The Science of Cultivation-Chapter 222: Artificer Guild

Entering Witherfall City was easy. Eroding March Pavilion was only a small faction on the grand scale of things prior to the incident in the pocket realm. That naturally meant the cities in their area were on a smaller scale as well.

These small settlements treated cultivators like kings, especially those who were true cultivators. No one dared to give Li Lang’s group any trouble, and they quickly arrived at the Artificer Guild.

The guild building was an unimpressive structure when compared to the other guilds. Neither the exterior nor the interior were remarkable. It was a place with simple furnishing and nothing memorable.

Li Lang couldn’t compare this Witherfall branch to any other branch, as he rarely frequented the Artificer Guild. He wasn’t a certified artificer yet due to declining the request to inspect his printer artifact back when he had refined it during the auctions. He was only registered as an apprentice.

“How may we help you, sir?”

The receptionist bowed with a gracefulness that betrayed how well-practiced they were.

“Are there any Artificers here that I can consult?” Li Lang asked.

His blunt question caused the receptionist’s facade to almost slip. They hid their irritation well, but they laced their next words with their frustration while maintaining their kind face.

“What do you take the Artificer Guild to be? Shouldn’t the Alchemist Guild and Brushweaver Guild have educated you? The guilds are meant to certify professionals who have exceeded a benchmark in their crafts. It is not meant to be your on-demand consultant. If you wish to find a mentor, I can look that up for you, but that is a long-term commitment.”

Before Li Lang could even respond to the onslaught, his companions were audibly failing to contain their laughter behind him. Even Zhu Yi had a grin on her face and turned away when Li Lang looked her way. Only Ma Kong remained expressionless, inspecting his surroundings cautiously.

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Left with no supporters, Li Lang softened his tone and tried again.

“That—are there really no artificers here that can spare some time? I’m willing to compensate them for their time.”

Instead of receiving an answer this time, he only got a glare.

“Umm, please? Can you at least ask around?”

Hearing how meek he was, the receptionist blinked rapidly and glanced around. A blush decorated their face, as they realized their blunder had caused a scene. They quickly nodded and retreated from the lobby at full speed.

“You sure have your ways with women,” Long Yi teased.

Li Lang sighed. That hadn’t even been on his mind. He was so absorbed with his task that he hadn’t even looked the receptionist in the face. In fact, he didn’t even remember their gender.

He reflected while they waited, but the receptionist never returned. Instead, a fiery woman ascended from a set of stairs with gusto, staring sternly at every passerby. She carefully inspected each visitor in the lobby until her eyes landed on Li Lang’s group.

“You! Are you the brat asking for a consultation?”

“Um, yes.”

The newcomer appeared as if she was about to erupt in anger when she caught sight of the others behind Li Lang. Her eyes homed in on the robes from Nightmoon Valley and her expression softened.

“Hmph, come with me.”

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Looking like she was being forced into it, she guided the visitors to one of the guest rooms upstairs. They sat down around a table where a ceramic tea set was placed. The woman simply pointed a finger at the kettle and a small fire instantly lit up below it. A moment later, she served hot tea to the guests.

“Consultations are unusual. Especially by apprentices like you two,” the fiery woman directed a look at Li Lang and Long Yi. “You must be traveling, so tell me, where are you from?”

“I am Li Lang and this is Long Yi. We’re from Emberglow City—err with the exception of the two seniors h—”

“I know where they’re from.” The woman turned to formally face the two Nightmoon Valley disciples. “Apologies for my manners. I am Yu Chengfong of the Yu Clan that resides here in Witherfall City.”

“There’s no need to mind us,” Zhu Yi politely said as she twirled a folded fan around.

Her words and mannerism gracefully conveyed that Yu Chengfong should ignore their presence. It even made the usually uninterested Li Lang take note of the high-level social skills displayed here.

That can take me a long way, especially when asking for favors. None of us are good talkers—well, maybe Wei Ping is, if they don’t mind his speech impediment. I should leave more negotiations to him.

“Very well. So anyway, what do you brats want? You can’t possibly be asking me to give you an ad hoc lesson, right? If so, I’ll be taking my leave. You should wait until you reunite with your teacher for such things.”

It had been a while since Li Lang had been treated like a kid. He was a grown man now, and a Foundation Establishment Cultivator as well. He wondered how it was possible for the woman to tell his age when there were numerous old monsters who retained their youthful appearance.

“Well, we can compensate you handsomely. How do ten red crystals for a moment of your time sound?”

The woman grunted before nodding. She was also in the Foundation Establishment Realm. Ten red crystals weren’t a lot, but were well worth a bit of her time. It was easy money.

“You have half an incense’s worth of time. Go ahead.”

“As you can somehow tell, we’ve only recently broken through. We would like to brush up on how to successfully create Mortal-grade artifacts.”

“That’s the first thing you guys worry about after breaking through?” Yu Chengfong sighed. “Fine, if it’s just Mortal-grade, then follow me to the workshop.”

As they once again went on the move, Li Lang immediately unleashed his barrage of questions.

“To your workshop? Are you going to craft an artifact for us to see?”

“What? No. I don’t waste resources so carelessly like that. I’ll just go through the steps.”

“Hm, in that case, are there any Mortal-grade beast cores for trade at this branch?”

“Don’t ask me. Ask the people at the front.”

“Then do you know how different the resulting artifact can be when employing different schools of artificing techniques?”

“Listen—I may have said you can ask me some questions, but that doesn’t mean you can bury me in them! One at a time! We’re going through the refinement of Mortal-grade artifacts first.”

The group was impressed by how decisively she shut Li Lang up. They peacefully made their way to the basement of the guild. The place was strangely even more spacious than the lobby, with high ceilings and illumination everywhere.

However, one point met with expectation. The sturdy doors to each room down here were made of wood reinforced with metal around the important bits. With their sense as Foundation Establishment cultivators, they could sense it was enchanted with Qi in some way. It made it appear as if the dungeon was where heinous captives were kept.

Walking into one such room, the group was soon introduced to a towering forge that radiated so much heat that they all immediately felt their faces well up with sweat. They quickly adjusted themselves, and Yu Chengfong strode straight toward the table nearby without hesitation. On the table were various tools neatly laid out. If one wasn’t informed, they would’ve thought this was a forge for a blacksmith instead of an artificer.

That was because artificers didn’t need to use heat to shape their work. Their techniques allowed them to manipulate metals directly, as if they were clay.

“As you should already have been practicing, artificer techniques are already enough for us to shape and create artifacts. However, depending on the school, some traces of fire-based techniques, reminiscent of blacksmithing, are also employed. This is typically more common with the older schools of artificing. I practice this older style, so what I teach you may not apply to your circumstances. Just remember that artificing is all about the heart. You need to be both brave and charismatic enough when working with beast cores.”

As their new part-time teacher began her lesson, Li Lang carefully took down notes, occasionally retreating into Ruby’s artifact space. His previous lessons with Tie Qian were more focused on the basics of artificing techniques, so there was so much for him to soak in.

New approaches, and new beliefs in how to accomplish the same goal. Only when all these paths were examined could Li Lang ever hope to comprehend the art of artificing.