"What a grand array! It is truly worthy of being the legacy of an ancient Golden Immortal!"
Fang Han looked at this grand array deep underground. Everywhere was cast with a kind of golden liquid. The ancient patterns on it revealed a mysterious, profound, and deep aura. At the center of the grand array, numerous treasures were used for suppression. With a single glance, Fang Han saw sabers, swords, spears, halberds… and many other weapons roaming within the grand array, all of which were Dao Artifacts.
Furthermore, streaks of flames rushed out from deep underground, leaping unsteadily and condensing into individual fiery humanoid figures—Connate Fire Spirit Nascent Souls. These were the underground flames of the Cultivation Great World. After undergoing high-level condensation, they produced giant spirit true forms. If these giant spirit true forms cultivated Dao techniques and reached the Longevity Secret Realm, they could become natural deities.
These flames, needless to say, were used to temper magical treasures.
"This grand array has the Eight Gates of the Eight Poles: Life, Death, Rest, Fright, Injury, Delusion, View, and Open. It is sealed with purple burnished true gold and is known as the Eight Gates Golden Lock. It possesses profound mysteries unfathomable to ghosts and gods. Tempering magical treasures within it can prevent the erosion of various devils such as Heavenly Demons, Malicious Demons, Earth Demons, Human Demons, and Inner Demons. A hundred evils cannot invade it. It can even invert space and time, connecting to the void in all directions to absorb the source energy of any space-time. If a treasure is placed in this grand array, it is rapidly nourished, and its growth speed is ten times greater than outside! Nine Tripod Immortal Venerable and I are both experts at the World King Realm. After condensing the Eight部 Futu with you, we will have hope of breaking through to the Mixed Hole Secret Realm. At that time, fully activating a Peerless Dao Artifact, the source energy intake and output will entirely be liquid Immortal World Heavy Water. We will have even more hope of succeeding in subduing the Great Seal of the Multitude and Su Xiuyi's Book of the Earth Emperor."
Bai Xi laughed heartily and shook his sleeve robe. A vast amount of materials was shaken out from his sleeve. Streaks of dragon corpses and powerful dragon souls, rumbling like mountains, were all thrown into the grand array.
"Here are a total of three thousand dragon corpses. My savings from over many years, and I also went to other places to purchase some. The cost is probably between several hundreds of billions of medicinal pills."
"I have materials here too." Nine Tripod Immortal Venerable also waved his sleeves. The world cultivated within his body rumbled and rotated, and massive chunks of crystal stones, and even individual Matter God Stones, flew out.
Fang Han even saw that on a mountain-sized Matter God Stone, there was dense green moss and numerous Lingzhi mushrooms, along with colorful exotic flowers and rare herbs.
"This is a Matter God Stone that was placed in a dragon's lair. After being nourished by the breath of countless Heavenly Dragons and their day and night molting, various exotic flowers and rare herbs grew and were cultivated on it. Among them are Dragon Bone Grass and Dragon Transforming Ginseng. These are rare treasures in heaven and earth, yet they were actually found. With these treasures, the power of my Eight部 Futu when refined will be much greater."
Fang Han was very satisfied in his heart, but also very vigilant.
As Nine Tripod Immortal Venerable shook his internal world, a massive crystal stone also flew out. Sealed within that crystal stone were the souls of dragons one after another. They roared unceasingly, each emitting angry resentment and curses. Fang Han even saw some bone dragons whose entire bodies were covered in bone spikes.
There were also Nether Dragon souls.
Nether Dragons, according to legends, were a dragon race opposed to the Heavenly Dragon clan, created by the ancient Nether God.
The ancient Nether God was also a natural deity, but born from the power of death. Its power was an unknown number of times greater than natural deities like the Water God, Fire God, and Thunder God.
In legends, the Grandmist Daoist's junior brother, Daoist Reincarnation, was a supreme existence cultivated from a Nether God.
Seeing these dragons! In Fang Han's heart, it seemed he understood a trace of the true essence of the word "Dragon".
What is a "Dragon"?
The favored child of heaven, mysterious, powerful, proud, a lone wanderer, spiritually free… Various moods intertwined in Fang Han's mind. At this very moment, it was as if the Human Emperor Pen was still by his side, using its unique brush power to write a massive word "Dragon".
In an instant, the Great Dragon Form Technique within his body seemed to begin plumping up, experiencing a new breakthrough.
After successfully cultivating the Great Dragon Form Technique, each time one advanced a realm, their mana would increase. With a single palm strike, trillions of giant dragons would gallop, forming grand arrays, roaring and surging. If it could be coordinated with the Great World Technique, comprehending the principle of combining the two, it could transform into an Immortal Technique, refining all things into one.
"Now, all the materials are gathered. Daoist Friend Fang Han, summon out your Eight部 Futu, and simultaneously impart to us the condensation method of the Eight部 Futu! With you leading, we will help you to sacrifice and refine it together! We also want to elevate our realms and comprehend the aura of the Primeval Ancestor Dragon! Such a powerful existence, we simply cannot even catch a glimpse of normally."
"Very well. I have also inserted the Horn of the Azure Dragon deep into the Eight部 Futu. We will refine it together later. This is the secret incantation of the Great Treasure Refining Technique and the mnemonic from the Heavenly Dragon Secret Manual. Please pay attention, you two."
Fang Han thought for a moment and nodded. A powerful mental fluctuation was transmitted into the minds of the two.
"Excellent! Daoist Friend is straightforward indeed!" Bai Xi was overjoyed! For merchant guild leaders like them, after obtaining the Great Treasure Refining Technique—one of the Three Thousand Great Daos—refining various magical treasures became much simpler.
