Chapter 650 - 597: New Taihe Umbrella
When Jiang Yuebai ended her retreat, she saw Bai Jiuyou’s protest note pasted on her door.
After asking Yann Hongyu, Jiang Yuebai learned that Bai Jiuyou had gone to the Cultivation Room in the inner city of the Zhuge Family to retreat and establish his foundation.
"A person who can establish their foundation in the blink of an eye still needs to retreat," Jiang Yuebai muttered.
It was already late autumn, the maple forest was ablaze, and the weather was turning cold. Calculating the days, it’s been over four years since she arrived at the Zhuge Family, time passed as though in an instant.
It had also been nearly twenty years since she first formed her Nascent Soul up to this moment. This time, the White Dragon Spear was tempered into the Candle Dragon Spear. Although extremely dangerous and triggering a heavenly tribulation and celestial phenomena, she ultimately gained significant benefits.
After this retreat, Jiang Yuebai felt the aura of the Candle Dragon Essence Blood she refined and the last drop of Candle Dragon Essence Blood used to temper the Candle Dragon Spear had completely merged, giving her a sense of bloodline connection with the Candle Dragon Spear.
When not in use, the Candle Dragon Spear was nourished within her spine, absorbing Dragon Qi from her vertebrae.
Furthermore, she had completely refined the Chaos Qi she absorbed earlier, being only a step away from the mid-stage Nascent Soul.
However, she felt a bottleneck, unable to break through, currently uncertain where the problem lay. She was cultivating an ancient Chaos Cultivation Technique, so contemporary techniques and methods for breaking through bottlenecks offered no reference value.
The best plan for now was to pause cultivation, eat more food, accumulate more Chaos Qi and try again to break through the bottleneck once it was sufficient.
"Hongyu, if someone from the Heavenly Interence Sect arrives, remember to notify me. Take these components to the Inner Affairs Hall to exchange them for Contribution Points; I’m heading to the Armor Making Institute,"
Jiang Yuebai called Yann Hongyu, instructed her, and handed her a storage bag.
Receiving it with both hands respectfully, Yann Hongyu had been living a very comfortable life lately because Jiang Yuebai was highly esteemed in the Zhuge Family, and as True Monarch Wangshu’s head steward, Yann Hongyu was thriving.
Compared to when she was with True Monarch Dongyue, it was like night and day.
As a result, she was glowing, extremely pleased, even the red robe transformed from ghost energy on her was exceedingly bright.
She dared not tell Jiang Yuebai that just from selling Jiang Yuebai’s whereabouts and intelligence, she had accumulated a good amount of Spirit Stones.
Yann Hongyu was also puzzled; disciples below scrambled to join Jiang Yuebai, yet the elders of each institute avoided her, even while speaking high praises about Jiang Yuebai, which was truly contradictory.
Jiang Yuebai didn’t know Yann Hongyu’s thoughts, she went alone to the Armor Making Institute.
Before leaving the Seclusion Room, Jiang Yuebai had already checked Bai Jiuyou’s work progress during this time.
Though she verbally expressed annoyance, every task was handled well.
Even after exiting the retreat, all actions within the Lotus Platform Cave Heaven were conducted methodically, especially Bai Jiuyou’s completion of the main structure of the New Taihe Umbrella for her.
Originally, she intended to casually refine a Magic Treasure with the Feathers of Hundred Birds, but upon examining them, she found that the female Evil Cultivator left premium ones, and simply refining a Magic Treasure would be wasteful.
Additionally, she integrated the method from the Hundred Birds Phoenix Technique within, which, if successfully refined, would surely be multiple times stronger than the original Taihe Umbrella.
Therefore, Jiang Yuebai discussed with Bai Jiuyou and decided to attempt refining a Spiritual Artifact.
Jiang Yuebai purchased the missing feathers with Flower Spiritual Stones, Bai Jiuyou completed the umbrella’s main body refining, leaving only the final step, Spirit Injection.
Initially, Jiang Yuebai had two prerequisites when refining the Five Spirit Artifacts: one was utilizing Heavenly Tribulation for Spirit Injection, and the other was using the Ruyi Treasure Gourd given by True Monarch Cang Huo to nurture spirituality.
Now neither condition was attainable for Jiang Yuebai. Though well-read, knowing many methods, she hadn’t practically attempted them and was unsure which was the best and most suitable for this Spiritual Artifact.
Facing this situation, the option was to consult an experienced Artifact Refining Master, like Great Elder Tie Wanjiang from the Armor Making Institute.
Though he’s loud-tempered, stubborn, and inflexible, Jiang Yuebai sincerely admires him in the Artifact Refining path.
At the Preaching Court, Jiang Yuebai discovered Tie Wanjiang was giving lessons to the Foundation Establishment Disciples today, so she quietly moved to the window.
"...Elder Tie, isn’t what you’re saying incorrect? In True Monarch Wangshu’s method, we learned the Ghost Spring Pearl’s melting process as Fire Refining, which is faster in speed, and...uh..."
Before the speaking Foundation Establishment disciple finished speaking, the oppressive aura of a Nascent Soul Cultivator swept through angrily, causing the disciple’s face to turn pale, body stiff, unable to speak.
Through the window, Jiang Yuebai saw Tie Wanjiang’s face dark as coal, eyes wide like bells, seeming ready to devour someone.
