Ten-Year Deadline, Study Like Crazy

[With the trait helping you achieve enlightenment, studying the Daoist books left by the Shen Family Ancestor suddenly felt much easier.]

[Studying the same thing constantly was quite boring, and your learning efficiency would actually drop.]

[Therefore.]

[Artifact forging, alchemy, and the Dao of the Sword—with traits boosting your comprehension in these areas, you tackled all three simultaneously and excelled at them all!]

[As your alchemy skills improved, you began refining pills yourself.]

[Previously, when using the Jiuzhou Cauldron for alchemy, you just threw the raw materials in randomly and let Da Chun do whatever he wanted.]

[Da Chun was simply too free-spirited.]

[Now that you also knew how to refine pills, you understood what materials to put in, how much to use, how to place them, and so on. The entire methodology was clear in your mind.]

[Da Chun only needed to play the role of an alchemy furnace.]

[This was no ordinary alchemy furnace; it was a Great Dao Immortal Artifact!]

[Pill refinement would never fail. The pills produced were of top-notch quality, with excellent medicinal efficacy and extremely low pill toxicity.]

[Refining pills every day, where would you get so many raw materials?]

[The first source was your storage ring.]

[It contained items you collected in the Five Domains, as well as things you obtained from the Shen family.]

[The second source was this small world.]

[This place was truly magical.]

[Not only was the concentration of heaven and earth essence surprisingly high, but the things that looked like weeds everywhere were actually all spiritual plants!]

[Their spirituality was so strong that they were almost on the level of natural heavenly treasures.]

[It wasn't just the grass.]

[Flowers, trees, butterflies, bees, bugs...]

[Every living thing you could see possessed spirituality and could be used for alchemy!]

[Any inorganic matter that wasn't alive was also a spiritual material that could be used for artifact forging!]

["This Star Power Mystic Realm is truly a treasure land. No wonder the Shen family monopolizes the star domain. With this small world, the Shen family can truly prosper forever without declining."]

[You specifically refined pills to increase your cultivation in the Spirit Sea Realm.]

[The pills used to assist cultivation at each realm were different, and naturally, the materials used were also different.]

[Higher realms required rarer and older spiritual plants for refinement.]

[The Shen Family Ancestor's Daoist books on alchemy had very detailed records regarding this.]

[Some pills couldn't be refined due to a lack of materials, but there were still plenty that could be.]

[You ate different types every day to see which one had the best effect.]

[You also tried refining pills to prolong life.]

[Honestly speaking, it wasn't very meaningful.]

[The investment was high, but the returns were low. The same pill would be effective the first time you took it, but not the second time.]

[A pill that could increase one's lifespan by two or three years was already at the treasure medicine level.]

[Among pills, low, mid, and high-grade ones were called regular pills; Earth-grade ones were called spiritual medicines; treasure medicine was the term for Heaven-grade ones, and anything of higher quality than a treasure medicine was an immortal pill.]

[Although the spiritual plants in the small world grew very fast—one year of growth here was comparable to several years outside—their numbers were ultimately limited.]

[It was better to invest the spiritual plants into increasing your cultivation.]

[While browsing through the various Daoist books left by the Shen Family Ancestor, you also discovered his secret possession technique.]

[He called this secret technique the "Stars Arching the Moon Art."]

["Damn it, the name is quite fitting."]

[This set of secret techniques was extremely complex. The required procedures and preparation work were so tedious that it was difficult for one person to complete them alone.]

[You read it once, and it basically fell into the category of your eyes understanding it, but your brain not comprehending it at all.]

[There was a key point in this.]

[The target that the Shen Family Ancestor wanted to possess could not have a realm higher than the Spirit Sea Realm.]

[In other words, if someone was in the Spirit Condensation Realm, even if they were incredibly compatible with his main body, he wouldn't be able to possess them unless the other party was completely willing.]

[This was because the Spirit Condensation Realm corresponded to the Soul Tempering Realm, which marked the second enhancement of a martial artist's soul strength.]

