The Stacked Refining Method, Comparable to Cheating [Seeking Follow-ups]

He Sheng was giving a foot-long flying sword its final shaping.

A little over half a day later, He Sheng withdrew the last wisp of spiritual power from his fingertips. The flying sword suspended above the spirit spring gave a clear cry, drew in all its radiance, and fell into his palm.

The sword was merely a foot long, yet its entire body was as cold and limpid as autumn water. A crescent arc like a frigid moon faintly flowed along its ridge. It was precisely the high-grade artifact recorded in the <Heavenly Peak Mountain Artifact Refining Essentials>, the Cold Moon Arc Light Sword.

"It's done."

He Sheng murmured to himself.

Over the past three months, through continuous hands-on practice, he had swiftly mastered the methods of artifact refinement and had become a bona fide first-rank high-grade artifact refiner.

Middle-grade artifacts went without saying; even high-grade artifacts were easy as turning his hand.

Moreover, his divine sense was powerful, and he had the support of the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm, making the possibility of failure when inscribing restriction patterns exceedingly low.

That was precisely why he had begun attempting the Cold Moon Arc Light Sword, one of the more difficult high-grade artifacts to refine.

"The 'arc light' restriction pattern set contained within this sword is quite complex. Even its spirit restriction structure draws upon one or two spatial restrictions. The <Heavenly Peak Mountain Artifact Refining Essentials> calls this artifact the preferred preliminary exercise for practicing spatial restrictions."

Satisfaction flashed through He Sheng's eyes. He then stored the Cold Moon Arc Light Sword in a sword case beside him and turned to look at the other two spirit springs at his side.

Within those two spirit springs, the spring water moved without wind, each nurturing an as-yet-unshaped flying sword embryo.

The essence within the springs was swallowed by the sword embryos like young swallows returning to their nests. Their surfaces likewise bloomed with a faint, clear radiance like a cold moon. They were precisely unshaped Cold Moon Arc Light Swords.

Over the past three months, He Sheng had done more than merely integrate his artifact-refining memories. Based on the characteristics of water refinement, he had also tailored this Stacked Refining Method for himself.

Simply put, he first divided the water-refining process into four standard stages:

① Main material purification

② Restriction pattern inscription

③ Spirituality nurturing

④ Fusion refining and shaping

The main material for the Cold Moon Arc Light Sword was a first-rank high-grade spirit material—Cold Moon Stone. Completing the first purification step required roughly fifteen days.

When the first piece of Cold Moon Stone had been purified for six days, He Sheng would place the second piece into another spirit spring to begin purification;

Then, when the first piece of Cold Moon Stone had been purified for eleven days, he would place the third piece into the third spirit spring to begin purification.

As for the second stage, restriction pattern inscription, because He Sheng had already fully absorbed the artifact-refining skills of a first-rank high-grade artifact refiner through the Water Clock, it instead required only four days.

This way, after the first piece of Cold Moon Stone had its restrictions inscribed, he could rest for a day. Once his divine sense had recovered to near its peak, he could seamlessly continue with the restriction inscription for the second piece of Cold Moon Stone.

After completing the restriction inscription for the second piece of Cold Moon Stone, he could still rest for a day before seamlessly continuing with the restriction inscription for the third piece.

The later stages naturally became even easier.

After all, the third step, nurturing spirituality, simply involved soaking it in the spirit spring and injecting spirit formulas into it each morning and evening. This step required around twenty days.

The remaining fusion refining and shaping required only one day to complete.

"The standard refinement time for one Cold Moon Arc Light Sword is forty days. Since I'm refining three of these flying swords at once, an additional three days are needed to prepare the auxiliary materials.

"So, counting from the preparation of the auxiliary materials to the completion of the third Cold Moon Arc Light Sword, the entire refining cycle lasts fifty-three days.

"During this cycle, not only can I complete three Cold Moon Arc Light Swords, but I'll also have quite a large amount of time to cultivate the Clear Billows Water Origin Art.

"With this Stacked Refining Method, my cultivation efficiency ought to rise dramatically once more."

Ten days later, After the third Cold Moon Arc Light Sword was completed, He Sheng carefully checked the information on the water droplet and could not help drawing in a sharp breath.

