He Sheng sat cross-legged beside the spirit spring. Spread before him was a sheet of golden paper bearing an artifact-refining diagram drawn in mana.
It was the refinement diagram for the Clear Water Spirit Pearl, a mid-grade magical artifact he had copied from the Heavenly Peak Mountain Artifact Refining Essentials.
"A support-type mid-grade magical artifact. It can calm the mind and draw one into focus, warding off external evils. The refinement process is clear and simple, and the restriction patterns involved are not complicated either. It is perfect for me to practice with."
In the path of artifact refining, the foremost importance lay in understanding material properties. Every master artifact refiner possessed a profound grasp of such properties and could combine spiritual materials on their own to refine artifacts.
As a beginner, He Sheng naturally chose the easier route of following a diagram and refining according to the artifact-refining blueprint.
Yet before beginning, he still carefully pondered the material composition of the Clear Water Spirit Pearl.
"The main material of this Clear Water Spirit Pearl is the Jiaotu Spirit Pearl, chosen for its nature of being still as water and able to embrace a hundred rivers.
"As for the auxiliary materials, they are mostly spiritual materials combining the natures of water, earth, and wood, used to stabilize the structure and nourish its spirituality."
After some consideration, He Sheng did not choose those complicated combinations of auxiliary materials. Instead, following the most basic plan in the diagram, he selected the three easiest materials to obtain: bone glue, jade paste, and Water-Congealing Essence.
He first prepared the three auxiliary materials. Once they were ready, he took out the walnut-sized Jiaotu Spirit Pearl, its surface covered in natural water patterns.
"Rise!"
He Sheng cast the Jiaotu Spirit Pearl into the spirit spring, then formed a spiritual hand seal. Ripples immediately spread across the spring's surface.
The spirit pearl rotated steadily in the water, while impurities gradually separated out along with the ripples spreading outward.
This was the first step of water refining: using water's purity and applying specialized spiritual hand seals to remove impurities and achieve purification.
Yet this first step alone would take more than ten days.
This was also why water refining had always drawn criticism. Its efficiency was simply too low. After all, in the same ten-odd days, a fire-refining practitioner might already have produced a complete mid-grade magical artifact.
"Still, water refining does not occupy much of my time.
"During the 'purification' phase, I only need to send in a spiritual hand seal once each morning, noon, and evening. Altogether, that takes less than an hour.
"The rest of the time, I can do other things entirely."
In other words, the process of artifact refining could be completely layered together with other cultivation!
He Sheng's heart stirred. He immediately began circulating the Clear Billows Water Origin Art. With the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm empowering his cultivation, he completed several Greater Celestial Circuits before it was time to send in another spiritual hand seal.
"If I refine with water while breathing and cultivating Qi at the same time, wouldn't that mean I'm cultivating at a Time Rate close to four?!"
He Sheng was greatly invigorated. He had never expected water refining to hold such an advantage. It was practically cheating.
"Still, I need to see the final cultivation results before I can determine whether it is truly as I expect."
More than ten days later,
The Jiaotu Spirit Pearl in the spirit spring had been completely transformed. Its formerly dull gray surface now shone brilliantly, like a pearl from the deep sea, all impurities gone.
"The first step is done."
He Sheng opened his eyes, a sharp gleam flashing through them. He then took out the bone glue and jade paste, preparing for the next step: engraving the restriction patterns.
The path of restriction patterns was vast and profound, divided into four major categories: spiritual restrictions, blood restrictions, spatial restrictions, and secret restrictions.
Ordinary artifact refining mostly used only spiritual restrictions.
The restriction patterns covered in the Heavenly Peak Mountain Artifact Refining Essentials were also mostly spiritual restrictions.
Only when refining a Nascent Dharma Treasure did it involve a small number of blood restrictions and one spatial restriction.
As for secret restrictions, they were mentioned only in passing, with no further information.
"I cannot cut corners on engraving the restriction patterns."
Engraving restriction patterns placed extremely high demands on spiritual sense, because the entire artifact's restriction patterns had to be completed in one continuous breath—a feat known as "one breath reaching the divine"!
It was said that only in this way could the restriction patterns take effect and allow the magical artifact to refine its own spirituality.
Therefore, even though the Clear Water Spirit Pearl was merely a mid-grade magical artifact with only twelve overlapping spiritual restriction structures, He Sheng focused with every ounce of his concentration.
After all, the slightest error during the engraving process would render the magical artifact useless.
"Let's begin."
He Sheng took a deep breath. His Foundation Establishment Late Stage spiritual sense surged out like a tide, instantly enveloping the floating Jiaotu Spirit Pearl.
