Chapter 336 - 308: Moonlight... Wings Like Blades

Chapter 336: Chapter 308: Moonlight... Wings Like Blades

He habitually spread out a stack of Spirit Paper and dipped his Spiritual Brush in ink. As his brush moved, lines and strokes flowed from its tip, landing upon the pristine white Spirit Paper.

As time went on, the white paper became densely covered with characters and diagrams.

There were diagrams of artifact components, detailed dimensions, the Spiritual Materials required for Refining, their fusion ratios, and even the necessary accompanying Array Prohibitions, Runes, and Artifact Patterns.

It was all incredibly complex and tedious. An ordinary Artifact Refiner would likely struggle to even comprehend it.

However, under the Spiritual Radiance Blessing and with his already profound foundation in Artifact Refining, the whole process felt rather effortless.

This process continued for nearly half a month. By the end, a thick stack of manuscripts had piled up in front of Chu Mu.

He reviewed and revised the manuscripts page by page before finally inscribing them all into a Jade Scroll.

Once everything was complete, the entire structural blueprint within the Jade Scroll became clearly visible to his Divine Sense.

He checked it from beginning to end several more times, confirming that there were no omissions, before finally turning his gaze to the numerous Spiritual Materials before him.

With a wave of his hand, some of the Spiritual Materials vanished into his Storage Ring, while the remaining twenty-odd types were left arranged around him.

He contemplated for a moment, then with a swipe of his hand, the Great Sun True Flame materialized.

The True Flame blazed brightly, floating before him like a rootless fire. As his Magical Power circulated, he provided a continuous stream of support to sustain it.

He placed the Spiritual Materials into the True Flame one by one. Under the meticulous control of his Divine Sense, he began to purge their impurities.

Moreover, to ensure the desired properties after the Spiritual Materials were fused, even their essence had to be finely controlled—purging what was unnecessary and retaining what was vital.

An ordinary Artifact Refiner would typically collect the purged Spiritual Material Essence for other uses.

Chu Mu’s Artifact Refining Skill, however, was different. Although he had originally cobbled it together from various sources and later collected Artifact Books to build his own system after reaching Foundation Establishment, his entire system was still fundamentally based on the legacy of the Immortal Dao Sect’s Artifact Refining General Outline.

This ancient legacy was vastly different from modern Artifact Refining Skills, but the greatest difference was... its sheer extravagance!

There was no penny-pinching whatsoever; every single step was exceedingly lavish.

For instance, during the Refinement and fusion of Spiritual Materials, there would be excess Spiritual Material Essence. Modern Artifact Refining Skills would generally preserve it, whereas the skill from the Immortal Dao Sect used it directly as fuel for the Baking Furnace.

Chu Mu had conducted detailed experiments on this. The difference between using the residue as fuel for the Baking Furnace and collecting it was almost negligible.

If one were to compare the numbers, using the residual essence as fuel for the Baking Furnace would yield an improvement of just a few thousandths of a percent.

But undeniably, no matter how small the improvement, it was still an enhancement.

When refining some unimportant Artifact, cost was naturally the priority; one should save wherever one could.

But when Refining one’s own life-saving trump card...

...every available method had to be employed.

One couldn’t be concerned with the cost of a trump card. It was meant to save one’s life.

He methodically guided the excess Spiritual Material Essence to disperse. Under the manipulation of his Divine Sense and the heat of the True Flame, the scorching fire took on a distinct metallic sheen.

This phenomenon also had a specific name in the legacy of the Immortal Dao Sect’s Artifact Refining General Outline: Spiritual Force Field.

It referred to the special environment formed when the dispersed Spiritual Material Essence was burned by the True Flame and manipulated by Artifact Refining Skill Techniques.

The so-called increase in Mighty Power originated precisely from this kind of environment.

He cast one Technique after another, and the fused Spiritual Materials slowly formed the rough shapes of the artifact components.

Under the Spiritual Radiance Blessing, everything proceeded in an orderly fashion, gradually taking shape.

