29: Chapter 29 Melting Armor

Inside the ruin warehouse, it was dim and lightless.

Gu Shen sat quietly on the ground, his breathing barely perceptible. Suddenly, his eyes snapped open, and a faint light flashed deep within his Sea of Consciousness.

Three zhang away, a thumb-sized grayish-brown poisonous insect crawling along a wall crack suddenly stiffened, then peeled off the wall like a puddle of mud, fell to the ground, and ceased all signs of life.

The entire process was silent, without even a trace of Spiritual Qi fluctuation leaking out.

"Originating from the heart, ending with the thought. This Soul-Shocking Spike is finally as easy to use as my own arm."

Gu Shen withdrew his Divine Sense and rubbed his slightly throbbing brow.

After several days of sleepless, relentless practice, his mastery of this Divine Sense killing move had reached the Transcendent stage. Now, when casting it, not only was the backlash minimal, but he could also fire two spikes within two breaths, enough to handle most sudden dangers.

A cramping sensation of hunger came from his stomach.

Gu Shen probed his Storage Pouch with his Divine Sense and took out a jar of iron-sealed meat paste. He drew the gold-severing saber from his waist and skillfully pried open the seal.

A rich meaty aroma wafted out. He gulped it down, sending all the salty, fishy meat paste into his stomach.

After finishing and wiping his mouth, Gu Shen stood up. He kicked the empty iron jar into a corner and clapped his hands.

"This ruin is unfathomable; with my Level 5 Qi Refining cultivation, training here has reached its limit. It is time to go back."

He took a deep breath to calm his mind. With a slight movement of his thoughts, the gray mist swirled.

...

Wild Dog Ridge, A-17 Stone Cave.

The faint spatial ripples dissipated, and Gu Shen's figure quietly appeared.

He immediately crouched low to the ground and swept his Divine Sense behind the stone door. The few sharp stone fragments he had placed before leaving stood exactly in their original positions.

Safe.

Gu Shen stood up, did not remove the warning Restriction at the door, and walked over to sit on the stone bed.

He raised his hand, and two items appeared before him.

A pitted, grayish-black, second-hand black turtle shield.

A piece of stone armor essence the size of an infant's fist, grayish-white like rock.

"In this Wild Dog Ridge, looking for someone to perform Artifact Refining is no different than asking a tiger for its hide. Once these High Grade Spirit Materials refined from a Tier 3 evil spirit are exposed, even the Late-Stage Qi Refining shopkeeper at the inn would likely be unable to resist killing me to steal the treasure."

Gu Shen's eyes were deep.

Better to rely on oneself than others. Since his [Heaven and Earth Furnace] could fuse geng metal sand into an ordinary iron kitchen knife, it could naturally fuse this stone armor essence into the shield.

"Fusion!"

Gu Shen grabbed both items, his Divine Sense surging as he communicated with his Sea of Consciousness.

Boom!

The phantom of the Great Furnace descended, and the white flame of rules instantly enveloped the black turtle shield and the stone armor essence.

Gu Shen's face turned pale.

This Fusion was far more difficult than crafting the gold-severing saber. The black turtle shield was a true Magical Artifact, with earth-element formation patterns engraved inside; and the stone armor essence was a Tier 3 spirit material, hard to the extreme.

Wanting to perfectly fuse the two without damaging the original formation patterns consumed a great deal of Divine Sense.

An incense stick of time later.

The veins on Gu Shen's forehead bulged, and the Spiritual Qi in his Dantian was nearly exhausted.

He did not hesitate, split a wisp of Divine Sense to probe the Storage Pouch, retrieved a drop of essence white dew (inferior) extracted from a Tier 1 Corpse Dog, and swallowed it directly.

The pure Spiritual Qi dissolved, barely sustaining his remaining strength.

Finally, under the forced suppression and calcination of the Great Furnace, that piece of stone armor essence turned into a pool of grayish-white stone glue, seeping bit by bit into the material of the black turtle shield.

The pitted scars on the surface of the shield were all filled in. The original grayish-black shield body gradually transformed into a heavy, pale gray, and the surface even faintly developed a layer of natural stone patterns resembling a tortoise shell.

[Fusion Complete.]

The brilliance retracted.

Gu Shen gasped, catching the brand-new shield from the Void Realm.

The originally pot-lid-sized shield had shrunk by a circle, now just slightly larger than a bowl. However, it felt extremely heavy in his hand, almost a hundred jin in weight.

Gu Shen injected a trace of magic power into it. Hum—!

