Forging an Artifact

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%)

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

Reflection Value: 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 from Jiang Yun, he immediately added them all to his Divine Physique.

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

A relatively powerful and strange energy surged into Jiang Yun's body. One gate after another within him swung open, radiating intense light as they greedily devoured that strange energy.

Those gates seemed to want to move, rearranging and recombining themselves, but unfortunately, the strange energy was exhausted and could not support their next transformation.

After glancing at the panel again, Jiang Yun saw that Jiang Shuanglan's Divine Physique had also risen from [5.55%--6.37%]. Sure enough, the increase was at a ratio of five to one.

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

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

It was not much, but it was useful.

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

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

The mortal world was enchanting and delayed cultivation; cultivation itself bred temptation, yet it also meant missing 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 roughly half the size of an adult's 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, layered together as though born in symbiosis.

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

He had achieved some success by now. Within the Wheel of Life beneath the Sea of Bitterness, vast life essence surged upward like a volcano on the verge of eruption, while 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 divine order. Waves churned violently within the sea, clouds and rosy vapors rose, and its momentum was astonishing.

It formed a sharp contrast with its former deathly stillness. That was the charm of cultivation.

The vigorous life essence within the Sea of Bitterness rose upward, seeming ready to gather together at any moment, turn liquid, and form a Life Spring.

At that moment, Jiang Yun stopped cultivating. One could forge an artifact 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 begun forging one.

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

Jiang Yun skillfully took control of the Divine Patterns within his Sea of Bitterness. This was crucial for the coming artifact forging.

Divine Patterns were the primordial form condensed from massive amounts of life essence.

Cultivators could refine Divine Patterns into all kinds of shapes according to their own ideas. Every one of the eighteen kinds of weapons was possible. Once they took form, they were easier to control and more powerful than the original Divine Patterns.

Forging certain special artifacts was even more mysterious and unfathomable.

Artifact forging was a path every cultivator had to walk. Legend had it 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 fixated on the artifact known as the "cauldron."

The Wushi Great Emperor, 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 world of Shrouding the Heavens. It was precisely that person's former weapon.

Once the artifacts refined by cultivators gradually grew and interwove Dao and reason, they possessed all kinds of incredible mystical powers and could endure in the world.

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

Every Emperor Weapon was an extension of a Great Emperor's imperial Dao laws.

To forge a weapon that could one day accompany someone to become a Great Emperor required materials far too precious.

Leaving aside materials on the level of the nine divine metals, Jiang Yun did not possess even a single piece of the Nine Heavens Divine Jade series or Great Luo Refined Gold, which were beneath divine metal. He could sell himself and still not afford them.

Small amounts were easy enough to find, but obtaining enough to forge a weapon would require looting several Ancient Era aristocratic families and sacred lands before it was even possible to gather sufficient quantities.

He also intended to follow the path of breaking all techniques with one artifact, but "bell," "cauldron," and "pagoda" were not under consideration.

When it came to the most mysterious and primordial artifact in the three-part series, it truly was not one of those three. It should have been the "coffin."

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

Starting by forging a coffin would truly take things to the final step in one go.

If he had enough divine metals and immortal materials, Jiang Yun really wanted to give it a try. It could serve as transportation, a war fortress, and somewhere to hide inside.

What a pity.

The artifact Jiang Yun wanted to forge was one based on Source Space. Source Space would expand as Jiang Yun's physique and realm continued to improve.

As Jiang Yun cultivated the "Dao Scripture," it had also undergone a trace of mysterious change, as though it were nurturing something.

He had tested his Source Space some time ago. It could hold living creatures, and with enough food and air, it could even sustain several rabbits and allow them to reproduce inside.

Jiang Yun had deliberately opened up an area within Source Space for living creatures.

He had established a simple ecosystem. There was no sunlight in Source Space for plants to survive on, so he could only maintain it through constant transplantation.

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 happen after that weapon also interwove Dao and reason?

Poverty had given Jiang Yun far too many ideas.

His realm was still low, so he could try working toward this direction little by little.

If he could not succeed, he would have no choice but to reluctantly search for the Lihuo Divine Furnace and fight with this Quasi-Emperor Weapon. Once he obtained materials in the future, he could forge another artifact.

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

When he was still a mortal, he had no way to sense the form of Source Space. After cultivating, Jiang Yun gained control over the circulation of all the essence within his body.

As his body was continuously nourished by life essence, he gradually sensed the existence of Source Space.

Jiang Yun separated Source Space from within his body and placed it above his Sea of Bitterness. Source Space was ethereal as smoke, resembling purple dawn radiance.

With a slight movement of his mind, he changed the external appearance of Source Space into the shape of a sphere.

Jiang Yun had separated Source Space, but it 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 entirely under Jiang Yun's control. Refining it as he pleased presented no difficulty at all; it was his own possession to begin with.

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 lump the size of a bean.

This required day and night refinement within the Sea of Bitterness before it could slowly reveal its shape. Jiang Yun merged Source Space into it, and the initial shape he had refined became even uglier, like an elongated clod of dirt.