Chapter 83 First Release on Jinjiang: The Weapon Forging Room

Soon, the sect's disciple recruitment ceremony began. Not everyone was required to attend this ceremony. In fact, only those who had joined the sect in recent years or those who were eager to find a master participated. Yao Sisi and the others participated simply because it was their first time entering the sect and they were unaware of the rules. As for the disciples being recruited, most of them were from the previous year.

Yao Sisi did not intend to become an apprentice. She did not know what her other companions were thinking. She saw that the ceremony was held on the main peak. Because there were many people, it was divided into several areas. These areas were not on the ground, but in the air in a stepped shape.

It looks very fantastical.

The ceremony lasted for half a day, after which it turned into small group activities. Yao Sisi saw many small teams or organizations recruiting talent, and she thought, "Why don't we do the same?"

But what's a good excuse?

Her mountain is lacking in people, so why not set up a place to take in lonely elderly people? I wonder if there are any truly lonely elderly people in the cultivation world.

"Could there be elderly cultivators who have given up on cultivation and are preparing for retirement?"

She shared this idea with Qi Mu, "Why don't we do a good deed? Besides, cultivators who have no hope of cultivation certainly won't cause trouble. Wouldn't it be better for them to live quietly in the mountains?"

Qi Mu shook his head and said, "Your idea is good, but ordinary cultivators won't bother going back and forth during this period. Although they don't care as much about returning to their roots as mortals, they will still try to make up for their past regrets. Whether they will even be in the sect is another matter, let alone taking them away."

Yao Sisi asked, "Then what methods are there to attract talent?"

She noticed that many of these small groups resembled the clubs she used to have in college, recruiting members based on unique interests. One of them had even recruited her.

Qi Mu tugged at her, a rather intimate gesture in the crowded square, and said, "We can't rush to hire people for the sake of future development. At worst, we can earn more spirit stones and issue tasks to let them build it up."

Yao Sisi sniffed, and an idea popped into her mind: "We can recruit people. We can recruit disciples who are related to weapon crafting. We can make money together. It's not worth it for just the two of us."

Qi Mu: "You'll be going out to find inspiration and materials for your natal magic weapon in a while. Do you have enough time to recruit weapon-refining disciples?"

Yao Sisi nodded: "I know what I'm doing. You help me recruit people!"

Regarding weapon crafting, the Weapon Crafting Peak does recruit people, but not as frequently. Besides, there are so many cultivators in the sect, some of whom are just enthusiasts of weapon crafting but not professionals, making them unsuitable for the Weapon Crafting Peak. Yao Sisi and her group seized upon this point and actually managed to recruit a few people.

They currently have a small number of people and don't plan to recruit too many, otherwise management problems will arise.

Once the people were recruited, a time was set for them to be moved to their mountain peak.

Yao Sisi and the others left the square and returned to Jinming Peak. She first selected a site on the mountain peak and started digging a cave. She wanted to set up a weapon refining hall here. The cave was much easier to build than a house. She poured spiritual energy into the magic weapon and spent an hour digging a space of more than 200 square meters.

"Although it's not big, there aren't many of us, so it's enough for those few people."

The most difficult step was not digging a cave, but setting up the underground fire. The location she chose had underground fire, but the flames were not strong enough and far inferior to those at the weapon peak. Yao Sisi then had an idea, which was something she had thought of before, but she had not told anyone else.

She sat cross-legged in the cave, a bright and lively flame emerging from her palm. Gradually, beads of sweat appeared on her forehead, and despite the high temperature around her, they could not dry her sweat.

She tried to separate a cluster of spiritual fire and merge it into the flames inside the mountain.

Although the Earth Core Flame was originally born in the Earth's core, all strange flames possess sentience. It is happy to absorb other flames, but it is not willing to weaken or disperse its own strength.

Even though Yao Sisi had tried to communicate with it, its instinct was still to reject the behavior. It seemed hard to understand why it would do that. But if something suddenly appeared in front of you and hit you, you would blink involuntarily. Even if you used eye drops, your eyes would still want to look away.

This is probably instinctive. The strange fire is the same. If it separates into pieces, it is equivalent to cutting off a part of its body, which is painful for both the fire itself and Yao Sisi.

Yao Sisi sat there for three days, eventually splitting into several strands of strange fire the size of a hair. The strange fire was still quite naive when it was first separated, but it had a natural affinity and closeness to Yao Sisi.

She incorporated them into ordinary subterranean flames, and the ferocity of the strange fires slowly emerged. Despite their small size, they absorbed the flames rising from the ground like sponges, and gradually they grew thicker.

Yao Sisi sensed with a slight touch that they were "committing crimes" underground.

Slowly, the Earth Core Flame merged with the strange fire that originated from the same source, shooting up several meters high in front of her, like a mischievous child waiting for praise, showing off its abilities to its master.

Yao Sisi reached out and touched them; the flames brushed against her fingertips with an almost spiritual touch, as if they were incredibly intimate.

She said gently, "I'll have to work hard for you from now on."

After she finished setting up this area, she checked out another spot outside. First of all, the disciples in charge of weapon refining couldn't be too far away from here, and if they were too close, it wouldn't be good either, as they would hear noise. In the end, she chose an area a few kilometers away from the weapon refining room. This area wasn't fully built yet; only some seeds of spirit-nourishing grass had been sown. Now they had sprouted, but they were very short, just seedlings the size of fingertips, which looked quite pleasing.

Once everything was ready, she began sending out communication talismans. Among the disciples were both outer and inner disciples, with the inner disciples arriving the fastest.

Yao Sisi took out her Peak Master's Token, which contained a record of this disciple. "Your name is Liu Ying, right? You used to be on Freedom Peak."

