Pale light washed over him.
All sorts of profound mysteries concerning spirituality and spiritual resonance rapidly unfolded before Gu Jinlai.
In that instant, he seemed to have poured ten years of painstaking research into the Great Sun Ninefold Refinement Visualization Method.
The kind that left him studying day and night without pause.
After ten seconds, the information carried by the deep-purple orb of light changed.
Great Sun Ninefold Refinement Visualization Method: First Refinement—Entry → Second Refinement—Minor Accomplishment.
"Good grief. As expected of the Heavenly Master path, which starts easy and grows difficult. It directly raised me by one refinement."
Gu Jinlai sensed it carefully.
Each refinement of the Great Sun Ninefold Refinement Visualization Method drew more spirituality from the soul and increased his spiritual resonance rate. The improvement from the first to the second refinement was quite significant.
His spiritual resonance rate was already extremely high. Once his spiritual intensity rose, even though the duration was less than an incense stick's burn, he could still quickly complete his first armament refinement.
Moreover, his spiritual perception was exceptionally pure, placing little "weight" on his divine sense. With the advantage of his cultivation realm, his flexibility had also increased somewhat.
It was like a giant moving sluggishly, but if he stood a hundred meters tall, taking one step every few seconds would still leave ordinary people far behind.
"In other words, spiritual perception may not be incapable of guiding others to refine qi into reality like divine sense does. The requirements for one's cultivation realm are simply very high."
Gu Jinlai made a rough estimate.
Once he cultivated the Great Sun Ninefold Refinement Visualization Method to the seventh stage and derived a Primordial Spirit, he would certainly achieve the effects of Spirit Refining divine sense.
Every method of the Heavenly Master path started easy and grew difficult.
A Heavenly Master who cultivated a Primordial Spirit was honored as a Heavenly Lord. During the Heavenly Masters' most glorious period a hundred years ago, their number of Heavenly Lords had not even reached the number of Primordial Spirit True Lords in Great Qian today. This showed just how difficult the Heavenly Master path was.
"One step at a time."
Gu Jinlai calmed his mind and turned his attention to the armament.
His first armament refinement had been clumsy, and out of caution, he had spent five days completing the initial spiritual resonance with this armament.
He could continue excavating the potential of this armament—or rather, of the high-carbon steel—but the cost-effectiveness would plummet as the time consumed increased.
At that moment, Gu Jinlai was wearing the newly forged battle armor in the courtyard.
In front of him, Nian Buwang held a sword in one hand and attacked continuously.
"Clang, clang, clang!"
The sound of sword edge striking steel rang throughout the courtyard.
Several times, Nian Buwang erupted with true qi, but all he managed to do was knock Gu Jinlai back and make his blood churn.
That was because Gu Jinlai had not circulated true qi to defend himself.
If he had protected himself with true qi, he could have almost completely ignored more than ninety percent of Nian Buwang's attacks.
"That's enough."
Gu Jinlai spoke.
"Ancestor, this battle armor's weight has yet to reach the standard of heavy armor, but its defenses rival a high-grade armament. An body-refining martial artist wearing it would be difficult for a Qi Refining cultivator to injure. If we increased its weight to fifty kilograms—or a hundred kilograms—it could withstand sword qi slashes below the level of a treasured sword."
Gu Chaoyang sounded somewhat excited.
A high-grade armament!
Though it belonged to the steel-armor category and its flexibility was affected, making it impossible for its price to compare with that of an inner-layer armament, it could absolutely sell for sixty thousand taels.
If ten people wearing this armor formed a formation and charged into battle, they could break through an army's encirclement.
"Not bad."
Gu Jinlai replied.
His estimate was similar to Gu Chaoyang's.
Fifty or sixty thousand.
In reality, if this had been an inner-layer high-grade armament, its selling price would definitely have exceeded three hundred thousand.
It was not that he did not know how to refine inner-layer armaments.
Stab-resistant clothing. Nanocomposite armor.
The time required for nanocomposite armor to achieve spiritual resonance was unimaginably long, so that could be set aside for now. Take stab-resistant clothing, for example: it did not hinder flexibility and offered defenses against blades, spears, swords, and halberds no weaker than those of a low-grade armament.
However, the Kevlar composite fibers required by such equipment were costly, the craftsmanship was complicated, and the spiritual resonance took a long time. Since Gu Jinlai needed to rapidly accumulate enough funds to complete the training of the Gu Clan's thousand elite troops, he had naturally excluded it for the time being.
What he wanted was cost-effectiveness.
With an armament like this, he could speed up the process and completely refine one in three days.
Because its cost was low, these armaments could bring him five hundred thousand taels in profit each month—six million taels a year.
What an astonishing figure was that!?
It was almost equal to a year's tax revenue from cities in Star Province such as Changjun City, Lingxiao City, and Sunset City.
"Go buy more forging materials. Also, don't slacken your cultivation. Three months from now, whoever improves the fastest will receive an armament as a reward."
