228: Repair the Ultimate Magical Instrument

The familiar sound rang out in the silent room, causing Zhou Luo, who was immersed in surprise, to startle for a moment before breaking into a happy smile.

On the jade stone, the curled-up Little White opened its crystal-blue eyes, its entire body radiating a surging and majestic aura.

It shook its head, a hint of confusion appearing in its eyes, before standing up as its soft fur emitted a faint glow.

Meow—

It gave a lazy cry toward Zhou Luo, then leaped up, skillfully landing on Zhou Luo's shoulder.

His shoulder sank; the little guy was no longer what it used to be, feeling much heavier than before.

Zhou Luo reached out his right hand, gently stroking the soft fur while extending a thread of Spiritual Qi from his palm.

The Spiritual Qi entered Little White's body without meeting the slightest resistance.

Generally, after a Spirit Beast becomes a mount or pet for a Beast Tamer, it still retains its own personality. Some proud Spirit Beasts will still ignore their masters even after submitting.

But Little White was a gift from the System. As long as Zhou Luo gave an order, it wouldn't hesitate for a second, even if told to die.

This kind of absolute submission and trust was something the vast majority of Beast Tamers could never achieve.

Inside Little White's body, that 'lake' had vanished, replaced by a great river.

The river was vast and powerful, with illusion power condensed into substance surging within it, flowing to every part of its body.

This signified that Little White had completed its transformation and entered Adulthood.

Zhou Luo was overjoyed.

Originally, given Little White's absorption speed, it might not have entered Adulthood even after several decades.

He hadn't expected it to grow so quickly after consuming the egg of the Deep Sea Illusion Turtle.

Thinking about it, it made sense. That was, after all, the egg of a third-order Spirit Beast, and its power shared the same origin as Little White's, which was why it produced such a significant effect.

He likely wouldn't have another lucky break like this in the future.

"Little White, try out your abilities," Zhou Luo said with an expectant look.

He wondered how strong Little White's power was now that it had reached Adulthood.

Perched on his shoulder, Little White lay there and gave a soft meow.

In the next second, Zhou Luo felt the scene before him begin to distort. The Lingxi Jade at his chest suddenly burst with spiritual light, and he hurriedly focused his mind.

But in just a moment, various illusions appeared before him. These illusions seemed as real as if they truly existed, allowing him to physically experience every sensation.

Zhou Luo's heart tightened.

Just a single meow could so easily pull him into an illusion?

One had to know that with his Divine Sense combined with the help of the Lingxi Jade, even the Magic Forest couldn't affect him.

In the span of a breath, the illusion receded. Little White remained in its lazy posture, while Zhou Luo was inwardly shocked.

He looked at the little guy on his shoulder in surprise and took a deep breath.

This strength was clearly no longer that of an ordinary early second-order beast, was it?!

Just with this illusion technique, it was no less than a Middle Stage second-order...

A second-order Spirit Beast was equivalent to a human Foundation Establishment Realm Cultivator!

Zhou Luo felt his heart swell with excitement and surge with spirit.

From now on, Little White would be his greatest trump card.

Afterward, he took out a pile of spiritual plants and placed them on the table, wanting it to absorb some more illusion power.

But Little White looked at the spiritual plants with zero interest.

Although it was absolutely loyal to Zhou Luo, it still possessed its own independent will and would show it when it encountered something it disliked.

Of course, if Zhou Luo forced it to eat, it still would.

Seeing this, Zhou Luo remembered that this little guy ate meat.

It seemed he would have to find an opportunity to take it to the Magic Forest to hunt some other Spirit Beasts.

He didn't force the issue, putting away the spiritual plants and taking out several Medicinal Pills meant for Spirit Beasts.

Little White did like these pills. It leaped lightly, skillfully took the pill from his palm, and lay on the table to begin licking and eating it carefully.

Zhou Luo then went to the adjacent room, planning to repair those three top-grade Magical Artifacts.

This trip to Qingyuan Immortal City could be described as a bountiful harvest.

Not only had he purchased a large quantity of rare Materials, but he had also successfully helped Little White advance.

He sat cross-legged on the jade platform and took out the first top-grade Magical Artifact, the Profound Spirit Pagoda.

The defensive power of this small pagoda was even more terrifying than the Golden Light Bell. If it could be successfully repaired, it could even withstand a full-strength strike from a half-step Foundation Establishment cultivator, and even a Foundation Establishment cultivator could be resisted for a while.

