Chapter 49: Verification, Success

To Fu Chen, spending money on materials, even if it was only a hundred and twenty coins, felt like an extremely extravagant endeavor.

The main reason was his current level being too low. The equipment available at the shops consisted of ordinary white gear, making their cost-performance ratio rather poor.

Had it not been for the sake of testing the effect of the [Heaven Seizure] skill, Fu Chen would never have done such a thing.

Yet at present, aside from directly purchasing [Mirage Fairy Stones] with money, there were no other ways to obtain them.

Left with no choice, Fu Chen found the sundry merchant in Sword Immortal City and bought twelve Mirage Fairy Stones from the shop at a high price.

After a brief moment of reflection, he reasoned that since he was going to test it, he should use this opportunity on the "cutting edge."

Rather than refining equipment that was about to be phased out, it would be far more meaningful to directly refine and enhance a weapon.

Should it fail, there would be nothing to say, but once successful, it would immediately and drastically boost his attack power, making it much more worthwhile.

Consequently, Fu Chen purchased another twelve [Mirage Fairy Stones] to directly test his innate skill using weapon refinement.

Considering that his skill damage was already quite high, increasing weapon attack power was not an urgent priority.

Shifting his focus directly to Qin Yumao, Fu Chen said, "Desolation, lend me your current weapon for a moment."

Qin Yumao held absolute trust in Fu Chen. Without a second word, she unequipped her weapon from her gear slot and handed it over.

Putting the weapon into his inventory first, Fu Chen smiled and said, "Go accept the ascension quest, I'll pay a visit to the elder along the way."

"Huh?" Qin Yumao wore a puzzled look. Accepting the ascension quest made sense, but why visit the elder?

Despite her confusion, Qin Yumao asked nothing; she believed that whatever Fu Chen did, he must have a reason for it.

Summoning her mercury wyrmling, just as she was about to mount up, her face suddenly flushed red as she looked at Fu Chen, hesitating with words on the tip of her tongue.

"What's wrong?" Fu Chen asked, utterly bewildered.

Qin Yumao shot him a swift, sidelong glance, her expression a mix of shyness, resentment, and delicate reproach. "You are not allowed to keep staring at my waist!"

As soon as these words left her mouth, Qin Yumao felt her face burn with embarrassment. Her expression at that moment possessed an astonishing, breathtaking allure, capable of captivating nations.

She regretted it the instant she spoke, unable to help thinking to herself, *That remark made it sound like I was reminding him to look. Oh dear, I must have lost my mind.*

While Qin Yumao's mind raced with wild thoughts, she had no idea that her single sentence had left Fu Chen feeling utterly dumbfounded—caught between awkwardness and speechlessness, deeply regretting the excuse he had chosen earlier.

Just as Fu Chen was hesitating whether he should walk on foot from then on or simply go buy a mount of his own,

Qin Yumao atop the mount already urged him impatiently, "Weren't we going to accept the ascension quest? Why aren't you getting up here yet?"

Thus, Fu Chen found himself sitting behind Qin Yumao once again. This time, he sat stiffly and upright, not daring to let his gaze stray with the slightest impropriety.

Earlier, Fu Chen had harbored no ill intentions whatsoever; it was simply that while observing the surrounding environment, his eyes had occasionally swept across Qin Yumao's lower back and waist, leaving him stunned by that breathtaking curve.

Previously, in order to conceal his research into the [Heaven Seizure] skill, he had hastily fabricated that excuse under pressure just to muddle through.

Never had he expected that while the goal of muddling through was successfully achieved, it had inadvertently sparked an entirely new misunderstanding.

*In Desolation's eyes, I'm probably not viewed as a good person anymore!* Fu Chen thought with inner helplessness.

Riding together, the two first headed to the Daoist of the Void to accept the level 19 ascension quest.

Afterward, Fu Chen went directly to the Elder's location and selected the refinement service.

When choosing refinement, an enhancement furnace would appear, requiring the player to simply place the equipment or weapon slated for refinement inside.

Then, selecting [Refinement] would allow the furnace to autonomously begin the enhancement process, leaving success or failure entirely up to fate.

Additionally, those with the means could also add auxiliary refinement materials into the mix.

