“I am not a refiner.” The white-haired old woman slowly turned around, her tone old but unhurried.
What appeared in Ning Cheng’s eyes was a face that was somewhat pale while bearing a few wrinkles.
Ning Cheng did not dare to stare at this old crone carefully and hurriedly cupped his fist once again respectfully and said, “Junior learned from Elder Ge that senior is a master smith, and after seeing senior’s furnace fire, junior is sure that that Elder Ge is not lying to me. I would also like to ask senior’s help, as long as senior’s magic weapon is refined successfully, if senior has any orders, senior will definitely do his best.”
“Doing your best means that you really can’t do it, so you don’t do it for the sake of it, right?” The old woman’s tone remained slow.
Ning Cheng froze for a moment, this was obvious, it was hard to say that if you helped me refine a needle, I would have to sell my life for you?
Luckily, the old crone did not continue to ask questions, she just said in a slow voice, “I took the same thing from Ge Chang, but I helped him refine a low grade magic weapon, so, he thought I was a refiner. In fact, I’m not an artifact refiner ……”
Ning Cheng despised in his heart, not being a refiner, you could help Ge Chang refine a magic weapon? He did not dare to refute this old crone, so he could only continue, “Senior can refine magic weapons, so to junior, he is already an artifact refiner. Junior’s request is simple, as long as senior can help me refine an ordinary magic weapon.”
The old crone seemed embarra*sed to refuse Ning Cheng and said with a sigh, “Since you can find this place and must want me to help you refine a magic weapon, that’s fine. But I have three conditions, firstly you can’t go around proclaiming that I am a refiner like Ge Chang.”
“This junior will heed, junior is just pa*sing through when he comes to Southern Plains City. I will definitely not go around proclaiming senior’s name and disturbing senior’s meditation.” Ning Cheng hurriedly spoke out to a*sure him.
The old crone nodded and continued, “Secondly if the item you bring out doesn’t suit my eyes, I won’t help you refine the artifact. Although I am not a refiner, I will not refine everything that sucks. Thirdly the payment you give has to satisfy me, otherwise I won’t help you refine either.”
“Naturally, may I ask what kind of payment senior needs?” Ning Cheng said confidently, as long as the other party wanted payment, then it would be a good thing to do. He still had hundreds of spirit stones, giving a payment for refining a weapon was certainly not a problem.
“First, tell me what you want to refine, then bring out the materials.” The old crone did not directly ask Ning Cheng for payment, obviously wanting to see what Ning Cheng was refining before saying the price.
Ning Cheng took out two sharp teeth of a second level wolf demon and said, “I want to refine a ……”
Not waiting for Ning Cheng to finish his words, the old woman’s face sank, “You’re taking this kind of trash material to get me to refine a weapon? You’re here to insult me because I’m not a refiner? Get out.”
Ning Cheng was stunned, he could not have imagined that this old crone would just turn the other cheek when she said so. The sharp teeth of a rank two wolf demon were rubbish? This was something that he wouldn’t even be willing to casually take out for sale at the Dharma Treasure Artifact Building, how did it become trash in this old crone’s mouth?
Luckily, Ning Cheng’s reaction speed was extremely fast as he immediately put away the wolf demon sharp tooth and hurriedly took out another one-horn and said, “Since the item I refined was a needle, I thought the wolf tooth would be better. Since senior doesn’t like it, I have another unicorn horn here ……”
“Huh ……” When she saw the augur horn in Ning Cheng’s hand, the old crone gave a surprised cry and raised her hand to snatch it away with unparalleled swiftness.
Ning Cheng stared at the old crone slightly nervously on the side, he estimated that if he were to fight, he was afraid that he was not a match for this old crone. If this old woman wanted to steal his Jiao Horn, there was really nothing he could do.
“The horn of a one-horned Fire Dragon Jiao that has just advanced to the fourth level? Where did you get such a good thing from a mere eighth level of Qi gathering?” The old woman finished speaking and stared closely at Ning Cheng.
Ning Cheng’s heart sank, he couldn’t even bother to answer about the Jiao Horn and stood up in shock, “Senior, you can tell my actual cultivation level?”
The old crone sneered, “How dare you hide your cultivation in front of me with this broken concealment technique? Fie.”
After saying that, she took out a jade slip and threw it to Ning Cheng, “Let you see what a real concealment technique is.”
Ning Cheng grabbed the jade slip and swept his divine thoughts in, immediately filling his head with fine sweat. After reading this jade slip, he realised how rubbish his previous concealment spell was. That concealment technique, which he had still amended, would have been downright disastrous if he hadn’t amended it. But even if he had amended it perfectly, his concealment technique was still inherently inadequate.
With his current cultivation level, there was no way he could use the Xuanhuang Pearl Origin to reach the phase free level.
Just like a piece of black iron, even if it was repeatedly wrought, there was no way to turn it into a piece of gold. Or when one day he could reach the Xuanhuang No-Phase level, then a random gong method could be modified by the Xuanhuang Pearl into the most awesome top-level gong method. But that was certainly not now.
Ning Cheng swept through this concealment spell as quickly as he could. Spells were different from gong methods, far less complex and long in length than gong methods. Ning Cheng had an amazing memory, and after just a casual sweep, he had already memorized almost all of it.
Other people had some minor points that they did not remember and might make mistakes during their cultivation, but Ning Cheng was different, he was able to correct his own gong methods.
