Chapter 158

Chapter 158: Mirror of Fleeting Lives
“A’Jue…”

“First Senior Brother, wait a few more days for me. When I get better, we will leave together, okay?”

“…Okay.”

Fang Cheng Lang was finally persuaded by Cui Jue.

He closed the door and stood at the entrance of Cui Jue’s room, looking at the empty courtyard. It felt like he was standing at a fork in the road, unable to find which way to go.

At the beginning, he had only wanted to apologize to Yu Zhao. After getting her forgiveness, he would then find a way to bring her back to Lone Moon Peak.

But now, not only had he failed to ease things with Yu Zhao, he had even caused Cui Jue, a genius alchemist, to become an ordinary person who could no longer do alchemy.

[What on earth was he doing?]

…

Alchemy Room Thirty-Nine.

Yu Zhao opened her eyes, a sharp light flashing through them.

[My aura is steady. I can move on to the next step.]

Yu Zhao did not take out the materials needed for artifact forging. Instead, she took out a piece of transparent jade communication stone. Inside it was a single drop of milky white liquid.

This was the Ten-Thousand-Year Jade Marrow the Old Merman had given her, a piece of heavenly material and earthly treasure that could help raise her cultivation level.

To make sure the artifact forging would go perfectly, she planned to raise her cultivation level first.

Wrapping the Ten-Thousand-Year Jade Marrow with her spirit power, she soon saw the transparent jade communication stone around the marrow melt like ice and snow. A thick wave of spiritual energy rushed toward her.

Yu Zhao carefully guided the Ten-Thousand-Year Jade Marrow into her mouth.

Boom!

Thick spirit power surged into Yu Zhao’s body like a raging tide.

The Golden Core in her dantian spun wildly. She did not even need to sit and breathe in formal meditation. Her spirit power rose at a shocking speed all on its own.

In just a short while, Yu Zhao’s cultivation level broke through the early Golden Core stage and reached the mid Golden Core stage.

But even then, her cultivation level did not slow down. The spirit power flooding her meridians was far beyond what they could hold. She soon began to feel strained, as if her body was about to burst.

[This is bad.]

She had not thought that a single drop of Ten-Thousand-Year Jade Marrow would have such a frightening effect.

If she did not find a way to let out some of the spirit power, her body would definitely suffer even worse problems from being unable to hold so much.

[At this point, I can only burn my bridges.]

Resolve flashed in Yu Zhao’s eyes. She laid out all the artifact forging materials she had prepared in front of her and pressed her right hand onto the spell formation that controlled the fire vein.

She was going to start forging the artifact ahead of time!

This was also her first time forging an artifact. Saying she was not nervous would be a lie.

But when she received the memory inheritance of Wanderer Bright Moon, she had seen her Master forge artifacts many times.

On top of that, the life-bound dharma artifact she planned to refine was not very complex.

She was confident she could succeed in one try.

Pale blue flames danced in front of Yu Zhao. She took a deep breath and threw the first piece of artifact forging material into the fire.

A few breaths later, the material burst with a pop and turned into a cloud of ash, fading away.

“Hiss.”

Yu Zhao drew in a sharp breath.

She had failed on the very first material.

Luckily, the few materials that had to be added at the start were all common things in the cultivation world. Yu Zhao had prepared dozens of sets.

Even so, this was a wake-up call for her. It made her realize that artifact forging was definitely not as simple as she had imagined.

She was especially lacking when it came to controlling the heat of the flame.

Ignoring the spirit power that kept swelling inside her body, Yu Zhao narrowed her eyes in thought.

[How am I supposed to control the fire precisely?]

Judging it by experience alone clearly would not work. But if she used soul force…

Once the idea came to her, Yu Zhao tried it right away. She reached out with her divine sense toward the flames and found they did not push her away.

So she carefully merged her divine sense into the fire.

Aside from the burning heat at the start, she did not feel any discomfort.

[It works.]

Yu Zhao immediately threw the second piece of artifact forging material into the flames.

