"Boom, boom…" loud sounds spread from within the formation, Junior Leopard, who held twin hammers in his hands was mercilessly hitting on the slender handprint of the Meteorite Metal. The meteorite was quite tough and its weakest part was perhaps the palm print. After the print was. .h.i.t several times, the meteorite, as expected, cracked. There was just a small opening at first, but then the whole meteorite split open. The process was so fast and simple that it was totally beyond Junior Leopard's expectation.

"Goodness, what the h.e.l.l is this? It looks like heavy. Ah, is that the kindling of Nanming Ignis?" Junior Leopard asked surprisedly after seeing the cracked Meteorite Metal.

"Don't let this Ignis Essence Qi run away! After being incubated in the Meteorite Metal for so many years, they are even more precious than the kindling of Nanming Ignis!" Green Spirit shouted.

Hearing that, Junior Leopard, who did not intend to lose such a good thing, violently sucked and inhaled all the red gas spurting out from the meteorite. In the twinkling of an eye, he launched the Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire Technique.

"What violent Ignis Essence Qi! d.a.m.n it, I inhaled too much!" Like a long dragon drinking water, Junior Leopard inhaled all the Ignis Essence Qi in one breath. However, he failed to instantly digest all of the Qi. Though his body, which was as strong as reinforced iron had practiced into Tendon-Changing Realm and was far superior compared to ordinary refined iron, was still not strong enough. When plenty of Ignis Essence Qi rushed into his body, he could not immediately a.s.similate them even with the full operation of Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire Technique. As a result, his tendons and meridians were filled with the rushed Essence Qi and began to bulge. Junior Leopard felt that he just looked like a balloon being violently blown into by others.

"I have got to do something!" He thought to himself. Then he concentrated on mobilizing the Ignis Essence Qi that he had inhaled and infusing it all into the External Elixir between his eyebrows. An hour later, his face did not wear as serious an expression as it did before.

"Almost, almost…" He took a deep breath and shouted out, "Green Spirit, the Ignis Essence Qi almost destroyed me! You did that on purpose, didn't you?"

"I just asked you to keep these Ignis Essence Qi from running away, not to breathe it in!" Green Spirit was apparently in a worse mood and scolded Junior Leopard. "You idiot! You should have collected all these Ignis Essence Qi into your s.p.a.ce rather than your stomach. There is no need for you to absorb so much Essence Qi. What you practice is Fire Way Method, so the Essence Qi at most makes your internal Qi more vigorous. Since you haven't cultivated into Genuine Soul, you couldn't get anywhere with that vigorous internal Qi! It's impossible for you to use it as Genuine Soul!"

Junior Leopard blushed at those harsh words and was on the verge of exploding. Fortunately, Green Spirit felt his anger and quickly changed the topic. "It's amazing that this Taiyi Jade-scaled Gold has been refined to such a degree. Take out the kindling of Nanming Ignis now. I'll tell you how to concoct it!"

"Hmph! "Junior Leopard groaned with anger. Then he diverted his attention to the meteorite metal that he had cracked previously.

The Meteorite Metal in black was about 10 feet tall and appeared to be strong, solid and as heavy as tens of thousands of pounds. However, after being broken apart by Junior Leopard with a hammer, the meteorite actually turned out to be a hollow, thin sh.e.l.l akin to that of an egg. The sh.e.l.l was no more than 10 centimeters thick, and its thinnest part was less than one centimeter. In fact, below the slender palm print, its thickness was equivalent to a thin film.

As soon as the sh.e.l.l was opened, Ignis Essence Qi rushed out. Blown by the wind, the red bean-like kindling, floating in the center of the sh.e.l.l, began to move as if its light would be extinguished at any time.

"Quickly, put away the kindling! Just now, the Ignis Essence Qi took away most of its pneuma. If exposed to the air too much, it will soon go out!

Junior Leopard did not dare to slow down. He waved his right sleeve and collected the kindling of Nanming Ignis into his s.p.a.ce. It was not until he had done so that he was able to spend time carefully looking at the big egg.

