Chapter 42: A Beggar-Version Heavy Weapon

Li Yao took out a few fist-sized pieces of Source, then circulated the Scripture of the God of Light to absorb the vital essence within and restore his own divine power.

To maximize his speed, he even had the Heavenly Book join in the process, though he intercepted seventy percent of the vital essence absorbed by the book.

Only the remaining thirty percent was actually absorbed by the Heavenly Book.

It was not that Li Yao did not want to absorb it all, but rather that his physical body had reached its limit and could not contain such a massive surge of vital essence all at once.

Even so, his rate of divine power recovery was astonishingly fast, at least doubling his usual speed.

In less than a quarter of an hour, Li Yao was fully restored. He immediately began manipulating the jade token to intensify the flames, calcining the Dao-Marked Purple Gold.

After another half day, Li Yao's divine power was once again severely depleted, forcing him to pause and absorb vital essence to recover.

The Dao-Marked Purple Gold truly lived up to its reputation as a sacred material exclusive to the Great Emperors. After a full day of calcining, its surface had only slightly deformed, and it was still a long way from the state Li Yao desired.

Once his divine power recovered, Li Yao plunged back into the calcination, transforming himself into a blacksmith.

Two days later, within the flame-engulfed deep well, the Dao-Marked Purple Gold began to turn red and radiated intense heat. However, this was far from enough; to forge a weapon, the Dao-Marked Purple Gold had to be completely softened.

Li Yao sat cross-legged at the edge of the artifact-refinement chamber. At this moment, his face was filled with exhaustion. Three days of high-intensity divine power consumption, even with timely replenishment, had taken a heavy toll on his stamina and mental energy.

Yet there was an advantage to this: such intense consumption of divine power to resist the flames had made his divine power exceptionally refined and condensed.

Of course, the cost was that in just three days, he had consumed over two hundred catties of Source.

Such a terrifying consumption would have broken his heart if he didn't currently possess reliable means of earning Source.

"It's almost time. At this rate, it won't be long before the Dao-Marked Purple Gold reaches the standard required for forging," Li Yao exhaled deeply, gathered his focus, and plunged back into the calcination.

On the fourth day, the Dao-Marked Purple Gold finally underwent a noticeable change, beginning to soften. The fiery-purple metal now resembled a lump of clay, gradually shifting in shape under the influence of his divine power.

"Now is the time!" Li Yao's heart stirred as he formed hand seals, unleashing a surge of mighty divine power into the flames.

"Clang, clang!"

His divine power transformed into a massive hammer, striking heavily against the Dao-Marked Purple Gold. After a long while, a crude, pinky-finger-sized purple bottle finally took shape.

"Draw!"

Li Yao formed another seal, imprinting a Dao mark across the mouth of the bottle. The Dao mark shone brilliantly, then evolved into a whirlpool that erupted with infinite suction.

A vast amount of soaring flames within the fire well was sucked into the bottle, causing the temperature of the well to drop significantly, while the originally purple bottle turned a fiery red.

"Phew!" Li Yao let out a long breath, a look of absolute determination on his face.

An artifact must be forged within one's own body so that it can truly merge and harmonize with oneself. There was simply no other way to unleash its maximum power.

Yet forging an artifact undoubtedly required time. During this period, he had to ensure that the Dao-Marked Purple Gold remained in this calcined state; otherwise, once it cooled, the extreme hardness of the metal would render forging impossible.

This was a profoundly reckless move, but Li Yao had no intention of backing down. In cultivation, the deadliest mistake one could make was settling for "close enough."

He knew very well that if he wished to reach the absolute pinnacle, he had to perfect every single step along the way.

Especially his artifact—it could be said to be a cultivator's most important partner, one that would grow alongside him into the future.

If he had chosen to forge the artifact outside his body from the start, the resonance and bond between the weapon and himself would have been permanently compromised, a flaw that could never be mended later.

