Chapter 680: The Difficulty of the Divine Wood

Everyone chatted happily. Elder Zou and the others wanted to host a celebratory banquet, but Qin Sang politely declined.

After resting in the cave dwelling for a night, Qin Sang returned to the fire chamber the next day and had Ran Luo deliver the spiritual materials accumulated by the Chamber of Commerce. His artifact refining skills were clearly superior to the skinny youth's. Ran Luo brought only top-grade spiritual materials, allowing Qin Sang to focus on crafting prime-grade magical artifacts. By helping the Chamber of Commerce refine artifacts, Qin Sang effortlessly acquired numerous rare spiritual materials for practice. This not only benefited the chamber but also rapidly advanced his own artifact refining skills, making it a win-win situation.

While waiting for Ran Luo to deliver the spiritual materials in the fire chamber, Qin Sang summoned his Ebony Sword and took a piece of spiritual wood from his spatial pouch. This was the heartwood of a Jiao Shan Tree, a precious spiritual wood comparable to Cold Gold, which Qin Sang had found in Du Han’s spatial pouch.

The Ebony Sword was merely a low-grade magic treasure. According to the descriptions in the 'Yuan Shen Yang Jian Zhang,' a low-grade magic treasure could only accommodate a maximum of six Killing Talismans. If he couldn't upgrade the Ebony Sword's quality, it would become a bottleneck hindering his breakthrough to the late Core Formation stage. He wasn't sure how many spiritual materials the Ebony Sword would need to absorb to advance from a low-grade to a mid-grade magic treasure. Apart from spiritual woods of the Ten Great Divine Wood caliber, other spiritual woods offered only limited improvement, requiring gradual accumulation. Qin Sang knew it was best to start as early as possible, to prevent the Ebony Sword from truly becoming an impediment later on.

However, the Ebony Sword could not be used in combat while absorbing spiritual wood. After forming his Core in the Bear Mountain region, Qin Sang planned to venture deep into the Western Frontier to hunt demons. Subsequently, he had been constantly on the move, fearing unforeseen incidents during his travels. Consequently, despite possessing several good quality spiritual woods, Qin Sang never had the opportunity to allow the Ebony Sword to absorb them. Refining artifacts for the Qiongyu Chamber of Commerce meant he could guarantee his safety by staying on Duyan Island. The Qiongyu Chamber of Commerce had accumulated a significant number of demon corpses, and it was estimated they wouldn't depart from the island for at least half a year. Qin Sang seized this opportunity to have the Ebony Sword absorb more spiritual woods.

Guided by his True Essence, the Jiao Shan Tree heartwood floated before Qin Sang. The wood was entirely pure white, appearing as pristine as fresh snow. With a thought, Qin Sang caused the Ebony Sword to hover inverted above the Jiao Shan Tree heartwood. Sword qi manifested, enveloping the spiritual wood. Given Qin Sang's current understanding of artifact refining, he effortlessly grasped the properties of the Jiao Shan Tree heartwood. The sword qi gently penetrated the heartwood, severing impurities within the spiritual wood. Soon, only the purest spiritual wood essence of the Jiao Shan Tree heartwood remained.

A faint smile touched Qin Sang’s lips. He pointed a finger at the Ebony Sword, which then erupted with a powerful suction, drawing every last trace of the spiritual wood essence into its blade. Since the Ebony Sword was already a magic treasure, suppressing the spiritual wood essence of the Jiao Shan Tree heartwood presented no difficulty. Qin Sang’s expression was quite relaxed.

Unexpectedly, the moment the spiritual wood essence was completely absorbed by the Ebony Sword, a sudden anomaly occurred! The spiritual wood essence seemed to touch something within the sword. The originally snow-white essence, tinged with faint green, suddenly became stained with a crimson hue that spread with lightning speed. In the blink of an eye, the spiritual wood essence completely lost its spiritual properties, turning into worthless refuse! The Ebony Sword reverted to its original state!

Qin Sang's expression drastically changed, and a sudden ominous premonition seized him. This was clearly the defiling power of the Infinite Blood Mulberry! When this spiritual wood essence came into contact with the Ebony Sword's core, its inferior quality rendered it unable to withstand the defiling power of the Infinite Blood Mulberry, thus rendering it useless. This was entirely unforeseen by Qin Sang.

