Yao Santu’s eyes remained murky, yet his hands had already begun moving.
Chen Yang controlled Yao Santu’s body to perform spirit instilling while simultaneously helping organize the flood of insights in his mind – all essential knowledge Chen Yang had secretly gathered during his year and half hiding in the forging room.
Yao Santu now experienced an extraordinary state. His vision shifted from first-person observation to a diagonal third-person view behind himself, yet he still physically felt every movement of the spirit instilling process. Through this dual perception, he fully grasped every detail of spirit instilling in a single attempt.
When his eyes cleared, the long-handled curved saber’s blade shone with faint white light. A purple orb emerged and fused with the one in his hand, becoming a golden sphere.
This golden sphere meant Yao Santu could claim a complete Gathering Qi-level forging inheritance from the secret realm. But Chen Yang wanted more than basic Gathering Qi rewards after two years infiltrating the Artifact Towers and grooming Yao Santu – he aimed for Condensing Essence inheritance.
Outside, as most disciples received rewards and got teleported away, the three trial overseers turned their attention to remaining participants.
"Three left. All passed spirit instilling."
"Three? Besides Zhu Yan and Kong Wudong, who else cleared this stage?"
The elder who activated the teleportation array channeled detection spells. His face twisted oddly upon confirming the third name.
"…Yao Santu!"
The other two elders froze. Yao Santu? The disciple who failed to gather Qi for ten whole years? Passed spirit instilling?
"Impossible! You said he only formed his Qi Palace days ago!"
"He’s never performed spirit instilling before! How?!"
"Yet the Secret Realm of Hundred Refinements shows no malfunctions."
The elders stared at each other, shock evident in their eyes. If true, this meant Yao Santu succeeded at first attempt using only theoretical knowledge.
"Wasn’t he scheduled for mountain expulsion during last year’s review?"
“Indeed.”
The elder who had examined Yao Santu earlier stroked his beard and said, “We should count ourselves lucky. Had Yao Santu not persisted, we’d have overlooked a disciple with limitless potential.”
“True enough. His forging talent is beyond question now that he’s reached this stage.”
The other two elders nodded. “After this secret realm trial concludes, Yao Santu will directly become a core disciple. We’ll personally instruct him in forging methods.”
As they spoke, the remaining three disciples in the secret realm entered the final and most critical phase of weapon refining – completing the artifact!
The previous five steps had all been preparations for this decisive moment.
Whether the final product would be a mundane tool, a magical implement, or a spiritual treasure – its quality and grade would be determined here.
This process demanded not only technical skill and experience, but also something called “inspiration” – the very thing all cultivation arts practitioners yearned for.
Many world-shaking masterpieces had been born from such fleeting moments of enlightenment.
“Zhu Yan and Kong Wudong have both reached the Second Level of Gathering Qi with years of forging experience. Creating magical tools should be manageable. The question is whether they can produce spiritual treasures.”
“As for Yao Santu… this being his first attempt, he’ll likely only manage an ordinary-grade weapon.”
“Wait – he passed the spirit-instilling trial. He might still craft an early-stage Gathering Qi magical tool, albeit a flawed one.”
The elders exchanged judgments. Even their most optimistic prediction only granted Yao Santu the barest success – creating the lowest-tier magical tool on his first attempt would already mark him as a one-in-a-thousand forging prodigy.
A spiritual treasure? That was the domain of great central region sects. Their humble Tiger-Chasing division dared not hope for such.
Events in the secret realm unfolded as predicted.
Zhu Yan and Kong Wudong neared completion, their tools matching their cultivation realms. Yao Santu’s initial result was indeed ordinary-grade – until Chen Yang helped him digest the forging insights, elevating the long-handled curved saber to an early-stage Gathering Qi, superior-quality magical tool.
Yao Santu’s heart swelled with joy. Since gaining Senior Immortal Stone’s guidance, his cultivation and forging skills had skyrocketed, now surpassing even outer sect weapon refiners of the Artifact Towers.
As completion neared, Chen Yang spotted a purple orb forming.
“Hmm? Only purple? Unacceptable.”
Yao Santu already held a golden orb. For better rewards, he needed another golden one now.
Without disturbing the focused youth, Chen Yang peeled off a fingernail-sized fragment of mysterious power and cast it over him.
Instantly, inspiration flooded Yao Santu’s mind. He scrapped his previous steps entirely. Under the radiant beam of light, spiritual glimmers enveloped the curved saber as Yao Santu pushed his mental energy to its limit.
“Complete!”
The shout left Yao Santu feeling weightless, suffused with profound satisfaction. The purple light turned gold, merging with his golden orb before vanishing.
As he glanced about puzzled, foreign memories surfaced:
“Record of True Insights.”
A peak Condensing Essence forging Inheritance covering both items and structures. The architectural methods particularly thrilled Chen Yang – exactly what he needed to craft his inner sanctum.
Through their soul-link, he rapidly absorbed the knowledge.
“Perfect! This is precisely how I’ll build my bodily cavern!”
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