Chapter 662: Artificer
Inside the s.p.a.cious cave, a raging fire was burning under the Demon G.o.d Spirit Devourer Cauldron, whereas Tang Xiu was standing in front of it and constantly throwing pieces of jade inside the cauldron and conjuring Daoist techniques and secret arts. Amidst the mysterious aura, the jades went through the process of liquefaction and formed various shapes according to the images inside Tang Xiu’s mind: jade bottles, jade boxes, and jade buckets.
While enduring the terrifying heat, Western Nefarious Sangha looked at Tang Xiu’s every action, dumbfounded and tongue-tied. He watched as jade bottles, jade boxes, and a jade barrel flew out from the Demon G.o.d Soul Devourer Cauldron and then disappeared when Tang Xiu raised his hand.
As a cultivator himself, he was naturally aware that cultivators possessed numerous means and magical abilities, though he himself was only able to arrange a simple array and cast several simple magical spells.
Artificer refining techniques! It was the ability Western Nefarious Sangha had once dreamed of learning. However, he also knew that the refining techniques of Artificers were too abstruse. It would require one to have a good command in controlling True Fire, mastery on arrays, the knowledge on the uses of refining many materials, and many others. The comprehensive amalgamation of these abilities would be needed in order to successfully refine the devices or tools, and also the method to augment and amplify the might of the devices.
“It’s nearly done.”
A loud voice came from Tang Xiu’s mouth. When the last piece of jade was thrown into the Demon G.o.d Spirit Devourer Cauldron, his hands conjured a seal and, ten seconds after, the last one-foot-long and half-foot-wide jade box flew out from the inside and then was stored inside his interspatial ring.
Inside the Demon G.o.d Spirit Devourer Cauldron remained a lump of warm jade quintessence. After it floated in front of Tang Xiu, his hands quickly drew inscribing lines of an array, as visible light then connected to the dense jade quintessence lump, the pattern of the array constantly flowing into it.
“Aerolite Essence.”
Tang Xiu quickly glanced at Western Nefarious Sangha and shouted in a deep tone.
The monk suddenly snapped back to his senses and instantly threw a fist-sized Aerolite Essence to Tang Xiu. After Tang Xiu caught it, he threw it into the Demon G.o.d Spirit Devourer Cauldron along with two fist-sized Sky Sandstones and with his last Star Fragment Stone.
Time fleeted by.
The Demon G.o.d Spirit Devourer Cauldron was faintly shaking after Tang Xiu threw the jade quintessence into it. The True Fire was blazing more intensely all of a sudden. After a long time burning, Tang Xiu waved his hand to remove the cauldron’s lid while his body then rose and floated midair.
The time to inscribe runes came. A glittering green flute flew out from the Demon G.o.d Spirit Devourer Cauldron and Tang Xiu stretched his hand out to catch it. At this time, he released the Bloodguzzler Dagger and unceasingly inscribed exquisite and elegant patterns of a dragon and a dancing phoenix on the jade flute. The exquisite pattern of the Coiling Dragon and Phoenix then took shape, as either the five-clawed Dragon or the spread-wings Phoenix was so skillfully imitated and indistinguishable from the original as they were so lifelike.
Quiver…
As Tang Xiu carved the seal runes on the jade flute, an incomparably magnificent resplendent light immediately emitted out from it.
Tang Xiu waved his hand to completely destroy the Raging Flame Symbol and put out the True Fire. After collecting the Demon G.o.d Spirit Devourer Cauldron into his interspatial ring, he looked at the at jade flute in his hand that he just successfully crafted with a satisfied expression. It could only be considered as a magic treasure previously, but after he carved a special array of runes on it, calling it a magic flute was not an exaggeration, as the object gained magical power on its own.
“Western Nefarious Sangha, do you want to hear me play a song for you?” Tang Xiu turned around and asked with a smile.
“You will play me the flute? Alright… I’ll be listening.” Western Nefarious Sangha was surprised.
Tang Xiu lightly smiled and melodious flute sounds floated out in an instant. The sound of the flute was very beautiful, fascinating, and mesmerizing; while the fluttering note seemingly had a magical force within, making Western Nefarious Sangha not help but be attracted to the flute’s sound. His state of mind gradually relaxed, and along with a blurriness that covered his sight, the Immortal World was finally presented to him.
Enthrallment. It was like an endless temptation, and Western Nefarious Sangha was pulled deeply to immerse himself within. His eyes were blurry and a smile was painted on his face. The wrinkles on his face were stretched out and a smile covered his old face.
“Demonic attack!”
Tang Xiu shouted inwardly, and the melodious sound of the flute abruptly changed, from the previous mellow tone to a violent explosive gale. But in the eyes of Western Nefarious Sangha, that fairyland-like world instantly began to submerge. The s.h.i.+ning golden light in the firmament was covered with black flames from all sides, and countless black fireb.a.l.l.s containing destructive force continuously fell from the sky.
The land shook, rivers flowed backward, and every beautiful thing in the world was reduced and scattered into fragments. Cracks were formed and expanded while the lava billowed upward; countless humans, birds, animals, and beasts were screaming, howling, as they were swallowed and smashed.
Hideous and sinister Ashura looking monsters descended from the vault of heaven riding on the devastating black fireb.a.l.l.s, carrying weapons and jumping down to smash all walk of lives all over the world.
Corpses were littered on the ground and covered the land everywhere, while blood was flowing over the ground like rivers.
Inside the world sketched and depicted by the flute’s sound, Western Nefarious Sangha could only see his family and friends being either ruthlessly engulfed by the magma or killed more cruelly by the savage Ashura monsters. In front of him there was only left his former son, who was about to be hacked by an Ashura monster’s blade.
