57: Chapter 57 God-Slaying Flying Knife

Three hours later, his spiritual power had recovered to 80%, and the throbbing in his temples had subsided.

Then, he picked up the golden thunder bamboo and the purple pattern gold.

The golden thunder bamboo was about three feet long and as thick as a thumb. Pale golden lightning arc patterns on the surface of the bamboo nodes flickered faintly in the dim grotto.

When his fingers neared the bamboo body, a needle-like numbness traveled from his fingertips up to his wrist and then his forearm, making the hair on his arms stand on end.

The purple pattern gold remained just as light. Held in his palm, the grapefruit-sized piece felt like a piece of dried-out cork.

Three hundred years of Artifact Refining experience from his previous life whirled through his mind. Various plans emerged in his Sea of Consciousness only to be rejected—the pure golden thunder bamboo could craft a lightning-based Magical Artifact with great power, but its physical attack was too weak; pure purple pattern gold could craft a Divine Sense Magical Artifact, but it lacked control ability; fusing the two might very well destroy their respective natural Restriction foundations.

He finally decided: use the golden thunder bamboo as the main body and the purple pattern gold as an auxiliary to craft a composite Flying Sword that combined physical attacks, lightning paralysis, and Divine Sense shocks.

Step one: process the golden thunder bamboo.

The entire bamboo node could not be cut—the natural lightning arc patterns were the perfect foundation for the Restriction circuits, and any cutting would damage the arc conduction effect.

He suspended the bamboo node in the Artifact Refining furnace and baked it slowly with low-temperature spirit fire, strictly controlling the temperature below the bamboo's carbonization point, only baking away the waxy layer on the surface.

The wax dissipated into white smoke in the fire, revealing the pale golden bamboo fiber texture underneath. Within every fiber, tiny arcs flickered, like miniature lightning sealed in amber.

Step two: draw purple pattern gold threads. This was the most difficult step.

purple pattern gold is known for its toughness, but drawing it into extremely fine threads requires precise control over the metal's extension limits.

He cut the purple pattern gold into dozens of small pieces and heated them in spirit fire until half-melted—the dark purple metal droplets were slowly elongated and thinned under the wrapping of his Divine Sense, from the thickness of a knuckle to a chopstick, to a sewing needle, and finally drawn into purple-gold threads as thin as human hair.

During the drawing process, the gold threads snapped several times; the broken ends were mirror-smooth, glowing with a faint purple light in the residual heat of the spirit fire.

Every time one snapped, he adjusted the angle of his Divine Sense's force. Eventually, his movements became fluid, and the gold threads were continuously drawn from the droplets, unbroken and endless, coiled into spirally arranged bundles under the control of his Divine Sense.

The total length of the final purple pattern gold threads was enough to circle the grotto several times, while the purple pattern gold consumed was less than one-ninth of the whole piece.

Step three: inlay the threads. Jiang Yan placed the golden thunder bamboo horizontally in front of him, locked his Divine Sense onto the trajectory of every natural lightning arc pattern on the bamboo surface, and used his spiritual power as tweezers to inlay the purple pattern gold threads one by one along the patterns.

The lightning arc patterns on the bamboo surface were already slightly recessed, so after the gold threads were inlaid, they were almost flush with the bamboo surface, flashing with tiny dark purple light traces only when the angle changed.

The inlay order started from the root of the bamboo node and spiraled upward, branching, merging, and branching again at each node—as if draping a layer of extremely thin and fine purple-gold mesh over the bamboo.

The most time-consuming part was the connection at the bamboo nodes—the lightning arc patterns were naturally interrupted at the nodes, requiring the purple pattern gold threads to act as a bridge to reconnect the patterns of the upper and lower sections.

Step four: engrave the Restrictions.

The first five of the nine Restrictions were engraved inside the bamboo body along the layout of the natural lightning arc patterns—the Lightning Conduction Restriction used the natural arc channels of the bamboo nodes to amplify the lightning strike power.

