With the direction for crafting the Lifebound Spiritual Artifact decided, a list of materials was also drawn up.
The framework of the all-purpose, transforming Artifact Pattern placed extremely stringent demands on the materials.
The Artifact Pattern layer required Spiritual Materials with high affinity to accommodate the switching between different types of patterns. The core hub needed Spiritual Materials with a Spatial Attribute to maintain the stability of the Artifact Pattern circuits. The outer shell, in turn, needed a material that balanced both hardness and Spiritual Power conductivity.
Li Yuan went over the list from top to bottom.
Among the core materials, he already had a stock of Sea-Essence Refined Iron and Spirit Silver.
He also had some scraps of spatial-type materials on hand, but the quantity was far from sufficient.
The most critical High-Tier Spiritual Materials, such as the Tianyuan Mystic Iron for the Artifact Pattern layer and the Void Crystal for the core hub, were simply impossible to find in ordinary marketplaces.
Moreover, there was another problem: he didn’t have enough Spirit Stones.
He had spent most of his fortune at the last auction. Although he had since made some back through trade and eradication missions, he was still a long way from being able to afford High-Tier Spiritual Materials.
Furthermore, Qinghe Marketplace was planning to host an auction, which also required various High-Tier items to bolster its prestige.
He needed to make money.
Fortunately, he still had the materials from the Demon Beasts he had hunted earlier. However, they were too uniform in type, suitable for perhaps a single transaction.
As he left his residence, he passed a teahouse and heard the voices of several Cultivators talking inside.
"The Yao Guang Secret Realm is about to open. Have you heard?"
Li Yuan paused.
Inside the teahouse, three Late-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivators were sitting together, conversing in low voices.
"The news is already out. The Dragon Abyss Pavilion has issued a notice stating that the Yao Guang Secret Realm will be opening soon. Slots are limited, first come, first served."
"How are the slots being allocated?"
"Same as always. You submit knowledge and a certain amount of Spirit Stones."
One of the Cultivators took a sip of Spirit Tea.
"What does ’submitting knowledge’ mean? Brother He, could you please explain?"
"To enter the Secret Realm, you need knowledge of things like Cultivation Techniques and Magic. This knowledge isn’t collected by the Dragon Abyss Pavilion; it has to be verified by the Secret Realm itself."
"If you offer sufficient knowledge to the Secret Realm, you can exchange it for the right to enter."
"And after you get in by offering a Cultivation Technique?"
"If you pass the trials, you can obtain Cultivation Techniques and Magic," the Cultivator said.
"The Yao Guang Secret Realm was originally a Dharma Transmission Pavilion. The Sect that created it designed it as a place for knowledge exchange. You submit your knowledge, pass the trials within, and the Secret Realm will reward you with a Cultivation Technique or Magic of a corresponding grade from its repository."
"They say there are also Magical Artifacts in the Secret Realm, but fewer and fewer people have entered over the years. With no one replenishing them, the supply is nearly depleted."
Another Cultivator chimed in, "So who built the Secret Realm, anyway?"
"No one knows. Its origins are a mystery. All we know is that it was built with a great deal of materials from the Upper Realm. The predecessor to the Dragon Abyss Pavilion was a Nascent Soul-level faction, and even they didn’t know its origin when they took control of the Secret Realm."
"Hasn’t the Nascent Soul Ancestor from the Kunpeng Alliance been there?"
"He went, but he couldn’t get inside," the Cultivator said, shaking his head.
"Rumor has it that the Ancestor tried to force his way in, but was repelled by the Secret Realm’s defense mechanisms. The Ancestor himself said that any attempt to force entry would trigger a self-destruct sequence, destroying everything inside. That’s why everyone has to play by the rules."
Li Yuan stood at the entrance of the teahouse for a moment, committing this information to memory before turning to leave.
’The Yao Guang Secret Realm.’
He recalled reading about Yao Guang Island in a jade slip from the Canglan Sect. The island was said to have a channel for ascending to the Divinity Transformation realm, one that constantly funneled in Spiritual Qi from the Upper Realm. The Cultivator who recently broke through to Divinity Transformation had drained all the Spirit Veins on the island in the process.
Now, the Yao Guang Secret Realm was about to open, and it was said to be built from materials of the Upper Realm.