Having steeled his resolve, Li Yao executed a hand seal and drew the flame-filled bottle directly into his Sea of Bitterness.

In an instant, an indescribable wave of agony overwhelmed Li Yao, nearly causing him to faint. He felt as though his Sea of Bitterness had been violently ripped open, a hole burned right through it by the terrifying high temperature. Blinding radiances erupted from within, accompanied by deafening roars like a raging tsunami and towering waves.

Yet he had no time to tend to his wounds. Before the flames inside the bottle were exhausted, he had to forge the Dao-Marked Purple Gold into a cauldron.

Gritting his teeth, Li Yao waved his hand and retrieved several thousand catties of Source, shattering them all at once with a single palm strike. The dense vital essence liquefied within the chamber, resembling a torrential downpour of raindrops.

The Heavenly Book trembled as the rich vital essence frantically poured into Li Yao's body. His physical frame, like parched earth meeting long-awaited rain, responded immediately, and the burning tear in his Sea of Bitterness was curbed under the nourishment of the spiritual rain.

Once the crisis in his body was stabilized, Li Yao immediately sat cross-legged, his mind sinking into profound tranquility. In his Sea of Consciousness, a miniature cauldron materialized—three-legged, two-eared, with a single lid, exuding an archaic and natural aura.

It completely conformed to the Daoist philosophy of cultivation: the Dao produces one, one produces two, two produces three, and three produces all things.

This was the cauldron in his heart, and everything must be hammered and tempered according to this vision until it took shape, without a single flaw or imperfection.

The cauldron formed from divine patterns soared upward, crashing into the Dao-Marked Purple Gold, intertwining with it until it completely merged inside.

The Dao-Marked Purple Gold began to stretch and transform its shape. He hammered it with his heart and forged it with his spirit, his concentration reaching an extreme height, taut like a fully drawn bow.

The flames roared fiercely, and the Dao-Marked Purple Gold emitted a dreamlike purple radiance, encompassing the fire, continuously shifting and evolving toward the shape of the cauldron.

"Clang!" "Clang!" "Clang!"...

Li Yao's body trembled, actually emitting metallic, clanging sounds as if he were truly a blacksmith, echoing far into the distance, defying even the soundproofing of the artifact chamber.

One day, two days... Seven days later, the clanging sounds never ceased. Li Yao remained utterly devoted, concentrating his spirit and vital essence to temper the Dao-Marked Purple Gold, slowly guiding its transformation.

However, the resilience of the Dao-Marked Purple Gold far exceeded Li Yao's imagination. For a full seven days, he had only managed to hammer the metal to the point where it vaguely resembled the shape of a cauldron.

Truth be told, the Dao-Marked Purple Gold truly deserved its name as a sacred material exclusive to Great Emperors. A treasure of this caliber was never meant to be handled by cultivators in the Wheel and Sea realm.

Li Yao did not lose heart. Even as he continuously endured the excruciating pain of being burned alive by fierce flames, he persisted in refining the divine cauldron.

One day, two days...

Finally, on the tenth day, the clanging sounds ceased.

At this moment, hovering above his Sea of Bitterness, a miniature cauldron roughly two finger-joints in size had taken shape. It was suffused with purple mist, unimaginably dreamlike and dazzlingly magnificent.

The only flaw was that the quantity of Dao-Marked Purple Gold was simply too meager, leaving the forged cauldron lacking in substance; it was visibly thin, devoid of the majestic bearing of a heavy vessel.

Still, this was something that could be remedied in the future, so there was no need to worry.

"Thud!"

Li Yao could no longer hold on, collapsing limply to the ground. His complexion was terrifyingly pale, utterly devoid of color. His once-deep and brilliant eyes were now bloodshot, and his entire being appeared deeply haggard.

Over the past ten days, he had continuously endured the torment of his Sea of Bitterness being burned through. That sensation was truly no less agonizing than having one's tendons pulled and bones marrowed—a pain that surpassed the ultimate limits of the human body.