Chapter 146: Shen, the Daoist of Many Treasures, Refines?

[Enlightenment Points: 121,478]
[Divine Insight Points: 144]

After stretching his limbs, Shen Lian resumed a cross-legged sitting posture.

Over the past decade, he had only expended enlightenment points once to elevate his alchemy proficiency to the mid-tier of the second rank, a move meant to facilitate the refinement of pills required for his own cultivation.

Originally, Shen Lian had anticipated needing to advance to the high-tier of the second rank. To his surprise, the superior-grade mid-second-rank Spirit Origin Pills he refined possessed medicinal efficacy that completely satisfied his cultivation requirements.

As for the divine insight points, they had averaged one or two per month over the past ten years.

Sometimes, when lingering in the city for too long, not a single divine insight point would be generated in an entire month.

The primary reason was that the two vice city lords of Nanya Immortal City were remarkably conscientious.

Every few days, the two of them would sweep across the city with their spiritual senses, vetting the array formations beneath the city.

This effectively nipped in the bud any notions Shen Lian might have entertained about exploiting loopholes underwater.

Aside from the spiritual senses of Core Formation cultivators sweeping the city, routine inspections were regularly conducted on cultivators and shops within the city walls.

On average, every month without fail, a few Sea Clan cultivators would be ferreted out from hiding.

These Sea Clan cultivators infiltrated the city naturally not for amusement, but to gather intelligence on commercial traffic so they could ambush passing merchant fleets deep in the ocean.

In short, the seemingly calm relations between the human and sea races still masked fierce struggles. As the southernmost major metropolis on the Tiannan Continent, Nanya Immortal City had become a focal point for magical combat.

Currently, Shen Lian's metal, water, and wood spiritual root metrics all stood at 31, while his accumulated divine insight points numbered 144, leaving a deficit of 63 points.

Even maintaining the current rate of accumulation, he would gather enough within five to six years.

Before reaching the Core Formation stage, gathering enough points to perfect all five spiritual roots should not pose a major problem.

Shen Lian had no illusions about advancing to the Core Formation realm within five or six years.

Next, he needed to prepare for the refinement of his natal magical treasure, and simply collecting the necessary spiritual materials would consume a considerable amount of time.

Naturally, unless his five spiritual roots were perfected, he would not attempt to break through to Core Formation.

In the cultivation world, cultivators possessing a primary spiritual root with a metric exceeding ninety are known as Heavenly Spiritual Root cultivators.

Such cultivators face no bottlenecks from Qi Refining all the way to the Core Formation realm, and Shen Lian was eager to witness what kind of spectacle would unfold when a cultivator achieved Core Formation with perfected five-element roots.

As for why he had not yet utilized his divine insight points, he intended to gather them all at once and then max out the remaining three spiritual roots simultaneously.

When he had previously perfected his fire and earth spiritual roots, they had respectively manifested a sea of fire, as well as boundless, verdant mountain forests and towering peaks supporting the heavens.

If the remaining metal, water, and wood spiritual roots were all perfected at the same time, would the three different phenomena manifest together within a single vision?

If they appeared together, would it yield an even greater fortuitous encounter?

For unpredictable opportunities, all Shen Lian could do was make the utmost preparations, even if those preparations ultimately proved useless at the critical moment.

Yet if they did prove useful, the harvest would be monumental.

With this in mind, he had begun preparations several years prior.

Four years ago, at a Foundation Establishment trading assembly in Nanya Immortal City, he traded for a Hundred-Spirit Crystalline Source Fruit.

The Hundred-Spirit Crystalline Source Fruit was the primary ingredient for refining mid-second-rank Crystalline Source Pills, which could purify various types of spiritual energy. Since Shen Lian consumed superior-grade spiritual pills, he naturally had no need to purify his spiritual energy.

However, the habitats where Hundred-Spirit Crystalline Source Fruits grew gathered diverse spiritual qi, carrying a high probability of nurturing a medicinal herb known as Earth Dragon Root.

This herb could be used to refine elixirs that replenished spiritual sense.

