Chapter 232: Success
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At this moment, Li Zhixuan was not quite the dazzling presence that Li Zhirui had described. Instead, her clothes were ragged, her hair bun disheveled, her ordinary face smeared with traces of blood, as she tiredly hid within a concealed cave.
"Roar!"
A furious roar filled the forest, the sound of a beast's paws stepping on fallen leaves drawing ever nearer.
This caused Li Zhixuan, who had previously let her guard down, to immediately summon her Spirit Sword, gripped tightly in her hand. Her eyes fixed unwaveringly on the cave entrance, ready to unleash Sword Qi at any sign of movement.
Fortunately, her Cloaking Array had worked, keeping the vicious Tiger Devil outside deceived, thereby avoiding a fierce battle.
After all, with her current physical state, to fight a furiously angry devil beast in the latter stages of the second order was no different from seeking death.
The reason Li Zhixuan ended up in such a dire situation was because she had found a piece of third-order Thunderstrike Wood within the territory of the Tiger Devil!
Thunderstrike Wood was extremely precious as a Spiritual Object, and even more so considering its high grade.
If she could secure the Thunderstrike Wood, it would be an excellent choice whether she kept it for future use in crafting her Life-bound Magic Treasure or sold it to her family for two to three hundred thousand Spirit Stones.
Although the Tiger Devil had low Spiritual Intelligence and could not utilize the Thunderstrike Wood like Cultivators, it still recognized the item's value and was not about to let Li Zhixuan steal it away easily, thus chased her relentlessly.
Li Zhixuan was no match for the Tiger Devil; despite exerting all her effort, she could only tangle with it briefly. She then used Talismans to make a narrow escape and hid inside this cave.
If the Tiger Devil had discovered her, she likely would have perished there, but fortunately, that did not happen. The Tiger Devil searched the vicinity without success and eventually left the area.
Several days later, after treating her injuries enough to regain some strength, Li Zhixuan left the forest and returned to the Marketplace.
She bought some Spirit Pills for healing, spent a few days recovering from her injuries, and then proceeded to leave Green Mountain State directly. Your next read awaits at My Virtual Library Empire
After all, she had been away for two to three years, and now she had acquired the precious Thunderstrike Wood. It was time to return to her family and store this valuable item.
Li Zhixuan had already decided to keep the Thunderstrike Wood for herself. Once she broke through to the Golden Core stage, she would use it to craft her Life-bound Magic Treasure!
Although she was currently only in the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment and quite far from achieving Golden Core, she firmly believed that one day she would reach Core Formation.
The flowers bloom in pairs, each displaying its branch.
Meanwhile, Li Zhirui, looking contentedly at the Magic Artifact floating before him, was unable to hide his excitement, "Although it still has some deficiencies, it is much better than any Magic Artifact I've crafted before!"
And this, unless something unexpected happened, would likely be his limit.
After all, he was not an Artifact Refiner. Were it not for his precision as an Alchemist and his rather strong Divine Sense, anyone else would struggle to attain the current strength of this Magic Artifact.
Intending to be in the best condition to craft his Life-bound Magic Treasure, Li Zhirui took a day off to rest. Besides his daily cultivation, he spent the rest of his time recovering his energy.
He had planned to play with Da Qing and Xiaoqing, but now Da Qing was wholly focused on accumulating Mana, aiming to break through to the third order soon.
Since returning to Da Rong Island, Xiaoqing had been so happy in the Jade Beak Eagle flock that, unless Li Zhirui called for him, he would not return on his own.
Well... due to Xiaoqing's tireless efforts, it is said that several Jade Beak Eagles are with chicks, soon to lay eggs. Before long, the Li family might welcome a group of mixed-blood Jade Beak Eagles.
Speaking of which, it's impossible not to mention those three members of the Rare Beast Pavilion of the Wang Family who were previously defeated.
From them, the Li family acquired three third-grade devil beasts controlled by Talismans: a Rift Steel Eagle with metal and wind attributes, a Flame Toad with fire attributes, and a Black Rock Giant Bear with earth attributes.
Over the years, the Li family has successfully bred these three types of devil beasts into populations!
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Although there were not many in each of the three clans, there were thirteen Rift Steel Eagles, seventeen Flame Toads, and the Black Rock Giant Bears were the rarest, with only nine of them.
But for the Li family, this was a good start. Perhaps in a few decades, these third-tier Devil Beasts could completely replace the five existing second-tier Spirit Beasts currently used by the family, becoming the basic contracted beasts for the clan members.
It was also because the family had raised several third-tier Devil Beasts that Li Shiqing and Li Shilian no longer resisted forming new contracts; one of them now had a contract with a Rift Steel Eagle, and the other with a Black Rock Giant Bear.
Although they didn't have as many resources to cultivate their beasts as Li Zhirui did, with their current lifespan, they should be able to raise them to third-tier Spirit Beasts, barring any accidents.
But back to the main point!
After Li Zhirui adjusted his state, he placed all the Spirit Materials needed for crafting his Life-bound Magic Treasure, like Everlasting Green Wood and Purple Patterned Emerald Bamboo, to the side for easy access.
Then he summoned the Pill Fire, and began to remove impurities from the Spirit Materials, one by one. Under the roasting of the Pill Fire, the size of the Spirit Materials was greatly reduced, but their Spirit Light became even more dazzling.
Because Li Zhirui needed many different types of Spirit Materials, if not for his powerful Divine Sense, it would be impossible to maintain the refinement of such a large quantity of materials.
After refining all the Spirit Materials, Li Zhirui began to fuse and shape them. This step was not very difficult, and with his countless previous practices, he completed it relatively easily.
The next step was the most difficult and also the final step: inscribing the engravings!
If there were any problems with the engravings, at best the power of the Magic Artifact would be reduced, and at worst, the crafting would fail.
Even though Li Zhirui had inscribed these engravings many times before, he did not dare to be the slightest bit careless this time!
Otherwise, if he failed, he would not be able to collect a second set of these precious Spirit Materials.
Lines of engravings emerged from his fingertips and, under the control of his Divine Sense, embedded themselves into the interior of the Magic Artifact, distributed in various places within the Magic Artifact, interconnected yet not interfering with each other.
As time trickled away, the Magic Artifact embryo began to emit dazzling Spirit Light, but beads of sweat the size of soybeans appeared on Li Zhirui's forehead.
He had miscalculated something previously!
The refinement of high-tier Spirit Materials consumed more Mana and Divine Sense than he had anticipated!
Fortunately, as an Alchemist, Li Zhirui was not short of restorative Spirit Pills. He immediately took several Spirit Pills out of his storage ring and popped them into his mouth.
Waves of pure Spiritual Energy flowed into his Dantian through his meridians, replenishing his nearly depleted Mana.
Supported by the Spirit Pills, Li Zhirui successfully inscribed all the engravings into the embryo without any mistakes.
Hum!
The Magic Artifact embryo, enveloped in a great amount of Spirit Light, suddenly trembled slightly, emitting a humming sound.
This was the sign that the Magic Artifact was about to take form!
Seeing this, Li Zhirui suppressed the excitement in his heart and immediately forced three drops of essence blood from the tip of his tongue. They formed a thin mist of blood that completely enveloped the Magic Artifact. As the Spirit Light entered the Magic Artifact, it settled into every corner of it.
"It's a success!"
One could see a small grove of tall and lush bamboo growing on a thick cloud, its bamboo leaves shaped like sharp swords, emitting fierce Sword Qi.
A breeze blew past, and through the clouds one could see the thick bamboo roots growing within.