The Ministry of Works rebuilt the Fangzhou Supervision Factory, and Qin Mu redesigned the great furnace as well. The factory looked brand new, with many more mechanical giants added. Once the furnace was activated, the mechanical giants sprang into motion, and the factory immediately became bustling with activity.
Shan Youxin and the others were busy with adjustments, while Qin Mu activated the Overlord Body Three Pillar Technique. His vitality surged and circulated. Others at the Six Harmonies realm would first cultivate a Spirit Weapon, and only after reaching perfection in the Six Harmonies realm would they form a Primordial Spirit, which would also be imperfect. They needed to reach the Celestial Being realm for it to manifest and travel through the Void. However, he had formed his Primordial Spirit first and was now cultivating his Spirit Weapon.
His Primordial Spirit was still weak, far from reaching the stage of manifestation. If his Primordial Spirit could manifest and appear behind him, that would mean he had become a Celestial Being.
Between the Six Harmonies and Celestial Being realms, there was still the Seven Stars realm. He had only just entered the Six Harmonies realm, so that step was still far off.
His ability to travel with his Primordial Spirit was a coincidence. It happened when he encountered an expert like Xu Shenghua. In a moment of emotional agitation, he had an epiphany by the river and traveled together with Ling Yuxiu.
According to orthodox cultivation order, he still needed the Six Harmonies Divine Treasury to give birth to a Spirit Weapon first.
As the Overlord Body Three Pillar Technique circulated, Qin Mu felt his vitality connecting the Spirit Embryo, Five Luminaries, and Six Harmonies. His soul merged with the Spirit Embryo, his essence condensed, his Primordial Spirit formed again, and he absorbed the creations of heaven and earth. His cultivation speed was much faster than before.
"Could it be that others cultivate like me? But according to the Crown Prince, it seems different..."
He felt somewhat puzzled. According to Ling Yushu, others couldn't form a Primordial Spirit at this stage.
After forming a Primordial Spirit, cultivation became very fast. Without one, it was just a matter of following the steps.
He set this doubt aside for now and focused on activating the Overlord Body Three Pillar Technique. He drew upon his own vitality, mobilizing his blood and energy. Within the Six Harmonies Divine Treasury, streams of essence converged, flying toward its center. There, a Spirit Weapon was slowly taking shape.
The Spirit Weapon born from the Six Harmonies Divine Treasury often took the form that best suited one's cultivation technique. This Spirit Weapon was different from others—it shared the same breath and fate as its owner, growing together with them.
The formation of a Spirit Weapon didn't even require deliberate design or creation; it formed naturally as one cultivated.
Now, his Spirit Weapon's form was still under construction. It was impossible to tell its exact shape yet—only a ball of light could be seen. His essence flew from all directions within the Six Harmonies Divine Treasury, converging into that ball of light.
Within the essence, various runes and imprints were faintly visible, quite mysterious. But for Qin Mu, these runes and imprints were simply his techniques and methods, expressed in the form of runes.
Ling Yuxiu's Nine Dragon Weapon and Si Yunxiang's Thousand Threads also had such rune imprints. When forging Spirit Weapons, these imprints needed to be branded onto them.
The essence flying toward the ball of light manifested as sword runes. Stream after stream of essence light merged into the ball, like flying swords constantly entering a Sword Pill.
A Sword Pill was not a pill but a sword—it contained dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of swords refined into it.
Therefore, the essence of a Sword Pill was still a sword.
When the Six Harmonies Divine Treasury gave birth to a Sword Pill Spirit Weapon, sword-shaped essence flew from all directions within the treasury, converging to form a pill shape. This sword-shaped essence was called Sword Essence. Only after all the Sword Essence had merged into the Sword Pill form could one forge their own Sword Pill. Moreover, the number of flying swords within the Sword Pill had to equal the quantity of Sword Essence.
Refining a Sword Pill involved tempering each sword to be finer than a needle, then forming it into a pill shape. Therefore, when refining a Sword Pill, every sword had to be tempered to a size of perfect ease—a very difficult task.
As a result, Sword Pills were expensive. Many cultivators chose to use sword cases instead. Sword cases could store fewer flying swords, and during their creation, beast bones containing Taotie blood were needed to expand the interior space. The price was also quite high.
The Imperial Academy equipped every student with a sword case, spending a considerable amount from the national treasury each year.
Truly wealthy students would invite famous masters and craftsmen to forge Sword Pills for them, making Sword Pills a symbol of status.
"So my Spirit Weapon is a Sword Pill. Although Sword Pills are difficult to refine, the process isn't too hard for me."
Qin Mu didn't feel how valuable Sword Pills were. After all, in the Disabled Elders Village, Granny Si had them scattered under her bed, in her shoes, and some were even eaten by chickens.
Even more terrifying, Silent One had a whole box of Sword Pills, as heavy as a mountain.
Moreover, he had learned forging from Silent One. Although refining Sword Pills would be laborious for him, it wasn't difficult.
However, within his Six Harmonies Divine Treasury, Sword Essence continued to merge into that ball of light. Qin Mu calculated and his face turned slightly pale—the Sword Essence that had merged into the ball already numbered five thousand!
This meant he had to refine five thousand flying swords to create his own Sword Pill.
Not only that, but more Sword Essence kept arriving, indicating more than five thousand flying swords.
He wasn't worried about lacking the money to refine a Sword Pill Spirit Weapon—he never worried about money. He was worried about the weight!
Even if several thousand flying swords were refined to be very fine, their weight wouldn't change. Refining so many flying swords into a small pill would result in an extremely considerable weight!
In the State of Yankang, flying swords were divided into nine grades. The ninth grade weighed two jin, was the lowest quality, forged from ordinary iron, and was a weapon for common people. But even a ninth-grade sword, when refined into a Sword Pill, would weigh ten thousand jin!
