Li Yuan placed the jade slip in his palm.
[Detectable equippable item: Tide Array Heart Scripture (Complete)]
[Equip Entry Preview: Array-Breath Symbiosis (Blue)]
[Effect: When cultivating an Array Skill, your Array Dao mastery and Cultivation Technique proficiency will increase simultaneously. While inside an array, Spiritual Power recovery speed is increased by an additional 30%. Array deployment speed is increased by 20%.]
[Permanence Condition Preview: Reach Adept proficiency in a Tier Three Array Skill and complete one full breakthrough in seclusion within an array you deployed yourself.]
’A blue entry. My Array Dao and Cultivation Technique growing in sync... this effect is extremely valuable to me.’
Li Yuan put the jade slip away and picked up the second one.
The second one came from a hidden compartment within the cluster of grotto-heavens.
After probing it with his Divine Sense, he found it was an Artifact Refining jade slip. It recorded the complete method for crafting a spatial-type Magical Artifact, from material selection and Artifact Pattern design to smelting and forging.
Its grade was not low, at least reaching the Tier Three Low Grade level. The difficulty of refining spatial-type Magical Artifacts far exceeded that of ordinary Magical Artifacts of the same tier.
The third slip also came from a hidden compartment beneath the floor of the Scripture Pavilion.
It contained a Tier Three Body Refining method called the Jiaoxue Body Tempering Skill. The cultivation method involved tempering the physical body with the essence blood of Demon Beasts to enhance its strength and regenerative capabilities. It was a Tier Three Middle Grade technique and had high requirements for the quality of the essence blood, needing at least the blood of a Tier Three Demon Beast to be effective.
He had finished inspecting all three jade slips. One was an Array Skill with a blue entry, one was a method for refining a spatial-type Magical Artifact, and one was a Tier Three Body Refining method.
’Not a bad haul.’
Li Yuan stored all three jade slips, along with all the others he had previously collected, into his personal space. He then used the Teleportation Array to leave the secret chamber, returned to the undersea ruins, and burst out of the sea from within the Reef Group.
After returning to Nanyuan District, Li Yuan entered seclusion in the secret chamber in the backyard of Zhou He’s apothecary.
The focus of this seclusion was on Artifact Refining.
He had been at the introductory level of Tier Three Artifact Refining for some time now. Although he hadn’t directly refined any artifacts while setting up arrays at Skeleton Ridge, the improvement in his Array Dao mastery had indirectly helped his Artifact Refining. The underlying principles of Array Patterns and Artifact Patterns were interconnected. His progress in the Array Dao had deepened his understanding of Artifact Patterns.
Li Yuan took out a large quantity of Spiritual Materials for Artifact Refining from his personal space, covering the entire stone platform.
Red Copper Essence, Spirit Silver ingots, Sea Nourishing Stones, Fire Jade Marrow, and a small amount of leftover spatial materials he had acquired at the auction.
He began refining.
「Fifteen days later.」
[Tier Three Artifact Refining Technique: Adept]
As his proficiency level jumped, the final Magical Artifact Li Yuan was forging was also completed.
It was a short blade, the length of a palm.
The blade was a dark silver, its surface faintly shimmering with extremely fine spatial patterns. It was made from a mixture of spatial materials and Red Copper Essence, and its grade was Tier Three Low Grade.
The dagger’s form was extremely simple. It had no handguard and no adornments, and its edge was so thin it was almost transparent.
Li Yuan held the dagger in his hand.
Within a three-foot radius, a blue light shone.
[Detectable equippable item: Spatial Dagger (Complete)]
[Equip Entry Preview: Spatial Edge (Blue)]
[Effect: Spiritual Power is imbued with a weak spatial-cutting property, allowing it to ignore a certain degree of physical defense. The power of spatial-type Magic is increased by 20%.]
[Permanence Condition Preview: Kill a Cultivator of the same tier using spatial Magic.]
’A blue entry.’
’The spatial-cutting property combined with Sky-rending Slash will be terrifyingly effective.’
With this phase of Artifact Refining concluded, Li Yuan began to study the various Artifact Refining manuals he had accumulated.
