Promote to Golden Core!

Life-bound magic treasure!

Mo Hua inhaled deeply.

And in the gloomy and strange artifact refining room, Ouyang Mu was also shocked, then he shook his head and said:

“I am only at the middle stage of Foundation Building, and still cannot forge the sword bone for a life-bound magic treasure.”

The old demon cultivator said lightly: “That’s why I said, I have come to teach you. You just watch from the side and learn well.”

Ouyang Mu hesitated, not knowing what to do, when Mo Hua transmitted a message:

“Let him teach!”

This was a good opportunity.

Not only could he let the little wood learn artifact refining and forging sword bones, but he could also secretly overhear some key points about promoting to Golden Core and forging life-bound magic treasures.

This old demon cultivator seemed to know a few things.

Ouyang Mu naturally followed Mo Hua’s instructions.

Now that he had received Mo Hua’s guidance, his acting skills had improved somewhat. On his face, he pretended to be conflicted, appearing unable to decide. He hesitated for a long time, finally sighed, and said:

“Okay, I will learn!”

The old demon cultivator was not surprised.

As a sword forging master, the opportunity to learn how to forge life-bound sword bones placed in front of him was simply impossible to refuse.

How to nurture and sacrifice refine a life-bound magic treasure was something a sect would teach in the Qian Xue state boundary.

But how to forge the sword bone, and with the sword bone as the core, forge the embryo of a life-bound magic treasure from nothing…

This was one of the absolute secrets of sword forging.

Even those twelve-stream sects specializing in artifact refining would not teach these things to outer disciples.

“You know the origin of life-bound magic treasures, right?” the old demon cultivator asked in a hoarse voice.

Ouyang Mu naturally knew this.

He was a disciple of the long-standing Tai A Sect with a sword forging inheritance, and a direct descendant of the Ouyang family. Since he was young, he had heard and seen things, and was already very familiar with matters like sword forging, Golden Core, and magic treasures.

Ouyang Mu was just about to nod when he glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw a message transmitted to him from Mo Hua on his sleeve:

“Say you don’t know!”

Ouyang Mu, being from a sword forging family, was naturally completely clear on these matters regarding magic treasures.

But Mo Hua was still confused.

Occasionally, when teaching instructors in the sect lectured and involved some knowledge of magic treasures, they either felt it was too early for now and wouldn’t say more;

Or they felt that all those present were from prominent families, and with their family background and education, they should all understand, so they basically glossed over everything.

Mo Hua wanted to ask, but sometimes didn’t know where to ask.

Moreover, this old demon cultivator seemed to know quite a lot, and it was estimated that what he taught would be somewhat different from what was taught within the sect.

Now was a good time to let this old demon cultivator lecture for him.

Ouyang Mu was slightly startled, not understanding in his heart.

Everyone knows this basic knowledge about magic treasures, don’t they?

Why would the “vastly divine-powered,” “profoundly knowledgeable” Senior Brother Mo want him to say he didn’t know…

Ouyang Mu didn’t quite understand.

However, Senior Brother Mo’s actions always had a deeper meaning, so he should just follow.

Ouyang Mu hesitated a bit, just about to open his mouth to say that he wasn’t very clear about the matter of magic treasures, when he saw the old demon cultivator let out a cold snort.

“Hesitate, hesitate, must be that the learning is not refined, the belly has no goods…”

The old demon cultivator’s expression was displeased, “Even these basic artifact refining knowledge is not very clear. The Tai A Sect is truly abandoning fundamentals and pursuing trifles. Each generation is not as good as the last…”

Ouyang Mu was not convinced, but he did not refute.

It saved him having to explain if this old demon cultivator thought so.

The old demon cultivator looked at Ouyang Mu again, let out a cold snort, and with some “hate iron for not becoming steel,” said, “Since your learning is not refined, then I will teach you from beginning to end, one time…”

“You must remember.”

Ouyang Mu nodded.

Mo Hua, who was secretly listening, also nodded.