The swarthy and thin sh.e.l.l had a white jade-like liner. With careful observation, Junior Leopard found the fine jade scales scattered around the liner. What surprised him most was the faint purple halo in some scales.

Junior Leopard slightly reached out his hand to touch the sh.e.l.l, but he stopped several centimeters away from the white jade-like liner and asked, "Can I touch it?"

"Of course you can. This is Upper Grade Jade-scaled Gold! See its texture, color and spirit. It's so delicate and warm! It feels more comfortable than Ten-thousand-year-old Warm Jade and even turned into purified purple scales!" Green Spirit said, immersing himself in his own world, "The Upper Grade Jade-scaled Gold had been heated by Nanming Ignis and nurtured by the Ignis Essence Qi for thousands of years. Even in antiquity times, such good materials were rare. If it were refined 1,000 years longer, it would have transformed into Purple Jade-scaled Gold, and at that time, ha, ha…What a pity!"

"Can it be used to make a Pure Yang Celestial Device?" Junior Leopard asked with an expectant look on his face.

"Why do you want to use such a good thing to make celestial device rather than wizard weapons?" Green Spirit's good mood was interrupted by Junior Leopard's words. Green Spirit continued, "Of course, you should use such a good thing to develop weapons. Jade-scaled Gold is one of the few materials in the world that are the hardest to destroy. It's the best material for weapons. However, making celestial devices with it is not greatly beneficial!"

"Now that it's the hardest to destroy, what method should I apply to refine it?"

"Tusita Fire, you have Tusita Fire!" Green Spirit shouted. "Tusita Fire is one of the highest achievements of those necromancers. The ultimate objective of refining it is to produce weapons. It is the flame specifically used by necromancers to refine weapons and make pills of immortality. Though it's less powerful than the congenital fire, it overshadows the latter from the perspective of making weapons and elixir."

"Specifically used for refining weapons and elixir?" Junior Leopard queried.

"Exactly," Green Spirit added, "Tusita Fire dwarfs other flames in melting and refining. Melting means making different materials become liquid, while refining signifies removing foreign matters from the substance!"

"It seems that I got an incredible thing!" Green Spirit's words provoked Junior Leopard's thoughts. Though Junior Leopard knew Tusita Fire was not an ordinary thing, he had never thought that the stuff could be described with the word, 'MOST'!

There were too many treasures of heaven and earth in antiquity times, but he hardly heard of a treasure modified by an adjective with the word 'MOST'. He had never expected that his Tusita Fire deserved this modifier. The descriptions made him really happy.

However, happiness did not last for long. Junior Leopard then slightly moved his mouth and asked, "What should I do next?"

"Take out your Tusita Fire. I'll teach you how to make use of it. The first thing you need to do is to melt the Jade-scaled Gold, which requires you to stimulate the force of Purple Bright Heavenly Fire in Tusita Fire. The Purple Bright Heavenly Fire is the hottest fire among all the congenital ones, it is known for its capability of refining everything in the world. Though the temperature of Tusita Fire can only reach one or two-tenths of Purple Bright Heavenly Fire's, the heat is enough to refine the Jade-scaled Gold. However, you should be careful during the refinement and the time won't be long!"

"I see!" Junior Leopard said, lifting his hand in the air, before a glimmer of Tusita Fire appeared in front of him. According to the incantation from Green Spirit, he slightly moved his fingertips and the flame thus jumped like an active person. Subsequently, a ray of light purple gas emerged and rushed to the eggsh.e.l.l-like Jade-scaled Gold. The moment it touched the substance, something eccentric happened.

In an instant, Junior Leopard retreated 10 meters away. Even so, the hot airflow still made him flushed. He attempted to release the Poison Cold s.h.i.+eld, but it did not work. In fact, he had no sooner released the Poison Cold s.h.i.+eld before he took it back.

The unexpected high-temperature airflow could burn down his Poison Cold s.h.i.+eld.

