Harvest

"Back?"

Looking at the dim surroundings, Yu Chen rubbed his somewhat groggy head. The Dao principles he had comprehended in a different world needed adjustment. He frowned. It was later than I expected—or rather, Black Snake's flood-driving pace was slower than I expected. But...

Yu Chen summoned his golden finger and looked at the Earthly Fiend Talisman Water, which was still changing, as well as the five additional auras within it. The corners of his lips rose slightly. I've already obtained what I wanted. No, this harvest has far exceeded my expectations!

This journey into the "instance world" had brought Yu Chen tremendous gains. First, he had found a stable source for the subsequent cultivation methods he needed most. Second, he had more or less figured out the limitations of his golden finger.

First of all, the golden finger likely had no protection mechanism. Through the arrangements he had made beforehand, as well as the unhealed wound he had deliberately left on himself in the instance world, Yu Chen could confirm that his true body had crossed over.

This discovery had both advantages and disadvantages.

The downside was obvious. Crossing over in his true body meant that if Yu Chen died in the instance world, he would most likely truly die. Furthermore, true-body traversal meant a muddling of karmic burdens. That was manageable in low-level worlds, but once he entered a high-level world, it could easily stir the web of karma.

He might even be poisoned alive the moment he entered if he traveled to a world with vastly different fundamental properties, or particularly vicious viruses.

The advantages were equally obvious. Based on his prior arrangements, Yu Chen already knew that the flow of time in his current world differed from that of the "instance world" he had experienced. He had stayed in that instance world for more than two months, while less than half a day had passed in the main world.

The differing flow of time, combined with true-body traversal, meant that Yu Chen had a place where he could study and comprehend different Dao principles. This would greatly benefit both his shamanic arts and his future cultivation of Daoist techniques.

Moreover, when he encountered danger, the instance world could serve as a rather good refuge, providing Yu Chen with a period of protection and ample time to recuperate.

If Yu Chen could resolve the subtle conflicts caused by comprehending Dao principles from different worlds in the future, the instance world's protective effect could become even more outstanding.

Second, the golden finger could not create things from nothing. It could not work like those past game worlds, where every time he left an instance world, he could use something like exploration points to exchange things he had encountered for the resources he needed.

For Yu Chen to bring something out, it had to meet four conditions. First, it had to be in his possession. Second, he had to have thoroughly understood it. Third, it could not be a simple aggregation of energy or purely material. Lastly, it had to possess a certain degree of spirituality.

Therefore, Yu Chen could not bring out the unspent Incense and Fire Prayer Power he had collected in the instance world. He could not bring out the two books recording cultivation techniques, Yin Talisman Treasure Register and Free and Easy Treasure Scroll. The materials he had gathered could not be brought out either.

The five auras appearing in his golden finger were the five magical artifacts Yu Chen had acquired in the instance world—the Yin Windmill, Dragon-Slaying Sword, Five Calamities Fan, Azurewood Heartguard Bell, and Yi-Wood Azure Radiance Mirror.

These five items were stored in the system that only he could see. Furthermore, Yu Chen had a feeling that he could not directly take them out. These objects had no physical forms and needed vessels before they could appear in the main world.

The feeling was strange. Yu Chen had never possessed it before, yet the instant he returned and saw the five items, this understanding had arisen in his mind.

I wonder whether the vessels have any requirements. Yu Chen pondered for a moment, summoned the Snake Shadow Banner into his hand, and drew out the Five Calamities Fan, letting it descend onto the Snake Shadow Banner.

The moment the Five Calamities Fan left his golden finger, it instantly collapsed into five streams of turbid qi. Within them rolled over a hundred profound, sinister curse scripts, radiating a dense aura of decay.

Pressed by a mysterious force, the five streams of turbid qi slowly merged into the Snake Shadow Banner.

The snake patterns on the banner changed of their own accord, turning into strange curse scripts bearing snake-pattern shadows. At the mere sight of them, Yu Chen's mind spun, and waves of nausea surged up from his stomach.

Yet Yu Chen did not look away. After his experience in the instance world, his understanding of immortal cultivation methods and artifact-refining techniques had deepened considerably. Looking at it now, the Snake Shadow Banner, once his proud magical artifact, was truly rather crude. All of its mysteries rested upon the material itself. If it had any impressive aspect, it was only the Snake Shamanic Script he had painstakingly inscribed into it.

