“You want to have a new weapon custom-made for yourself?” Bai Qiu asked in surprise.
He cast an appraisal skill on Zhang Shiyao and was astonished to discover that, at some point, all of her base attributes had already reached the C+ rank.
She was now even stronger than Li Qingshan had been a few days ago at the asteroid ore vein.
Combined with her excellent skill combinations, she might already possess the ability to threaten Transcendent creatures.
Zhang Shiyao nodded and explained her reasoning.
“It’s like this, Brother. The Mithril Shortbow can barely hurt King-class monsters anymore.
Lately, I’ve been helping people clear dungeons to earn resources, and I’ve found that against stronger monsters, I have to rely on my stored Demon-Gathering Thorn to finish them off. If my Noble Phantasm is on cooldown, my normal attacks are simply too weak.”
Bai Qiu fell silent.
She was right.
The Mithril Shortbow had only barely qualified as a C-rank weapon.
Although it had been upgraded and gained an additional “+” rating, it still couldn’t overcome its biggest weakness—its damage was little more than scratching the enemy.
“I understand,” Bai Qiu said.
“Do you already have the transcendent materials you want to use? Or would Star Silver be sufficient?”
He thought highly of Zhang Shiyao.
Compared to most children her age, she was far more mature, calm, decisive, and self-aware.
She knew her limits and acted with restraint.
In fact, after their first expedition into the Crimson Feather Secret Realm, she had essentially been growing independently.
The fact that she had reached a level comparable to Li Qingshan’s was due not only to talent, but also to hard work and strength of character.
“Of course. These are the materials I’ve prepared.”
As she spoke, Zhang Shiyao laid out a series of rare items, many of them transcendent-grade materials.
“My main goal is to keep the weapon lightweight, but I want stronger magical conversion efficiency and amplification. Also, the arrows…”
As Bai Qiu listened to her explanation, he realized that she had come to exactly the same conclusion he had.
Both of them believed that upgrading equipment and strengthening one’s foundation were the best preparations for the upcoming large-scale leveling event—farming levels in the Shattered Celestial Realm.
Bai Qiu nodded approvingly.
“Not bad. Since you’ve already planned things out, hold out your hand. I need to examine your mana pathways through physical contact before I can make a weapon suited to you.”
Zhang Shiyao extended her hand.
Bai Qiu grasped her wrist, and a gentle force slowly entered her body.
As his magical power and spiritual sense delved deeper into her internal structure, astonishment appeared on his face.
Her mana pathways were remarkably unique.
The changes were most likely caused by the Random Transcendent Item Card she had obtained from the Tide Points Shop.
If that was true, it meant her future potential was enormous.
After a moment, Bai Qiu released her wrist.
“Your mana circulation is extremely unusual. Your instantaneous output efficiency is actually higher than mine. This should be the unique enhancement granted by your Transcendent item card, right?”
Zhang Shiyao nodded.
Her eyes widened in surprise.
“You can tell even that, Brother?”
Bai Qiu smiled.
“In that case, the Mithril Shortbow truly isn’t suited to your transcendent physique anymore.
While keeping it lightweight, we need to greatly increase both mana conversion efficiency and conversion speed.
As long as we improve those two aspects and create arrows capable of withstanding your short bursts of power, that should be enough.”
With that, Bai Qiu began sorting through the materials Zhang Shiyao had provided.
Whenever he found a material that wasn’t ideal, he set it aside and replaced it with something more suitable from his own storage card.
Then came the final forging stage.
As usual, Bai Qiu was responsible for smelting and forging the metal.
The blacksmith Li Zhu handled the extraction of transcendent properties and their integration into the bow frame.
Marta engraved the mana circuits Bai Qiu had designed in advance.
The three worked together seamlessly.
In just three hours, a brand-new extraordinary shortbow was completed.
The moment Zhang Shiyao took hold of the bow, she fell in love with it.
The joy on her face was impossible to hide.
“It shall be called the Spiral Sonic Bow!” she declared.
