Sacrificial Refinement

"Run! This artifact is beyond our power to subdue!"

Xu Yan shouted sharply.

The two tried to activate the Great Teleportation Token as they flew back along the way they had come.

Gusts of sinister wind rose behind them. Shrill ghostly laughter made their skin crawl. The Great Banner stirred up billowing magical power and swept after them, crossing a hundred feet in an instant.

At the gateway, Xu Yan immediately activated the Edict Script and forced it open.

Without a word, the two stepped outside.

Nearly everyone from Nine Star Kui Island was outside. Murong Yan and Tuoba Yao held an ancient Mystic Gate book, brows knitted as they worked through the array disk's patterns.

Another forty or fifty cultivators were there as well.

Hearing the commotion, they whipped around.

"Xu Yan!"

Murong Yan's gaze darkened, and the disciples moved to attack. Then they saw immense black mist pour from the gateway behind Xu Yan and Qin Yiren. A bone-chilling aura spread like a tide, sending shivers through them.

"There's no time. Jump from here!"

Xu Yan spoke.

The Great Banner followed close behind. Its immense magical power made the surrounding space tremble. Xu Yan dared not stop for even a moment, much less turn back to shut the door.

The Six-Story Pavilion was open on all sides.

By now, the Sky Boat had likely flown more than thirty thousand feet into the heavens. Above the night sky, the stars looked enormous, as though they were close enough to pluck with an outstretched hand.

"What the hell is that?"

"Is that... a Spirit-Born Artifact?"

"How many years of Dao Attainment does it have? How can its power be so overwhelming?"

The Great Banner had already emerged. It raised towering ripples of magical power, swept away the clouds like a gale, and shook everything around it.

The onlookers stared, their eyes trembling in shock.

The Spirit-Born Artifact bore them no goodwill. With a flick of its banner, it swept up the nearest disciple in a surge of magical power. Before everyone's horrified eyes, his Dao Body began to be devoured at a visible rate!

His agonized screams rang out on all sides. In the blink of an eye, he was nothing but bones.

"Damn it! Run!"

The crowd snapped out of their stupor and scattered in all directions, as frantic as ants on a hot pan.

Meanwhile, Xu Yan and Qin Yiren had reached the edge of the Six-Story Pavilion.

Below them, the sea of clouds shimmered with waves beneath the starlight. They could faintly make out the tips of distant peaks.

Cultivators were already dropping over the edge like dumplings into a pot. Most took flight on their artifacts and fled blindly into the distance!

Xu Yan gripped the Great Teleportation Token tight. He could feel his spiritual sense and magical power pouring into it.

"Fellow Daoist Qin, I'll see you in the latter reaches of the Immortal Treasury."

"Take care, Brother Xu."

Qin Yiren's beautiful eyes flickered, and a faint smile touched her cool face.

Her silver Daoist robe snapped in the wind as the patterns of the Teleportation Array appeared around her.

The two leaped.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Wind roared at them from every direction, carrying billowing clouds.

Around Xu Yan, array patterns slowly emerged and spread like a spiderweb across all thirty-six directions. The fierce wind rushed past his ears.

Xu Yan looked toward the Nine-Story Pavilion. The snow-white Great Banner was on a killing spree, its terrifying magical power sweeping everywhere while eerie ghostly howls shook heaven and earth!

Beside him, Qin Yiren had vanished.

The landscape blurred rapidly in every direction. Xu Yan felt himself hurtling east, as though miles had shrunk beneath his feet.

The Great Teleportation Token in his palm gave off a faint glow.

Roughly the time it took an incense stick to burn later, Xu Yan dropped from midair.

He felt as though his whole body had come apart. More than half his spiritual sense was gone, his head swam, and the magical power within his Dao Body had run dry.

As soon as he landed, Xu Yan took out a Primal Qi Pill and sat down to restore his strength.

At the same time, he sent out his spiritual sense, alert to his surroundings.

It was deep night. The mountains loomed in the darkness like hideous monsters. Strange roars sounded now and then from their depths—the roars of ghosts.

After sitting for half an hour, Xu Yan had recovered his Dao Attainment. He immediately summoned the Green Pattern Dharma Sword and rose, scanning the area warily.

Even three thousand miles isn't enough to reach the latter half of the Immortal Treasury.

Xu Yan glanced at the Great Teleportation Token in his palm.

He had used it once, and its luster had dimmed. It was replenishing its power on its own, but would likely need most of half a day.

Xu Yan considered his next move.

He was not as far along as the leading group of disciples, but he had already left eighty or ninety percent of the Daoists behind.