The old demon cultivator coughed, appearing old and tired, unable to stand for long. He then hunched over, found a stone chair to sit on, took out a white bone in his hand and rubbed it, then slowly opened his mouth and said:

“Any cultivator, if they want to breakthrough to Golden Core, must first forge a life-bound magic treasure…”

“Before the breakthrough, prepare the embryo of the life-bound magic treasure in advance. When you breakthrough to Golden Core and the spiritual power crystallizes, you will fuse the magic treasure embryo with the spiritual power that has congealed into a pill.”

“Spiritual power in the Refining Qi realm is like gas, spiritual power in the Foundation Building realm is like mercury, and spiritual power in the Golden Core realm crystallizes…”

“Only crystallized spiritual power can completely fuse with the solidified magic treasure, fitting together as one…”

“From then on, this magic treasure will exclusively belong to you alone. Your spiritual power will sense it, and it will cultivate with your life. If you are strong, it will be strong; if you are damaged, you will both be damaged.”

“And there are many particulars about the embryo of this life-bound magic treasure…”

The old demon cultivator slowly straightened his body a bit, feeling slightly more comfortable, then continued:

“Children of big families mostly use top-grade spiritual tools inherited from their families as the embryo of their life-bound magic treasures.”

“This kind of spiritual tool has a long inheritance. The gold, stone, and jade materials used are extremely precious, the craftsmanship is perfect, and it can only become a tool after thousands of hammerings and hundreds of refinements…”

“Moreover, with the cultivation method and Dao law of the family treasure, it is connected in one line and mutually fits. It is a tightly matching part of the family inheritance system and is the most top-grade life-bound magic treasure embryo…”

“In medium-sized families, the inherited spiritual tools are somewhat secondary.”

“Small families are even more secondary. Even the smallest families basically have no inherited spiritual tools and can only use ordinary spiritual tools as a substitute.”

“As for scattered cultivators, very few can congeal a pill, let alone the quality of their life-bound magic treasures…”

The old demon cultivator sighed slightly, his gaze complex, “This is the true ‘inheritance barrier’ between big families and clans. From the inheritance of cultivation methods to the monopoly of Dao cultivating resources, it is a tight, seamless, and tightly fitting system.”

“Small families, and even ordinary scattered cultivators, even if they can congeal a pill, lack inheritance and wealth in spirit stones and must refine life-bound magic treasures that are not worth mentioning.”

“Even if by chance they refine a good embryo and nurture a superior magic treasure, their inheritance is not systematic, and their cultivation method and Dao law do not match. Compared to the children of big families, they are still far behind…”

“And if the life-bound magic treasure is not good, even if they cultivate to Golden Core, they will fall far behind, almost unable to be mentioned on equal terms with the children of big families and clans, let alone strive for supremacy…”

Ouyang Mu seemed to understand, yet not understand, and nodded.

He was from a family background and didn’t feel deeply about this kind of matter.

But Mo Hua sighed deeply in his heart.

“Cultivating the Dao is strictly restricted…”

Indeed, it was not a false statement.

On the surface, you might not see it, but for scattered cultivators at the bottom level, every step upward will be hard hit by these barriers, resulting in broken heads and blood flow.

The old demon cultivator continued: “This is the righteous path method of cultivating life-bound magic treasures…”

“The demon path, magic path, corpse path, and evil path are roughly similar. They just use top-grade demon path inherited evil tools to nurture life-bound demon path magic treasures.”

“But besides this, there are also many differences.”

“After all, the road of the righteous path in this world is a thousand articles in one style, while the road of the demon path has many variations.”

“Some forge evil tools, some forge demon tools, some forge magic tools…”

“Some treat demon, evil, and magic tools as pets, raise them in their bodies, and feed them with their own flesh and blood…”

“Some also fuse the embryo of their life-bound evil tool with themselves, treating it as a part of their own body…”

“Furthermore, there are…”

The old demon cultivator paused for a moment, not continuing to speak, but said lightly: “…Furthermore, there are many, and the methods are unorthodox, not one and the same.”

Ouyang Mu’s face turned slightly pale listening to these demon path methods.

The old demon cultivator looked at him and said in a hoarse voice: “The way of evil tools is vast and profound, and I will teach you slowly.”

“Perhaps you won’t adapt at first, but slowly, you will get used to it…”

“In this world, except for one’s own divine soul and fleshly body, including the limbs and bones of others, although they are all external things, they are dead things.”