Free Peak is a nickname among the disciples. It refers to the peak that they were assigned to when they first entered the sect, without ever joining any other peak. Apart from Yao Sisi herself, Qi Mu and the others were also assigned a place, but they did not intend to go there. Instead, they came to Jinming Peak with her from the beginning.

Seeing that she was holding the Peak Master's Token, Liu Ying thought of the recent major events. There was indeed an exceptionally talented disciple who had obtained a mountain peak as soon as he entered the sect. She just didn't expect to run into him. She said, "Yes, Peak Master. He was originally on Freedom Peak. He likes to refine weapons and usually focuses on fire magic."

Yao Sisi hummed in agreement. "You can choose to live here or return to Freedom Peak, but I suggest you stay here. First, the spiritual energy on our peak is definitely more abundant than that on Freedom Peak. Second, it will be more convenient for you to refine weapons. As for cultivation, you can cultivate anywhere. But if you stay here, you will need to build a house in this area or dig a cave in another area."

Liu Ying happily said, "I plan to stay on Jinming Peak. I prefer an independent courtyard to digging a cave, so I will build a house here."

Yao Sisi nodded, waiting for the next few disciples to arrive.

The disciples' flying magical artifacts varied in distance and speed, so after Yao Sisi finished dealing with everything, she took them to the weapon-refining room to take a look.

She dug out ten fire holes here, which are now hissing and emitting flames, making the temperature inside extremely high.

The newly recruited disciples had rented earth fire before, but such intense heat was rare, and their eyes showed amazement.

Good earth core fire can not only make smelting more thorough and pure, increasing the success rate, but it is also beneficial for them to break through. Anyone with some talent for weapon crafting has fire attribute in their spiritual root!

When they first moved away, some people thought they had gone to a poor, desolate mountain peak. They themselves were unsure of their options. Now, it seems fortunate that Jinming Peak's resources were not publicly announced, otherwise they might not have been able to secure a spot.

Yao Sisi briefly explained the rules to them and then left. Not long after she left, Liu Ying and the others began to build the house as quickly as possible.

It's much simpler for cultivators to build houses than for ordinary people. Basically, they just buy the materials and then use their spiritual energy to assemble them. A huge courtyard can be assembled in no time.

After leaving her disciples, Yao Sisi used her library to try and make a copy of the Puppet Technique. This time, the senior was indeed not there, but she still asked the new elder first and got a general idea of ​​the range to the fifth level.

This floor was almost entirely filled with strange and unusual spells. She had a clear goal in mind: to find the puppet mechanism spell. She took the jade slip and went down to make a copy.

That's the advantage of having a large sect. As long as you have sect contribution points, you can get almost any resource you want. New disciples don't have contribution points, but they are rewarded with the opportunity to enter the library.

The Xuan Yun Sect largely leaves most cultivators to their own devices, but that doesn't mean they completely ignore their disciples. Apart from the younger ones, many cultivators can choose what courses to take based on their own abilities.

Within the sect, there are dedicated places for instruction. Whether it's senior elders with high cultivation levels occasionally giving lectures and answering questions, or systematic learning, there are corresponding courses available.

The key point is that most courses are free and do not require any contribution points.

While there are some who don't offer free courses, this is not common. Those who don't offer free courses usually take on apprentices directly and don't teach everything they know, keeping their knowledge for their own use.

Yao Sisi doesn't plan to enroll in any courses, mainly because she has very little time left, and she is always very self-disciplined. Once she gets the jade slip, she can study on her own, and the speed will be faster. She can write down what she doesn't understand and then ask questions in the relevant courses.

Most importantly, the better the technique, the more carefully it is treated. So, the jade slip usually contains a wisp of divine consciousness, recording insights or even answering questions at any time. Yao Sisi noticed that although the puppet technique book did not have divine consciousness to answer questions, it had a summary of questions, which contained a large number of common questions. She thought that she should be fine with it.

Puppetry and weapon crafting have some similarities, so it wasn't too difficult to learn. She locked herself in a space and activated a time array to study. After staying there for more than half a year, she was finally able to craft low-level puppets.

There are many types of puppets, including combat and everyday types. To craft a combat puppet, not only do the materials need to be very sturdy, but the skill requirements are also very high. Since she couldn't craft one for the time being, she made a few wooden puppets using common materials.

The wooden puppet is shaped like a human, but its appearance is not carefully carved; it is just an ordinary wooden figure. However, it can perform daily tasks, such as cleaning, guarding, and reporting.

Yao Sisi crafted two puppets and sent them to patrol the mountain whenever they had free time. Occasionally, they would also go to the weapon-refining room, but they dared not get too close, fearing the flames inside.

Even everyday puppets have simple emotions, such as fear or happiness.

Yao Sisi handed them a large bag of seeds and instructed them, "When you see a good spot while patrolling the mountain, plant some spirit-nourishing herbs to help your master with some of the work."

The wooden puppet paused for a moment, then took the seed and stuffed it into its chest. There was a small space in its chest, not very big, but enough to store some things.

Before long, two wooden puppets were seen carrying hoes and working hard. They went to the back of the mountain, chose a spot and started digging a hole. The hole was very shallow, and anyone who didn't know better would think they were just going through the motions. Then, a seed appeared out of thin air in their hands, and they pressed it into the hole. After that, they used the hoes to pull the soil into the hole and fill it in.

Yao Sisi placed mid-grade spirit stones on them, but their movements did not consume much spiritual energy. In fact, the kinetic energy was converted into a certain amount of energy and stored in the puppet core. In short, a mid-grade spirit stone could be used indefinitely if nothing unexpected happened.