"Hm?"

Just as Chu Mu was observing, a strange fluctuation appeared with extreme suddenness.

He instinctively grew vigilant, but he relaxed slightly after realizing the scanning wave was focused on the "Water Drop" Magical Artifact in his hand.

However, the strange fluctuation had come suddenly, and it vanished just as quickly.

It swept over the "Water Drop" Magical Artifact in his hand and then disappeared without a trace.

It was as if it were simply inspecting the results of his Artifact Refining.

As the fluctuation faded, the solid gray-white wall directly in front of him began to squirm in a bizarre fashion.

After a flicker of light, a line of text slowly materialized on the wall.

Lower Grade assessment Magical Artifact "Water Drop" successfully refined.

Tier One Lower Grade Artifact Refiner assessment passed.

Tier One Middle Grade Artifact Refiner assessment begins.

As the text appeared, another Jade Scroll and a Storage Talisman abruptly materialized before him.

’Assessment Magical Artifact? Tier One Lower Grade Artifact Refiner?’

Chu Mu was slightly taken aback. He recalled the Water Drop he had just refined and picked up the newly appeared Jade Scroll, flipping through it for a moment...

’So that’s how it is!’

He had an epiphany.

The so-called assessment Magical Artifacts were, in other words, flashy but impractical!

Take the Water Drop, for example. Its design was ingenious, and its Array Prohibition Patterns were exceedingly complex, covering nearly the entire body of knowledge for Lower Grade Magical Artifacts.

But its actual utility was clearly more for show than for practical use.

The purpose of this type of Magical Artifact wasn’t to be used as a tool by Cultivators, but simply to test the skill level of an Artifact Refiner.

If an Artifact Refiner could easily refine the Water Drop Magical Artifact, it meant they had essentially mastered seventy to eighty percent of the knowledge required for the vast majority of Tier One Lower Grade Magical Artifacts.

Refining other Lower Grade Magical Artifacts would certainly not be difficult for them.

’A Tier One Lower Grade Artifact Refiner...’

Chu Mu’s gaze flickered. This was the first time he had heard of such an assessment, but he had heard of this classification system back when he was in Jade Emperor Valley.

However, the current Great Chu Cultivation Immortal World didn’t use this kind of classification.

In the Great Chu Cultivation Immortal World, as long as you could successfully refine one type of Lower Grade Magical Artifact, you were a Tier One Lower Grade Artifact Refiner. If you could refine one type of Middle Grade Magical Artifact, you were a Tier One Middle Grade Artifact Refiner.

One couldn’t say this system was right or wrong, but it clearly made it difficult to determine an Artifact Refiner’s true skill level.

It was quite obvious that under such a system, the vast majority of Artifact Refiners were all style and no substance, like castles in the air.

After all, with a body of knowledge as vast as the Artifact Refining Skill, if one lacked a sufficient foundation and could only copy a single recipe by rote...

...such an Artifact Refiner was hardly worthy of the title.

In contrast, the Immortal Dao Sect’s assessment and classification were undoubtedly far more rigorous.

Using an assessment Magical Artifact that covered a wide range of knowledge for its grade was more than enough to prove whether an Artifact Refiner had genuine talent and learning.

After a moment of contemplation, Chu Mu looked at the Jade Scroll in his hand again.

This time, the assessment was to refine a Magic Robe.

It was called the Moon Frost Robe, a Middle Grade Magical Artifact. Just like the Water Drop Magical Artifact he had just refined, it was extremely exquisite, complex, and... flashy but impractical!

He felt no pressure. With his current foundation of knowledge, anything within the grades of Magical Artifacts shouldn’t be much of a problem.

A little over two hours later, the Moon Frost Robe was successfully refined.

The same scanning fluctuation flickered, and then three lines of text appeared on the gray-white wall before him.

Next came the Upper Grade assessment Magical Artifact, the Profound Nether Shield, and the Top Grade assessment Magical Artifact, the Wind and Cloud Shuttle...

He succeeded in refining them one after another.

The gray-white text appeared on the wall in front of him once more.

Tier One Top Grade assessment Magical Artifact "Wind and Cloud Shuttle" successfully refined.

Tier One Top Grade Artifact Refiner assessment passed.

