Purple Violet Emperor Of The Middle Heaven

Chapter 355 - 340: Celestial Thunder Horn [1st Update, Please Subscribe!]

Chapter 355: Chapter 340: Celestial Thunder Horn [1st Update, Please Subscribe!]


Jiang Fengxian going into seclusion for Core Formation, unknown how long it would take, Zhouyang naturally wouldn’t just sit idle doing nothing.


Although he agreed to be Jiang Fengxian’s guardian, it wasn’t appropriate to leave Cyan Cloud Garden before her breakthrough, but that didn’t mean he had to be on guard outside her retreat all the time.


With both internal and external Tier Five Arrays protecting, even if a Golden Core Stage Cultivator attacks, they couldn’t break into the cave dwelling in a short time.


So Zhouyang was at ease to enter the Artifact Refining Hall within Cyan Cloud Garden, starting to advance to become a Tier Four Middle-grade Refiner.


For the past seven years, while deeply cultivating to enhance his cultivation, he hasn’t neglected Artifact Refining Skill either.


Xu Song, when alive, was not only a rare Tier Five Array Master but also a Tier Five Refiner. Over the years, Zhouyang received personal guidance from him, making rapid progress in his refining skills.


And the numerous artifact refining materials obtained from Duanmu Yong, Lin Ruihua, and others’ storage rings provided Zhouyang with a solid foundation for practice.


He even used his materials to reforge and repair his broken "Great Derivation Divine Light Sword".


Currently, his success rate of refining Tier Four Lower Grade Magical Artifacts had reached thirty to forty percent, fully meeting the criteria to pursue becoming a Tier Four Middle-grade Refiner.


To ensure nothing went wrong this time, Zhouyang let Xu Song fly out from the "Spiritual Treasure Token" to stand by him as a guardian and supervisor.


After transforming into a ghost cultivator, Xu Song’s cultivation immediately dropped to the Purple Mansion Stage, and a ghost cultivator at Purple Mansion Stage, whose ghost body hadn’t yet formed, could only manifest in the world by condensing his form with pitch-black Yin Qi.


However, with Xu Song’s original foundation of Eighth-Layer Golden Core, given some time, becoming a Golden Core Stage Ghost Cultivator in the future was almost without obstacle.


Moreover, during his travels in the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm, he also knew several places rich in Yin Qi, and if Zhouyang took him to those lands of Yin and Evil for absorption and cultivation, the formation of a Ghost Pill was just a matter of time.


Once everything was ready, Zhouyang officially started refining artifacts.


This time he prepared to continuously refine two magical artifacts, using the materials he acquired himself from slaying demon beasts: the eyes of the "Netherworld Cat" and the horn of the "Canglan Cloud Tiger".


The eyes of the "Netherworld Cat" were the vessel for its innate soul capturing divine techniques, and if artifact refining succeeded, there was a significant chance of retaining the soul capturing divine technique.


To increase the success rate of refining, Zhouyang followed Xu Song’s advice, not using the extremely yang "Qianyang True Flame" to refine this artifact, but rather the earth fire within the Artifact Refining Hall.


However, to his disappointment, despite being as careful and cautious as possible during the refining process and preparing various remedies in his mind beforehand, this refining attempt still resulted in failure.


Originally expected to be a pair of cat eyes artifacts, only one was reluctantly refined into an artifact, and its grade was reduced to a Tier Three Top Grade.


This cat eye, refined into a "Soul Capturing Pearl", although inheriting the soul capturing divine technique of the "Netherworld Cat", its effect was greatly diminished, only capable of soul capturing for Foundation Establishment Cultivators.


If a Foundation Establishment Cultivator wielded this artifact in battle with another Foundation Establishment Cultivator, as long as the opponent hadn’t prepared Spirit Talismans like "Soul Suppressing Talisman" or similar treasures beforehand, they would be practically defeated for certain.


However, for Sixth-Layer Purple Mansion Cultivators who have established the Purple Mansion Daoist Palace, this artifact would have no effect.


The initial failure left Zhouyang a bit depressed, after all, materials like the eyes of the "Netherworld Cat" are rare and hard to come by, and even with his wealth, wasting such precious materials was enough to make him feel a sting of pain.