For decades, from the Myriad Star Seas to the Southern Sea region, he had attended numerous large and small auctions and trading assemblies, yet he had never once encountered spiritual items related to spiritual sense for sale.

Had he not previously inherited mid-second-rank alchemy knowledge, he would not have paid it any mind.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to trade for the Hundred-Spirit Crystalline Source Fruit, Shen Lian had conversed with the cultivator who produced it, learning that the fruit originated from a valley in the Thousand Pillar Mountain Range north of the Southern Sea region.

He was determined to seek out the medicinal herbs capable of replenishing spiritual sense—not for any other reason, but to witness those wondrous phenomena a couple more times when his spiritual roots were perfected.

By now, he had already compiled a jade slip containing data on the surrounding factions, environment, and other details of the Thousand Pillar Mountain Range, waiting only for the moment he left Nanya Immortal City to set out.

After steadying his mind, Shen Lian directed his thoughts toward the enlightenment points.

Having fermented for a decade, this ultimate move was finally coming to fruition.

"Let there be a method for refining a natal magical treasure, above all else."

He silently muttered to himself and offered a vague, respectful bow toward the empty air.

The transition from Foundation Establishment to Core Formation represented a qualitative leap for a cultivator, and the same held true for artifacts: second-tier were magical instruments, while third-tier were magical treasures.

Given this, some high-tier second-rank and even third-rank artifact refiners possessed hidden, trump-card legacies as their signature specialties.

A high-tier second-rank artifact refiner capable of helping cultivators forge natal magical treasure embryos held a status far superior to one who could only craft ordinary magical instruments.

The former could be called a grandmaster, while the latter lacked that crucial refinement, their spheres of influence entirely different.

Imagine two artifact refiners, both at the high tier of the second rank: Master Liu could forge treasure embryos and had successfully crafted them for three ninth-layer Foundation Establishment cultivators. Moreover, he possessed astonishing luck, and one of those cultivators successfully advanced to Core Formation.

Under the baptism of the heavenly tribulation, the high-tier second-rank treasure embryo ascended in one stroke to a third-tier magical treasure.

Just like that, he had established a connection with a Core Formation cultivator.

Expanding that train of thought further, suppose this Core Formation cultivator's ancestral graves smoked and he vaulted all the way to the Nascent Soul Patriarch level.

Every time he went to war with others, the magical treasure he whipped out was one crafted by Liu.

Old freaks who had cultivated to the Nascent Soul stage were often the most particular about karmic ties.

Even if this Liu remained stuck at the high tier of the second rank for life, he could still become an honored guest of Core Formation masters, enjoying widespread fame with endless streams of people begging him for treasures.

Conversely, consider Master Yang, also a high-tier second-rank artifact refiner, who spent his entire life crafting ordinary high-tier second-rank magical instruments. His influence remained confined to a single city; once he stepped outside, who would know him? If someone wanted to deal with him, they would simply deal with him.

If he were killed, outsiders would merely murmur in passing: "What, he's dead? A pity. Have you eaten today?"

In stark contrast, Master Liu: "What, Master Liu? Could that be the Grandmaster Liu who forged a fourth-tier magical treasure for Lord So-and-so?"

If Grandmaster Liu deigned to mentor a junior, the benefits would last a lifetime.

...

[Enlightenment Points -1,000]

...

[Enlightenment Points -10,000]

...

[Enlightenment Points -30,000]

[Enlightenment Points -50,000]

"Da Hei, stand guard."

Inundated by an innumerable torrent of text and information flooding his spiritual sea, Shen Lian left these words for Da Hei as his consciousness plunged deep into his spiritual awareness.

The diminutive soul avatar sitting cross-legged at the apex of his spiritual sea was enveloped entirely by dense streams of characters and imagery, all of them three-dimensional.

"Wind-Breaking Awl, Clear Wind Sword, Cloud Crest Sword, Silver-Bristled Dustpan..."

"Twin-Eared Deer Antler Cauldron... Heavenly Pole Umbrella... Water-Parting Ruler..."

...

"Myriad Mechanism Whisk, Rosen Saber, Crimson Gold Sword-Pen..."