Prior to forming his Core, Qin Sang had encountered similar occurrences when attempting to have the Ebony Sword absorb spiritual wood. However, he had dismissed it then, believing his cultivation was insufficient to fully control the magic treasure's power. He never anticipated the issue would persist even after forming his Core. Qin Sang's expression turned exceptionally grave. Connecting his entire consciousness to the Ebony Sword, he then successively took out several other types of spiritual wood, attempting to infuse them one by one. Without exception, every attempt failed. This seemed to stem from an inherent conflict between the spiritual woods, independent of Qin Sang's will. Unable to withstand the defilement of the Infinite Blood Mulberry, the spiritual wood essence instantly lost its spiritual properties upon contact, making absorption impossible.

Previously, when the Ebony Sword absorbed the Infinite Blood Mulberry, it was stabilized by Killing Talismans, allowing it to counteract the defiling power. However, the new spiritual woods were simply no match for the Infinite Blood Mulberry. For any spiritual wood to integrate into the Ebony Sword, its quality had to be at least comparable to the Infinite Blood Mulberry. Whether this was an inherent property of the Infinite Blood Mulberry itself, or if other divine woods shared similar characteristics, Qin Sang had no way of knowing.

"Could it be that from now on, I must find spiritual woods of the Ten Great Divine Wood caliber, equivalent to the Infinite Blood Mulberry, just to upgrade the Ebony Sword?" Qin Sang murmured. "Those legendary immortal plants would certainly be no less potent than the Ten Great Divine Woods, but no one knows if they truly exist, and they're even rarer." Qin Sang murmured to himself, his face grim.

It was only after arriving in the Canglang Sea that he learned the Xiaohan Region was considered a fertile land in the cultivation world, yet even there, the Ten Great Divine Woods had only appeared three times in ten millennia. Though the Canglang Sea spanned countless times the area of the Xiaohan Region, it was far more barren. Where was he to find the Ten Great Divine Woods there?

"Must I return to the Xiaohan Region before reaching the late Core Formation stage?" Wuyagu in the Xiaohan Region was the only place Qin Sang knew where Ten Great Divine Woods might exist. Years ago, the entire Infinite Blood Mulberry plant was shattered, its fragments scattering throughout Wuyagu. The two sect masters of Wuji Sect, with assistance from the Sin Abyss, had thoroughly searched Wuyagu, but there were undoubtedly still some fragments they missed.

As for forging a new Natal Spiritual Sword, Qin Sang dared not attempt it rashly. Not only was forging a new magic treasure incredibly difficult, but replacing his Natal Spiritual Sword would also mean abandoning the Killing Talismans embedded within its blade. Due to the unique properties of his cultivation method, the Killing Talismans on his Natal Spiritual Sword were intricately linked to his cultivation level. Qin Sang had no idea what consequences abandoning them would entail, and he dared not gamble unless absolutely necessary.

"Fortunately," he mused, "upgrading the Ebony Sword isn't an immediate priority. I'll have ample time to find a solution by the time I reach the late Core Formation stage. A bottleneck, indeed... so this is the bottleneck of the 'Yuan Shen Yang Jian Zhang'!" Qin Sang offered a bitter smile, realizing how naive his previous assumptions had been. Considering the extreme rarity of the Ten Great Divine Woods, a tangible bottleneck might prove no easier than an intangible one.

"No, that's not right!" Qin Sang's eyes suddenly sharpened. "Anything is possible," he reasoned. "Perhaps finding the Ten Great Divine Woods isn't the *only* path. I might be able to forge a new way, finding a solution through artifact refining itself. It seems choosing to focus on artifact refining was the correct decision; I'll need to dedicate more effort to improving my skills in that area from now on."

He called the Ebony Sword into his palm. Qin Sang gazed at it for a long time, drawing no immediate conclusions. However, he knew his artifact refining skills were still rudimentary, and he wasn't discouraged.

Just then, a knock sounded on the stone door of the fire chamber. The Qiongyu Chamber of Commerce had delivered the spiritual materials. Qin Sang withdrew the Ebony Sword into his Primordial Spirit, suppressed his distracting thoughts, and began to concentrate on artifact refining.

Inside the fire chamber, the passage of seasons went unnoticed. Unbeknownst to him, half a year had passed since Qin Sang first arrived on the island. For six months, he had busied himself between his cave dwelling and the fire chamber, never once venturing far from Duyan Island. During this time, countless prime-grade magical artifacts came into being through his hands.