Chapter 539 - 12: Celestial Craftsmanship "Slightly Accomplished
This strange crystal, a legacy of the ancient Necromancy School, forcibly stabilized and elevated his spirit, which was on the verge of complete collapse.
It kept him from undergoing complete Dao Transformation, allowing him to preserve the faintest trace of his self—of "Murphy."
This sliver of awareness was so faint, however, that it could hardly drive any thought, let alone restore his full consciousness.
’But what if he added the vast "Murphy’s Personality Data" sealed within the Mind Furnace?’
More importantly, back when he was Breaking the Realm to travel to the New Realm...
[Option 1: Before Zhenwu Hall, with a single sword strike, shatter the Sect Leader’s Daoist Skill and defeat the Divine Golden Body, vanquishing all the heroes of the world. Ascend to the pinnacle of the mortal realm. As your sword’s song never ceases, your mortal ties are severed. You then journey east into the twilight, stepping alone into the Spiritual Qi-shrouded, crisis-laden Canglan Realm.]
It had only been a mere eleven years, not yet thirty.
Naturally, since Option 1 was completed, he had also obtained the reward of [Celestial Craftsmanship "Slightly Accomplished"].
Putting aside the vast and exquisite techniques it contained for material identification, Dao Pattern construction, and Magical Treasure refining...
Murphy obtained something of critical importance to him.
That was the method for crafting and refining a "Lifebound Magical Treasure."
So-called Lifebound Magical Treasures were completely different from ordinary Dharma Artifacts.
It was not a mere external object. A Cultivator had to use their own essence blood and Divine Soul as a catalyst, cultivating it alongside their own life, eventually reaching a state where the Magical Treasure and oneself were a single, integrated whole, sharing a common fate.
The power of a Lifebound Magical Treasure grows with its master’s Cultivation. Moreover, it can be controlled as easily as one’s own limbs, unleashing profound abilities far beyond those of an ordinary Dharma Artifact.
Furthermore, the process of refining a Lifebound Magical Treasure was, in itself, an ultimate tempering and sublimation for a Cultivator’s Divine Soul. It could even nourish the Divine Soul in return, solidifying the Dao Foundation.
Simply put, a regular Magical Treasure is a tool for a Cultivator, while a Lifebound Magical Treasure is a part of the Cultivator—an extension of their life and Dao.
Cultivators pursue eternal life.
And eternal life is inseparable from leaping to a higher level of existence.
But the body of the "self"—especially the fundamental structure that carries the soul and consciousness—is incredibly subtle and complex.
Even if one wielded the power to move mountains and fill seas, trying to operate on one’s own fundamental structure was an extremely dangerous affair.
The slightest misstep could lead to the annihilation of one’s Divine Soul, the destruction of one’s Dao path, and the self ceasing to be the self.
This was fundamentally at odds with the Cultivator’s pursuit of eternal life.
Even modifying the physical body slowly and progressively at lower levels through specific Cultivation Techniques was a long, arduous, and risky process—and often, not something an ordinary person could accomplish.
’Since it’s so difficult to perform large-scale modifications directly on one’s own body, why not start from scratch with something new?’
’Why not build a second body externally, using various rare materials and the Laws of Dao Patterns—one that is highly compatible with one’s own Dao path and possesses immense potential?’
’Then, through a profound symbiotic technique akin to an organ transplant, one could gradually refine this meticulously crafted Magical Treasure into the body, merging it with one’s own flesh and blood, Divine Soul, and even Dao Foundation to achieve a deep-level fusion.’
From then on, this Magical Treasure would no longer be an external object, but a part of the Cultivator’s life, able to grow as the Cultivator grows.
The creation of the Lifebound Magical Treasure was based on precisely this stroke of genius.
Naturally, the threshold for refining a Lifebound Magical Treasure was extremely high.
The primary condition was that the refiner’s own Dao Transformation Level must reach 100%, meaning they were on the verge of completely converting into unobservable matter.
In other words, one had to at least reach the limit of the Foundation Establishment Stage.
Murphy’s situation was extremely unusual.
By standard metrics, his spirit, as well as the quantity and quality of his Total Magical Power, were far from reaching the Foundation Establishment Limit.
The only requirement he met was a 100% Dao Transformation Level.
The only reason Murphy could maintain his form without dissipating and his consciousness hadn’t completely faded into nothingness was due to the support of the Mind Furnace.
He was also able to create clones because of the Mind Furnace’s power.
Under normal circumstances, creating clones was an ability that only Golden Core Stage Cultivators naturally possessed.
It wasn’t that they deliberately learned some kind of Cloning Magic; rather, when their life essence ascended to the Golden Core level and their understanding of the "self" reached new heights, this ability was born naturally.
It was called a Divine Ability.
