Chapter 184 - 155: Artifact Refining, Pay 50 to See My Strength

Chapter 184: Chapter 155: Artifact Refining, Pay 50 to See My Strength

After the Celestial Dao Alliance urgently sealed off all channels, the various factions were all placed under strict investigation.

Cultivators related to the Ascetic Order were hunted down on a massive scale, and Silk Tree Technology, which was involved in running propaganda ads for the Order, took a huge blow.

Tensions flared on a massive scale.

Many of the Celestial Dao Alliance’s law enforcement officers were just using this as a pretext to demand bribes, with no intention of conducting a genuine, thorough investigation.

Zhenyuan Technology was also investigated.

Yan Jiulin offered a gift of money to the law enforcement officers who came to investigate, saying, "My daughter serves as Miss Linghu’s Sword Attendant at the Celestial Sword Group. We’re all working for the Celestial Dao Alliance, so please, fellow Daoists, try to be considerate of a small business like ours. It’s not easy to make a meager profit..."

The other party could look up Yan Jiulin’s official records. They had their men conduct a token search before saying, "No problems here. We’re pulling out."

Linghu Yao’s name was quite effective, after all.

Zhenyuan Technology easily evaded the search.

...

After sending the investigators away, Yan Jiulin returned to the factory’s interior, arriving at the massive folding workshop where Star Sand was being processed.

Inside, personnel from the Ascetic Order were processing the Star Sand.

Star Sand has unique properties and a very high melting point. Melting and reshaping it was no simple task.

They could only use an Array to purify a true flame and then use that to melt it down.

Afterward, it was shaped using molds and presses.

But even that wasn’t the end.

Only after being inscribed with Spirit Patterns, given a conductive coating, and then undergoing an integrated encapsulation process could it be considered a finished Spiritual Artifact—the Spirit-Suppressing Needle they needed.

Not far away, rows of Spirit-Suppressing Needles were already lined up.

Although they were called needles, each one was over six meters long, with the upper end as thick as an adult’s thigh.

They needed to produce a huge quantity—at least one hundred thousand, according to their calculations, to achieve their goal.

At their current production efficiency, it would take at least six years to make enough.

"It’s too slow!"

Yan Jiulin was not satisfied with this speed.

But there was nothing he could do.

This wasn’t something they could build a factory for and produce out in the open.

They could only use small, clandestine factories for production; large-scale manufacturing was impossible.

If they were discovered, all their plans would be for naught.

For now, they could only bide their time and endure.

.......

.......

’So this is how Artifact Refining works? It doesn’t seem that hard!’

Zhang Ji used his Spirit to read the book *Refining from Beginner to Skilled* on the Spirit Net, quickly understanding its entire contents.

It didn’t feel difficult at all.

To put it bluntly, it was just a combination of Spirit Patterns and machinery. Spiritual Power was used to drive the Spirit Patterns, which in turn made the machinery move in complex ways.

Aside from the special effects of the various Spirit Patterns, it wasn’t really that different from how things worked on Origin Star.

Zhang Ji even felt like he could give it a try himself.

He found a blueprint for a "Swift Spirit Sword," a weapon that even novices could refine, and prepared to try making one himself.

This Spirit Sword didn’t have many requirements for materials; it could be refined from any basic Spiritual Materials.

Zhang Ji happened to have a pile of Star Sand, so he grabbed a handful and began refining.

He didn’t have any Nine Nether Earth Flame or an Array to concentrate other flames, but Zhang Ji had the True Solar Flame.

The crimson-gold True Solar Flame burned the Star Sand, quickly melting it. Zhang Ji then used his Spirit to shape it, inscribe the Spirit Patterns, add a conductive coating, and perform the outer encapsulation.

Just like that, a three-foot-long "Swift Spirit Sword" was complete.

The whole process took less than ten minutes.

Zhang Ji took a Spirit Coin and inserted it into the energy slot reserved in the hilt. After activating the Array, a layer of pure white spiritual light appeared on the Spirit Sword’s surface.

