Yasuo sheathed his longsword, his cold gaze sweeping over Young Master Mo’s still warm corpse.

He bent down.

His fingertip brushed over the exquisitely crafted Storage Ring.

The ring silently fell into his palm.

“Heh, another one,” Zhou Huai sneered inwardly.

As expected, a Storage Ring was standard issue for these rich young masters.

This trip was a huge gain!

The three Storage Rings alone were worth over a million great xia currency!

Not to mention the contents inside.

Young Master Mo’s ring held especially abundant Materials.

A quick glance revealed over a hundred bottles of Advanced magic recovery potions, shimmering with a faint blue light, neatly stacked.

A thick stack of brand new great xia currency cash, at least a hundred thousand by estimation.

There was also a pile of low-Rank exotic beast Materials, glowing with various subtle lights.

In contrast, the rings of the Zhao Tianming and Zhao Tianqi brothers were much more meager.

A few pieces of mediocre equipment.

A few bottles of basic health recovery potions.

Nothing else.

Zhou Huai understood.

No one would carry all their possessions on them.

For them, the rings were merely tools to facilitate travel.

After carefully inventorying all the spoils, Zhou Huai nodded in satisfaction and checked the sky.

Dawn had broken; it was already past seven in the morning.

Although the intense battle last night had delayed them significantly.

But setting off now, they should still make it to Clear Water Lake in time.

His gaze turned to Jasmine, who was huddled under a tree not far away, still somewhat shaken.

“You, come with me.”

Jasmine shivered, quickly scrambled to her feet, and nodded like a pecking chick, not daring to disobey in the slightest.

Then, at Zhou Huai’s signal, Jasmine once again summoned her scout spirit eagle.

Several agile birds flapped their wings and soared high, circling above Yasuo and Jasmine, taking in the surroundings within several hundred meters.

“Three hundred meters ahead to the left, there’s a small squad of three Rank 5 Gale Wolves.”

“There’s an energy fluctuation in the woods to the right, not high Rank, likely a Rank 7 Spotted Poison Spider; be careful of its webs.”

Jasmine’s voice was slightly hoarse, but her tone was very focused, constantly guiding Yasuo and reporting the distribution of detected exotic beasts.

With this mobile radar, Yasuo’s go ahead efficiency greatly improved.

He could always avoid unnecessary entanglement with exotic beasts in advance, choose the optimal route, and greatly save time.

However, Jasmine was ultimately just a support summoner.

Stamina was a major weakness.

After running at high intensity for over half an hour, she was drenched in sweat, panting, and stumbling.

She was about to be left behind.

“Boss... I... I can’t run anymore...”

Her voice was tearful and panicked.

Yasuo paused his steps.

He turned back, frowning at Jasmine, who was almost collapsing.

A few seconds of silence.

He turned, half-crouching with his back to her.

“Get on.”

The cold command was devoid of emotion.

Jasmine froze.

Immediately, a peculiar blush rapidly spread across her cheeks.

Her hesitation lasted only a moment; she bit her lip and carefully climbed onto his back.

Her arms wrapped around his broad and sturdy shoulders.

Through his clothes, she could feel the warm body temperature imbued with power.

A strong, masculine scent, mixed with sweat and a faint hint of blood, filled her nostrils.

Jasmine’s heart involuntarily skipped a few beats.

Her cheeks were burning.

“Focus, report!”

Yasuo’s cold voice was like a splash of cold water.

It instantly dispelled Jasmine’s romantic thoughts.

“Ah! Yes! Five hundred meters ahead, to the right, there are two Ironclaw Mountain Cats wandering; I suggest going around the low slope to the left...”

Jasmine quickly composed herself and focused on reporting what her “eyes” in the air saw.

Her cheeks were still burning.

Yasuo, carrying her, was still as swift as the wind.

He sped towards Clear Water Lake.

At the same time, Zhou Huai switched his consciousness to Ouyezi on the top floor of the Forging Guild.

Inside the top-Rank forging room.

The furnace fire blazed.

The monotonous yet rhythmic sound of hammering pulsed like a heartbeat.

Ouyezi was shirtless, his muscular upper body glistening with sweat.

He was immersed in endless forging.

On the forging table.

Over twenty freshly forged rings were neatly arranged.

Each ring shimmered with a gentle magical luster.

After inspecting them one by one, Zhou Huai’s face showed little joy.

“All are rare... no Epic.”

“It seems that even for an SS-Rank Myriad Forms Divine Craftsman, forging Epic equipment is by no means easy.”

“It requires time, and a bit of luck.”

As Yasuo ascended to Rank 10.

Zhou Huai’s main body Rank also rose, synchronously reaching Rank 10.

He now met the conditions for creating a third Clone.