In twelve hours, the Tier Two Lower Grade Artifact Refiner assessment will begin.

This time, the text was slightly different. Instead of the rapid, back-to-back assessments, it left a twelve-hour break.

’Water Drop, Moon Frost, Profound Nether, Wind and Cloud...’

Chu Mu let out a soft breath, silently recalling the four Magical Artifacts he had just refined in succession, from the Lower Grade to the Top Grade...

Although he had succeeded with ease, he... had also gained quite a lot!

From the four assessment Magical Artifacts, he could clearly see the systematic knowledge they contained.

His own Artifact Refining knowledge was something he had cobbled together from various sources. Seeing a systematic body of knowledge, even if it was just a glimpse, was clearly of great benefit to him.

As thoughts swirled in his mind, he slowly closed his eyes, cleared his thoughts, and began to restore his weary spirit.

Twelve hours passed in the blink of an eye.

Before him, a Jade Scroll and a Storage Talisman slowly materialized.

Chu Mu took a deep breath, suppressed the unease in his heart, and picked up the Jade Scroll.

’The Cyan Cloud Banner...’

He didn’t put the Jade Scroll down until nearly a quarter of an hour had passed.

The unease in his heart had also dissipated quite a bit.

The existence of Spiritual Artifacts was still unfamiliar to him.

But fortunately, it wasn’t completely beyond his comprehension.

Although its body of knowledge was outside his current scope, it was at least an evolution of the foundational knowledge he already had. It wasn’t so advanced that he couldn’t understand it.

This time, Chu Mu was clearly much more cautious.

The "Spiritual Radiance Blessing" had already descended upon him. He held the Jade Scroll, preparing to learn and apply the knowledge on the spot.

Under the "Spiritual Radiance Blessing," his rate of comprehension and absorption was very fast. After about half an hour, he put down the Jade Scroll and extended his Divine Sense into the Storage Talisman. Just like every refining session before, there were three sets of Spiritual Materials.

However, every previous attempt had been a success on the first try; he hadn’t failed even once.

’Three chances.’

Chu Mu pondered for a moment, then casually took out a piece of Tier Two Lower Grade Spirit Ore. As he carefully perceived and observed it, he also compared it with the Cyan Cloud Banner’s Artifact Refining Formula he had just been studying.

This was his first time encountering a banner-type Artifact Creation. In all his years in the Cultivation Immortal Realm, the banner-type Artifact Creations he had heard of most were things like the Ten Thousand Souls Banner and the Nine-Child Soul Banner—Soul Banner-type Artifact Creations.

He didn’t know much about these Soul Banner-type Artifact Creations, but there was no doubt that their refining methods were bound to be extremely cruel.

However, in the Great Chu Cultivation Immortal World, there was no moral distinction between good and evil.

As long as one didn’t infringe upon the interests of the local powers, no amount of slaughter or heretical creations would lead to a scenario where everyone was calling for your head.

Therefore, these types of Magical Artifacts were still extremely common among the Loose Cultivator community.

The Cyan Cloud Banner before him, however, was a banner-type Magical Artifact that had nothing to do with souls. Its Mighty Power was focused on the banner’s surface.

And its banner surface was a piece of Tier Two Lower Grade Demon Beast Hide.

Its Attribute was Wind and Thunder. Therefore, the Cyan Cloud Banner’s Mighty Power manifested as wind and thunder.

Chu Mu subconsciously glanced down at the Divine Wind Boots on his feet—his masterpiece. Their Attribute was also Wind and Thunder.

The only difference was that one was a Top Grade Magical Artifact and the other a Lower Grade Spiritual Artifact; one was for escaping and dodging, while the other was an Attack-type Spiritual Artifact.

A direct comparison was not very meaningful, but the potential for reference was considerable.

The Wind and Thunder Attribute was the root source for both.

As he pondered this, he methodically continued to observe and study the Spiritual Materials for the Cyan Cloud Banner and its refining method.

Although he still didn’t know the purpose of this assessment, it was obvious that in a place this miraculous, the test must have some objective.

What he had to do was push himself to his absolute limit.

The Cyan Cloud Banner before him was probably not his limit yet.

Chu Mu remained completely focused. To him, the Cyan Cloud Banner was just like... the Grain Avoidance Pill back then.