“The Concealment Technique jade slip can be given to you, but you need to answer two questions for me.” When the old crone saw Ning Cheng’s demeanour as she grabbed the jade slip, she knew that Ning Cheng had been shocked by the concealment technique. She was not even half surprised that Ning Cheng could view the jade slip at the Qi gathering stage.
Ning Cheng hurriedly returned the jade slip to this old crone, “Junior does not dare to covet senior’s merit jade slip, senior has questions please just ask, junior is aware of everything.”
Ning Cheng was not a fool, he had already understood this merit jade slip, so if he let this old woman give it to him again, wouldn’t he owe her a favour for nothing? Even if he wanted something, he would want something that he had not seen.
The old woman did not know that Ning Cheng had such a strong memory and the ability to correct gong methods, so she asked with some doubt, “You really don’t want it?”
Ning Cheng said categorically, “Junior has come to ask senior to refine a magic weapon, if he asks for another gongfa jade slip, it would be insatiable, please inquire senior.”
The old woman was a bit appreciative and put the jade slip away and asked, “In that case, I won’t ask you any more questions. This one-horned fire dragon scaly dragon has just advanced to the fourth level, and it is not easy for you to get this with a mere Qi gathering cultivation. Also, do you have the scaly skin and scaly pellet here?”
Ning Cheng didn’t hesitate and directly took out the scaly skin and piled it up in the room saying, “I didn’t find the scaly pellet.”
There was even some surprise in the old woman’s eyes, she did not continue to look at the Jiao skin or even ask about the Jiao Dan, instead she directly asked, “What do you want to refine?”
“I want to refine a fine needle spell with concealment effect, the finer the better, at the same time this fine needle should have ice based attack means, it can be ……” Ning Cheng was no longer polite, he guessed that this old crone should be someone not simple, he simply told all the characteristics of the Seven Yao Ice Needle .
“You want to refine the Seven Obsidian Ice Needles? You are a Qi gathering cultivator who has this kind of Xuan level spell? It looks like you have quite a secret in you.” The old crone looked at Ning Cheng and spoke if meaningfully.
Ning Cheng subconsciously winced, this old woman was so powerful, she even knew about the Seven Obsidian Ice Needle. If she knew that she had the Xuanhuang Pearl, wouldn’t she be looking for death?
Seeing Ning Cheng’s somewhat worried look, the old woman said with a faint smile, “Although Xuan-grade spells are not bad, I wouldn’t put it to heart. However, if you use the horn of the One Horned Scorpion to refine the Seven Obsidian Ice Needle, even if you do, the result will still be poor. The material of this one-horned scaly dragon is of great use to me, and I have a tail needle of a fourth-grade shadowless bee that is suitable for refining needle-like magic weapons. How about I refine this Shadowless Bee’s tail needle into a Seven Obsidian Ice Needle, and then exchange it for your One-Horned Scorpion material?”
As soon as Ning Cheng heard this, he knew that he would definitely suffer a loss, but he said without even considering it for a moment, “But at senior’s behest, junior only needs a Seven Obsidian Ice Needle.”
The old crone nodded, obviously satisfied with Ning Cheng’s attitude, and then said, “Although I am not a refiner, I am an alchemist, so if you have any pills that need to be refined, you can come to me. At least for a year, I will not leave Southern Plains City.”
Ning Cheng’s heart was just wildly happy upon hearing this, he had never thought that this old crone was also an alchemist. At first hearing this news, he was almost about to request the old crone to refine the True Condensation Pill. But in the end, Ning Cheng held back his thoughts, he felt that even if he wanted to ask the old crone to refine the True Condensation Pill, he couldn’t do it now, at least he had to wait until the Seven Obsidian Ice Needles were in his hands.
“Of course, it is fine to help you refine the pills, you need to provide your own spirit herbs, I am a wife, I don’t go out, I don’t have spirit herbs for you.” After receiving the Jiao Horn and Jiao Skin given by Ning Cheng, the old crone’s attitude changed drastically.
Ning Cheng knew that although he had the Golden Cicada Fruit, but to refine the True Condensation Pill, he needed one to twenty kinds of spirit herbs. He would not be able to gather all these spirit herbs in the short term, thus showing that it was also unrealistic to find this old crone to refine the pills.
Thinking of this, Ning Cheng hurriedly said, “May I ask if senior has a jade slip and introduction to alchemy, if he does, junior would like to borrow it.”
“You want to learn how to refine pills” The old crone immediately understood Ning Cheng’s thoughts and asked with some disbelief.
Ning Cheng scratched his hair in embarra*sment and said, “Yes, if I could refine pills myself, it would save me a lot of trouble in the future?”
For the first time, a smile appeared at the corner of the old crone’s mouth, and Ning Cheng could tell that although the old crone was not mocking him, the meaning was not much different from mocking.
“Throughout the ages, there are eight out of ten cultivators who want to refine pills on their own, but those who can become a dan master are a rare breed. In addition to talent and perseverance, you also need to have the chance to refine pills. Even if you are a pure spiritual root, even if you have amazing perseverance, without chance, you will still not be able to become a dan master.” When the old woman spoke, her tone was a little despondent, as if she was lamenting for herself.
Knowing that the opportunity was right in front of him, Ning Cheng no longer cared about exposing his tail and eagerly said, “Junior is confident that he can definitely become a dan master, and junior does not need senior’s teaching, as long as senior can give junior an introductory dan refining jade slip.”