Destiny in Cinders

Though Yvelbane had said that body and artifact refinement were not that different, it was akin to saying that nurturing humans and cows were not that different. In broad strokes, all humans and cows needed were adequate nutrition, activity and a low-stress environment. But the specific nutrients, activities and what constituted stress and even their habitats differed greatly.

An Jing, however, was someone who could come up with 108 different ways to optimally raise cattle or horses by reading a simple gym brochure meant for humans. This tendency of his caused Yvelbane to give into his impulse to let him start the refinement process right away.

Refining the dragonhoard bottle was surprisingly simple. Dragonhoard bottles were based on a kind of wondrous organ that True Dragons used to store all types of spirit and lethal qi, making it similar to a fey-core cultivation technique. It just so happened that An Jing gained insight into that lately.

”It’s all about weaving those materials together into a complex yet balanced arrangement for a vessel that can contain all sorts of types of qi, much like how heaven and earth encompass all that exists amidst them.”

An Jing plotted out a rough design in his mind based on the blueprints of the dragonhoard bottle. He prepared all the tools and materials he needed, contemplated the precise workflow and carried it out in one go.

He already took apart a few cheap spirit-qi crucibles from Skysource and used them as a reference point. Technology that functioned similarly to dragonhoard bottles also existed in the foreign world, though the implementations were typically oversimplified. The spirit-qi crucibles basically functioned as high-efficiency spirit stones that provided a source of fiend-qi-free qi that cultivators could use for spells, talismans, formation discs and much more. That was how almost everyone in Skysource was able to defend themselves against ubiquitous threats like fiendspawns. Crucibles were the most common and varied equipment in Skysource, yet they all shared a few fundamental operating principles.

An Jing tore apart more than ten different low-grade ones and identified their structural similarities, which helped lay the groundwork for the dragonhoard bottle’s design. Even if he failed to craft a properly functioning one, the materials wouldn’t be wasted as he’d still end up with a decent spirit-qi crucible. With nothing to lose, he went at it boldly.

”Arcane artifacts are essentially artifacts imbued with arcane spells, typically single-purpose spell formulations.” Yvelbane took the opportunity to explain the differences between arcane and spirit artifacts as well as arcane and spirit relics.

”For instance, an Armorguard spell or defensive projected qi like Bellguard might appear complex, but they’re spells developed to defend the body at the end of the day. That is their sole function. Artifacts imbued with spell formulations, even up to seven, eight or nine different ones, are still considered arcane artifacts as long as those formulations don’t form a systematic spirit art. Your Solace drone, for instance, might have nine different types of spell seals that provide different functions, but all of them operate independently from each other without any coordination.

”Arcane artifacts with many spells like the drone can be complicated to produce too, probably even more so than some spirit artifacts. As the different spell formulations have no interaction, they can’t be refined multiple times like spirit artifacts. Instead, all nine spell formulations have to be imbued as seals in a single operation, which most artifact refiners aren’t capable of.”

An Jing had already categorized the thirty-odd different materials into ”heaven,” ”earth” and ”man” according to Yvelbane’s instructions. He processed them starting from the heaven category before moving on to earth and then to man. Midway through it, he asked, ”Can the effects of some spirit artifacts’ spirit arts pale in comparison to a single spell formulation of a powerful arcane artifact?”

”Of course. The dragonhoard bottle you’re forging is one such example.”

An Jing gave it some thought and found it to be true. While the dragonhoard bottle could be used to store all kinds of qi, it didn’t have any other function. It was an arcane artifact of the simplest kind, but the spell formulations that it needed were far too powerful and complex, which was why expensive materials had to be used to craft it.

Yvelbane gave another example. ”Many energy-storage spirit artifacts are actually rather simple. A spirit art called Hundred-River-Filled Ocean can be formed using the combination of the spell formulations for River Transmission, Reservoir and Lake-Ocean Convergence. It’s able to store large amounts of water-aspect spirit energy, probably enough to fill a whole lake, and only needs three spell-formulation seals to produce an effect far greater than that of the sum of the individual spells.

”River Transmission, when paired with Reservoir, produces an additional wave-collapse effect. Reservoir and Lake-Ocean Convergence also produces a quadruple-tide effect. By the same logic, pairing River Transmission and Lake-Ocean Convergence produces an effect of allowing the artifact to bear the empyreal river. All three spells combined form a minor ability called Gourd Ocean, which creates a void out of pure water source without the need of any void materials. In effect, it’s a void ability meant for storing any water-aspect item.

”In fact, Hundred-River-Filled Ocean has two different spell interactions, so artifacts that aim to recreate that art can be refined twice. The first refinement has to imbue the first two spell formulations, while the third can be imbued at a different time. But if you imbue all three spell formulations in one go, the art will gain yet another water-aspect spell. A common example is Myriad Tidal Wave, a spell that gathers all the spirit qi in the Gourd Ocean to summon a massive tidal wave that one can unleash on one’s enemies. Another example is Heavenfall Wave, a spell that is mainly used for defense.

”That’s why it’s more common to have identical arcane artifacts than identical spirit artifacts. Even spirit artifacts that start off from the same spirit-art legacy might be further refined with different spell formulations that suit the refiner’s personalized needs. That being the case, it still doesn’t make spirit artifacts like these more potent than dragonhoard bottles, but that’s because they’re of particularly high grade. Do you think that typical arcane artifacts with three spell formulations are as potent as spirit artifacts with the same number?”