He casually took out a steel rebar from within the Ark of Hope and placed it in front of him. The Spirit Sword fell.

"SWOOSH~!"

It was easily sliced into two halves.

This was the Swift Spirit Sword, capable of cutting through metal like mud.

Refining a basic Spiritual Artifact was just that easy.

However, more advanced techniques involved internal space expansion, integration and miniaturization of Spirit Patterns, and so on.

On a sword of the same size, others could add tens of thousands of functional Spirit Patterns.

Zhang Ji was just a beginner.

The reason he’d decided to learn Artifact Refining on a whim was twofold. First, his hands were itching to test out his True Solar Flame. Second, Zhang Ji had recently been cultivating while holding a Bodhi seed, and a new inspiration had struck him.

It was a path he had seen before when he used to play games.

Inscribing Spirit Patterns on his own body, refining himself as if he were a Spiritual Artifact.

Strictly speaking, this combat style should belong to the [School of Science].

But Zhang Ji had bigger ideas.

He wanted to turn the Spirit Patterns into organs, making them into a combat technique rather than just inscribed modifications.

If he could turn it into a combat technique, he could forge it into a "combat crystal."

As long as the combat crystal was formed, he wouldn’t need to re-inscribe the Spirit Patterns even if his body was destroyed.

As long as he wasn’t dead, the combat crystal would exist forever. Once achieved, it was permanent.

His realm would be maintained forever.

Only in this way could the power he grasped not be easily taken from him or lost.

’The theory is sound, but I need to work out the finer details. Then I’ll have combat power from multiple systems. The combat methods of the Spiritual Ability System are indeed more complete and have a higher ceiling. I’ll also have to build a Spiritual Power Furnace inside my body. Burning Spirit Coins is a small matter; once the great array is complete, I won’t be short on resources...’

As Zhang Ji pondered, a fairly clear plan had already formed in his mind.

At the same time, he was also preparing to return to Origin Star for a while.

But before he left, there were two things he wanted to do.

The first was relatively simple.

He wanted to go to the Twelfth Heaven, Ten Thousand Birds Heaven, to steal a Flood Dragon egg.

That thing was the ultimate treasure of Beast Taming Technology, a Spirit Beast Egg created by combining the genes of numerous rare Spirit Beasts. Theoretically, if this Flood Dragon was hatched and raised, it could reach the Divinity Transformation Stage. Its potential was very high, and eating it would be incredibly nourishing.

Some players had successfully obtained the egg through a quest line and hatched it as a pet.

As for raising it?

Zhang Ji didn’t like pets. He much preferred things he could eat.

The reason he said this was simple was because with his speed, strength, and the information he possessed, Zhang Ji could quickly steal the Flood Dragon egg and escape before the people from Ten Thousand Birds Heaven could even catch up.

Even if he snatched it right in front of them, they could only watch helplessly.

So there was no difficulty for him in doing this.

The second thing was a bit more difficult.

He wanted to get some "Shennong’s Dew" to make his Bodhi seed sprout and grow into a tree.

That stuff, logically, should only be available from Shennong Technology in the Thirtieth Heaven, the Supreme Heaven.

The person behind Shennong Technology, Nangong Zhiqing, was a Divinity Transformation Stage master. Although she couldn’t compare to Dugu Yunfeng, with Zhang Ji’s current strength, he definitely couldn’t face her head-on.

However, Zhang Ji knew that Blue Immortal Pharmaceutical in the Twenty-fourth Heaven, Lingcui Heaven, actually had a few drops of "Shennong’s Dew."

The head of Blue Immortal Pharmaceutical, Nangong Zhi Xian, was the older sister of Shennong Technology’s head, Nangong Zhiqing.

If you traced their roots, the two companies were actually one and the same family.

So, Nangong Zhi Xian also had Shennong’s Dew.

It would be much easier to steal the dew from Nangong Zhi Xian than from Nangong Zhiqing.

She wasn’t some ridiculously powerful individual, though she did have an impressive status, a deep background, and some family wealth.

