As the sect carried on with its tasks, Aotian ended his cultivation session.

This time, he didn’t break through, but he felt that just a few more hours would be enough to reach the next level.

Being in Rihai’s apartment, located in the central area of the city, the available energy was of high quality—more than sufficient for him at the moment. Only when he reached the ninth level would he start facing difficulties, as the energy around him would no longer be suitable. When that happened, he would need to find a way to access the city’s core energy source.

Knock! Knock!

The gentle knocking on the door interrupted his thoughts.

“Aotian, are you still cultivating?”

Rihai’s soft voice whispered from the other side of the door, as if afraid of disturbing his cultivation.

Aotian smiled warmly and called out to her.

“No, I’m done. You can come in, Hai’er!”

…

Bao Hui returned to the mountain peak that same day, wearing a bitter expression.

Upon entering the main hall, he found the sect leader standing before the window, hands behind his back, gazing at the horizon. Without thinking much, he began his report.

“Sect Leader, an agreement with Longbao Pavilion, the largest pavilion in the city, has been finalized. All inheritances from this branch have been acquired. Additionally, they promised to send more techniques from other branches throughout the year.”

Bao Hui sighed and forced a bitter smile.

Tian Zhu continued looking outside, but his voice echoed naturally through the hall.

“Money is a fleeting thing, Bao Hui. As long as it can be transformed into power, it can always be acquired again.”

Bao Hui simply nodded, still feeling a bitter taste in his mouth.

“I understand, Sect Leader…”

Tian Zhu didn’t dwell on the subject.

“Good. Now go. Deliver the spells to the external elders and distribute the auxiliary inheritances to the corresponding pavilions.”

Bao Hui recognized the finality in his tone and bowed respectfully before departing.

“Yes, Leader!”

Without delay, he left to carry out his orders.

The auxiliary inheritances referred to all techniques and skills related to crafting objects that aided cultivation and a cultivator’s daily life, such as weapons, talismans, formations, and pills.

As for the spell jade slips being delivered to the external elders, this was simply because it would be undignified for the sect leader to go around pressing jade slips against his forehead dozens of times. Thus, the elders were entrusted with the task.

However, all spells and techniques would still be processed by the sect leader anyway, after all, they were all connected avatars

The cultivation auxiliary arts, on the other hand, would mainly be handled by the elders of the respective pavilions, who possessed synthesis abilities within their specialties.

Unfortunately, Tian Zhu did not have the ability to synthesize auxiliary inheritances, so his focus remained on spells and techniques that he could process.

This time, the acquisitions included:

The four Foundation Establishment cultivation techniques for the other four elements, which he didn’t purchase last time.

Fifteen Founder-Tier spells covering the five elements.

And a Founder-Tier inheritance for each auxiliary area.

These last ones were the most expensive.

As for Refiner-Tier inheritances, when combined with the auxiliary inheritances Aotian had purchased in Azure Cloud City, there were now over a hundred for primary areas like refinement, alchemy, formations, and talismans.

For rarer fields, such as puppet crafting and divination, there were still very few, or none at all—like in the case of divination, for which none had been acquired yet.

As soon as Bao Hui distributed the materials, the elders began absorbing the inheritances.

To synthesize techniques, he needed extensive knowledge and experience. Experience could be substituted with a larger reference base, and vice versa—but relying solely on experience would take an unpredictable amount of time

This time, the reference base was extensive enough to synthesize high-quality inheritances, but not enough to make up for the lack of experience.

As a result, a peculiar scene unfolded within the sect.

While Tian Zhu processed the spells alone, as he was the highest-level cultivator and already had a solid foundation, the elders gathered to study the three main auxiliary branches of the sect.

Ting Zao, the master of the Refinement Pavilion, along with Bao Hui and four external elders, began testing weapon refinement inheritances, each wielding hammers and attempting to forge spiritual treasures.

Dan Hong, accompanied by Lie Zheng and three external elders, gathered Refiner-Tier alchemical cauldrons from the treasure pavilion and began experimenting with pill creation.

Xuan Zhen, along with three external elders, began attempting to create spiritual formations based on formation inheritances.

The sound of hammering echoed through the Refinement Pavilion, flames crackled within the Alchemy Pavilion, and traces of spiritual energy formed complex patterns in the Formation Pavilion.

Why were they still using hammers and anvils for forging instead of a refinement cauldron?

The reason was simple: The studied inheritances were Refiner-Tier.

At this stage, a cultivator’s energy and control were generally not strong enough to mold weapons directly with their spiritual essence.

Only upon reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm—obtaining great power—would Founder-Tier refinement techniques replace the hammer and anvil with an artifact cauldron, allowing the process to be performed entirely with spiritual energy.

…

One hour later, considerable progress had been made in studying auxiliary techniques, but Aotian noticed a problem.