“When demon beasts die, their whole body materials can be taken to refine tools.”

“When people die, why can’t they be refined?”

“Next, you follow me and learn…”

After the old demon cultivator finished speaking, he took out a section of white spine bone, threw it into the blood pool to quench it with human blood, then put it in the dark green furnace fire to bake. When the blood color fused into the bone marrow, he took it out to forge…

This process was very tedious.

Mo Hua could only roughly understand.

Ouyang Mu then helped and at the same time remembered what Mo Hua had said. He observed the old demon cultivator’s artifact refining methods, kept them in mind, selected the good ones to learn, and discarded the bad ones.

Some of the overly evil and unorthodox artifact refining methods, Mo Hua did not let Ouyang Mu do.

Unexpectedly, that old demon cultivator did not force him.

He did all the things that Ouyang Mu was unwilling to do himself, one by one.

Only some of the edge materials and processes that would not “dirty his hands” were silently left for Ouyang Mu to do.

Mo Hua frowned slightly.

“This old thing is a bit strange…”

Just like this until the end, although this old demon cultivator was always “guiding” Ouyang Mu to refine evil tools, he never truly made things difficult for him.

After that spine bone was quenched with blood, Ouyang Mu returned to his prison cell.

Mo Hua also returned to his secret room.

He sat cross-legged on the ground, frowning and thinking, because he suddenly realized that for such a long time, he seemed to have neglected the problem of magic treasures.

Ever since he entered the Tai Xu Sect, he had always been busy.

Chasing evil cultivators, earning merit points, learning array formations, hunting demons, figuring out ways to eat evil spirits… and so on, he was busy to death.

Now that he came to his senses and thought about it, he discovered that he still didn’t know what magic treasure was good.

If he were to congeal a pill, what would he use as his life-bound magic treasure?

Other disciples of the same sect had their family elders plan everything beforehand.

From their cultivation methods, cultivated superior Dao laws, to inherited spiritual tools, and life-bound magic treasures, everything was passed down in one line.

They didn’t need to consider it themselves, only needed to follow the steps according to the clan customs or the guidance of their elders.

But he was different…

Mo Hua sighed.

He had no family inheritance.

When he left home, his parents were both only in the Refining Qi stage. He was the first among their family of three to reach Foundation Building. Where would the Golden Core inheritance come from?

As for his master…

Mo Hua was a little sad.

His master had encountered a great calamity and his life and death were now unknown. He had never mentioned anything about what would happen after reaching Golden Core.

“Storage ring?”

Mo Hua’s eyes lit up, and he flipped the storage ring on his right thumb.

But regrettably, there were no spiritual tools, magic treasures, or similar things that “suddenly appeared” within the storage ring.

“Master didn’t leave anything for me…”

Thinking about it, his master was not an immortal, and the storage ring was not a treasure box. How could he have everything he wanted?

Mo Hua pondered for a while.

“Master didn’t leave me anything, nor did he tell me any related cultivation knowledge. That is…”

“Does he want to test me?”

“Doesn’t he want to limit my choices and let me play freely?”

“Does he want me to think for myself, to choose what is most suitable for my life-bound magic treasure?”

Mo Hua slowly nodded.

Subsequently, he felt somewhat troubled again.

But he was so poor, what would he use as his life-bound magic treasure?

Inherited spiritual tool?

Too expensive, and even if he had an inherited spiritual tool, it wouldn’t match his cultivation method and Dao laws. It was estimated that he wouldn’t be able to compare with the heavenly proud ones in the same sect.

Ordinary spiritual tools, let alone.

He was born with a huge disadvantage.

Moreover, he was now already at the middle stage of Foundation Building.

Even if he had a top-grade spiritual tool embryo, there wasn’t much time to nurture it.

According to what that old demon cultivator said, the longer the embryo of a life-bound magic treasure is nurtured and the more it fits with one’s own spiritual power, the stronger the power when it is refined into a magic treasure and used like an arm.

“Troublesome…”

Mo Hua frowned tightly, suddenly an idea struck him.