Under the watch of her divine sense, as soon as the second material showed signs of melting, Yu Zhao adjusted the temperature of the fire and kept it stable.

After a short while, the material melted into a small golden bead.

[It worked!]

Overjoyed, Yu Zhao struck while the iron was hot and added the third piece of material.

Then the fourth, the fifth…

More and more artifact forging materials were thrown into the fire and then fused together.

No one knew how much time passed. A pool of black-gold liquid slowly flowed inside the flames.

At this point, only three artifact forging materials were left in front of Yu Zhao.

True Essence Water, Heavenly Immortal Herb, and a Black Magnetite Stone, a magical artifact that specialized in restraining metal and stone.

“Next is the second step, shaping.”

Yu Zhao’s right hand was still pressed on the spell formation that controlled the fire vein. She raised her left hand, and her spirit power followed the motion of her fingers, kneading the liquid inside the flames.

Only then did she realize that deep down, she cared a lot about how things looked.

The liquid took shape again and again, only to be smashed back into its original form again and again.

She really could not accept her life-bound dharma artifact being ugly.

No one knew how many times she had started over before she finally nodded in satisfaction.

Inside the flames, the black-gold artifact had the outline of an eight-petaled flower. The inner ring was bordered with a pattern of winding phoenix flowers, and the center was hollow.

Judging by its appearance alone, it did not look very special. In fact, it looked a bit strange.

That was because it was still only a half-finished product.

Yu Zhao glanced at the three remaining artifact forging materials in front of her and, without the slightest hesitation, threw them all into the flames.

The Heavenly Immortal Herb turned into a puff of smoke almost as soon as it touched the fire. The True Essence Water and the Black Magnetite Stone seemed to have minds of their own. They drew in all the smoke and then entered the black-gold artifact one after the other.

Bean-sized drops of sweat slid down Yu Zhao’s temples one after another.

She stared at the flames without blinking. This was the most important step: setting the shape.

Under the burning heat of the fire, the True Essence Water and the Black Magnetite Stone slowly melted and merged with the inner rim of the bronze-like artifact.

From the front, the black Black Magnetite Stone looked like a mirror surface, merging perfectly with the black-gold frame to form a complete mirror.

From the back, the round liquid formed by the True Essence Water sat exactly in the center. From far away, it looked like a water mirror mounted inside the black-gold frame.

One side faced outward, one side faced inward. One side was dark, one side bright, one side evil, one side good.

When the black-gold water mirror fully took shape, a subtle connection formed between it and Yu Zhao.

She smiled slightly and said: “From now on, your name will be Mirror of Fleeting Lives.”

The Mirror of Fleeting Lives trembled lightly and sent a feeling of joy into Yu Zhao’s mind.

Yu Zhao raised her right hand, and the flames went out. The Mirror of Fleeting Lives fell into her palm on its own.

She gently stroked the edge of the Mirror of Fleeting Lives with her fingertips. Her eyes were full of both emotion and joy.

After planning for so long, she finally had a life-bound dharma artifact that she had refined with her own hands.

She left a divine sense mark on the Mirror of Fleeting Lives and played with it fondly for a long time before she remembered to check her own condition.

When she did, she was shocked.

She had actually broken through another level while forging the artifact. Her cultivation level had stopped at the late Golden Core stage.

In less than three years, she had gone from late Foundation Establishment all the way up by three realms. If word of this got out, it would make countless jaws drop.

Only Yu Zhao herself knew that none of this had come easily.

Besides the chances she had gotten by accident, the bigger reason she could break through so quickly in this life was the buildup from her previous life.

In her last life, her body had been limited. No matter how hard she cultivated, she had never gained the results she deserved.

Now the deep foundation from before had finally broken out all at once. The seeds she had planted in her last life were bearing fruit in this one.

Now that her life-bound dharma artifact was complete, it was time for her to return to the Five Elements Dao Sect and prepare to take part in the Cultivation World Grand Tournament.

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