Gu Jinlai instructed them.
Gu Chaoyang, Nian Buwang, and the others had just witnessed the battle armor's formidable defenses. Upon hearing Gu Jinlai's words, every one of them was reinvigorated.
"We definitely won't disappoint you, Ancestor."
"Go."
Gu Jinlai spoke, then went to the rear courtyard's martial arena wearing the armament.
After instructing Su Nanxing to keep watch over the courtyard gates, he stood once more in the center of the martial arena.
"Next is the question of a Heavenly Master's combat power."
While flipping through the Great Sun Ninefold Refinement Visualization Method these past few days, Gu Jinlai had been wondering: the Yin Spirit of a Spirit Transformation True Person could control a sword to kill enemies, so why couldn't a Heavenly Master do the same?
Was spiritual perception too "heavy"?
Then, was there a way to let a Heavenly Master control objects to fight enemies like a Spirit Transformation True Person?
There certainly was a way. It simply had yet to be conceived, as the Heavenly Master Lineage had undergone its great upheaval only a hundred years ago.
If other people could not think of it, then he, Gu Jinlai...
As a modern man who had lived through an age of information explosion, his mind—Gu Jinlai's mind—would certainly be able to devise a solution.
"Green Lotus."
Gu Jinlai indicated the direction.
The path of a Heavenly Master's close combat.
In the next moment, pale light washed over him. Information related to Heavenly Master spirituality, Spirit Refining divine sense, Spirit Transformation object control, artifact refinement, and beast taming flashed through Gu Jinlai's mind in rapid succession.
Suddenly!
He caught something!
The next moment, he reined in all his strength and allowed the forty-kilogram armament to press down on his body.
At the same time, his spiritual perception spread out. Under his sudden enlightenment, he entered a state of spiritual resonance with the armament in less than a second.
It was still nearly one hundred percent resonance.
In this state, he once again sensed the armament's life.
It was like a child who had only just developed consciousness, or perhaps one who had awakened from slumber, warmly wanting to communicate something with him.
"Flesh is weak, spirituality is one, machine and body as one..."
Through spiritual resonance, Gu Jinlai completely fused himself with the armament.
"You're already a mature armament. You should learn to stand up and protect your master yourself. Don't dump all your hundred-plus pounds on your master. Look at the Spirit Transformation flying sword next door—it only needs a Yin Spirit to lead it, and it can run ten li away to break formations and kill enemies for its master..."
Gu Jinlai transmitted his spiritual perception.
He felt his thoughts merge with the armament. He was a life, and the armament was likewise a life.
People had never felt that controlling their own hundred-plus-pound "object" to leap about was heavy.
At this moment, he could almost no longer feel the armament's weight either.
Reining in his strength and not circulating true qi, he found the eighty-pound armament as light as nothing on his body.
"Vrrr!"
The pale light dispersed.
In the next moment, the spiritual resonance rate between Gu Jinlai and the armament dropped sharply.
He immediately recovered from that state of oneness and once again felt the burden the armament placed on his body.
But...
He felt a force sharing that burden for him.
Spiritual perception!
It was spiritual perception!
Spiritual perception was like a Yin Spirit controlling an object. It controlled the armament, making it not only an extension of his own hands and feet but also greatly reducing its weight.
"As expected, a Yin Spirit can control a sword, and spiritual perception can control objects as well. A Yin Spirit controls a sword with lightning speed and myriad changes, while spiritual perception requires none of those divine wonders. It has only one function! Awaken the armament through spiritual resonance, let the armament bear its own weight with its own 'spirit,' and thus... make it lighter!"
Maintaining this state, Gu Jinlai's thoughts went into overdrive as he saw through everything. "This lightness is only relative to the one who resonates with it, but the weight still exists in reality. Thus, someone wielding a thousand-pound heavy sword can slash through the sound barrier as though wielding a ten-pound sword. The damage it brings is like heaven and earth apart."
In less than a minute, he stopped.
His spiritual perception had been depleted by more than half.
This state consumed spiritual perception tremendously.
He had only just become a Heavenly Master, and his spiritual perception was too weak.
The Great Sun Ninefold Refinement Visualization Method was not a skill. Raising it to the second refinement had only increased his efficiency, success rate, and extraction rate in spiritual resonance. For his spiritual perception to grow stronger, he still needed to accumulate it over time.
His gaze fell upon the little figure that embodied his consciousness in the spiritual world.
A new orb of light had appeared there.
Spiritual Eruption: Entry.
Its color was light blue.
Gu Jinlai looked at the orb of light. "Light blue isn't a problem. As long as it formed a skill, that's enough. With this skill, a Heavenly Master finally has a fighting style of his own."
He looked at the armament on his body.
He would set a small goal first.
"Su Nanxing, have Gu Chaoyang forge a thousand-jin battle armor and a thousand-jin battle sword."
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