"Your Poison Cold s.h.i.+eld is nothing but a celestial device at Mysterious Level. However, the Purple Bright Heavenly Fire can burn weapons like the Taihao Fairy Weapon. Although Tusita Fire only exerts one or two-tenths of the power of the Purple Bright Heavenly Fire, you can't defend against it with your Mysterious Level celestial device!" Seeing that Junior Leopard immediately took back the Poison Cold s.h.i.+eld that he released, Green Spirit laughed and said, "You launched the Tusita Fire, so you will at most be scalded once or twice, but not to death. As for the fate of other things, it's hard to tell. See…"

Enduring the incandescent heat waves, Junior Leopard looked ahead. Sure enough, as Green Spirit said, all things, except the Jade-scaled Gold, were instantly vaporized once touched by that purple flame. Exposed to the purple fire, the Jade-scaled Gold was slowly melting.

"Goodness! This place is as hot as an oven!" Junior Leopard exclaimed. In addition to the Jade-scaled Gold which became liquid as result of being heated by the Tusita Fire, everything else was gasified by the heat flow.

"Put away the Jade-scaled Gold! This place is not suitable for refining weapons," Green Spirit said, pointing at the melted Jade-scaled Gold.

"Well, I have no other choice. I don't want to take a risk and refine the weapon here!" Junior Leopard said with a lingering fear after seeing the power of the Tusita Fire.

"Don't worry. Tusita Fire could indeed exert a little of the power of Purple Bright Heavenly Fire, but not for long!" Green Spirit comforted Junior Leopard. With the temperature dropping quickly, he continued, "Though it's enough to refine materials!"

"Yes, more than enough!" Junior Leopard murmured. He thought of the main reason why major smelting families spared no pain to search for the underground fire vein. If they had the Tusita Fire, the underground fire vein would immediately lose half of its value.

After putting away the Jade-scaled Gold and the Yin and Yang Dust Formation in sequence, Junior Leopard said, "Well, the next time I go to the cold pool, I should give the kindling to Cao Xuetang!"

"It seems that you want to make friends with this guy", said Green Spirit.

"I have saved this guy's life twice. You can say that I have doubled down on him. If I ruin our relations.h.i.+p right now, I will get nothing. You once said that the kindling of Nanming Ignis was useless for me, but I could give it to this guy to help him enhance his strength and status and I'll get some benefits from this man. Don't you think it's a good choice?" Junior Leopard smiled and added, "To maximize the potential yield, what I need to do is to make the most of my resources rather than use all those good things!"

Junior Leopard returned to the valley the next day. Cao Xuetang obviously had not recovered from his injury. After Junior Leopard said to Cao Xuetang that he had known how to get the kindling, Junior Leopard took the Wood Spirit Bottle from Cao Xuetang's hand and entered the cold pool before Cao Xuetang stopped him.

In a quarter of an hour, the calm mirror-like cold pool began to form bubbles as though the water was boiling. Seeing that, Cao Xuetang, who sat beside the pool, felt alarmed.

The alien change of the cold pool lasted for an hour. Then the pool gradually regained its calmness. An hour later, Junior Leopard rushed out from the pool with a Wood Spirit Bottle in hand. Smiling satisfactorily, he walked to Cao Xuetang.

"Cao Xuetang, I have succeeded in carrying out the a.s.signment. You see, this is the kindling of Nanming Ignis."

When Cao Xuetang reached out to take the Wood Spirit Bottle, he could easily notice the warm feeling of his finger and the active movement of the Ignis Mysterious Gang inside his body. With an expression of joy on his face, he stammered. "Yes, yes, yes. Well-done, well-done. This is the kindling of Nanming Ignis, the kindling of..."

"I'm glad that I found it," Junior Leopard said with a smile, "and it seems that you have not recovered from your injury. Now that you have got the kindling of the Nanming Ignis, you should come back with me to heal your wound!"

"Ah, okay, okay, no problem!" Cao Xuetang who was still in a state of great excitement nodded his head.

"He's wild with joy. Just leave him alone. Let's go back", Green Spirit said beside Junior Leopard, "I haven't made a wizard weapon in a long time. Let's hurry back to melt your two big hammers and produce a Divine Weapon to my heart's content!"