Sorrow and grief; wrath and rage. The emotion swallowed him up like a tide. He raised his wand, wanting to protect his son. And yet, the world before his eyes abruptly changed and he could not move his raised hand.
At this time, Tang Xiu stopped blowing the flute and watched the raging expression on Western Nefarious Sangha’s face. He folded his arms and smiled with indifference as he said, “Well, the refinement of this magic weapon could be said as successful since its demonic sound can drag you deep into a phantasmagoric state. If there was someone around you at that moment, it would be very easy to kill you.”
Was it all an illusion?
Western Nefarious Sangha’s pupils contracted and his body shook. He staggeringly stepped backward and then looked at Tang Xiu with fear on his face, like he was seeing a ghost in broad daylight.
That’s right! If anyone wanted to kill me a while ago, I would never have the chance to detect them; even an ordinary person could have killed me.
“How did you do it?” Asked Western Nefarious Sangha with a bit dry voice. There was fear on his face.
“Playing the flute is nothing but a trivial skill, to be frank.” Tang Xiu smiled and said, “What I played before is called ‘The Song of Apocalypse’. A Demonic cultivator who was proficient in music created this song after spending a lot of time and energy before finally composing the song. Anyways, forget it. You won’t understand it even if I tell you more considering your current knowledge.”
Western Nefarious Sangha gulped down and let out a hollow laugh with an embarra.s.sed expression. He was already shocked to the point of dread ever since Tang Xiu and his two subordinates came here and unleashed their endless means. Needless to say about that young man and young woman whose strength was at Golden Core Stage, Tang Xiu’s refining techniques were enough to make him look up to them.
Whoosh…
A projectile made of stencil paper was shot at him. After Western Nefarious Sangha caught it, he looked at Tang Xiu in a surprised expression, “What is this, Boss?”
“I borrowed your treasure to refine something, so it’s only natural that I give you something in exchange.” Tang Xiu smiled. “That is half of an Essence Ama.s.sing Pill; it can increase strength worth 30 years of cultivation. Unfortunately, I have no precious medicinal herbs, else I could easily refine one or two Essence Ama.s.sing Pills.”
Half of this pill would add 30 years of cultivation?
Western Nefarious Sangha was greatly shaken inwardly. His hand that held the Essence Ama.s.sing Pill was trembling. Although he had taken a lot of precious medicinal herbs such as Tianshan Snow Lotus, several hundred years old Fleece-flower Root, and nearly 1000 years old Spirit Affinity Mushroom… yet, none of those medicinal herbs had the effect of increasing his cultivation by this much.
“What a treasure!”
Western Nefarious Sangha stared at the Essence Ama.s.sing Pill in his hand with a fervent expression, and could not wait to immediately swallow it. However, with Tang Xiu present in front of him, he could only suppress the desire. He then said gratefully, “Thank you so much, Boss.”
“Leave the ceremony out. There’s no need to be overly courteous.” Tang Xiu shook his head and smilingly said, “I already told you that you will get many benefits as long as you really submit yourself to me wholeheartedly. Alright, it’s about time I leave this place. I have stayed here for a couple of days already.”
“Boss, maybe I can give you some precious medicinal herbs if you need them,” said Western Nefarious Sangha hastily.
“Do you have precious herbs?” Asked Tang Xiu with a surprised expression.
“Other types of objects are not many in existence in the Western Region, but we can find many precious herbs here,” said Western Nefarious Sangha. “I have dug out a lot of precious herbs and planted them in a nearby cave. I usually take them as a medicated diet since I don’t know anything related to alchemical techniques, though.”
Tang Xiu was overjoyed and immediately said, “Take me there to have a look, then.”
“Alright.”
Western Nefarious Sangha brought Tang Xiu out of the cave. He nodded at Light, who sat cross-legged in the cave entrance, and then flew toward the left side of the pathway halfway up to the mountain. A minute later, the two men arrived in front of the entrance to a dark cave. Just as Tang Xiu entered the cave, he was surprised and amazed to find six fist-sized Soul Tranquilizer Stones embedded on the ceiling of the cave, while the most ingenious thing here was a legendary Luminous Night Pearl placed in the center of those six stones, its bright milky white light illuminating the entire cave.
“No. That is not an ordinary Luminous Night Pearl. Is it… a solidified Dragon’s Eye?” Tang Xiu suddenly turned his head and asked in a deep tone, “Is everything here arranged by you?”
“No, I did not arrange it.” Western Nefarious Sangha hurriedly shook his head. “It was already like this when I found this place. I’ve spent a lot of effort and used all sorts of ways I could think of to remove those special ores and that Luminous Night Pearl, and yet I failed every time. Since I found that the spiritual energy here is very rich, then I transformed it into a herb garden. You can see it for yourself. Those are herbs I planted. Some are from seeds I found while some others originated from other places and I transplanted them here.”
Tang Xiu also saw that there were dozens of precious herbs planted in the over a thousand square meters of s.p.a.ce in the cave, and all of them were very rare and precious herbs. What surprised him the most was that some of those herbs were several hundred years old and there were even two Millennium Wild Ginseng.
“Great. This is great.” Tang Xiu nodded with satisfaction. He waved his right hand and layers of qi uprooted dozens of the herbs and stored them in the jade box he just refined.
Upon hearing Tang Xiu’s praise, Western Nefarious Sangha turned a bit excited. He looked at Tang Xiu with fervent eyes, wanting to get more concocted pills.
“Go to Shanghai two months later! I will give a few more concocted pills by then. That’s right, I have a Holy Healing medicine here, I’ll give it to you first!”
After saying that, Tang Xiu threw the Holy Healing medicine to the monk.
He did not take all the herbs planted in this cave since he could feel that the spiritual energy in this place was very rich and was very suitable to the growth of herbs.