Chapter 1049: Promotion Assessment

Chapter 1049: Chapter 1049: Promotion Assessment

The Celestial Feather Sect governs dozens of halls, with the Battle Hall and the Creation Hall being the most pivotal.

The former is responsible for attacking forbidden areas and the Withering Realm, gathering various spiritual resources from outside. A small portion is used to maintain the normal operations of the sect, while the majority is invested into the Plan of Immortal Refining. Half of the Celestial Feather Sect disciples above the Qi Gathering Realm are under the jurisdiction of the Battle Hall, making them quite formidable!

The latter, although fewer in number, holds an extraordinary status within the Celestial Feather Sect because this hall "seizes the creation of heaven and earth," and is fully responsible for the refinement of True Immortals.

The most skilled forgemasters in the sect, although they hold titles in the Artifact Hall, primarily work for the Creation Hall. Other branches, such as the Alchemy Hall, Formation Hall, Puppet Hall, and Corpse Refining Hall, also have disciples with deep expertise in the Hundred Arts of Cultivation, many of whom spend most of their time in the Creation Hall, devoting themselves to forging "True Immortals" for the sect!

One can only access the core secrets of the Celestial Feather Sect by entering the Creation Hall.

Thunder Corpse Master has extraordinary skills in corpses refining and control, so after Ming Cang and others reconciled with the Celestial Feather Sect, they sent him to visit, attempting to use the inheritance of corpse arts to persuade the sect to participate in their Plan of Immortal Refining.

However, from the perspective of the high-levels of the Celestial Feather Sect, Thunder Corpse Master is ultimately a "demon from the Outer Zone" of the forbidden area, so they naturally would not allow him access to the sect’s core secrets, and thus only invited him to the Corpse Refining Hall!

"It’s a positive sign after all!"

Shen Mo didn’t believe that Thunder Corpse Master could find a foothold in the Celestial Feather Sect, but his visit indicated that the sect would not wage war on the Red Flame Sect in the short term, greatly improving the situation for Ming Cang and the others.

Afterward, he sought out Feng Yu, the head of the Artifact Hall, and applied for the promotion test to a Grade V Forgemaster.

Feng Yu himself is also a Grade V Forgemaster, with considerable accomplishments in the forging path, which is why he holds the position of head of the Artifact Hall with a late-stage Golden Core cultivation, though Artifact Hall tasks are quite busy, so he rarely personally forges and repairs magic artifacts, only setting aside mundane tasks when summoned by the Creation Hall for a mission.

Counting himself as the head, the Artifact Hall currently only has seven Grade V Forgemasters, with two Grade VI Forgemasters stationed long-term in the Creation Hall, unable to spare time for treasure crafting for the Artifact Hall, and the one Grade VII Forgemaster is a Divine Bridge Immortal Master who Feng Yu cannot command. With the non-trivial daily tasks of the Artifact Hall, he naturally wishes for more forgemasters.

When Elder Yang Ai suddenly applied for the promotion test, Feng Yu was somewhat puzzled. He knew that Elder Yang had decent talent in the forging path, but after advancing to Grade IV, he had made no progress for many years. The Artifact Hall believed that he had exhausted his inspiration. Unexpectedly, after a period of travel, he not only consolidated his late-stage Spirit Sea Realm cultivation but also seemed to have made gains in the path of instruments.

Despite his puzzlement, Feng Yu quickly arranged the test ceremony.

Half a month later, Shen Mo once again entered the Dingzi Room 26 for treasure refining, but this time it wasn’t to repair magic artifacts for the Battle Hall disciples, but to craft ten standard magic artifacts.

Among the ten magic artifacts, seven need to reach the spiritual level low-grade to pass this test!

Shen Mo’s accomplishments in the path of instruments had already advanced to Grade VI many years ago, but due to the shallow depth of the Red Flame Sect, he had only progressed slightly beyond the halfway mark at this level, without reaching Grade VII; however, crafting a few spiritual level low-grade artifacts was a trivial matter!

A month later, he opened the Prohibition of the Treasure Refining Room.

Soon, Feng Yu arrived with an Elder of the Artifact Hall and an Elder of the Executive Hall.

"Three mid-grade spiritual level, five low-grade spiritual level, two top-grade profound level...," Feng Yu, carefully examining the neatly arranged Flying Swords, shields, and other magic artifacts, could hardly conceal his surprised expression.

All of Shen Mo’s movements within the Celestial Feather Sect were aimed at becoming a core member of the Plan of Immortal Refining. While being promoted to a Grade V Forgemaster would not attract much attention from the Creation Hall, the leap from a Grade IV to Grade VI in the path of instruments was somewhat shocking.

Therefore, while completing the promotion test, he appropriately elevated the grade of the magic artifacts.

A Grade V Forgemaster can stably craft low-grade spiritual tools, and if lucky, occasionally craft mid-grade magic artifacts;

Now among the ten standard magic artifacts, eight reached the spiritual tool level, fully meeting the requirements for promotion to a Grade V Forgemaster, with three mid-grade spiritual tools indicating his prowess in the path of instruments was first-rate among Grade V, adeptly balancing the scale to avoid being too extraordinary, yet barely making it into the Dharma Eye of the Creation Hall!

"Elder Yang, these few magic artifacts... seem to bear traces of the treasure refining technique from Forbidden Area 905."

Being the head of the Artifact Hall, Feng Yu thoroughly studied when the Red Flame Sect’s legacy of the instrument path was brought to the Celestial Feather Sect, and now he could see some clues.

"Reporting to the Hall Master, some time ago, I read quite a few manuals of forbidden area instrument path in the Sutra Pavilion. Although it is an outsider technique, it has its unique and exquisite aspects, giving me a sense of enlightenment...," Shen Mo laid out his pre-prepared excuse, trying to mislead Feng Yu and others into thinking that he suddenly became enlightened through absorbing the forbidden area’s instrument path legacy.

Feng Yu, hearing this, nodded thoughtfully, then conveyed something through secret voice-transmission to the two elders responsible for the test.

Soon after, Shen Mo sensed a faint spell fluctuation emanating from the friendly-looking Executive Hall elder, likely activating some probing tool, which he wouldn’t have noticed had his possessed body not already condensed a Golden Core.

This spell fluctuation enveloped his entire body, probing meticulously from his Dantian to his Mind Sea, from flesh to soul.

Shen Mo disguised himself with the "True Immortal Magic," deduced five times with[Martial Performance], nearing an immortal-level cultivation method, and trained it to an exceedingly profound level. Even if Spirit Feather Master personally inspected, he probably couldn’t discern anything.

The Executive Hall elder, finding nothing, conveyed through secret voice-transmission to Feng Yu, who then relaxed his expression and laughed, congratulating "Elder Yang" for successfully passing the promotion test.

The crafted magic artifacts were all taken by Feng Yu. These artifacts, without blood sacrifice or soul imprinting, remained unowned treasures that would eventually be distributed to the Battle Hall members!

...

After completing the promotion procedures, Shen Mo received a Bingzi Treasure Room. Since there aren’t many Grade V Forgemasters in the Artifact Hall, sharing with others isn’t necessary.

In the following months, he continued to be assigned treasure crafting tasks by the Artifact Hall, whether crafting new magic artifacts or repairing damaged ones, although now these artifacts had all been replaced with spiritual level low-grade ones!

In the seventh month after his promotion to a Grade V Forgemaster, he finally received a summons from the Creation Hall.