Dou King Artifact Refiner

[Fourth-Tier Metal Puppet: Possesses strength comparable to a Dou Spirit and can hold off a Five-Star Dou Spirit for half an hour.

Magic Core Energy: 0% (uses a Fourth-Tier Magic Core)

Metal Material: ...

Method of Recognition: ...]

Upon seeing the method of recognition, Xiao Yang did not hesitate and immediately inspected the details.

After carefully reading through it, Xiao Yang walked up to the puppet and turned it over.

Then, he pressed, clasped, and twisted a spot on the puppet's back, revealing a small compartment before him.

Inside was a dimmed Fourth-Tier Magic Core.

Xiao Yang picked up the Fourth-Tier Magic Core and saw an intricate rune beneath it.

He gently placed his hand on it and injected Dou Qi into it.

Very soon, Xiao Yang vaguely sensed a trace of connection between himself and the puppet.

However, without a Magic Core inside it, the puppet could not move.

He did not care. Whenever he needed one, he could simply buy a Magic Core from the game shop.

With a thought, Xiao Yang directly stored the puppet in his Storage Ring.

Only after finishing this did Xiao Yang head deeper into the cave.

He followed the passage to its end and discovered that there were actually two more puppets identical to the previous one.

However, the Magic Cores within these two puppets had long since run out of energy.

After recognizing them as his masters, Xiao Yang stored them in his Storage Ring as well.

After putting away the puppets, he began surveying his surroundings.

This was a fairly small stone chamber, less than ten square meters in area and only around three meters high.

It looked only slightly larger than a toilet.

There were sixteen protrusions directly ahead in the stone chamber.

At the same time, a clear outline of a door could be seen on the right side of the chamber.

Yet the stone door was tightly shut, and there was no telling how to open it.

The only clue was the sixteen protruding stone blocks in front of him.

With a thought, Xiao Yang extended his soul power into the stone wall.

He discovered that the mechanism behind it was indeed rather complicated.

What was more, he saw runes similar to those inside the puppets.

There were actually three Fifth-Tier Magic Cores within the chamber's mechanisms!

Those three Fifth-Tier Magic Cores still contained a little energy.

Xiao Yang was somewhat surprised. He had not expected the Dou Qi Continent to have such things.

The more he looked at them, the more they resembled Artifact-Refining Runes.

But on further thought, the Dou Qi Continent had come into contact with the Extraterrestrial Evil Clan in ancient times, and there had also been many Dou Emperors. It was only natural for it to have come into contact with inheritances from the Great Thousand World.

There were also traces of spiritual energy and spiritual arrays on the Dou Qi Continent. It was just that those inheritances had now vanished, leaving behind only scraps and fragments.

So, it was not particularly strange for such things to exist.

Xiao Yang shook his head, too lazy to dwell on it further.

He began inspecting the mechanisms.

He truly knew nothing about mechanisms, but he had X-ray vision and could directly see their internal structure.

The owner who had designed these mechanisms had not possessed a true Artifact-Refining Inheritance either, so many of them were rather crude.

After quickly examining the mechanisms, a trace of relief flashed through Xiao Yang's eyes.

Fortunately, he had not pressed them carelessly.

If he pressed the wrong one, a massive boulder would instantly fall from above the stone chamber, while the boulder in the passage would immediately rise.

At the same time, the underground river outside would be diverted here, completely flooding the place.

If one was not crushed to death by the boulder, one would drown.

Even a Dou Spirit or perhaps even a Dou King might not come out unscathed here.

After thinking it over, Xiao Yang decided to exit the passage first and return outside.

Then, standing outside the passage, he used his soul power to press the protruding stone blocks in the sequence he had deduced.

Very soon, all sixteen stone blocks sank into the wall.

"Rumble!"

The stone door on the right side of the chamber slowly opened.

The next instant, a series of system notifications rang out in Xiao Yang's mind.

"Congratulations, player, for completing Side Quest 3—Treasure of the Magical Beast Mountain Range!"

"Player has received rewards: Universal Experience +1,000,000, shop points +5,000,000, Low Earth-Tier Battle Skill Burning Flame Palm!"

Hearing the notification in his mind, a flash of delight passed through Xiao Yang's eyes.

He had finally completed this quest!

He did not claim the rewards immediately. Instead, he curiously looked into the stone chamber.

He could not see much from where he stood, but his soul power could see the scene beyond the door.

Behind the stone door was an enormous stone chamber.

This stone chamber covered over a thousand square meters!

It was even ten meters tall!

A large number of Moonlight Pearls were embedded across the entire ceiling.

Those Moonlight Pearls illuminated the whole stone chamber.

Xiao Yang cautiously swept the area with his soul power. Only after confirming that there was no danger inside did he walk in.

The layout of the stone chamber was simple.

At the very center stood a massive tomb and a stone stele.

Xiao Yang moved closer and saw the contents inscribed on the stele.

The owner of this place had actually been a Dou King-level artifact refiner!

He had not been some blacksmith who merely embedded Magic Cores into weapons. He had been a true artifact refiner capable of refining artifacts.

According to the records, when this Dou King had still been weak, he had accidentally entered a tomb and obtained a fragmentary Artifact-Refining Inheritance.

That Artifact-Refining Inheritance contained several simple Spirit Artifact blueprints.

These Spirit Artifacts differed greatly from the Magic Core Weapons most commonly found on the Dou Qi Continent today.

Magic Core Weapons could at most slightly increase one's combat strength. Their main advantage was better Qi conductivity, allowing them to work with battle skills.

Once one reached a certain level, Magic Core Weapons were basically useless.

Spirit Artifacts, however, were different. They could genuinely increase a cultivator's combat strength!

Xiao Yang understood this as well.

After all, he had read The Great Ruler, and the shop even sold ready-made Spirit Artifacts, though they were rather expensive.

Soon, Xiao Yang finished reading about the man's life. He had merely been an artifact refiner without descendants who had built himself such a tomb.

What interested Xiao Yang most now was the man's so-called Artifact-Refining Inheritance.

He turned to look at the shelves on either side of the tomb.

The shelf on the left was filled with dusty chunks of metal.

Besides that, there were several Spirit Artifacts that had already lost their luster!

However, Xiao Yang took a look and found that these could not truly be called Spirit Artifacts, since they had merely been piled together from materials.

Yet behind those Spirit Artifacts stood a two-meter-tall massive furnace cauldron that caught Xiao Yang's attention.

Its surface was covered in intricate runes. According to the information Xiao Yang inspected, this furnace cauldron could actually still be used!

It had been obtained by this Dou King artifact refiner together with the Artifact-Refining Inheritance!

This was a genuine Spirit Artifact!

No, judging by the information Xiao Yang saw, it was actually a Peerless Spirit Artifact!

It was only that the artifact spirit within it had already vanished!

Even so, it remained a true Spirit Artifact!

At that moment, Xiao Yang's eyes were filled with shock.

He had never expected to see a genuine Spirit Artifact on the Dou Qi Continent.

And in a little place like the Northwestern Continent, no less!