First, find somewhere secluded and refine the Wenjin Shuttle.

Xu Yan held the Green Pattern Dharma Sword as he flew into the mountains.

Two hours later, eight hundred miles away, Xu Yan used the Miaoyuan Edict Script to find a quiet little valley. At this stage, it was not the other competing disciples he had to worry about, but the creatures inside the Immortal Treasury.

Sure enough, the moment he entered the valley, rustling reached his ears.

The valley held a stretch of ruins, seemingly the remains of some Daoist lineage.

Ghosts roamed among them in dense numbers.

None had physical bodies. Formed from the energies of heaven and earth and the murderous resentment of the dead, they were the most common kind: Wandering Baleful Ghosts.

More than a hundred drifted about, wailing and howling.

Xu Yan flicked a finger. The Green Pattern Dharma Sword split into sixteen blades, each bearing fierce Primordial Mystic Qi, and tore through the air toward them!

About half an hour later, every ghost there had been destroyed.

With the Green Pattern Dharma Sword, Xu Yan cleared a place for himself among the ruins. He then took out an array disk, set up a Spirit Protection Array, and sat down to still his mind.

Xu Yan took the Wenjin Shuttle from his Qiankun Bag.

The shuttle was smaller than his palm, yet remarkably heavy. Without refining it, he could not control it at all!

Forged from Five Elements Geng Metal, it was exceptionally sharp, able to pierce anything. The Wenjin Shuttle trembled slightly in Xu Yan's palm.

As a Spirit-Born Embryo Artifact, it had naturally not yet developed full intelligence like the black Great Banner.

The Wenjin Shuttle felt cold and razor-sharp in his hand, as though it might slice straight through his skin.

"A Spirit-Born Embryo Artifact is no ordinary magical artifact. It must be refined with blood essence."

That was little different from refining a bonded treasure. Their minds would be linked; if the artifact were destroyed, the spiritual sense of the person who had refined it with blood essence would be injured as well.

Xu Yan took a deep breath, forced a drop of blood essence from his fingertip, and let it fall onto the Wenjin Shuttle!

The shuttle absorbed it in an instant.

At once, Xu Yan felt his mind sink into the Wenjin Shuttle. Within lay a gilded world, where Edict Script filled the sky, wheeling like sharp swords that sliced through the air with a hum.

Primordial Mystic Qi surged forth. Xu Yan brought his palms together, enclosing the Wenjin Shuttle between them.

The best time to refine a Spirit-Born Artifact was undoubtedly while it was still an embryo. Even if Pulse Opening Daoists like Xu Yan had obtained that white Great Banner, they could not have refined it unless its artifact spirit cooperated fully and offered no resistance.

At the same time, Xu Yan's spiritual sense entered the Wenjin Shuttle without difficulty.

Inside seemed to be an elusive halo, visible but impossible to touch. Xu Yan knew it was the Reflected Image of the artifact spirit's nascent intelligence. At a thought, he slowly extended his spiritual sense over it.

Time slipped away, moment by moment.

In the blink of an eye, two days passed.

The little valley was silent. After about the time it took an incense stick to burn, a piercing whistle suddenly sounded beneath the ruins!

Xu Yan shot out of the cave, a shuttle circling his Dao Body. Wherever the Wenjin Shuttle passed, it trailed a wisp of Geng Metal energy. Its keen edge cut through the air, making it shriek.

Bzz, bzz, bzz!

At a thought, the shuttle struck with astonishing speed, its power chilling to behold.

I wonder if the Hundred Sword Art will work with the Wenjin Shuttle.

Xu Yan pressed his fingers together and silently recited the words.

A few breaths later, a metallic clang rang out. The Wenjin Shuttle nearby suddenly split into two, both hovering in midair. The duplicate was clearly somewhat weaker, but still formidable. This was a Spirit-Born Embryo Artifact, after all.

Using the Hundred Sword Art with the Wenjin Shuttle, however, clearly consumed more spiritual sense than using it with the Green Pattern Dharma Sword.

Xu Yan tried it and managed to split it into only five before the strain on his spiritual sense became too much.

Whoosh!

At a thought, the five streaks of gilded light merged into one, and the Wenjin Shuttle slipped into his sleeve.

Time to go.

Xu Yan wasted no time. He had rested enough over the past two days and absorbed a good deal of the valley's energy in cultivation. Shenque Pass, the fifth barrier of his Spirit Meridian, had loosened a little as well. Once the Dragon Breath Pill's effects had worn off completely, he might be able to attempt Pulse Opening.

With that in mind, Xu Yan brought out the Great Teleportation Token and activated it again.