Bao Wuji stood before a pile of scattered materials, his eyes slightly narrowed and his face pensive.

Aotian was experimenting with equivalent exchange using different materials, trying to find combinations that could evolve into Core-Tier, but his attempts had been a failure.

In truth, Bao Wuji was the avatar whose abilities he had explored the least until now. This was because, up to this point, he had only dealt with low-level materials and had never needed to synthesize anything beyond spirit stones. Only now, with the scarcity of high-level resources, had he begun to explore this avatar’s equivalent exchange ability more deeply.

However, as he performed more and more experiments, Aotian slowly began to realize that perhaps the problem wasn’t that the ability was incapable of synthesizing higher-tier materials from lower-tier ones, but rather… a problem with himself.

In his hand, he held two different metals, both of a dark bluish color. The second, however, had a deeper blue hue and emitted a chilling coldness.

For a powerful cultivator like Bao Wuji, the energy fluctuations in the metals were obvious. It was clear that the second was a Founder-Tier material, while the first was just an ordinary Refiner-Tier.

His gaze then fell on the first, the inferior metal.

‘Some time ago, I tried refining Refiner-Tier bars of Lunar Snowed Iron into a Founder-Tier material, but no matter how much of it I combined, they only fused into a larger piece of iron with fewer impurities, without ever metamorphosing into a material one realm higher.’

He thought, a small glint in his eyes as he looked at the second, more powerful metal in his hand.

‘But last month, while exploring artifact refinement inheritances, I found records about a metal called Yin Snowed Iron, a Founder-Tier material. It’s a very rare material, which, when it grows, does so in Lunar Snowed Iron mines located in second-level spiritual energy environments. Unlike Lunar Iron, this material has the property of creating weapons that freeze upon touch.’

Placing both metals on the table, Bao Wuji walked over to a pile of metals in the corner, which he had gathered — a thousand pieces of Lunar Snowed Iron, forming a small mountain of metal.

Running his hand over it, he activated his equivalent exchange ability.

With its activation, the small mountain of metal glowed faintly before fragmenting into dust.

With a wave of his hand, he manipulated spiritual energy to sweep away the dust, throwing it out of the room, revealing that, in its place on the floor, only a small block of metal remained.

Bao Wuji bent down, picked up the block, and placed it beside the piece of Yin Snowed Iron, the Founder-Tier material he already possessed. Placed side by side, both displayed identical properties.

‘So it really is like this,’ Aotian thought, as Bao Wuji’s lips curved into a small smile.

‘It’s not that the ability is limited… it’s me who is. The ability works with my intent and the natural restrictions of the material. I can’t make water out of fire, but I can make ice if I have water and low temperatures. I just need to know that ice is made of those two… or, more precisely, I need to know that ice exists.’

He chuckled slightly at the analogy.

‘Spirit stones and elemental stones were easy. Even though I had never seen elemental stones or high-quality spirit stones, their logic was simple. Spirit stones: more condensed energy with fewer impurities and also fewer elements. Elemental stones: stones purely elemental, without pure spiritual energy. The higher the grade, the more condensed and the fewer impurities.’

‘So, I created them. But when it comes to materials, I need examples to guide me, since I don’t know what the fusion of certain materials can generate.’

He looked at the small piece of metal he had created.

‘The material consumption is also insane during conversion. I imagine most of it is wasted, and only the essential parts fuse to generate the new material. It’s the same with elemental stones: I use five hundred low-grade spirit stones to create only five elemental stones of the same grade. The spiritual energy in the five hundred stones becomes trash; only the elements in them are used.’

Bao Wuji’s mouth twitched at so much waste.

But as he thought this, something came to his mind, and Bao Wuji — or rather, Aotian — widened his eyes, realizing his foolishness.

Without hesitation, he threw five hundred low-grade spirit stones onto the table and ran his hand over them, once again creating a pile of dust. When he cleared the table, however, he didn’t just find the five normal elemental stones as before.

Arranged on the table, glowing faintly, were four elemental stones — each of a different element — and, among them, five high-grade spirit stones.

In his main body, Aotian stopped cultivating and brought his hand to his forehead, incredulous at his past stupidity.

Just remembering how many stones he had wasted when synthesizing countless stones to move the ship and create the artificial cultivation environment during the disciples’ recruitment made his teeth ache.

When he remembered something else, his eyes began to redden with anger, as if he wanted to slap himself.

‘A few days ago… I synthesized a huge amount of spirit stones to free up space in the sect for the arrival of the stones the disciples would bring from the mines.’

This time, his heart truly felt bitter at the thought of how much he had wasted with his old equivalent exchange method.

‘Ugh… fortunately, the large amount of stones the disciples will bring hasn’t been wasted yet, and I discovered this early. In the future, this won’t happen again.’

