Over several days, Zhang Ling traveled throughout the Bishui City's cultivation market, selling some of the pills he had concocted and exchanging them for six to seven thousand spirit stones. He used these spirit stones to specifically collect a pill formula and some spirit herb seeds.
Among them, he could only refine one type of pill suitable for late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators, called Essence Yuan Pill. The others were either too low-grade to be of any use to him, or those suitable for him required demon cores as the main ingredient.
And there were two sets of formulas for this Essence Yuan Pill. One set also used demon cores as the main ingredient, while the other could be substituted with two Rank 3 spirit herbs, but it required the spirit herbs to be quite old, reaching three hundred years of age.
Calculating the value, it was even more expensive than refining with demon cores, but this was exactly what Zhang Ling needed. With the mysterious pearl, the age of the spirit herbs was not a problem for him.
As for the original Cultivation Yuan Pill, after he entered the late stage of Foundation Establishment, its medicinal power had become very small with the increase of his cultivation, not even a third of what it used to be.
Fortunately, the Condensing Essence Pill still had some effect, coupled with the Heavy Yuan Pill. Although his cultivation progress was not as fast as before, it was still not comparable to ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators.
The reason why he was in a hurry to find other pills suitable for him was also for the sake of his upcoming seclusion.
Zhang Ling was not young anymore. Calculating his age, he was now close to fifty years old. In the eyes of ordinary people, being able to break through to the late stage of Foundation Establishment before the age of fifty was something only genius disciples could achieve.
But Zhang Ling knew that his cultivation was mostly achieved by consuming a large number of pills. He had even swallowed an Earth Attribute Spirit Accumulation Pill, a type of realm-breaking pill, otherwise it would have been difficult for him to break through to the late stage of Foundation Establishment even with another ten years.
Upon reaching the late stage of Foundation Establishment, the increase in cultivation became even slower. It was not that he was absorbing less medicinal power or spiritual energy from meditation.
But now his dantian was gradually expanding with the increase of his cultivation. At his current cultivation speed, even with the help of pills, he could not reach the peak of Foundation Establishment without long-term cultivation, and then there was the difficult hurdle of the Golden Core Pill. This also made him feel a sense of crisis.
At the same time, with Zhang Ling's increasing age, he also found that his body and appearance always remained at the age of about twenty.
He had not taken any pills with beauty-preserving effects like the Youth Preservation Pill. His main cultivation technique, the Qian Earth Skill, did not have this characteristic either. The only thing he could guess was that the strange vine parasitizing his body had caused the changes in his body.
As his control over the vine became stronger and stronger, this strange vine had become a part of his body.
Every day, in addition to catalyzing the spirit herbs needed for refining pills and preparing the Essence Yuan Pill, Zhang Ling spent the whole day meditating and refining qi.
After three months, Zhang Ling refined a lot of Essence Yuan Pills, and he also tried to take this kind of pill. This pill was much more powerful than the Condensing Essence Pill. With his late-stage Foundation Establishment strength, he could only refine one Essence Yuan Pill every seven days.
Time passed day by day.
According to the original plan, after Zhang Ling solved the problem of pills, he did not immediately go into seclusion. He devoted part of his mind to studying several books related to artifact crafting.
He was completely ignorant in this regard, but he also exchanged for a lot of books in this area in the market, and also bought some recorded images of artifact refiners refining magical artifacts in several large shops. This kind of thing, like cultivation experience, cost him a lot of spirit stones.
With these, Zhang Ling's knowledge of artifact crafting was also increasing rapidly. He did this naturally to refine magical artifacts.
He had a lot of materials in his hand, among which the shells and pearls of the Iridescent Clam were also rare artifact crafting materials.
Of course, he could also sell these materials or find other artifact refiners to help him refine them.
But his purpose was not to refine ordinary magical artifacts. He wanted to refine the special magical artifact that could shield the cultivator's aura, which he had obtained from the female cultivator surnamed Huang.
He had a Seven-Colored Pearl in his hand. If he could refine it successfully, with the special nature of the material, it would definitely be more powerful than ordinary pearls.
As for the matter of the five-colored pearls being able to refine magical treasures that those people said when he was in the Boundless Sea, he did not know the refining method and was helpless.
If five-colored pearls could refine magical treasures, then the value of this seven-colored pearl was probably immeasurable. Zhang Ling did not want other cultivators to know that he had this strange treasure, so he could only refine it himself.
However, after three or four months, Zhang Ling gave up the idea of refining artifacts. He originally wanted to refine special magical artifacts in a short period of time.
But he underestimated the consumption and complexity of artifact crafting. This immortal cultivation skill, like pill refining, was not something ordinary people could master.
Artifact crafting varies according to the material. The techniques for handling artifact crafting materials are also different, and this is only the preparation part, followed by designing the style and function of the magical artifact.
What materials are suitable for attacking magical artifacts, what materials are suitable for refining defensive magical artifacts, and special materials, etc.
In addition to the processing of materials, the most difficult part of artifact crafting is engraving array patterns on the magical artifact. This requires the use of array pattern engraving knives, which are the same as those used in formations.
These array patterns are all small formations, engraved on the magical artifact to enhance the power of the magical artifact, and also allow the cultivator's spiritual power to flow smoothly on the magical artifact.
Although many大佬cultivators have compiled a complete set of artifact crafting array patterns.
Like Sharp Metal Array, Flame Pattern, and Giant Wind Blade are all attack-type array patterns, and there are also Spirit Gathering Array patterns, Heavy Mountain Array and other defensive types, or Azure Spirit, Iridescent and other auxiliary types.
These are not easy to master. If you are not careful, the magical artifact material will be scrapped instantly.
Zhang Ling could use a large number of spirit herbs to practice pill refining and constantly improve the pill formation rate. After all, with the mysterious pearl catalyzing spirit herbs, the consumption of pill refining was very small for him.
However, artifact crafting also cost Zhang Ling a lot of spirit stones. After several months of studying artifact crafting, he could only refine some low-grade magical artifacts, and he had also refined a few middle-grade magical artifacts.
Among them, several pieces of Iridescent Clam shells were ruined by him, and several monochrome and dichroic pearls were also ruined. Zhang Ling did not dare to touch those tricolor and four-color pearls.
Thinking about the consumption of artifact crafting, Zhang Ling smiled bitterly, feeling that it was somewhat not worth the loss. With his artifact crafting skills, he was far from meeting the requirements for refining special magical artifacts, and he might end up destroying the materials without refining the magical artifact.
After giving up artifact crafting, Zhang Ling dealt with other matters. Although his artifact crafting skills were not very effective, it also allowed him to see a lot of artifact crafting materials, and he was no longer ignorant of this way.
During these months, he also found several spirit trees in the market that could be used to condense swords.
After selecting the spirit wood, Zhang Ling went to the cave's medicine garden and cut down a piece of ironwood that was several feet high, and then took out a green-blue bamboo that was about the thickness of a thumb from the storage bag. This small bamboo had some blue bamboo leaves on it, and a layer of white frost was condensed on it.
This is a kind of ice-attribute spirit wood called Frost Bamboo. Zhang Ling wanted to re-condense the sword talisman on it.