For the exact same High-grade Dao Artifact, if others refined it, they would need to consume more materials and tens of thousands of years. But someone who had cultivated the Great Treasure Refining Technique only needed a few thousand years and would consume very few materials to achieve success. Moreover, the success rate was an unknown number of times higher than for those without the Great Treasure Refining Technique.
"Power of the World, rotate time, Eight Poles and Eight Gates, Golden Immortal aura."
Bai Xi activated his hand seals, and instantly this grand array was triggered, significantly accelerating the passage of time. He was an unfathomably deep expert at the World King Realm; driving the power of time was an extremely trivial matter for him.
Following that, they sat cross-legged and began to comprehend and cultivate the Great Treasure Refining Technique.
Fang Han also sat down properly. Suddenly, above his head, a pagoda radiating boundless golden light shot out. The infinite golden light condensed into dragon shapes that revolved around the pagoda's body. Inside, 1.8 billion Heavenly Demons, under the direction of the grand array, condensed into primeval divine dragons that churned the seas and overturned rivers within the pagoda. Countless Golden Core experts, figures at the eighth, ninth, and tenth levels of the Divine Ability Realm, prayed incessantly. Above their heads flew their own Golden Cores and Heaven and Earth Dharma Forms, equally driving the Great Treasure Refining Technique.
Now, within this Eight部 Futu, the Green-Faced Venerable and the Five Swords Gentleman were mythical figures of the Cave Heaven Realm who had already converted. Aside from the ten peak Undying Body experts like Daoist Mu and Ba Liming, there were also Starcloud Baby, Jialan, the Demoness, Long Xuan, Crane Fairy, and Princess Hongyi, who had all cultivated into the Undying Body. There was a total of sixteen tyrannical figures of the Undying Body.
Among them, there were even more Myriad Life Magnates. Every single one of them was fully adorned with a dazzling array of treasures. Combined together, they shot out piercing radiant treasure light, even causing spaces one after another to begin collapsing. Even people in another space-time could see the intense brilliance and treasure aura.
"Act together, rotate the treasures, and absorb all these materials into the pagoda's body!"
Daoist Mu gave a command, and the efficiency of a full four to five thousand years of drilling finally manifested. The bottom of the Eight部 Futu emitted a suction force that experts at the Creation Realm could not match, ferociously absorbing the mountain-like piles of Dragon Race corpse treasures, various herbs, ores, spirit stones, divine stones, and immortal stones within the grand array.
The powerful dragon souls were also collected inside.
"Are we starting the refinement now? Fang Han? I see that these two people, Nine Tripod Immortal Venerable and Bai Xi, both harbor ulterior motives. For you to refine the treasure together with them, I'm afraid there will be some obstructions. In the event we fall for a sneak attack, a lifetime of cultivation will be washed away like flowing water, and our bodies will die and our Daos vanish. It is extremely unworthy."
Daoist Mu transmitted his mental fluctuations into Fang Han's ears.
"Hold on, I must borrow the power of the two of them to be able to successfully refine the Eight部 Futu. Otherwise, with our own abilities alone, it is simply impossible to achieve success!" Fang Han's mind undulated.
"Indeed, the Eight部 Futu is different from ordinary treasures. Even if the materials were complete, refining it is not something that can be done overnight. With our current strength, even if we cultivated for thirty to fifty thousand years, we would only have a thirty percent certainty of successfully refining it. During these thirty to fifty thousand years, more than half of the people inside the Eight部 Futu would probably age and die. Even I would reach the final stage of exhaustion of my lifespan. To refine a magical treasure and let myself die of old age is somewhat unworthy. If we have the sacrifice and refinement of these two great experts, it will go much smoother. Moreover, Nine Tripod Immortal Venerable is a grandmaster of artifact refining, but what is feared is just…"
"It matters not. I have my own arrangements. To elevate my strength and rescue Yan Shuitian, I can't care about that much anymore." Fang Han inadvertently used his finger to twirl a long, slender hair burning around the base of the finger on his hand.
This hair was impressively the strand of black hair given to him by Linglong Immortal Venerable back then.
Even though Fang Han had shattered and reconstituted his physical body many times, transforming into source energy, this strand of black hair still wrapped around his fingertip. No matter what, it could not be eliminated or refined.
However, this had no impact on his cultivation whatsoever. The Human Emperor Pen had examined it before but had no solution either. It only shook its head and sighed, saying nothing but that it was a knot, a tribulation.
After all the materials were absorbed into the Eight部 Futu, Fang Han sat still cross-legged, regulating his source energy, quietly waiting.
Time passed slowly; several decades went by. Yet outside, not even one day had passed.
Rumble! After a full sixty years had passed, Bai Xi and Nine Tripod Immortal Venerable simultaneously opened their eyes and opened their mouths to spew out a cluster of talisman light. Within the talisman light, many small figures condensed, forming hand seals. They had actually successfully cultivated the "Great Treasure Refining Technique"!
"Haha, the Great Treasure Refining Technique is finally cultivated successfully. My Nine Dignitaries State Tripods can now be completely refined into a Peerless Dao Artifact!" Nine Tripod Immortal Venerable was spirited and jubilant. His face shone with crystalline treasure light, possessing a piercing enlightenment. Evidently, his artifact refining realm had elevated by another level.
"Time is of the essence. Let's help Daoist Friend Fang Han condense the Eight部 Futu!"
Bai Xi also opened his eyes. Piercing light shot out like two stars. A breath of source energy was forcefully exhaled toward the Eight部 Futu, and the Great Treasure Refining Technique was struck out.
Nine Tripod Immortal Venerable simultaneously coordinated, issuing continuous long howls, and drove the power of his inner world! Together, they enveloped Fang Han and the Eight部 Futu.
The two peerless powerhouses individually activated their worlds, channeling them into the pagoda's body, bringing up wave after wave of whirlpools. Everyone within the Eight部 Futu began to tremble.