Reduced to This

Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang! Wei Yuan struck five hammer blows in quick succession. Each strike burst with a puff of dark smoke, ruining all five desolate steel arrowheads. Wei Yuan caught his breath slightly, stored the data recorded by his divine sense into his sea of consciousness, and split off dozens of divine thoughts to analyze and contrast it from various angles against using a Power Shaman's karmic luck. He had only five strands of Power Shaman karmic luck left. If he couldn't find a way to substitute it with sacrificial power, the large iron mystery boxes wouldn't work anymore, and he would be forced to settle for medium and small boxes. By then, those young masters and ladies would likely lose interest. Wei Yuan hadn't come to the Desolate Realm to make money; he needed to break into the highest circles of the spirituality trade to search for the Dao Sword. By now, the comparative analysis of the previous five strikes was complete, generating over seventy suggestions for refining Wei Yuan's technique. Wei Yuan swung his hammer through the air a few times according to the adjusted motions, set out five more arrowheads, and brought the hammer down with a different technique for each strike. Once again, five plumes of wispy smoke drifted up. Wei Yuan placed the forging hammer into a golden basin before him. The pale purple liquid inside was sacrificial power—or more precisely, a solution infused with sacrificial power. As the hammer reabsorbed the sacrificial power, Wei Yuan performed another comprehensive analysis of the latest five strikes, uncovering more than thirty defects. In this manner, puff after puff of dark smoke rose continuously. In the blink of an eye, the hundred desolate steel arrowheads Wei Yuan had prepared were all ruined. The cost was immense, but the results were gratifying. Wei Yuan had eliminated over a hundred error factors and pinpointed the root causes of failure. There were two primary issues. The first was the purity of the sacrificial power itself. A strand of sacrificial power was obtained by sacrificing a whole living offering. In theory, the sacrificial power gained from sacrificing a Dao Foundation cultivator was equivalent to a strand of karmic luck contributed by a dharma idol Power Shaman. Yet sacrificial power inevitably contained resentment and karmic debt. Even if an offering ascended the altar in sheer ecstasy, karmic debt could not be avoided. This sliver of karmic debt was the root cause behind Wei Yuan's repeated failures. The other cause was that every strand of sacrificial power differed somewhat; no two strands were ever completely identical. The instability of the material was another reason for failure. Wei Yuan couldn't help feeling a tinge of regret. Had the Red Lotus Bodhi been in his hands, it could easily dissolve that stray karmic debt, and he likely would have succeeded long ago. Even without the Red Lotus Bodhi, Wei Yuan had another method: using the azure qi of human fortune as a catalyst to bind and constrain the sacrificial power, potentially stimulating it completely and transforming it into spirituality. Wei Yuan tried ten more strikes, gradually increasing the amount of azure qi of human fortune he added. When he incorporated a thousand strands of azure qi and brought the hammer down, dazzling golden light suddenly erupted beneath it, followed by the deafening roar of an ancient beast that shook the entire shop! In the front hall, Tianyu—still deep in contemplation—was startled and bolted into the workshop, only to find Wei Yuan holding a perfectly round orb with an odd expression on his face. With that hammer strike, the azure qi of human fortune and the sacrificial power had stimulated each other just right, harmonizing with heaven and earth to produce a spontaneous transformation. As a result, the arrowhead under the hammer had turned into an orb. Inside the fist-sized orb, a tiny pink octopus swam languidly. Each of its tentacles was short and fleshy, and as it moved, it left behind flakes of flame shaped like flower petals. What in the world was this? Wei Yuan swiftly searched his memory for knowledge regarding spirituality. The most common spiritualities were ordinary creatures found anywhere, such as chickens, birds, fish, and insects. Because the Desolate Realm possessed a unique Heavenly Dao, a spirituality tainted with even a wisp of Great Dao aura would transform into a corresponding fire-spirit form. This was the Flame God spirituality unique to the Desolate Realm. Flame God spiritualities were ranked in a hierarchy. The lowest grade comprised ordinary creatures, with something like a flaming grasshopper being the lowest of the low. A grade higher consisted of ferocious birds and vicious beasts. Higher still were rare spirit beasts, such as the winged pegasus. Spirit beasts at this tier were generally of the Scenery Command level, entirely beyond the control of ordinary Power Shamans. At the very peak were the sacred beasts of heaven and earth, most of which were only heard of in legend and never seen in the flesh. Beyond them lay primordial terrors, otherworldly monstrosities, and the like, though the existence of such spiritualities was merely theoretical. Among the many cultivators who had practiced the Heavenly Fortune Spirit-Forging Method—including successive Hall Masters of the Hall of Heavenly Secrets—none had ever forged such a spirituality. Wei Yuan sank into thought. So which category did this pink octopus belong to? Before Wei Yuan could figure it out, Tianyu let out a strange cry and shouted, "How can there be such a beautiful shaman in this world?!" "This is a shaman?!" "It is! Just like a human doll, only far more exquisite, beautiful, and full of spirit!" Tianyu insisted with absolute certainty. Once certain shamans reached adulthood, stripping off their clothes made them hardly distinguishable from monsters anyway. No matter how Wei Yuan looked at it, he couldn't see how this pink octopus was a shaman. Yet looking at Tianyu's infatuated gaze, Wei Yuan had to believe him. "It's too beautiful! Give it to me! I'll pay fifty thousand—no, a hundred thousand for it!" Wei Yuan handed it straight to Tianyu. "It's yours." Aside from its peculiar shape and exceptionally abundant spirituality, the pink octopus possessed no combative power; Wei Yuan considered it nothing more than ornamental eye candy. Since Tianyu