Chapter 296 — The Form of Spirit-Transformed Blades

The men of the Ministry of Works rebuilt the Fangzhou Supervisory Workshop from the ground up. Shen Mu had redesigned the great furnace as well, and the workshop emerged wholly renewed, with many mechanical giants added for forging. Once the great furnace was lit and the mechanical giants set to work, the workshop immediately bustled with activity.

Shan Youxin and the others busied themselves with adjustments, while Shen Mu circulated the Mystic Body Three Cores cultivation method, his vital essence surging vigorously. Others in the Six Harmonies realm first cultivated a primordial weapon, and only when the Six Harmonies realm reached perfection would they cultivate a Primordial Spirit—and even then it was incomplete, requiring advancement to the Heaven-Man realm before it could manifest in form and roam the void. He, however, had cultivated the Primordial Spirit first, and only then cultivated the primordial weapon.

His Primordial Spirit was still very weak, far from the stage of manifestation. If the Primordial Spirit could manifest and appear behind him, that would be the Heaven-Man realm.

Between the Six Harmonies and the Heaven-Man, however, lay the Seven Stars realm. He had only just entered the Six Harmonies; that step was still far off.

That his Primordial Spirit could roam the four directions was merely a stroke of fortune. It was when he encountered a master like Xu Shenghua that his heart and spirit were stirred, leading to his enlightenment by the river, and he had brought Ling Yuxiu along to roam the four directions together.

According to the orthodox order of cultivation, he still needed first to gestate a primordial weapon within the Six-Realms Spirit Treasury.

As the Mystic Body Three Cores cultivation method circulated, Shen Mu immediately felt his vital essence penetrate the spirit embryo, the Five Luminaries, and the Six Harmonies. His hun-po merged with the spirit embryo once more, his vital essence condensed, and his Primordial Spirit formed again, breathing in and out the creative power of heaven and earth. His cultivation speed was now much faster than before.

"Could it be that others cultivate in the same way I do? But from what the crown prince said, it seems not..."

He could not help but feel some doubt. From what Ling Yushu had said, it was impossible for others to cultivate a Primordial Spirit at this stage.

Once the Primordial Spirit was cultivated, cultivation speed was very fast. Without it, one could only proceed step by step.

He set this doubt aside for the moment and focused wholeheartedly on circulating the Mystic Body Three Cores cultivation method, stirring his own vital essence and mobilizing his qi and blood. Within the Six-Realms Spirit Treasury, streams of vital essence gathered and flew continuously toward its center, where a primordial weapon was slowly taking shape.

When the Six-Realms Spirit Treasury gestates a primordial weapon, the weapon's form is often the one that best suits one's own cultivation method. This kind of primordial weapon differs from others—it shares breath and fate with its owner, a weapon that grows alongside the cultivator.

The formation of the primordial weapon required no conscious design or creation on his part; it took shape naturally along with his cultivation.

At present, his primordial weapon's form was still being constructed. Its specific shape could not yet be discerned—only a mass of light was visible, with his vital essence flying in from all directions of the Six-Realms Spirit Treasury to converge upon that radiance.

Within the vital essence, various runes and sigils could be faintly seen, profoundly mysterious. Yet to Shen Mu, these runes and sigils were precisely his arts and methods, merely expressed in the form of runes.

Ling Yuxiu's Nine Dragons weapon and Si Yunxiang's Thousand Threads also bore such runic sigils. When forging a primordial weapon, these sigils needed to be branded upon it as well.

The vital essence flying toward that orb of light revealed sword-pattern sigils. Stream after stream of vital essence light merged into the orb, like flying swords continuously entering a sword pellet.

A sword pellet is not a pill, but a sword—dozens, hundreds, even thousands of swords refined into one.

Thus the essence of a sword pellet is still the sword.

When the Six-Realms Spirit Treasury gestates a sword pellet primordial weapon, vital essence in the form of flying swords flies in from all directions, inserting themselves together to form a pellet shape. Sword-shaped vital essence is also called sword essence. Only when all the sword essence has merged into the sword pellet form can one forge one's own sword pellet—and the number of flying swords within the pellet must equal the number of sword essences.

Refining a sword pellet means refining swords to a state finer than a needle, then refining them into pellet form. Therefore, when refining a sword pellet, each sword must be tempered to the level of size at will—a most difficult feat.

Hence sword pellets command a high price. Many divine ability users often substitute a sword case instead. A sword case can store fewer flying swords, and its refinement requires beast bone containing Taotie bloodline to expand the internal space—its price is also quite high.

The Grand Academy provides each of its students with a sword case, spending no small sum from the national treasury every year.

Truly wealthy Grand Academy students would often invite famous masters and craftsmen to forge sword pellets for them. Thus a sword pellet was also a symbol of status.

"So my primordial weapon is a sword pellet. Though sword pellets are difficult to refine, refining one is not all that hard."

Shen Mu felt not the slightest sense of how valuable a sword pellet was. After all, back in Hidden Remnant Village, Granny Zhu's shoes under her bed had them scattered everywhere, and a few had even been eaten by chickens.

More terrifying still, the Silent Craftsman had a whole chest of sword pellets, heavy as a mountain.

Moreover, having studied forging under the Silent Craftsman, refining a sword pellet was laborious for him, but not difficult.

However, within his Six-Realms Spirit Treasury, sword essence was still continuously merging into that orb of light. Shen Mu did a count, and his face turned somewhat green—the sword essence that had merged into the orb numbered as many as five thousand!

In other words, he would have to refine five thousand flying swords to forge his own sword pellet.

Not only that, but sword essence continued to fly in, indicating more than five thousand flying swords.

It was not that he worried about lacking money to refine the sword pellet primordial weapon—he never worried about money. What he worried about was the weight!

Even if several thousand flying swords were refined very small, their weight would not change. Refining so many flying swords into a small pellet would make for an extremely considerable weight!

The flying swords of Jingping Kingdom were graded into nine ranks. A ninth-rank sword weighed two catties—the lowest grade, forged from common iron, a weapon for ordinary people. Yet even a ninth-rank sword, refined into a sword pellet, would weigh ten thousand catties!

Moreover, the better the flying sword, the heavier it often was. A second-rank flying sword often weighed hundreds or thousands of catties. Only first-rank flying swords—the swords worn by first-rank court officials, such as Shen Mu's Chubao Sword—were light in weight.

The Chubao Sword was forged from the finest materials under heaven by the greatest sword-forging masters. Only a dozen or so were ever made. Even if Shen Mu wished to refine a sword pellet like it, he lacked such quantity and quality of materials.

"Third-rank swords are forged from cold iron essence and dark iron cold crystal. The problem is their weight—refined into a sword pellet, I fear I could not even wield it. The pellet alone would exhaust me to death."