Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
Xu Feng opened the door and no longer troubled Arctic Chicken, tossing two Eighth-Rank Pills over to let it leave on its own.
This was a stone chamber entirely carved from solid ice, covering an area of no more than five zhang. The door frame at the entrance and the walls were engraved with several strange symbols. These runes, drawn with a few strokes, formed a cohesive whole that enveloped the entire stone chamber.
Xu Feng threw a spirit stone into the chamber and, seeing no reaction from within, stepped inside.
The icy walls shimmered with light, different from the outside. Under the glow, the stone chamber was clearly visible.
Inside the chamber were only two things: an Ice Bed and an old man.
The Ice Bed was small, only three feet long and wide; rather than a bed, it resembled a mat.
The old man sat cross-legged on the Ice Bed. He was very old, so much so that he had become nothing but bones, hence he was also called Old Bone...
This was a Skeleton.
The Skeleton's bones glimmered faintly with gold, indicating that he had been a cultivator of extremely high rank. A cultivator's body generally withstands the ravages of time and does not reduce to mere bones. This person clearly had golden bones, at least at the Great Perfection Stage level of power, yet he had turned into a pile of white bones while in an ice chamber, which was indeed puzzling.
The Skeleton wore a ring; however, it was not on his hand but placed beside him on the Ice Bed. The fiery red ring resembled the Flame of Ambition.
Xu Feng observed his surroundings again but could not discern any mechanisms. He then reached out to pick up the ring and unleashed Five Elements Power to open it.
This was the largest storage space Xu Feng had ever seen, equivalent to ten football fields in size. Inside were piled various materials for Refining Tools, categorized into dozens of major classes, each further divided into several subcategories.
Xu Feng had read Long Ye's Refining Tool manual and recognized some of the materials; however, many others were unfamiliar to him and could only be identified by comparison.
The owner of this ring was most likely a Refiner and certainly not an unknown figure.
Xu Feng called out in the space: "Junior Xu Feng has inadvertently arrived here; please do not take offense, senior."
Years ago, Jin Liaoyuan left his phantom in the space; this person is a hundred times stronger than Jin Liaoyuan, and leaving behind a phantom incarnation is quite simple.
Sure enough, as the space shifted, an old man with white hair appeared. His hair was completely white, as were his beard and eyebrows. Strangely, his hair, beard, and eyebrows were all connected, making his head look like a tuft of white cotton.
This person had extremely high cultivation, but with such an appearance, it was difficult to associate him with any celestial demeanor.
"Junior Xu Feng pays respects to you, senior," Xu Feng bowed to the old man with white hair.
The old man was in the Sky, his gaze unfocused and seemingly looking nowhere in particular. He said, "I do not know who you are, but since you have come here, you must be a fated person."
Upon hearing this tone, Xu Feng felt reassured; Jin Liaoyuan had spoken similarly back then. He thought about it—when one reaches death, the words spoken are often similar; they merely clarify the situation and convey important matters.
Like Jin Liaoyuan, this person also used his final spiritual power to condense an incarnation to deliver a last message to the one who opened the ring. This incarnation would soon dissipate; however, unlike Jin Liaoyuan's, this person's incarnation was clearer and more powerful.
The old man continued, "My name is Jiang Wujue, an elder of the Golden Stone Workshop. What you see now is my spiritual phantom; I have already passed away."
Golden Stone Workshop? Xu Feng was taken aback. The Golden Stone Workshop is ranked sixth among the Xian Dao sects in Zheguo, second only to Pingdao Sect. It is the top sect for Refining Tools; they have at least eight hundred elders. He wondered which elder this person was.
Xu Feng remained silent; he knew that even if he spoke, the old man would not hear him. All of the old man's words were pre-recorded.
"My greatest wish in life was to defeat Zuo Qiumingjian. I worked hard for thousands of years and competed against him for thousands of years but never won; this is my greatest shame."
Xu Feng felt a jolt; during his years of cultivation in Zheguo, he had acquired a wealth of information from the memories of his refined Yuan Ying. The Zuo Qiumingjian mentioned by this person could very well be an old acquaintance of Xu Feng.
It is said that ten thousand years ago, Zheguo produced a talent in the field of Refining Tools named Zuo Qiumingjian. At that time, he was revered as the Craftsman God and was the first Refiner in Zheguo's history to achieve enlightenment through tools and ascend.
Now this Old Bone turned out to be from the same era as Zuo Qiumingjian and was even in the same profession. He had competed against Zuo Qiumingjian for thousands of years! Goodness! Zuo Qiumingjian is known as the Craftsman God; losing to him is not just a shame but rather a great honor.
No wonder the Golden Stone Workshop hasn't heard much about Jiang Wujue; it turns out he was a figure from ten thousand years ago. This Jiang Wujue must have been contemporaneous with the founder of the Golden Stone Workshop.
"Now I can finally compete with him again, but unfortunately, I no longer have that opportunity."
Jiang Wujue sighed heavily and pointed to a corner of the space where the Treasure Rack was located. "Now I have refined three Dao Artifacts. Any one of these Dao Artifacts can compete with Zuo Qiumingjian, but—"
Three Dao Artifacts! Xu Feng felt his mouth go exceptionally dry.
"I left the Golden Stone Workshop at eight hundred years old and traveled around. At nine hundred, I arrived at the Arctic Snowfield, dedicating myself to Refining Tools, vowing not to step out of the Arctic Snowfield until I refined a Supreme Dao Artifact. It took me three hundred years, but I finally comprehended the laws of Dao from the unpredictable day and night of the North and successfully refined the Xuan Guang Jing."
Xu Feng wished he could immediately rush to the Treasure Rack and stuff all three Dao Artifacts into his pockets, but he had to be patient and listen to Jiang Wujue until he finished, as his final words were bound to be very important.