Aotian sighed helplessly, still feeling toothache, but there was nothing he could do.

‘Anyway, it’s not like I lack spirit stones; it’s just sad to think I threw money away.’

He turned his gaze to the four low-grade elemental stones and the five high-grade spirit stones.

‘It seems that, since high-grade spirit stones still have traces of elemental energy, and all the elemental energy would be spent on creating elemental stones, the equivalent exchange ability, in order to get as close as possible to my desire, sacrificed one elemental stone to create the five spirit stones. It’s a bit wasteful. It’s better to do it like this…’

Throwing five hundred and five low-grade spirit stones onto the table, he tried again. This time, ten stones remained on the table, different from the nine from before.

Aotian smiled slightly, momentarily forgetting his past losses.

‘This is apparently the most economical method. With five hundred and five low-grade spirit stones, I create five low-grade elemental stones and five high-grade spirit stones, thus wasting neither the elemental energy nor the spiritual energy.’

Bao Wuji’s gaze then returned to the refining materials.

‘Despite finding a way to waste fewer resources, Core-Tier materials are still the main problem. There aren’t that many Founder-Tier materials on this continent, and even fewer examples of Core-Tier materials that are evolutions of Founder-Tier ones. Well, the plans remain the same — mid-continents, blah blah blah.’

Aotian thought with mild irritation, rolling his eyes playfully.

‘I’m still going to puke from saying “mid-continents” so much, I bet.’

…

In the Refinement Pavilion, an interesting scene was taking place.

Ting Zao, the inner elder and leader of the pavilion, sat cross-legged, eyes closed, surrounded by weapon-refining cauldrons.

[Name: Tíng Zào (Meaning: The Creator Master)

Position: Elder of the Refinement Pavilion

Cultivation: 5th Level Golden Core Realm (1 Major Realm Above the Host)

Position Ability: Forging Design Derivation

Position Bonus: Forging Master (Forged item quality increased by 3x)]

Now, with the updated artifact refinement inheritance, he could, using Founder-Tier materials, calmly create Core-Tier artifacts.

Before, with the Refiner-Tier inheritance, he could create good Founder-Tier artifacts using materials one tier below.

He could also produce powerful Founder-Tier artifacts with same-level materials, sometimes nearly reaching Core-Tier thanks to his bonus. If the material was of extremely high quality, the artifact could break through, due to the threefold quality bonus, and reach the initial stage of Core-Tier. This had happened a few times, and those creations became the equipment for the sect’s core disciples and the avatars.

But now, even with more common Founder-Tier materials, he was crafting Core-Tier artifacts with ease, as if it were routine.

The most impressive thing at that moment was that Ting Zao was surrounded by more than thirty cauldrons suspended around him, all operating at the same time, refining artifacts at full speed. These artifacts were being prepared for when new disciples were recruited or for promotions of outer and inner disciples.

Many would also be put up for exchange for contribution points.

But the reason so many cauldrons were working simultaneously, all controlled by the same avatar, was simple. Aotian had found a hack while exploring the elders’ abilities in the previous months.

He discovered that if he channeled several of his minds into a production inner elder, like Ting Zao, and had them help that body manipulate and forge multiple artifacts at the same time, the Position Bonus would apply to all refined artifacts, since technically, all of them were refined by Ting Zao, even if multiple minds were assisting with the processes simultaneously.

This hack worked for any production elder with a Position Bonus that improved quality, something that had made Aotian smile fiercely when he discovered it.

Thus, the elders had become true mass-production tools. And since they were all himself, he was a master in every field — naturally, his minds were too. There was no problem in assigning any of his minds to production, whether they belonged to elders from the Mission Hall, the Sword Hall, or any other function.

As long as the minds were idle at the time, they would be put to work.

Aotian could be called a ‘slave driver,’ if not for the fact that he was technically enslaving himself.

While artifact creation was in full swing in the Refinement Pavilion, more and more inheritances were being synthesized by Aotian, and the changes were spreading throughout the entire sect.

Formations everywhere were updated to Core-Tier level, using Founder-Tier materials.

Powerful talismans were created and could be exchanged for contribution points by the disciples.

Core-Tier pills, capable of almost bringing the dead back to life, were also made available, along with many other types of resources.

The disciples grew increasingly desperate for Contribution Points, with almost criminal urges to simply steal everything and run away.

Formation disks, talismans, pills, artifacts, techniques, spells, inheritances… They drooled just looking at the long lists and the long strings of zeros behind the points required for each item.

The sect seemed to have new things every day, and its strength grew as if there were no real limit.

And Aotian, watching the sect grow stronger and enter the right path, knew that the time had come to prepare for the greatest event of his life…

… His wedding.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep