Destiny in Cinders

An Jing shook his head at the impossible notion. The main thing that differentiated spirit and arcane artifacts was that the former was able to utilize abilities and other combined bonus effects from interacting spell formulations despite having an equal number of them. Spells in spirit artifacts were designed to work in tandem with each other, while spells in arcane artifacts were simple enchantments. But even simple enchantments that were powerful enough could outperform complex combinations of spell formulations, even if it was usually much more difficult and less common.

”As for arcane relics, we’re no longer talking about things like spirit arts. We’re talking about things that have stepped into the domain of dao,” Yvelbane said. ”For instance, the whitespirit swordlotus is a prototype arcane relic with a trace of metal-aspect dao resonance. You can enchant it with any metal-aspect spell or spirit art, refining it as many times as you want without limit. If you’re willing to spare the time and effort and are powerful enough, you can refine it nonstop.

”Void Embrace’s terrestrial-vein divine armaments are similar to arcane relics. They’re constantly being refined by terrestrial-vein qi and dragon qi, growing ever stronger. It can be considered a completely new path of artifact refinement.

”As for spirit relics, they are hailed as the most exalted in under heaven and on earth, containing a trace of the sacred, given form by heaven before they descended upon the earth. Put in simpler terms, they’re like me, an immortal sword with true spirit sentience, a proper one with everlasting dao resonance. I haven’t seen dao armaments in Void Embrace before, but they should fall under the spirit-relic category.

”Spirit relics are still too far out of reach. Heaven and earth themselves have to factor into the nurturing of divine materials, which powerful Divine Smiths that serve the immortal court use to refine into something that works in perfect harmony with the power of immortals and gods. Man’s power alone isn’t capable of reaching this domain. Only the combination of heaven, earth and man shall suffice to bring something like this into being.”

An Jing listened quietly, drawing parallels with the four categories of artifacts with the four major phases of cultivation. ”Techniques, spirit arts, initiation and mastery... These four steps are always crucial whether it comes to cultivation or anything else, huh? Some people with powerful legacies only know how to throw out techniques they learned haphazardly without knowing how to use them effectively in tandem. Even if they reach a high cultivation level, they can still falter against weaker foes who are able to better leverage the combination of their techniques.

”There was that grandson of the Dragon General... What was his name again? He looked pretty powerful on the surface, but he barely had any control over the power he wielded. He had firm foundations but wasn’t able to use them properly, so I defeated him without breaking a sweat.

”When I fight nowadays, I combine all kinds of abilities, using qi armaments as well as actual physical weapons and even consumable explosives. With Smelting Arms Forging Soul, I’m also able to extract the quintessence of those weapons to enhance my own body. Put together, I have a complete fundamental cycle that qualifies as a spirit art.

”Evenstar Ivory Divine Seal itself is a technique that unifies many kinds of body refinement principles. Temporal Grasp, on the other hand, can be applied to all kinds of spells or techniques, a wonder that can elevate mere techniques into proper spirit arts.

”I see... So this is how all these things work... from casters, artifact refiners and even formationists... They’re all equally profound paths that feed into each other. But then, how do I go from there to the initiation phase?”

”Did you comprehend something again?” Yvelbane sensed that An Jing’s movements were getting even more precise. The already refined air about him condensed even more until it seemed somewhat tense. ”Don’t tell me that you gained some kind of insight from listening to that explanation.”

”I did indeed.” He didn’t hide anything and shared his insights.

Pausing in shock for a moment, Yvelbane sighed. ”You just said what I was about to tell you to round it all up. Sheesh, I’ve run out of things to teach you in this area! Enough talking, keep refining!”

”I’m almost done.” An Jing went through the steps and blended the materials of three categories of heaven, earth and man together into a molten sludge, which gave off three distinct traces of purple, gold and white. The colored threads formed a cocoon by interweaving in a complex manner, settling into the shape of a bottle. The artifact took form in the chrysalis before emerging from it, completely reborn into its elevated form.

Not only did An Jing rely on his insights into fey cores to successfully craft the dragonhoard bottle, he even gained a hint into the profound mystery of arcane artifacts. A caterpillar spun silk into cocoons before eventually having its body melt into a primordial soup, filled with transformative potential, ultimately emerging as a fully formed butterfly. Feys gather all sorts of qi to form a fey core, causing their bodies of flesh to gain spirit properties of heaven and earth until they achieved the status of dragons and became true spirits.

