144: Chapter 144 [Eternal Forge Meditation Method]

This thing wasn't anything particularly precious.

It was more like a plug-in or a key for the Eternal Furnace Cultivation Method.

It was a guiding object reverse-engineered from the eternal furnace within the Spiritual Sea after it had been constructed, using that internal furnace as a blueprint.

With it, one could use it as a tool, a primary blueprint, and a startup guide to project it directly into the Spiritual Sea. By building according to its shape, it became much more convenient to construct the eternal furnace.

Without this guiding object, no matter how high one's talent or how sound their theory, there was hardly any possibility of success during the construction process.

In his past life, Gu Changming would often fiddle with this thing, pondering a boring question: which came first, this object or the eternal furnace?

After constructing the eternal furnace, one could use reverse engineering to create this object using some simple metals.

But without it, it was basically impossible to construct the eternal furnace within the Spiritual Sea.

...

After taking the item in hand, Gu Changming stopped overthinking and gripped the small copper furnace tightly.

He closed his eyes, focusing his mind and calming his breath.

In the next second, a slight tremor shook his Spiritual Sea.

A phantom image of the small copper furnace appeared out of thin air, suspended in the center of his consciousness.

It wasn't a physical object, but a precise and complex three-dimensional structural model outlined by countless tiny points of light.

The model rotated slowly, its surface flowing with innumerable layers of nested patterns.

Gu Changming took a rare moment to appreciate it; the structure was indeed exquisitely ingenious.

After a few glances, with a thought, his Mental Power, which had been as calm as a lake, began to mobilize, slowly converging toward the furnace model.

Wisps of invisible Mental Power were guided, extremely carefully, toward the edges of the model, tentatively touching the most basic and simple structural nodes.

The moment they made contact, the Mental Power began to actively follow the "tracks" preset on the model, adapting and shaping itself.

This was the function of the guiding object. Without it, if one tried to construct it node by node on their own, their Mental Power would be exhausted before even the most basic outline was finished.

The construction continued. Using his will as hands, Gu Changming guided the threads of Mental Power to build along the patterns of the model.

Those patterns seemed chaotic, but they were actually interconnected.

Every time a small section was built, the adjacent patterns would light up slightly, creating a weak suction that pulled the subsequent Mental Power to connect more smoothly.

Mental Power flowed, filled, and solidified within the model, gradually turning the illusory light-and-shadow model into a real "vessel" with a special structure within the Spiritual Sea.

As the construction progressed, a subtle change began to appear in the aura around Gu Changming in the outside world.

Centered on him, an indescribable "pressure" slowly spread. It wasn't intense, but it made the surrounding air feel stagnant.

That was the external manifestation of his Mental Power's quality and quantity rising.

Time continued to pass.

Over an hour later.

Within the Spiritual Sea, the final core pattern of the furnace model was completely lit, filled, and stabilized by pure Mental Power.

Buzz!

A distant chime, which only Gu Changming himself could "hear," rippled out from the core of his Spiritual Sea.

The entire "eternal furnace" shook violently!

All the patterns on the furnace's surface erupted in a soft yet steady light, and the structure became completely stable.

Deep within the furnace's core, a "flame" condensed from spiritual will ignited out of thin air.

With the formation of the "flame," the entire furnace began to operate on its own.

The small flame in the furnace's core flickered slightly, beginning to spontaneously absorb the stray, minute distracting thoughts and energy ripples within the Spiritual Sea, performing a slow but continuous conversion.

As it began to operate, a surge of pure, cool Mental Power feedback poured out from the furnace and merged into Gu Changming's Spiritual Sea.

Simultaneously.

In the outside world, the invisible Mental Power field around Gu Changming suddenly retracted, and all the overflowing aura was pulled back into his body.

When he opened his eyes again, a faint silver glow swirled in the depths of his eyes before vanishing.

"It's done," Gu Changming said softly.

There wasn't much surprise; this was to be expected.

Immediately after, with a slight thought, Gu Changming opened his personal panel, his gaze landing directly on the mental attribute column.

[Mental: 361 points]

"After the furnace was successfully constructed, my Mental Power increased by several dozen points," Gu Changming muttered to himself.

This value already far exceeded his other three attributes.

But this was normal. In his past life, because of the Eternal Furnace Cultivation Method, his Mental Power had usually been far ahead of the other three stats.

Looking at the Mental Power value, Gu Changming glanced at the ring on his hand.

"Now, with this Mental Power plus the assistance of potion and items, I should be able to expand it to ten thousand cubic meters." Gu Changming turned the domain ring on his finger and continued, "I just don't know what will happen after breaking through that limit."

Back then, he had sensed that something important would definitely happen after breaking through that limit, but he didn't quite understand which aspect it would be.

Gu Changming concentrated his mind and sank his perception into the ring.

The void space inside was still stable at the roughly three cubic meters he had maintained before.

After taking out everything inside, Gu Changming used his will to lead, and the newly formed "eternal furnace" in his Spiritual Sea accelerated its rotation slightly.

Pure and thick Mental Power was continuously drawn out and injected into the domain ring.

As the Mental Power continued to be injected, the space inside the domain ring expanded steadily.

Five thousand cubic meters, six thousand cubic meters...

Although he hadn't yet felt a sense of depletion in his Spiritual Sea, Gu Changming proactively exchanged a few Mental Power recovery potion from the system Mall and downed them.

As the potion entered his mouth, new spiritual energy poured into his Spiritual Sea, merging with the Mental Power spontaneously generated by the eternal furnace.

With the extra supplement, the speed of spatial expansion noticeably quickened.

Seven thousand, eight thousand... in the blink of an eye, it approached the previous limit.

Nine thousand two hundred.

At this point, Gu Changming finally felt a sense of exhaustion coming from the depths of his mind, and the speed of spatial expansion slowed significantly.

Of course, he didn't panic.

He raised his hand and tugged at his neck, pulling out the pendant he was wearing.

Activating it with his mind, the massive amount of Mental Power previously stored in the pendant was instantly triggered. His Mental Power surged in an instant, increasing by more than thirty percent!

The previously slowing expansion momentum was revitalized.

Inside the ring, that void space seemed to be violently pushed open by an invisible giant hand!

Nine thousand nine hundred... nine thousand nine hundred and fifty...

The bottleneck of ten thousand cubic meters was easily punctured like thin paper in the face of this explosive Mental Power.

Ten thousand cubic meters!

At the very moment the spatial volume broke through that critical point, a sudden change occurred.