Chapter 3: Magical Artifact Usage
A bewildered Little Fatty decided not to question further and instead continued to dig inside the black soil, pulling out 3 more similar Talismans. After these Talismans have been extricated, Song Zhong used his Spiritual Sense once again to scrutinize the black soil but found out that the soil had stopped emitting any Spiritual Qi, returning to its original state.
Upon noticing this, Little Fatty immediately buried the tattered talismans into the soil and realized that the black soil began re-emitting Spiritual Qi again.
‘Haha! Finally, I understand!’ Little Fatty had a flash of enlightenment, and confidently muttered to himself. “This black soil can actually decompose the talismans, releasing all the contained residual spirit energy! Haha, if this is the case, then once this talisman has been completely decomposed, won’t the density of Spiritual Qi here be even greater than that of the Sacred Training Grounds? Doesn’t that mean that I can start cultivating again?”
Thinking about this, Little Fatty jumped around excitedly, shedding tears of joy. He was left disconsolate yesterday, and today, he felt hope. The unexpected ups and downs of this event have overwhelmed Little Fatty.
After being happy for a moment, Song Zhong suddenly has an idea. ‘‘Since the black soil can decompose talismans, perhaps it can also decompose other items?’’
Thinking about this, Little Fatty then took out a failed elixir product from the pile of trash beside him. To consume such an Elixir directly definitely will not give him any benefits, but it is after all refined from a Spiritual Grass, and thus should contain a lot of Spiritual Qi.
Once Little Fatty buried the Elixir into the black soil, a fresh wave of Spiritual Qi began dissipating from the black soil, at an even faster rate. It was also denser than the Spiritual Qi emitted from the previously buried talismans.
“Haha, sure enough, discarded elixirs are still elixirs, the amount of Spiritual Qi it contains is much more as compared to the talismans, naturally the amount of Spiritual Qi being emitted is also more. Oh, maybe I should decompose the flying swords too? Within it is spiritual stones, maybe it could be decomposed too?” As little fatty said this, he took up an abandoned flying sword and stuck it into the black soil. Then, he used his Spiritual Sense to detect any changes.
Through the connection with his Natal Artifact, Little Fatty is able to clearly sense that the flying sword being decomposed. Only because the sword is more resilient to wear and tear, thus the disassembling speed would naturally be a lot slower, taking twice the time to decompose as compared to both the elixir and talisman. That being said, the Spiritual Qi dispersed from within the flying sword is still amazingly fast as compared to the natural rate of dispersion. Furthermore, the speed and density of Spiritual Qi released were even a grade higher than that of the elixir. After all, the flying sword contains plenty of spirit stones, thus the Spiritual Qi within is naturally much more compared to the elixir.
With this discovery, Song Zhong was overjoyed, he quickly buried all the trash from the Weapons Hall; flying sword, magical artifacts, even an abandoned dimensional storage item all were buried within the black soil, completely filling up space which the black soil was.
The black soil did not disappoint him, regardless of the amount that was buried, it unhurriedly decomposed the items in it, emitting waves after waves of dense Spiritual Qi in return, saturating the little dimension. In just a few hours, the density of Spiritual Qi within the place is the same as that in the outside world.
One must know that the place where Mystical Sky Yard chose to set up the Sect is not randomly chosen. Amongst the vast mountains, this is the most spiritually dense area, perfect for cultivation. Although the place where Little Fatty resides has the lowest density within the Sect, it is still many times more compared to other places.
For the black soil to be able to make this place into a sacred cultivating place in a few hours, it can thus be considered a rare treasure.
Needless to say, Little Fatty understands this point, and knows that he picked up a treasure, this time, he was excited to the point that he could not sleep for the whole night.
A day passed, Little Fatty’s Natal Artifact had undergone heaven and earth revolving changes, the density of Spiritual Qi within had already greatly exceeded that of his hut. Little Fatty thus began cultivating in it, increasing his efficiency by a notch.
When it was dusk again, Little Fatty reluctantly left his Natal Artifact and began his job. He hurriedly collected the trash from the 3 halls into his Natal Artifact and went straight to the canteen. After he wolfed down his meal, he hurried back to his hut.
Safe in his hut, Little Fatty went back into his Natal Artifact. The moment he entered, he had 2 shocking discoveries.
First, the size of the Natal Artifact’s dimension had become larger. Although it only expanded by a foot, but it was obvious at first glance. After analyzing, this first thing that Little Fatty thought of was the failed dimensional storage item which was decomposed. There was an 80% chance that the dimensional storage item contained Meru Stones (T/N: 须弥石 – Xu Mi Shi. Xu Mi refers to Mt. Meru, thus translating it to the Meru Stone), and other special dimensional materials which served as building blocks for his dimension. This phenomenon made Little Fatty, who despised the small size of his dimension, very excited. Because, as long as he could find failed dimensional storage items to decompose, he could make his Natal Artifact increase in size infinitely, this to him was splendid news!
The second discovery nearly made Song Zhong faint from delight, as the result was simply too unbelievable.
The reason was that he discovered near the black soil, formed seemingly out of nowhere, was a Black Mountain about half a foot high. Beside it was a fist sized lump of silver metal, and 10 irregularly sized pearls.
After Little Fatty investigated further, he found out that the black mountain was actually Black Iron, the most common material for the manufacture of flying swords. The other items were Silver, Copper, and certain rare materials, all of which are materials used in the manufacturing of flying swords or magical artifacts.