"Ahem~" Jiang Yuebai couldn’t help coughing, quietly speaking from outside the window, "Apologies, it’s this Monarch who didn’t specify in the Array; Fire Refining the Ghost Spring Pearl is only suitable for cultivators with good Fire Control Ability, otherwise, it risks damaging its water properties during the Fire Refining process, better spend time on Water Melting for better results."
Hearing Jiang Yuebai’s voice, Tie Wanjiang trembled involuntarily, along with all the disciples looking towards the window.
"True Monarch Wangshu!"
"True Monarch Wangshu, you’ve finally exited retreat, we’ve been missing you!"
"When will you change the Array? Any new rewards?"
"Right, Bai Jiuyou has been in retreat recently, we’ve finally got a chance at the top of the contribution leaderboard."
All disciples were ecstatic, chatting away, with Tie Wanjiang’s face becoming increasingly displeased.
Jiang Yuebai nodded apologetically, "I’ve come to consult Elder Tie today, his level in Artifact Refining and Armor Making far exceeds mine. You all should listen carefully; this is an opportunity others can’t obtain."
After speaking, Jiang Yuebai left first.
Though Jiang Yuebai was supporting Tie Wanjiang, he couldn’t help twitching at the corner of his eye hearing Jiang Yuebai came to seek his advice, and memories that weren’t very pleasant surfaced.
Looking at the group of ’eager and awaiting’ young disciples below, Tie Wanjiang annoyedly scratched his head, reluctantly continuing the lesson.
Unfortunately, every lesson has an end.
After class, Tie Wanjiang walked out to see Jiang Yuebai waiting in the yard, and not wanting to lose face before his disciples, he invited Jiang Yuebai to the Quiet Room used by teaching elders for resting and preparing lessons.
Jiang Yuebai explained her purpose, taking out the newly refined Taihe Umbrella and placing it on the long table.
This umbrella was refined completely following the original Taihe Umbrella shape, still composed mostly of white Crane Feathers forming a majority of the umbrella surface, shaped like an Immortal Crane spreading its wings, with two lines of ink writing on the remaining half.
[Silently in the place of purity, the subtlety is profound, drinking the Taihe, flying alone with the crane]
The only difference was that below the umbrella’s white Crane Feathers hid Feathers of Hundred Birds, the currently estimated activation effect was for all birds to fly together, transforming into a phoenix.
Tie Wanjiang was shocked upon seeing the umbrella on the table, immediately picked it up and examined it thoroughly with trembling hands.
"How many High-Level Demon Bird Feathers did you use on this umbrella, you actually used Taixuan Pure Gold for the umbrella’s framework, what is the white thread woven to form the umbrella surface? Your hair? This aura...did you burn this umbrella with Phoenix True Fire?"
Tie Wanjiang’s eyes widened, a casual feather on this umbrella was worth a fortune, let alone the entire Taixuan Pure Gold frame, and the Phoenix True Fire used to burn it.
All were rare items!
Gulp!
Even though Tie Wanjiang had seen many Spiritual Artifacts and refined one or two himself, he was shocked by the ’luxury’ of this umbrella.
"Matching this umbrella, only a true phoenix would suffice."
Jiang Yuebai frowned; Tie Wanjiang’s suggestion was using the simplest Spirit Injection method in refining Spiritual Artifacts, capturing a phoenix pair, and injecting their souls to form an Artifact Spirit.
But Jiang Yuebai didn’t want to use this method; she had been cared for by the Phoenix Clan in the Demon Clan, and unless in a life-threatening situation, she didn’t want to harm the Phoenix Clan.
"Is there any other method?"
Tie Wanjiang also understood how hard it was to find a true phoenix, he sat down and carefully studied every inch of the umbrella before finally speaking after pondering for a while.
"Actually, using a Phoenix Soul is inappropriate; your umbrella mixes Feathers of Hundred Birds, creating an unstable internal structure that would easily scatter. Instead of a Phoenix Soul, it’s better to inject an Innate Water Spirit."
Jiang Yuebai thought for a moment then understood, "Water accommodates and gives life to everything, the Phoenix Fire has strong yang properties, and Taixuan Pure Gold is yang-metal; it must be suppressed and balanced with gentle yin water. Water can also accommodate the traits of Feathers of Hundred Birds, a Water Spirit is indeed better."
Tie Wanjiang reluctantly returned the umbrella to Jiang Yuebai, "In our Nine Rivers Realm, Immortal Monarch Chongmin realized the Water Dao Fruit, there must be Innate Water Spirits surrounding his Immortal Palace; during the Dragon Group Gathering, pay attention to see if you can obtain one, and whether you can, depends on your abilities."
Jiang Yuebai stored the umbrella, thanked him, and continued to consult about details of the Spirit Injection process, potential issues, and solutions.
These were all within Tie Wanjiang’s knowledge scope; he spoke freely without pressure, while Jiang Yuebai attentively took notes and raised a few questions during intervals for discussion together.
By evening, Tie Wanjiang began feeling slightly tired, he wanted to mention he had other matters several times but was interrupted by Jiang Yuebai’s bright and sincere gaze.
Facing someone truly seeking the path, Tie Wanjiang felt guilty doing otherwise!
Fortunately, Yann Hongyu appeared just in time, telling Jiang Yuebai that someone from the Heavenly Interence Sect had arrived, asking her to go to the reception hall.