As the stone lump soaked in the Slaughter Spring water, its hard outer shell—which hadn't borne even a scratch from the curved blade earlier—began to dissolve. The coarse, toad-skin-like layer of granules corroded away as impurities, turning into black mist that drifted off the surface of the water.
However, this process lasted only a short moment before no more black mist emerged.
“No more reaction?” It was much faster than she had expected.
Shi Yu looked down to see that the thin layer of rough granules on the lump had been completely stripped away, leaving behind a smooth, rounded stone radiating a cold, vivid azure light.
She froze in surprise. “This is...”
The stone possessed an exquisite color—a pure, vibrant, and lush azure, covered in delicate, intricate patterns like an ancient, warm piece of jade.
Looking closer, something seemed to pulse faintly within its core. A fleck of fiery red reflected against the azure, bleeding outward in a strikingly captivating display.
Yet beautiful as it was, it involuntarily imparted an invisible sense of oppression.
When Shi Yu locked her eyes onto it, she felt her gaze being forcefully trapped, unable to pull away, as though her very soul was about to be dragged inside.
This was no illusion. A dull, dizzying pain throbbed in her mind as the tugging sensation on her soul grew increasingly clear, threatening to forcibly yank it from her body. Startled, Shi Yu bit down hard on the tip of her tongue. Driven by the sharp burst of pain, she managed to wrench her eyes away, and the pulling sensation instantly vanished.
Relieved all at once, cold sweat drenched Shi Yu's back. “What on earth is this thing?”
She knew that if she hadn't reacted quickly just now, her soul might have been utterly destroyed on the spot.
The Origin Realm shared the same worldbuilding as Xian Yuan, the game she used to play. In Xian Yuan, Shi Yu had been a top-tier auxiliary-class player who had handled countless heavenly materials and earthly treasures. It was no exaggeration to call her a living encyclopedia of rare resources.
Yet the universe was vast, impossible to fully comprehend in a brief lifetime. There were still many rare treasures and profound artifacts that Shi Yu had never seen or heard of before.
Like the object before her now...
With the lingering shock of hovering on the brink of life and death, Shi Yu didn't dare look at it again. She could only replay that fleeting glimpse in her mind, searching her memory to see if she had ever encountered anything similar.
“I've never seen such a thing with my own eyes,” she thought with certainty, thoroughly confident in her memory.
Had she heard of it, then?
She strained to recall the strange tales, legends, and lore books she had read in Xian Yuan.
Finally, a forgotten corner of her memory was unlocked, and Shi Yu slowly opened her eyes.
Frowning slightly, she murmured, “Could it be... Azure Flame Cloud Sand?”
In Xian Yuan, Shi Yu had once acquired an ancient manual titled the Compendium of Worldly Secret Treasures, which specifically cataloged ancient oddities and heavenly treasures that were lost to history or unknown to the world.
She recalled the description of Azure Flame Cloud Sand she had read in it.
This material was born in the earth's core, requiring ten thousand years to take form. Even so, it possessed little practical utility on its own. Azure Flame Cloud Sand was brittle, porous, and easily broken, with poor spiritual energy conductivity. Using it for forging artifacts resulted in twice the effort for half the result—a complete waste of time. It was equally unsuitable as a spiritual material for making array plates or ground into spiritual powder for talismans.
Yet it was extraordinarily rare and valuable for one reason: it could attract certain heavenly and earthly spiritual entities to inhabit inside it.
As for what those spiritual entities actually were, the Compendium of Worldly Secret Treasures had sparse and vague records on the matter.
Comparing her memories, Shi Yu felt that the stone currently soaking in the Slaughter Spring water was indeed Azure Flame Cloud Sand.
And that feeling of her soul being pulled came not from the Azure Flame Cloud Sand itself, but from the “spiritual entity” residing within it.
Shi Yu didn't dare look at the Azure Flame Cloud Sand itself again, keeping her eyes fixed solely on the water's surface in the bucket.
Soaking ordinary spiritual materials in Slaughter Spring water usually extracted a large amount of impurities. But when Azure Flame Cloud Sand was submerged, only its initial outer shell dissolved as an impurity before all reaction ceased.
Shi Yu understood: “Tempered in the earth's core for tens of thousands of years, it has long been devoid of impurities.”
She wondered what kind of spiritual entity was hidden inside.
To inflict such intense strain on her soul, it was certainly no ordinary item.
Then again, she murmured under her breath, “Hard to say. Maybe it's just that I'm too weak right now to handle that kind of sensation.”
Shi Yu shook her head with a soft chuckle. She was tempted to crack open the Azure Flame Cloud Sand to find out, as the material itself was brittle and breaking it open wouldn't be difficult.
However, after a moment's hesitation, she feared causing a mishap with the “spiritual entity” inside—a situation her current weak cultivation couldn't handle. In the end, she left it alone and stashed it inside the Fate-Tapping Bell.
As for why this piece of Azure Flame Cloud Sand, which ought to have been deep within the earth's core, appeared at a market stall, she had a guess.
Azure Flame Cloud Sand formed in subterranean magma. Its sudden appearance was likely connected to the volcano five hundred li to the south.
After all... both had given her that same strangely inexplicable feeling.
Perhaps it had been spewed from the crater alongside flowing magma.
“The original stone lump was probably accidentally swallowed by some spirit beast, then sliced out by that stall vendor.”
This made Shi Yu feel all the more that visiting the volcano was necessary, and she would need to find an opportunity to go.
Unfortunately, her current cultivation was low, and the spirit beast riot wasn't over yet; rushing off blindly would be far too dangerous.
“I'll wait until I reach the mid stage of the Qi Refining Realm and have a bit of self-defense capability before deciding.”
Having made up her mind, Shi Yu put the matter aside for now and retrieved the Gansong Charcoal to prepare for forging artifacts.
The charcoal Jiang Qihe had sold her was of excellent quality, clearly handpicked. With a simple strike of spiritual energy, the Gansong Charcoal flared up with a burst of fierce flame.
Tossing the Wood-Seeking Python skin, refined by the Slaughter Spring water, into the flames to roast, Shi Yu carefully examined the hide.
The Wood-Seeking Python possessed jade-green scales that shimmered like fine gems. After being refined by the Slaughter Spring water, the python hide had become even more translucent and vibrant green, sparkling brilliantly in the sunlight.
Judging by the size and density of its scales, this python had nearly two hundred years of cultivation, making its strength roughly equivalent to a human cultivator between the sixth and seventh layers of the Qi Refining Realm.
Generally, the older a spirit beast was, the higher its cultivation. However, estimating a spirit beast's strength this way wasn't entirely accurate and only offered a rough gauge.
Spirit beasts varied in strength depending on their species and bloodline purity. Naturally, extraordinary species inherited bloodlines from ancient fierce beasts, possessing formidable power from birth.
The Wood-Seeking Python had average offensive capability, but it excelled in speed, often darting through forests like a flash of light, making it quite troublesome to deal with.
The python skin retained these characteristics. In crafting a soft armor, aside from the essential low-grade defensive restriction Impact Dissipation, inscribing a Speed Augmentation restriction would be most fitting.
Moreover, since its attribute was Wood—the element of thriving vitality among the Five Elements—adding a Growth restriction would complement it wonderfully.
This way, as long as the soft armor wasn't severely damaged, it could slowly repair itself over time through this restriction.
With these thoughts turning in her mind, Shi Yu already had a design formulated.
Rate on N.U.
