Forging a Vessel

Jiang Yun lay on the bed and opened the panel.

[Panel]

Realm: Bitter Sea cultivator

Physique: Mortal Physique (Sacred Physique 1.93%, Divine Physique 1.23%)

Bloodline: Hengyu Bloodline (1%)

Techniques: "Dao Scripture," "Solar Scripture," "Nine Secrets: Zhe"

Reflection Points: 0

Source Space: 45*45*45

Dao companion: Jiang Shuanglan (Hengyu Bloodline 3.25%, Divine Physique 5.55%) Favorability: 87

Marks: 411

Descendant bonus: None

After more than a month of effort, he had accumulated 411 Marks. With a thought, Jiang Yun added them all to his Divine Physique.

[Divine Physique 1.23%]--[Divine Physique 5.34%]

A fairly intense, strange energy surged into Jiang Yun's body. One gate after another within him flew open, radiating dense light as they greedily devoured that strange energy.

Those gates seemed as though they wanted to move, rearrange, and recombine. Unfortunately, the strange energy was exhausted and could not support their next movement.

After looking at the panel again, Jiang Shuanglan's Divine Physique had also risen from [5.55%--6.37%]. Sure enough, it was a five-to-one increase.

After observing the changes to the panel, Jiang Yun held Jiang Shuanglan and fell asleep contentedly.

When Jiang Yun cultivated again the next day, perhaps because of the improvement in his physique, he felt that the speed at which his Sea of Bitterness refined vital essence had increased somewhat.

Not by much, but it was useful.

After Ye Fan left, Jiang Yun returned to his peaceful life.

Though cultivators had long lives, they devoted most of their time to cultivation. When it came to gains and losses, who could truly distinguish them?

The mortal world was full of allure and delayed cultivation; cultivation bred even greater temptations, yet also caused one to miss out on life.

Time passed swiftly, and a month and a half went by in the blink of an eye.

With the aid of Source and Divine Spring Fluid, Jiang Yun's Sea of Bitterness had grown to a little over half the size of an adult fist. The Life Spring Realm was no longer far away.

The Sea of Bitterness and the Wheel of Life overlapped, one above and one below, interwoven and coexisting.

The dark green Sea of Bitterness was no longer tranquil. Over the past month and a half, Jiang Yun had continuously opened up his Sea of Bitterness and communicated with the Wheel of Life.

He had now achieved some results. Within the Wheel of Life beneath the Sea of Bitterness, vast vital essence surged like a volcano on the verge of eruption. Lightning occasionally streaked across the sky above the Sea of Bitterness.

More than twenty Divine Patterns stretched across the sky above the Sea of Bitterness like chains of order. Waves roiled within the sea, rosy clouds rose, and its aura was astonishing.

The contrast with its former deathly stillness was striking. That was the charm of cultivation.

The abundant vital essence within the Sea of Bitterness rose up, as if it would immediately gather together, turn liquid, and form a Life Spring.

At this point, Jiang Yun stopped cultivating. He could already forge a vessel at the Bitter Sea Realm, yet he had been so absorbed in cultivation that he was about to enter the Life Spring Realm without having started to forge one.

With ample resources supporting him, his realm had advanced too quickly. Jiang Yun had not expected to be on the verge of entering the Life Spring Realm so soon.

Jiang Yun skillfully controlled the Divine Patterns within his Sea of Bitterness. This was crucial for the coming vessel forging.

Divine Patterns were the primitive form condensed from an enormous amount of vital essence.

Cultivators could refine Divine Patterns into all kinds of shapes according to their own ideas. Any of the eighteen weapons would do. Once formed, they were easier to control and more powerful than their original Divine Pattern state.

Forging certain special vessels was even more unfathomable and mysterious.

Forging vessels was a path every cultivator had to take. It was said that if Divine Patterns were refined into ancient artifacts such as "bells," "cauldrons," and "pagodas," they could unleash all kinds of mysterious powers.

Emperor Zun and Ye Fan, both founders of the Heavenly Court, had stubbornly chosen the "cauldron."

The Great Emperor Wushi, who stood with his back to all living beings, favored the "bell" even more.

As for "pagodas," the Desolate Pagoda was the most famous in the Shrouding the Heavens World. The Desolate Pagoda had once been that person's weapon.