The Canglan Sect’s method for refining spatial-type Magical Artifacts, Old Fan’s insights on crafting a Lifebound Spiritual Artifact, the Sea Forging Skill he had exchanged for from the Alliance, and over a dozen theoretical works on Artifact Refining he had gathered from various markets were all spread out on the stone platform.
Twelve Divine Sense Lines operated simultaneously, cross-referencing, summarizing, and organizing the vast amount of information.
A few days later, Li Yuan had sorted out the core logic behind crafting a Lifebound Spiritual Artifact.
All the Artifact Refining manuals were highly consistent on one point: the core of a Magical Artifact was not its material or its shape, but its Artifact Pattern.
The Artifact Pattern determined the Magical Artifact’s function.
The Artifact Patterns of sword-type Magical Artifacts were geared toward Sword Qi impact, releasing sharp Sword Qi when activated. The Artifact Patterns of shield-type Magical Artifacts focused on condensing Spiritual Power, forming a sturdy defensive barrier upon activation. The Artifact Patterns of mirror-type Magical Artifacts favored light refraction, allowing them to reflect or detect Spiritual Waves when activated.
But these were just conventional pairings.
In reality, there was no necessary correspondence between an Artifact Pattern and a Magical Artifact’s shape. The Canglan Sect’s Artifact Refining jade slip recorded an extreme example: a mirror-type Magical Artifact, when inlaid with an impact-type Artifact Pattern, did not release light when activated but could fly out and strike things. The mirror surface was merely the vessel; the Artifact Pattern was the core that determined its function.
The roles of the material and shape were to bear and amplify the effect of the Artifact Pattern. Different materials had different affinities for different types of Artifact Patterns, and choosing the right material could maximize an Artifact Pattern’s effect. The shape, in turn, influenced how Spiritual Power was output. A sword shape was conducive to focused output, while a shield shape was suited for dispersing force, and so on.
Building on this logic, an extremely ancient Artifact Refining manual proposed a bold concept.
A Universal, Transformable Artifact Pattern.
The core of the concept was this: instead of engraving a single, fixed Artifact Pattern into the Magical Artifact’s pattern layer, one would design a set of transformable Artifact Pattern circuits. By changing how the circuits were connected, the same Magical Artifact could exhibit different functions in different modes.
Combined with a changing shape, it was theoretically possible for a single Magical Artifact to possess multiple functions.
But a concept was just a concept; the practical difficulty was extremely high.
A universal, transformable Artifact Pattern required reserving a large number of redundant circuits and switching nodes in the pattern layer, meaning the Magical Artifact’s volume and material consumption would multiply. At the same time, the Spiritual Power consumption when switching modes was not insignificant. Frequent switching would severely drain a Cultivator’s Spiritual Power reserves.
More critically, different types of Artifact Patterns had different affinities for materials. One material might be perfectly suited for an impact-type Artifact Pattern but be repelled by a defensive-type pattern. To make a single Magical Artifact compatible with multiple Artifact Patterns, the choice of material was extremely demanding. One would either have to use top-tier Spiritual Materials with extremely high affinity or use a composite structure pieced together from multiple materials.
Either way, the cost would be exorbitant.
Li Yuan closed all the manuals and thought for a moment with his eyes shut.
’The direction of a universal, transformable Artifact Pattern aligns perfectly with my needs.’
’My combat style isn’t confined to a single, fixed mode. I alternate between various methods like Spiritual Power, Demonic Qi, spatial abilities, Arrays, and Talismans. A Lifebound Spiritual Artifact with only one function would limit my potential.’
’The problem of high material consumption can be solved by upgrading the materials over time. I can start with Middle Grade Spiritual Materials to build the foundational framework of the Artifact Pattern circuits, then gradually replace them with High Tier materials later on.’
’The Spiritual Power consumption is even less of an issue. The reserves and recovery speed from my top-grade spiritual pill far exceed those of my peers. Add to that all the permanent entries related to Spiritual Power recovery, and I can completely afford the cost of switching modes.’
Li Yuan opened his eyes. He had made his decision.
’I’ll craft my Lifebound Spiritual Artifact based on the concept of a universal, transformable Artifact Pattern.’