[The Stars Arching the Moon Art was already subpar to begin with. If he encountered a martial artist whose soul had been strengthened twice and who had a strong will to resist, the Shen Family Ancestor would highly likely fail the possession.]

[It was precisely because he had experienced failures in his early years that the Shen Family Ancestor had deliberately recorded this down.]

"So, if I reach the Spirit Condensation Realm, coming back here to freeload would be meaningless."

During the "Mirror Holder" selection organized by the Shen family, various cultivation resources would be provided.

If you were in the Golden Body Realm, they would give you Golden Body Realm resources.

If you were in the Spirit Sea Realm, they would give you Spirit Sea Realm resources.

From what the Shen Family Ancestor said, giving resources was just a facade; the real purpose was to make the candidates' physiques closer to that of the ancestor.

But at the same time, this was actually a sugar-coated bullet, meant to make people comfortably cultivate the three essential Earth-grade cultivation methods required for the possession.

Of course, most of the people selected by the Shen family hadn't even reached the Golden Body Realm. Breaking through to the Spirit Condensation Realm during the selection period was practically impossible.

Chen Yi could use "playing the pig to eat the tiger" to adjust his realm aura, keeping others from knowing his actual cultivation level.

Thus allowing him to sneak into the Shen family during every simulation.

Now, after reading the complete secret technique, he knew that the Shen family would at most provide resources needed for the Spirit Sea Realm.

For pills meant to increase cultivation, a Golden Body Realm cultivator taking them might experience a massive surge in cultivation, while they might have absolutely no effect on someone in the Spirit Condensation Realm.

This was because the logic of cultivation had changed.

Golden Body Realm pills increased blood vitality, whereas Spirit Condensation Realm pills needed to strengthen the soul. The two were entirely different things.

Therefore, if he was still in the Spirit Sea Realm in the next simulation, he would continue to come here and freeload. If he reached the Spirit Condensation Realm, it would depend on the situation.

If there was a better sucker out there, he would switch targets to freeload off of. If not, he would come back and test the waters.

[Year 31, 49 years old.]

[Trapped in the Star Power Mystic Realm, you immersed yourself in the ocean of knowledge every day, unable to extricate yourself.]

[Once your alchemy reached a sufficient level, you temporarily set it aside and spent more time studying artifact forging.]

[There was no entertainment whatsoever in the Star Power Mystic Realm. At this point, you had no choice but to focus on studying.]

[Coupled with the pressure of the ten-year deadline, you forced yourself every day to master things more deeply.]

[The Shen Family Ancestor had been completely silent lately.]

[The Myriad Soul Banner said that he had sealed himself off.]

[This was not self-sealing, but a protective measure.]

[Previously, the evil energy in the Myriad Soul Banner could still taint the Shen Family Ancestor's soul and harass him whenever it pleased, but now it couldn't reach him at all.]

[You guessed that the Shen Family Ancestor had begun repairing his soul.]

[Time was running out for you!]

[Year 32, 50 years old.]

[Study!]

[Research!]

[Experiment!]

[Your artifact forging skills advanced by leaps and bounds.]

[Year 33, 51 years old.]

[You successfully forged your first high-grade spiritual artifact!]

[You also refined a massive pile of pills to increase your Spirit Sea Realm cultivation.]

[After taking them regularly.]

[Through the amplification of medicinal efficacy from the trait "Bad News Spreads in the Martial Artist Circle," and the fact that pill toxicity did not accumulate.]

[Your martial arts cultivation also grew rapidly, reaching the third level of the Spirit Sea Realm!]

[Year 34, 52 years old.]

[You attempted to forge an Earth-grade spiritual artifact and failed!]

[Year 35, 53 years old.]

[Your martial arts cultivation broke through to the fourth level of the Spirit Sea Realm!]

[Earth-grade spiritual artifact, successfully forged!]

[The Myriad Soul Banner exclaimed, "Mother of God! What kind of monstrous genius are you?! In just five years, you went from knowing absolutely nothing to forging an Earth-grade spiritual artifact?!"]