"Huh?"
The monk bowed respectfully. "Please forgive my selfishness. I ask you to craft a weapon for me—a staff worthy of battle. Ordinary arms cannot withstand that creature's blade. With the right weapon, I might barely hold my ground against it."
"Since it is the Grandmaster's request," the king replied, "I shall honor it without question. I will have all the materials we have gathered from the royal stores delivered to you at once."
At a time when their very lives hung by a thread, neither man had any heart to haggle or weigh matters of pride. Besides, Su Min's medicines had already proven her worth beyond doubt. As for the monster's corpse, they both understood its immense value. Yet after suffering so much at its hands, neither had any desire to look upon it again. Since Su Min showed an interest in it, they simply gifted it to her without protest.
"Tsk. In that case, prepare a quiet room for me. And post guards outside. No one—no one—is to enter without my permission."
"That is acceptable."
The emphasis she placed on her words left no room for misunderstanding. The two men answered without hesitation, and Su Min smiled in satisfaction. No matter how things unfolded, she would not lose out this time.
Given the situation, they were bound to provide far more materials than necessary. After crafting the staff, she was sure she'd have a wealth of resources left over—all for herself. And since the monster they faced was terrifying beyond reason, it was imperative to strengthen their forces. A proper spiritual weapon could grant Hui Ming the greatest leap in power in the shortest time.
After all, he was only at the early stage of Qi Refining. No matter how profound his Buddhist arts, cultivation still demanded steady, gradual accumulation. There was no shortcut to true strength.
Before long, in a quiet, secluded tent, Su Min stood surveying a mountain of piled-up materials with a satisfied gleam in her eyes. As expected, medicinal herbs were rare—this was a desert kingdom, after all, where natural resources were scarce. However, special ores and spirit stones lay scattered in chaotic abundance, all brimming with spiritual energy.
"What I'm missing is a good piece of wood for the staff's shaft," Su Min muttered. "I'll provide that myself. As for the rest... not bad at all. Tsk, there's enough here to forge three or four weapons."
After sorting through the materials, Su Min realized with pleasant surprise that there were even more treasures than she had imagined. And as for wood—well, she had no shortage of that. Had they forgotten? She hailed from the southern frontiers, a land rich in timber and rare herbs.
Thinking thus, she flipped her palm, and a two-meter-long piece of iron-black wood appeared in her grasp.
[Wujin Ironwood]—born from the perilous cliffs, impervious to blade or flame, and resistant to both fire and water.
"Truly, crafting spiritual weapons is far more demanding than alchemy," Su Min mused, narrowing her eyes as she studied the wood. "If not for Nanming Lihuo assisting me, I wouldn't be able to process this ironwood until I reached the Foundation Establishment stage."
Though she held the wood seemingly with ease, part of her body had sunk into the sand beneath her feet. That small piece of wood weighed a full thousand catties. Even three or four strong men would struggle to lift it. In the next moment, searing Nameless Vermilion Fire burst from Su Min's palm, engulfing the ironwood completely. The outer bark burned away in an instant. Nanming Lihuo was the true flame of the Vermilion Bird—a divine fire ranked among the finest under heaven. Burning through this ironwood was well within its power.
By the following day—
"Phew…"
Su Min exhaled a long breath. She had burned it all night. The once-thick timber had been reduced to a refined core barely the width of her grip—the very heart of the wood, purified and condensed by divine flame. Under Su Min's precise control, Nanming Lihuo not only stripped away all impurities but also compressed and tempered the essence within.
Now, this wooden core was no different from pure steel. To destroy it would require attacks far beyond even the limits of its material—something not easily achieved even by a cultivator in the Golden Core stage, let alone someone at Foundation Establishment.
~Edit and rewritten by Rikhi, Reiya_Alberich, ReiNyam~
"It's a little thick for me, but for that monk... it should be just right," she murmured. Her hands, after all, were slender and small, belonging to a woman. For her own use, she would have needed to refine it further. But for Hui Ming, it would serve perfectly. Setting the wood aside, Su Min pulled out two spirit ores from the heap. One crimson red, the other deep blue.
The moment they appeared, the entire tent filled with dense steam, as if transformed into a sauna. Water vapor met the rising heat, making the air stifling and heavy. But Su Min paid it no mind. The ores were rare twin elements—Fire Stone and Water Crystal—perfectly aligned with Hui Ming's dual affinity. A weapon forged from these would be tailor-made for him. As she summoned Nanming Lihuo again, the entire tent seemed to ignite.
Outside, her guardians suffered far worse.
During the desert night, the fierce heat was tolerable—like gathering around a massive furnace. But when day came, the combination of desert dry heat and the tent's moist steam nearly cooked them alive. After much struggle, the Captain of the Guard was forced to expand the perimeter to avoid being boiled under the sun.
The king, meanwhile, had sent food and drink to Su Min's tent several times, but none of it ever made it close—everything scorched to ash before it could even approach. Eventually, he gave up. As for Hui Ming, he secluded himself to fully recover his strength.
Su Min's elixir had not only healed his external wounds but also suppressed the lingering blade energies left inside his body by the monster. Now was his chance to purge them completely, ensuring no future harm—and to restore himself to peak condition. As the Grandmaster of a desert kingdom, he bore the heavy duty of exterminating that demonic beast.
Thus passed three days.
"Huah—Finally done."
When Su Min opened her eyes again, she gazed at her work with deep satisfaction. In her hand rested a mighty staff weighing three hundred catties, gleaming faintly with suppressed power.
[Water-Fire Staff (Yellow Tier, Mid-Grade): Enhances attacks of both Water and Fire attributes.]
"For ordinary folks—or even body cultivators in the early stages—this would be too heavy.But for a Qi Refining stage cultivator like Hui Ming, it should be just right. Even I can wield it easily."
Su Min twirled the massive staff single-handedly, spinning it lightly through the air. Though she wasn't a physical cultivator and had no plans of becoming some brutish warrior maiden, she was still a Qi Refining cultivator. In terms of strength and endurance, she far surpassed any mortal.
For her, swinging three hundred catties posed no difficulty. And Hui Ming, who leaned toward the path of body refinement, would find the weight fitting—if a little challenging at first.But with practice, it would become second nature.