Such auxiliary materials were mostly spirit stones imbued with special spiritual energy, with the [Universe Stone] being the prime representative.

Adding these auxiliary materials during refinement could increase the success rate to a certain extent.

Of course, Fu Chen's primary purpose for this refinement was to verify the effect of the [Heaven Seizure] skill, so he had no intention of using auxiliary materials.

Fu Chen placed Qin Yumao's previously used Silver Spear alongside the Mirage Fairy Stones required for refinement into the enhancement furnace.

[☆Silver Spear
Spear/Halberd
Tier: 3
Basic Attack Frequency: 1.00 attacks/second
Attack Range: 4.5 meters
Physical Attack: 72-119
Durability Limit: 52/52
Level Requirement: 15
Strength Requirement: 34
Agility Requirement: 17
Price: 4,100]

The success rate for the first enhancement was very high. Without hesitation, Fu Chen initiated the [Refinement], consuming 2 Mirage Fairy Stones.

A second later, a prompt reading "Refinement Successful" appeared, and this enhancement was successfully completed.

At this point, the overall attributes of the Silver Spear were:

[☆Silver Spear +1
Spear/Halberd
Tier: 3
Basic Attack Frequency: 1.00 attacks/second
Attack Range: 4.5 meters
Physical Attack: 85-132
Durability Limit: 52/52
Level Requirement: 15
Strength Requirement: 34
Agility Requirement: 17
Price: 4,100]

Next came the moment he had been waiting for: testing the [Heaven Seizure] skill.

With a thought in his mind, Fu Chen directly channeled the innate power within his mind and cast the [Heaven Seizure] skill.

An icon of a gold-red palm appeared within Fu Chen's status bar.

Simultaneously, Fu Chen directly selected [Refinement] enhancement, executing continuous, back-to-back enhancements without pause.

"Refinement Successful" for the first time, "Refinement Successful" for the second... "Refinement Successful" for the seventh and eighth times.

From his initial nervous anticipation, his lips curled upward as he watched the succession of successful prompts.

By the time the eighth success was achieved, a full half-minute of [Heaven Seizure]'s duration still remained.

Yet Fu Chen immediately ended the refinement session, as there was no longer any need to continue.

First, facts had proven that his [Heaven Seizure] skill could indeed bypass refinement probabilities and directly guarantee success every single time—simply defying the heavens.

Second, given the level of this weapon, refining it to plus nine was already more than enough for Qin Yumao's use.

Moreover, reaching plus nine was exceptionally rare; pushing the refinement level any higher would look somewhat overly ostentatious.

Well, at this moment, it was already exceedingly ostentatious, but since almost nobody paid attention to refinement yet, it wouldn't pose much of a problem.

Right now, the smile on Fu Chen's lips was completely uncontainable; not bursting into loud laughter was purely the result of his desperate restraint.

*With a divine skill like [Heaven Seizure], in this lifetime I will definitely possess the most overpowered equipment in the entire Perfect World. In my future rise to prominence, nothing will ever be able to block my path.*

Fu Chen could not help but scream frantically in his heart, a dazzling light of astonishing confidence shining in his eyes.

Beside him, Qin Yumao swore that in all her years, she had never seen anyone radiate such immense confidence, causing her to be deeply captivated by Fu Chen at that very moment.

Retrieving the Silver Spear from the enhancement furnace, Fu Chen turned, handed it back to the waiting Qin Yumao, and instructed with a smile,

"Here is your weapon back. Remember to keep this weapon safe—under no circumstances should you sell it to a shop."

Qin Yumao, harboring doubts for a while now, checked the weapon's changes the very second she took it back.

She had been dying to know what Fu Chen was doing with her weapon, but upon looking at its stats, she was struck dumb with astonishment.

[☆Silver Spear +9
Spear/Halberd
Tier: 3
Basic Attack Frequency: 1.00 attacks/second
Attack Range: 4.5 meters
Physical Attack: 300-347
Durability Limit: 52/52
Level Requirement: 15
Strength Requirement: 34
Agility Requirement: 17
Price: 4,100]

Compared to before, the weapon's current physical attack power had actually increased several-fold.