The massive subterranean chamber fell dead silent.
Ou Yezi stood before Fang Lin. The illusionary phantom of the ancient Divine Artificer flickered. His aura was fading. The energy sustaining his remnant soul had been mostly drained to temper Fang Lin in the trials, to push the youth to the absolute limits of human endurance.
Now, it was time.
The trial was over. The Crucible of Will had been shattered.
Ou Yezi slowly raised his right hand. A brilliant, emerald-green light coalesced in the center of his palm.
It was a jade slip.
It wasn't an ordinary jade slip. It didn't possess the dull, opaque sheen of the mass-produced recording jades found in the Star-River Merchant Alliance. This slip was translucent. It seemed to be carved from the very fabric of the cosmos, glowing with a soft, milky starlight. Faint, golden runes drifted within its depths like swimming fish.
"Take it," Ou Yezi said. His voice was hoarse, tired, yet incredibly proud. "This is the culmination of my life. My legacy. My regrets. My path."
Fang Lin stepped forward. His body was still radiating intense heat. The Four-Pillared Cosmic Force within his Dantian hummed with terrifying stability, circulating Life, Death, Frost, and Dark Flame in perfect equilibrium.
He reached out. His calloused fingers brushed against the jade.
It was freezing cold to the touch. Yet, the moment his skin made contact, a surge of pure, unadulterated spiritual energy rushed up his arm.
Fang Lin closed his eyes. He didn't try to read the entirety of the slip. He already knew, instinctively, that doing so with his current cultivation would shatter his Spiritual Sea. The sheer volume of information contained within that tiny piece of jade was akin to an ocean.
Instead, he merely sent a sliver of his Peak Mortal Will into the slip to skim its surface. To categorize its contents.
*Boom!*
His mind trembled.
Vast, towering pillars of knowledge manifested within his consciousness. They were categorized, neatly organized, waiting for him to unlock them.
The first pillar radiated a dense, ancient aura. *Cultivation Inheritance.* It contained the core breathing techniques, the foundational arts, and the exact methods Ou Yezi had used for the Fire type Cultivation Art. It held the legendary Ashen Heaven Sutra.
The second pillar was blood-red. *Combat Experience.* It contained centuries of battle memories. Experiences fighting abyssal beasts, clashing with rival Sovereigns, and surviving the chaotic void outside the starry skies.
The third pillar was a swirling vortex of abstract colors. *Law and Dao Comprehension.* Insights into the Natural Laws of Fire, Earth, and Metal. Insights into the Conceptual Laws of Creation and Destruction.
The fourth pillar was a towering anvil, burning with a blinding white light. *The Myriad Origin Artifice.* This was the core. The true artifacting legacy. The blueprints, the hammer techniques, the exact methods to forge Divine Weapons, to weave arrays into living metal, to birth spirits within swords.
The fifth pillar was an endless, sprawling library. *The Compendium of the World.* It contained the names, uses, properties, and locations of millions of natural resources. Spirit herbs, abyssal ores, heavenly waters, demonic beast cores. It was an encyclopedia of the universe's treasures.
The final pillar was a simple, weathered book. *Personal Dao Notes.* The thoughts, the regrets, the musings of a man who had reached the absolute peak of the world, only to realize how small he truly was.
Fang Lin withdrew his will. He opened his eyes.
He was breathing heavily. Sweat beaded on his forehead. Just skimming the categories had drained a significant portion of his mental energy.
"It is too vast," Fang Lin whispered, his voice trembling slightly. "I cannot process this now."
"Of course you cannot," Ou Yezi chuckled, his phantom form flickering. "If you tried to absorb it all, your soul would implode. You have the vessel for it now—your Peak Mortal Will—but you lack the realm to support the processing speed. Keep it safe. Read it slowly. It will serve as your foundation."
Fang Lin nodded solemnly. He placed the starlight jade slip into his robe.
"Now," Ou Yezi said, his tone shifting. The solemnness was replaced by a hint of cunning amusement. "Knowledge is power, yes. But in this cruel, dog-eat-dog cultivation world... knowledge without resources is just a quick way to get yourself killed."
Ou Yezi reached his hands into space. He pulled out a small, unassuming grey pouch.
It didn't look like a spatial ring. It didn't have any flashy gems or intricate engravings. It looked like a simple bag meant for holding copper coins.
"My personal storage pouch," Ou Yezi said, tossing it to Fang Lin.
Fang Lin caught it. It was incredibly heavy. Not physically heavy, but spiritually heavy. It felt like holding a dense star in the palm of his hand.
He sent a strand of his will into the pouch.
For a moment, Fang Lin forgot how to breathe.
His heart stopped. His Four-Pillared Cosmic Force stuttered. His Peak Mortal Will violently fluctuated.
*Mountains.*
There were literal mountains inside the pouch.
Mountains of spirit stones.
Fang Lin had thought he was wealthy. He had looted Core Formation elders. He had thought possessing a few thousand low-grade spirit stones made him a rich man.
