The refining of a Divine Puppet prioritizes the Ritual; the requirements for the Refining Technique itself are not high. Even if there are some deviations in its shaping, it can still succeed as long as the Ritual is performed correctly.
A Human Puppet, however, is different. Without the aid of a Ritual, the demands on the Refiner's technique are extremely high. The slightest deviation can lead to a world of difference.
Different Cultivation Techniques have vastly different requirements for meridians and Acupoints, each with subtle distinctions. This means an Artifact Refiner must also have some understanding of Cultivation Techniques.
If there are any deviations while shaping the meridians and Acupoints, the consequences can be dire. In a minor case, the meridians will be blocked. In a severe case, the Magical Power will clash, causing the puppet to explode the moment the Cultivation Technique is activated.
Although Yang Jing had already cultivated his Nine Yang Body to a very high Realm, he took out the Inheritance Jade Scroll and studied it carefully, just to be safe.
He was refining this Human Puppet to aid his cultivation of the Nine Yang Body. A puppet the size of an ordinary person wouldn't be able to absorb and convert Celestial True Gang much faster than he could, making it a mere bonus. Therefore, this time, Yang Jing planned to refine a big one.
In his design, this Nine Yang Human Puppet would be a hundred feet tall and capable of absorbing a massive amount of Celestial True Gang in a single breath.
This way, in just three or four years, he could accumulate all the Celestial True Gang he needed to reach the Perfect Golden Core Realm.
However, a Human Puppet of this size would consume a heavenly amount of materials. If Nine Marvels hadn't been providing the Spiritual Materials, Yang Jing truly couldn't have afforded it.
The proper positions of Acupoints can't be copied blindly, as they differ subtly from person to person. For a different body form, the correct positions of the Acupoints would also be vastly different.
Yang Jing spent a full ten days just determining the proper Acupoint positions for the hundred-foot-tall Human Puppet.
After determining their proper positions, he used the Acupoint locations to calculate the meridian map, the "stellar positions" of the internal organs, and the shape of the entire skeleton, recording it all in a Jade Scroll.
He then calculated the various Spiritual Materials required to refine the Human Puppet, factored in potential losses, and drew up a list.
Even though he was mentally prepared, Yang Jing's heart still skipped a beat when he saw the list. Without the support of Nine Marvels, it would take him a hundred years just to gather these materials. The required cost in Spirit Stones was astronomical.
"What in the world are you trying to refine that requires so many Spiritual Materials!"
Nine Marvels held the list, staring at Yang Jing, dumbfounded.
"Ahem, Senior Nine Marvels, please let me explain," Yang Jing said. "There's no precedent for using a Divine Puppet to refine a body, so I naturally need to familiarize myself with refining Puppets of all sizes. This is to avoid a situation where the final body is too large. It's just a precaution."
Nine Marvels shot him a sideways glance.
"Don't think I can't see through you. By my calculations, if this Human Puppet is successfully refined, it will have the Power of a Nascent Soul Body Refining Cultivator at minimum. Even for me, creating these Spiritual Materials by Transforming the Real into the Void will consume three years' worth of the Spiritual Qi produced by this Nine Marvels Small Realm. I won't overcharge you. Just give me twenty million Spirit Stones."
Yang Jing's heart settled. His greatest fear had been that Nine Marvels would refuse him. If he had to gather these Spiritual Materials himself, it would not only take a hundred years, but twenty million Spirit Stones would be nowhere near enough.
"Senior Nine Marvels, I came here for the Nine Marvels competition, so I naturally wouldn't be carrying that many Spirit Stones. How about this? You provide the Spiritual Materials, and I'll refine a few Magical Treasures for you. The Nine Marvels Sect can take them to sell, and you'll easily earn back the twenty million Spirit Stones."
He was fully confident that after mastering the Creation Scripture, he could easily refine even Tier Four Magical Treasures.
Twenty million Spirit Stones was just the price of a single Tier Four Magical Treasure. Even if it was considered a commission where he was only providing the labor, it would just mean refining a few extra pieces.
With the backing of a top Major Sect from the Central Continent like the Nine Marvels Sect, he could produce as many Magical Treasures as he wanted without attracting unwanted attention.
Nine Marvels' eyes lit up.
"Good! Then it's a deal!"
Ordinary Spirit Stones were already meaningless to it.
As the Nine Marvels Sect's sect-guarding treasure, the sect naturally wouldn't treat it poorly. It was just that the annual output of Top-Grade Spirit Stones was limited. They had to be distributed among the sect's Divinity Transformation Cultivators and Nascent Soul Cultivators, so it couldn't monopolize them.
But with Magical Treasures of the Tier Four rank, one could demand to be paid exclusively in Top-Grade Spirit Stones.
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The Nine Marvels Sect was mired in frantic activity due to the chaos caused by an Evil God during the Nine Marvels competition. Even though the true culprit was an Evil God from the Outer Realm, the Nine Marvels Sect was still under considerable pressure.
After all, the Golden Core Cultivators who had died were the future pillars of various Major Sects.
