The First Immortal of Destiny

After Shen Mo advanced to become a Grade V Forgemaster, the Celestial Feather Sect bestowed upon him an Earthly Fire Spirit Flame. Several months passed, and he had become adept at refining without needing the Treasure Refining Room to forge and repair magic artifacts.

However, having the Earthly Fire wasn’t enough. The Divine Bridge Immortal Master, Long Zesheng, assigned tasks, and then handed over three Universe Bags to the three of them. Inside were dozens of gold and stone spiritual materials, a jade slip, and three Thunder Avoiding Talismans…

The spiritual materials were naturally for repairing the Thunder Attracting Sword’s materials, which had undergone preliminary processing, saving many steps of melting and purification when repairing the broken Dao sword. The jade slip contained information about the Thunder Attracting Sword’s materials, refining technique, and internal spiritual marks. Feng Yu and Li Miaoshou, having refined such magic artifacts before, didn’t need this jade slip; it was mainly for the newcomer, “Elder Yang,” to view. The Thunder Avoiding Talismans could ward off the thunder striking towards them, lest they be electrocuted or injured while repairing the Dao sword, or ruined by a hand shaking due to interference!

Once Shen Mo and the others activated the Thunder Avoiding Talismans, Long Zesheng formed seals with his hands, three purple clouds surged under their feet, carrying them into the sky.

The formations here were intricately linked. If they flew freely with escaping light, they might trigger a Prohibition, and before even entering the Thunder Creation Array, they might be refined to death. Long Zesheng, being a Grade six Array Master, knew the array Prohibitions here well enough, enabling him to guide them into the array without affecting its operation.

Shen Mo was sent to the eastern region of the Thunder Creation Array. Here, seven Thunder Attracting Swords had become damaged under the thunder’s day and night strikes. Although it didn’t affect the array’s operation, the efficiency of receiving, converting, and transmitting the thunder’s power reduced by several tenths. Since the array couldn’t replace the array core, Forgemasters had to repair it from within.

Main Hallmaster Feng Yu was sent to the array’s west side, responsible for nine damaged Dao swords, while Li Miaoshou, possessing the deepest Instrument Tao knowledge, was responsible for the central part, needing to repair ten damaged Dao swords.

Clearly, Long Zesheng considered their different levels of forging skill when assigning tasks!

…

Boom!

A thunderous explosion that cracked the sky and earth sounded overhead, shaking Shen Mo’s eardrums painfully, his whole body’s flesh and internal organs involuntarily trembling.

Thick silver snakes slithered through the clouds, less than a hundred feet from him, seemingly reachable by hand. One struck towards him suddenly, causing his hair to stand on end, and he vaguely smelled a burnt odor. The Thunder Avoiding Talisman on him emitted a faint light, immediately redirecting the thunder to a place several miles away.

Under the power of the array, this thunder seemed like a water column plunged into a lake, instantly dispersing, forming ripples of thunderous waves outward, with its violent destructive force transformed into gentle and life-giving power, transmitted to the Creation Immortal Coffin below through the array.

Standing on the purple cloud, Shen Mo swiftly scanned the Thunder Attracting Sword suspended before him with his sense.

A slender crack ran through the sword blade, with many internal spiritual marks damaged, and the Artifact Spirit’s liveliness waning, nearing extinction. If not repaired, it would likely become scrap iron in three months!

Immediately, he summoned the Earthly Fire Spirit Flame bestowed by the Celestial Feather Sect and began melting block after block of rudimentarily refined spiritual materials, preparing to repair the sword blade first.

He appeared wholly focused on fixing the damaged Dao sword, yet his mind raced as he rapidly plotted the next step…

Earlier, in a discussion with Ming Cang and others, he determined the breakthrough point likely lay on the “Immortal” laying inside the Creation Immortal Coffin.

Next, he either had to destroy this semi-finished True Immortal or fully help the Celestial Feather Sect refine a True Immortal!

Shen Mo actually leaned more towards the latter.

In reality, the Feather Realm had completely withered, its will of heaven and earth becoming an Evil Spirit, drifting for 9 million years in the cosmos, while billions of creatures, including the Spirit Feather Master, became part of the Evil Spirit, indicating that the sect’s Plan of Immortal Refining eventually failed.

Based on his previous experience, if events develop according to predetermined facts, this Evil Spirit will likely leave Five Dragon Mountain after the sect’s plan fails, appearing elsewhere, repeating countless cycles over 9 million years of the scene where the sect initiates the Plan of Immortal Refining, attempting to refine a True Immortal with the power of the realm, ultimately failing and the world perishing.

Consequently, Red Flame Gate disciples falling into this Evil Spirit can’t break this cycle, likely perishing along with the world within the Evil Spirit, effectively being assimilated by the Feather Evil Spirit!

If he can help the sect successfully refine a “True Immortal,” altering the ultimate fate of Feather Realm’s destruction and fulfilling the spirit’s obsession… it might end the cycle, creating the greatest variable, allowing Red Flame Gate disciples trapped within the Evil Spirit to break free.

However, this is not simple.

Just observing the myriad large and small, intricate formations here, and the countless high-class Forgemasters, Alchemists, and Array Masters involved, one knows refining a True Immortal is immensely grand and complex.

If one doesn’t thoroughly understand it, even the reason for the Plan of Immortal Refining’s eventual failure remains unknown, so how can he assist the sect in refining a True Immortal, altering the failure outcome?

Currently, Shen Mo transformed Artifact Hall’s Elder Yang into an “Incarnation” and gained entry into the Creation Hall, having better chances to deeply engage in the Plan of Immortal Refining than the Thunder Corpse Master. However, the immortal refining method is held by only a few high-ranking sect members like the Spirit Feather Master, gaining their trust and accessing the full method requires being at least a Divine Bridge Immortal Master or a Grade VII Forgemaster, taking three to four hundred years’ cultivation!

In another dozen years, Shen Mo will enter the cultivation world, lacking time to remain staying within the Feather Evil Spirit.

Even if he arranges with Guan Ling not to enter the cultivation world this time, timing might still be tight…

The only Formless Realm Grandmaster of the Celestial Feather Sect, Spirit Feather Master, has less than two hundred years of lifespan left.

The Spirit Feather Master is the leader of the Plan of Immortal Refining, with the entire sect and Feather Realm following his will, and he is the only cultivator involved in the plan from start to finish. His intention is well known to all: to perform the Secret Technique to inject his soul into the immortal body the moment before the refinement of “True Immortal,” completely merging with the nearly born True Spirit to breakthrough into True Immortal Realm!

Thus, the timing for refining a True Immortal is crystal clear to the Spirit Feather Master!

If the sect completely refines a “True Immortal” after his demise, his lifelong efforts to establish and advance the plan will hold no meaning.

That is to say, within less than two hundred years, the outcome of the Plan of Immortal Refining, whether success or failure, will reach its final conclusion, entirely ruling out Shen Mo’s ability to slowly cultivate gaining the complete immortal refining method!