My Artifacts Can Upgrade Infinitely

After breakfast and a quick wash, Zhao Zuo opened his door and went to the Earth Fire Chamber to resume forging Magical Artifacts. After about four hours... his daily work was complete.

From the initial excitement of mastering Artifact Refining to his current numbness... The daily, repetitive Refining made him feel like a breathing, thinking machine, utterly devoid of any pleasure.

Zhao Zuo would sometimes secretly mock his own sentimentality. His life was countless times better than it had been, yet he refused to be content, refused to accept the status quo. He had to strive, step by step... to see the view from the top.

Lower Grade Magical Artifacts were the most basic kind, also known as Standard Magical Artifacts.

But Middle Grade Magical Artifacts were a different story entirely. Their prices were hundreds of times higher than Lower Grade ones, typically ranging from one thousand to nine thousand Spirit Stones. As Zhao Zuo continued to ponder, he set a new goal for the coming days: to obtain the techniques for refining Middle Grade Magical Artifacts.

’Or,’ he considered, ’I could try to deduce the method for refining Middle Grade Magical Artifacts from the *Artifact Refining Introduction* myself.’

Zhao Zuo returned to the Earth Fire Chamber for another four hours. This time, he wasn’t just repetitively refining Lower Grade Magical Artifacts. Instead, he tried to theorize during the process, searching for a viable path forward.

By the end of the day, Zhao Zuo’s mind was often wandering during his Artifact Refining. Although he failed to come up with any useful tricks or new directions, there was one undeniable outcome: his success rate plummeted.

The time was around eight in the evening.

Zhao Zuo was in the courtyard adjusting his condition, preparing to formally begin his study of the Golden Body Technique.

As he opened the book, Zhao Zuo could feel a Restriction on the pages activate. ’I only have seven days to practice. Once the time is up, the book will spontaneously combust.’

The book was very thin, only about twenty pages long.

The first two pages described the origins of the Golden Body Technique. It was the prerequisite Cultivation Technique for the Saint Buddha Temple’s core teaching, the Indestructible Vajra Body. Anyone who cultivated the Golden Body Technique to the level of Great Perfection could be specially admitted into the Saint Buddha Temple as an Outer Sect disciple, and might even have a future chance to learn the Indestructible Vajra Body.

The next section was filled with tenets of Buddhism, encouraging people to do good and renounce violence.

It spoke of the Realms of liberation and enlightenment, with the fundamental goal of alleviating the suffering of all living beings.

Zhao Zuo skipped past this section and began studying the specific Cultivation method. The book primarily contained illustrations of eighteen bizarre postures, along with instructions on how to assume them. The general method of Cultivation was unchanged, but one first had to activate their body’s Qi Blood using the Vajra Seal.

Zhao Zuo picked up two stones to hold the book open in front of him. Following the illustrations, he began to position his limbs and torso. Simultaneously, he crossed his arms, folding and weaving his fingers together to form a complex Hand Seal.

"Hah!"

With a low shout, the Qi Blood throughout his body surged as if it had found its course. Zhao Zuo’s skin gradually turned crimson like a boiled shrimp, and wisps of pure white vapor rose from him. In that moment, his body was like a scorching furnace.

Zhao Zuo used his mind and powerful Soul to forcibly control the raging Qi Blood, directing its flow. Bumps rose and fell beneath his skin, as if countless insects were writhing just below the surface. He braced himself with his hands, extended his left leg straight toward the sky, and bent his right leg to wrap around the left in a way that seemed to defy the body’s natural structure.

This was the first of the eighteen postures.

A dense Golden Light gradually began to radiate from Zhao Zuo’s body. A warm current like a small stream flowed swiftly through his muscles and into every part of his frame. His body, which had hit a bottleneck, was now rapidly transforming and strengthening.

Ten minutes later, Zhao Zuo had grown accustomed to the first posture. He raised his right hand and turned the page. What greeted him was an even more unnatural pose. He could only just manage to twist his body, completing the posture from the book amidst a series of sharp cracks from his bones.

Immediately, a sensation that was part ache, part sharp pain, radiated from the very crevices of his bones. It was a peculiar agony—like an itch deep in his marrow, but also like the excruciating pain of bones being shattered. Along with this unbearable torment, his Qi Blood began to surge into his skeleton.

It was a process of being broken down to be rebuilt, and it was agonizing.

After another ten minutes, Zhao Zuo had mostly adapted to the third posture. He immediately reached out, turned the page, and began to contort his body once more, bending his spine backward and supporting himself with his left hand.

Pain. Excruciating pain. It felt as if the ligaments and muscles in his back were being torn apart. Simultaneously, his upgraded Source Water Bead released a surge of Energy to repair the damage, while the searing power of his Qi Blood was also restructuring those very muscles and ligaments in a brutally forceful manner.

Beads of sweat rolled down his cheeks and splattered on the ground, spreading out like blooming plum blossoms.

Time passed. Zhao Zuo gradually grew accustomed to the agony, feeling his body slowly strengthening through it. Finally... after another ten minutes, the excruciating pain completely subsided.

Normally, Zhao Zuo would have turned the page to practice the fourth posture. However, the effects of the first few were surprisingly potent. His Qi Blood was already showing signs of flagging, and his body felt significantly weaker, giving him the sense of being completely hollowed out.

Zhao Zuo had no choice but to get up, start a fire, and cook. He made himself a bowl of Demon Beast meat over rice and ate.

Although it was late, Zhao Zuo didn’t dare to rest. After all, he only had seven days.

That night, he resumed his practice of the Golden Body Technique, this time starting directly with the fourth posture. What mattered now was familiarizing his body with all eighteen postures as quickly as possible; there was no need to practice them in a continuous sequence from the beginning.