"Purple Lightning Bow, Xuanwu Fan, Styx River Sword, Phantom Ghost Staff, Cased Sword Gourd..."

...

"Second-tier Mica Stone, accompanied by Crimson Gold, Earth Spirit Jade, Aurora Stone..."

"Dragon Horn Gold, Yellow Dragon Iron, Heavenly Thunder Wood, Heavenly Origin Wood..."

...

"Clang, clang, clang..."

Within the illusory visions, figures of various ages and appearances manipulated terrestrial fire, utilized fire spirit beasts to kindle flames, generated flames from their own spiritual power, or harvested heavenly spiritual fires, each refining different magical instruments.

With a single thought from Shen Lian, any of these scenes could be paused at will, fast-forwarded, or rewound, with detailed refinement steps accompanying every single stage.

Every single figure branded within these visions was utterly focused; starting from kindling the flames and loading materials, they meticulously narrated their every step, explaining the reasoning behind each choice.

What kind of flame a specific spiritual material required, how much higher the spirituality would be when refined with heavenly spiritual fire—in short, no detail was too small, all explained thoroughly.

Whenever Shen Lian wished to view the crafting method for a particular magical instrument, that imagery would reflect within his perception, teaching him from all angles.

More astonishing still, the moment the imagery reflected in his perception, Shen Lian felt his soul avatar merge with the artifact refiner in the light, as if he were performing the actions himself.

Magical as this sensation was, it also filled him with trepidation.

Before his spiritual sense exceeded three thousand zhang and before he had condensed his soul avatar, receiving legacies had not felt quite so real.

He had merely marveled at how overpowered the peace-of-mind panel was.

Yet now, experiencing it firsthand and gazing upon these men and women, young and old, figures of all sizes, he could not help but let his imagination wander.

Who had captured them?

Among these figures were not only humans, but also Sea Clan members with nine-colored scales embedded between their brows, three-eyed giants with bodies like massive mountains and giant eyes upon their foreheads, and unidentified races whose eyes flashed with blood-red light.

Scattered among them were over a dozen exotic races Shen Lian had never seen before.

He was unsure of other foreign races, but the Sea Clan members with nine-colored scales would equate to possessing superior spiritual roots among humans.

The more brilliant the colors, the more outstanding the quality of the spiritual root.

The color between the brows of that Sea Clan figure in the light imagery was almost piercing through the vision itself, suggesting they likely rivaled human Heavenly Spiritual Root cultivators.

During previous inheritances, the visions had depicted only humans; now, even alien races were included.

...

Time passed day by day. More than half a year had elapsed since Shen Lian accepted the artifact refiner legacy.

Over the past six months, Da Hei would trot over every few days to peer in, spending the rest of its time urging its subordinates to execute reconnaissance duties, knowing their master's seclusion brook no disturbance.

Inside the cave dwelling, Shen Lian sat cross-legged, a layer of dust coating his body.

His tightly closed eyelids twitched slightly, and spiritual power surged across his body, instantly sweeping away the dust.

"Hoo..."

Exhaling a long breath, Shen Lian rotated his neck. The absorption was finally complete.

No wonder that in the cultivation world, mastering a single craft allowed a cultivator to benefit endlessly.

Every single craft was vast and profound; had he not possessed this instantaneous enlightenment method, he would likely still be lingering in the Qi Refining realm today.

... Or rather, his corpse might long ago have been picked clean and sold by some fellow daoist.

...

Having inherited the third-tier artifact refiner legacy, Shen Lian was not disappointed: methods for refining natal magical treasures indeed existed.

Not only did they exist, but there were many of them.

The Great Sun Dao Mirror: the initial embryo used three-tier sun stone as its primary material, while subsequent advancement required fourth-tier sun essence stone and fifth-tier sun gold essence.

Leaving aside the third and fourth tiers for the moment, fifth-tier sun gold essence was a legendary spiritual item in the cultivation world.

It was said that this substance fell straight down from the sun.

In the cultivation realm, the sun and moon stars did not merely denote celestial bodies; they were said to be cultivation realms located within the higher heavens.

