Chapter 629: Artifact Refinement with Devilish Flames

Not all souls retained a trace of spiritual essence. Those devilish soul-refining artifacts Qin Sang had previously picked up in the ancient cultivator’s estate had long since worn away the souls’ spiritual essence.

The banners seized from the remaining members of Kuiyin Sect, however, had only recently absorbed souls from freshly slain victims; only then could a sliver of spiritual essence remain.

In the end, Qin Sang released the souls that had yet to lose their spiritual essence, and extracted the pure souls from all the ghost banners, refining it into threads to restore his astras.

The three Yan Luo Banners of Ten Directions now hovered in the air, forming a banner array that rotated slowly before him.

At the center of the astras, the black devilish flame gathered into a concentrated mass.

With all three banners combined, the power of the Devilish Flames of Nine Hells was far more than a simple multiplication. It truly rivaled that of a middle-grade astra. That was no exaggeration.

But the requirements for the cultivator were significantly higher.

Even though the banners originated from the same array and were tightly linked, requiring no split in focus during control, using three astras at once still placed considerable strain on the wielder.

When unleashing the Devilish Flames of Nine Hells in combat, the consumption of true essence was extremely rapid, and the demand on one’s spiritual consciousness was immense.

Thanks to the aid of his corpse core, Qin Sang could sustain the expenditure of true essence for a longer time.

However, his cultivation realm was still insufficient, and his spiritual consciousness was not yet strong. Even so, it was exhausting.

Qin Sang attempted to activate the banner array. The Devilish Flames of Nine Hells transformed into a fire dragon that roared out from the array, only to suddenly collapse with a sharp snap, shattering into countless embers that filled the entire cave dwelling.

The banners trembled violently, their fabric fluttering chaotically.

Qin Sang’s expression shifted. He quickly retracted the Devilish Flames of Nine Hells.

"I've failed again. I’ll need to practice more diligently and fully master this banner array as soon as possible. After all, this will be my trump card for a long time to come," he murmured to himself.

He then stored away two of the Yan Luo Banners of Ten Directions into the Thousand-Jin Ring and retrieved the corpse of the Black-Winged Eagle, the former owner of this cave dwelling.

It had been a formidable demonic beast at the middle stage of the Demonic Spirit Realm, covered in iron feathers, and even in death still exuded a wild and untamed aura.

Demonic beast corpses could be used to refine artifacts.

To Qin Sang, the Black-Winged Eagle’s cultivation was too low. Even if it were turned into an artifact, he would not find it useful. Instead, he planned to use the beast’s remains to forge Essence-Devouring Spikes.

The Essence-Devouring Spike was a one-time-use artifact given to him long ago by Shopkeeper Wu at Wenyue Market. It had proven quite effective during the early stage of the Foundation Building Realm, but its usefulness diminished as one advanced in cultivation.

Qin Sang rarely refined them anymore.

Now that he had the Black-Winged Eagle’s corpse, if the refinement process went smoothly, he could forge two Essence-Devouring Spikes.

Qin Sang left one Yan Luo Banner of Ten Directions out. It was partly to test whether the Devilish Flames of Nine Hells could be used in artifact refinement, and partly to forge the Essence-Devouring Spikes as a gift for Mute Girl to defend herself.

Of course, that depended on whether Mute Girl possessed a spiritual root and could cultivate.

Two Essence-Devouring Spikes would be enough to ensure her safety before she reached the Foundation Building Realm. This was a small way for Qin Sang to repay the life-saving grace she had shown him.

The Devilish Flames of Nine Hells flew from the Yan Luo Banner of Ten Directions and hovered before him, morphing continuously under his control. They were constantly dispensing and gathering until they finally condensed into a single cluster.

Qin Sang half-closed his eyes, sensing the aura of the flame and attempting to control it using artifact refinement techniques.

The Devilish Flames of Nine Hells were an extremely rare and extraordinary type of flame. If they could be used for artifact refinement, they would far surpass pill fire in efficiency, and significantly improve the success rate of forging. This was an advantage other artifact refiners did not possess.

With the flying yaksha standing guard at the gate, Qin Sang could focus entirely on attuning himself to the Devilish Flames of Nine Hells.

Before he knew it, an entire night had passed.