As the primary weapons for Cultivators, Magical Artifacts were very common in the Cultivation World, but that didn't mean their construction was simple.

The more powerful a Magical Artifact was, the rarer the Materials used to create it.

A so-called Magical Artifact was actually an object created by aggregating these Artifact Refining Materials so that they could withstand the circulation of Spiritual Qi and release maximum power.

Therefore, to forge a Magical Artifact, one also needed to imprint Formations within the object.

In the path of Formations, only a Second-Order Formation Master had the ability to imprint Formations onto objects. However, the Formations inside a Magical Artifact were not difficult, as they only served to channel Spiritual Qi and stabilize the flow of power.

Even a first-order Formation Master was capable of imprinting Formations on them.

Thus, after every Artifact Refiner forged a Magical Artifact, they would invite a Formation Master to apply the Formations to maintain the circulation of the artifact's power.

Fortunately, Zhou Luo was not only an Artifact Refiner but also a Formation Master.

So he had no need to separately invite another Formation Master.

He extended his right hand and gently stroked the small pagoda. His fingertips shimmered with faint light as subtle threads of Spiritual Qi emerged and were injected into the Magical Artifact.

Although the Profound Spirit Pagoda only had an extra scratch, this scratch greatly affected the operation of the Formations throughout the entire artifact, to the point where it couldn't exert the full power of a top-grade Magical Artifact.

Furthermore, if used too frequently, the Formations might collapse, and at that point, this top-grade Magical Artifact would likely be reduced to a pile of scrap iron.

So the immediate priority was to first repair the Formations within the Magical Artifact and then use Materials to fill the gap so that the artifact's power wouldn't leak away.

As a top-tier first-order Formation Master, the artifact's Formations weren't difficult; they could be repaired just by applying some Materials.

In the span of fifteen minutes, Zhou Luo had already repaired the Formations inside the Magical Artifact.

Next was to reinject power.

Since the Profound Spirit Pagoda itself was damaged, its power would be greatly reduced. Even if the Formations stabilizing the power flow were fixed, it still wouldn't be able to exert one hundred percent of its prowess.

At such a time, one had to add other Materials to inject new energy.

Zhou Luo took out the Profound Spirit Earth obtained from the auction and stood up to approach the bronze Cauldron.

Artifact Refining had seven major steps: material selection, design, smelting, shaping, tempering, consecration, and quenching.

If it was just repairing a Magical Artifact, one could start directly from smelting.

Zhou Luo placed the Profound Spirit Pagoda into the Cauldron and attached a Blazing Flame Talisman.

Whoosh—

The power of the Talisman was released, and raging flames gushed out, enveloping the entire top-grade Magical Artifact.

Smelting is the core step of Artifact Refining. It requires melting the selected Materials at high temperatures to remove Impurities and then blending and combining the Materials according to the design requirements.

This step required the Artifact Refiner to possess superb control over heat and smelting techniques.

Zhou Luo stared at the bronze Cauldron with full concentration and began adding Materials like Profound Spirit Earth.

With the help of the blazing flames, the Profound Spirit Earth radiated a slight glow. He released his Divine Sense and began to squeeze and release the power of those Materials, injecting it into the Magical Artifact.

Fifteen minutes later, those Materials were completely smelted under the intense heat and, under the control of Zhou Luo's Divine Sense, integrated with the artifact itself.

Because it was a repair, the speed was faster than normal Artifact Refining.

During the smelting process, Zhou Luo also handled the shaping and tempering steps.

As for the sixth step, consecration, it could be omitted directly because the Magical Artifact already possessed spirituality.

He went straight to the final step.

Quenching!

Quenching is the final process. Through quenching, the attributes and quality of the object can be further strengthened, making it tougher and more durable.

After obtaining the Artifact Refining skill, Zhou Luo's operations were perfectly natural, without the slightest sense of unfamiliarity.

Sizzle, sizzle—

Accompanied by a burst of white smoke, the quenching ended, and the entire Profound Spirit Pagoda looked brand new.

Zhou Luo looked at this top-grade Magical Artifact. The gap on it had been repaired, and under the coverage of the Formations, the flow of power was no longer obstructed; it had undergone a complete transformation.

He nodded slightly and then took out the remaining two top-grade Magical Artifacts to begin repairing them.