Although it is only the lowest Level C Earth Fire Chamber, Earth Fire is Earth Fire, and the temperature of the flame is far superior to the flame from burning Flaming Sun Wood.
Following the usage instructions, Zhouyang cast an opening spell at the Dragon Head Fire Outlet of the Earth Fire Chamber. Instantly, the Dragon Head Spiritual Artifact, refined with Tier Three Spiritual Gold "Black Obsidian Iron," emitted a soft dragon roar and spewed a thick, purple Earth Fire pillar onto the Artifact Cauldron below.
This Level C Earth Fire Chamber came equipped with a Tier Two Lower Grade Artifact Cauldron for renters to use, but after Zhouyang advanced to a Tier Two High-grade Refiner, the old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan gifted him the Tier Two High-Grade Artifact Cauldron he used previously. Naturally, he disregarded the Tier Two Lower Grade Artifact Cauldron.
This Artifact Cauldron given by the old Clan Leader is called the "Purple Phoenix Sun-Rising Cauldron," crafted using Tier Two Spiritual Gold Purple Copper, a Treasure Cauldron known for its excellent thermal conductivity and resistance to heat and high temperatures, making it the top choice for refining Pill Furnaces and Artifact Cauldrons.
Upon receiving the "Purple Phoenix Sun-Rising Cauldron," Zhouyang had hardly used it a few times. Since he was using Earth Fire for the first time, it required time to get acquainted with it, so he spent the first few days not crafting Tier Two Spiritual Artifacts but instead used some low-value Tier One materials to refine Tier One Spiritual Artifacts to test his skills.
After spending two to three days getting fully familiar with the performance of the "Purple Phoenix Sun-Rising Cauldron" and mastering control over Earth Fire, only then did he begin formal artifact refining.
The temperature of Earth Fire is extremely high, and the "Purple Phoenix Sun-Rising Cauldron" also enhances the flame's temperature. Zhouyang's time to refine a Tier Two Lower Grade Spiritual Artifact wouldn't exceed half an hour, and even for a Tier Two Middle Grade Spiritual Artifact, it wouldn't surpass one hour.
With his current cultivation and Divine Sense, Zhouyang could sustain refining all day without eating or drinking.
Of course, to ensure success, Zhouyang certainly wouldn't do that; typically, he would opt for rest for an hour or two to recuperate and review experiences after crafting two to three spiritual artifacts, controlling the daily refining count to fifteen to twenty times.
In his relentless refining, Zhouyang was delighted to discover that his success rate in crafting Tier Two Lower and Middle Grade Spiritual Artifacts slightly increased by ten percent with the assistance of Earth Fire and the "Purple Phoenix Sun-Rising Cauldron."
Don't underestimate this ten percent; for an Artifact Refiner, an increase in success rate during refining not only means an increase in the success rate of crafting magical artifacts but also signifies a significant step towards advancing artifact refining skills to a higher level.
The old Clan Leader Zhou Minghan had told Zhouyang that a Tier Two High-grade Refiner aiming to advance to Tier Three Refiner must first elevate the success rate of crafting Tier Two Lower Grade Spiritual Artifacts to ten percent and the success rate of Tier Two High-Grade Spiritual Artifacts to sixty percent or above before it's possible.
Currently, Zhouyang is still far from meeting these requirements, but after his refining success rate increased by ten percent, his artifact refining skills were no less competitive than those who had been Tier Two High-grade Refiners for years.
With Zhouyang's intensive refining, the hundreds of orders received by "Jade Spring Tower" were completed in slightly less than half a month.
At this time, the refiners and shop owners monitoring his refining results were astonished because they discovered through the order completion results disclosed by "Jade Spring Tower" that Zhouyang, contrary to their expectations of huge losses, had profited over a thousand Low-grade Spirit Stones after deducting the material costs for failed compensations!
Since the Spirit Stones were earned entirely through his own refining skills, Zhouyang only needed to submit thirty percent to the clan, with the remaining seventy percent being wholly for himself.
"Wow, what a sly kid! Look at the published orders—out of over a hundred orders, fewer than ten are for Tier Two High-Grade Spiritual Artifacts. He used the profits from refining Tier Two Lower and Middle Grade Spiritual Artifacts to cover the losses from failed Tier Two High-Grade Spiritual Artifact refinement, no wonder he not only avoided losing money but earned over a thousand Spirit Stones!"
Except for a few naturally not very bright individuals, most cultivators are smart. Once Zhouyang blatantly posted his completion status for over a hundred orders, they quickly picked up on the nuances and couldn't help but curse Zhouyang's cunning.
All the refiners knew that with their Tier Two High-grade refining skills, crafting Tier Two Lower Grade Spiritual Artifacts definitely leaned towards profit rather than loss.
But the problem was, first of all, under their high fee structure, loose cultivators would rather save money to buy finished Spiritual Artifacts than risk commissioning them, even if someone did it was very few.
Secondly, was due to themselves, as Tier Two High-grade refiners, occupying high positions within their clan, supplied sufficiently throughout by the clan, normally devoid of material scarcity for practice, they're unwilling to lower their stature for a cultivator's order to solely manufacture a Tier Two Lower Grade Spiritual Artifact.
For a long time, these refiners' mindset was, now that they can sell completed Spiritual Artifacts for triple the profit, why degrade to earn a fraction from diligent labor?
