LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 143 Flying Sword
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Purple Cloud Courtyard.
After the banquet ended, Alkaid received the reward from the Chief of the Immortal Shadow Court.
In the quiet room, he looked at the gold-foil deposit slip in his hand, made out of gold.
"Five thousand spirit stones."
With this deposit slip, you could exchange it for five thousand spirit stones at the Energy Department in any realm.
Of course, five thousand spirit stones was an undoubtedly large withdrawal that required an appointment to be made in advance.
But...
Alkaid still felt richer than he had ever been before.
"Celestial pills can be retired, straight to consuming Immortal Golden Body Pills instead—one bottle per realm, and the price is merely six hundred spirit stones."
Alkaid smiled.
But then, his expression turned a bit strange.
Six hundred spirit stones...
Merely?
Since when was six hundred spirit stones considered small change?
Unless backed by a powerful supporter, those great cultivators who relied on their own abilities to advance, especially the Star Masters of the body cultivation lineage, might not be able to save up six hundred spirit stones even in two or three years.
Shaking his head, Alkaid did not ponder deeply.
"After investing so much time and effort in 'Immortal Shadow 60', it's finally time to reap the rewards."
He shifted his focus to the spiritual world.
In the spiritual world, the branches representing the [Businessman] were green and lush, ready to thrive the moment he relinquished control.
Yet Alkaid turned his attention to the branches of [Artifact Refining].
Although he had previously been resolute in strengthening the [Martial Path] route, if he wanted to earn more spirit stones, especially to secure the million-spirit-stone contract from the Nine Cauldrons Sect, he had to put efforts into [Artifact Refining].
"Sharpening your axe does not delay chopping wood; advancing the rank in artifact refining would enable better business to make money and gain more experience, thus greatly improving the cultivation realms of martial and divine paths."
With that thought, a massive amount of nutrients poured into the [Artifact Refining] branches, and in an instant, this branch grew to its limit and bore fruit successfully.
After bearing fruit, the branch's growth did not stop; it swayed for a while, then entered a growth mode again, and directly grew to a level just below the [Martial Path] branch.
As the [Artifact Refining] branch grew, countless pieces of information also surged in Alkaid's mind.
Concentrating his mind, he quietly assimilated them.
It took him a full day to complete the integration of the [Artifact Refining] path.
"Compared to body cultivation, technique cultivation, sword cultivation, and divine cultivation, artifact refining's development... is slower."
His spirit lingered on the branches.
If progress was to be measured, his current advancement in [Artifact Refining] was roughly 35%.
But...
The divisions of the artifact refining stages were quite interesting.
From 1% to 20%, it's basically related to information about inferior-grade spiritual artifacts.
From 21% to 40%, it focuses on the medium-grade spiritual artifacts phase.
Similarly, from 41% to 60% is the experience of refining superior-grade spiritual artifacts.
However, the concepts of inferior, medium, and superior-grade spiritual artifacts mentioned here are somewhat different from those of the Cangwu Great World.
"The essence of the ancient tree belongs to high-dimensional cognition, that is, the cognition of a high-dimensional being capable of easily acquiring vast amounts of information; the range of its cognition is 'Its' field of vision, but... 'Its' gaze, obviously, is not confined to merely one Cangwu Great World."
Just like the Formless Limitless his Martial Path cultivation technique, which comes from a martial faction called "Formless Sect."
However, it seems that this martial faction does not exist in the Cangwu Great World.
So far, he has not seen any body refining sect in the previous nine layers that is more advanced or comprehensive than Formless Limitless.
Now, what he saw through [Artifact Refining] was, in essence, a technique that could accommodate all things.
It includes, but is not limited to, all the artifact refining sects in the Cangwu Great World.
Some of these methods have never been possessed by the Cangwu Great World.
But no matter how sophisticated the technique, it is ultimately used by humans.
A power with a development model completely different from his own and from the Cangwu Realm, even the most advanced technology will be useless.
It's like giving longevity technology to a silicon-based lifeform, which would probably be filled with question marks.
Although high-dimensional cognition would not make this mistake, some of the artifact refining techniques still follow a common principle with variation.
Moreover...
Living in the Cangwu Realm, what he saw first and what left the deepest impression on him was naturally the artifact refining information of the Cangwu Realm. Although some information may be outrageous, it would not deviate too wildly.
"So... although this artifact refining method is somewhat unorthodox... it has great potential."
Alkaid digested this...
Consider it a "secret technique" or "knack" within the artifact refining technique.
Myriad Spirits Master: Artifacts Chapter.
"Planting an artifact spirit in every flying sword, allowing the cultivator to quickly complete the tempering of the spiritual artifact, making ordinary flying swords reach the effect of lifebound flying swords.
Afterwards, using the cultivator to nourish the artifact, leveraging the spirituality emitted from sword cultivators to cultivate the spiritual artifact flying swords as if they were sword spirits, obtaining a large amount of self-characteristic spiritual artifact flying swords.
In the future, after reclaiming these spiritual artifacts, the cultivator only needs a tiny amount of divine sense to manipulate these flying swords..."
Alkaid lingered on this secret technique.
The style of this technique...
Resembled that of the Moon Demon Empire.
But it had to be admitted, it was very powerful.
These flying swords were best used in conjunction with the divine cultivation system and recommended some divine cultivation techniques.
The most suitable one, Alkaid had it.
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He achieved breakthrough to the Primordial Spirit Realm and formulated a cultivation technique from the sorted information.
"Taiyuan Divine Refining Art."