Otherwise, for a mere Foundation Establishment Cultivator, even one at the Foundation Establishment Limit, forcibly creating a clone would only cause a schism of the self, leading to runaway Dao Transformation, triggering a Heart Demon Tribulation, and the annihilation of consciousness.
And now, in this strange, nightmarish time, Murphy, with his Foundation Establishment body, was about to forcibly refine the Mind Furnace into his Lifebound Magical Treasure.
There was no "why." This was his only chance to reconstruct his complete self.
’Otherwise, the idea of simply extracting "Murphy’s Personality Data" from the Mind Furnace would be a joke.’
’Memories aren’t just things you watch; they have to be integrated into the self.’
’And in that integration process, Murphy, limited by his current realm, had no idea how to fully write the memory’s structural carrier into the constitution of his soul.’
’Therefore, he could only take an unconventional path: make the Mind Furnace his Lifebound Magical Treasure, making it one with him, his true brain, rather than the external server it was now.’
The first step of refining was symbiosis, which, to a certain extent, Murphy had already achieved.
Ever since the final battle in the Old Realm, the Mind Furnace had been carrying his personality and stabilizing his body. The two had long ago formed a tight symbiotic relationship.
But symbiosis was not the same as perfect integration and synchronized growth.
The Mind Furnace was currently acting more like an external server supporting him, like a critically ill patient relying on an extracorporeal circulation system.
If he wanted it to truly become an extension of his life and Dao path, to be controlled as effortlessly as his own limbs and senses, and to evolve in sync with his future growth, he had to perform a deeper level of ritual refining and integration.
Murphy sat down cross-legged, holding the core of the Mind Furnace suspended before his Dantian. He then activated an abstruse ritual refining technique recorded in [Celestial Craftsmanship]—the Profound Origin Nine Refinements Spirit Forging Chapter.
The "Nine Refinements" in this technique’s name was a figurative number; if one had the ability, they could perform Ten Refinements, a hundred, or even a thousand.
Each refining was a deep reconstruction and sublimation of the connection between the Magical Treasure and oneself. It was a Cultivation Technique designed specifically for refining a Lifebound Magical Treasure and, at the same time, raising one’s Cultivation.
And the Cultivation process was quite simple.
One had to simultaneously construct corresponding foundational Dao Patterns within the core of the Magical Treasure and one’s own Dao-transformed body, establishing a basic resonant link.
Following the technique’s instructions, Murphy began to circulate a portion of his Mana along specific meridians and acupoints, tracing and condensing it into extremely fine, complex, three-dimensional patterns that shimmered with faint light.
The precision of these patterns reached 100 nanometers, smaller than the smallest cell.
At the same time, another portion of his Mana delved deep into the silver-white core of the Mind Furnace in his palm.
Unlike the relatively familiar structure of the human body, constructing Dao Patterns on a Dharma Artifact was far more difficult.
It required the Cultivator to have an extremely thorough understanding of the Dharma Artifact’s materials, Energy flow, and core Dao Pattern design.
Otherwise, one might damage the Dharma Artifact’s own Dao Pattern arrangement, and furthermore, the Dao Patterns on both the artifact and the Cultivator would fail to achieve a perfect resonance.
In that case, the ritual refining would fail.
Fortunately, the Mind Furnace was something Murphy had personally designed, the product of eleven years of painstaking effort.
Every component, every rune, and every Energy node was deeply imprinted in his memory, and he knew exactly how to upgrade and modify it.
The stream murmured, white clouds drifted lazily, and birdsong came and went.
Murphy sat like an ancient stone statue, the only movement the strands of light flowing around his body and between his palms.
A full day and night passed just like this.
The moment the final corresponding Dao Pattern was simultaneously traced to completion within his body and inside the Mind Furnace’s core...
HUMMM!
A deep, clear hum echoed directly in the depths of Murphy’s consciousness and the core of the Mind Furnace!
Immediately after, the silver-white core floating in his palm burst with light. The rotation of the interwoven Crimson and silver light patterns at its center suddenly accelerated, and the newly constructed Dao Patterns in Murphy’s body produced a clear Energy resonance.
A feeling of perfect, harmonious blending, like milk and water, surfaced in Murphy’s consciousness.
It was as if the Mind Furnace had truly become a part of Murphy’s body.
Murphy’s thoughts stirred.
With that slight stir of thought, the silver-white core in his palm transformed into a streak of light and naturally sank back into the space between his eyebrows, returning to its original position within his brain.
But this return was completely different from when it had been removed.
The Mind Furnace was no longer an external server, but had truly become a "second brain" within his consciousness.
Murphy slowly opened his eyes.
The sunlight was still warm, the stream still murmured, and the forest’s breath was still long and deep.
But in his pair of dark eyes, the calm indifference was no longer absolute.
Dao Transformation Level: 110%.