The Sharpness Restriction carved a circle of extremely fine edges on the outer rim of the bamboo sword.

The Durability Restriction wound around the bamboo fiber bundles to prevent it from breaking under stress.

The Lightness Inscription kept the bamboo sword light, and the Divine Sense Amplification Restriction was embedded inside the purple pattern gold thread network.

The last four were engraved at the junction of the purple pattern gold threads and the bamboo surface, winding along the spiral network—the Divine Sense Shock Restriction allowed the purple pattern gold threads to erupt with a cone-shaped Divine Sense shock at the moment of impact.

The Arc Diffusion Restriction allowed the lightning strike to expand from a point attack to a surface coverage.

The Spiritual Power Stagnation Restriction caused the spiritual power circulation of a Cultivator hit by the lightning to be delayed for a split second.

The Maneuver Restriction allowed the bamboo sword to change direction in the air, making its trajectory erratic and impossible to predict.

The moment the nine Restrictions were engraved, the entire bamboo sword suddenly lit up with a dazzling purple-gold interlaced light.

The pale golden arcs of the golden thunder bamboo itself jumped and flowed on the surface of the bamboo nodes, emitting a faint crackling sound.

The purple light on the purple pattern gold threads surged layer by layer along the spiral network.

The nine Restriction patterns activated simultaneously. The bamboo sword hovered in mid-air, trembling slightly, standing upright on its own with the tip pointing up and the hilt pointing down. Arcs formed a circle of pale golden light around the sword body, flickering for several breaths before slowly dissipating.

High Grade Level 1 purple-veined thunder sword, complete.

Jiang Yan gripped the hilt of the bamboo sword. It felt very light, so light that it felt like holding a piece of bamboo rather than a sword.

After injecting spiritual power, the bamboo body suddenly tightened, and pale golden arcs surged from the hilt to the tip, the crackling sound as dense as popping beans.

He swung the sword casually at a head-sized rock beside him—before the blade arrived, the arcs first shot onto the rock, the cyan-white electric light shattering the surface of the rock, and then the bamboo sword itself cut an inch into the rock.

The physical hardness of the golden thunder bamboo was only a fraction of that of metallic spirit Materials, and the cutting depth was far inferior to a gold essence Flying Sword, but at the moment of impact, a tiny streak of purple light flashed along the sword body—that was the Divine Sense shock effect inherent to the purple pattern gold threads.

If this sword struck a Cultivator, the opponent would not only suffer from the paralysis of the lightning, but their Divine Sense would also be instantly stung, causing a momentary flaw in their control of their Magical Artifact.

He retracted the bamboo sword, his positioning clear in his heart—a secondary Flying Sword.

With the two swords working together, the flame gold flying sword would take the frontal assault, while the purple-veined thunder sword would maneuver on the side to create openings.

One hit with an arc would cause the opponent's spiritual power circulation to lag for an instant, and two hits with the stacked Divine Sense shock effect would be enough to make a Cultivator temporarily lose combat capability.

About one-ninth of the purple pattern gold had been used. For the remainder, Jiang Yan planned to craft a pure Divine Sense attack Magical Artifact.

But before that, there was a batch of Flying Swords for the sword array that needed to be crafted.

He took the Gold Spirit Sword and the small golden shield from his Storage Pouch—the two Low Grade Level 1 Magical Artifacts confiscated from Zhao Xuancheng.

The Gold Spirit Sword was thin, with only three Restrictions, and the quality was rough; it was clearly mass-produced goods issued by the Sect.

The small shield was the same, and there were several scratches on the shield surface.

He threw these two Magical Artifacts together with the last piece of flame gold and several pieces of fire copper into the Artifact Refining furnace.

The Gold Spirit Sword was dismantled into gold essence, the small shield was melted back into dark gold metal liquid, the flame gold provided fire attribute amplification, and the fire copper increased ductility to prevent the sword body from being too brittle.

