’Talisman Treasure, Great Sun True Flame, Divine Soul Saber...’

As his thoughts churned, a flicker of light crossed Chu Mu’s eyes.

With the transformation of his Divine Soul Saber, he had gained yet another tool.

And it was... a life-saving one at that!

However, his three current trump cards...

The Talisman Treasure was a consumable item, and with the Divine Soul Magical Power of a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator, it clearly couldn’t be sustained for long.

As for the Divine Soul Saber, it was a move that would kill a thousand enemies at the cost of eight hundred of his own men.

Moreover, Divine Soul Defense treasures were probably not that difficult to obtain for those at the Foundation Establishment Realm.

Unless it was a last resort, he didn’t dare gamble on whether a single strike would result in mutual destruction or if he would be the one to croak first.

This technique was far too dangerous.

And finally, the Great Sun True Flame. While its Mighty Power was terrifying, a single, one-dimensional technique was bound to have significant limitations.

He pondered for a moment, his Divine Sense probing into his Storage Talisman. The numerous precious Spiritual Materials he had accumulated appeared clearly within his Divine Sense Perception.

During his twenty days in the Illusory World, he had come up with countless ideas for the vast majority of these Spiritual Materials.

Twenty days, an endless supply of Spiritual Materials, and countless brilliant ideas put into actual practice.

He already had many thoughts in his mind about how to refine them and what to turn them into.

However, no matter how many ideas he had, they were all based on his previous Artifact Refining Skill, which had stalled at the Tier Two Lower Grade.

But that Artifact Refining General Outline contained a legacy that went all the way up to Tier Three Upper Grade.

He glanced around the dilapidated courtyard, his gaze deep and inexplicably complex.

In his decade or so on the Immortal Path, he had moved through too many places.

Even when he stayed somewhere for several years, it never felt like home the way Nanshan Town once did.

In every place, from the moment he settled in, he knew with stark clarity that he was just a passerby.

It was true in Jade Emperor Valley, and it was true in Water Heaven Workshop.

This mundane courtyard before him was no different!

As his thoughts swirled, he didn’t bother to clean up the ruined courtyard. Just as before, he led Wangcai on a stroll around the mundane city before returning to the underground cave.

Upon his promotion to the Foundation Establishment Realm, the two simple Array Prohibitions he had set up shattered directly under the overflow of his Magical Power fluctuations.

He reset the isolating Gathering Spirit Array Prohibition and, as usual, tossed the few remaining Demon Beast carcasses in front of Wangcai.

Chu Mu sat cross-legged. Just as he was about to focus his Heart Spirit and comprehend the Artifact Refining General Outline, his gaze shifted and suddenly fixed on Wangcai, who was lying in a corner.

While he had been in closed-door cultivation for several years, Wangcai had also been cultivating for just as long.

The bodies of the Cultivators slain in the Secret Realm, the numerous Demon Beast carcasses, and many of the Elixirs he no longer needed had all become Wangcai’s food.

Vein Nourishing Pills and Body Tempering Pills were eaten like candy.

After several years of this, Wangcai had reached true Tier One Perfection more than two years ago.

But just like the countless Tier One Perfection Demon Beasts in the Secret Realm, reaching Perfection was just that—reaching it.

Years had passed without the slightest change.

A Demon Beast Bloodline was incredibly powerful, but it was also a shackle that was difficult to overcome.

Logically speaking, after so many years, a quantitative change should have been enough to trigger a qualitative one.

But from his observations, Wangcai’s quantitative accumulation had long since stagnated...

For the Black Mountain Wolf bloodline, the threshold from Tier One Perfection to Tier Two was likely as difficult to cross as ascending to the heavens.

As his thoughts turned, he fumbled in his robes and produced a palm-sized Jade Bottle, holding it in his hand.

Within his Divine Sense Perception, he could faintly detect a dense, tyrannical aura, even through the isolating Restriction of the bottle.

The Bloodline Essence of a Tier One Perfection Demon Beast, a Gale Wolf.

