Chapter 558: Chapter 235: Flawless Golden Core

After completing all this, Lu Zhiyuan’s soul body suddenly became somewhat weak.

Apparently, with the current strength of his divine spirit, forcibly separating the Wisdom Root also took a great toll on him.

"Master!"

Seeing this, Shen Chongxuan’s face was full of concern.

Lu Zhiyuan’s divine soul body flickered, waving his hand slightly, "No worries, no worries."

"I will go back and recuperate for a while. I shall return to see once this little one is born."

As soon as he finished speaking, his soul body transformed into a stream of light and re-entered Shen Chongxuan’s Sea of Consciousness.

Beside him, Zhantai Yujing gently stroked her swollen belly and came forward.

"Husband, Master he..."

Shen Chongxuan looked into his Sea of Consciousness and saw that Lu Zhiyuan’s divine spirit was sitting cross-legged without any major issue, comforting her, "Master is fine."

"You must take good care of your pregnancy, strive to give birth to a gifted child for the Shen Family, and do not let down the efforts of our venerable master."

Zhantai Yujing gently nodded her head.

...

Western Wilderness, Flame Lake City.

After a long period of recuperation, He Zhongyi, whose Divine Sense was severely overdrawn, finally recovered.

In a small courtyard in the city, several cultivators of the Shen Family, along with Shen Xiuyun, sat around the pavilion, eyes fixed eagerly on him.

He Zhongyi glanced at everyone and said, "The reason I summoned you all today is because you are now on the verge of reaching the Qi Cultivation Perfection Realm, and a breakthrough to the Fetal Breathing Realm is just around the corner."

"Taking this opportunity, it would be fitting to share with you some insights and experiences on understanding artifact patterns and refining magical artifacts."

As the leading figure in the Shen Family’s Artifact Refining Dao, He Zhongyi had the authority to teach them these things.

Everyone in the pavilion held their breath, waiting quietly for him to continue.

He Zhongyi organized his thoughts and continued, "The ’Li Palace Bing Fire Refining Form Technique’ describes the twelve basic artifact patterns of the Ancient Refining Technique, which you should all be aware of."

The crowd nodded upon hearing this.

The people present were all cultivators of the ’Li Palace Bing Fire Refining Form Technique,’ and although they had not yet reached the Fetal Breathing Realm, they knew of the existence of the "Twelve Basic Artifact Patterns."

"However, you may not be aware that ancient magical artifacts refined through the artifact pattern dao are in some respects actually inferior to the current artifact refining dao that engraves arrays."

Hearing this, everyone in the crowd, including Shen Xiuyun, was a bit stunned.

They had personally witnessed the spear refined by He Zhongyi on that day, and just from its aura alone, it already surpassed most array pattern magical artifacts.

Why was he now saying that the artifacts refined through the ancient refining technique were inferior to those refined with the array pattern dao?

"Uncle Zhongyi, did you perhaps misspeak?"

Shen Xiuyun asked with a frown.

He Zhongyi smiled gently and shook his head, meeting their puzzled eyes, he continued, "Ancient refining, the magical artifacts refined are stronger than array pattern magical artifacts because of the artifact embryos."

"All of you should now be capable of crafting true artifact embryos, and you know how difficult it is to forge an artifact embryo of excellent quality with Spirit Gold and Spirit Ore."

"In contrast, modern refining does not have such complex steps."

"Therefore, the magical artifacts crafted through the painstaking ancient method are fundamentally superior to modern approaches."

"The reason I say that artifact pattern magical artifacts are in some ways inferior to array pattern magical artifacts refers to the enhancement of a cultivator’s strength by the magical artifact."

Upon hearing this, the crowd fell into thoughtful silence.

He Zhongyi continued, "The twelve basic artifact patterns, which include ’solidification,’ ’sharpness,’ ’defense,’ indeed do not enhance as effectively as some arrays like the ’Fire Dragon Array’ or ’Ice Cone Array’ do."

Hearing this, everyone present nodded.

The currently mainstream array pattern magical artifacts are indeed more convenient, often allowing for the direct release of techniques inherent to the artifact when activated with spiritual power.

Among the crowd, Shen Xiuyun furrowed his brows and, after pondering for a while, said, "But array pattern magical artifacts also consume a large amount of spiritual power, and the power of the techniques inherent to the artifacts has an upper limit, which for high-tier cultivators, makes low-tier array pattern magical artifacts impractical, far less effective than techniques they can release themselves."

"Whereas low-tier cultivators cannot even activate a high-tier array pattern magical artifact."

Hearing this, a broad smile appeared on He Zhongyi’s face.

"Indeed, that is the greatest flaw of array pattern magical artifacts."

"Ancient refining technique magical artifacts do not have such concerns."

"Even lower grade magical artifacts refined with basic artifact patterns can enhance even a Nascent Soul True Monarch."

Everyone in the pavilion nodded thoughtfully.

He Zhongyi continued, "I mentioned this today to present you with a new perspective."

"Both array pattern and artifact pattern magical artifacts have their strengths and weaknesses, and since we have now become the pioneers of the Shen Family’s Artifact Refining Dao, we should aim for innovation."

"Can we not extract the essence and discard the dross?"

Hearing this, the group was stunned.

Seeing their expressions, He Zhongyi smiled gently and said, "Of course, perhaps this is merely a wild and impractical thought of mine."

"But it is nonetheless a thought worth contemplating, for now, just listen to it."

"Next, let’s continue discussing the dao of artifact patterns."

After successfully planting the seeds of "innovation" in everyone’s hearts, He Zhongyi did not delve further into the topic. Currently, he had only just begun to grasp the ancient refining technique and was unsure if it could indeed be combined with modern techniques. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"Comprehending artifact patterns is not difficult; once you reach the Fetal Breathing Realm, you should soon be able to comprehend one or several basic artifact patterns."

"However, relying on artifact patterns to refine a true magical artifact is far from easy."

"There are two critical points in this."

"The first is the strength of Divine Sense, and the second is a focused and undistracted mindset."