Seated cross-legged on the cold stone floor of the treasure vault, Ye Wuji exhaled slowly, stabilizing his breath. In his hands, he held the Corpse Pagoda, the artifact he planned to refine into his very first Life-Bound Artifact.
Without hesitation, he cut his finger and let a few drops of his blood essence fall onto the pagoda.
Immediately, he began the refining process. Infusing his blood essence into the pagoda and channeling his Qi into it bit by bit, slowly creating and strengthening a connection between the artifact and himself.
His eyes gleamed with solemn determination. Again and again, he offered his blood essence, deepening the connection. To sustain himself, he constantly absorbed blood essence crystals piled nearby, replenishing the Qi and blood essence he burned with each breath.
Refining a Life-Bound Artifact wasn't for the faint hearted. It was grueling, both mentally and physically exhausting.
But once bonded, the artifact would reside permanently within his dantian, drawing Qi from him and evolving alongside his cultivation.
But all of this came at a steep cost.
If the artifact were ever damaged, his soul would suffer a backlash and as a result his could would receive an injury which will be difficult to heal. And if it were destroyed entirely… he wouldn't die, but the injury to his soul could even become a permanent scar if he was really unlucky.
Time passed quickly.
Days turned into weeks.
Ye Wuji never left his seated position, only moving occasionally to absorb more blood essence crystals and stabilize his energy. Over time, the Corpse Pagoda grew increasingly in tune with him, beginning to faintly respond to his thoughts.
Nearly two months later, the final phase began.
Beads of sweat rolled down his face. His eyes snapped open—glowing in a deep crimson color. He clenched his teeth, letting out a low growl as the Corpse Pagoda trembled violently in front of him. With both hands, he gripped it tightly and poured all of his Qi into it in one final surge.
Blood vessels burst across his skin. His robes clung to his body, drenched in sweat. His lips had turned pale.
But the end was in sight.
The Corpse Pagoda radiated a deep red glow, pulsing in sync with his Qi. It was a signal, that the final finally transformation had begun.
Under his control, the pagoda slowly shrank down to the size of a thumb. It floated toward his abdomen and phased through his flesh effortlessly, settling deep into his dantian where it hovered like a miniature world, silently drawing in Qi.
The bond was complete. He refined his first Life-Bound Artifact.
Ye Wuji collapsed backward, chest rising and falling rapidly, his skin pale as a ghost. His entire body trembled with exhaustion. He had pushed himself to the limit.
Saying nothing, he reached into his storage bag and pulled out a small mountain of blood essence crystals.
Like a madman, he began absorbing them, desperately trying to recover as fast as he could and push his cultivation forward. After these two months of constant refining of his Life-Bound Artifact and absorption of blood essence crystals, he felt that he was only one step away from reaching Qi Refining Stage Six.
Crimson light wrapped around him as his body healed. The flow of blood essence within him began to stabilize, but full recovery would still take a few days of quiet cultivation.
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Three days later.
A sudden tremor rippled through his dantian.
His Qi surged, condensing violently into a vortex. The Corpse Pagoda trembled slightly in response, as if celebrating alongside its master. A powerful force pressed outward from deep within him as his Qi had reached a critical threshold.
Ye Wuji quickly crossed his legs, focused his breath, and began circulating his Qi according to his cultivation technique. The rich, blood essence from the blood essence crystals combined in his dantian, assisting with transformation of his Qi withing.
Moments later, a subtle cracking sound echoed within him. The bottleneck shattered.
A warm tide washed over him.
Qi Refining Stage Six.
His aura rose to a new height. Slowly, Ye Wuji opened his eyes, a smirk forming at the corners of his lips.
"Stage Six, huh…"
He sat quietly for a moment, his thoughts turning inward. In his dantian, the Corpse Pagoda floated in silence, surrounded by the rich red hue of his newly got Sixth Stage Qi. His smile deepened.
"My first Life-Bound Artifact was finally completed." He paused, voice soft. "And with this breakthrough, I'm finally just one minor realm away from the late stage of Qi Refining."
"Soon, I'll have to start looking for a Foundation Establishment cultivation technique to be able to break through after I reach a peak of Qi Refining Realm…" He sighed. "There are too many needs, too many problems on the path of cultivation. But I still must persevere…"
Now with his Life-Bound Artifact refined, breakthrough achieved and him fully recovering, he turned his eyes to the two storage rings lying beside him—one from the Foundation Establishment cultivator's corpse lying by the altar, the other from the Foundation Establishment zombie cultivator, he killed inside this treasure vault and now served him as a Rank 2 corpse soldier, Xue Sha.
He took them both into his hands and began the painstaking task of erasing the lingering spiritual imprints.
The first one belonged to a Foundation Establishment cultivator who was long dead, so it only took him a half a day to erase it.
But the second…
That spiritual imprint had been left behind by a Foundation Establishment expert—a full major realm above him. And as if it weren't enough he truly died only recently so, the imprint resisted stubbornly.
But after another two days of meticulous work, both rings finally bore Ye Wuji's mark.
He began with the long dead Foundation Establishment cultivator's ring.
Inside, he found a modest collection: a few hundred small spirit crystals, around two hundred medium ones, seventeen great spirit crystals, several hundred blood essence crystals, and a handful of average healing pills. Nothing exceptional, but all still well-preserved.
He placed the ring aside and turned his attention to the second one.
The moment he looked inside, his brow lifted slightly.
This one… held much more.