Despite the depression, the artifact refining had to continue.


So he took a short break for one or two days, summarized the failures from last time, and began his second attempt at refining.


This time, using the horn of the "Canglan Cloud Tiger" as the material for refining, he finally could employ his most familiar "Qianyang True Flame".


For the success of this refining, he didn’t hesitate to add a rare "Celestial Thunder Stone" as an auxiliary material into the artifact, to enhance the thunder divine technique power attached to the artifact itself.


After refining carefully for three days, Zhouyang finally succeeded in crafting his first Tier Four Middle Grade Spiritual Artifact, the "Celestial Thunder Horn".


This "Celestial Thunder Horn" is definitely a top quality within Tier Four Middle Grade Spiritual Artifacts. It not only can unleash thunder attacks comparable to Tier Four Middle Grade Thunder Skills, but can also absorb the power of the thunder skills released by enemies. Additionally, it possesses a large-scale group attack magic called "Soul-Catching Thunder Sound".


Having refined a Tier Four Middle Grade Spiritual Artifact meant Zhouyang officially became a Tier Four Middle-grade Refiner.


But he was not satisfied with just that.


He had even greater ambitions.


With a wave of his hand, a black jade bottle appeared in his hand.


This black jade bottle contained the beast soul of the "Canglan Cloud Tiger" that he had slain back in the "Cloud Mist Marsh".


If a Tier Four artifact integrates the beast soul of a Tier Four or higher demon beast, it might give rise to an "Artifact Soul".


Once an artifact possesses an "Artifact Soul", not only would its power be enhanced, but it would also acquire the "Artifact Soul Transformation" divine technique, turning the artifact into a truly independent combat unit.


The "Fire Separation Vermilion Bird Furnace" in Zhouyang’s hand already had an "Artifact Soul", but after all, the "Fire Separation Vermilion Bird Furnace" is an Artifact Refining Cauldron, so even with an "Artifact Soul", its aid in combat was not significant.


Whereas his newly crafted "Celestial Thunder Horn" is purely an offensive artifact, if this artifact too could possess an "Artifact Soul", the power it could wield in magical combat would even surpass some Tier Four Upper Grade Spiritual Artifacts.


Roar!


Though it had perished for over a decade, nourished in the jade bottle made from "Soul Nourishing Jade," the beast soul of the "Canglan Cloud Tiger" remained unchanged from the time it was first extracted.


As Zhouyang uncovered the seal of the jade bottle, it let out a roar, angrily emerging from within.


However, over a decade has passed, and although the beast soul’s vicious nature remains, its intelligence has long vanished.


"Audacious! In life, I could kill you; what more a beast soul in death? Freeze!"


Zhouyang exclaimed coldly, and with a pinch of a spell between his hands, he used a "Soul Capturing Technique" to restrain the beast soul in midair.


He then threw the "Celestial Thunder Horn" at the beast soul, and the horn, about a foot long, pierced through the soul instantly.


At the same time, his hands moved swiftly forming seals, casting spells onto the beast soul and the magical artifact, forcing the unconscious beast soul to merge into the magical artifact as its "Artifact Soul."


Roar~ Roar!


Though the beast soul no longer possessed the intelligence and spirit it had in life, its instincts remained. These instincts resisted becoming an "Artifact Soul," endlessly bound and never free.


Why is it difficult for a magical artifact to possess an "Artifact Soul"?


The reason lies here.


Zhouyang had no better method for this, but to follow the Spirit Attachment Technique from the Artifact Refining Classics, continually casting spells to force the beast soul into the magical artifact.


Under the pressure of his spells, the beast soul indeed began merging with the magical artifact, but the process was slow.


Once a Tier Four beast soul leaves the Jade Bottle crafted from Soul Nourishing Jade, its soul power would continuously dissipate, coupled with the power consumed by instinctively resisting Zhouyang’s spells, it was highly likely the soul power would exhaust and vanish before fully merging with the magical artifact.


Originally, barring any accident, Zhouyang’s attempt at "Soul Attachment" to the magical artifact was destined to fail.


