First Steps in Artifact Forging [Seeking Follow-up Reads]

The facts proved it... He Sheng's idea was feasible, but the problem was nowhere near that simple.

First, to cultivate the <Myriad Demons Co-Cultivation Spirit Transformation Art>, one first had to choose a high-tier spell and cultivate it to Great Perfection.

Only after that could one cultivate the <Myriad Demons Co-Cultivation Spirit Transformation Art>.

"The Time-Reversing Water Clock can indeed bypass the issue of demonic beast bloodlines, but the problem is that even at the entry level, under its regulation, the time rate is already as high as threefold!"

Simply put, it took three times the usual cultivation time expenditure to sustain the <Myriad Demons Co-Cultivation Spirit Transformation Art>, equivalent to buying a compatible demonic beast bloodline with time.

But this was only the entry level. If he were to delve deeper into it later, what if it required even more time?

Not to mention the time consumed by the spell itself.

Clearly, the <Myriad Demons Co-Cultivation Spirit Transformation Art> required a vast amount of general cultivation time to support its cultivation. He Sheng's current reserves of general cultivation time were naturally far from sufficient.

He Sheng shook his head and could only set it aside for the time being.

"I need to wrap up the matters at hand as soon as possible, find somewhere safe to settle down, and begin the cultivation that follows."

At that thought, He Sheng's gaze fell upon the beast-taming ring. The Treasure-Swallowing Snake, which had previously been blown into a bloody mess by Water-Gathering Break, was currently recuperating inside.

He had originally planned to use the Treasure-Swallowing Snake to find the resources Ji Yunlai had hidden away. However, this second-tier spirit beast was utterly uncooperative and refused to communicate with He Sheng.

On top of that, it was seriously injured, so for the moment, He Sheng truly had no way to deal with the creature.

"Fine, I'll let the Treasure-Swallowing Snake recuperate first and think of something later. The urgent matter is to hurry north to Heaven Capital Mountain and collect the corpses of those great demons. That's another huge haul of resources."

With that in mind, He Sheng picked up Kou Xiang'er and tucked her under his arm. After leaving the underground hollow, he transformed into a streak of watery blue light and plunged into the Silver Sand River, traveling upstream against the current.

Several days later, Within Longevity Pool, He Sheng used the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm to empower his mana, gathering most of the toxins in the pool water together into a grayish-black sphere of water the size of an adult's head.

As a result, the pool water became much clearer, revealing the Thousand-Legged Centipede's corpse lying at the bottom.

Yet He Sheng did not rush to retrieve the corpse. Instead, he stared at the grayish-black water sphere at his side and muttered, "If I mix this centipede demon's toxins into the river water stored in the River Pearl, then use it to cast Water-Gathering Break, apart from Water-Gathering Break's own power, it should also have the force of exploding toxins. That ought to raise Water-Gathering Break's power by a few degrees, shouldn't it?"

He Sheng acted as soon as the thought occurred to him. He immediately took out the River Pearl, wrapped the grayish-black water sphere in mana, and gradually drew it into the artifact.

Only after finishing this did He Sheng descend to the bottom of the pool, preparing to process the Thousand-Legged Centipede's corpse.

Processing a demonic beast corpse was no simple task, especially that of a second-tier great demon like the Thousand-Legged Centipede. Its entire body was treasure, but one needed extremely specialized knowledge to identify the useful parts and employ particular methods to turn them into rare spirit materials.

Otherwise, if one messed about carelessly, a perfectly good great demon corpse might even turn into a pile of useless waste.

"The hardest carapace on this Thousand-Legged Centipede's head has already shattered. Its most valuable remaining parts are those pair of spiked antennae, as well as the hooked jaw-feet containing venom glands.

"If properly handled, these two can rival upper-grade second-tier spirit materials.

"But with even the slightest carelessness, at best they will be contaminated by impurities or lose their vital essence, causing their grade to plummet; at worst, they will become outright waste."

Put simply, whether one possessed the specialized knowledge and techniques for processing spirit materials was the key to whether immense added value could be produced.

One had to know that upper-grade second-tier spirit materials were worth over ten thousand spirit stones at the drop of a hat.

First-tier spirit materials, on the other hand, were worth at most a few hundred spirit stones, while some lower-grade first-tier spirit materials were worth only a few spirit stones.

"Good thing I came prepared!"

He Sheng looked at the water clock in his palm. An additional droplet had appeared in the [Arts] row.