Once the vessels refined by cultivators gradually grew and interwove Dao and reason, they possessed all kinds of incredible mystical powers and could endure through the ages.

The great aristocratic families and sacred lands ruled the world precisely because they had Emperor Weapons as their trump cards. So long as they did not court death, they could endure forever.

Every Emperor Weapon was a continuation of a Great Emperor's Imperial Dao Laws.

The materials required to forge a weapon that could accompany its owner on the path to becoming a Great Emperor were far too precious.

Leaving aside materials on the level of the Nine Divine Metals, Jiang Yun did not possess even a single piece of Nine Heavens Divine Jade or Great Luo Refined Gold, which were below Divine Metal. Even selling himself would not be enough to buy them.

Small amounts were easier to find, but to obtain enough to forge a weapon, he would have to loot several Ancient Era aristocratic families and sacred lands to possibly gather enough.

He also intended to walk the path of One Weapon Breaks Ten Thousand Techniques, but he did not consider "bells," "cauldrons," or "pagodas."

When it came to the most mysterious and primordial vessel in the trilogy, it truly was not any of those three. It should be the "coffin."

The Three Lifetimes Copper Coffin that ran through the entire era, the Divine Spirit Ancient Coffin that transformed from a Great Emperor into an Immortal Emperor, the Divine Spirit Nine-Layer Coffin that had killed two Supremes, and the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree Coffin of the Undying Heavenly Emperor—the end of cultivation was a coffin.

If he started by forging a coffin, he would truly be doing it all in one step.

If he had enough Divine Metal and Immortal Material, Jiang Yun truly wanted to give it a try. It could be used for travel, as a War Bastion, and as a place to hide inside.

What a pity.

The vessel Jiang Yun wanted to forge, however, was one based on Source Space. Source Space would expand as Jiang Yun's physique and realm continuously improved.

As Jiang Yun cultivated the "Dao Scripture," it had also undergone a subtle change, as if it were nurturing something.

His Source Space had been tested some time ago. It could hold living creatures, and with sufficient food and air, it could even sustain several rabbits and allow them to reproduce within it.

Jiang Yun had specifically opened up an area in Source Space for living creatures to inhabit.

He had established a simple ecosystem. Since there was no sunlight in Source Space for plants to survive on, he could only maintain it by continuously transplanting plants.

If an Emperor Weapon were regarded as a world, then the Dao and reason interwoven within it would be that world's Heavenly Heart Mark.

If a weapon truly contained a world, then what would it become after it interwove Dao and reason?

Poverty had given Jiang Yun far too many ideas.

Jiang Yun's realm was still low, so he could try to keep working in this direction.

If he could not succeed, he could only reluctantly seek out the Lihuo Divine Furnace and use that Quasi-Emperor Weapon in battle, then forge a new vessel once he obtained materials in the future.

Source Space formed a world of its own. Like a mustard seed containing Mount Sumeru, it was hidden within Jiang Yun's flesh, seemingly existing in every scrap of flesh and every inch of meridian.

When he had been a mortal, he had been unable to sense the form of Source Space. After cultivating, Jiang Yun had gained control over the circulation of all the essence in his body.

As his body was continuously nourished by vital essence, he gradually became aware of the existence of Source Space.

Jiang Yun peeled Source Space away from his body and placed it above the Sea of Bitterness. Source Space was ethereal as smoke, resembling the purple glow of the rising sun.

With a slight movement of his mind, he changed Source Space's outward form into that of a sphere.

Jiang Yun had separated Source Space from his body, but Source Space would still grow stronger as Jiang Yun became stronger.

This entanglement at the level of origin would not be affected by changes in form or location.

Source Space seemed to have been born alongside Jiang Yun. It was extraordinarily miraculous, like an organ of his body.

It was completely under Jiang Yun's control. Refining it as he pleased posed not the slightest difficulty, for it was originally his own possession.

Gradually, he first refined the more than twenty Divine Patterns into a single mass. It was difficult to forge them into shape, and after merging, they became a bean-sized clump.

This would require refining them day and night within the Sea of Bitterness before they could slowly reveal a shape. Jiang Yun merged Source Space into them, and the initial form he had refined became even uglier, like an elongated clod of dirt.