Three sword blanks took shape in the furnace simultaneously. Each Flying Sword's body was controlled to two feet and one inch in length—the sword array required the Flying Swords to be in perfect step; a difference of even a hair's breadth would lead to a misalignment of the combined attack timing.

When engraving the Restrictions, six were engraved on each Flying Sword—Sharpness, Durability, and Lightness as the foundation, Amplification to improve attack power, Maneuver to facilitate the sword array's positioning, and Linkage Restriction to allow the three Flying Swords to sense each other's positions.

The moment the Linkage Restriction was activated, the three Flying Swords flew out of the furnace mouth in a 'pin' character formation, hovering in mid-air to fine-tune their positions. The angle between the sword tips was exactly 120 degrees, without the slightest error.

Medium Grade Level 1 Yan Jin Sword Array, complete.

The last item—the god-slaying flying knife.

Jiang Yan picked up the purple pattern gold. The grapefruit-sized dark purple metal felt weightless in his palm.

He threw the purple pattern gold into the Artifact Refining furnace and calcined it at extreme temperature for a day and a night.

Level 2 spirit Materials were indeed difficult to refine—the purple pattern gold wrapped in pale cyan spirit fire did not fully soften until the next day, the dark purple metal liquid slowly deforming under the wrapping of his Divine Sense.

He divided the liquid into two. Two-thirds were refined into a flying knife, three inches and three fen long.

The blade was engraved with ten Restrictions, one of which was a Divine Sense attack Restriction—derived from a simplified version of a Divine Sense secret technique, "Soul-Splitting Slash," which he had accidentally obtained in his previous life.

This Restriction mobilized all the natural Divine Sense amplification patterns within the purple pattern gold, converging them to a single point at the tip of the blade.

The god-slaying flying knife was of High Grade Level 1 quality.

With Jiang Yan's current cultivation base and Divine Sense strength, he could not engrave Level 2 Restrictions, but he made full use of the natural patterns of the purple pattern gold, achieving the pinnacle of the Qi Refinement Stage in terms of Restrictions.

After breaking through to Foundation Establishment in the future, re-smelting the flying knife and superimposing Level 2 Restrictions would allow the purple pattern gold flying knife to become a Level 2 Spiritual Artifact.

He suspended the god-slaying flying knife above his palm. The dark purple blade glowed with a faint luster. When his Divine Sense probed inside, it felt as if countless extremely fine needles were extending from within the blade to pierce his Shen Ting acupoint simultaneously—just sensing it made him feel a slight stinging pain.

The remaining one-third of the purple pattern gold liquid was drawn into dozens of extremely fine purple-gold threads, serving as supplementary Materials for future repairs or upgrades of the Magical Artifact.

Thus, all Artifact Refining was completed.

Jiang Yan sat cross-legged in the center of the grotto, surrounded by metal shavings and discarded spirit jade powder left over from the Artifact Refining.

Moonlight leaked down from the crack overhead, shining on the spirit Materials scattered all over the ground, each emitting a faint glow.

The Artifact Refining furnace was upgraded to High Grade Level 1. The top-grade Flying Sword was completely repaired.

The gold essence Flying Sword was upgraded to High Grade Level 1. The flying needles were upgraded to Medium Grade Level 1.

The purple-veined thunder sword and the god-slaying flying knife were finished. The three Yan Jin Sword Array Flying Swords were in position.

His cultivation base had not increased, but his combat power had been reborn.

He swallowed the last peiyuan pill to restore his spiritual power.

The dark red pill melted slowly in his mouth, the warm medicinal power surging toward his Dantian, and the dark golden vortex accelerated its rotation again.

After resting for an hour, he turned his gaze to the Spirit Medicine piled in the corner—the silver thread grass and blood-blood flower obtained from Prince Yongs Mansion, as well as a few half-Spirit Medicines scavenged from various places.

The belly of the Artifact Refining furnace still retained the lingering spiritual aura of the flame gold and purple pattern gold, which was just right to provide the heat basis for the upcoming Alchemy.