After returning to his cave abode, Lin Yun did not rush to refine Han Li's spirit boat.
Instead, he took out the crystal bottle containing the Ink Flood Dragon Essence.
The finger-length Ink Flood Dragon Essence still swam sinuously through the crystal bottle with lively movements, occasionally letting out a soundless roar.
Ever since obtaining the Ink Flood Dragon Essence, Lin Yun had left it unused because he had yet to find suitable artifact-refining materials to pair with it.
When Nangong Wan had collected the Ink Flood Dragon Essence, she had merely drawn it into this crystal bottle. Over time, its vital essence would inevitably have dissipated, eroding what little awareness the soul essence possessed.
Later, Lin Yun had sealed the Ink Flood Dragon Essence anew with a secret soul-nurturing method from the Yin Demon Secret Register, then refined it with a soul-refining method. That was why it now appeared so lively.
After studying the Ink Flood Dragon Essence for a while, Lin Yun took out a palm-sized green jade box. He opened it to reveal a perfectly round pearl the size of an infant's fist, shimmering with watery light.
This was a Water Essence Pearl that Lin Yun had purchased half a month earlier from a secret shop in the Covering Moon Sect's market. According to the seller, the pearl had come from the treacherous shoals of the Coiling Dragon River in the Yuanwu Kingdom and had been nurtured by a rare Level Three Clam Monster. The seller had suffered grave injuries before finally killing the Clam Monster and obtaining the Water Essence Pearl.
In the seller's words, the pearl was exceptionally precious, whether used to aid cultivators practicing water-attribute cultivation methods or refined into a magical artifact. Moreover, pearl-type natural treasures were particularly good at winning female cultivators' hearts.
That was why the seller had chosen to sell the Water Essence Pearl at the Covering Moon Sect's market in exchange for spirit stones and healing pills.
Lin Yun did not know whether the seller's story was true, but the Water Essence Pearl did contain abundant water-element vital energy, making it highly suitable for refining a magical treasure together with the Ink Flood Dragon Essence.
Thus, Lin Yun had purchased the Water Essence Pearl for a bottle of healing pills and five hundred spirit stones.
Holding the Water Essence Pearl, Lin Yun casually rolled it between his fingers, then reviewed the treasure-refining process he had devised, checking for any oversights.
Unlike the Clearvoid Invisible Sword and the Taiyi Five-Smoke Gauze, both of which already had complete refining methods, this treasure made from the Water Essence Pearl and the Ink Flood Dragon Essence would truly be the first magical treasure he had created himself.
Thus, Lin Yun approached it with extreme care, regarding it as a milestone on his path of artifact refining.
The Water Essence Pearl and the Ink Flood Dragon Essence are both water-attribute spiritual materials. Although they contain fairly abundant water-element vital energy, they are only materials from Level Three Monster Beasts and hardly exceptional. To avoid damaging this pure water-element vital energy, it would be best not to temper them with true fire, but to use water refining instead.
Moreover, the Ink Flood Dragon possessed flood dragon venom, so its Ink Flood Dragon Essence naturally carries a trace of toxicity as well. Water refining will be just the thing to wash it away.
At that thought, Lin Yun crossed his hands, one above the other. Only after a while did a deep-blue ball of water the size of a bowl gradually coalesce between his palms. It consisted of pure water-element primordial qi.
Then Lin Yun opened the crystal bottle holding the Ink Flood Dragon Essence. With a guiding gesture, he drew the Ink Flood Dragon Essence into the ball of water-element primordial qi. As his hand seals shifted, the primordial qi began rotating slowly, churning the Ink Flood Dragon Essence within it.
The primordial qi of heaven and earth in this Mortal Realm really is difficult to command. Only because I have now reached Foundation Establishment, cultivated the innate five-element Dao body, and also practice a top-tier cultivation method among the Daoist Books of the five-element lineage-the He Sha Marvelous Book-can I draw together such a large ball of water-element primordial qi.