A mere sliver of sunlight falling from a higher cultivation realm was enough to make a lower cultivation realm brilliant.

The Myriad Gods Mountain: forged primarily from the shell of a Mountain-Moving and Sea-Filing Turtle, the initial embryo alone weighed one hundred thousand jun.

Leaving aside whether it could even be forged, the Mountain-Moving and Sea-Filing Turtle appeared to have gone extinct in the cultivation world.

It was said that during the Archaic Era, they were hunted to extinction by senior body-refining cultivators.

Methods for forging treasure embryos that were compatible with five-element cultivators and could also be separated existed as well, and in considerable numbers.

Five-Element Umbrella, Five-Element Pagoda, Five-Element Cauldron, Five-Element Sword, Five-Element Tree...

The reason these magical treasures had such simplified names was primarily because they shared a foundational framework. Not only could they be disassembled for individual refinement, but they could also be blended together.

For instance, the Five-Element Umbrella could have umbrella-type magical instruments of wood or metal attributes detached from it.

One could also incorporate other deviant attributes such as thunder or wind, utilizing the five elements as a structural skeleton to forge a Five-Element Wind-Thunder Umbrella.

Magical instruments in the cultivation world rarely strayed beyond these categories.

The reason a grandmaster of artifact refinement was a grandmaster was precisely that they did not rigidly follow manuals, instead constantly altering designs according to their own ideas to forge magical treasures suited to different cultivators.

Naturally, to achieve such a level, one had to possess a solid foundation.

Yet the vast majority of cultivators in the cultivation world followed routine, learning step-by-step beside their masters; whatever magical treasures their masters taught them to refine were the only ones they could make.

Many artifact-refining legacies spanning generations might only know how to forge one specific type of magical treasure, unable to handle even the slightest adjustment to attributes.

Take, for example, the Five-Element Nine-Mystery Umbrella refinement method that Qian Dai had produced earlier; it was likely the crystallization of the hard work of one or several artifact refiners, evolved from the foundational five-element umbrella.

Umbrella-shaped magical instruments were not bad—they could restrict flight, impose seals, and so on—yet they still lacked comprehensiveness.

Sword... A sword would not do...

Shen Lian pondered and quickly dismissed the idea. For no other reason than that his personality was the absolute polar opposite of a sword cultivator.

Sword cultivators were mostly paranoid; once they set their minds on something, even a mountain of blades or a sea of fire ahead would be cleaved apart by a single sword strike.

If he encountered a mountain of blades or a sea of fire, he would simply walk around it, only blowing it up if he could not bypass it.

Spiritual treasures had to resonate with the cultivator's true nature. Lacking the temperament of a sword cultivator, even if he forged a sword-shaped magical treasure, he would be unable to unleash its proper might.

Shen Lian's initial demands for a magical treasure bordered on the absurd.

In the arena of magical combat, it had to be the fastest; in the arena of fleeing for his life, its combat power had to be the highest.

Anything with a speed faster than his could not defeat him, and anything capable of defeating him could not catch him.

This choice proved rather difficult.

After much deliberation until his head ached, Shen Lian grabbed Da Hei and shook it vigorously.

"A natal magical treasure must conform to one's true nature. Core Formation cultivators imprint natal divine abilities upon their golden cores; these abilities are also the most harmonious with oneself, and should be viewed comprehensively together."

Upon advancing to the Core Formation stage, a cultivator could imprint one spell onto their golden core as a natal divine ability at each minor realm breakthrough.

From early Core Formation all to Great Perfection of Core Formation, theoretically a total of four major divine abilities could be imprinted.

Because imprinting divine abilities consumed immense physical, mental, and spiritual energy, presenting no small burden even to Core Formation cultivators, the vast majority of them might only manage to imprint one or two.

And some cultivators permanently stuck in early Core Formation might not possess a single divine ability at all.

He knew not how other Core Formation cultivators fared, but Shen Lian had long harbored a plan: upon advancing to Core Formation, the Five-Element Heaven-Evolving Escapism technique would be one of his compulsory divine abilities.