After hearing Green Spirit's words, Junior Leopard rolled his eyes and said,"Nuts!" He then ignored Green Spirit.

"I'll never forget your kindness," Cao Xuetang recovered his composure and said with great grat.i.tude, his eyes looking at Junior Leopard, "but you might not know that the Meteorite Metal forged by the kindling of Nanming Ignis for many years at the bottom of the cold pool has turned into a good material for refining weapons. The great Venerable, Prince Xiaoming reckons that if refined properly, the meteorite could be made into a wizard weapon".

"Really?" Junior Leopard raised his eyebrows and seemed to be astonished. Then he smiled and continued, "the meteorite is so heavy. If we want to pull it out of the pool, we need to take more time to discuss this matter. Since the meteorite has no feet to run away from the bottom of the pool, we can talk about it later. For now, we'd better go back!"

Cao Xuetang nodded his head and said, "That would be fine!" He thought, "What Junior Leopard said is correct. The Meteorite Metal can't run away. Junior Leopard can pull it up at any time since it is in his territory. There are plenty of methods to get the meteorite. I should not worry about that."

Five days later, Cao Xuetang recovered his health. After integrating the kindling of Nanming Ignis into Internal Qi, his strength improved. Afterward, he said goodbye to Junior Leopard, and in high spirits, along with his wife, son and Cao Zhi, set out on a journey. Patting his chest, he promised Junior Leopard that he would offer a helping hand whenever Junior Leopard needed it in the South. From then on, Junior Leopard's business was Cao Xuetang's business.

Junior Leopard smiled and said a few words of courtesy to Cao Xuetang. After that, he saw them out of his territory. Along with them were the masters of martial arts and experts that had hunted Cao Xuetang and had been subdued by Junior Leopard.

The Qi functions of those unlucky guys were sealed by Junior Leopard. Besides, they were still in a coma after taking large doses of Anesthetic Pills. As for how Cao Xuetang would take over power in Sect of Flame and punish these people after he went back, Junior Leopard did not know and it was none of his business.

Now that Cao Xuetang's rival had lost an expert at Level Eight and three experts at Level Seven, people could say that their strength suffered a fatal attack. In this case, it was very likely for Cao Xuetang, who had the support of Prince Xiaoming, would take power. If he still failed, Zhou Bao could only say that he had a bad luck.

After parting with Cao Xuetang, Junior Leopard felt relieved. He had over 20 days away from the World Hero Compet.i.tion. Though Central Plains was far from here, Junior Leopard could reach the compet.i.tion venue in a day with his high speed. He did not intend to join the contest and would not register for it, so he could take his time.

Junior Leopard asked, "Can you refine the Divine Weapon within 20 days?"

"Of course I can. With the Tusita Fire, I'm able to refine anything," Green Spirit said, "but you need to find a suitable place. We can't refine weapons here, for the process requires the frequent use of Tusita Fire. Though you could launch the Yin and Yang Dust Formation to separate the Tusita Fire from the environment, you couldn't guarantee that the surroundings wouldn't be ruined".

"What about going to the cold pool valley? We could make weapons beside the cold pool where it is uninhabited!" Junior Leopard suggested.

"It's a pity that you don't have an Elixir Furnace with which the refining of weapons or elixirs are just a piece of cake for you. Though I know the method of making an Elixir Furnace, there are no appropriate materials in this world. If I make it with ordinary materials, the Elixir Furnace wouldn't be able to stand the power of the Tusita Fire!" Green Spirit explained.

"Now that we cannot produce the Elixir Furnace, we'd better ignore the treasure. The valuables that I possess are more than enough. Owning too much is not necessarily a good thing," Junior Leopard said.

"You always look on the bright side of things!" Green Spirit said, "Let's begin. First, I'll teach you the method of making a Divine Weapon!"

An hour later, Junior Leopard's expression changed.

Sitting in the house, he complained. "Why is the process so complex? It's just making a weapon!"