Yet at this point, Xu Song, who had been observing Zhouyang’s artifact refining quietly, stepped in.


As a pure Ghost Cultivator, his expertise was, of course, Soul Manipulation and Ghost Control.


Although the beast soul of a demon beast isn’t considered a ghost, it does belong to a kind of soul body and can be influenced by a Ghost Cultivator’s Netherworld Ghost Technique.


Xu Song used an authentic Netherworld Ghost Technique, the "Soul Bewitching Technique," to interfere, weakening the resistance of the "Canglan Cloud Tiger’s" beast soul to merging into the "Celestial Thunder Horn." Zhouyang seized the opportunity to intensify the pressure.


In this master-servant collaboration, the beast soul finally merged completely into the "Celestial Thunder Horn" before dissipating, forming a fierce tiger pattern on the horn body.


"Thanks to Elder Xu’s assistance, otherwise I would surely have failed this time!"


Zhouyang retrieved the horn, gently stroking the fierce tiger pattern with a relieved smile, expressing his gratitude to Xu Song.


The difficulty of attaching a soul to a magical artifact is indeed beyond imagination, considering the "Celestial Thunder Horn" was crafted using the horn of the "Canglan Cloud Tiger" itself.


It’s not hard to imagine how difficult it would be to incorporate the beast soul into a magical artifact if it were made from other materials, forming an "Artifact Soul."


He spoke politely, but Xu Song dared not take credit and humbly replied, "Fellow Daoist Zhou is too kind. The primary reason is that the beast soul is merely a Tier Four beast soul. If it were from a Tier Five demon beast, my modest ’Soul Bewitching Technique’ would not have been of any use."


Zhouyang, seeing this, smiled slightly without saying more.


He was quite satisfied with Xu Song’s attitude.


With the existence of an actual master-servant relationship, he could be polite to Xu Song and offer him certain respect.


However, as a Ghost Servant, if Xu Song really pushed it after helping, trying to overpower the master, Zhouyang wouldn’t tolerate such behavior.


Fortunately, now it seems that Xu Song, having lived for over seven hundred years before his death, was quite adept at handling all these social nuances, which made Zhouyang very satisfied.


"Let’s go outside and test this magical artifact’s power."


Immediately, he activated the "Spiritual Treasure Token" to let Xu Song return to it for recuperation, then went outside to test the power of the "Celestial Thunder Horn."


The test results left Zhouyang very satisfied.


After casting the divine technique "Artifact Soul Transformation," the transformed "Canglan Cloud Tiger" displayed combat power equivalent to a Sixth-Layer Purple Mansion Cultivator without Zhouyang’s direct command.


However, "Artifact Soul Transformation" only lasts for a quarter of an hour before reverting to its original form, requiring at least half a year’s rest before the divine technique can be executed again.


Sometimes a quarter of an hour is enough to decide many things, so Zhouyang didn’t see this as a flaw.


While testing the magical artifact’s power, a loud eagle cry suddenly rang out from outside the valley basin, followed by a flash of golden light, as a ten-zhang-wing-span golden giant eagle descended before Zhouyang with a whistling sound.


This golden giant eagle with wings spanning over ten zhang was precisely Zhouyang’s pet, the "Golden-winged Thunder Eagle."


After seven years of growth, the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle had matured into a Tier Three High-Grade Demon Beast, beginning to truly possess a hint of the majestic aura befitting a king among eagles.


Moreover, based on Jiang Fengxian’s earlier advice, Zhouyang has gradually taught this intelligent spirit pet to identify Spirit Grass and other demon beasts and barbaric beast knowledge. He granted it the freedom to access arrays, allowing it to venture independently into the Wilderness Jungle to search for demon beasts and barbaric beasts, sharpening its combat skills.


Look now, the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle’s talons gripping the corpse of a Tier Three High-Grade snake-type demon beast.


Eagles and snakes are natural enemies. When the Golden-winged Thunder Eagle goes out and brings back prey corpses, three or four out of ten times they are snake-type demon beasts or barbaric beasts. Zhouyang has long gotten used to it.