After making all his plans, Lin Xiye placed every chest of worldly gold and silver on the surface of the Immortal-Appraising Treasure Mirror without hesitation.
Almost in an instant, the Immortal-Appraising Treasure Mirror consumed every last bit of the gold and silver in those chests.
Holding the Immortal-Appraising Treasure Mirror, Lin Xiye first aimed its surface at a Low-Level Five Thunder Talisman.
Rumble...
A wondrous, mysterious light poured from the mirror and fell on the surface of the Low-Level Five Thunder Talisman.
In an instant, the once somewhat crude Low-Level Five Thunder Talisman began to transform.
When the light stopped pouring from the Immortal-Appraising Treasure Mirror, the Low-Level Five Thunder Talisman had become an object resembling a token.
Lin Xiye picked up the enhanced Low-Level Five Thunder Talisman and examined it closely.
Strictly speaking, the enhanced Low-Level Five Thunder Talisman was no longer a talisman at all. It had become a Talisman Treasure.
Yet enhancing this one Low-Level Five Thunder Talisman had consumed a quarter of the Zhao Household's accumulated reserves.
Of course, even so, Lin Xiye had absolutely made a killing.
Merely holding the Five Thunder Talisman Treasure in his hand, Lin Xiye could feel the immense power within it.
Its quality was probably already close to that of a Foundation Establishment Grade Talisman Treasure...
A Talisman Treasure was a special object similar to a Law Treasure.
Using a Talisman Treasure had no cultivation requirements whatsoever.
Even an immortal cultivator at Body Tempering Early Skin Refining could use a high-level Talisman Treasure at will.
But refining a Talisman Treasure would not only diminish one's cultivation, it would even consume a cultivator's lifespan.
Refining a Talisman Treasure also had requirements for a cultivator's realm.
Only immortal cultivators above the Spirit Nourishing Realm were qualified to refine Talisman Treasures.
Once refined, a Talisman Treasure could usually unleash half its creator's power...
Thus, most of the time, cultivators neither would nor wanted to refine Talisman Treasures... The price of refining one was simply too steep.
Unless an immortal cultivator had no hope of breaking through and was nearing the end of their lifespan, they would not lightly refine a Talisman Treasure.
As a result, a Talisman Treasure was often worth far more than even a Law Treasure a grade higher...
As the saying went, when there was a price but no market, the price rose of its own accord.
After Lin Xiye upgraded and enhanced both Low-Level Five Thunder Talismans into Five Thunder Talisman Treasures, half of the former Zhao Household's accumulated reserves had been consumed.
Lin Xiye didn't mind in the least.
As his realm rose, the grade of the items Lin Xiye needed to enhance would rise as well...
The further he progressed, the more that worldly gold, silver, and treasure would gradually lose their value to him.
Since he could use the Immortal-Appraising Treasure Mirror to upgrade more valuable items, Lin Xiye naturally wouldn't keep wasting time on a pile of low-level resources...
Unless, in the future, he could refine a puppet with simple intelligence and absolute loyalty.
Then, while he cultivated in seclusion, he could have the puppet operate the Immortal-Appraising Treasure Mirror and make full use of it, having it upgrade and enhance all manner of items at all times.
But to do that... he had to solve two problems: first, prepare enough resources to be consumed, and second, prepare enough resources that could be upgraded and enhanced...
Thoughts churned through Lin Xiye's mind. After putting away the two upgraded and enhanced Five Thunder Talisman Treasures, he took out various Spirit Stone fragments and immortal cultivation materials, preparing to upgrade and complete the Foundation Establishment Grade Spirit Gathering Formation.
Fortunately, after killing the immortal cultivators of the Zhao Household and the other three households, Lin Xiye had obtained quite a few resources. Otherwise, he would never have dared to spend so extravagantly...
After another cup of tea's time, and after Lin Xiye had consumed most of his Cultivation Resources, the formation flags of the Foundation Establishment Grade Spirit Gathering Formation, which had originally been extremely incomplete, with only a tenth remaining, finally underwent a transformation.
Under the Immortal-Appraising Treasure Mirror's upgrading and enhancement, the damaged flags were repaired and gave off a faint golden light.
