"Huh?" Su Min raised an eyebrow, intrigued by the monk's specific request.
The monk, Hui Ming, bowed respectfully. "Please forgive my selfishness in making a request. I must ask you to craft a weapon for me, a sturdy staff worthy of this battle. The ordinary arms we have here cannot withstand that creature's bladed limbs. They shatter on impact. But with the right spiritual weapon, I might barely hold my ground against it, or at least survive its assaults."
"Since it is the Grandmaster's request," the king added without hesitation, "I shall honor it without question. I will have all the rare metals and spiritual materials we have gathered over the years from the royal stores delivered to you at once."
At a time when their very lives and kingdom hung by a thread, neither man had any heart to haggle or weigh petty matters of pride or cost. Besides, Su Min's miraculous healing pill had already proven her skill and goodwill beyond doubt. As for the monster's corpse, they both understood its potential immense value to a cultivator. Yet after suffering so much loss and terror at its hands, neither had any stomach to look upon it again, let alone dissect it for parts. Since Su Min showed a clear interest in it, they were more than happy to simply gift it to her without protest.
"Tsk. In that case, prepare a quiet, secure room for me," Su Min instructed. "And post your most disciplined guards outside. No one, absolutely no one, is to enter without my explicit permission. The process cannot be interrupted."
"That is perfectly acceptable."
The emphasis she placed on her words left no room for misunderstanding. The two men answered in unison without a moment's hesitation, and a faint smile of satisfaction touched Su Min's lips. No matter how things unfolded, she would not lose out on this deal.
Given the desperate situation, they were bound to provide far more materials than were strictly necessary for a single staff. After crafting the weapon, she was sure she would have a wealth of high quality resources left over, all for herself to keep. And since the monster they faced was terrifying beyond reason, it was imperative to strengthen their side as much as possible. A proper spiritual weapon was the single biggest factor that could grant Hui Ming the greatest leap in combat power in the shortest amount of time.
After all, he was only at the early stage of Qi Refining. No matter how profound his inherited Buddhist arts were, cultivation still demanded steady and gradual accumulation of spiritual power. There was no true shortcut to foundational strength.
Before long, in a quiet and secluded tent at the edge of the royal camp, Su Min stood with her hands on her hips, surveying a small mountain of piled up ores, stones, and metals with a satisfied gleam in her eyes. As expected, medicinal herbs were rare. This was a desert kingdom, after all, where green, growing things were scarce. However, special ores, strange metals, and faintly glowing spirit stones lay scattered in chaotic abundance, most of them brimming with raw, unrefined spiritual energy.
"What I am missing is a good, solid piece of wood for the staff's shaft," Su Min muttered to herself as she sorted through the pile. "I will provide that myself. As for the rest, not bad at all." She let out an appreciative click of her tongue. "Tsk, there is enough high grade material here to forge three or four decent weapons."
After a more thorough inspection, she realized with pleasant surprise that there were even more treasures than she had initially imagined. And as for the wood, she had no shortage of that. Had they forgotten? She hailed from the southern frontiers, a land lush and rich in rare timbers and herbs.
Thinking thus, she flipped her palm, and a two meter long piece of iron black, unassuming wood appeared in her grasp. It was dense and heavy.
[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 physically demanding than mixing pills," Su Min mused, narrowing her eyes as she studied the dense log. She had to channel a trickle of spiritual power just to hold it steady. "If not for my Nanming Lihuo assisting me, I would not be able to process and refine this stubborn ironwood until I reached the Foundation Establishment stage."
Though she held the wood seemingly with ease, part of her boot had sunk an inch into the sand beneath her feet. That single piece of wood weighed a full thousand catties. Even three or four strong mortal men would struggle to lift it together. In the next moment, searing crimson flame burst from Su Min's palm, engulfing the ironwood completely. The outer bark charred and burned away in an instant. Nanming Lihuo was the true sacred flame of the Vermilion Bird, a divine fire ranked among the finest under heaven. Burning through this stubborn wood was well within its power.
