“Connate pattern?” Su Zimo frowned in deep thoughts.

The disheveled old man continued, “The broken segments on the Mystic Gold Silk Armor are the connate patterns. Since it’s connate, postnatal Weapon Refinement Masters are not able to create it, no matter how powerful they are.”

Su Zimo gradually returned to his senses. Shocked, he could not help but ask, “Master, what you mean to say is that the Mystic Gold Silk Armor is a connate spirit weapon?”

“It was.”

The disheveled old man drowned in reminiscence as he related slowly, “It was said that a thousand years ago, the Mystic Gold Silk Armor was one of the strongest defensive spirit weapons and was well known through the cultivation world. However, it was met with catastrophic damage and its five postnatal spirit patterns were destroyed, leaving only the connate pattern that was broken into several segments.”

“Since a connate spirit weapon is so strong, what destroyed it?” Su Zimo could not help but ask.

“There are many things that can.”

The disheveled old man laughed. “A connate spirit weapon is just a spirit weapon at the end of the day. Above spirit weapons are dharma weapons. For Golden Cores, spirit weapons are the best type of equipment. However, once you reach Nascent Soul realm, you will naturally be able to create dharma weapons and will no longer use spirit weapons.”

A strong dharma weapon is able to obliterate a connate spirit weapon! Those are items on completely different levels!”

Su Zimo roughly understood.

No matter how sharp weapons in the mortal world were, they were easily destroyed by spirit weapons of cultivators as well.

“So, why is this Mystic Gold Silk Armor in Weapon Peak’s Spirit Weapon Chamber?”

Su Zimo felt that since it was a connate spirit weapon, it should be stronger than other spirit weapons even if it was destroyed.

The disheveled old man shook his head. “The Mystic Gold Silk Armor only has a broken connate pattern and is equivalent to a pseudo spirit weapon. Even though it can block against sharp weapons, it’s unable to defend against spirit techniques without a spirit pattern.”

In other words, even though a cultivator’s sword would not be able to piece the Mystic Gold Silk Armor, the energy possessed by the flying sword would still penetrate through it and destroy the body beneath!

If the other party was a Foundation Establishment Cultivator and attacked with spirit techniques, the Mystic Gold Silk Armor would be of no use at all.

The disheveled old man continued, “Furthermore, even though the Mystic Gold Silk Armor is destroyed, it still retains its old weight of 5 tons! Which cultivator would be able to endure that? That is the reason why no one has touched it for the past thousand years. It’s almost a useless spirit weapon.”

“5 tons. Even back then, there were not many Golden Cores who had the ability and qualifications to wear it.”

As though the disheveled old man recalled something, his expression looked somewhat wistful.

Su Zimo naturally knew of how heavy the Mystic Gold Silk Armor was. If he hadn’t activated his Power of Blood, he would not have been able to lift that seemingly thin inner armor!

Suddenly, a thought struck him as he asked, “Since this Mystic Gold Silk Armor is here, does that mean that someone from our sect once wore it?”

The disheveled old man remained silent.

“Who is that person? Is he still in the sect?” Su Zimo asked out of curiosity.

The disheveled old man’s eyes fluttered. After a long time, he sighed and shook his head. “He is no longer in our sect and neither have I seen him before. I’ve merely heard rumors about it. It was said that he was a powerful being of our sect a thousand years ago. In the northern region of Tianhuang Mainland, he was invincible amongst the Foundation Establishment and Golden Cores! There was no one who could challenge him!”

Su Zimo was shocked.

Someone who was invincible through an entire realm? How terrifying was that?

“What happened after?” Su Zimo asked right away.

“I’m not sure. However, rumors about him disappeared thereafter.”

“Did he die?”

Su Zimo frowned and thought to himself, ‘No, someone that strong isn’t going to die that easily. But why is that person no longer in the sect and it seems as though the disheveled old man is unwilling to talk about him? Did he commit some sort of violation?’

After a momentary silence, the disheveled old man continued, “Ever since our sect set up the Eight Distresses Formation, there have only been two people to go through it entirely. One is you, and the other is him.”

Su Zimo’s mouth opened slightly.

The disheveled old man waved it off, seeming vexed. “Return the Mystic Gold Silk Armor and choose another item. You can’t use that anyways.”

Given Su Zimo’s current situation, the Mystic Gold Silk Armor was not suitable for him.

However, for some reason, Su Zimo felt that he might be able to make use of it in the future.

After a moment of hesitation, Su Zimo said in a deep voice, “Thank you, master, but I’m still decided on the Mystic Gold Silk Armor.”

Frowning, the disheveled old man did not say anything more and merely sighed. “It’s up to you. However, do be careful during the fight against Feng Haoyu. If you think that you can’t win him, just admit defeat and don’t be reckless.”

Su Zimo could tell of the disheveled old man’s concern and replied with a smile.

“By the way, master, I’ve got a question regarding weapon refinement.”

Su Zimo changed the topic and asked, “To be honest, master, I’ve already successfully refined inferior-grade spirit weapons before the face-off. However, for some unknown reason, I just couldn’t gather the second spirit pattern no matter what. Do you have any idea why?”

“Haha!”

The disheveled old man could not help but laugh. “Lad, you sure hid yourself well. So, you’ve already refined an inferior-grade spirit weapon. Not bad, not bad.”

Automatically, the disheveled old man thought that Su Zimo had merely refined a single inferior-grade spirit weapon.

After laughing, he said, “Actually, the most difficult step of weapon refinement is spirit gathering. However, the most crucial step is in fact tempering. That is a step that requires a lot of technique. In the cultivation world, sects that specialize in weapon refinement all have their unique tempering techniques.”

“There are many impurities in spirit components and making use of spirit fire alone is not enough to purge them all. Some of the remnant impurities can only be purged through advanced tempering techniques.”

“If your tempering skill is weak and there are too many impurities, the forged spirit weapon would not be able to endure the immensity of a forcefully gathered second spirit pattern. That is why the spirit gathering will fail and the spirit weapon will explode.”

Suddenly, Su Zimo was enlightened.

The reason why he couldn’t gather his second spirit pattern wasn’t because of his spirit gathering method or the quality of his spirit components – it was because his tempering skill was not good enough.

The disheveled old man said, “Right now, our sect doesn’t have any really good tempering techniques. But, don’t worry about that. Leave it to me.”

“Yes.”

Su Zimo could clearly sense the disheveled old man’s care and love for him – that couldn’t be faked.

After a deep bow, Su Zimo left on his flying sword.

The disheveled old man frowned as he looked at Su Zimo’s back view.

Actually, he had already been looking for advanced tempering techniques outside from the moment Su Zimo cultivated his Level 3 Spirit Fire because he wanted to help the latter raise his weapon refinement skills.

However, most of the tempering techniques were secrets of the sects and it was difficult for outsiders to obtain them.

“Sigh, the pearl is covered in dust. It’s a pity,” The disheveled old man sighed silently. He pondered about how he should go about looking for a suitable tempering technique for Su Zimo after the five peaks face-off was over.

All of a sudden!

The disheveled old man’s expression changed as he recalled an almost neglected detail.

The Mystic Gold Silk Armor had a weight of 5 tons. As a Level 8 Qi Refinement Warrior, how did Su Zimo manage to stuff it inside his storage bag?

The more the disheveled old man thought about it, the more he felt that something was amiss. After pacing back and forth for a long time, he decided to abandon the thought of asking Su Zimo about it.

“Looks like this disciple of mine isn’t that simple either.”