Buzz!
After finishing the inscription, he gave it a gentle push, and it flew onto the broken inner armor.
The moment the inscription attached itself to the inner armor, golden light shimmered across it, and a battered, gaping hole gradually began to fill in.
Next, he repeated the process and continued engraving inscriptions.
Repairing a magic artifact was much less difficult than crafting one, and the process was not nearly as complicated.
Shen Mo only needed to complete the inscriptions in the Artifact Casting Technique that enhanced its defensive properties.
Though the technique itself was simple, it still took an enormous amount of time.
This was Shen Mo's first time trying his hand at Artifact Forging. He focused intently as he drew and embedded each inscription.
He did not dare slacken for even a moment.
Before he knew it, a day and a night had passed.
When he finished drawing the final inscription and fitted it perfectly into the battered armor, the taut string of tension in his heart finally relaxed.
Every inscription had been engraved.
Many pale-gold Mystic Crystals now adorned the silver-white Heart-Protecting Inner Armor, completely filling in its damaged sections.
He held the armor in his hands and rubbed it. It was perfectly smooth, no longer rough and prickly like before.
[You have successfully repaired the Mystic Grade Low-Tier inner armor "Heart-Protecting." As this was your first attempt, you gained considerable practical experience in Artifact Forging, increasing your proficiency in the Artifact Forging Dao. Artifact Forging experience +12.]
"Hmm, it's a little ugly, but as long as it works as well as before, that's fine."
He looked at the notification on the information panel, his heart swelling with joy, then examined again and again the finished piece that had claimed so much of his effort during his first attempt at Artifact Forging.
He was fairly satisfied.
After his repairs, the once-wretched Heart-Protecting Inner Armor was as good as new.
Its defensive power was even greater than when he had first bought it.
After a full day and night of work, Shen Mo had finished repairing the Heart-Protecting Inner Armor. At last, he opened the door.
He stepped outside to get some fresh air.
At that moment, he was still the only one in the cave abode.
Chen Mengze had probably gone on night patrol.
As for Guo Zhao, Chen Mengze probably wouldn't go on patrol with him after rejecting his confession yesterday.
But he still wasn't in the cave abode. Who knew where that guy had gone?
"Ee! Ee! Ee!"
Just as Shen Mo was about to go for a stroll, he suddenly heard an exotic beast calling from the stone pavilion.
It was the Spirit-Hidden Rat!
It seemed to have been waiting in the pavilion for quite some time. The moment it saw Shen Mo come out, it grew excited, leapt down the stone steps, and hopped straight to his feet.
It rubbed its head against Shen Mo's ankle and gazed up at him expectantly, as if it had come to beg for food.
"Oh! I nearly forgot!"
Seeing it brought the matter back to Shen Mo's mind. He hurriedly slapped his forehead.
He had spent so long on Artifact Forging that he'd gotten completely caught up in it and forgotten his agreement with the Spirit-Hidden Rat yesterday.
"Wait here a moment. Don't wander off."
After giving it instructions, he went to the cave abode's pantry and took out five jin of Red-Browed Deer leg meat.
Then he cut it up, coated it in barbecue seasoning, and set it on the grill.
Shen Mo had grilled plenty of meat lately, so he handled it with practiced ease.
In less than the time it took to burn a stick of incense, he had grilled all five jin of raw Red-Browed Deer meat until it was golden and crisp, with an irresistible aroma.
"Ee!"
As the smell of grilled meat filled the air, the Spirit-Hidden Rat waiting beside the stone pavilion drooled so much it seemed about to spill from its mouth.
It scampered over excitedly and reached out with both paws, begging Shen Mo for some meat.
Shen Mo held the plate of grilled meat, a faint smile on his face, but didn't hand it over right away.
Instead—just like the rat—he held out his hand.
"Yesterday, I told you that an exchange of gifts is the way to keep things going. You came here today, so did you bring me a present?"
"If you didn't, then today you'll have to watch me eat."
Want meat? Pay up first!
Shen Mo wasn't some generous fool who let anyone freeload off him.
"Ee! Ee!"
The Spirit-Hidden Rat turned around twice, then, under Shen Mo's expectant gaze, opened its mouth.
From its bulging cheeks, it spat out a jade slip.
"You really did bring something!"
Shen Mo's eyes lit up. He set the grilled meat on the ground and reached for the jade slip.
"Ah!"
As soon as Shen Mo finally put down the grilled meat, the Spirit-Hidden Rat leapt forward and began to feast.
Shen Mo paid it no mind. Instead, he sent his divine sense into the jade slip to see what gift the little fellow had brought him.
"Dragon-Elephant Blood-Baleful Body."
When Shen Mo's Divine Soul sank into the jade slip, five large, pale-gold characters appeared before his eyes.
The next instant, the five characters turned into countless streams of information and poured into his Consciousness Sea.
After a long while, Shen Mo finally finished absorbing the information. He was rather astonished. "This is actually a body cultivation technique!"
As the name suggested, body cultivation techniques were a kind of cultivation method specifically designed to temper the body and increase physical strength.
Under normal circumstances, these techniques were the rarest and most expensive among immortal arts of the same grade.
For immortal arts of the same Mystic Grade Low-Tier, an offensive technique might cost only seventy or eighty Spirit Stones, while a defensive one was a little more expensive, at around a hundred.
Light Body Immortal Arts were worth even more than those two, usually fetching around a hundred and twenty Spirit Stones.
Last came mental cultivation arts and body-tempering immortal arts.
Based on the market prices Shen Mo had seen in the marketplace, a fairly standard Mystic Grade Low-Tier body cultivation technique usually sold for no less than two hundred Spirit Stones!
"I've struck gold!"
Shen Mo murmured, his heart surging with joy.
The Spirit-Hidden Rat really did have treasures!
Thinking back to how he had lured it with food and gotten it to trade gifts, Shen Mo felt downright brilliant!
"And though I can't tell what grade this body cultivation technique is, it doesn't seem to be Mystic Grade Low-Tier."
Shen Mo immersed himself in the information in the jade slip once more. After carefully studying it, he said to himself, "Absorb the essence of blood baleful energy and condense a true Dragon-Elephant form. This technique is quite extraordinary!"
Shen Mo estimated that this body cultivation technique was at least Mystic Grade Mid-Tier, perhaps even higher!
"Unfortunately, the information in this jade slip isn't complete!"
At that, Shen Mo furrowed his brows, finally feeling a little regretful. "According to the description, this body cultivation technique has three major stages: Elephant Body, Dragon Form, and Blood-Baleful Body."
"But the jade slip only contains the cultivation methods for Elephant Body and Dragon Form. The Blood-Baleful Body doesn't seem to be included!"
Frowning, he looked at the Spirit-Hidden Rat, which was happily eating with grease all over its mouth, and asked tentatively, "This jade slip seems incomplete. Where did you get it? Do you have the rest of the technique?"
"Ee! Ee!"
The Spirit-Hidden Rat paused in its chewing and shook its head, seeming to tell him that this was all it had.
It looked like an incomplete manual.
Shen Mo immediately felt a pang of regret, but soon adjusted his mindset.
He was already lucky enough. If he still wasn't satisfied, he was just being too greedy.
A few jin of grilled meat had gotten him a valuable fragment of a body cultivation technique. What more could he ask for?
Before you continue