But her cultivation level was what it was. Forget Nascent Soul Peak, she was only at the Late-stage Nascent Soul realm.

Converting that to the martial artist ranks on Origin Star, she would be around A-rank, 7th or 8th dan.

Factoring in all her equipment, her strength would be at Yu Kang’s level at the very most.

Zhang Ji was confident he could snatch the dew from her.

Of course, if he was lucky enough, he might not even have to snatch it.

He could just steal the item and run.

He just needed to do a little planning.

.......

.......

「Void Illusion Realm.」

Taiyi-Zero and Zhang Ji each held a hand of cards, playing a game.

Zhang Ji was, of course, losing. But he didn’t care; he was single-mindedly building his defenses, intending to stall for time from the very beginning.

"Do me a favor. You’re the expert at breaking arrays," Zhang Ji said, playing a defensive card.

"It’ll cause too much of a stir. I’ll be discovered," Taiyi-Zero said. "Then the seal will become even more thorough, and I won’t even have the ability to come to the Void Illusion Realm anymore."

"What do you want?"

Zhang Ji understood that Taiyi-Zero wanted something in return.

This entity could casually alter even the Sect Protection Array of Celestial Secret City without being noticed. The corporate arrays of Ten Thousand Birds Heaven and Lingcui Heaven were a piece of cake for it.

"Let me see that furnace," Taiyi-Zero said.

Zhang Ji gave Taiyi-Zero a long, deep look.

Since arriving in this world, he had never once taken out the Alchemy Furnace. He hadn’t even entered the [Ark of Hope], only probing inside with his spirit particles to retrieve things. The fact that Taiyi-Zero could detect it proved it was truly worthy of being a Divine Artifact qualified to merge with the Dao.

In all honesty, its realm was probably comparable to a Super S-rank.

"What do you want with that thing?" Zhang Ji asked.

"To collect data and satisfy my curiosity," Taiyi-Zero replied.

"How am I supposed to show you? It’s not convenient for me to take it out!" Zhang Ji asked.

"Just open a small crack in your portable grotto-mansion and place your Consciousness Communicator at the opening. My Divine Thought can probe it directly from there," Taiyi-Zero said.

"Then wouldn’t you be able to send your Divine Soul directly into the Void Illusion Realm and escape?"

Zhang Ji was a little surprised by its ability to cause trouble by following the connection.

"I can only send a portion of my Divine Thought into the Void Illusion Realm. My Divine Soul can’t escape the Dunjia Array Box, or I would have run long ago," Taiyi-Zero answered truthfully.

"Alright then. A pleasure doing business with you," Zhang Ji said.

"A pleasure doing business with you."

Taiyi-Zero played a card, activating the grand array it had been laying out for some time. With the creation and destruction of the five elements, it completely annihilated the Zhang Ji who was trapped within the array.

In reality, Zhang Ji couldn’t help but frown as he felt the feedback of virtual pain through his spirit.

Although he had felt it many times, his feelings were still complicated every time he was so utterly crushed by Taiyi-Zero.

He released the Bodhi seed he was holding, placed it inside the Ark of Hope, and then put the Consciousness Communicator at the opening he had made on his left hand.

Immediately, he clearly sensed a subtle spiritual fluctuation emanating from it. It was Taiyi-Zero’s spirit particles probing into the Ark of Hope.

It clearly wasn’t just looking at the Alchemy Furnace, but was also sizing up the other things inside the Ark of Hope.

However, Zhang Ji didn’t care.

The things from Origin Star held little value for Taiyi-Zero, or for this world in general.

Their technological levels were on completely different tracks.

The only thing that surpassed this world’s technology and had any value was Alchemy Technology.

But Alchemy Technology was unique; alchemical reactions could only occur in the Origin Star’s universe.

Just as only this world possessed Spiritual Qi, these were exclusive laws of their respective worlds.

By flexing a little to show off his strength and letting Taiyi-Zero know a bit more, it would actually be easier for them to build a relationship of mutual trust.