Spiral Sonic Bow (B-Rank -)
Mana Conversion Efficiency: +125
Mana Absorption Efficiency: +125
Extraordinary Trait: Sonic Boom
When the Spiral Sonic Bow is used in combat, its Sonic Boom trait increases the speed and strength of arrow enchantment by 700%, allowing enchantments to be completed almost instantaneously.
Note:
The user must possess sufficiently powerful mana output to activate this weapon’s trait. If the wielder’s mana output is inadequate, the trait cannot be triggered.
The Spiral Sonic Bow possessed neither active skills nor passive abilities.
It had only a single trait: Sonic Boom.
Yet this extraordinary trait was perfectly suited to Zhang Shiyao.
With her uniquely powerful burst-type mana output, she could instantly infuse arrows with immense magical power, transforming ordinary shots into devastating attacks.
For someone like Zhang Shiyao, no other extraordinary property could have been more fitting.
The bow itself featured an overall spiral design, while the bowstring was engraved with mana-output circuits so fine that they were nearly invisible to the naked eye.
To put it simply, if Zhang Shiyao could draw the bow quickly enough, she could fire up to five arrows per second.
And what about enchantment?
For most archers, enchanting an arrow required one or even two seconds.
But with the Sonic Boom trait, the enchantment process took only 0.1 seconds—and the resulting enchantment was seven times stronger than a normal one.
This was the advantage of simplifying complexity into pure efficiency.
Extreme specialization.
Extreme power.
Extreme burst damage.
Bai Qiu worked overtime to produce one hundred Crystal Silver arrows and ten Star Silver arrows.
Handing them to Zhang Shiyao, he said, “Go try them out. These arrows were specially designed according to your mana pathways. They might suit you better than ordinary arrows.”
Zhang Shiyao ran over and hugged him.
Tilting her head as she acted spoiled, she said, “Thank you, Brother!”
“Mm. Go on.” Bai Qiu gently patted her head.
The moment he finished speaking, she grabbed the bow and arrows and vanished in a blur.
The reluctance and affectionate behavior she had shown moments earlier seemed almost like an illusion.
In truth, she was probably already dying to test the performance of the Spiral Sonic Bow.
Still, she had been thoughtful enough to thank Bai Qiu and act a little spoiled before rushing off.
Watching her departing figure, Bai Qiu silently offered an apology to Li Qingshan.
This week, Li Qingshan would probably be unable to hold on to the number-two position in the Tower of Heaven rankings.
Through forging the Spiral Sonic Bow for Zhang Shiyao, Bai Qiu had gained some valuable insight into the new bow he wanted to create for himself.
He had been too close to the problem.
For a long time, he had been uncertain about what kind of bow would truly suit him.
But Zhang Shiyao’s transcendent physique had given him a great deal of inspiration.
Perhaps the entire idea of asking himself what kind of weapon he wanted had been flawed from the very beginning.
Instead, he should be designing a bow—and matching arrows—based on the characteristics of his transcendent physique.
The Enhancement Cards and the Radiant Body had granted him incredibly high base attributes.
The Holy-Demonic Body had given him explosive, transformative improvements in every aspect of his magical power.
Take instantaneous burst output as an example.
If Zhang Shiyao’s burst capability scored a perfect 100, then Bai Qiu’s would be 99.
However, unlike her, Bai Qiu also scored 99 in virtually every other category:
- Sustained damage output
- Precision control
- Mana manipulation
- Adaptability
- Endurance
- Overall combat versatility
Zhang Shiyao had one perfect score while failing most other subjects.
Bai Qiu, on the other hand, was nearly perfect across the board.
Because of that, he believed the bow he needed should not focus solely on maximizing burst damage.
It also needed to account for sustained combat performance, versatility, and ease of use.
With inspiration finally striking, Bai Qiu immediately took out a large quantity of transcendent materials.
Inside the blacksmith shop, he began feverishly sketching the blueprint that existed in his mind.
Piece by piece.
Line by line.
He poured all of his ideas onto paper, trying to create the ideal bow tailored specifically to himself.
— The end of the Chapter–
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