On the other hand, the process of forging the dragonhoard bottle was akin to a rehearsal for the True Dragon Cocoon ability. There should be spirit-artifact and arcane-relic versions of dragonhoard bottles, with the latter being much more complicated in construction. They wouldn’t just require traces of the three categories of spirit materials. Instead, they had to be laid out like the microcosmic internal body formation to distill the true intent of heaven and earth.

A true spirit undergoes nine transformations, while a celestial dragon undergoes nine molts. The fey journey from serpent or even sea cucumber to true spirit was a long one indeed! Once he comprehended that point, he came to learn that there was a deeper meaning in the oddly redundant structures in the dragonhoard bottle.

”So, the main component is complete. I only need to finish it off with dragon qi.” He left the room with the prototype for the central pivot of the terrestrial veins. The dragonhoard bottle’s nature as a storage vessel gave it water alignment. He needed to use the martial-scholar formation discs to refine a thread of dragon qi to use as a quenching agent that would transform the artifact’s embryo completely.

The process went off without a hitch. An Jing waited patiently as the formation discs drew a thread of ebony-gold dragon qi before using his imperial blood droplet to guide it into the artifact. The dragonhoard bottle gradually rose into the air and emitted sporadic flashes of purple, gold and white. Steamy vapor rose all around it as embers scattered all over the place. The spirit qi surrounding it flooded into the bottle like a fast-flowing river, forming a vortex within the central pivot of the terrestrial veins.

That instant, Little Cang, who was using its magnetic capabilities to aid construction in Riverside with Bai Qinghan and Shen Mubai, stopped moving and turned to look in An Jing’s direction. It sensed the presence of dragon qi much like the other feys in the beast tide previously. But that sensation lasted only an instant; the dragonhoard bottle absorbed it far faster than the imperial blood droplet did all that time ago. Little Cang gained yet another ounce of respect for its master and had high hopes for the future. While it didn’t know what that precious substance was, it had a feeling that it would luck out one day and taste some of it if it stuck with An Jing long enough.

A pillar of white light came flashing from the center of Riverside, parting the clouds above and scattering the frost and snow temporarily. The parted clouds let some rays of the sun through, spiraling downward like dragons and serpents, illuminating the bottle of purple, gold and white in An Jing’s hand as he stepped out of the central pivot.

”It’s done!” He raised the precious bottle in his hand up high. ”Even though it’s only an arcane artifact, it’s able to cause manifested phenomena in the surrounding environment! The dragonhoard bottle is by no means mundane.”

Yvelbane agreed. ”This artifact contains the true intent of fey cores, having a body forged with celestial gold and a base forged with terrestrial silver. It’s an artifact that guides sentient life to become true spirits, a legacy of the wise dragons of yore!”

As the snowclouds filled the hole in the sky and blocked out the sunlight once more, An Jing pulled the dragonhoard bottle closer and felt the bountiful spirit qi within. There was even a trace of dragon qi within it. Along with his joy and excitement, he also felt doubt at how easy it had been. ”It only took me one night from start to finish. The forging of the bottle itself took less than two hours. Is that really it?”

Yvelbane chuckled. ”Try doing it without using Temporal Grasp. I sensed your hesitation four to five times as you were putting it together! Without it, you would’ve failed five times already!”

”What? Temporal Grasp is also part of my artifact refinement prowess!” The fact that he would’ve succeeded with six tries even without Temporal Grasp already put him on par with the most talented Divine-Smith prospects.

The dragonhoard bottle had a massive storage capacity, about five times that of the spirit-qi crucible that served as the core for the Fengdu soldier’s spirit armor. However, that was only when it was used exclusively for storage in a stable environment. To prevent interference from spirit-qi waves in combat, it was safer to fill it up to only about four times the capacity of a core spirit-qi crucible.

It also boasted a really high throughput of spirit qi at any given moment, allowing it to power even Clearing arcane artifacts. The Ocean Domination blade that An Jing used as his main weapon only operated at a rather low capacity. But with the dragonhoard bottle, he would be able to unleash the artifact weapon’s true power for a limited time. The fact that it required water-aspect qi was no issue since the dragonhoard bottle could store different types of spirit qi at any given time, even regulating them in such a way that they could be refined into aspectless qi. While there was some loss during the conversion, it was a godsend for cultivators who could only use a limited range of qi.

An Jing filled half of the bottle with terrestrial-vein qi. Next, he wanted to gather some pure metal-aspect qi from Palespirit Cave. It would be great if he could use it to redirect the attention of the heartless fiendmolts there as well to see whether it would affect their patrol routes.