows whose ridiculous idea it was to bankrupt the Pill Tower this way…" Xiao Xun'er massaged her forehead, recalling some of the more absurd notes from Ling Ying's blacksmithing manual.
The Heavenly Craft Pavilion was a phantom-like faction—both present and absent. Even people like Xiao Xun'er, with her status, wouldn't notice it unless she made a point of keeping an eye on it. After all, tier-six blacksmiths weren't exactly public figures. Only when one reached tier seven—Master level—could they found their own sect.
The relationship between the Pill Tower and the Heavenly Craft Pavilion was also complicated. Who knew how many "respected" alchemist masters at the Pill Tower were actually undercover blacksmiths?
Her blacksmithing encyclopedia had been compiled by her ancient clan—the Gu Clan—so it was brutally honest in its records.
For example, the Pill Tower, in retaliation, had sent its alchemists into the Pavilion under assumed identities to steal the latest techniques—because the Pavilion had openly declared: "Anyone can use our Dou Techniques… except the Pill Tower."
According to the Pill Tower's own assessment:
"Those damn blacksmiths might be a bunch of weirdos, but once every few hundred years, they really do manage to create a Heaven-tier Dou Technique."
"An elder once said, the blacksmithing inheritance has been severed at the root. After the great upheaval in ancient times, something vanished from the world—and without it, all Dou Artifacts above Earth-tier ceased to function. Strictly speaking, tier-seven artifacts no longer exist."
Thinking of this, Xiao Xun'er shook her head slightly. As the heiress of the ancient Gu Clan, she had recently begun accessing many of the clan's secret records. Her worldview had broadened, and she had come to realize just how much was truly hidden. Among ancient races, blacksmiths were never underestimated. On the contrary, everyone quietly hoped someone would one day recreate an Earth-tier artifact. Even the notorious Soul Hall rarely targeted blacksmiths unless explicitly ordered to—after all, there was no merit in it.
Xiao Xun'er still remembered how, when she was little, she once pointed to a massive ring-shaped structure floating like a cracked jade wheel among the fog-covered mountains of the Ancient Realm and asked her father:
"Father… what is that?"
Her father's expression turned complicated. He was silent for a long time before answering:
"That… was discovered in an even older ruin. It's a sacred inheritance artifact—discarded by an imperial clan before the great upheaval."
Are the Eight Ancient Clans the only imperial clans of the Dou Qi Continent?
No—more accurately, they are the last eight imperial clans that remain.
The clans of the past once possessed sacred inheritance artifacts.
The current eight clans… have never even seen a true tier-seven spiritual artifact.
(END CHAPTER)
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