He closed his eyes, his divine sense sank into the sea of consciousness, came to the front of the Dao Stele, reached out and patted the Dao Stele, and quietly asked:

“Are you willing to be my life-bound magic treasure?”

The Dao Stele was silent like a mountain, not even bothering to pay attention to him.

Mo Hua pouted, “Stingy ghost, looking down on people…”

Although, he also thought about it.

The Dao Stele was so mysterious, and illusory and profound, seemingly containing some great Dao charm that even the evil god feared. It was estimated to have a very big origin.

With such a big origin, even if it were given to him as a life-bound magic treasure, he wouldn’t dare to accept it.

He might not have that much fate.

Thinking of this, Mo Hua’s mindset became much more peaceful, and he apologized to the Dao Stele:

“Sorry, I overstepped.”

The Dao Stele was still silent, although there was a trace of slight trembling sound.

It seemed to be very satisfied with Mo Hua’s “self-knowledge.”

“The Dao Stele doesn’t work either…”

Mo Hua sighed.

“Forget it, let’s just leave it like this for now. I’ll consider it slowly when I have time. Anyway, it’s already late, so there’s no rush this time.”

Furthermore, his foundation in spiritual power and blood energy was inherently too different from others—especially the heavenly proud ones in the same sect—so he wasn’t afraid of being even more disadvantaged in this one point.

Thinking this way, Mo Hua’s heart suddenly felt much better.

Giving up one thought led to a sudden feeling that the world was vast.

Moreover, he cultivated the Dao with his divine sense, so there was no need to forcibly “compete” with these sect heavenly proud ones on things like spiritual power, blood energy, spiritual tools, and magic treasures, which were innate disadvantages.

He could make do, breakthrough realms, and congeal into Golden Core.

Mo Hua nodded.

He then took out the Tai Xu Order again.

On the Tai Xu Order, Elder Xun had transmitted a long message.

In the Ten Thousand Demons Valley, the Yuan Magnetic signal was weak, so it took quite some time for these texts to be transmitted completely.

Mo Hua read it once, feeling somewhat shocked in his heart.

“The great power of virtual reality, the present world and divine thought fuse…”

“The Blood Stream White Bones place is not truly a place to raise evil spirits. The true secret is hidden in the depths.”

“The entire Ten Thousand Demons Valley is a divine path building built with a large array formation throughout…”

“Within the Ten Thousand Demons Valley, there is a complete and extremely profound divine path array formation inheritance…”

This array formation Elder was an expert!

He had indeed seen some clues about the array formations in the Ten Thousand Demons Valley, but he didn’t understand them thoroughly enough.

And some details, he had not even noticed.

This was due to the differences in cultivation realm, array formation vision, and cognitive patterns.

Moreover…

A complete and extremely profound divine path array formation inheritance!

Mo Hua’s eyes lit up.

The divine path array formation inheritance here might be even more powerful than he thought.

Opportunities were rare, so Mo Hua immediately transmitted some questions to Xun Zi You about “the great power of virtual reality, the present world and divine thought fuse, array formation patterns, divine path array formation secrets,” and so on, just to inquire a little.

After Xun Zi You saw the questions, his scalp went numb.

“How can he, a Foundation Building disciple, ask these array formation questions…”

Xun Zi You complained in his heart, but he couldn’t answer, so he went to ask Xun Zi Xian.

When Xun Zi Xian heard these questions, his eyes lit up slightly, and he answered them one by one.

Xun Zi You then relayed the answers to Mo Hua.

After Mo Hua asked again, Xun Zi You had no choice but to ask Xun Zi Xian again. Finally, Xun Zi Xian became impatient and reached out his hand, saying:

“Give me your Tai Xu Order.”

Xun Zi You unwillingly gave his Elder Order Card to Xun Zi Xian.

Afterward, Xun Zi Xian chatted with Mo Hua for a while.

The two exchanged opinions on array formation problems, talking very happily, completely forgetting about Xun Zi You, who was left hanging on the side.

Xun Zi Xian no longer had that annoying appearance of “I don’t want to play the lute to a cow,” but was instead very interested and eager to talk.

Xun Zi You sighed helplessly.

Finally, the two finished their conversation.

