First Attempt at Artifact Refining

After finishing the Pool, Old Ancestor Styx changed the soil around the two treasure trees and watered them. As a result, the two trees grew even faster!

With everything done, Old Ancestor Styx sat cross-legged atop the Twelve-grade Karmic Fire Red Lotus and reflected carefully. After this period of leisure and relaxation, his state of mind had improved somewhat, but his cultivation was still bound by the Heaven and Earth Shackles and could not advance!

Old Ancestor Styx did not force the matter. After all, there was no point in rushing to break through in cultivation. Besides, even if he forced a breakthrough, it would be bad if he incurred the Great Dao's punishment.

After all, although the Great Dao was impartial, while everyone else was asleep, he alone was awake. Though this did not fit the Great Dao's plan, existence itself was reasonable, so the Great Dao would not interfere too much. But if he did not know his place and insisted on provoking the Great Dao, then the Great Dao would not indulge him...

At present, cultivation could not progress, and his realm had already far surpassed his cultivation. There was no need to continue comprehending anything. What should he study next?

Old Ancestor Styx looked at the Formation Space before him, at the spiritual materials scattered everywhere, and suddenly his eyes lit up. Tsk! How could one cultivate immortality without studying the hundred arts, especially the Alchemy Dao and Artifact Dao?

Wouldn't that be a waste of all these resources? As soon as he thought of it, he acted. Old Ancestor Styx closed his eyes again and began extracting all the knowledge in his mind regarding the Alchemy Dao and Artifact Dao, focusing on the incomplete inheritances of the two Chaos Demon Gods of alchemy and artifacts!

After several Eons of extracting, organizing, and adding his own insights, Old Ancestor Styx finally began his first attempt at artifact refining. After all, if he wanted to refine pills, he first needed an Alchemy Furnace!

Old Ancestor Styx took out the spiritual materials he had collected, selected a few, drew forth a wisp of Red Lotus Karmic Fire, and began refining. He wanted to first create an Alchemy Furnace so that he could later try refining pills!

In the end, Old Ancestor Styx's first attempt at artifact refining failed at the very first step. The Red Lotus Karmic Fire was too hot, causing the materials to melt too quickly and several materials to mix together!

Styx was not discouraged. Sitting cross-legged, he thought carefully, studied the Red Lotus Karmic Fire again, and eagerly began his second attempt at artifact refining. This time, there was no problem with the flames.

However, when it came to fusing the Alchemy Furnace and inscribing restrictions, he suffered a heavy blow. Either the restrictions were improperly matched, causing the refinement to fail... or the materials were incompatible... or the timing was off, resulting in failure...

Styx sat cross-legged and reflected, realizing that he had set the wrong goal from the start. He had not even learned artifact refining yet, but he had wanted to refine such a complex Alchemy Furnace. No wonder he kept failing!

Thus, Old Ancestor Styx organized the artifact-refining inheritance once more and carefully studied his failures. Finding a stone platform, he began hammering metal like a blacksmith from later generations.

First, he hammered the spiritual materials into the shapes he wanted, then repeatedly hammered out the impurities to create blanks. Once he became proficient in this process, he slowly began inscribing restrictions into those blanks...

Once he could skillfully combine materials and easily inscribe restrictions to achieve the best results,

the area around the stone platform was already piled with all kinds of strange Immortal Tools. In the Great Wilderness, Immortal Tools were no different from trash. Spiritual materials were everywhere, and carrying an Immortal Tool, one could forget about breaking an Innate Demon God's defense—even making a pit in the ground would be difficult.

But Styx was not discouraged. After all, his cultivation was only at the Heavenly Immortal realm, and he was using the most inferior spiritual materials. As long as he could refine them successfully, there would be room for improvement later.

Among these Immortal Tools, the best refined were a hammer and a Casting Platform. Both were for later artifact-refining research. Before he obtained a suitable artifact-refining furnace, Old Ancestor Styx could only rely on this Casting Platform and Casting Hammer for shaping. Therefore, these two Immortal Tools used better materials and could withstand the burning of Red Lotus Karmic Fire! Because of their exceptional materials, they had nearly reached the quality of Acquired Spiritual Treasures! They counted as Supreme-grade Magic Treasures!

Through this period of forging, Old Ancestor Styx unexpectedly comprehended a trace of the Acquired Great Dao's Dao of Forging. This supplemented a trace of the foundation of the Artifact Dao. Although he had not received a reward of Great Dao Merit, Old Ancestor Styx could sense that the Great Dao had become somewhat more tolerant of him. After all, perfecting the Acquired Great Dao was also perfecting the Great Dao's foundation...

P.S. Below Spiritual Treasures were Magic Treasures, Magic Tools, and Immortal Tools. Immortal Tools were considered low-grade in the Great Wilderness, since any Living Being that was born was at least an Earth Immortal.