During this period, the Sect Leader of the Nine Marvels Sect engaged in shrewd political maneuvering. He coordinated with the various sects and invested great effort into hunting down practitioners of the Mingfei Joyful Method, finally managing to suppress the previous fallout.
"Is there any news on that so-called Venerable?"
The Sect Leader of the Nine Marvels Sect only had a Cultivation at the Middle Stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.
In Major Sects like the Nine Marvels Sect, which had multiple Divinity Transformation Cultivators, the Sect Leader's Cultivation was usually not too high, serving to balance the power of the various internal factions.
Over the past two years of investigation, they had captured quite a few practitioners of the Mingfei Joyful Method. They had even extracted immature, unhatched Primordial Seeds from their Divine Souls.
The Divine Light Sect possessed a Tier Five Spirit Treasure, the Spirit Treasure Divine Light Mirror, which excelled at Soul Searching. They used it to extract a great deal of valuable intelligence from these Primordial Seeds. They learned not only that these Primordial Seeds originated from a faction called the White Temple in the Primordial Storage Realm, but also that the person from the White Temple responsible for spreading the Mingfei Joyful Method and the Primordial Seeds was a Cultivator known as the Venerable.
Unfortunately, this Venerable's methods were quite inscrutable. He had long since vanished without a trace, and only a group of his subordinates had been captured.
The Major Sects of the Central Continent had already issued a joint wanted notice and posted a bounty.
The Sect Leader of the Nine Marvels Sect stood with his hands clasped behind his back. 'This business with the Primordial Seeds and the Mingfei Joyful Method should be drawing to a close,' he thought. 'The Venerable left no clues and is nearly impossible to track. Counter-attacking the Primordial Storage Realm would be a thankless effort. It would cost a fortune just to vent some frustration, and almost no Sect would agree to it.'
'That Primordial Storage Realm is teeming with Evil Gods, but it has no Spiritual Materials useful to Cultivators.'
Just as he was lost in thought, a Nascent Soul Cultivator suddenly entered, holding a Magical Treasure.
The Sect Leader of the Nine Marvels Sect recognized him as the Elder in charge of the sect's Marketplace transactions.
"Where did this Magical Treasure come from?"
Because they possessed the Nine Marvels Creation Tripod, the Nine Marvels Sect was exceptionally advanced in the art of Artifact Refining. Many of its Cultivators possessed impressive skills in the craft.
The Sect Leader of the Nine Marvels Sect could therefore tell with a single glance that this was a rare Tier Four Magical Treasure.
The Spiritual Light of the Magical Treasure was pure and perfectly integrated.
'The one who refined this Magical Treasure had clearly done so with ease. In the entire Nine Marvels Sect, only our two Divinity Transformation Ancestors possess such skill,' he thought.
"This was sent by the Spirit Venerable," the Elder said. "He ordered me to sell it, but upon inspecting this Magical Treasure, I felt it would be a great pity. So I have come to ask for your decision, Sect Leader."
As the Nascent Soul Cultivator spoke, he presented the Magical Treasure to the Sect Leader of the Nine Marvels Sect.
"Jade Flame Shuttle. Can carry five people. Travels via Fire Escape and repels all manner of Spiritual Fire and Demon Fire. It can enter and exit the high heavens at will."
The Sect Leader's Divine Sense swept over it, and he read the introduction left inside the shuttle by its Refiner. He was instantly taken with the shuttle. If the Elder hadn't been standing there, he would have pocketed it himself.
Fire Escape was renowned for its explosive power, enabling one to reach top speed in an instant. If one encountered a powerful enemy and suddenly used the Jade Flame Shuttle to flee, the enemy wouldn't even have time to react.
What's more, it could repel all kinds of Spiritual Fire and Demon Fire. 'If I used this in Magical Combat against an enemy specializing in Fire Techniques, wouldn't I have the complete upper hand?'
"Did the Spirit Venerable set a price for this shuttle?"
"He did not. He said it must be auctioned for Top-Grade Spirit Stones only. And that from now on, he will refine one Tier Four Magical Treasure for auction every three months," the Nascent Soul Cultivator said.
The Sect Leader of the Nine Marvels Sect nodded. 'It seems the Spirit Venerable was also affected by the chaos from the Evil God incident,' he mused. 'To avoid burdening the Sect, it has started refining artifacts itself to make up for the losses.'
'But when did the Spirit Venerable's Artifact Refining become so formidable? Before this, wasn't it only capable of refining Tier Three Magical Treasures?'
He endured the ache in his heart and returned the Jade Flame Shuttle to the Elder.
"We'll use this shuttle as the grand finale of the auction. Gather some other Magical Treasures refined by the sect's Elders and disciples and organize an auction house. Make sure to publicize all the wondrous aspects of this shuttle."
The Spirit Venerable was the treasure that guarded the Nine Marvels Sect; he wouldn't dare to be careless in a matter concerning it. Since the Spirit Venerable wanted to trade refined Tier Four Magical Treasures for Top-Grade Spirit Stones, he would naturally see to it that the task was done to perfection.
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