HPDBC Chapter 118 Refining
Chapter 118 Refining
"you... you'll never succeed!"
leng tianfeng quickly mobilized the power of the five emperors soul refining furnace, sending a ceaseless torrent to scour away the essence and divine spirit that alkaid had infiltrated into the treasure.
under the assault of wave after wave of ghastly blue radiance, the essence and divine spirit contained within the blood were swiftly eradicated.
alkaid was equally unyielding.
after consuming a large number of elixirs, including restoratives like soul condensing pills, he repeatedly carried out a forceful blood sacrifice to the five emperors soul refining furnace.
each drop of blood, blended with the spiritual power within the spirit stones, penetrated incessantly in a special manner.
during the infiltration process, his understanding of the treasure deepened rapidly, to the extent that he could gain control of critical junctures with every half attempt at infiltration.
leng tianfeng could distinctly feel that the restraints within the five emperors soul refining furnace, meant to bind and control the artifact spirit, were rapidly falling under control!
though the control wasn't complete, as the restraints began to take effect, they surely started binding and suppressing him, as the artifact spirit.
this constraint and suppression slowed leng tianfeng's attempts to prevent alkaid's blood sacrifice.
gradually...
a vicious cycle formed!
he watched, almost helplessly, as alkaid took control of more and more restraints, tightening the hold over him.
for a moment, an unprecedented panic and restlessness surged within him once again.
"how could this be, how could this be... you're not only profoundly talented in divine demon body refining, but you're also so skilled in artifact refining!?"
everyone has their strengths.
it was the same for those existences from the moon demon empire.
he was exceedingly proficient in soul control and manipulating living beings.
he even mastered the evolutionary path of demonic bodies, capable of transforming any mortal flesh through his control of the "horned demon" path and rapidly evolving it into a demon-like form comparable to the ninth layers of body refining.
besides, he also held many divine soul secret arts, clone techniques, soul-stealing methods, possession techniques, and so on.
from the perspective of the skills he commanded, he was a fully qualified soul commander.
but artifact refining...
he truly hadn't studied it deeply.
so now, he could only watch in dismay as alkaid refined the restraints more thoroughly, and he was utterly powerless to resist.
the key issue was that he had already become one with this treasure.
unless someone could shatter this treasure and prepare another vessel for him, who would be rendered weak without a body, otherwise...
the treasure had become his deadly prison.
feeling that the power of the restraints was thoroughly under alkaid's control, leng tianfeng couldn't help but let out a somewhat desperate cry.
"who exactly are you!?"
regrettably...
alkaid did not respond.
as he activated the formation carved into the five emperors soul refining furnace, the furnace with a diameter of over a meter swiftly shrank, eventually turning palm-sized before being grasped in his hand.
having completely taken control of the treasure, alkaid finally allowed himself a sigh of relief.
he glanced at the five emperors furnace in his hand.
to be exact, he looked at leng tianfeng, who had been transformed into the artifact spirit within the five emperors furnace.
"i remember you once said you wanted to put me in a box, to refine me into one of your three thousand six hundred virtual pets, so i would run up to you wagging my tail for pity the moment i saw you every day... now that i think about it, virtual pets and artifact spirits... should be quite similar. it seems i've used the method you wanted to employ against me, against you.
this is what they call fighting fire with fire," alkaid spoke.
"you... what the hell do you want to do?"
"be a good artifact spirit, and if i sense any malice from you, don't blame me for directly erasing your cognitive consciousness... although this would mean the artifact spirit needs re-cultivating, but... with your foundation left behind, it shouldn't take long to raise a new artifact spirit," alkaid said, drawing upon the banishing power within the treasure.
instantly, leng tianfeng felt as though a dagger, emitting an intense chill, was pointed directly at his defenseless soul, grinding away bit by bit...
after merely experiencing a touch of this "sharpness," he knew that alkaid was not making empty threats.
"i..."
after xie yushu and several martial saints of snow dragon had departed, alkaid also began to search for the spoils of war taken from the hands of a few people from the red star empire.
divine weapons were not few in number.
key to his findings, alkaid also recovered over sixty spirit stones from them.
in the artifact nurturing realm, where the "spiritual energy" environment was poor, spirit stones were treasures.
these sixty-three spirit stones...
presumably represent all of the jiang family's accumulation over these years.
they carried all these spirit stones with them, presumably to activate the power of the five emperors furnace immediately upon gaining control of it,
he secured the most valuable items for himself and paid no attention to the rest.
shortly after, kong fang arrived swiftly with people in this forest.
"speaker..."
"gather up these spoils of war."
alkaid commanded.
since he had brought people along, naturally the task of collecting the spoils fell to them.
"yes."
kong fang replied gravely.
soon, his gaze landed on body after body.
he was not surprised at the death of mo huang, the leader of the rebirth society.
even upon seeing the body of "xie boen," his expression did not change much.
after all, he had previously encountered xie yushu, who was not in a rushed or panicked state, indicating that they had ultimately triumphed in the fishing operation against the hidden hand behind the rebirth society.
however...
upon seeing the corpses of jiang banzi, zuo wendao, jiang zhenwu, and others, a look of surprise involuntarily appeared in his eyes: "this is..."
"minor characters who wanted to profit from others' fight."
alkaid said calmly.
he was stating a fact.
to him now, and to leng tianfeng who possessed xie boen's celestial body, these people from red star were inconsequential.
if they had wisely stayed out of the dispute, he and the others would have ignored them now, but they had foolishly tried to snatch the spoils...
naturally, leng tianfeng killed them offhand.
their level and vision were not enough, they had no idea how strong leng tianfeng and alkaid at this moment truly were.
"also, organize a group of people to follow those from the snow dragon to the red star empire. the snow dragon association will take action against the red star empire, but during this period, we still need to secure what belongs to us, especially the technology for crafting nuclear weapons..."
alkaid instructed, adding at the end, "the snow dragon's people dare not obstruct us."
"yes."
kong fang replied respectfully.
"arrange transportation, i'll go back and rest for a while."
alkaid said, making his way out of the forest.
...
after getting into the car, he didn't even have time to question the soul commander from the moon demon empire; instead, he focused his attention on the ancient tree in his spiritual world.
at this moment...
the ancient tree representing high-dimensional cognition was no longer the only one standing tall.
a second branch was growing robustly at an extremely fast pace.
this one...
was the artifact refining branch.
and judging by its size, it had clearly reached the ninth rank.