"This Stacked Refining Method is practically cheating!"

First of all, completing the refinement of one Cold Moon Arc Light Sword granted 50 proficiency points.

Over the fifty-three-day cycle, He Sheng successfully refined three Cold Moon Arc Light Swords, increasing his artifact-refining skill by a total of 150 proficiency points.

Most crucially, the total practice duration for artifact refinement had increased by a full one hundred and seventeen days!

One had to know that at the first-rank high-grade artifact-refining stage, the time rate was originally 2, meaning the exchange ratio between artifact-refining practice time and general cultivation time was 1:2.

Now, fifty-three days of cultivation in the real world had yielded one hundred and seventeen days of skill practice time. In this aspect alone, the time rate had reached a terrifying 4.4!

Furthermore, over these fifty-three days, He Sheng's Clear Billows Water Origin Art had gained another twenty-five days, adding a time rate of 0.9.

On top of that was the automated cultivation time from the Flesh Rebirth Art, with a time rate of 1.

Taken together, under the operation of the Stacked Refining Method, He Sheng's cultivation efficiency had reached an extraordinarily terrifying time rate of 6.3!

That was equivalent to 6.3 times the cultivation efficiency of other cultivators at the same rank—and that was still a conservative estimate.

After all, for He Sheng, who possessed the Time-Reversing Water Clock, every bit of his cultivation time could be allocated to the proper cultivation project.

Even ascetic cultivators found it difficult to ensure that they cultivated without interruption through all twelve double-hours of every day.

More terrifying still, threefold layered refining was not yet the limit of the water-refining path.

However, He Sheng had no plans to make further changes in the short term. After all, he still needed time to comprehend the gains from his cultivation, develop his own methods, and so on.

"With this layered refining method, as long as I have sufficient materials, I can maintain this level of efficient cultivation indefinitely.

Sure enough, the proper use of the Time-Reversing Water Clock is to trade materials for time.

And the path of [Art] consumes the most materials. Once my artifact-refining skill advances to the second tier, the time rate will rise even further, and when that happens, my cultivation efficiency can improve further as well!"

Smiling broadly, He Sheng put away the three refined Cold Moon Arc Light Swords.

"Next, I'll rest for two days and first reflect on what I gained from this round of layered refining, to see whether there is anything that needs improvement;

then I'll find some time to deal with the miscellaneous affairs in the water palace..."

He Sheng did not immediately begin another round of layered refining. Consecutive artifact refining took quite a toll on one's mental strength.

"Little Green."

He Sheng summoned the Green Snake and asked whether anything had happened in the water palace during this time.

"Rest assured, Immortal Master. Greenie and my sister have kept careful watch over the entrance these past days. There has been no movement around the pool, except..."

The Green Snake hesitated before continuing.

"That treasure-light giant python inside the water cage has been rather restless. Every now and then, it makes some commotion."

The treasure-light giant python the Green Snake spoke of was naturally the Treasure-Swallowing Snake. The fellow was a diehard holdout and had always refused to communicate with He Sheng.

He Sheng was in no hurry. For the time being, he had locked it inside the Starlight Water Cage within the water palace.

And considering that they were both snakes and should be easier to communicate with, he had the Green and White Snakes negotiate with it from time to time.

Making commotion?

Rather than getting angry, He Sheng was delighted to hear it.

"Making commotion is good.

If it's making commotion, that means it isn't content with the status quo and is about to start stirring things up. You and White Snake should go negotiate and communicate with it more often from now on, and see what exactly it is thinking."

The Green Snake repeatedly nodded and agreed.

After praising the Green Snake a few times and rewarding her with several spirit stones, He Sheng dismissed her.

Then, as if recalling something, he took out a spirit stone and placed it against his chest and abdomen. The Bright Wisdom Water Ape was hiding in his robes, staring dumbly and motionlessly at the spirit spring.

He Sheng had originally intended to tease it a little with the spirit stone. Judging from the Green and White Snakes, there was no demonic beast that did not like spirit stones. Yet this little fellow remained as vacant and foolish-looking as ever, utterly unmoved by the spirit stone.

"Could this little fellow be mentally disabled?"