Yet he did not immediately begin engraving the restriction patterns. Instead, he visualized the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm and layered it over his spiritual sense.
Buzz...
His spiritual sense immediately became incomparably delicate, as if it had transformed into countless pairs of eyes that revealed every inch of texture on the Jiaotu Spirit Pearl with perfect clarity.
Immediately afterward,
Using his spiritual sense as a blade, He Sheng reproduced the restriction pattern structures from the artifact-refining diagram at a one-to-one ratio, overlooking not even the finest details.
This undoubtedly caused his spiritual sense expenditure to rise sharply, but for He Sheng's first attempt, it ensured the success rate.
Five days later, when the final stroke of the restriction pattern was completed, He Sheng felt that nearly half his spiritual sense had been consumed.
After all, over the past five days, he had not only needed to continuously engrave the restriction patterns with his spiritual sense, but also had to add bone glue and jade paste from time to time to stabilize the restriction pattern structure. The expenditure had truly been considerable.
"But at least it is complete, and it looks like it turned out well."
He Sheng felt rather satisfied.
"The next step becomes easy again."
He placed the spirit pearl with its engraved restriction patterns back into the spirit spring. With the aid of special spiritual hand seals, he began nurturing and refining its spirituality.
This step took at least half a month and possibly one or two months. The exact time required depended entirely on the artifact refiner's skill in engraving restriction patterns.
If the restriction pattern structure had high compatibility and excellent completion, spirituality would be nurtured quickly;
Conversely, it would take much longer.
Though this was He Sheng's first attempt, with the aid of the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm, his restriction pattern engraving had been quite good.
In less than twenty days, the spirit pearl began trembling faintly in the water, as though it had gained a breath of its own.
During this time, he still sent in spiritual hand seals every morning and evening, while spending all his remaining time cultivating the Clear Billows Water Origin Art.
"Though water refining has cumbersome procedures and rather low efficiency, it leaves plenty of free time in between.
"As long as the final calculated cultivation time reaches expectations, that would truly feel fantastic."
Once the spirit pearl had nurtured spirituality, this artifact refinement reached its final step—
Combined refining and form casting!
This step required a continuous input of mana, using the force of flowing water to shape the artifact while adding the final auxiliary material, Water-Congealing Essence, to help it set.
"Since I am borrowing the force of flowing water to shape it, why not use the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm again?"
A flash of inspiration struck He Sheng. He used the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm to empower his mana, only to find that it gave him the strange sensation of running Water-Gathering Break in reverse.
Countless tiny droplets formed within the spirit spring, striking the artifact body in an unbroken stream and rapidly shaping it according to his will.
The shaping process, which originally required three to five days, was completed in a single day under this highly precise water-force polishing.
A dragon-eye-sized spirit pearl, azure throughout and seemingly containing flowing ripples of water within, quietly floated above He Sheng's palm.
"It's done!"
He Sheng looked at the finished product in his hand, greatly satisfied.
He calculated the time again. This round of artifact refining had taken a total of thirty-six days.
One had to know that this was only a mid-grade magical artifact. If it had been a fire-refining artifact refiner such as Wu Feng, ten-odd days would have been enough to refine one.
"Water refining truly is slow work, but its strength lies in being able to refine artifacts and cultivate at the same time. I wonder what the combined Time Rate can reach."
With that thought, He Sheng looked expectantly at the water clock in his palm.
After thirty-seven days, the water droplet representing the Clear Billows Water Origin Art showed that his cultivation time had increased by twenty-nine days.
"Judging solely by the cultivation progress of the Clear Billows Water Origin Art, the Time Rate reached around 1.6. It is actually the artifact refining increase that fell short of expectations."
[First-rank high-grade Artifact Refiner: 31/3000] (Total cultivation time: six years, ten months, five days)
His Artifact Refiner proficiency had risen by 30 points, while his total cultivation time had increased by only twenty-three days.
"Calculated using twenty-three days, the Time Rate is only around 1.2.
"Then the overall cultivation efficiency of these past thirty-seven days was only a Time Rate of 2.8."
Although the cultivation efficiency fell short of expectations, it still surpassed simply cultivating the Clear Billows Water Origin Art alone.
"And the reason artifact refining's Time Rate is relatively low should chiefly be because the refined magical artifact was only mid-grade."
He Sheng discovered that artifact-refining proficiency was not granted according to the passage of time, but was awarded all at once at the instant an artifact was completed.
Its settlement method differed from [Dharma] and [Arts].
"Once my artifact-refining techniques become more proficient, I will naturally raise the level of my refining and begin attempting high-grade magical artifacts.
"Beyond that, the potential of water refining should not end here..."
A flash of inspiration passed through He Sheng's mind, and another new idea arose.
Before you continue