However, without corresponding methods to suppress and stabilize them, these shamanic scripts could easily backlash against their wielder.

The reason the Snake Shadow Banner showed no abnormalities in Yu Chen's hand was because his own spirituality was powerful and he was proficient in shamanic arts, so he did not fear this degree of backlash. But if Yu Chen fell into weakness, or if an ordinary person acquired the Snake Shadow Banner, it would backlash upon them before they could use it to harm anyone.

Now, as the Five Calamities Fan's power merged into the Snake Shadow Banner and caused the shamanic scripts within to change, the aura inside grew more extreme and somewhat mixed. Yu Chen considered it, then shook the banner. He poured mana into it, agitating the internal shamanic scripts and five streams of turbid qi. Then he gathered mana at his fingertips and cautiously fused the Five Calamities Fan's power with the Snake Shadow Banner. He also added several unorthodox restrictive formations recorded in the Free and Easy Treasure Scroll and Yin Talisman Treasure Register, enclosing the shamanic scripts and the Five Calamities Fan's power within them.

After that, Yu Chen repeatedly tempered it with mana more than a dozen times. Once he confirmed that the forces inside the Snake Shadow Banner had fused, he lightly shook the treasure banner toward the side. The shamanic scripts and turbid qi within the banner erupted, and trails of mist rose up, transforming into several snake shadows that flew out.

After only two glances, Yu Chen knew that these snake shadows were tougher and more venomous than before. Anyone entangled by them would have their limbs and five senses affected to a certain extent. At the same time, Yu Chen could use the opportunity to seize the other party's aura and leave it in the Snake Shadow Banner, making it convenient to curse them or perform shamanic arts afterward.

Recalling the snake shadows, Yu Chen carefully inspected the Snake Shadow Banner once more. Comparing the changes in its Snake Shamanic Script, he had to admit that the vessel was indeed quite important for magical artifacts brought out from the instance world.

According to Yu Chen's comparison, the changes to the Snake Shadow Banner bore some resemblance to the Five Calamities Fan's original restrictive formations. Yet it was clear that the Snake Shadow Banner's foundation remained the Snake Shamanic Script. In other words, when an acquisition from the instance world entered the main world and used an existence of equal rank, or slightly higher rank, as its vessel, the main world's vessel would become its foundation.

With this thought in mind, Yu Chen spent another seven or eight days going out to search for materials. He refined a new Yin Windmill, then transferred the Yin Windmill and Dragon-Slaying Sword he had brought from the instance world into it.

The newly refined Yin Windmill was made from entirely different materials from the one forged in the instance world, and its internal restrictive formations had only been initially refined into it. Yet after absorbing the power of the instance world's Yin Windmill and Dragon-Slaying Sword, it rapidly reached completion. It was considerably stronger than the Yin Windmill Yu Chen had originally refined in the instance world.

Furthermore, for some reason, this Yin Windmill was exceptionally compatible with the Dragon-Slaying Sword's sword intent. Not only did the two fuse together perfectly, they even experienced a slight improvement. As a result, when the Yin Windmill was completed, the Snake Shadow Banner in Yu Chen's hand—its spirituality greatly enhanced—kept trembling as it tried to destroy this magical artifact that restrained snakes.

In the end, Yu Chen had to temper the Yin Windmill twice more and inscribe new concealment curse scripts onto its blades before suppressing the conflict between the magical artifacts.

Aside from the Yin Windmill, Yu Chen also fused the Azurewood Heartguard Bell into a piece of wood brimming with spirituality.

The wood was the heartwood Yu Chen had taken from an ancient tree that had grown for several centuries. Stimulated by the Azurewood Heartguard Bell, it immediately began to change, little by little taking on the appearance of the Heartguard Bell from the instance world.

However, compared to the Heartguard Bell in the instance world, the newly formed Heartguard Bell had suffered a considerable weakening in both its internal restrictive formations and its spiritual radiance and spirituality. Based on this expenditure, Yu Chen estimated that when materials were used to bear a magical artifact under circumstances where their attributes did not differ greatly, roughly thirty percent of its power would be consumed in the process of altering its form.