Refining

"You... don't even think about it!" Leng Tianfeng swiftly mobilized the power of the Five Emperors Soul Refining Furnace, relentlessly washing away the essence, qi, and spirit Yaoguang had seeped into the Treasure Weapon. Under the impact of streams of eerie blue light, the essence, qi, and spirit contained within the blood were rapidly obliterated. Yaoguang did not hesitate either. Swallowing a large handful of medicinal pills, including tonics like Spirit Concentration Pills, he repeatedly forced blood sacrifices upon the Five Emperors Soul Refining Furnace. The essence, qi, and spirit within every drop of blood merged with the spiritual power from the spirit stones, relentlessly infiltrating the furnace along specific pathways. During this process of infiltration, his understanding of the Treasure Weapon deepened at incredible speed, to the point where each wave of infiltration seized control of nearly half of the critical nodes. Leng Tianfeng could clearly sense that the restrictions within the Five Emperors Soul Refining Furnace—originally designed to bind and control an artifact spirit—were rapidly falling under Yaoguang's sway! Although the control was not yet complete, as the restrictions activated, they already began to bind and suppress him as the artifact spirit. This binding and suppression made Leng Tianfeng slower and slower in obstructing Yaoguang's blood sacrifice. Gradually... A vicious cycle formed! He watched almost helplessly as Yaoguang seized control of more and more restrictions, Yaoguang's grip over him tightening by the second. All at once, an unprecedented wave of panic and unease surged in his heart once more. "How can this be... How did it come to this?! Not only do you have astonishing attainments in Fiendgod Body Refining, but you're also this proficient in Artifact Refining?!" Everyone had their own strengths. The beings of the Moon Demon Empire were no exception. Leng Tianfeng was exceptionally versed in commanding souls and manipulating living beings. He even commanded evolutionary pathways for demonic bodies; given an ordinary mortal fleshly shell, he could use the "Horned Demon" path to rapidly transform them into a complete demon form rivaling ninth-level body refining. Furthermore, he commanded numerous divine soul secret arts, avatar techniques, soul possession methods, body attachment methods, and more. Judging by the skills in his repertoire, he was an impeccably qualified Soul-Commanding Envoy. Yet when it came to Artifact Refining... He truly had never studied it in depth. As a result, he could only watch helplessly as Yaoguang refined the restrictions further and further, incapable of resisting in the slightest. To make matters worse, he had already completely merged with this Treasure Weapon. Unless someone could shatter the artifact and prepare another vessel in advance for his weakened state without a physical body, otherwise... This Treasure Weapon had turned into his fatal cage. Feeling the restrictive powers fall entirely under Yaoguang's control, Leng Tianfeng could not help uttering a despairing shriek: "Just who on earth are you?!" Unfortunately... Yaoguang gave no answer. As he activated the array engraved upon the Five Emperors Soul Refining Furnace, the pentagonal pill furnace—well over a meter in diameter—shrank rapidly until it was no larger than a palm, settling securely into his hand. Having seized full control of this Treasure Weapon, Yaoguang finally breathed a slight sigh of relief. He glanced at the Five Emperors Furnace in his hand. More precisely, he looked at Leng Tianfeng, who was now transformed into an artifact spirit inside it. "I recall you once said you'd put me in a box, refining me into one of your 3,600 virtual pets, so that every day the moment I saw you, I'd come running, wagging my tail and begging for mercy... Now that I think about it, a virtual pet and an artifact spirit... aren't that different. I suppose this is paying you back in your own coin—treating you the exact way you wanted to treat me," Yaoguang said. "What... what do you actually want to do?" "Just be a good artifact spirit. If I ever detect any disloyalty or malice, don't blame me for wiping away your consciousness entirely... Though doing so would mean nurturing a new artifact spirit from scratch, with the foundation you leave behind, I imagine it wouldn't take too long to cultivate another one." As Yaoguang spoke, he stirred the restrictive power within the Treasure Weapon. Immediately, Leng Tianfeng felt as if an icy, chilling blade was aimed straight at his utterly defenseless soul, grinding against it bit by bit... Just feeling a hint of that razor sharpness was enough for him to know that Yaoguang was not bluffing in the least. "I..." The soul fluctuations of this Soul-Commanding Envoy of the Moon Demon Empire's Divine City Expeditionary Army's Sixth Fleet trembled violently. Only after a good while did they somewhat stabilize. He transmitted a message through mental fluctuations—or rather, divine mind fluctuations: "Perhaps... we don't have to be enemies..." "Whether we are enemies or not depends on how you perform when the time comes." With those words, Yaoguang turned his gaze toward the surviving demons. Seeing Yaoguang shrink the Five Emperors Soul Refining Furnace and hold it in his palm, these demons realized all was lost. Snapping to their senses, they burst into motion without hesitation, fleeing madly in all directions. Just as they scattered, Yaoguang directed his gaze down at the Five Emperors Soul Refining Furnace in his hand. Leng Tianfeng remained silent for a moment. In the next breath, a wave of eerie blue light rippled out from the Treasure Weapon, instantly ensnaring the three demons attempting to flee. Amid their screams of agony, their souls were swiftly drawn into the pill furnace, where raging flames roasted them into pure fuel. However, the true wonder of the Five Emperors Soul Refining Furnace did not lie in slaying enemies. This Treasure Weapon was a pill furnace. A precious treasure of the demonic path. One might even call it an automated medicinal pill processing factory. Using souls as fuel, it could refine large quantities of Soul Nurturing Pills. Cultivators who consumed these pills could make rapid, thousand-li-a-day progress along the path of spirit cultivation. Of course, precious treasures of