Before Zhouyang, none realized that if they could acquire all, even just securing half or thirty percent of marketplace's loose cultivators' artifact customization business would amass enormous profits under the principle of small benefits yielding large sales.
"No way, we must cut prices too! That Zhou family kid's success rate for Tier Two High-Grade Artifact is just over thirty percent, but I, an old man, have a forty percent success rate!"
"A price cut, it must be! Since cutting prices can also earn, why shouldn't we profit?"
"That money shouldn't be all grabbed by his Zhou Family; my Luo Family must get a share."
All the stores finally caught on, began emulating "Jade Spring Tower's" method, slashing prices, striving for market share.
Yet they quickly discovered that even if they completely followed "Jade Spring Tower" to attract customers, the loose cultivators still preferred "Jade Spring Tower" over their shops.
Even after vouching skilling better than Zhouyang's refiners, they couldn't reverse this situation, eventually accepting reality with envy, seeing "Jade Spring Tower" continue to prosper, receiving numerous orders from informed loose cultivators.
And all of this was within Zhouyang's expectations.
The experiences and knowledge from his previous life made him more aware than anyone here of the importance of a "first impression". As long as cultivators were still human, with the common thoughts of humans, they wouldn't be any different than mortals in this aspect.
Generally, as long as the first to take the plunge doesn't meet their end, those who follow tend to only eat their dust, with barely one in ten thousand able to stand out.
"Even if someone surpasses me later, it doesn't matter. This Jinsha Marketplace is only so big, and the number of loose cultivators is not infinite. Just give me a few months, and I'll capture more than half of the market share. By the time the market is saturated, my artifact refining skill should also reach great success."
Zhouyang confidently smiled, revealing a smile that showed everything was under his control.
Indeed, despite all the magical artifact shops promoting how great their artifact refiners' skills were, most of the loose cultivators, having heard the news and come from outside the marketplace with their refining materials, still chose "Jade Spring Tower" as their first choice.
The loose cultivators had it tough. After finally finding some valuable spiritual objects, they were brutally underpriced by those cultivation clans and sects, causing them to hold deep resentment towards these middlemen in the marketplace in their hearts.
The more fanfare the shops created, the more those loose cultivators who had suffered at their hands before doubted their motives and were reluctant to go there.
Of course, there were also those who had suffered losses at "Jade Spring Tower" before and, after hearing the promotions, abandoned it to take their refining orders elsewhere, but how many had really been wronged by "Jade Spring Tower" alone?
As a result, more than sixty percent of those placing orders ended up at "Jade Spring Tower," while over a dozen other shops, including the Chen family's artifact shop, could only envy, mutter in resentment, and watch helplessly, then quietly try to pick up any leftovers.
No cultivator would turn down spirit stones, especially when seeing someone making a fortune in such a manner.
Seeing Zhouyang earn hundreds of spirit stones a day through custom artifact services, the refiners of other families couldn't care less about demeanor; if not for saving face, they would have eagerly stepped out themselves to attract customers.
With the first prosperous wave, Zhouyang also became bolder, and the orders for Tier Two High-Grade Spiritual Artifacts started to pile up.
Anyway, he didn't have any pressing need to spend spirit stones; as long as he didn't incur any losses, as long as his artifact refining skill could improve, he was willing to put back all the spirit stones earned from refining the artifacts.
Spirit stones could be earned again, but if he missed this opportunity to massively refine Tier Two High-Grade Spiritual Artifacts and improve his refining skills, it would take him decades of slow grinding in the future to raise his skills.
He weighed the gains and losses with a crystal-clear mind.
Once a person has a direction and moves forward, they won't feel tired or troubled.
The Earth Fire Chamber was not a good place; even though the earth fire from deep within the underground magma had been suppressed and purified by arrays and magical artifacts, the Fire Evil Qi there was searing. Even Zhouyang, a late-stage Qi Cultivator practicing a fire attribute technique, would experience various discomforts after staying there for extended periods.
Previously, he would definitely rest a day for every two days of refining.
But not now, as other shops' refiners also took artifact refining orders and required the Earth Fire Chamber for refining.
If he left the Earth Fire Chamber, he would never rent the affordable Level B and Level C Earth Fire Chambers again.
Not to mention that he didn't mind the daily rent of one spirit stone, but the chamber was originally opened by the Chen family to facilitate the other family refiners and alchemists. If he occupied without using it, they would have an excuse to terminate the lease.
He had already broken the rules this time, damaging the interests of other families, and they were eager to catch him out to trouble him. If he played this card now, he would only be handing them a weapon against him.
Thus, to maintain market share and to promote "Jade Spring Tower," Zhouyang could only muster the energy he had for working overnight in his previous life and bear the discomfort as he stayed in the Earth Fire Chamber.
He ended up staying there for a whole month!
During this month, Zhouyang refined artifacts more than ten times a day on average, and his success rate steadily increased with each refining session. By the time he walked out of the Earth Fire Chamber, his success rate for refining Tier Two High-Grade Spiritual Artifacts had already reached over forty percent.
With a success rate of over forty percent, he could take on all the Tier Two High-Grade Spiritual Artifact orders without a loss.
Apart from a great improvement in refining skills, Zhouyang was pleasantly surprised to find that the barrier hindering his cultivation breakthrough was also loosening through this month-long intense refining. He estimated that in at most another year, he would break through to the Ninth Layer of Qi Cultivation.