The connection between these two events was becoming increasingly clear.
After returning to Nanyuan District, Li Yuan went back into seclusion.
This period of seclusion had two main focuses.
The first was the Jiaoxue Body Tempering Skill.
This Tier Three Body Refining technique required the essence blood of a Demon Beast to practice. Coincidentally, Li Yuan had materials from a Tier Three Armored Crab Demon and a Tier Three Top-Grade Ice Snake Demon, which he had obtained during a deep-sea eradication mission. He had already carefully stored their essence blood separately.
Under the guidance of his Spiritual Power, the dark red Demon Beast essence blood coalesced into several thumb-sized beads.
The introductory stage of the Jiaoxue Body Tempering Skill required one to guide Demon Beast essence blood onto the skin, allowing it to permeate the flesh and bones along specific meridian pathways. The beast’s life force contained within the essence blood would temper the physical body during this process, enhancing both its strength and restorative abilities.
Li Yuan placed the first drop of essence blood onto his palm, using his Spiritual Power to guide it along the path designated by the Body Refining technique.
The learning speed bonus from his ’True Comprehension of All Methods’ talent drastically shortened the introductory process for the Body Refining technique.
[Jiaoxue Body Tempering Skill: Initiate]
Li Yuan clenched his fist, feeling the changes beneath his skin. A faint, dark red pattern appeared on the surface of the skin tempered by the essence blood. It was nearly invisible to the naked eye, but he could sense it when Spiritual Power flowed through him. It was a passive defensive network formed within his skin by the absorbed Demon Beast essence blood.
His physical toughness had increased by about ten percent, and his recovery speed had also noticeably quickened.
The second focus was the Tide Array Heart Scripture.
The cultivation method for an Array Skill was completely different from that of an ordinary Cultivation Technique.
Instead of circulating Spiritual Power within the Dantian, it involved laying out the Spiritual Power throughout the meridians in the same way one would lay out an Array’s circuits.
Each meridian was treated as one of the Array’s Spiritual Power conduits, and each acupoint was treated as one of its nodes.
This method of cultivation placed extremely high demands on one’s attainments in the Array Dao. If one’s understanding of Array circuits was not profound enough, the Spiritual Power laid out in the meridians would deviate. At best, the cultivation would be ineffective; at worst, the meridians would be damaged.
However, Li Yuan’s Cultivation in the Array Dao had already reached Tier Three Minor Achievement. Coupled with the intuitive judgment from his permanent ’Array Rhythm’ trait and the passive perception of his ’Array Network Overview’ ability, his understanding of Array circuits far surpassed that of his peers.
Li Yuan closed his eyes and began to cultivate.
His ’True Comprehension of All Methods’ and his permanent ’Array Rhythm’ trait both took effect simultaneously.
「Two days later.」
The nascent Array within his body completed its first full cycle. Spiritual Power flowed unimpeded through all the nodes and conduits, without a single point of stagnation.
[Tide Array Heart Scripture: Initiate]
Once he initiated the technique, Li Yuan could clearly feel a subtle change in the way Spiritual Power circulated within his body. It no longer just flowed through his meridians; it now carried a trace of the cyclical rhythm unique to an Array.
The effect described by his ’Array-Breath Symbiosis’ trait—the synchronized growth of his Array Dao proficiency and his Cultivation Technique—took effect from this moment on.
From now on, every time he cultivated his Array Skill, his proficiency in the Array Dao would also grow. Conversely, every improvement in his Array Dao proficiency would, in turn, bolster the progress of his Array Skill.
The two paths had merged into one.
Li Yuan opened his eyes and let out a long sigh.
Initiating the Body Refining technique and the Array Skill, on top of his Burning Wood Evergreen Skill and Tier Three Artifact Refining having previously reached the Proficient stage—the gains from this period of seclusion had been extremely bountiful.
He took the material list for his Lifebound Spiritual Artifact out of his personal storage space and looked it over again.
He had already gathered seventy to eighty percent of the core materials. For the remaining types, he would have to keep an eye on the various marketplaces and auctions.
’There’s no rush.’
Crafting a Lifebound Spiritual Artifact was a long-term project. Both gathering the materials and advancing his Artifact Refining Technique would take time.
Li Yuan put the list away, then stood up and stretched his limbs.