From what he knew, a Gale Wolf’s peak Cultivation could reach the Tier Two Late Stage!

The Gale bloodline was clearly much more advanced than the Black Mountain Wolf bloodline.

The moment the Bloodline Essence was brought out, Wangcai, who had been lying quietly on the ground, seemed to sense something and suddenly lifted his head to look at the Jade Bottle in Chu Mu’s hand.

"Here!"

With a flicker of his thoughts, a drop of crimson floated at his fingertip. Then, with a flick of his wrist, the blood shot toward Wangcai.

"ROAR!"

Wangcai roared, leaping up and swallowing the drop of blood whole. Then, he twisted in mid-air, spun around, and landed back in the corner of the cave.

Observing its aura, it was clearly somewhat unstable. Although both were wolves, their bloodlines were different, which was not without risk.

Focusing his Divine Sense for a moment and perceiving the two different bloodline fluctuations, Chu Mu frowned in contemplation.

He wasn’t optimistic about Wangcai being able to cross the threshold to Tier Two with this opportunity.

Although the Gale Wolf bloodline was more advanced than the Black Mountain Wolf’s, consuming it this way would make it difficult to fully utilize the bloodline’s effects.

The idea was to use the Gale Wolf bloodline to stimulate Wangcai’s own dormant Black Mountain Wolf bloodline, and then use that activity to awaken an even deeper, hidden bloodline.

According to the Demon Beast Atlas, the chances of this happening were extremely low, akin to finding a needle in a haystack.

Besides, back in the Secret Realm, when he killed that Half-Step Tier Two giant crimson wolf, Wangcai hadn’t shown much desire for it, which was clear proof that this kind of stimulation wasn’t very effective.

’Let’s hope...’

Chu Mu let out a long breath. He probed his Storage Talisman with his Divine Sense. Besides the Gale Wolf Bloodline Essence that Wangcai had just swallowed, there were three other types of Bloodline Essence left.

One was the Bloodline Essence of that giant crimson wolf, a Half-Step Tier Two in cultivation. Its bloodline quality was probably not high.

After all, if the bloodline quality had been high, it wouldn’t have gotten stuck at a cultivation level like Half-Step Tier Two.

Another was from a Tier One Perfection Silver Moon Wolf King. Judging from the aura fluctuations of the Bloodline Essence, it should be a fair bit more advanced than the Black Mountain Wolf bloodline.

The last one was from a Tier One Middle Stage Vajra Wolf.

It was the cub of the Tier Two Vajra Wolf that had hunted him and Wangcai down in their last hour in the Secret Realm, leaving them with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

Although this Bloodline Essence came from a creature with a low cultivation, Chu Mu observed that its quality was likely quite high.

Chu Mu remembered clearly. That Vajra Wolf cub, despite only having a Tier One Middle Stage cultivation, had taken a full-force punch from his Giant Divine Arm and still managed to flee.

Although it only fled for a few hundred meters before perishing.

But that... had been a full-power strike from him.

Forget a Tier One Middle Stage; even if that blow had landed squarely on any other Tier One Perfection Demon Beast, it would have been critically injured!

The Vajra Wolf’s tyrannical physique had undoubtedly left an extremely deep impression on him.

And the irresistible terror of that Tier Two Vajra Wolf was a shadow that was hard to dispel.

With a single claw, it had shattered a Top Grade Magical Artifact Shield, torn through a Middle Grade Magical Artifact Robe, and even left a gash on his body.

At the time, the toughness of his body was on par with a Magical Artifact!

’A body of forged iron, bones of vajra...’

Chu Mu murmured, a fervent light already gleaming in his eyes.

’If I could transplant the Vajra Wolf bloodline into Wangcai, then...’

At this moment, the Longevity Turtle Spirit Technique couldn’t help but surface in his mind.

The nature of a Demon Beast is wild and untamable.

Even with a cub, the instincts within its bloodline destined it to be difficult to make submit to a Cultivator.

The so-called Spirit Beasts in the Cultivation Immortal Realm were mostly controlled by Slave Seals or certain Divine Soul Contracts.

