Chapter 680: The Trouble of Divine Wood

The group was in high spirits, and Elder Zhou and the others intended to host a celebratory banquet. However, Qin Sang politely declined.

After resting in the cave dwelling for the night, Qin Sang returned to the fire room the next day and instructed Ran Luo to bring the spiritual materials accumulated by the merchant guild. His artifact refinement skills were clearly superior to the young man’s, and the materials Ran Luo provided were top-tier, allowing Qin Sang to focus on crafting top-grade artifacts.

While assisting the guild with artifact refinement, Qin Sang effortlessly acquired many rare materials, allowing him to practice and rapidly improve his artifact refinement skills, making it a win-win situation.

As Qin Sang waited for Ran Luo to bring the materials, he summoned the ebony sword and took a piece of spiritual wood from his Mustard Seed Pouch.

This was the heartwood of a Jiaoshan Tree, a precious spiritual wood comparable to Cold Gold. It was something Qin Sang had found in Du Han’s Mustard Seed Pouch.

The ebony sword was only a low-grade astra, and according to the description in the

Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment,

a low-grade astra could only carry up to six killing symbols.

If he didn’t improve the quality of the sword, it would become a bottleneck preventing him from advancing to the late stage of the Core Formation Realm.

To upgrade the ebony sword from a low-grade astra to a middle-grade astra, Qin Sang had no idea how many spiritual materials it would consume. Only divine woods of the Ten Divine Woods rank could provide a significant boost; other spiritual woods could only contribute incrementally.

Qin Sang knew that the sooner he began, the better, to avoid the ebony sword becoming a hindrance when the time came.

However, the ebony sword could not be used in combat while absorbing spiritual wood.

After forming his core in the Bear Mountain region, Qin Sang had planned to head deep into Xijiang to hunt demonic beasts.

The journey had been long, and he had feared encountering unforeseen events along the way.

Although he had a few good pieces of spiritual wood, he hadn’t had the opportunity to let the ebony sword absorb them.

Staying on Duyan Island, however, ensured his safety, and with the Qiongyu Merchant Guild’s abundant collection of demonic beast corpses, Qin Sang wouldn’t have to leave the island for at least half a year. He decided to use this time to let the ebony sword consume more spiritual wood.

Under the guidance of his true essence, the Jiaoshan Tree's heartwood floated before Qin Sang.

The wood was pure white, looking as pristine as snow.

Qin Sang focused his mind, and the ebony sword hung above the Jiaoshan Tree's heartwood. Sword Qi manifested, enveloping the heartwood.

With his understanding of artifact refinement, Qin Sang easily grasped the nature of the heartwood. The sword Qi gently penetrated it, cutting away the impurities within the spiritual wood.

Before long, the heartwood was reduced to its purest essence.

A faint smile appeared on Qin Sang’s face as he extended his hand, and the ebony sword emitted a powerful suction, drawing in the essence of the spiritual wood without leaving a trace behind.

The ebony sword, already an artifact, had no difficulty suppressing the heartwood’s essence.

Qin Sang appeared at ease.

However, just as the spiritual wood essence was completely absorbed by the ebony sword, an unexpected change occurred!

The essence of the spiritual wood seemed to trigger something. What had been pure white with a faint tinge of azure suddenly took on a blood-red hue, spreading rapidly with incredible speed.

In the blink of an eye, the essence of the spiritual wood lost all its spiritual essence and became a useless mass!

The ebony sword returned to its original state.

Qin Sang’s expression changed drastically, and a sense of foreboding washed over him.

This was clearly the corrupting force of the Infinite Blood Mulberry Wood!

When the essence of the spiritual wood came into contact with the ebony sword’s essence, it was unable to resist the taint from the Infinite Blood Mulberry Wood due to its inferior quality, and as a result, it was rendered useless.

This was something Qin Sang had not anticipated.

Before reaching the Core Formation Realm, Qin Sang had tried to get the ebony sword to absorb spiritual wood, and a similar situation had occurred.