A thick, solid, pale gray light shield instantly unfolded before him, emitting an indestructible aura of thick earth.

"Good shield!"

Gu Shen flicked his finger heavily against the light shield. With his current Level 5 Qi Refining finger strength, which carried Geng Metal Qi, it didn't even stir a ripple.

With this layer of "stone armor," this original Low Grade second-hand item had at least doubled its defensive power, absolutely reaching the Peak of a Medium Grade defensive Magical Artifact!

Even a full-strength strike from a Late-Stage Qi Refining Cultivator, he was confident he could withstand.

Gu Shen played with it affectionately for a moment before putting it back into his Storage Pouch.

Continuous spellcasting and Fusion left him physically and mentally exhausted. But he did not rest; instead, he changed into a clean gray robe and reapplied the purple venom patches to his face.

It was time to go out and gather information.

...

The front hall of the Old Ghost Inn was a simple tavern.

They sold inferior spirits and coarse meat cooked from the scraps of Tier 1 Yao Beasts. The smell was pungent, but it was cheap, making it an excellent place for Loose Cultivators to exchange information, brag, and gather news.

Gu Shen chose a dim corner against the wall, sat down, threw out two fragments of Spirit Stones, and ordered a pot of cloudy wine.

The tavern was noisy.

"Heard about it? In that skirmish in the Black Wind Forest, an outer sect Elder of the Danding Sect died! They say even the corpse was refined into a blood puppet by the demonic Cultivators of the Blood Fiend Sect!"

A bearded man at the next table was gnawing on a bloody bone while spitting as he talked.

"Heh, what's an Elder dying? I heard that the batch of apprentices and Loose Cultivators who were forcibly conscripted were wiped out—not a single survivor was left!"

Gu Shen's hand holding the wine bowl paused slightly, and he took a sip without changing his expression.

Sure enough, in the Danding Sect's report, he was already a dead man. This saved him a lot of trouble; no one would go chasing after a low-level Alchemy apprentice.

"Now the Blood Fiend Sect has set up a stronghold deep in the Black Wind Forest, blocking the trade route to the west. The Danding Sect is anxious; they just issued a bounty order in the market yesterday!"

The bearded man lowered his voice, his eyes flashing with greed, "One head of an Early Stage demonic Cultivator is worth five Spirit Stones! Ten for Middle Stage! Thirty for Late Stage! If you can produce the identity bone plaque of a demonic Cultivator, you can even go to the Baicao Pavilion to exchange for a Medium Grade Medicinal Pill!"

Once these words were spoken, the Loose Cultivators at the surrounding tables all gasped, and bloodthirsty red light appeared in their eyes.

Men die for wealth, just as birds die for food.

With the bounty out, the outlaws in this Wild Dog Ridge would likely turn into hyenas, swarming into the Black Wind Forest to hunt down lone demonic Cultivators.

Gu Shen put down the wine bowl expressionlessly.

He was not interested in this bounty. Killing demonic Cultivators who were prepared was too risky. The corpse of the Qi Refining Stage 4 demonic Cultivator in his Storage Pouch had long been refined into ash by the Great Furnace, and as for the Storage Pouch that represented his identity, he had wiped the imprint and used it as a regular pouch.

"Troubled times bring heavy rewards, and under heavy rewards, there must be madmen."

Gu Shen's heart was as clear as a mirror.

The more chaotic it was outside, the scarcer the Spirit Medicine for treating injuries became.

The eleven clusters of red blood essence glue in his hands were now the hottest items in this Wild Dog Ridge. As long as he operated properly, exchanging them for resources to Breakthrough to Qi Refinement Level 6 or even Late Stage was not difficult.

Just as Gu Shen was calculating, the tavern's curtain was suddenly ripped open.

A thick smell of blood poured in along with the cold wind.

Three blood-soaked Cultivators stumbled into the door, supporting each other. The leader had half his body charred black by some kind of poisonous flame, and as he entered, he roared at the top of his lungs:

"Help! Who has High Grade hemostatic powder or detox pills! I am willing to pay a high price! Twenty Spirit Stones!"

The noise in the tavern instantly subsided.

Countless eyes stared coldly at these three fat sheep. In this Wild Dog Ridge, those who revealed great wealth without the strength to protect themselves ended up even more miserably than if they had encountered demonic Cultivators in the Black Wind Forest.

Gu Shen sat in the shadows, his eyelids drooping, unmoved.

He had medicine, but he would never trade it under the eyes of everyone.

The Iron Rule of the Dao of Survival: Do not stand under a dangerous wall, and do not earn money that attracts unwanted attention.