At the break of dawn, Qin Sang suddenly opened his eyes. His gaze fell upon the demonic beast corpse beside him. With a beckon, his true essence formed into a claw, lifting the carcass and casting it into the Devilish Flames of Nine Hells.

The flames stirred slightly, then gradually stabilized.

Qin Sang stared intently at the beast within the fire, his expression somewhat tense. Soon, he saw the eagle’s iron feathers begin to melt one after another, consumed by the Devilish Flames of Nine Hells, until only two drops of pitch-black molten iron remained.

Those two droplets brimmed with ferocious demonic qi, but it was fully sealed within by the Devilish Flames of Nine Hells.

Qin Sang let out a quiet breath, a faint smile appearing on his lips. The formation of those two droplets confirmed his success. He could indeed use the power of the Devilish Flames of Nine Hells to refine artifacts.

He did not hesitate any longer and boldly began refining the rest of the demonic beast’s body.

Before long, the massive demonic beast carcass was fully consumed by the devilish flames. At the heart of the fire, two palm-sized black horns emerged, shaped like the beak of the Black-Winged Eagle.

Each horn had a slender needle embedded at the tip that was refined from the venomous fang of a Black Jiao. These needles carried potent Jiao venom.

Qin Sang had slain the Black Jiao in Endless Valley and preserved its body, though he hadn’t yet decided what to refine from it.

That Black Jiao had been at the peak of the Demonic Spirit Realm. This was a rarity in the Small Cold Domain, and highly valuable as a refining material. However, in the Canglang Sea, such materials seemed far less precious.

It was said that in the Stormy Demonic Sea, powerful beasts at the Demonic Core Realm appeared regularly, while beasts at the Demonic Spirit Realm were far too numerous to count.

Qin Sang was already considering a trip to the Stormy Demonic Sea once his current matters were settled, to gather the nine Jiao spirit essences required for the Nine-Dragon Heavenly Chariot Talisman. This was another step toward greatly enhancing his survival ability.

The Nine-Dragon Heavenly Chariot Talisman was one of the four secret talismans of the Shangyuan Tranquility Palace. Once all nine Jiao spirits were gathered, it could unleash astonishing escape speed, making it a treasure coveted by all Core Formation cultivators.

Unfortunately, demonic beasts were scarce in the Small Cold Domain. Even Daoist Master Xuanyu, in all his life, had never managed to collect the nine Jiao spirits.

The Essence-Devouring Spikes were now complete.

Qin Sang stored the Yan Luo Banner of Ten Directions and the other items, tucked the flying yaksha into the Corpse Puppet Pouch, and then left the cave dwelling, flying toward Thousand-Household Village.

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Swish!

In the wilderness...

The hum of a sword echoed like thunder, shaking the hills.

In the next moment, two streaks of light shot across the sky like meteors, chasing each other at high speed.

Moments later, one of the lights suddenly vanished, while the other came to a halt, revealing its true form. It was a beautifully crafted flying sword.

A figure appeared in mid-air and retrieved the sword into his palm.

Qin Sang looked down at the ebony sword in his hand, recalling the moment when the sword light had divided.

After forming his Golden Core, the

Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment

had broken through to the fifth stage, enabling Qin Sang to use the supernatural ability Sword Light Division.

Sword Light Division was a far more profound ability than Sword Qi Thunderclap. It was an advanced sword art realm countless sword cultivators yearned to attain.

Once mastered, the divided sword shadows could nearly pass for the real thing and would even inherit part of the spiritual sword’s own power, making them extremely difficult to guard against.

In ancient texts, Qin Sang had read that some cultivators proficient in Sword Light Division could produce multiple sword shadows. The truly powerful could even combine sword will and form into a powerful sword array using sword light alone.

One sword forming a battle array that was worthy of facing ten thousand enemies alone!

That was the true path of a sword cultivator.

However, the supernatural ability granted by the cultivation method currently only allowed him to split one strand of sword light. Unless Qin Sang could comprehend more on his own, it would be difficult to reach that legendary realm.

He suspected that the original version of this art, as one's cultivation advanced, would allow for more and more divisions of sword light. For now, it was still uncertain whether the sword art created by Senior Qingzhu would further enhance the Sword Light Division supernatural ability.

For the time being, what Qin Sang needed to focus on was mastering Sword Light Division.