It's been two months since Auron successfully took his first step on his new path in life.

During that period, Auron got to the second stage of the Qi Gathering (I) realm, which was his highest achievement. His days were routine and a little monotonous, to put it mildly. He would get out of bed in the morning. Meet Edward and his sister for a cup of coffee. Then they would all go have breakfast together, listen to the morning news, and then proceed to the sect market, where disciples could exchange their contribution points for other resources such as pills, weapons, and other useful items like that.

Cindy, on the other hand, has a habit of asking Auron for a drink on a regular basis. Fortunately, before a drunkard has a chance to escalate the situation, Lewis appears out of nowhere and whisks her away to reprimand her for attempting to drink with a child.

Although, due to the fact that both Edward and Auron are still considered outer disciples, they were unable to participate in any missions until specifically authorized to do so by either the elders or the sect master.

Thanks to that rule they are able to do some miscellaneous work inside the sect and earn some contribution.

Following that, disciples would be expected to participate in lessons organized by true disciples or elders. The subjects covered in the lessons are determined by the teacher's area of expertise.

Normally, Auron would miss those lectures because most of the topics they were teaching him were either uninteresting to him or ones he was already familiar with from his frequent visits to the local library.

This day however is different because the lecture is gonna be given by one of the elders, to be precise elder Lisa whose expertise is artefact crafting. That means that this particular lesson is most likely to be about that and Auron is very interested in one of the two rarest professions on the continent.

Among all of the vocations, array mastery and artefact crafting are the most prestigious, lucrative, and difficult to come by. It is due to a variety of factors, the most significant of which is that they are extremely expensive to study and that only a small number of people possess the necessary aptitude to even comprehend the fundamentals.

So the three friends now entered the area that is full of outer and inner disciples.

While they were wondering why everyone had gathered outside instead of the hall, a middle-aged woman with long brown hair wearing a grey robe walked out before them and said.

“Welcome. My name is Lisa Stids and I’m an elder responsible for artefact crafting. So, to not waste any time…”

Then she proceeded to explain the theory behind the art.

During the lecture, unknowingly to everyone, there were two figures standing on top of a nearby building.

One of them is Zeke who has a very serious expression on his face. The other person is a beautiful and tall woman with red eyes and black hair that reaches her waist.

Both of them are staring at Auron who is listening to a lecture seriously.

They stood like that in silence for a few minutes until Zeke said.

“Sister, You know that you are hurting him by hiding so many secrets from him right?”

The woman glanced at him and replied.

“Yes. I know, but that’s the best way for him to grow stronger and we both know that he needs to be as strong as possible when the seal breaks, otherwise it’s gonna consume him and turn him into a mindless beast.”

Zeke hears that and just sighs while scratching his head.

“Can you at least tell me which type is he? Or which element is he attuned to?”

The woman smiles and closes her eyes.

“Nope. It’s a secret.”

Zeke was mildly angry at his sister, but he decided against taking any action against her. Even while others may consider him to be a coward, he knows better than to provoke Chaos Demon, even if she is his older sister.

“You know that you are literally playing with the life of your own son.”

After hearing that she started crying. The Chaos Demon feared by both continents, who slaughters a thousand enemies without even blinking, started crying. Apparently, the woman who killed more people than half of the population of the continent is a very caring and protective mother.

“Who would believe that of all people, you are the one so caring and protective of your children.”

Chaos Demon then glared at him.

“And what’s wrong with that? That is the only choice I have! We realised which element it is only recently. There are no cultivation techniques that teach control or anything about that. That is why I wanted him to become a mage! They have some, not much but they still do. The only way for him to survive is to learn as much as he can about this element and to become stronger.”

Then they both stayed silent for a long time. Then to stop her from worrying so much Zeke told.

“Then buy the book from the mages. I know that it will most likely take too long to acquire them and it will already be too late before that happens, but that’s all we can do… No, we can do something more.”

Auron’s mother became interested and replied

“And that is?”

“Believe in him. Believe that he can overcome this. He is a cultivator now and the path of cultivation is not easy. He will most likely face more challenges that are even harder than that in the future. We can’t babysit him for eternity.”

His sister then wiped her eyes with a sleeve of her crimson robes, then she narrowed her eyes and said.

“I’m leaving for another continent. Those little shits have gotten too arrogant. It seems I have to remind them why they feared me so much. It will most likely take more than twenty years so I leave him in your care.”

Zeke just nodded and replied with a saying from their homeland that would be translated as ‘good luck’.

“Bloody hunts”

Zeke remained in that position, debating whether or not he should confess the truth to the boy, but ultimately decided against it. Auron is just thirteen years old. The amount of pressure he would be under would be too great for someone so young, and it would interfere with his training, which would make his chances of survival way less.

After getting to that conclusion he looked at the boy one last time and left.

Meanwhile, Auron is listening to the lecture.

It is a very profitable and well-respected profession to practice. Some of the less known sects could provide protection to even the most inexperienced artefact crafters. In fact, every significant sect has at least one skilled artefact crafter among its ranks.

In terms of importance and profitability, both alchemy and artefact crafting should be comparable. Both of those are essential for survival and cultivation. One provides pills that enhance cultivation speed, heal wounds or grant other benefits while the other one is about creating artefacts that can be used in battle as either offence or defence. Aside from that, there are also different artefacts like spatial items that allow storing significant amounts of items.

The reason why artefact crafting is more profitable than alchemy is due to the fact that there are far fewer artefact crafters than there are alchemists, resulting in a deficit, which causes people to pay higher prices for their services.

Artefact creation can be accomplished through a variety of methods. In fact, almost all masters of this profession have their own distinct methods that they have developed over the course of their entire careers. There are two of them that are well-known and are frequently used by beginners who are still learning the fundamentals of the craft.

Those procedures are incredibly simple. One requires the user to imbue an item with pure qi in specific patterns, while the other does not. While the pattern varies depending on the purpose of the artefact being created, it is so difficult to remember that only a small number of cultivators are capable of even beginning training in artefact crafting at this point in their careers. Another method is essentially the same as the first, but it necessitates the use of an extremely powerful elemental qi. This means that only those who have a strong affinity for the particular element will be able to do it.

Disciples at Qi gathering(I) are unable to practice due to the fact that they are unable to condense qi outside of their bodies. That means that Auron and the other outer disciples can only stand by and watch as those of higher ranks have a good time while striving to make a better future for themselves.

Even after one and a half an hour, there was still no one who could make even the smallest amount of progress. This prompted elder Lisa to call a stop to the session and disperse the class after a few more minutes of discussion. She's grown accustomed to this recurring occurrence. The last time someone was capable of becoming an artefact crafter was more than ten years ago.