He was a beggar. He was a peasant staring at an emperor's vault.
The first mountain was entirely composed of low-grade spirit stones. They were piled so high they formed a literal mountain range. Fang Lin's will swept over them, his mind automatically calculating the staggering sum.
Two point five billion.
Two. Point. Five. Billion. Low-grade spirit stones.
Beside the colossal mountain range of low-grade stones, there was a smaller, yet vastly more condensed mountain. These stones radiated a purer, thicker spiritual energy.
Mid-grade spirit stones. Eight hundred and fifty thousand of them.
Further back, arranged in neat, glowing crystalline crates, were the high-grade spirit stones. Forty-two thousand. He had forty-two thousand of them.
And finally, at the very back of the spatial pouch, resting on a velvet pedestal, were three hundred and fifty stones that didn't just radiate energy—they seemed to breathe it. They pulsed with the rhythm of the world. Top-grade spirit stones. Items of legend. Things that only Sovereigns used to trade.
Each one of these stones contained enough pure energy to trigger a slaughter among the regional sects. A single high-grade spirit stone was enough to buy a medium sized city.
Fang Lin's mind was completely blank. He couldn't process it. The sheer volume of wealth was incomprehensible. It was enough to buy an entire province. It was enough to fund a massive sect for ten thousand years.
But the spirit stones were only the beginning.
Beyond the mountains of wealth, a vast armory lay waiting.
Fang Lin saw massive, towering Artificing furnaces. They were forged from rare meteoric iron, engraved with intricate fire arrays, and practically humming with latent heat. There were dozens of them, ranging from small pill-refining cauldrons to colossal weapon-forging behemoths.
He saw crates of rare, unrefined ores. Boulders of Abyssal Star-Iron. Shards of Heavenly Frost-Glass. Blocks of Dragon-Vein Gold. And various others materials. Materials that would cause a bloodbath if they appeared in an auction house.
And then, suspended in the very center of the pouch, encased in spheres of protective golden light, were three specific items.
The Divine Items.
The first was a small, intricately carved wooden boat. It looked like a child's toy, small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. But the spatial fluctuations rolling off its hull were terrifying. Fang Lin recognized it immediately from the descriptions in the jade slip. A Spatial Piercing Boat. A divine vessel capable of ignoring spatial constraints, allowing the user to travel millions of miles in a matter of minutes.
The second item was a sword. It wasn't sheathed. It floated naked in the golden light. Its blade was pitch black, consuming the ambient light around it. There were no crossguards, no ornate pommels. It was just a singular, terrifying edge of pure destruction. A divine sword forged to sever life.
The third item was a set of armor. It was crafted from interlocking plates of pure, milky-white jade. Faint, ethereal runes drifted across the surface of the plates. It exuded an aura of absolute, impenetrable defense. The Nine-Heavens Jade Armor. An artifact designed to protect the soul just as much as the body.
Fang Lin slowly, very slowly, withdrew his will from the pouch.
He looked up at Ou Yezi. His hands were actually shaking.
"You..." Fang Lin swallowed hard. His throat was dry. "You were rich."
"I was a Divine Artificer, boy," Ou Yezi snorted, puffing out his illusionary chest. "Kings begged me for weapons. Sovereigns offered me their entire treasuries for a single array of artifact. Of course I was rich. That pouch is merely what I had on me when I died."
Fang Lin tied the unassuming grey pouch to his waist. He tied it tightly. He tied it with three different knots.
"Do not let anyone see the contents of that pouch," Ou Yezi warned, his tone suddenly deadly serious. "If even a single top-grade spirit stone leaks out in this backwater province, you will have old monsters waking from their slumbers to hunt you down. Wealth is a shield, but it is also a massive target."
"I understand," Fang Lin said gravely. He knew the cruelty of the world better than anyone. He would guard this wealth with his life. It was his foundation. It was his ticket to absolute power.
"Good," Ou Yezi nodded. "Now, for the final piece of the legacy."
Ou Yezi opened his left hand.
A small, jagged piece of dark metal rested in his palm. It looked like a broken fragment of a larger plate. It was completely mundane, lacking any spiritual energy or magical glow.
"This is the Core Token," Ou Yezi said softly. "The heart of The Ashen Crucible."
Fang Lin frowned. "The Ashen Crucible?"
"That is the true name of this place," Ou Yezi explained, gesturing to the massive subterranean chamber around them. "This entire ancient ruin... it is not just a building. It is a spatial treasure. A massive, self-contained realm that I forged millennia ago. The Ashen Crucible."
Ou Yezi handed the jagged metal fragment to Fang Lin.
"Refine this token, and you become the master of the Crucible," Ou Yezi said. "You will be able to control its arrays, its defenses, and its spatial dimensions. You will be able to shrink the entire ruin down to the size of a dust mote and store it within your Spiritual Sea."
Fang Lin's eyes widened. A spatial realm that could be carried? That was a mobile fortress. A completely secure base of operations.
