The Science of Cultivation Chapter 135: Written and Affinity Test

Li Lang was taken aback by the things he had read for his artifice test. He expected the contents to pertain to blacksmithing, tallurgy, and the Qi thod equivalent. He was even ready to make use of his advantage of possessing the Primordial Star Fire in this endeavor.

However, the artificing basics he read drew an entirely different picture. Artificers weren’t Qi blacksmiths. Instead of relying on the forge to slt and temper materials, they relied purely on Qi techniques. No heat was involved. Simply by exercising these artificer techniques, one could extract their desired tal from the raw ores.

While it was alien to Li Lang, he was also srized by it.

A clean energy-efficient way to extract ores! It would require no large facilities and produce no pollution. Even without the environntal and economic concerns, it would an a lot for materials that would benefit from non-thermal extractions.

Li Lang’s mind was filled with various materials that ca to mind. Materials like Yttrium Barium Copper Oxide and other high-temperature superconductors could help preserve their superconducting properties. Carbon nanostructure materials like graphene could retain their structural integrity and unique properties as well. It was even possible to create brand-new carbon nanostructure materials with the aid of this non-thermal extraction thod.

Li Lang allowed his ideas to flow freely for so ti before reining himself in. At the end of the day, he knew it would be difficult to obtain the materials he was familiar with. Combined with the presence of Qi, he would likely need to research materials from a new perspective.

This beca even more evident when he reviewed the contents for his upcoming test. It was mainly basic knowledge about the process of Artificing. There weren’t any techniques included, as it focused more on identifying potential materials. These potential materials all had nas that were entirely different from the ones in Li Lang’s old world.

Seeing these unfamiliar nas, Li Lang couldn’t help but mutter them out loud.

“Starlight Gold, Ethereal True Steel, Moonlight Copper, Demon Steel…None of these were available in the stores I’ve been to.”

Finding a topic he hadn’t discovered was both a joyous and sorrowful event. Joyful about the new possibilities and sad about the missed opportunities. He had an inkling about these materials ever since he had Long Yi craft his spear. Back then, he had received so Aqua Night Iron from his friend.

From Ruby’s analysis, he found the structure to be similar to iron, but at the sa ti, had different properties. The Qi it had been exposed to had changed it into a new category of substance. One he had yet to fully test. To do so would require studying how it interacted with various Qi of different elents, and under different conditions. To just say it was a ti-consuming project was an understatent.

While he wasn’t ready to lose himself to material science research yet, he still wanted to stock up on these materials.

“I wonder where I can buy these tals.”

With the motivation to solve this mystery behind him, the ti for the test ca very quickly.

He arrived in the sa room as the day before and found Elder Tie sitting in the sa position. This ti, she had her round hamr in one hand and a clump of ore on the desk before her. She was repeatedly slamming her implent down gently. The rhythm of her strikes crescendoed, reaching speeds where Li Lang could only see blurs. When she stopped, the clump of waste was neatly separated from a large nugget of tal.

“The test is on the bench over there. You can start whenever you want.”

After leaving those instructions, Elder Tie ignored his presence and went to retrieve more ore from the cabinets. Seeing this, Li Lang went to the table as instructed and began his test. The sooner he was done, the sooner he could ask questions.

A simple paper test was sothing Li Lang had faced thousands of tis throughout his education. He wasn’t fazed by it, not even needing to cheat with Ruby before he finished it.

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It wasn’t a test that made him regurgitate the contents he studied, but one that used a mix of pictures and identifying properties to test his knowledge. An impressive artist had drawn the materials he had studied, which he then had to identify. There were short answer parts to it as well, going into the basics of the tools artificers used, what they could or could not do, and so forth.

It was evident Elder Tie didn’t want her prospective students to be disillusioned with the craft before they started. She clearly laid out what to expect.

“I’m done, Senior Tie.”

“Oh, quite fast of you. Do you happen to excel in studies as opposed to your friend?”

“I guess you could say that,” Li Lang awkwardly replied, balancing the act of badmouthing his friend behind his back and answering truthfully.

The elder skimd through the test within an instant and placed it back down.

“Good, you have passed. Now for the affinity test.”

“Wait. If I may, elder. Can I ask so questions first?”

The muscular woman gave him a stern look before slowly nodding.

“I want to ask why Artificers don’t make use of heat to extract the tals like a mortal blacksmith would and where I could purchase these materials from the test.”

“You’re not young anymore. Have so patience. One question at a ti,” Elder Tie shook her head to show disapproval at the barrage of questions. “The mortal thod is too inefficient for us. The heat from normal flas would not be enough to handle Qi ores, and only a few people have heavenly flas. Even then, depending on the properties of those flas, there will be so materials that cannot be processed as the elents conflict. That is why our predecessors devised various tal Qi techniques that have less stringent requirents to use.”

“You’re saying there are techniques that involve heavenly fires, then?”

“I’m sure there are, but they are each particular to the type of heavenly fire. Give it up, Li Lang. It is much more efficient to use tal Qi techniques for extraction. tal is the most structured of the five elents. It provides stability and support to the other elents which are most conducive to our work.”

It didn’t take a detailed lecture for Li Lang to know how important those properties the elder ntioned were. It allowed artifacts to co-exist with other elents, creating tools with various elental affinities. It opened up nurous possibilities and options for what could be created.

“Thank you for the explanation, Senior. What about where I can purchase these materials?”

“That will be through our organization, but you will need to be recognized as an official Artificer first.”

“What? I can’t buy it from any other place? What about the Artificer Guild itself?”

“Even the cheapest materials are at the peak of Mortal grade. Each artifact and the materials to create them are strategic resources for each organization. It’ll be unlikely for you to find anyone willing to sell it to you.”

“I see.”

At that explanation, he began to understand a little better as to why Long Yi had yet to craft a single artifact. As a new apprentice, it was hard to see any organization willing to risk their strategic reserve for them. Without practice, it would be hard to excel in anything.

“No more thinking, no more questions. Let us finish the test first,” the elder’s voice woke Li Lang from his musing.

“Understood. Please go ahead, elder.”

The stocky woman nodded and led Li Lang to a different room. The new room was much smaller, barely able to fit the lone desk in it. Li Lang found it to be similar to the interrogation rooms found in police departnts.

It wasn’t hard to guess what ca next, as the only thing in the room was a lone rectangular bell. It was made with a bright green tal and was completely smooth on all sides. Beside it laid a small mallet made of the sa material.

Without any explanation, Elder Tie picked up the mallet and gently struck the bell with it. No audible sound was produced, but instead, glittering dust fell out of the bell. To be more precise, the dust was powdered tals of so sort.

“As you can see, the more tallic dust you can produce, the better. Go ahead and strike the bell when you’re ready.”

“No other instructions, techniques, or hints?”

“There’s nothing like that. You either have an affinity with the tal elent or you don’t. If you don’t, it simply ans you are not ready yet.”

Li Lang instantly frowned upon hearing those words. He had an unpleasant experience with aptitudes already, and he suspected similar results might happen again.

“There’s no way to practice artificing in that case?”

“It’d be as impossible as soone with grade-one aptitude using the orthodox ways to reach Foundation Establishnt. You’d need a lot of miracles to line up. Fortunately, there are ways to improve one’s affinity, unlike with aptitude, but we’ll talk about that when we get there.”

Li Lang skeptically listened on but knew he just had to do as he was told for now. It wasn’t ti to investigate the underlying reason for what affected one’s affinity.

Under the watchful gaze of Elder Tie, he picked up the mallet and struck the bell.

Then, nothing happened.