Chapter 148: Spiritual Artifact Refining
Renting a top-tier Artifact Refining Room costs ten Lower Grade Spirit Stones per day.
And it takes at least two days to refine a single Lower Grade Spiritual Artifact.
Unlike renting other Artifact Refining Rooms, Steward Cai couldn’t help him with the cost for a top-tier one; the Spirit Stones had to be paid upfront.
"You don’t have to pay the Spirit Stones for renting the top-tier Artifact Refining Room." Steward Cai shook his head, signaling for Fang Yun to put away the Lower Grade Spirit Stones.
"Then who is?"
"Elder Xiong has already given instructions. The cost for your rental of the top-tier Artifact Refining Room will be put on his account."
’It seems Elder Xiong has made comprehensive arrangements for this test, even saving me the cost of renting the top-tier Artifact Refining Room.’
Fang Yun didn’t say much. After putting away the Spirit Stones on the table, he walked toward the deepest part of the area.
At the very end was the only top-tier Artifact Refining Room.
After entering the top-tier Artifact Refining Room, Fang Yun first took out all the prepared Artifact Refining materials.
First was the main Spiritual Material, Lower Grade Profound Crystal. Fifteen catties would be enough.
If he used eighteen catties, Fang Yun was afraid he wouldn’t be able to control it.
Increasing the main Spiritual Material would indeed raise the quality of the Spiritual Artifact, but it would also increase the difficulty of refining it.
Right now, Fang Yun’s only goal was to successfully refine a Spiritual Artifact. Whether it was the main or auxiliary Spiritual Materials, a suitable amount was best.
Next were the auxiliary Spiritual Materials: five taels of Red Gold Sand, three pieces of Black Gold Stone, one piece of adult Profound Turtle Shell Armor, half a tael of Crystal Transformation Powder, and one piece of Upper Grade Jade Ingot.
Fang Yun laid out all the materials before him.
The total value of these materials was close to six hundred Lower Grade Spirit Stones.
The Earth Fire ignited, and flames surged upward.
’As expected of the Earth Fire in a top-tier Artifact Refining Room.’
Fang Yun felt its power for a moment. Given the intensity of this Earth Fire, if he made a careless mistake during the Artifact Refining process—a major one—the overflowing fire could injure him directly.
Fang Yun would absolutely not allow such a situation to occur. If it did, he might as well give up on refining the Spiritual Artifact.
Fang Yun began by processing the materials.
Before starting to refine a Spiritual Artifact, both the main and auxiliary Spiritual Materials had to be properly processed, especially since he was refining a Spiritual Artifact now.
If he were refining a Magical Artifact, with his current Artifact Refining skill, he could easily make adjustments during the process even if the materials weren’t perfectly processed beforehand.
After confirming that all the materials were processed, Fang Yun began to restore his Spiritual Power. The concentration of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi in the top-tier Artifact Refining Room was very high, allowing for rapid recovery.
Once his Spiritual Power was fully restored, Fang Yun took out a bottle of medicinal pills and placed it beside him.
It contained Spirit Revival Pills.
With his Cultivation at the Eighth Layer of Qi Refining, the Spiritual Power in his Qi Sea was insufficient to sustain the refining of a single Lower Grade Spiritual Artifact. To reach that level, his Cultivation would need to break through to at least the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining.
Therefore, when it came to Spiritual Power, Fang Yun could only rely on pills.
’Elder Xiong Xingfeng probably thinks my Alchemy Talent is excellent, which is why he didn’t prepare any pills for restoring Spiritual Power. Otherwise, given his willingness to cover the cost of a top-tier Artifact Refining Room, he surely would have taken this into account.’
After a short while, Fang Yun had adjusted himself to his optimal state.
He began refining!
The first step was processing the main Spiritual Material, the Lower Grade Profound Crystal.
Above the Earth Fire, Fang Yun controlled the fifteen catties of Lower Grade Profound Crystal, gradually shaping it into a shield.
The shape was similar to that of a Profound Iron Shield.