Moreover, the better the flying sword, the heavier it usually was. A second-grade flying sword often weighed hundreds or even thousands of jin. Only a first-grade flying sword—the kind carried by high-ranking officials like the Junior Guardian—such as Qin Mu's Junior Guardian Sword, would be very light.
The Junior Guardian Sword was forged from the world's finest materials by the greatest swordsmiths, with only a dozen or so created in total. Even if Qin Mu wanted to refine such a Sword Pill, he didn't have enough high-quality materials.
"A third-grade sword is made from Cold Iron Elite and Cold Iron Crystals, but it's too heavy. Refined into a Sword Pill, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to wield it—the Sword Pill alone would exhaust me."
Just as Qin Mu had this thought, his Sword Essence finally ceased, no longer merging into the ball of light. In total, there had been eight thousand Sword Essence.
"Eight thousand swords—this is going to kill me! Even with my wealth, I'd go bankrupt!"
Qin Mu felt a bit apprehensive. Then he saw other essence arriving—Buddha forms, flying from all directions within the Six Harmonies Divine Treasury and merging into the ball of light.
"Wait, isn't this supposed to be a Sword Pill?"
He was somewhat confused. If it was a Sword Pill, it should have stopped by now. Why were Buddha-shaped essence still arriving?
Besides Buddha Essence, there was also Blade Essence—blade-shaped essence flying in and merging into the ball of light. Then came Wuji diagrams, Taiji diagrams, Four Symbols diagrams, Five Elements diagrams, Eight Trigrams diagrams, and other Taoist essence.
Then came various runes—some were insect patterns, some were beast patterns, and there were dragon patterns, phoenix patterns, bird patterns, as well as divine runes, demonic runes, and even scripts and images from the Youdu. It was a chaotic mix.
Qin Mu's face turned a purplish shade of pale. These patterns and runes must be from the vast array of techniques contained within his unified cultivation method—the Tathagata Mahayana Sutra, the Great Nurturing Celestial Demon Sutra, the Nine Dragon Emperor Technique, the Pig-Butcher Blade Technique, and various other skills and powers. The Great Nurturing Celestial Demon Sutra in particular contained many bizarre techniques.
Even the algorithms from the Grand Mystery Calculation Sutra were manifested by his essence, becoming part of the Spirit Weapon's form.
"With so many forms, what will my Spirit Weapon ultimately evolve into?"
Qin Mu felt uneasy. Would the Sword Pill turn into a freakish object bristling with all kinds of weapons?
A freakish object would be one thing, but the key question was: how heavy would this Spirit Weapon be once refined?
How much money would it take to forge?
After a long while, all the essence had merged into the ball of light. The light gradually dimmed, and the Spirit Weapon's form within became clearer.
Qin Mu held his breath, almost afraid to look, fearing his Spirit Weapon would take a horrifying shape.
He finally mustered the courage to look at the Spirit Weapon within his Six Harmonies Divine Treasury, but was stunned. His Spirit Weapon was still in the form of a Sword Pill, not outrageous at all—not the image he had feared of a giant Buddha bristling with blades, swords, and bizarre objects.
The Sword Pill remained a Sword Pill, but each Sword Essence now bore many additional marks—Buddha Essence marks, Taoist Essence marks, Blade Essence marks, bird and beast patterns, dragon and phoenix patterns, divine runes, demonic runes, and Youdu scripts.
Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness—it'll only be extremely heavy, not enough to crush me flat. However, this Sword Pill seems a bit larger than others. If I could refine it into the water-form Sword Pill that Silent One has, it might be smaller..."
Shan Youxin and the others spent several hours working until the next day before completing the adjustments. The supervision factory began operating.
To condense his Spirit Weapon form, Qin Mu had stayed up all night, but his energy remained high. He called Shan Youxin over and said, "My Spirit Weapon form has been determined, but refining it will be troublesome. I need to forge eight thousand Sword Embryos."
"Eight thousand Sword Embryos?"
Shan Youxin was startled. "Cult Master, eight thousand Sword Embryos would be enough to refine into a sect-protecting treasure for a small sect. Are you certain you need this many swords?"
Qin Mu nodded helplessly. "I want to refine these eight thousand swords to a size of perfect ease and forge them into a Sword Pill. It's giving me a terrible headache."
Shan Youxin hesitated for a moment. "Eight thousand swords would be enough to arm an army. To create this many Sword Embryos would require the finest metals..."
"Before the heavenly disaster, I sold some medicine and got some money."
Qin Mu thought of Hu Ling'er, who managed his finances, and felt a bit nostalgic for the little fox. "I have a million Dafeng coins here. I wonder if that's enough?"
Shan Youxin was startled. "How could we let the Cult Master spend money? Our various halls usually collect rare materials. For example, we have people in the Holy Cult stationed in mines, and when they find treasures, they often don't report them to the state but secretly hide them."
He glanced around, and seeing no one nearby, lowered his voice. "The Holy Cult's rule is: the best goes to the Emperor, and the very best goes into the Holy Cult's treasury."
Qin Mu was stunned.
Shan Youxin smiled. "Since the Cult Master wants to refine a Spirit Weapon, it's naturally a major matter. Those rare materials in the Holy Cult treasury can all be used. The Cult Master can issue a single command to open the treasury, and our Heavenly Crafts Hall can retrieve the treasures to forge eight thousand Sword Embryos for the Cult Master! I won't claim the materials are the finest, but they won't be much worse than a first-grade official's sword."
Qin Mu exhaled a long breath. "Where is the treasury?"
"The Cult Master doesn't know where his own treasury is?"
Shan Youxin didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Naturally, it's on Sacred Descent Mountain."