By the following day
"Phew…"
Su Min exhaled a long, weary breath. She had maintained the intense flame all night. The once thick timber had been reduced to a refined, dark core barely the width of her grip, the very heart of the wood, purified and condensed by the divine fire. Under Su Min's precise and sustained control, Nanming Lihuo had not only stripped away all impurities but also compressed and tempered the spiritual essence within, making it incredibly dense.
Now, this wooden core was no different from forged spiritual steel. To destroy it would require attacks far beyond even the limits of its refined material, something not easily achieved even by a cultivator in the Golden Core stage, let alone someone at the Foundation Establishment level.
"It is a little thick for my own hands, but for that monk... it should be just right," she murmured, hefting the dark shaft. 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, a man who practiced body refining, it would serve perfectly. Setting the wood aside, Su Min pulled out two specific spirit ores from the material heap. One was a crimson red stone that seemed to pulse with heat, the other a deep, watery blue crystal that felt cool to the touch.
The moment they appeared in the tent's air, the entire space filled with dense, conflicting steam, as if transformed into a strange sauna. Water vapor from the blue crystal met the rising dry heat from the red stone, making the air stifling and heavy. But Su Min paid the discomfort no mind. The ores were rare twin elements, a Fire Stone and a Water Crystal, perfectly aligned with what she sensed was Hui Ming's dual spiritual affinity. A weapon forged from these would be tailor made for him, amplifying his innate strengths. As she summoned Nanming Lihuo again to begin the metalworking, the entire tent seemed to ignite with a fierce, contained light.
Outside, her assigned royal guardians suffered far worse.
During the cold desert night, the fierce heat radiating from the tent was almost tolerable, like gathering around a massive, comforting furnace. But when the desert sun rose, the combination of the natural dry heat and the tent's artificially created moist steam became unbearable, nearly cooking the guards alive in their armor. After much struggling and discomfort, the Captain of the Guard was forced to expand the perimeter significantly, pulling his men back to a distance where they could breathe without scorching their lungs.
The king, meanwhile, had sent servants with food and drink to Su Min's tent several times, concerned for her well being, but none of the offerings ever made it close. Trays and jugs scorched, warped, and turned to ash long before they could even approach the entrance. Eventually, he gave up, trusting in a cultivator's ability to sustain herself. As for Hui Ming, he had taken the opportunity to fully seclude himself, focusing on recovering his strength to its peak.
Su Min's elixir had not only healed his external wounds but also suppressed the lingering, corrosive blade energies the monster had left inside his body. Now was his chance to purge them completely, ensuring no future harm and restoring himself to his optimal condition. As the Grandmaster and protector of this desert kingdom, he bore the heavy duty of helping to exterminate that demonic beast.
Thus passed three full days and nights of intense, focused work.
"Huah—Finally done."
When Su Min opened her eyes again, the fierce light in the tent subsiding, she gazed at the object in her hands with deep satisfaction. Resting across her palms was a mighty staff, dark as ironwood and gleaming with faint, interwoven red and blue light, its weight and power palpable.
[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 three hundred catty weight would be far too heavy to wield effectively. But for a Qi Refining stage cultivator like Hui Ming, especially one on the path of body refinement, it should be just right." She tested its balance. "Even I can wield it without much strain, though it is not my preferred style."
Su Min proceeded to twirl the massive staff single handedly, spinning it in a swift, controlled arc through the air. Though she was not a dedicated physical cultivator and had no plans of becoming some brutish warrior maiden, she was still a genuine Qi Refining cultivator. In terms of raw strength, agility, and endurance, she far surpassed any mortal limit.
For her, swinging three hundred catties posed no real difficulty. And for Hui Ming, who leaned more heavily toward the path of body refinement, the weight would be fitting. It might be challenging to master at first, but with practice, it would soon become second nature, a perfect extension of his own power.