"Would you allow this Queen to witness your artifact refining technique?"
Medusa's expression remained placid, her beautiful eyes fixed on the young man below as she spoke with a detached air.
Zhou Changqing fell silent.
Although Medusa had phrased it as a question, he could not miss the undercurrent of command that permitted no refusal. He truly had no desire to perform his craft like a monkey for an audience.
Unfortunately, the decision was not his to make. This Queen of the Snake-People, despite her serene exterior, possessed an inherent dominance that would tolerate no excuses for defiance.
"Your Majesty commands. How could this one dare to disobey?"
With a nod, Zhou Changqing expertly retrieved his materials, coalesced a large cauldron, and began the refining process right there in the great hall.
Aside from Yue Mei, both Medusa and Hua She'er watched Zhou Changqing's movements with curiosity. They had only ever seen alchemy before; when had they ever heard of artifact refining? Naturally, they were intrigued.
However, they did not doubt Zhou Changqing's ability to refine artifacts. After all, Yue Mei had already shown them the weapons he had forged. With the discerning eye of an expert like Medusa, she could naturally see the exceptional quality of those weapons and their strategic importance.
"Yue Mei was not exaggerating. It truly is like alchemy, using a cauldron for refinement rather than forging and hammering. No wonder she called it 'artifact refining.'"
"A truly heaven-gifted prodigy, to have created an entirely new path of artifact refining. If he doesn't meet an untimely end, and if this technique can be advanced, a noble profession of Artifact Refiners, just as respected as Alchemists, might one day emerge."
"I just wonder what conditions are required for this craft? If possible, we should have this youth leave his legacy with our tribe. Then, we too could produce a few Artifact Refiners."
Gazing at the great cauldron below, where gold and silver energies intertwined and flowed, pulsing with faint light and Dou Qi fluctuations, a glint of admiration flashed through Medusa's beautiful eyes. At the same time, she extended her powerful spiritual perception, probing deep into the cauldron, intending to glimpse the true nature of artifact refining.
However, the very instant her perception touched the cauldron, Medusa's delicate body trembled slightly, her expression shifting to one of shock and bewilderment.
"Was that my imagination? No! That was no illusion!"
Immediately, Medusa focused the entirety of her spiritual perception and reached out once more to the cauldron formed from Gold and Lightning Dou Qi.
Zhou Changqing, too, had now noticed a thread of spiritual perception probing his refining cauldron. This spiritual perception was even stronger than his own. And among those present, the only one whose spiritual perception could surpass his was Medusa, a peak Dou Huang.
'Go ahead and look. I just hope the reward for this performance is worth it.'
He grumbled inwardly but ignored the probing perception and refocused on his work.
Medusa, meanwhile, was carefully examining the two types of Dou Qi within the refining cauldron. When her perception touched the Gold-attribute Dou Qi, she felt nothing unusual. It was virtually identical to any other Gold-attribute Dou Qi she had ever encountered.
But the moment her perception made contact with the violent Lightning-attribute Dou Qi, she felt an instantaneous tremor in her very soul!
"This is it!"
Medusa's eyes narrowed, fiercely locking onto that faint palpitation within her soul. Immediately, she fell into a profound and mysterious state.
Somehow, an intense craving for this Lightning-attribute Dou Qi welled up from deep within her. At the same time, an idea surfaced from the depths of her mind, a premonition that this Lightning Dou Qi was of great use to her.
Of immense use!
Without any hesitation, Medusa extended her jade-like right hand and made a grasping motion toward the great cauldron. From within the cauldron, several tendrils of lightning arced uncontrollably through the cauldron wall, shooting out and flying swiftly into Medusa's palm.
The sudden change caused the Dou Qi inside to run rampant, nearly destabilizing the cauldron itself!
Fortunately, Zhou Changqing reacted quickly. His control over Dou Qi was profound, and he immediately wrestled it back into order, stabilizing the cauldron and preventing it from exploding.
Seeing the cauldron calm down and the materials within unharmed, Zhou Changqing let out a sigh of relief. He then looked up toward the throne. He felt a strong urge to curse. What in the world was wrong with this woman? Forcing him to refine was one thing, but interfering was another.
"Huh?!"
But when Zhou Changqing looked up, Medusa was gone. At the top of the steps, only an empty throne remained.
"Commander Yue Mei, what...?" Zhou Changqing looked quizzically at Yue Mei, who stood nearby.
Yue Mei shook her head, indicating she didn't know either. She was just as baffled by the Queen's actions.
Seeing this, Zhou Changqing could only swallow his frustration and continue refining. Even though Medusa was no longer present, the process had already begun, and he couldn't just waste the valuable materials inside the cauldron, could he? When it came to frugality, Zhou Changqing was serious.
In the royal bedchambers.
Medusa sat upon a chaise lounge, her beautiful eyes fixed unblinkingly on the few tendrils of crackling lightning in her palm. These arcs of lightning looked no different from ordinary bolts—incandescent, violent, intensely hot, and filled with destructive power.
But under the full focus of Medusa's spiritual perception, she discovered something different within them. It was a special kind of aura, emitting a faint, yet exceptionally profound, fluctuation. A fluctuation that could not be described with words.
Medusa could neither comprehend this aura nor discern how it was produced. But the moment she discovered this special aura, the blood throughout her entire body began to boil. From the very depths of her bloodline, an extremely intense signal of desire was transmitted.
This signal was so strong that Medusa had to fight the urge to swallow these arcs of lightning whole.
"What is going on? Why would these lightning arcs, condensed from mere Dou Qi, cause such a reaction in this Queen?"
"Could it be that this lightning is beneficial to my bloodline? That must be it. Otherwise, it would not have caused my bloodline to palpitate."
Forcefully suppressing her body's instinctive impulse, Medusa fell into deep thought. After a moment of contemplation, Medusa's eyes sharpened. She reached out with her left hand and pinched a single tendril of lightning between her thumb and forefinger.
"Whether it works or not, a single test will tell."
Without the slightest hesitation, Medusa clenched her left fist, directly absorbing the lightning into her body. Instantly, a numbing sensation spread through her. The lightning penetrated her skin, seeping into the flesh and blood of her left hand. But the arc was too weak; it only caused a brief tingling sensation before completely dissipating into her flesh.
She waited for a moment. Medusa felt no change whatsoever in her body. This caused her slender brows to furrow slightly, a hint of doubt appearing on her face.
Could she have been mistaken? Was this just ordinary Lightning-attribute Dou Qi?
"No, the palpitation that originated from my bloodline could not have been wrong!"
"Perhaps the amount was simply too small to trigger any change."
Medusa dismissed the thought. The craving in her bloodline, already quite strong, had only intensified after absorbing that single tendril of lightning.
Without further testing, Medusa clenched her right hand, absorbing all the remaining arcs of lightning into her body at once.
At that moment, Medusa's mind was completely focused, tracking the movement of the lightning after it entered her body. Just like an ordinary current, the lightning drilled into her flesh and then vanished as if its energy had been depleted.
And yet, not a trace of disappointment appeared on Medusa's stunning face. Instead, it was replaced by a look of utter shock.
Carefully sensing the changes within her body, the normally cool and aloof Queen Medusa could not help but gasp in astonishment.
"This... how is this possible?!"