When he had refined the Grain Avoidance Pill, he hadn’t known much about Alchemy Skill, but he already had a deep understanding of people and medicine.

Now, with the Cyan Cloud Banner, the situation was the same.

He didn’t know much about Spiritual Artifacts, but his foundation in the Artifact Refining Skill was very deep. Moreover, he also had a basic inheritance in Puppetry Skill, which broadened his knowledge and deepened his foundation even further.

The only difference was the urgency of time.

While he didn’t know if this assessment had a time limit... he could only stay in this Secret Realm for one month. That time was fixed.

Under the "Spiritual Radiance Blessing," time flew by.

On the second day, the Earth Fire, which had been extinguished for a day, once again spewed forth from the mouths of the several Fire Phoenix statues.

One by one, the Spiritual Materials were baked by the Earth Fire, their impurities slowly removed, their essences refined, and then fused and sublimated.

But in the end, the process stopped at the fusion step.

After the first failure, Chu Mu reviewed his process. About half an hour later, he began his second refining attempt.

This time, it stopped at the combination of the Array Prohibitions.

Compared to the single Array Prohibitions of Magical Artifacts, the Array Prohibitions of Spiritual Artifacts had already begun to combine and even overlap, their complexity leaping forward exponentially.

Only after delving deeper into Spiritual Artifacts did he discover a very clear reality.

For a Cultivator at his Qi Cultivation Realm, refining a Spiritual Artifact was beyond difficult!

If not for the existence of "Spiritual Radiance," trying to refine a Spiritual Artifact with a Qi Cultivation Realm Cultivation would be fundamentally impossible.

After this failure, it wasn’t until nearly five hours later that he barely managed to begin his third refining attempt.

With the experience of two failures, this time, although problems arose frequently during the refining process, he was fortunate enough to ultimately succeed.

The scanning fluctuation reappeared, and lines of text materialized on the gray-white wall.

Lower Grade assessment Spiritual Artifact "Cyan Cloud Banner" successfully refined.

Tier Two Lower Grade Artifact Refiner assessment passed.

In six hours, the Tier Two Middle Grade Artifact Refiner assessment will begin.

Chu Mu pursed his lips. He casually set the Cyan Cloud Banner aside, closed his eyes, and silently awaited the next assessment.

The complexity of refining a Spiritual Artifact had leaped forward, but it was still within his acceptable range.

For him, the greatest difficulty lay in the fact that his own Cultivation was only at the Qi Cultivation Realm.

Spiritual Artifacts belonged to Tier Two. Even a Tier Two Lower Grade one was still Tier Two.

Refining a Lower Grade Spiritual Artifact was already such a struggle. A Middle Grade Spiritual Artifact...

Chu Mu didn’t hold out much hope.

Six hours passed, and a Jade Scroll and a Storage Talisman appeared once again.

"Immortal Dao Sect Yellow Level Prison-type Law Enforcement Puppet."

The opening words of the Jade Scroll’s content were ancient and exceptionally clear.

Chu Mu continued to study the Puppet formula in depth.

A Prison-type Puppet—its classification already made the Puppet’s purpose obvious.

It was not a War Puppet, but clearly a Support-type existence.

The Puppet’s main functions were not lethal, but punitive.

According to the records, the Puppet’s primary tool was a long whip that could lash the Divine Soul, causing immense pain without actually harming it!

Its other abilities were all punitive in nature as well. Not lethal, not injurious, but... all capable of inflicting immense pain upon a Cultivator!

After reading through it once, Chu Mu was almost certain that his Artifact Refining assessment would likely end here.

This Puppet was completely beyond the limits of his Cultivation. With his Qi Cultivation Realm Cultivation, it was impossible to refine a Puppet comparable to the Middle Stage of Foundation Establishment.

Nothing he had could support this refining process.

Three refining attempts. Despite Chu Mu’s extreme caution, they all ended in unquestionable, successive failures...

Three piles of waste slag lay before him as the invisible scanning fluctuation descended once again.

Then, on the gray-white wall, several lines of text, seemingly carved like a sculpture, slowly began to change.

Artifact Refiner Grade: Tier Two Lower Grade.

Artifact Refiner Aptitude: Celestial Tier Top.

Two lines of text were clearly engraved upon the gray-white wall...

...