"The Xuan Guang Jing is my proudest Dao Artifact and also my last one. Only this one can defeat Zuo Qiumingjian in Refining Tools and become the new Craftsman God."
"But I couldn't wait for that. The Xuan Guang Jing exhausted my energy, and by the time it took shape, I had already drained all my strength. I had to burn my flesh and blood to nourish the artifact with my blood just to barely complete it."
So he burned himself in place of energy; no wonder with his cultivation level, he ended up as nothing but a pile of bones.
"The Xuan Guang Jing was refined, but due to my lack of energy, its Spirit Weapon cannot be activated. What should have been a Supreme Dao Artifact can only be considered a mid-grade one, and its lifespan has been greatly affected; it can only be used for ten years. After ten years, the Xuan Guang Jing will turn into flowing light and cease to exist."
"Uh..." Xu Feng felt a chill run down his spine. Ten years? For cultivators, that was merely a blink of an eye.
Jiang Wujue continued, "Among these three Dao Artifacts, the other two are both high-grade. Zuo Qiumingjian can also refine Superior Dao Instruments, but they may not compare to my two artifacts. It's just a pity about my Xuan Guang Jing... Even so, Zuo Qiumingjian won't be able to refine a Dao Artifact like Xuan Guang Jing!"
From Jiang Wujue's tone, it seemed that this half-finished Xuan Guang Jing was far superior to the other two Superior Dao Instruments.
"I have dedicated my life to Refining Tools. Since the establishment of the Golden Stone Workshop, I haven't spent more than three hundred years there; everything has been managed by Mu Zilin. As an elder of the sect, I feel ashamed for contributing so little."
"You are destined to come here. If you have no intention of using the Refining Tool, then please return all my materials along with a Superior Dao Instrument to the Golden Stone Workshop. Consider it my last act for the Golden Stone Workshop. You may take everything else."
Xu Feng turned his head to look around. Apart from the materials and three Dao Artifacts, there was nothing else in the space—not even a spirit stone. There were some elixirs, but they had long been consumed by Jiang Wujue.
In other words, apart from the two Dao Artifacts, everything else had to be returned to the Golden Stone Workshop. Xu Feng felt as if a part of him had emptied out, as if he had just won a grand prize only to discover that several others had won it too.
No one would know if he didn’t return them, but he felt a bit uneasy about it...
History seemed to repeat itself. Back then, Jin Liaoyuan left a box of Square Leaf Grass for Xu Feng to deliver to the New Moon Sect, and now Jiang Wujue had left behind a pile of materials for him to take to the Golden Stone Workshop.
The Golden Stone Workshop ranked sixth in Xian Dao and seemed quite low-key; he hadn’t seen anyone from the Golden Stone Workshop making a name for themselves in Xian Dao. After the battle at Sealing Magic Gorge, he hadn’t seen anyone from the Golden Stone Workshop either. They were known for their Refining Tools, so they should at least have a shop selling magical artifacts.
Thinking about the magical artifact shop made Xu Feng's heart stir. Jiang Wujue, Wujue Pavilion—could there be any connection between the two? The more Xu Feng thought about it, the more suspicious he became. He decided that when he had time, he would visit Wujue Pavilion; perhaps Wujue Pavilion was an enterprise of the Golden Stone Workshop.
Jiang Wujue did not speak again; his shadow slowly dissipated, and a generation's genius in Refining Tools vanished completely. While alive, he was overshadowed by Zuo Qiumingjian, who stole all the limelight. Just as he finally achieved something in his craft, he unexpectedly met his demise.
As a master of Refining Tools, Jiang Wujue unfortunately lived in the same era as Zuo Qiumingjian. With such a rival as Zuo Qiumingjian, it was both his sorrow and his honor.
Xu Feng bowed once more into the void, paying his final respects to this "Old Bone" from ten thousand years ago.
Watching Jiang Wujue disappear, Xu Feng walked over to the Treasure Rack pointed out by Jiang Wujue.
The rack was divided into three tiers, each holding a magical artifact—presumably those three Dao Artifacts.
The three Dao Artifacts appeared unremarkable and lacked the imposing aura of spiritual power he had imagined. Three corresponding books on ritual refining were placed beside them.
Dao Artifacts were the pinnacle of Modern Clerk's existence; each Dao Artifact resonated with the Dao and possessed immense power. There were no more than ten sects that owned Dao Artifacts, and there were fewer than a hundred Dao Artifacts in all of Xuan Continent, most of which were Low-Grade Dao Artifacts.
Only five Refiners are capable of forging Dao Artifacts, and only the Golden Stone Workshop can create Superior Dao Instruments.
The energy and financial resources consumed by a Superior Dao Instrument are astonishing, but more importantly, it also requires opportunities and luck.
The starting stage for a Dao Artifact is the Divine Separation Stage. Without the strength of the Divine Separation Stage, one cannot activate a Dao Artifact; it would be more satisfying to use a Supreme Treasure instead.
Xu Feng is self-aware and knows he does not yet qualify to use a Dao Artifact.
There are three Dao Artifacts: a sword, a knife, and a mirror.
According to Xu Feng's habit, he naturally decided that the sword would be returned to the Golden Stone Workshop as their Superior Dao Instrument, while the knife and mirror would belong to him.
The Xuan Guang Jing has a unique design, with a handle over two feet long, resembling a tennis racket when placed down. The Xuan Guang Jing is Jiang Wujue's proud creation, and Xu Feng couldn't help but pick up the nearby Ritual Refinement Manual to take a look.
"Xuan Guang Jing, essence of the Earthly Profound Light, one mirror conceals ten lights, one year surpasses ten years..."
Comment 0 Comment Count