One month later, inside the quiet room, the flickering True Flame slowly died down.

Chu Mu’s gaze was sharp and focused. Before him, a suit of Armor floated in mid-air.

The Armor was a uniform, dark black, with a very distinct metallic sheen.

Dense Artifact Pattern Array Prohibitions were dotted across its metallic surface. Specks of fiery red light flowed and flickered through the Artifact Pattern channels, revealing a precise and intricate structure.

The Armor’s overall shape was streamlined yet sharply angled.

At a glance, it resembled a suit of General Armor that had seen countless battles, radiating a thick, murderous intent.

For this suit of Battle Armor, he had drawn on the Refining methods for both Puppets and Magic Robes, fusing the two concepts into one, much like the Bright Moon Battle Armor he had once seen at the Fengming Mountain Black Market.

The difference, however, was that he had not given the Battle Armor an autonomous Puppet system. Instead, he had only borrowed parts of a Puppet’s framework to refine the suit of Armor before him.

According to the conventional classifications of the Cultivation Immortal Realm, this suit of Armor would be considered... a type of Magic Robe.

But in terms of function, it also possessed some of the capabilities of a Puppet.

To achieve this, he had modified the "Melting Furnace" Spiritual Core recorded in the Artifact Refining General Outline. After all, Puppets were bulky and had no particularly high requirements for their Spiritual Core.

This suit of Armor, however, functioned more like the mecha from his previous life. It was meant to be worn close to the body, so its requirements for a Spiritual Core were undoubtedly extremely high.

On the Armor’s chest was a component resembling a Heart-Protecting Mirror, which housed his modified Spiritual Core.

It was driven by a Fire Attribute Middle Grade Spirit Stone, but this stone wasn’t shaped like a standard Spirit Stone as defined by the Cultivation Immortal Realm.

It required a palm-sized Fire Spirit Stone, cut into a circular shape, to be placed inside the Spiritual Core and function properly.

For the Armor’s primary material, he used a composite Spiritual Material. According to the definition in Artifact Refining Skill, a composite Spiritual Material is similar to an alloy from his previous life, meaning a product created from the fusion of multiple Spiritual Materials.

There are innumerable Spirit Ores and Spiritual Materials. Every combination, fusion, and even ratio variation creates a new type of composite Spiritual Material and thus a new composite formula.

Within the system of Artifact Refining Skill, such formulas for composite Spiritual Materials were an extremely rare piece of knowledge, on par with Artifact Refining Formulas and knowledge of the Artifact Refining System.

The composite Spiritual Material formula he used was primarily based on Diamond, aiming to maximize hardness, which is to say, its defensive capabilities.

Of course, this maximized hardness also translated into extremely potent Attack power when used offensively.

Besides its extremely strong protective properties, the Armor’s other function was amplification!

The amplification of one’s Physical Strength!

With his current Cultivation at the Middle Stage of Foundation Establishment, he could achieve up to a terrifying threefold amplification of his Physical Strength.

However, compared to the physical amplification, he placed more importance on another of the Armor’s modules.

He had also constructed a module for this Armor that he considered extremely important:

Flight!

Although his Cultivation had already reached Foundation Establishment, allowing him to fly at will with a mere thought—and if that wasn’t enough, Magical Instrument Flight wasn’t difficult, to say nothing of the fact he even had a dedicated Flying Boat.

But this kind of flying was something any Foundation Establishment cultivator could do. It offered no significant speed advantage. Using it to escape... was utterly useless.

As for the Boots he had refined previously, although they offered a great advantage for short-distance maneuvering, they fell short for long-distance escapes and had limited applicability.

This time, he had originally intended to design a dedicated flying Artifact specifically for escaping.

But as he conceptualized this suit of Armor, another idea struck him.

Adding a function like Flying directly to the Armor would inevitably compromise its other functions.

But if it were an external add-on component, it seemed many of those drawbacks could be avoided.