Watching the Ink Flood Dragon Essence being cleansed within the water-element primordial qi, Lin Yun recalled how difficult it had been to condense that ball and could not help clicking his tongue. "Without all those innate advantages, even draining every last drop of magical power from a late Foundation Establishment cultivator practicing a water-attribute cultivation method would not produce this ball of water-element primordial qi!"
After observing it for a moment and noticing that the trace of toxicity in the Ink Flood Dragon Essence was slowly being washed away, Lin Yun left the ball of water-element primordial qi to cleanse it at his side and turned to process the Water Essence Pearl.
The vital essence within the Water Essence Pearl was much purer than that of the Ink Flood Dragon Essence and contained no toxic essence or anything of the sort, so it did not need cleansing with water-element primordial qi.
Lin Yun took out more than a dozen jade bottles and set them beside him. With a beckoning gesture, he opened them all, then swept his hand to draw out more than a dozen streams of liquid glittering with gold and silver starlight, gathering them into a ball of water the size of a washbasin.
This was precisely the Yin-Yang Dew that Lin Yun had accumulated every day over the past half month, all for water-refining this Water Essence Pearl today.
Looking at the ball of Yin-Yang Dew, Lin Yun nodded slightly. Although it had lost some of its sun and moon essence over time, it was still barely adequate for water-refining a magical treasure.
He formed another hand seal and pointed at the ball of water. It rapidly began to change, transforming into the shape of a pill furnace within moments.
Looking at the exquisite, translucent pill furnace made of water before him, Lin Yun raised his left hand to open a gap in it, then tossed the Water Essence Pearl inside.
Once the Water Essence Pearl was suspended within the water furnace, Lin Yun pointed a finger, and the furnace began to rotate slowly. Threads of sun and moon essence were gradually drawn from the furnace and gathered around the pearl. Guided by Lin Yun's magical power, they were slowly refined into yin-yang primordial qi and fed into the Water Essence Pearl.
Then Lin Yun changed his hand seals, sending out streams of magical power to guide the yin-yang primordial qi as it slowly wore away the impure essence within the Water Essence Pearl. At the same time, he used the water furnace to gather water-element primordial qi and continually cleanse the pearl.
Time passed slowly. Half a day later, Lin Yun looked at the Water Essence Pearl, now a size smaller within the water furnace, and nodded in satisfaction.
Although it had shrunk, the Water Essence Pearl now shone with a halo of watery blue light, looking full of spiritual grace.
By then, the Ink Flood Dragon Essence had also been fully cleansed. Lin Yun waved away the ball of water-element primordial qi that had been cleansing it, held the Ink Flood Dragon Essence between his fingers, and inspected it. Seeing that not a trace of toxicity remained, he cast it into the water furnace.
As soon as the Ink Flood Dragon Essence entered the water furnace, it merged into the Water Essence Pearl under Lin Yun's guidance. Watery blue radiance flashed across the pearl as it readily accepted the Ink Flood Dragon Essence, and a trace of spirituality inexplicably arose within it.
Sensing the Water Essence Pearl's spirituality, Lin Yun could not help remarking with admiration, "The artifact-refining arts of this realm do have their merits. If I refined an orthodox magical treasure entirely through Zu Mountain's methods, I would need large quantities of spiritual herbs and the essence of the sun and moon, repeatedly tempering its form and refining its substance before cleansing and nurturing it into spirituality. That process would take at least ten years or so. Yet here, refining a single monster soul into a magical treasure is enough to give it spirituality. Truly marvelous."
As spirituality arose within the Water Essence Pearl, Lin Yun accelerated the refining process, continually imbuing it with one restriction after another.
Three days later.
Looking at the round pearl in his hand, which radiated a watery blue halo, Lin Yun smiled in deep satisfaction. "The highest goodness is like water. Water benefits all things without contention. Not contending is good! This treasure can be considered an excellent means of protection. I'll call it the Supreme
Goodness Pearl."
With that, Lin Yun drew the Supreme Goodness Pearl into his profound aperture to nurture it. Newly refined, the treasure still needed nurturing day and night before its power could increase.
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