In just three years, True Person Huang Long had fully comprehended the refining legacy for spiritual artifacts, from low-grade to supreme-grade!
"Looking isn't enough. I have to try it myself!"
True Person Huang Long's eyes snapped open, and golden light flashed in them.
With a wave of his hand, several pieces of red copper flew out of the pile of spiritual materials in his cave. They had come from the red copper ore mother he had obtained in his trade with Senior Sister Jin Ling. After he placed it beside the metal-attributed Innate Spiritual Vein in his Grotto-Heaven, several hundred years of growth had produced a small vein of innate red copper.
Since True Person Huang Long had decided to refine artifacts, he needed these innate ores. He had dug out several hundred pieces to practice with.
The pieces of red copper floated before him. A wisp of true fire wrapped around one fist-sized piece and began to smelt it. Traces of black impurities drifted up from the flames, and within a few hours, the innate red copper had become a pool of red-and-gold liquid.
He smelted the other spiritual ores next. Globes of liquid refined from various ores floated before him. Then came shaping, engraving spiritual patterns, and finally awakening the artifact's spirit—all in one smooth sequence!
Looking at the low-grade spiritual artifact floating before him, True Person Huang Long thought artifact refining was nothing special. Anyone with hands could do it!
Low-grade, mid-grade, high-grade—he successfully refined one spiritual artifact after another and tossed them aside.
Everything went smoothly. His only minor setback came while refining supreme-grade spiritual artifacts: he failed to balance how the spiritual patterns reinforced and counteracted one another in his first few attempts, forcing him to open several new temporary caves.
But that was no great problem. After moving to his sixth cave, True Person Huang Long successfully refined his first supreme-grade spiritual artifact. With that experience behind him, he worked like a finely tuned machine, producing one supreme-grade spiritual artifact after another.
True Person Huang Long wore more than a dozen supreme-grade spiritual artifacts, their Spirit Light shimmering around him. He looked extravagantly imposing.
He was thoroughly pleased with his new set of supreme-grade spiritual artifacts.
"If only I had a full set of Spirit Treasures. Even acquired ones would be enough to make anyone yearn for them!"
After drinking a cup of Dao Enlightenment Tea, True Person Huang Long began studying the legacy for refining acquired Spirit Treasures...
One cup... two cups... three cups...!
When he reached for more Dao Enlightenment Tea, his hand closed on empty air. The jade box that held the leaves was already bare. Several empty boxes lay scattered on the ground around him. Only then did True Person Huang Long realize he had drunk all his Dao Enlightenment Tea.
"That makes no sense... Didn't I learn to refine spiritual artifacts in no time?"
"An acquired Spirit Treasure just has one extra word in its name...! How can it be this hard...?"
At that moment, True Person Huang Long began to wonder whether he was even a transmigrator, or if he was still that good-for-nothing True Person Huang Long.
Otherwise, how could he fail to comprehend even the legacy for refining a low-grade acquired Spirit Treasure, let alone actually make one?
Apart from the slow progress during the hundred thousand years or so he had spent cultivating on the island, he had broken through all the way to the Late Golden Immortal Stage in just a few thousand years. He had even developed the Sweet Dew Technique Green Dragon had taught him into a divine ability.
"That's how things are supposed to go!"
True Person Huang Long looked at the mysterious images etched into his mind by the legacy. Their obscure mysteries seemed like gaping mouths, mocking him for overestimating himself.
"Calm down, calm down...!"
"The Great Dao has no form, yet it gives birth to heaven and earth. The Great Dao has no feeling, yet it moves the sun and moon. The Great Dao has no name, yet it nourishes all things...!"
A passage from the Scripture of Clarity and Stillness, which he had memorized in his previous life, surfaced in True Person Huang Long's mind.
As he silently recited it, he looked back over everything he had experienced: transmigration, becoming a dragon, the Dragon Court, Penglai Immortal Island... Every moment returned to him, bit by bit!
As his restless Dao Heart gradually grew calm, the two drops of Creation Origin he had nearly forgotten began to emit a faint Spirit Light that rippled through his heart.
"Creation Origin strengthens my innate origin and can nurture the Pure World White Lotus. It seems it also played a part when the Sweet Dew Technique developed into a divine ability!"
True Person Huang Long placed a freshly picked tea leaf in his mouth and resumed studying the profound art of refining Spirit Treasures. This time, a drop of Creation Origin hovered above his Primordial Spirit, shedding tiny, almost invisible motes of light onto it.
The refining legacy, which had refused to yield anything to him before, now seemed to shed a thick veil and reveal every truth of Spirit Treasure refining.
The once-impenetrable legacy was now as simple to True Person Huang Long as arithmetic for a young child. Not a trace of difficulty remained!
But after he fully grasped the materials, shaping methods, and most important of all, the innate spiritual restrictions needed to refine a low-grade acquired Spirit Treasure, the legacy abruptly leaped from basic addition to advanced mathematics. True Person Huang Long had no choice but to stop.
The drop of Creation Origin that had hovered above his Primordial Spirit was gone!
"Having a cheat really is the best. Once a dragon gets a taste of that, he can't stop!"
True Person Huang Long looked at the last drop of Creation Origin remaining in his body and suppressed the urge to use it.
He would first see whether he could actually refine a low-grade acquired Spirit Treasure. Then he would decide where that final drop would do the most good.
Inside a supreme-grade spiritual artifact cauldron, a pagoda-shaped Spirit Treasure embryo forged from several kinds of top-tier divine iron spun without pause. The methods for refining a low-grade acquired Spirit Treasure flashed through True Person Huang Long's mind, followed by innate spiritual restrictions imbued with the laws of heaven and earth.
Metal was sturdy and sharp; wood brought endless renewal; water was supple yet could pierce stone; fire raged fiercely enough to burn heaven and earth; earth bore the weight of all things...!
True Person Huang Long raised his hands. His ten fingers moved so fast they blurred, forming thousands of hand seals that he sent into the pagoda embryo. Innate spiritual patterns slowly appeared within it!
"Metal spirit restriction, engrave!"
Hum—!
Countless fine golden lines spread and connected inside the pagoda like living things, forming an innate spiritual restriction of unmatched sharpness!
True Person Huang Long's expression turned grave. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, only to evaporate at once in the heat. Spiritual energy from throughout the Grotto-Heaven surged toward him.
Once his Magic Power recovered, he formed more hand seals. Dark blue light poured from his fingertips and fell upon the pagoda in drops.
"Water spirit restriction, condense!"
Hiss—!
A supple, dark blue water-attributed spiritual restriction struggled to manifest amid the clashing energies. The metal-attributed spiritual restriction, which had formed first, extended a pattern that merged with the newborn water restriction. With its help, the water restriction swiftly took shape.
True Person Huang Long paused again, drawing in Innate Spiritual Energy to restore his Magic Power.
"Wood spirit restriction, grow!" Streams of emerald light poured from True Person Huang Long's fingertips and fell upon the pagoda like spring rain.
As the green light sank in, the pagoda burst with vitality! A wood spirit restriction brimming with life formed even faster.
"Fire spirit restriction, form!"
Boom—!
A leaping crimson fire-attributed spiritual restriction appeared forcefully within the pagoda's core.
"Earth spirit restriction, anchor!"
A dense, weighty ocher spiritual restriction slowly took shape and began connecting with the other four.