the demonic path were like demonic cultivation itself: progress in the early stages might go smoothly, but it was often accompanied by massive hidden hazards. The Five Emperors Soul Refining Furnace was no different. When this heavy demonic weapon harvested souls to refine pills, the resulting Soul Nurturing Pills often contained all kinds of demonic thoughts and extraneous mental impurities. Consuming one or two was harmless enough, but if taken in large quantities, these demonic thoughts and impurities would evolve into inner demons. When attempting a breakthrough to a major realm, the inner demons would erupt, turning an already perilous breakthrough from a narrow escape into certain doom. "Immortal weapons and demon weapons..." Yaoguang murmured. It was hard to imagine how many lives had been lost over the years to forge such a demonic weapon. The Artifact Sect... was likely a demonic sect, wasn't it? Just then, as if sensing something, he shifted his gaze toward Xie Yushu nearby. He discovered that this Hunyuan Martial Saint of the Snow Dragon Federation was looking at him with eyes full of dread. It was dread toward him. Not toward the Five Emperors Soul Refining Furnace, that demonic treasure in his hand. With a moment's thought, Yaoguang understood the cause of their fear. Without bothering to offer lengthy explanations, he simply said, "All right, tell Kong Fang to bring his people over to pack up the spoils and find a place to rest first. Furthermore, to prevent Chixing from getting desperate and launching nuclear weapons like mad dogs backed into a corner, Xuelong should step forward to take control of Chixing..." At this point, he paused, phrasing it differently: "Wipe out Chixing's upper echelons, and occupy Chixing!" "As you command," Xie Yushu replied hurriedly. "All the Martial Saints, Spirit Intent Martial Saints, and Hunyuan Martial Saints of Chixing combined number barely over a hundred—scarcely a third of our Xuelong's strength. Moreover, with your interventions, Lord Yaoguang, their Hunyuan Martial Saints have been virtually wiped out. Occupying Chixing will not be difficult." "Go, then. The faster, the better, so as not to invite any unforeseen variables," Yaoguang said. "As you wish." Seeing that Yaoguang had no intention of turning on him, Xie Yushu breathed a silent sigh of relief and hastily bowed in respect, his demeanor irreproachable. Yaoguang had no doubts about the Snow Dragon Federation's capabilities. With his status rising steadily during this period, he had come to understand the gap between Chixing and Xuelong. A century ago, Chixing was perhaps no weaker than present-day Xuelong, and had even possessed Heavenly Beings presiding over it. However, when the time for rotation arrived, Chixing's upper echelons had been forced to withdraw from the Artifact Nurturing Realm and return to the Artifact Sect. Consequently, the power the Jiang family of Chixing left behind in this world was drastically weakened. Had Xuelong not feared the power backing Chixing, they would have uprooted Chixing long ago. After Xie Yushu and the Snow Dragon Martial Saints departed, Yaoguang searched the spoils on the Crimson Star Empire figures. There was no shortage of divine weapons and sharp armaments. Crucially, Yaoguang also recovered over sixty spirit stones from their bodies. In the Artifact Nurturing Realm, where the "spiritual energy" environment was poor, spirit stones were true treasures. These sixty-three spirit stones... were likely the entirety of what the Jiang family had accumulated over the years. Carrying all these spirit stones on their persons was presumably intended to instantly activate the power of the Five Emperors Soul Refining Furnace once they seized control of it. He kept the most valuable items for himself and left the rest untouched. Before long, Kong Fang arrived swiftly in the woods with a team of men. "Speaker..." "Pack up our spoils," Yaoguang instructed. Since he had brought men along, cleaning up the spoils was naturally a task best left to them. "Yes!" Kong Fang answered with a solemn nod. Soon, his gaze fell upon the corpses scattered around. He was not surprised by the death of Mo Guang, the president of the Rebirth Society. Even seeing the body of "Xie Bo'en," his expression did not shift much. After all, he had already crossed paths with Xie Yushu earlier and saw that he was neither hurrying in panic nor alarmed; it was clear that their fishing operation against the mastermind behind the Rebirth Society had ended in complete victory. Yet... When his eyes landed on the corpses of Jiang Banzi, Zuo Wendao, Jiang Zhenwu, and the others, an involuntary look of astonishment appeared in his eyes. "This is..." "Minor characters who wanted to reap the fisherman's spoils," Yaoguang said calmly. He was stating the plain truth. Whether to the present Yaoguang, or to Leng Tianfeng, who had possessed Xie Bo'en and gained a Heavenly Being body, these people from Chixing were utterly insignificant. If they had quietly stayed out of the conflict, neither would have bothered with them for now. Yet they foolishly sought to play the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind... Naturally, Leng Tianfeng had swatted them dead with a flick of his hand. Lacking the level and vision, they had had no idea how powerful Leng Tianfeng and the present Yaoguang truly were. "Right, organize a group to accompany the people from Xuelong into the Crimson Star Empire. Xuelong will move against the Crimson Star Empire, but in the meantime, we must take what belongs to us—especially the manufacturing technology for nuclear weapons..." Yaoguang instructed, adding at the end, "The people from Xuelong won't dare stop you." "Understood," Kong Fang acknowledged respectfully. "Arrange a vehicle. I'm heading back to rest." With that, Yaoguang walked out of the woods. ... After boarding the car, before he even had time to interrogate the Soul-Commanding Envoy of the Moon Demon Empire, he focused his attention on the ancient tree within his spiritual world. By now... The ancient tree representing higher-dimensional cognition was no longer standing with just a single prominent branch as before. A second branch was thriving and growing at an astonishing speed. This branch... was the [Artifact Refining] branch. And judging by its size, it had already reached the ninth rank.