Chapter Ninety-Two: The Treasure of Refinement

He handed it over at last.

“Give it to me.”

“That one is mine. Hand it over.”

“Quickly, it is mine.”

Faced with Shen Bingxue’s unabashed eagerness, Li Mu could only pass the pale blue-green herb from his hands to hers.

Shen Bingxue took the herb and, in excellent spirits, toyed with it for a while. Her eyes, bright with a faint glow, settled on Li Mu.

“This should be a Cloudmist Leaf, grade-three top tier. Oh, then it’s mine.”

“Must you take everything?” Li Mu said with some helplessness.

The Cloudmist Leaf vanished without a trace. Shen Bingxue stared at him, her proud chest rising and falling; she looked as though she might nearly reach out and touch him.

“Why do you have so many top-tier treasures, while I only picked up a few herbs? How can you, Shopkeeper Li, be so stingy?”

“Just a few? It was several hundred.”

Li Mu said no more. He had never seen such a look on her face. Her usual cold indifference seemed to have gone somewhere unknown; every time she saw the herbs and flowers in his hand, she would instinctively take them, as though afraid he might keep them all to himself.

But he did not say anything. His ability to transform grade-three top-tier materials came from the Water-Calming Pearl.

And besides, he was thinking: if he told Shen Bingxue that the little string of Water-Calming Pearls that had originally followed her around had only one left, who knew whether she would fly into a rage? Better not say anything. He would just give her some materials.

“Still, it’s better not to give away top-tier items.”

Li Mu made his silent calculations and then continued transforming materials inside the spirit pagoda.

For a grade-three spirit pet, or for a cultivator in the Meridian-Refining stage, he needed many more magical artifacts. As things stood, the Green Edge Armor was the one he was most capable of forging.

However, the materials required were exceptionally heavy. He already had the scales of the grade-three Green Vicious Crocodile; of the remaining three materials, Thousand-Form Steel was commonplace, and Li Mu had obtained plenty of it within the Flower Grove Sect. The other two, Tear-Dripping Thread and Skybird Feathers, could only be obtained through transformation.

During the transformation, Li Mu did not avoid Shen Bingxue. The few of them already trusted one another, and in any case, Shen Bingxue could only see the final result; she would certainly never learn that he possessed a spirit pagoda.

He could not hide it from her entirely. The materials he transformed were numerous, and he did not know whether they would all be the ones he needed, so he could only study them together with Shen Bingxue. If it were one material that could not be identified, he could simply toss it into the spirit pagoda and listen for its warning. But with two, it became much harder to handle.

“Transform.”

“Transform.”

The light within the spirit pagoda flickered repeatedly, almost without pause.

He held a bundle of tangled threads in his hand. “Could this be Tear-Dripping Thread?”

“According to the books, Tear-Dripping Thread is the silk spun by a strange spider from the Demon Realm. It is light green, with a velvety sheen. If it feels sticky and extremely tough, then it should be the right one.” Shen Bingxue was well versed in the classics. She was not very familiar with materials of grade four and below, but she still knew enough.

Li Mu pinched it, then nodded with satisfaction. “Yes, this is it.”

Putting the Tear-Dripping Thread aside, he felt quite pleased. Compared with Green Vicious Crocodile Scales and Thousand-Form Steel, the requirements for Tear-Dripping Thread and Skybird Feathers were not many. This bundle alone was enough to forge several sets of Green Edge Armor.

Time passed in an instant. Li Mu immersed himself within the spirit pagoda, continuously transforming materials and then tossing them into the pagoda for verification.

He did not know how long had gone by before he finally obtained all the materials needed to forge the Green Edge Armor.

Looking at the materials before him, he was in no hurry to forge them. He had a rather unusual plan. After considering it for a while, he decided that it might actually succeed now that the time had come: he would forge something truly special, with a different property entirely, wholly unlike other magical artifacts.

“Alchemist Shen, if you wanted a robe-artifact, what special quality would you want it to have?”

Seeing Li Mu’s serious expression, Shen Bingxue answered decisively, “It should restore true essence.”

That suited her temperament well. She was skilled in defensive spells, and alchemy itself was also an extremely true-essence-consuming occupation.

Li Mu thought for a moment, then shook his head regretfully. “Say something else. I can’t do that.”

“Then make it look a little prettier,” Shen Bingxue said, somewhat reluctantly.

Li Mu reminded her carefully, “Something worn on the inside.”

“Get lost. I’m going to make medicine.”

He had asked the same question of Li Ying, Sun Qi, and Sun Sanjiu. Their answers were all exactly the same: “It should make cultivation faster.”

Li Mu smiled and nodded in agreement, and by the way, he collected all of their five-colored stone rings.

Then he returned to the spirit pagoda.

He did not forge it right away; first, he refined all the materials. This was an insight he had gained from the Fire Gourd. In the past, the green-yellow gourd had absorbed too much blood and undergone transformation, allowing him not only to forge magical artifacts but also to use unexpected spells.

Now that he had no such peculiar material, he would alter the materials himself.

So he would change the materials first, then forge them, to see whether the artifact might gain a special spell. Any treasure that possessed such a spell was effectively elevated in grade and brought tremendous benefit.

Thousand-Form Steel itself held no special property, so he began with it.

“Refine!”

A top-tier five-colored stone ring, together with Thousand-Form Steel, was smoothly refined into Thousand-Form Steel imbued with the properties of a top-tier five-colored stone.

As for the other three materials, Li Mu did not refine them. Their original properties were already excellent and extremely necessary; if he altered them, the forging would certainly fail.

“Forge.”

“Three top-tier materials, and one top-tier exotic material whose nature is also top-tier. Can it be forged?”

That delightfully tempting warning made Li Mu decide without hesitation to forge it.

“Forging complete. Obtained a grade-two top-tier magical artifact.”

A wash of blue light rose from the spirit pagoda, and a green robe appeared suddenly in Li Mu’s hand.

It was extremely light and could be folded together with ease. Most importantly, once worn, it caused no sense of discomfort at all; that was the power granted by the Skybird Feathers.

Within the spirit pagoda, bands of colored light gradually converged, and a page of text appeared in the sea of consciousness.

“Green Edge Armor, top-tier. Grants three spells: Bone Scales, Great Water Art, Purifying Essence...”

Compared with the moment the Fire Gourd first appeared, Li Mu was far calmer now as he looked upon the Green Edge Armor. Yet he knew that the power of this top-tier magical artifact must surpass that of the Fire Gourd. It was compatible with both water and fire; it was lighter in weight, consumed less true essence, and possessed three spells besides. Such a grade-two artifact was probably unheard of in any cultivation world.

Bone Scales, the Green Edge Armor’s special spell, could unleash hundreds of razor-sharp bone scales, like a burst of cold steel lashing out in an instant. Its close-range power was immense; even an opponent protected by a grade-three magical artifact would find it difficult to defend against. This was the reason the Green Edge Armor was so formidable.

Great Water Art was clearly the standard additional spell of a top-tier magical artifact, needing no explanation. It was a water-attribute technique that could only be cultivated at the Spirit-Establishing stage, and its power was quite good.

As for Purifying Essence, it was the special effect obtained after refining top-tier five-colored stones. It required no activation and remained ever-present; at all times one could sense purified spiritual energy. It was of great use to cultivators in the Qi Condensation stage.

Filled with delight, Li Mu forged several more in the same shape, all of them intended for Li Ying, Sun Qi, and the others.

With these Green Edge Armors, their protection would be far more secure. Moreover, cultivation itself would become much smoother.

However, the other two materials could not use five-colored stones. He would have to think of another method.