"Kiddo, what you are going to refine are wizard weapons, to be more specific, Divine Weapons. Do you think it's easy to get all those good things?" Green Spirit continued, "d.a.m.n it, I forget you have never learned the method of talisman formation. Without it, you can't make any wizard weapons, er, or even Pure Yang Celestial Devices. If you know nothing about it, you can't produce Pure Yang Celestial Device even though you have materials!"

"But the refining ways of Air-frozen Bead do not contain the talisman formation!"

Junior Leopard added defiantly, "You once said that the Air-frozen Bead was a Taihao Fairy Weapon which was more powerful than Pure Yang Celestial Devices. Why not refine the Taihao Fairy Weapon with those materials?"

"Nonsense. You could try to refine the Air-frozen Bead with the ways that you learned and see what things you will make. Let me tell you, though you could make something, the thing could only calm the wind and would be weaker than a Mysterious Celestial Device. In other words, it's useless!" Green Spirit shouted angrily. "How about learning the methods of talisman formation in these 20 days instead of refining weapons? You should at least grasp the basic principles of the talisman formation's methods. After that, I'll teach you the talisman formation of refining Pure Yang Celestial Devices and Divine Weapons. You don't need to make sense of it. Knowing how to launch it is enough. What do you think?"

"No objection. This is my only choice," Junior Leopard said with a forced smile.

In the next 20 days, Junior Leopard learned the methods of talisman formation from Green Spirit.

The methods were profound and obscure. Junior Leopard was not a smart man, and his achievements today was mainly attributed to his luck. He studied very hard, but only managed to master the talisman formation of refining Divine Weapons after 22 days.

"Stupid, very stupid. It took only 10 days for me to master the foundation of talisman formation!"

Hearing this, Junior Leopard rolled his eyes. In his previous life, he was a student of arts. He did not learn liberal arts because he loved literature, history or other subjects, but because he was afraid of math. From middle school to high school, his math score had been about 60, the pa.s.sing line. In the college entrance exams, he only flunked the math exam. The talisman formation, however, was closely related to math. Its calculation and evolution in nature were similar to recondite mathematical principles. So it was difficult for Junior Leopard to grasp the talisman formation.

Thanks to the system of learning by heart, Junior Leopard succeeded to launch the Highest Ruyi Talisman Formation. If Green Spirit asked him to make sense of it, he would definitely give up refining weapons.

"Well, now that you're able to launch the talisman formation with great efforts, it's time for you to refine a Divine Weapon. The Highest Ruyi Talisman Formation is not too profound to understand. It's the most frequently-used talisman formation for refining wizard weapons. If you could master it, you can earn a lot of money from refining weapons for others with a talisman formation and Tusita Fire!"

"This is a good way to be a rich person. But if I provide such services, I'll die without a complete body," Junior Leopard sneered and said, "what you taught me is all useful knowledge that failed to be handed down from past generations. People in this world are eager to acquire them. You know, though the owner himself was not guilty, his valuables would finally bring him misfortune. If I want to live longer in this world, I have to be prudent!"

Speaking of this, Junior Leopard smiled. "So I've decided to join the World Hero Compet.i.tion a few days late. During this time, I will stay here to refine a Divine Weapon." He seemed to think of something. "It's nice of you to teach me how to refine wizard weapons. Since I have weapons, of course, I need some movements to match them. I have never learned cudgel skills. Even though I could make a cudgel, I'm afraid that it will be useless!"

"The cudgel is the ancestor of all the weapons and is the most widespread one at our time. The cudgel skill is the most thoroughly studied weapon skill and its refining method the most popular. This is the reason why I want you to refine a Golden-Scaled Cudgel. You shouldn't worry about the cudgel skill. I have a set of 72 Style Earthly Fiends Cudgel Techniques. Once you master it, you will triumph over the method of sword pract.i.tioner with the Golden-Scaled Cudgel. If you are lucky enough to comprehend the spirit of cudgel, hehe..."

"Come on. Are you kidding me with the spirit of cudgel? It sounds f*ucking unbelievable!" Junior Leopard complained.