Seeing all these, Little Fatty understood immediately. As the black soil decomposes the failed articles, Spiritual Stones sublimates into Spiritual Qi and given out directly, and other materials such as black iron would all be separated and segregated into different piles. This also means, even the trash of other people, in Little Fatty’s hands, can be returned into its original materials.
‘I’ve struck gold!’ As Little Fatty discovered the usage of his Natal Artifact, he immediately envisioned how rich he was about to become.
One has to know that when refining Magical Artifacts or flying swords, all these materials have to be combined together perfectly. Once the refining process fails, all the combined materials are as good as trash since nobody would be able to separate them. Thus, all these failed products can only be thrown away. However, since Little Fatty is able to decompose them back into their original forms as precious materials, thereby reusing them. If one were to think about all the trash in the Sky Ravine (T/N: This used to be called TianGou in the previous chapters, but the team decided to give it an English name, Sky Ravine), it is as though Little Fatty has come into possession of an infinite amount of wealth.
“Gold mine! This is a gold mine!” Little Fatty excitedly jumped around in his dimension, shedding tears of joy. Ever since his parents passed on, this is the first time Little Fatty has cried. Even when he was drenched by people as a prank, he had always faced it with a smile; even when he was almost beheaded by a wind blade; even when only given leftovers every day; he had always kept his smile. He buried the hatred deeply within his heart and held back his tears. But now, knowing that he has hope for success, he shed the tears which he had been suppressing for 10 years in a sitting.
Upon coming back to reality, Little Fatty wiped his face full of tears and fiercely said, “Just wait, all you bastards that bullied me, your father I will definitely get back at all of you one day!”
Little Fatty is now filled with confidence, even though he knows that he is not talented, he was not worried in the least. In the world of cultivating, there is no lack of miracles, there are a lot of experts who did not have any talent but are still able to ascend to the realm of immortals. There is a saying: ‘what Nature does not provide, nurturing will’. The meaning of this is even if the inborn talent for one is lacking, it can be made up for with various spiritual medicine.
For instance, there is also a trash practitioner in Mystical Sky Yard, his innate talent only being slightly better than Little Fatty but he is well off since his parents and grandfather are all high-level executives within the sect. When the child was born, the moment his innate talent was determined to be weak, he was immediately weaned with spiritual medicine, managing to break through to the XianTian stage at 8 years old, on par with those with considered as outstanding innate talents. On the other hand, even though Song Zhong worked hard, he could only reach XianTian stage at age 16. From this, the immense cultivating gap can be seen. Thus, so long as Little Fatty has sufficient Spiritual Medicine to consume, plus a treasure that will increase his cultivating speed, and a good cultivation method to support him, progressing rapidly is not impossible.
Despite the good news, after going through a 5-year ordeal, Little Fatty did not allow himself to be carried away by it. Although he looks silly on the surface, he is actually very quick witted, else he would not have survived to this day. Little Fatty also knows that one’s fortune should not be displayed. If it is leaked out, what awaits him would be his quiet disappearance. In Mystical Sky Yard, countless of practitioners die a wrongful death every year. In addition, there will be disciples who disappear for no reason, since killing someone to take his possessions is not an uncommon thing. To break through the bottleneck or to increase one’s lifespan, what they say about brotherhood is nothing but bullshit, he does not want to die a wrongful death.
Thus, even though Little Fatty has such a treasure, he cannot flaunt it openly. The biggest problem for Song Zhong now is how he can use it without attracting the attention of other people.
‘First, I should become a formal disciple of the Sect!’ After some thought, Little Fatty came to such a conclusion.
At Mystical Sky Yard, there are 3 types of disciples: Janitorial, outer court, and inner court disciples. The current Little Fatty is a Janitorial Disciple, equivalent to being a servant. There is a huge quantity of Janitorial Disciples and they cannot be considered to be the formal disciples of the Sect. They are not even allowed to go out of the mountain, basically a slave.
But, these slaves have the rights to cultivate primary cultivating methods in accordance with the Sect rules. As long as these servants reach the XianTian stage, regardless of age, they can be immediately granted with the title of an outer court disciple, becoming a formal disciple of the Mystical Sky Sect. Thus, many mortals who want to cultivate the way would fight for the opportunity to become a janitor for the Sect.
Outer court disciples are formal disciples of the Sect, and they no longer need to do odd jobs. They are even given a supplement of 1 low-grade spiritual stone every month. They are also allowed to cultivate various spells, refine Elixirs, and manufacture weapons. Outer disciples have a certain degree of freedom and are allowed to leave the mountain to do what they like, thus precisely because of this, Song Zhong decided to become an outer court disciple.
However, although the outer court disciples seem to have a lot of freedom, in reality, life is still extremely bitter. Children with poor backgrounds who become outer disciples do not have any spiritual medicine, and the piece of low-grade spiritual stone given to them every month is definitely insufficient for cultivation. Thus, they are still forced to complete missions assigned by the sect in exchange for spiritual medicines and stones for cultivation.
Precisely because these outer court disciples can contribute to the production of spiritual goods, even those without hope of advancing in rank are still allowed to become outer court disciples. All the talismans, elixirs, and other products which they produce would be used to supplement the elite inner court disciples. This is because only the elite disciples are considered the cornerstone of the sect.