Even so, stories of Spirit Beasts devouring their masters were not uncommon in the Cultivation Immortal Realm.

Or they were simply raised as livestock, to be used as ingredients.

But the biggest difference between Wangcai and other Demon Beasts was his nature.

He was, in essence, just a common mongrel from the mortal world.

Guarding the house with unwavering loyalty was his instinct.

And Chu Mu had raised him from when he was a common mongrel pup, step by step, to this day. Even after becoming a Tier One Perfection Demon Beast, even after transforming and awakening the Black Mountain Wolf bloodline... his fundamental nature had not changed.

A Demon Beast fiercely loyal to its master.

This alone was undoubtedly extremely rare.

After all, even if he were given a Vajra Wolf cub now to raise from birth, with a Demon Beast’s nature, it would be tantamount to raising an ungrateful wretch that could only be prevented from betrayal through various restrictions.

Comparing the two, the choice was undoubtedly clear.

As his thoughts turned, Chu Mu glanced again at the Vajra Wolf Bloodline Essence in his Storage Talisman. After a moment of contemplation, he suppressed the impulse in his heart.

His eyes slowly closed. As his mind quieted, the Artifact Refining General Outline unfurled like a scroll within his Divine Sense Perception.

The Artifact Refining General Outline contained the entire Artifact Refining System inherited over countless years by an Ancient Sect. Even though it only covered the legacy from Tier One Lower Grade to Tier Three Upper Grade, the amount of information it held was still unimaginably vast.

Especially since... the knowledge system of the Artifact Refining Skill itself was incredibly immense!

The "Spiritual Radiance Blessing" had descended.

Under its focused state and his enhanced intellect, he began to understand and absorb this massive legacy bit by bit, ultimately turning it into his own foundation of knowledge.

This process continued unabated.

In the days that followed, Chu Mu’s life became extremely simple.

His entire focus was on the Artifact Refining General Outline.

The "Spiritual Radiance" value he had accumulated from years of closed-door cultivation was all spent on this very text.

As for the Spiritual Materials accumulated in his Storage Talisman, aside from a few particularly precious ones, he used all the rest for practice.

Life was exceedingly dull.

But for Chu Mu, he was enjoying it more than ever before.

He only knew that with every bit his foundational knowledge of the Artifact Refining Skill increased, countless more possibilities opened up.

In his past life, building an aircraft carrier from scratch was just a joke.

But in this Cultivation Immortal Realm, for a skill like Artifact Refining, as long as one’s knowledge was deep enough, nothing was impossible.

Even with his Tier Two Lower Grade Artifact Refining Skill, he could basically replicate most of the technological creations from his past life here in the Cultivation Immortal Realm.

It was just that, either the Cultivation Immortal Realm already had similar items—like Sound Transmission Talismans, Sound Transmission Orders, screen-like Magical Artifacts, or the networked surveillance systems in the Marketplaces...

...or they were simply not very useful, like airplanes, guns, or tanks...

People were still people, but in the Cultivation Immortal Realm, they were people who gathered great power within themselves.

After Divine Appearance, all Cultivators would have a certain premonition of mortal danger.

The only difference lay in whether this premonition could detect hidden dangers.

His Divine Soul Saber’s warning could detect hidden dangers, whereas an ordinary Cultivator’s premonition could only detect overt ones.

With such premonitions, an Attack that couldn’t be locked onto by Divine Sense was hardly a threat unless its speed exceeded the reaction time of a Cultivator at that realm.

And for things that could pose a threat to Cultivators, he could use the Cultivation Immortal Realm’s Artifact Refining Spiritual Ability System to replace them with more efficient and streamlined creations.

Previously, when he first came into contact with the Artifact Refining System, he had made a whole bunch of little gadgets.

Although they weren’t very useful, they truly demonstrated the irresistible charm of the Artifact Refining Skill.

As long as he could think of it, and his foundation in artifact refining was sufficient, then he could make it happen...

’An Artifact Refiner... is basically... a Mechanician?’

...