liked it so much, he might as well give it to him as a gift. "Really? This is the shaman of my dreams!" "Of course. Go on out for now. I still have plenty of work to do; this was just tonight's first finished piece." "Alright!" Clutching the orb, Tianyu walked away with a goofy grin plastered across his face. With the first success under his belt, subsequent successes followed naturally. However, using sacrificial power was different from using karmic luck: every now and then, it produced bizarre spiritualities not recorded anywhere, matching no known living creatures. Wei Yuan consumed all five hundred strands of sacrificial power in one go, forging a total of over thirty spiritualities before halting to seal them into boxes. He did not plan to put all the boxes out at once, however, intending instead to release them in batches. Among this batch were two Scenery Command desolate beast-grade spiritualities, as well as two anomalous spiritualities similar to the pink octopus—whose origins were unidentifiable and whose abilities were unknown. Although those two were functionally useless, Wei Yuan estimated that in the eyes of the Shamans, they were breathtakingly gorgeous. Out of these thirty-odd spiritualities, Wei Yuan included only one Scenery Command desolate beast and one special spirituality in the first batch, saving the other pair for the next batch of boxes. This ensured every release held a major surprise. Once both batches were completely sold, Wei Yuan estimated he would be able to find a way to acquire the highest-grade sacrificial power. At that point, combining it with the altar would give him a slim chance at forging an immortal artifact. Yet this was merely a theoretical possibility; an artifact refiner like Wei Yuan who combined human crafting methods with shamanic soul-sacrificing arts had never existed in history. Even so, the inherent instability of sacrificial power made it difficult to serve as top-tier spirit-forging material. If he could obtain a strand of top-tier karmic luck from an elite Desolate Shaman, Wei Yuan would be at least thirty percent confident in forging an immortal artifact. Wei Yuan naturally knew this was out of the question. Why would an elite Desolate Shaman ever offer him their karmic luck? *** The Wu domain, the easternmost reaches of the Shattered Lands. Shengxin and Huixin led the Liao clansman through the wilderness. Unable to hold back any longer, Huixin lashed her whip across the Liao clansman's back and snapped, "We've been wandering this secret realm for months! Where is the exit? Where is the treasure?" The flesh on the Liao clansman's back split open, yet he did not make a single sound. He merely glanced at Shengxin and said, "If you want the treasure, tell this one to shut his mouth. Every time we finally manage to find a formation core, he insists on rambling. Whenever he opens his mouth, disaster strikes without fail! Don't you know you carry a half-baked Mandate of Words?" Shengxin's expression remained unchanged as he replied, "I can speak less, of course. However..." Pushed past her limit, Huixin roared, "Shut up!" Shengxin had never seen Huixin so furious, so he wisely held his tongue. Huixin yelled, "For the past two years, I've done nothing but wander around with you, having no idea what we're actually accomplishing! When is this kind of life going to end? Why are we running all over the place? If you don't explain it clearly, let's part ways right now!" Shengxin sighed. "We are actually working toward something truly immense, grand beyond your imagination. And in this great undertaking, we are a crucial link..." Huixin sneered. "Then forgive me, but I'm out. Go on and pursue your great undertaking, and let your name go down in history all by yourself." Shengxin said hastily, "How could you? You are a crucial link as well—it is just not your time to take the stage yet. Rest assured, when your turn comes, it will shake heaven and earth..." Right at that moment, the mist ahead suddenly parted. The vault of the secret realm shattered, and a bolt of heavenly tribulation lightning plunged straight down upon the three of them! Shengxin and Huixin were scared out of their wits. Completely unprepared, how had a heavenly tribulation suddenly dropped upon their heads? Thoughts racing, Shengxin blurted out in horror, "Not good! Something below is undergoing tribulation! We've become scapegoats!" The tribulation lightning rushed through the three like a raging torrent, instantly blasting them into charred husks and hurtling them in three different directions. Shengxin moved quickly enough to grab Huixin, but when he reached for the Liao clansman, his grasp fell just short, and he could only watch helplessly as the man flew farther and farther away. Shengxin barely managed to recover a sliver of dharmic power from the lightning strike, stabilizing himself just before slamming into a mountain and landing safely. Huixin could not even stand steady. Looking around blankly, she suddenly pointed in one direction and asked, "What is that?" Shengxin looked in the direction of her finger and saw a pillar of azure light shooting into the heavens far in the distance, expanding into an immense curtain of light that blanketed the vast rivers and mountains. The sight felt naggingly familiar to Shengxin. After thinking for a long while, he suddenly cried out, "Qingming! We've landed right beside Qingming! Run!" "...What about the Liao clansman?" "Leave him!" Shengxin dragged Huixin as they fled like the wind. On a mountain peak resembling emerald jade, Bao Yun slowly withdrew the bizarre, semi-illusory treasure tree dharma idol above her head, gazing thoughtfully at the charred Liao clansman before her. The Liao clansman's sudden appearance within her tribulation lightning had naturally been deemed by the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth as an interference, causing its might to multiply in an instant. Despite his profound cultivation and formidable physical body, he had been struck down to his last breath. Two others had appeared alongside this Liao clansman, but their cultivation was superior, leaving them with enough strength to flee even after being struck by an amplified heavenly tribulation. At that moment, the Liao clansman on the ground stirred. His breath as faint as silk, he muttered to himself, "To think that I, the illustrious... Scourge of the North... would be... reduced to this..."