Chapter 412: Sword Pavilion

Time passed. Seven days flew by in the blink of an eye.

Inside Huidragon Temple, everything remained as usual.

Within the immortal's cave, the sword light and blood light, which had been evenly matched, finally determined a victor. The Asura Blood Mulberry retreated to a corner, its blood-red glow reduced to a thin, dull layer covering its surface, no longer able to withstand the encroaching Ebon Sword.

The sword light contracted, completely enveloping the Asura Blood Mulberry, forming an egg-like shape suspended in mid-air. The Killing Talismans glowed brightly, operating on their own to help the Ebon Sword wear away the blood light.

The last trace of blood light was gradually worn away, revealing the true form of the Asura Blood Mulberry: a flawless, uniform piece of blood-red wood without any impurities. As his spiritual sense approached the blood-red wood, Qin Sang faintly felt a sense of contamination. This divine wood was too bizarre; he wondered if other divine woods possessed similar abilities.

Qin Sang eagerly anticipated the transformation and pleasant surprises the Ebon Sword would bring after refining the Asura Blood Mulberry. He proceeded with extreme caution, manipulating his sword energy to slowly refine the Asura Blood Mulberry. Under Qin Sang's continuous refining, the Asura Blood Mulberry melted like ice, turning into a pool of blood-red liquid. Remarkably, the entire spiritual wood was pure essence, completely free of impurities.

Qin Sang opened his eyes, gazing intently at the blood-red liquid. After a moment, with a slight shift of his thoughts, the Ebon Sword trembled slightly, a flash of sword light, and then plunged into the liquid. The sword itself melted and merged with the blood-red liquid, transforming into a sword embryo.

The sword embryo was unstable. For a moment, it was unclear whether the Ebon Sword was devouring the Asura Blood Mulberry or vice versa. However, within the blood-red liquid, the three Killing Talismans remained stable, acting like three pillars supporting the sky, firmly suppressing the sword embryo until everything stabilized. At this point, both the Ebon Sword and the Asura Blood Mulberry had disappeared, leaving only a sword embryo before Qin Sang.

The sword embryo contained two distinct colors. Qin Sang could sense that the Ebon Sword was refining the power of the divine wood. When the blood-red color completely vanished and the sword embryo became clear again, it would be the moment of the Ebon Sword's transformation! However, this process would be exceedingly slow.

Qin Sang recalled the sword embryo to his Nascent Soul and entered a meditative state to carefully perceive it. After a full day, he opened his eyes, his gaze solemn. His premonition had come true. In an entire day, the Ebon Sword had refined only a minuscule amount of the blood-red liquid. At this rate, it might take nearly forty years to completely refine the Asura Blood Mulberry!

Throughout this process, the Ebon Sword would remain in its sword embryo form. Its physical body would be extremely fragile, making it impossible to use in combat. It would have to continuously reside within his Nascent Soul for nurturing. Fortunately, with the help of the three Killing Talismans, the Ebon Sword could refine the divine wood on its own, without requiring Qin Sang's focused attention.

Even so, the duration was far too long! In its sword embryo state, the Ebon Sword was too fragile to even consider using in battle, let alone enduring the absorption of a new Killing Talisman. This meant Qin Sang would have to wait until the Ebon Sword had completely devoured the Asura Blood Mulberry before he could attempt to break through to the late Foundation Establishment stage. He possessed powerful elixirs like the Blood-Dripping Ghost Mushroom and Dragon-Leaving Pills, and having experienced several life-or-death battles in Boundless Valley, he had deeply comprehended the four Killing Talismans. Originally, he could have naturally broken through to the late Foundation Establishment stage in just over a decade. But because of the Ebon Sword, he would have to waste nearly forty years. That was too long.

However, this problem was not without a solution; otherwise, Qin Sang wouldn't have acted so rashly. He would have at least waited until after breaking through to the late Foundation Establishment stage before refining the Asura Blood Mulberry. Qin Sang took out a jade slip, the very one given to him by Shopkeeper Wu. It contained the Wu family ancestor's insights into artifact refining, as well as even more valuable insights into crafting magic treasures.

Qin Sang had previously had a faint feeling, and now he was certain: the process of the Ebon Sword absorbing the spiritual wood was, in essence, a form of artifact refining. The insights within the jade slip would also be beneficial to the Ebon Sword. As long as Qin Sang could fully comprehend the contents of the jade slip and achieve a certain level of mastery in the art of artifact refining, he could significantly shorten the time required for the Ebon Sword to absorb the spiritual wood.

Of course, comprehending the jade slip would not be easy. Qin Sang had no foundation in artifact refining and would have to start from scratch, gradually accumulating knowledge. The art of artifact refining was also vast and comprehensive, certainly not something one could master overnight. Fortunately, he didn't need to delve into everything; focusing solely on the methods for refining spiritual swords would suffice. Moreover, he wasn't required to truly forge high-quality magic tools; simply comprehending the jade slip's content during the refining process and applying it to the nurturing of the Ebon Sword would be greatly beneficial. Learning these things would not be a waste in the future either. The `Nascent Soul Sword Nurturing Chapter` cultivation method was unique. With the primary spiritual sword residing within the Nascent Soul, cultivators could refine a second primary magic treasure, keeping it in their Dantian for nurturing with dantian fire. These experiences would also be useful later, during the process of refining his primary magic treasure after reaching the Core Formation stage.

Qin Sang had already read the contents of the jade slip many times. After roughly comprehending the simpler parts, he had reached a bottleneck, lacking practical experience. Therefore, the immortal's cave he leased in Qingyang Market, which came with an unassuming shop, made the identities of artifact refiner and shopkeeper perfect disguises, serving multiple purposes.

***

Qingyang Market.

In a secluded alley, in a corner of the market, an unassuming small shop opened quietly, without fanfare or grand announcements. A simple signboard was newly hung above the shop, bearing only two elegant, bold characters: "Sword Pavilion." The characters exuded a hint of sword intent, making them somewhat extraordinary—perhaps the only notable feature of this humble little shop.

Though named "Sword Pavilion," the shop did not exclusively display spiritual swords. All sorts of magic tools filled the shelves, but they all shared one characteristic: very low quality. A Foundation Establishment cultivator passing by saw the new shop opening, daring to call itself "Sword Pavilion" with such audacity. Intrigued, he stepped in for a look but soon left grumbling. Even higher-level Qi Condensation cultivators wouldn't bother with these inferior magic tools.

Similar small-scale shops were common in the market, barely making a living. However, the owners of these new shops seemed unreliable. Without assistants, they managed everything themselves, often closing shop for days. Within half a month of opening, some shops had been closed for ten days. With hardly any customers, it was likely difficult for them to even sustain themselves, let alone cover the rent.

The owner of the "Sword Pavilion" was Qin Sang. Due to its location, this immortal's cave, despite having a shop attached, didn't cost much more than other caves, yet it perfectly met Qin Sang's requirements. After consulting ancient texts at Pagoda Peak, Qin Sang took out a few artifact refining scriptures from Shaohua Mountain's collection, then left his sect and returned to Qingyang Market to prepare for the shop's opening.

He had only just arrived and hadn't yet begun to delve into the art of artifact refining. The magic tools displayed in the shop were not his own creations. They were part of the wealth he had accumulated from his travels over the years, put out as mere window dressing. They weren't expensive, and he didn't necessarily expect them to sell. Qin Sang didn't care for such a small amount of spirit stones. It wasn't that he lacked good items in his mustard seed pouch; rather, he intended to gradually introduce his own refined magic tools once his artifact refining skills improved.