Xun Zi Xian returned the Tai Xu Elder Order to Xun Zi You and sighed, “He is an extremely good seedling. His future in array formations is boundless…”

After finishing, he looked at the Ten Thousand Demons Valley again, his expression solemn, “This child must absolutely not be harmed within this Ten Thousand Demons Valley.”

Xun Zi You silently rolled his eyes at him, thinking to himself, that’s nonsense, do I still need you to say that?

Subsequently, he sighed again.

It had been a stalemate for several days like this, and he just didn’t know when there would be a turnaround.

In the Ten Thousand Demons Valley, Mo Hua chatted with Elder Xun Zi Xian for a while and benefited greatly.

Although Elder Xun Zi Xian’s attainments in array formations were far from those of Old Master Xun, he had unique insights into array formations and some experience and knowledge of array formations.

Mo Hua sighed in his heart, indeed, among three people, there must be my teacher.

One must not underestimate any array master, but must have a humble heart, think more, learn more, and ask more.

Furthermore, Elder Xun Zi Xian had just provided some guesses about the “divine path array formation” within the Ten Thousand Demons Valley.

After the conversation, Mo Hua had some vague clues in his heart, but it was still not good to confirm them for the time being…

The next day, in the evil tool room of the Ten Thousand Demons Prison.

As the old demon cultivator who was an evil tool master, he was still teaching Ouyang Mu to refine sword bones and forge evil swords.

Ouyang Mu stood between the blood pool and the bone furnace, also diligently refining swords.

Outside the evil tool room, Jin Gui’s gaze was like a poisonous snake. He peeked for a while, saw that Ouyang Mu was not slacking off and was indeed deeply forging the evil sword bit by bit, and nodded in satisfaction.

“Once Ouyang Mu enters the demon path and becomes an evil sword master, everything will be easy to handle…”

Jin Gui turned around and left without a trace.

But he didn’t know that on the surface, Ouyang Mu was indeed participating in the whole process.

But in reality, he didn’t actually handle any of the truly evil artifact refining processes.

This was partly because Mo Hua taught him how to “smoothly avoid” them, and also because that old demon cultivator turned a blind eye.

Mo Hua felt a little strange, then transmitted a message to Ouyang Mu:

“Ask this old thing a little about his relationship with the Ouyang family.”

Ouyang Mu was startled, nodded slightly, then turned his head and said to that old demon cultivator: “Old east…”

Influenced by Mo Hua, he almost blurted out the three words “old thing.”

Ouyang Mu coughed, changed his title, and said in a low voice:

“Old senior, are you… not related to our Ouyang family?”

The old demon cultivator’s body shook, stopping his actions. A strong baleful aura and unwillingness emanated from his body.

The atmosphere in the room suddenly solidified.

All around was quiet, only the dark, poisonous green furnace fire burned with a crackling sound, transmitting oppressive sounds.

Ouyang Mu swallowed his saliva, lowered his eyelids slightly, glanced at his sleeve, then mumbled:

“You… are unwilling to say, then forget it…”

The old demon cultivator suddenly turned his head, his turbid gaze looked at Ouyang Mu, his expression melancholy, and mixed with very complex emotions.

Finally, he sighed.

“Forget it, telling you is no harm…”

Ouyang Mu breathed a sigh of relief, just about to put down the white bone in his hand.

The old demon cultivator then said: “Don’t stop your hands.”

“Oh…”

Ouyang Mu was startled, then continued to refine the white bone along the furnace fire.

The old demon cultivator sat withered in his original place, sighed deeply, and finally slowly opened his mouth and said:

“This matter is a long story…”

“You are right, I indeed… have some connection with the Ouyang family, and moreover, I once was indeed…”

Speaking to here, the old demon cultivator seemed to have some difficulty speaking, but finally gritted his teeth and said:

“…An Ouyang family disciple!”

Ouyang Mu’s expression changed.

An Ouyang family disciple!

Indeed!

Subsequently, he was both shocked and angry.

The great Tai A Sect Ouyang family, actually since hundreds of years ago, had people captured by demon cultivators, locked in this prison where they couldn’t see the sky, forced to help the “demons” do evil, and refine bloody evil swords for these ferocious demon cultivators.

(End of this chapter)