It is divided into four layers.
Depending on the cultivator's divine sense strength, one could eventually refine 108, 1,024, 10,800, or 129,600 thoughts with the Divine Refining Technique.
In other words, when this Divine Refining Art is cultivated to its limits, one could simultaneously track and lock onto 129,600 targets.
"Under the extreme state of 'All Spirits Lord', one can control tens of thousands of flying swords with a single thought... combining it with the Taiyuan Divine Refining Art..."
Alkaid took a deep breath.
1.296 billion!
To manipulate 1.296 billion spiritual artifact flying swords at the same time!?
Even without the power of sword cultivators, the lethality of spiritual artifact flying swords would decline, but...
With such an enormous number, once it floods the battlefield, what force could withstand it!?
This is a swarm tactic!
"The dual cultivation system is truly powerful."
Alkaid contemplated inwardly.
Divine Refinement and Artifact Refining dual cultivation.
Currently, the top-tier sects are all pursuing the dual cultivation system, even developing various pathways that synergize with each other.
However, these pathways are top secret, with a level of confidentiality higher than the methods for breaking through to the Golden Core Realm. Not to mention Alkaid, even the upper echelons of the Nine Cauldrons Sect may not know much.
"When I broke through to the Primordial Spirit Realm in the Divine Path, I derived an innate divine ability—'Divine King,' which has a high compatibility with 'All Spirits Lord' and Taiyuan Divine Refining Art. The combination of the two can achieve an effect where one plus one is greater than two."
Alkaid's eyes flickered with light.
Especially...
The Dao Fruit that emerged when Artifact Refining reached the ninth rank perfection, which solidified his decision.
"Heaven's Net."
This innate divine ability derived from the third Dao Fruit of the Artifact Refining branch, after the Heart of Artifact Refining and the Soul of Artifact Refining.
By engraving divine runes on the flying swords one refines, one can obtain the vision and perception of any flying sword.
That is, each flying sword is a node in the network.
Although it's only visual and perceptual, as the flying swords he refines in the future are sold to every corner of the world, the entire world will be within his sensory range.
Of course, achieving this goal is still a far-off dream.
It's something that he might hope for after his Primordial Spirit fully matures. For now...
He should first select a suitable flying sword to refine in order to meet the demands laid out by the Nine Cauldrons Sect.
"With this secret Artifact Refining technique, as long as the performance of the flying swords I refine isn't too poor, securing this order shouldn't be too difficult. After all, the difference between a regular flying sword and a lifebound flying sword is like that of a conductor and a superconductor.
When a sword cultivator infuses their True Yuan to execute sword techniques with a normal flying sword, there will inevitably be some loss, but a lifebound flying sword can maximize a sword cultivator's combat ability."
Even so, Alkaid still searched through the information he had acquired from Artifact Refining for a suitable spiritual artifact flying sword.
After some time, he selected a method for a flying sword.
The rank of the flying sword wasn't high, being only of an inferior grade spiritual artifact, but it not only possessed the characteristics of speed and low spirit consumption, its production speed also held an advantage.
Its stability and lethality were somewhat low, however.
But the issue of low lethality could be remedied by the advantages brought about by a "lifebound flying sword."
As for poor stability and ease of interference and suppression...
That would depend on how capable our own divine cultivators are.
If our divine cultivators could suppress the enemy's divine cultivators first, this drawback wouldn't be too problematic.
Though the divine cultivators of the Nine Cauldrons Sect were a bit weak, that depended on the forces they were being compared to.
Compared to the Great Sun Sword Sect, they might be somewhat inferior, but bullying the Xuanming Sect was still well within their capabilities.
"This one it is. Its speed and spirit consumption meet the standards. I will also market the characteristics of 'All Spirits Lord' as a selling point for the flying sword, effectively compensating for the lack of attack power. Combined with the advantage of quick production, this should do."
After settling on the target, Alkaid started digesting the method for refining this flying sword and the application of the 'All Spirits Lord' secret technique.
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The ninth day.
Upon receiving Alkaid's notification, Zhao He, Zhang Jianlin, Qin Yi, Yun Lai, and others arrived at the Purple Cloud Artifact Refining Court simultaneously.
"This is completed?"
Zhao He looked expectant, "Does it meet the standards set by the upper echelons?"
"Hmm, if it wasn't for producing a sample, I could have submitted the plan six days ago."
Alkaid said.
"The sample is already produced?"
Zhang Jianlin sounded pleasantly surprised.
Xiang Guangming smiled on the side, "Three days ago, the Chief, working day and night without rest, mobilized the full strength of the court and managed to produce the sample."
"When production began, everyone was a bit unaccustomed, not very skilled. Once they get the hang of it, given the simple structure of this flying sword, the Purple Cloud Courtyard's productivity could achieve three per day. If we expand the Purple Cloud Courtyard, producing ten swords per day is not impossible."
"That fast?"
Zhao He's face showed astonishment.
The reason the higher-ups gave the task force only one year was due to the urgent situation in the East Sea Archipelago.
After the downgrade rumors about Purple Cloud Courtyard surfaced, nearly half of their manpower left. If under such circumstances, Alkaid could achieve a production rate of three flying swords per day, this would be a highly competitive advantage.
"Let me see… Flying sword speed… Hmm!? Maximum of 2.8 times the speed of sound!? Lethality can reach level 5? Spirit consumption over 10,000 kilometers is only 176!? This is almost on par with magic artifact flying swords in terms of spirit consumption!?"
Zhao He looked up in amazement, "Are these figures accurate?"
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