It seemed as though the Foundation Establishment Grade Spirit Gathering Formation had been completely repaired, but Lin Xiye knew very well that consuming a few Spirit Stone fragments and some low-level Cultivation Resources could not possibly fully repair a Foundation Establishment Grade Spirit Gathering Formation.
But after being upgraded and enhanced by the Immortal-Appraising Treasure Mirror, the Foundation Establishment Grade Spirit Gathering Formation... could at least be used.
Lin Xiye tried placing a Spirit Stone fragment inside a formation flag.
Soon, empowered by the Spirit Stone fragment, the formation flags gradually began to operate.
With the formation flags at its core, a Spiritual Qi vortex instantly formed over an area of roughly ten meters around them.
Within the Spiritual Qi vortex, Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was roughly three times as dense as it was outside.
The fact that it could produce a threefold Spirit Gathering effect meant that the Foundation Establishment Grade Spirit Gathering Formation had recovered from being completely unusable to the level of a Spirit-Nurturing Grade Spirit Gathering Formation!
Since it had not been completely repaired and its Spirit Gathering effect was only threefold, the cost of maintaining the Foundation Establishment Grade Spirit Gathering Formation was not high either.
The Foundation Establishment Grade Spirit Gathering Formation would take roughly half a month to consume one Spirit Stone fragment.
For Lin Xiye, however, a threefold Spirit Gathering effect was enough! After all, before breaking through to the Foundation Establishment Realm, or even the Core Formation Realm, the consumption of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi was not particularly great.
After using the Immortal-Appraising Treasure Mirror to finish enhancing and repairing the Foundation Establishment Grade Spirit Gathering Formation, Lin Xiye had only forty Spirit Stone fragments left in his possession.
Thinking of this, Lin Xi took out another twenty Spirit Stone fragments, intending to use the Immortal-Appraising Treasure Mirror to upgrade and enhance his Spirit Root.
In the Four Body Tempering Realms, cultivating with a Profound-grade Spirit Root presented almost no bottlenecks, but after breaking through to the Spirit Nourishing Realm, its cultivation advantage would gradually disappear.
If he cultivated to the Foundation Establishment Realm, the cultivation effect of a Profound-grade Spirit Root would make it very difficult to reach Core Formation, much less walk further along the immortal path...
After placing twenty Spirit Stone fragments on the surface of the Immortal-Appraising Treasure Mirror, Lin Xiye held it and directed the mysterious light emanating from its surface over his body.
As the light from the Immortal-Appraising Treasure Mirror enveloped him, Lin Xiye immediately felt a wondrous, warm force surge throughout his body.
But after only a cup of tea's time, that force gradually dissipated...
By then, the Immortal-Appraising Treasure Mirror had also stopped shining.
Beneath the warm, wondrous force that had just enveloped him, Lin Xiye felt that his aptitude had improved considerably again.
Unfortunately, the Spirit Root aptitude within Lin Xiye remained a Profound-grade Spirit Root.
Clearly, the value of twenty Spirit Stone fragments was not enough to raise a Profound-grade Spirit Root to an Earth-grade Spirit Root.
Lin Xiye was not too disappointed. He had long been mentally prepared for this result.
After failing to enhance and upgrade his Spirit Root, Lin Xiye decisively stopped and consumed no more Spirit Stone fragments.
Lin Xiye no longer dared to squander the twenty remaining Spirit Stone fragments.
He had to use some of the remaining Spirit Stone fragments to maintain the Spirit Gathering Formation, and the rest to aid his cultivation and help him return to his peak condition as quickly as possible...
Lin Xiye had made his decision. He intended to cultivate straight through to Organ Refining Realm Perfection in one sustained effort.
After breaking through to Organ Refining Realm Perfection, he would begin building up his reserves as soon as possible and make thorough preparations to break through to the Spirit Nourishing Realm.
Lin Xiye knew very well that only after entering the Spirit Nourishing Realm would he truly have crossed the threshold of the immortal path...
Only upon reaching the Spirit Nourishing Realm could one truly hold status in the immortal cultivation world of the Jin Kingdom.
Though Spirit Nourishing Realm cultivators could not be called experts, within the borders of the Jin Kingdom, they could find a place for themselves wherever they went.
Putting aside the distracting thoughts in his mind, Lin Xiye half-closed his eyes and sat quietly cross-legged within the Spirit Gathering Formation. He began breathing in and out, letting Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi wash over and baptize him...