However, back then, he thought it was due to his lack of cultivation and his inability to control the astra's power. He hadn’t paid much attention to it. But now, after reaching the Core Formation Realm, it had happened again.

Qin Sang’s expression grew solemn. He connected his mind to the ebony sword and took out several different types of spiritual wood, trying them one by one. Without exception, all of them failed.

It seemed that the issue was caused by a conflict between the spiritual woods, an influence beyond Qin Sang’s control.

The spiritual wood essence lost all its spiritual essence the moment it came into contact with the taint of the Infinite Blood Mulberry Wood, let alone being absorbed.

Previously, when the ebony sword had absorbed the Infinite Blood Mulberry Wood, it had been stabilized by the killing symbols, allowing it to resist the taint. But now, these new spiritual woods were no match for the power of the Infinite Blood Mulberry Wood.

For the spiritual wood to be absorbed by the ebony sword, its quality needed to be comparable to that of the Infinite Blood Mulberry Wood.

Whether this was due to the nature of the Infinite Blood Mulberry Wood itself or whether all divine woods had similar properties, Qin Sang did not know for sure.

"Uhh... Must I find spiritual woods of the same level as the Infinite Blood Mulberry Wood, the Ten Divine Woods, in order to upgrade the ebony sword? Those celestial trees that only exist in legends must certainly be on par with the Ten Divine Woods, but no one knows if they actually exist. They’re even rarer than the Ten Divine Woods," Qin Sang murmured to himself, his expression grim.

It was only when he arrived at the Canglang Sea that he realized the Small Cold Domain, where he had originally come from, was considered a prosperous land in the immortal cultivation world. In the past ten thousand years, there were only three occasions when the Ten Divine Woods had ever appeared there.

The area of Canglang Sea was many times larger than that of the Small Cold Domain, but it was far more barren. Where could he find the Ten Divine Woods here?

"Must I return to the Small Cold Domain before reaching the late stage of the Core Formation Realm?"

Endless Valley in the Small Cold Domain was the only place Qin Sang knew where the Ten Divine Woods might exist.

Years ago, the entire Infinite Blood Mulberry Wood had been shattered, and its fragments scattered throughout Endless Valley. The leader of Wuji Sect and his partner, with help from the Sin Abyss, had entered Endless Valley and conducted an extensive search. It was certain that there were still some fragments they had missed.

As for abandoning the ebony sword and reforging it, Qin Sang didn’t dare to do so recklessly.

Not to mention the difficulty of reforging an astra, replacing his life-bound spiritual sword would mean abandoning the killing symbols on it. Due to the nature of his cultivation method, the killing symbols on his life-bound sword were closely tied to his cultivation. Qin Sang had no idea what might happen if he were to lose them. He would not take such a gamble unless absolutely necessary.

"Fortunately, upgrading the ebony sword is not an urgent matter. Once I reach the late stage of the Core Formation Realm, I’ll have plenty of time to find a solution. Bottleneck... So this is the bottleneck described in

Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment

!"

Qin Sang sighed, realizing how naive his previous thoughts had been.

The Ten Divine Woods were so rare. A tangible bottleneck might not be easier to overcome than an intangible one.

"No, wait!"

𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Qin Sang’s expression brightened.

"Anything is possible. There might not be just one way, such as finding the Ten Divine Woods. Perhaps I can find another path and solve it through artifact refinement. It seems my choice to focus on artifact refinement was the right one. I’ll need to put more effort into improving my artifact refinement skills in the future."

He summoned the ebony sword back into his palm.

Qin Sang stared at it for a long time, but he still had no clue. However, he knew deep down that his artifact refinement skills were still low and he was not discouraged.

The stone door of the fire room was knocked.

Qiongyu Merchant Guild had delivered the spiritual materials.

Qin Sang stored the ebony sword in his primordial spirit, suppressed his thoughts, and began focusing on his artifact refinement.

The fire room remained indifferent to the passage of time.

Unknowingly, half a year had passed since Qin Sang had arrived on Duyan Island.

During this time, he had been moving back and forth between his cave dwelling and the fire room. He had never once left the island, and one top-grade artifact after another materialized under his hands.