During the process of refining a Spiritual Artifact—from processing the Spiritual Materials to controlling them—the most difficult part was inscribing the Spirit Patterns.
The quality of the materials determined the upper limit of the Spirit Patterns, and the upper limit of the Spirit Patterns, in turn, determined the grade of the Spiritual Artifact.
A Lower Grade Spiritual Artifact typically has one to three Spirit Patterns.
The function of a Spirit Pattern is determined by the inscribed symbols and lines, and how to combine these symbols and lines into a complete Spirit Pattern was the content taught in the *Spirit Pattern Compendium*.
The Spirit Patterns being inscribed must match the materials used; otherwise, the Artifact Refining will fail. In such a case, it wouldn’t even be a partial success, as it couldn’t be salvaged into a peak-grade Magical Artifact.
This was the first Spiritual Artifact Fang Yun had ever refined. As for the Spirit Patterns, he would only inscribe a single one, and he would keep it as simple as possible, avoiding overly complex combinations.
With his current Artifact Refining skill, he could think of many complex combinations, but for the sake of stability, this was the only way.
Once he successfully refined his first Spiritual Artifact, future attempts would be a different story.
After the Lower Grade Profound Crystal formed the basic shape of the Spiritual Artifact, Fang Yun immediately added the Red Gold Sand.
Only after adding the processed Upper Grade Jade Ingot could he begin inscribing the Spirit Patterns, a step that was especially draining on his Spiritual Power.
He swallowed a Middle Grade Spirit Revival Pill.
Fang Yun immediately began inscribing the Spirit Patterns.
At first, it wasn’t much different from refining an Upper Grade Magical Artifact, but as the lines of the pattern gradually increased, the situation changed.
The final step of forming the Spirit Pattern was especially critical and also the easiest part to fail.
As time went on, beads of sweat appeared on Fang Yun’s forehead.
When only ten percent of the Spiritual Power in his Qi Sea remained, Fang Yun finally completed this most crucial step.
’Success!’
He steadied his emotions. The refining of the Spiritual Artifact was not yet complete.
Another Middle Grade Spirit Revival Pill went down. Under Fang Yun’s control, the adult Profound Turtle Shell Armor began to merge with the embryonic shield. Before the shield took its final form, he just needed to add the Black Gold Stones piece by piece.
Before long, the Profound Crystal Shield would be completely refined.
The Spiritual Power in Fang Yun’s Qi Sea was about to bottom out again, so he took another Middle Grade Spirit Revival Pill.
The Profound Crystal Shield had taken shape, but the Lower Grade Spiritual Artifact was not yet finished. It still required a final fusion using Artifact Refining techniques.
"Finally, it’s done!"
The Profound Crystal Shield slowly descended to the ground. Having shut off the Earth Fire, Fang Yun was completely drained.
For someone at the Eighth Layer of Qi Refining, refining a Spiritual Artifact was truly difficult. It was not just a test of constantly replenishing his Spiritual Power, but also a trial for his mind and spirit.
After finishing the refining, he suddenly relaxed, and as his mental focus slackened, he felt he was about to collapse.
He roughly estimated the time; the refining process had definitely taken more than two days.
He didn’t feel hungry at the moment.
Before coming to Artifact Casting Peak, he had taken a Middle Grade Grain Avoidance Pill.
One Middle Grade Grain Avoidance Pill could last for three days.
After storing the Profound Crystal Shield, Fang Yun left the top-tier Artifact Refining Room.
He desperately needed to rest.
He would worry about testing the Spiritual Artifact after he had rested.
"Fang Yun, how did the refining go?" Steward Cai asked immediately upon seeing him come out.
Seeing Fang Yun’s listless appearance, it was difficult to judge the final outcome of the Artifact Refining.
Steward Cai wasn’t actually supposed to be here today, but he had volunteered to take over another steward’s duties for free just to wait for Fang Yun to emerge.
"It was a success," Fang Yun replied.
"That’s wonderful news." Steward Cai nodded his head happily, then added, "Hurry back and get some rest. Refining a Spiritual Artifact takes a huge toll."