And the finished product before him was a near-perfect match for his vision.

The entire pair of wings retracted and folded onto the Armor’s back, forming two protrusions that resembled a pair of Sword Boxes.

With a flicker of his thoughts, the two protrusions on the Armor’s back visibly transformed and unfolded.

Finally, what appeared before him was a pair of Dark Copper Color wings with a span of about six meters.

The inspiration for the wings came from the Bloodline Cultivator he had encountered long ago—the one with wings like swords!

On these wings, the feathers were like blades, overlapping in crescent shapes. The main body was a Dark Copper Color, while the edges possessed the chillingly bright glint of a saber’s edge.

These blade-like feathers could be used in coordination with the Tai Gang Saber Technique he cultivated. He could also launch individual feathers with his Finger Snap Divine Techniques. Or, like that Bloodline Demon Cultivator, he could create a storm of bladed feathers for both defense and slaughter.

He could also soar through the nine heavens like a great eagle; with these wings, he could fly high.

Its flying speed was also extremely impressive.

Physical amplification, extremely strong defense, soaring flight...

It could be used to attack, defend, dodge, and escape!

’Top Grade Spiritual Artifact...’

Chu Mu gently caressed the Battle Armor. ’Strictly speaking,’ he thought, ’this Battle Armor can’t be considered a Top Grade Spiritual Artifact.’

’After all, this is a suit of Battle Armor assembled from over a dozen Top Grade Spiritual Artifacts. Every single part is a Top Grade Spiritual Artifact.’

’Even if one plus one only equals two, this suit of Armor is far beyond what any ordinary Top Grade Spiritual Artifact could compare to.’

With a flicker of his will, he spread his arms in an embracing motion.

The Battle Armor floating before him immediately disassembled, its individual components moving on their own.

With a series of mechanical clicks and clangs, the Armor fitted itself around him.

The wings spread wide, the Armor radiated a chilling aura, and streams of fiery red light flowed across its surface before slowly returning to stillness.

Chu Mu casually waved a hand, and a sonic boom erupted. A terrifying sense of power surged through his entire body.

He made a grasping motion, and the Minghong Saber appeared from his Storage Ring, settling into his hand.

Armor, wings, Long Saber...

A majestic power surged through him. He felt as if he could now easily crush his normal self.

After testing it out for a long time, Chu Mu finally managed to suppress the excitement surging within him.

After removing the Armor, he still couldn’t hide his excitement.

"Wings like the moon... I’ll call you Moonlight, then..."

He muttered to himself, christening the suit of Armor.

’With this suit of Armor, plus my own Cultivation and techniques, anyone in the Foundation Establishment Realm...’

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly. His gaze shifted, then fixed on Wangcai, who was lying nearby.

Wangcai was currently staring intently at the suit of Armor floating before him, looking obviously curious, and perhaps... even a little eager?

Chu Mu laughed heartily and beckoned. Wangcai immediately scampered over.

"Don’t worry, you’ll get yours!"

He scooped up Wangcai and ruffled its head, laughing heartily as he took the opportunity to observe its physique.

After they played for a bit, a rough idea had already formed in Chu Mu’s mind.

The biggest problem with refining protective armor for Wangcai was its changing body size.

Unlike a human’s, a Demon Beast’s physique undergoes drastic changes as its Cultivation progresses.

For example, back when Wangcai was enormous, he had refined a simple suit of Battle Armor for it. In the end, it served no purpose and was scrapped as soon as Wangcai’s body transformed.

However, thanks to the Vajra Wolf Bloodline, Wangcai’s physique was now stable.

His biggest concern had been eliminated. All that remained was conceptualization and design.

He would have to base the design on Wangcai’s natural tendencies and even its usual fighting style.

He laid out another stack of Spirit Paper, once again dipped his Spiritual Brush in ink, and set his brush to work. As he drew, his gaze would occasionally drift over to Wangcai, pausing for a moment.

「Time flew by...」

...