He immediately channeled a dense surge of his Peak Mortal Will, intending to violently brand the token.
"Wait, you reckless fool!" Ou Yezi snapped, his phantom hand slapping Fang Lin's wrist away.
Fang Lin blinked, startled. "What?"
"Do you want to kill your little friend?" Ou Yezi scolded, his eyes narrowing in irritation. "Spatial realms are not toys! The Ashen Crucible is massive. It contains multiple independent spaces, trial grounds, and labyrinths. If you attempt to shrink it or store it while living beings are still inside, the spatial compression will forcibly eject them into the void! Unless she doesn't refuse."
Fang Lin's blood ran cold.
Lin Wan.
She was still outside, somewhere in the outer ruins, waiting for him. If he had blindly shrunk the realm, she would have been crushed by spatial turbulence or ejected into god-knows-where.
"Furthermore," Ou Yezi continued, shaking his head at the youth's impatience. "You cannot refine a Divine-grade realm token in a few seconds. Even with your monstrous Peak Mortal Will, breaking my old seals and stamping your own soul onto the core will take days. Perhaps even a week of uninterrupted meditation."
Fang Lin took a deep breath, steadying his racing heart. He had let the excitement cloud his judgment. He nodded slowly, carefully taking the jagged metal fragment and storing it safely in his robes, right next to the jade slip.
"I will find her first," Fang Lin said firmly. "We will exit the ruins together. Only then will I find a secure location to refine the token and claim the Crucible."
"A wise decision," Ou Yezi smiled faintly. The edges of his phantom form were beginning to dissolve into golden motes of light.
His time was up.
"My path ends here, Fang Lin," Ou Yezi said, his voice echoing, sounding distant and ethereal. "I have given you everything. The knowledge. The wealth. The foundation. My only regret is...
Well, if possible, let my artificing method shine much brighter than my period of time.
Will you...accept me as a master?"
"Thank you, Master." Fang Lin said, his voice ringing with absolute sincerity. "Your legacy will not end here. I will carry it to the peak."
"A true Artificer needs a supreme fire to drive his furnace."
Ou Yezi raised his fading, translucent hand. His index finger ignited with a blinding, searing gold light.
Before Fang Lin could react, Ou Yezi pressed the burning finger directly on the glabella.
*Sizzle!*
Fang Lin gasped as a torrent of searing information and blazing Qi flooded him. A glowing, intricate rune shaped like an ancient anvil scorched itself into his skin before sinking deep into his flesh, locking directly into his tetra-core foundation.
"The *Furnace of the World-Pillar* Core Art," Ou Yezi's voice echoed in his mind, growing fainter. "The ultimate fire-type cultivation art. The rest... is up to you."
Fang Lin looked at the fading figure of the ancient Artificer. Despite the brutal trial, despite the torment he had endured under the Void-Silver Flame, Fang Lin felt a profound sense of respect. This man had pushed him to evolve. This man had given him the keys to the universe.
Fang Lin took a step back. He straightened his posture, brought his fists together, and bowed deeply with the immense gratitude in his heart.
This ancient being had not asked him for anything despite being bestowing him everything he had.
It was a bow of a disciple to a master.
Ou Yezi smiled. It was a warm, satisfied smile.
"Burn bright, my only disciple." the Divine Artificer whispered.
And with that, the phantom dissolved completely, scattering into a thousand golden sparks that dispersed into the freezing stillness of the circular vault.
For a moment, silence reclaimed the frozen vault. It was a solemn, heavy quiet.
But the peace lasted less than a second.
*Whoosh!*
A streak of absolute, light-devouring black - shot out from between Fang Lin's eyebrows. The Dark Flame Spirit materialized in the air, her tiny, fiery form vibrating with manic excitement.
She didn't mourn. She didn't pause for dramatic effect. She simply opened her tiny mouth and inhaled sharply.
The ambient, lingering Void-Silver Flames permeating the vault were violently sucked into her mouth. She gobbled them up greedily, leaving the golden sparks of Ou Yezi's soul to fade with dignity.
"Delicious!" she chirped, her voice echoing in his Spiritual Sea. "Mmm, ancient remnant flame... it tastes like centuries of suppressed rage and hammer grease! This will repair the Ancient Spatial Furnace by at least zero-point-one percent!"
Fang Lin stared at her, deadpan. The solemn, touching farewell with his new master had been instantly ruined by a gluttonous fire spirit.
He shook his head, a wry smile touching his lips. He was a completely different person than the boy who had walked in. He had a Tetra-Core foundation. He possessed a Peak Mortal Will. He carried the wealth of a kingdom at his waist.
But before he could leave this chamber and find Lin Wan, he needed to stabilize. The massive influx of new arts, new Qi, and a fundamentally altered foundation felt like a volatile volcano threatening to erupt inside his body.
He crossed his legs, sat down in the center of the freezing cavern, and closed his eyes.
It was time to see exactly what kind of monster he had become.
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