All that was missing was an opportunity to draw a profession for the Clone.

Although Ouyezi couldn't yet forge Epic-Rank equipment.

It wasn’t all bad news.

After several hours of continuous forging, Ouyezi’s Rank had already reached Rank 5.

In the skill bar.

A new active skill had appeared!

Touch of Spiritual Refinement LV1:

Consumes 200 Mana.

Select an item of equipment and reforge one of its random attribute entries.

Cooldown: 1 hour.

“Change the entry attribute?” Zhou Huai’s eyes instantly lit up!

Like discovering a new continent!

The value of equipment isn’t just about its base quality!

A powerful entry can completely transform an ordinary piece of equipment!

Even surpassing high-quality equipment!

He knew that in this world, the value of a piece of equipment, besides its inherent quality and Rank, largely depended on the entry attributes it carried!

A good entry could sometimes make a slightly inferior piece of equipment unleash power far exceeding that of top-tier equipment of the same Rank!

Equipment entries were also divided into several Ranks:

Normal Entry: Usually adds fixed attribute points, such as Strength +10, Agility +8, etc., most common.

Excellent Entry: Effects are mostly percentage bonuses, such as Attack Power increased by 5%, Critical Hit Rate increased by 3%, Healing Received increased by 10%, or 20% Physical Penetration, etc., already possessing considerable value.

Advanced Entry: Even rarer, often comes with some passively triggered special effects, such as a chance to stun the target for 1 second on attack, a chance to freeze the attacker when attacked, or reflecting a portion of damage, etc.

Above this, there were the extremely rare Top-Tier Entries!

Equipment with Top-Tier Entries could even directly grant a professional a brand new active skill! Equivalent to giving the professional an extra skill slot out of thin air! Their value was self-evident!

And the highest Rank was the legendary Golden Legendary Entry!

Each of these entries possessed Heaven-Defying, terrifying effects, some involving passive permanence, some granting powerful active abilities, and even multiple effects stacked.

Even more terrifying, some Golden Legendary Entries could even touch upon the forbidden Domain of time and space!

In Zhou Huai’s memory, there was a well-known example of a Golden Legendary Entry.

That was the Epic-Rank armor worn by Qi Fengyun, the Great General of the Great Xia Country and a legendary expert—the Undying Battle Soul Armor!

The armor itself was only Epic quality, but its accompanying Golden Legendary Entry, “Undying Battle Soul,” granted the wearer one chance to resurrect on the spot with full status!

Moreover, this was not a one-time consumable!

After the resurrection effect was triggered, it only needed to wait for a year’s cooldown to be available again!

This was the terrifying aspect of Golden Legendary Entries!

A piece of equipment, because of one entry, directly acquired strategic significance!

“Can this Touch of Spiritual Refinement not only change the entry attribute but also change the entry’s Rank?”

“Can low-Rank entries be directly reforged into Advanced or even Top-Tier ones?”

Thinking of this, he immediately had Ouyezi stop forging new rings.

The forging room instantly fell silent.

His gaze fell on the forging table.

On a newly forged Rank 10 ring.

Zhou Huai brought up its attribute panel:

Swift Wolf Ring (Rare ★★★★)

Required Rank: LV10

Spirit: +30

Max Mana: +150

Entry 1 (Normal): Strength +20

“That’s the one!”

Ouyezi extended his index finger, and a deep, swirling golden light suddenly lit up at his fingertip.

Within the light, countless tiny rune chains seemed to flow and recombine.

This was the Touch of Spiritual Refinement!

He lightly tapped the ring.

Buzz!

The golden light instantly enveloped the entire ring!

The ring floated and vibrated within the golden light!

Emitting a low hum.

As if some internal structure was disintegrating and recombining!

A few seconds later.

The golden light suddenly retracted!

The ring settled steadily back into Ouyezi’s palm.

Looking at the attribute panel again:

Swift Wolf Ring (Rare ★★★★)

Required Rank: LV10

Spirit: +30

Max Mana: +150

Entry 1 (Excellent): Attacks grant 10% Physical Lifesteal

“10% Physical Lifesteal!”

Zhou Huai’s eyes burst with ecstatic light!

It worked!

Not only did it change the entry attribute, but it also directly reforged a Normal entry into an Excellent entry!

And ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) this lifesteal effect, for melee professions, was simply a Divine Craftsman skill!

Currently, this Touch of Spiritual Refinement was only Rank 1.

As the Rank increased, would the probability of reforging higher-Rank entries increase?

Could it even allow for targeted reforging?

An incredibly vast blueprint for equipment innovation instantly unfolded in Zhou Huai’s mind!

“This skill must be used frequently!”

“Time to grind the proficiency!”