The auxiliary arts were progressing almost entirely due to the efforts of the internal and external elders of the respective pavilions.

Meanwhile, Bao Hui, Lie Zheng, and the other external elders seemed practically useless in the process.

They were only receiving feedback but contributing almost nothing in return.

‘This is harder than I expected… It seems that cultivating auxiliary skills truly requires talent. But if this continues, my plans to provide high-quality equipment for the disciples tomorrow will have to change.’

Aotian pondered, feeling uneasy.

But then, a brilliant thought flashed through his mind.

‘What if… no, it can’t be, right? This would basically be a loophole in the system…’

A sudden idea flashed through his mind, filling Aotian with excitement and uncertainty at the same time.

‘What if I use the illuminated minds of the elders to guide the bodies of others in alchemy?! Even if I can’t transfer the bonuses from one body to another, I can still use their insights and talents to direct their movements!’

Aotian hesitated no longer.

Dan Hong’s illuminated mind flowed into Lie Zheng’s body, and the two began working together.

Suddenly, Lie Zheng’s perception of alchemy changed completely. His movements became more precise, and as he refined, he developed his own ideas, which then flowed back into all of Aotian’s minds, accelerating his real-time understanding of alchemy.

Even though all his avatars shared the same knowledge, each body possessed different talents. Previously, Dan Hong was overflowing with ideas and had two illuminated minds to process them. However, he had to test them himself before new insights could emerge, limiting his speed.

But now, with Dan Hong’s illuminated mind inside Lie Zheng’s body, he gained a second body to test hypotheses simultaneously.

‘Holy shit! It works!’

Aotian almost jumped in excitement in front of Rihai but managed to restrain himself.

This meant that, in the future, he could use the illuminated minds of his avatars to grant himself supernatural talent in any area.

Even if he mastered alchemy through his avatars, unexpected situations could arise while refining pills, requiring natural talent to make the right decision at the right moment.

Before, he lacked that talent.

Now, it was no longer a problem.

Without wasting any more time, Dan Hong’s second illuminated mind entered another external elder, guiding him.

Yang Shi, the external elder of the Alchemy Pavilion, did the same, using his only illuminated mind to guide another elder.

Ting Zao and Xuan Zhen, along with their respective external elders, replicated the strategy.

The efficiency of their studies more than doubled.

Instead of having one master and one highly talented disciple, they now had three masters and two highly talented disciples in each field.

In just three hours, they successfully synthesized their ultimate auxiliary cultivation techniques in the Daos of refinement, formations, and alchemy.

Without delay, Ting Zao began forging a weapon refinement cauldron using Refiner-Tier materials.

Aotian didn’t want to waste his limited Founder-Tier materials, and with the synthesized exercises, the quality would already be more than enough.

Why use a cauldron, if they only synthesized Refiner-Tier inheritances?

Simply because Ting Zao was already at the Foundation Establishment realm, and the synthesized inheritance was anything but ordinary.

As expected, in about an hour, a black cauldron took shape.

Dragon-like patterns coiled across its surface, and intense spiritual energy fluctuations emanated from it.

According to Aotian’s calculations, the synthesized inheritance allowed for the creation of Refiner-Tier artifacts with maximum quality when using Refiner-Tier materials.

And Founder-Tier artifacts could be easily forged, as long as Founder-Tier materials were available.

If the synthesized inheritance had been Founder-Tier, then even using Refiner-Tier materials, they could still create Founder-Tier artifacts.

But that would be under normal circumstances.

And Ting Zao was no ordinary elder.

[Name: Tíng Zào (Meaning: The Master Who Creates)

Position: Elder of the Refinement Pavilion

Cultivation: 2nd Level of Foundation Establishment (1 major realm above the Host)

Position Skill: Forging Design Derivation

Position Bonus: Refinement Master (Forged object quality increased by 2.5x)]

“It’s good enough.”

Ting Zao smiled in satisfaction as he observed the large cauldron before him.

Fluctuations of an early-stage Founder-Tier artifact emanated from the newly created spiritual tool.

Thanks to his position bonus, as the cauldron was completed, spiritual energy surged from his dantian, flowed through his spiritual veins, transformed into five-element energy, and, through a complex pattern, fused into the artifact, elevating it to a higher level.

This was the Refinement Master bonus, which strengthened the artifact by 2.5x.

‘I’m getting more and more curious about these patterns… What could they be?’

Aotian pondered, intrigued.

“With this cauldron, crafting artifacts for the disciples and elders will be easy.”

Ting Zao smiled in satisfaction, then turned his gaze toward Xuan Zhen, who had been observing him attentively.

“Old Xuan, I need your help with something.”

Xuan Zhen simply tilted his head, intrigued.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep