The Cultivator, unable to dodge in time, was struck in the back by the sword, turning into a phantom and vanishing instantly.
“Pass!” A voice of assessment echoed in the illusory space.
Watching the Magic Treasure, Sword Cultivator Puppet, and the Cultivator slowly disappear, Qian Duoduo grew anxious—he hadn't copied the Magic Treasure yet!
However, no one in the illusory space cared about his anxiety; the assessment automatically proceeded to the next step.
A red light flashed, and a new Magic Treasure flew out.
Qian Duoduo picked up the Magic Treasure, which read “Forget-Worry Puppet.” It was an Intermediate-Rank Spiritual Artifact.
Upon closer inspection of the Magic Treasure, Qian Duoduo instantly felt his head swell like an ox, even larger than the Seven-Colored Golden Bull’s head.
The “Forget-Worry Puppet” consisted of a set of twelve Puppets: some playing the pipa, some playing the flute, some ringing bells, some beating drums…
This was not the main point; the crucial aspect was that this set of Puppets possessed Artifact Spirits.
Skipping the section on refining materials, Qian Duoduo went directly to how to imbue the Puppets with Spirits.
An Artifact Spirit is the Soul of a Magic Treasure.
There are three ways for a Magic Treasure to produce an Artifact Spirit.
First, it can naturally form when the Magic Treasure’s Spiritual Qi gathers to a certain extent. Second, an Artifact Spirit from another Magic Treasure can be infused into a new Magic Treasure. Third, it can be created artificially through Soul condensation.
For an Artifact Refiner, the third method is the most common.
However, how to condense the Soul is a matter of each Artifact Refiner’s own choice and method.
Some prefer to let Souls devour each other, with the strong prevailing.
Some prefer to completely shatter them and reshape them according to the Artifact Refiner’s will.
Others designate one Soul as the main Soul and use other Souls as “Soul fertilizer” to nurture the main Soul.
In the illusory space, the provided Soul condensation method was an auxiliary tool—the Soul Condensation Plate.
Qian Duoduo looked at the pattern on the Soul Condensation Plate, somewhat stunned.
The appearance of the Soul Condensation Plate was identical to the Soul Fusion Formation that Master Liu Boli had once arranged!
It was black and white, like two fish with their heads and tails intertwined.
The black fish had white eyes.
The white fish had black eyes.
The black and white continuously shifted and flowed between them.
“Old Liu, Master!” Qian Duoduo called out twice in his heart, then immediately stopped.
He remembered that in the illusory space of the golden pillar in this square, the connection between Qian Duoduo and Liu Boli could be blocked, regardless of whether Liu Boli was in the Golden Core Realm or the Heavenly Human Realm.
Closing his eyes, Qian Duoduo calmed himself down.
No matter how difficult the Intermediate-Rank Spiritual Artifact was, Qian Duoduo would give it a try.
Picking up the Magic Treasure, Qian Duoduo meticulously read it from the very first character, again reaching the point where he could recite it from memory.
Then, he made sure he could draw every diagram.
After thoroughly understanding the Magic Treasure, Qian Duoduo began refining. He didn’t condense the Souls first; instead, he refined all the materials that could be refined and assembled them.
This way, even if the Artifact Refining failed, he would still gain a lot.
The twelve humanoid Puppets of the “Forget-Worry Puppet” were far more exquisite in form than the Barbecue Puppet and the Sword Cultivator Puppet; once assembled, they looked like living beings.
The figures of two female Puppets even made Qian Duoduo blush.
They were probably what Huang Guiren had described as “mature” and “ripe.”
After admiring the Puppets, Qian Duoduo lowered his head to look at the Soul Condensation Plate and began to study Soul condensation.
Beside the Soul Condensation Plate were twelve Soul Boxes.
The Soul Boxes were filled with a thick, transparent substance; these unseen substances, detectable only by Spiritual Awareness, were soul liquid.
Twelve Soul Boxes meant twelve Artifact Spirits to condense.
Qian Duoduo laughed at himself: he couldn’t even condense one, and he was expected to condense twelve?
Following the Magic Treasure’s guidance, Qian Duoduo infused all his Spiritual Awareness into the Soul Condensation Plate and then discovered that there was another space within the Soul Condensation Plate.
The white area was divided into three parts: Fetal Light, Refreshing Spirit, and Hidden Essence.
The black area was divided into seven parts: Corpse Dog, Bowel Arrow, Sparrow Yang, Thief Devourer, Non-Poison, Filth Remover, and Stinky Lung.
What were all these?
What did Fetal Light mean, and what was its use?
What was Corpse Dog, and what was its use?
At this point, Qian Duoduo finally felt that Artifact Refining truly couldn't be done without a Master.
At the level of Artifact Spirits, without a Master to teach you, you were no different from a blind person.
However, thinking about these things now was useless. Soul condensation definitely wouldn't succeed, so he might as well just treat it as a game. He would just muddle through it.
With this thought, Qian Duoduo opened the first Soul Box and poured the Soul onto the Soul Condensation Plate.
The Soul, upon landing on the Soul Condensation Plate, automatically flowed to the right, dividing into black and white parts, and flowed down from the two fish eyes.
Once below, the Soul divided into ten parts.
Qian Duoduo looked at these ten parts for a long time but couldn’t make anything out of them.
Finally, he pushed the Soul Condensation Plate. The plate rotated to the left, and the Soul spurted out from the fish eyes, flowed onto the Soul Condensation Plate, stayed for a few breaths, and then slowly dissipated into the air.
As expected, the first Artifact Spirit failed to condense successfully.
The second, the third… all twelve failed.
“Failed.” A voice sounded in the illusory space.
The Magic Treasure, humanoid Puppets, and Soul Condensation Plate began to disappear.
With a blur before his eyes, Qian Duoduo returned to the Wood House.
He sat motionless, quickly took out a Jade Slip, and rapidly began writing on it.
After silently transcribing the Magic Treasure for the “Barbecue Puppet,” he didn’t even check it before taking out another Jade Slip to transcribe the “Sword Cultivator Puppet.”
After finishing the “Sword Cultivator Puppet,” he hesitated for a moment and decided to transcribe the “Forget-Worry Puppet” first.
After transcribing the three Magic Treasures, Qian Duoduo was about to stand up when he felt dizzy, and his stomach began to ache faintly.
What was wrong? He panicked, breaking out in a cold sweat.
However, he quickly composed himself—this feeling was very familiar; he was hungry!
He took out two cooked Spirit Chicken legs, took several big bites, and as the Spirit Chicken meat entered his stomach, transforming into warm currents, the dizzy sensation immediately disappeared.
How many days had he been in the Wood House? He asked himself.
Two days, or three days, or even four days?
Qian Duoduo stretched his limbs and lay on the ground.
These past few days felt like a blink of an eye, passing too comfortably.
The “Barbecue Puppet” was relatively simple; he was confident he had transcribed it perfectly.
The “Sword Cultivator Puppet” was also almost perfect.
The “Forget-Worry Puppet” definitely had many mistakes, but it didn’t matter. An incomplete Spiritual Artifact Recipe was still valuable.
After filling his stomach, he took two Qi Return Pills to fully restore his Spiritual Qi.
Qian Duoduo looked at the Jade Slip for the Encyclopedia of Weapon Refining; a new Artifact Transformation Scroll had appeared inside.
He hadn't even fully understood the Puppet Scroll yet, so there was no rush to study this Artifact Transformation Scroll.
Puppet Magic Treasures were hard to come by in Refining Spirit Sect, but he had obtained more than two in this small, broken Wood House. It would be a great loss not to take advantage of such a huge opportunity.
This might be a loophole in Wanjin Pavilion, and Qian Duoduo needed to get more Magic Treasures before this loophole was closed.
He placed his token in front of the meditation mat and began his second assessment.
He successfully refined the Initial-Level Dan artifact “Sweeping Puppet” and the initial-level xuan weapon “Gun Cultivator Puppet,” but he failed again at the Initial-Level Spiritual Tool “Painting Puppet.”
However, Qian Duoduo gained more than two Magic Treasures.
He had transcribed all the Dan artifact and Profound Weapon ones. As for the Spiritual Artifact one, he got more than half.
After the third, fourth… up to the tenth assessment, Qian Duoduo was happily gnawing on a Spirit Chicken leg when his Jade Slip began to vibrate frantically.
Opening the Jade Slip, it was Huang Guiren, crying out, “Junior Brother, where are you? What happened to you?”
Qian Duoduo puzzledly said, “I’m right here in the Sect, perfectly fine. What’s wrong? Is there something wrong with the manor?”
“The manor is fine. You suddenly disappeared for over a month, and everyone in the Sect has been frantically looking for you.”
Huang Guiren panted, “Hurry back to the manor and let everyone know you’re safe.”
“Alright.”
Just as Qian Duoduo closed his Jade Slip, the door of the small Wood House was pushed open, and an Orange Robe Disciple poked his head in. After looking around, he asked:
“Junior Brother, have you seen Senior Brother Jin Buhuan?”