[First-Tier Mid-Grade Artifact Refiner: 829/2000]

(Total cultivation time: four years, one month, sixteen days)

After obtaining the <Heavenly Peak Mountain Artifact Refining Essentials> from Wu Feng and getting started in artifact refining, He Sheng had invested all of his remaining five-odd years of general cultivation time to reach this result.

Artifact refining was the same as formations: the time rate at the lower-grade first-tier stage was 1.2, while at the mid-grade first-tier stage, it was 1.5.

That was precisely why investing more than five years of general time had yielded only a little over four years' worth of actual results.

"To cultivate the Divine Artifact Treasure Vase Forging Method, I need to become a second-tier artifact refiner. I'm still far from that."

However, having raised his artifact refining to this stage, he was now already thoroughly proficient in the spirit material identification and various processing methods recorded in the <Heavenly Peak Mountain Artifact Refining Essentials>.

"For carapace-type spirit materials, use a cold-yin bladed artifact to strip them along the 'growth lines' where the shell joins. Do not damage the 'spirit glands'..."

"For poison-type spirit materials, first use a method such as the 'Spirit-Sealing Technique' to seal the spirit poison within. When extracting the material, do not damage venom glands, venom sacs, or the like. Otherwise, the poisonous vapors will leak out, and the spirit material will be ruined..."

Following the methods he had already "mastered," He Sheng began processing the Thousand-Legged Centipede's corpse, starting with the lower-value portions.

At first, he was somewhat awkward and made mistakes in several places.

But before long, the "mastered" knowledge in his mind melded with his body, and He Sheng rapidly grew proficient.

It took He Sheng an entire day to finish processing the Thousand-Legged Centipede's corpse. The spirit materials processed from just the more-than-ten-foot-long spiked antennae and hooked jaw-feet containing venom glands were worth thirty to forty thousand spirit stones.

That was not even counting the spirit materials of various grades processed from its other parts.

All told, the spirit materials processed from the Thousand-Legged Centipede's entire body were worth no less than fifty thousand spirit stones.

"If they can be forged into magical artifacts, their added value will rise even further!"

He Sheng was somewhat hesitant over this as well. The spirit materials currently in his hands were already worth more than a hundred thousand spirit stones. If he also obtained the corpses of the Black Jade Blood Python and the Golden-Maned Giant Lion, the quantity of high-grade spirit materials that could be processed from them would surely increase dramatically.

"Forging so many spirit materials into a batch of high-grade or even top-grade magical artifacts would also greatly benefit my artifact-forging skill."

The Divine Artifact Treasure Vase Forging Method placed extremely high demands on artifact forging. Second-rank low-grade was merely the entry level; as his cultivation continued to deepen, his rank as an artifact forger would naturally need to rise as well.

Not to mention that to forge the prototype of a magic treasure, one needed to be at least a second-rank high-grade artifact forger—preferably having reached third-rank low-grade.

"[Arts] inherently devour time. At the first-rank high-grade stage, the time rate already reaches 2. One can imagine that the higher one goes, the greater the time rate becomes.

Cultivating with ordinary time simply won't work.

On the other hand, once one reaches a certain stage, using vast quantities of spirit materials to raise proficiency is a cultivation method with a far better time-to-benefit ratio."

With the Time-Reversing Water Clock in hand, He Sheng knew full well that his cultivation would be completely different from that of ordinary cultivators.

The lower the time rate, the less worthwhile it was to cultivate—for example, [Techniques].

Things such as the Clear Ripple Water Control Art and the Soul Imprint Art were best directly fed with ordinary cultivation time.

Conversely, for things with high time rates, such as high-level immortal arts, provided he had sufficient resources to support them, that was the cultivation method with the highest time-to-benefit ratio.

Next came breathing exercises and qi refinement with a time rate of 2.

As He Sheng pondered the main direction of his future real-world cultivation, a voice sounded beside his ear:

"Immortal Master, you're here already?"

It was the Green Snake. Though it had set off first, its escape speed was far inferior to He Sheng's, so it had actually arrived two days later.

He Sheng came back to his senses and looked at the Green Snake, smiling broadly.

"Perfect timing. Quickly lead me to Black Vine Ridge. The corpses of those two great demons must not be snatched away by some other demon or person."

As he spoke, He Sheng had the Green Snake lead the way, and they headed straight for Black Vine Ridge.