Chapter 298: Chapter 272 Refining a Divine Artifact_i

The system had just finished evolving and it had already found a suitable disciple?

This meant the disciple meeting the requirements must be nearby; hence, there was no need to consume the enlightenment opportunities to sense their presence.

If an enlightenment opportunity were consumed to search, the system could detect disciples no matter the distance.

Li Cheng had a vague hunch that it was very likely to be Yin Yue!

The next second, Yin Yue’s voice came from outside the house, “Big Brother, may I come in?”

Li Cheng turned his head and, even through the walls, saw a large green arrow! Indeed!

Come in,” Li Cheng said with a smile, though he was pondering in his heart— this girl had always called him Big Brother, and now, considering taking her as a disciple…

“Big Brother, quickly try the Divine Rice I cooked.”

In her hands, Yin Yue held a large basin of crystal-clear white rice, her expectant voice interrupting Li Cheng’s thoughts.

Li Cheng was astonished; that basin with a diameter of half a meter, was she serious?

On what basis did she measure that?

And, was it just rice that she brought?

“In the past, we had to give a large portion of the Divine Rice to Move Cloud Mountain Stronghold, leaving the rest for the Qi Refinement Realm villagers to eat, since after reaching the Foundation Establishment, they could abstain from grain,” Yin Yue explained while handing the basin of rice over to Li Cheng. Li Cheng chuckled; he had given all two thousand catties of Divine Rice to the village, so had she cooked this large basin for him as a gesture of thanks?

Seeing Yin Yue’s face brimming with anticipation, Li Cheng couldn’t bring himself to refuse. He took a bite and found the Divine Rice… quite chewy.

As he chewed, strands of faint Divine Qi entered his body.

Li Cheng understood: the Divine Rice contained only a small amount of Divine Qi, but it was a very good cultivation resource for those in the Qi Refinement Realm and Foundation Establishment Stage of the Divine Realm. If one could eat it every day, their cultivation speed would significantly increase.

However, for those in the Heaven God State, the Divine Qi provided by the Divine Rice was negligible.

Move Cloud Mountain Stronghold demanded eight hundred catties of Divine Rice from Hidden Spirit Village every year, with other villages undoubtedly doing the same. It seemed like Move Cloud Mountain Stronghold was using it to cultivate Qi Refinement and Foundation Establishment cultivators.

“It’s quite delicious; you should try some too!” Li Cheng pushed the basin towards Yin Yue.

Yin Yue gulped; ever since her cultivation reached the Foundation Establishment Stage, she rarely had the chance to eat Divine Rice and she missed its sweet stickiness.

Yuer, you little girl…” Yin Yue’s father, Yin Qingshan, came from outside, looking helplessly at her before giving a clasped-hand salute to Li Cheng: “Brother Li, I apologize for her lack of manners.”

Li Cheng shook his head and smiled, “Yuer gave me what she considers the most delicious thing, how could she lack manners? By the way, I’ve completely comprehended the Formation, but I need a Divine Artifact as a core to support it, along with quite a lot of Divine Material for the Formation base. Materials might be a problem.”

Yin Qingshan was taken aback; the two of them had been researching for seven days without results, and now, in the blink of an eye, Li Cheng had achieved enlightenment?

Truly an Ascender!

Yin Qingshan steadied himself and said with a bitter smile, “For setting up the Hidden Spirit Array, our village ancestors did leave two sets of materials, which should be sufficient. As for the Divine Artifact… even Move Cloud Mountain Stronghold only has one Divine Artifact; how could we have one in the village? Could it be downgraded to a Demigod Artifact?”

Although this was the Divine Realm, Divine Artifacts were exceedingly rare within the territory of Move Cloud Mountain Stronghold. Over hundreds of villages were scattered across tens of millions of miles, but none possessed a Divine Artifact.

“Are there Divine Artifacts for sale in the city? What’s the usual price for an inferior Divine Artifact?” asked Li Cheng.

Yin Qingshan shook his head, “Cloud Bright City is large, but it’s said that only the City Lord Mansion has a Divine Artifact; who would sell a Divine Artifact? As for the price, it starts at about one thousand Divine Stones.”

Li Cheng’s eyebrows twitched subtly; that expensive?

He had killed the Third Master of Move Cloud Mountain Stronghold, including Scar from the Heaven God Stage, and had only managed to scrape together ten Divine Stones.

However, an idea struck Li Cheng and his eyes brightened. The weapons from those ten-plus people had been melted down by him. With the techniques of Artifact Refining from the Immortal World, he wondered if he could possibly forge a Divine Artifact.

They were forged from Divine Material, and now that he was at the Heaven God State, his Immortal Fire had become Divine Fire—it seemed possible he could succeed!

But it wasn’t certain; he could only try and see.

“Any news from Move Cloud Mountain Stronghold?” Li Cheng inquired further.

Mentioning Move Cloud Mountain Stronghold, Yin Qingshan’s expression grew serious, “These seven days, Move Cloud Mountain Stronghold has been fully mobilized, checking village after village. They will reach ours in the next few days.”

Li Cheng nodded; Scar from the Heaven God late stage had been killed, leading Move Cloud Mountain Stronghold to suspect the killer to be of the same Realm or stronger. As long as no one with that level of cultivation was found in the village, it seemed they could evade trouble.

However, once Move Cloud Mountain Stronghold finished inspecting all the villages, they might employ more extreme measures, such as abducting villagers for harsh interrogation or even soul searching…

If they were to soul search the people of Hidden Spirit Village, that would be bad news.

He must act quickly. If all else fails, he could use the damaged tripod as a Formation core as an interim measure, although the effectiveness of the Hidden Spirit Array would be greatly reduced.

If the remaining two leaders of Move Cloud Mountain Stronghold arrived with a Divine Artifact, such a Formation would undoubtedly fail to stop them.

After considering his options, he decided the only choice was to attempt to forge a Divine Artifact.

“Brother Li, the village is nearly ready; except for the Divine Field, which cannot be taken, everything else can be moved at any time. If it really doesn’t work out, we’ll find an opportunity to leave the Cloud Bright City territory,” said Yin Qingshan.

Within the Cloud Bright City territory, only Move Cloud Mountain Stronghold operated as a bandit group, which was relatively stable compared to other places.

There were no guarantees they could maintain their current way of life if they moved under the jurisdiction of another city.

Li Cheng nodded, “I have some understanding of Artifact Refining, but I have never tried forging a Divine Artifact. Let me give it a try!”

As he spoke, Li Cheng took out a lump of metal with various colors mixed within it.

Yin Qingshan seemed to want to say something but held back; it was obvious at a glance that this was a mixture of various low-grade materials. Regardless of how many impurities were present, Artifact Refining required melting and combining materials in a certain sequence based on the compatibility of Divine Material. Clearly, this wouldn’t work.