Additionally, he anticipated whether his five spiritual roots perfecting would bring about any changes to the five abilities; if he could comprehend divine abilities akin to beast bloodline inheritances, that would be even better.

"Offense, defense, protection, escape."

Shen Lian understood that achieving perfection across all fronts was impossible, and he could only balance among these four aspects.

"Which to choose..."

"Which... which... which combination..."

Suddenly, a furrow-browed Shen Lian had a flash of inspiration.

What if a single magical treasure wouldn't suffice, but several were combined together?

This notion was hardly earth-shattering; the cultivation world featured treasure-nurturing gourds and cosmos sword chests—all vessels that could absorb resources to nourish magical instruments.

If there could exist magical treasures capable of autonomously nurturing sword blades, then having a master magical treasure capable of gathering and nurturing diverse magical instruments simultaneously no longer seemed so earth-shattering.

Swords, spears, sabers, or talismanic treasures for primary offense; shields and nets for defense; armor and bells for protection; shuttles, boats, and swords for escape.

He was also an alchemist; as his realm grew, the grade of the pills he refined would rise accordingly, making a natal pill cauldron crucial.

As a talisman master, a talismanic brush was also a necessity.

Puppets—a natal spiritual puppet... did that count as a magical treasure?

And beast taming; if he could forge a treasure pouch to house spirit beasts, that would be even better.

Furthermore, as the enemies he encountered grew increasingly formidable, reducing them to ashes was becoming ever more difficult.

To ensure they died thoroughly while leaving no residue, commissioning a high-grade incineration furnace was also imperative.

"..."

Soon, Shen Lian's brows furrowed once more.

While this method was feasible, the consumption of resources and energy would be far from negligible.

Crucially, with so many items, there had to be a single vessel to unite them all—how to unite them?

"Hundred-Treasure Atlas?"

"Spirit-Hiding Gourd?"

"...Five-Element Cauldron."

Before long, Shen Lian formed a preliminary concept: to forge a five-in-one Five-Element Cauldron.

As an alchemist, using a pill cauldron as his natal magical treasure was hardly unreasonable, was it?

High-tier artifact refiners occasionally utilized furnace cauldrons when forging magical instruments.

In this way, it could serve both for alchemy and as a maternal vessel to elevate various magical instruments—truly flawless.

The only imperfection was that this would be a massive undertaking.

Current Protagonist Stats:
[Shen Lian: Ninth Layer of Foundation Establishment]
[Lifespan: 72/350]
[Five-Element Spiritual Roots: Fire 100, Earth 100, Metal 31, Water 31, Wood 31]
[Divine Abilities: Heaven-Evolving Fire Domain, Heaven-Evolving Earth Domain]
[Spiritual Sense: 3,860 zhang]
[Array Formation: Lower-tier Third Rank (1/70,000) Unable to breakthrough]
[Alchemist: Mid-tier Second Rank (1,011/20,000) Unable to breakthrough]
[Talisman Master: High-tier Second Rank (3,214/50,000) Unable to breakthrough]
[Puppeteer: Lower-tier Third Rank (1,124/20,000) Unable to breakthrough]
[Beast Tamer: Lower-tier Third Rank (4,123/20,000) Unable to breakthrough]

Regarding some readers mentioning that 144 divine insight points in ten years felt a bit low, let me explain: the author wrote this keeping the subsequent general development in mind, ensuring that before advancing to Core Formation, the five-element spiritual roots will have sufficient time to reach perfection.

Next up is the plotline involving the journey to Mount Tianzhu. Subsequent chapters will touch upon cultivation techniques and other issues, alongside the gradual appearance of previously buried subplots—such as why the stirring-up-trouble true monarch wanted to stir up trouble, and why the old demon is merely a bud.

Some readers previously commented that the old demon controlling so many cultivators at the Core Formation stage made his abilities feel a bit overpowered; more detailed explanations will follow in due course.

Moreover, calculating the protagonist's lifespan has become utterly confounding, so I just roughly estimated it, -_-||.

Only two chapters today; I need to sort out the plot for the upcoming sections.

(End of this chapter)