Chapter 43: Chapter 43: Activate the Array, Release the Dogs

Li Mu’s divine sense fully opened, his hand gripping the Spirit Hammer continuously outputted spiritual power, injecting it into the sword embryo during each tempering process to condense artifact patterns.

The first artifact pattern was formed, the second artifact pattern was formed, …, the eighth artifact pattern was formed.

It had already been refined into a Tier Two top-grade Earth Spirit Sword, the gray-black sword embryo shone with spirit light, and the sword body hummed!

Take a chance!

Turn a bicycle into a motorcycle.

Li Mu’s face was resolute, gathering spiritual power into the hammer to once again condense artifact patterns, pushing the Earth Sword Embryo to break through to Tier Three.

The ninth artifact pattern was about to form…, the spirit light of the artifact pattern shifted from void to reality, constantly fluctuating!

Damn!

The sword embryo material seemed like it was about to give out!

Li Mu stared at the sword embryo’s status, his expression drastically changed.

Suddenly, with a ’bang’, the Earth Sword Embryo suddenly disintegrated and exploded, fragments flew everywhere.

Li Mu foresaw the danger and escaped in advance, luckily avoiding being injured by the exploding spirit sword fragments.

Picking up the shattered sword embryo, Li Mu frowned deeply, analyzing the reasons for this failure.

The gathering time for the ninth artifact pattern was too long; due to insufficient cultivation, inefficient spiritual power output was the cause, and furthermore, the material toughness of the Earth Sword Embryo was insufficient, unable to withstand the spiritual energy of a Tier Three spiritual artifact, ….

Li Mu summarized the reasons for this artifact refining failure, his face looking better.

Failure is the mother of success!

However, after the refining failure, the wasted artifact materials were filled with residual artifact patterns and couldn’t be reused, 60 pounds of Tier Two Earth Crystal Stone, 20 pounds of Tier Two Earth Magnet Mother, totaling a loss of 66 Middle Spirit Stones.

The price of failure was quite high.

Due to the loss of divine sense and spiritual power from this refining failure, Li Mu couldn’t continue artifact refining.

Li Mu estimated that at full strength, he could refine about ten Tier Two spiritual artifacts a day; for Tier Three spiritual artifacts, the quantity was only about one-third, if forced, refining five Tier Three spiritual artifacts was possible, but the failure rate would greatly increase.

Shutting down the Artifact Refining Furnace, Li Mu walked out of the Artifact Refining Room looking dejectedly, releasing his divine sense to survey the Spirit Field, his mood improved greatly.

Under the effect of the Spirit Summoning Array and Spirit Gathering Array, the four newly cultivated acres of land had completed spiritualization, and the newly planted nine acres of Wind Spirit Grass were lush and thriving.

Additionally, two acres of Spirit Field with Spirit Rice and Cui Ling Fruit, with Spirit Rice spikelets arranged densely, Cui Ling Fruit had begun to bear fruit, small and tender white buds, and in about a month and a half, they would be at harvest season.

Slave Puppets mechanically patrolled the edges of the Spirit Field, driving away birds.

The Red Wolf lay dozing on a large rock, occasionally opening its eyes to glance at the Colorful Spirit Chicken flock foraging on the slope, keeping a close watch on them to prevent them from damaging the Spirit Field.

Little Liang Mountain’s rich spiritual qi nourished all things, the eleven acres of Lower Grade Spirit Field gradually advanced towards Middle Grade Spirit Field.

Beside the courtyard, half an acre of nursery field planted with dozens of types of spirit plants had seedlings of varying sizes and shapes breaking through the soil, competing to grow fantastically, thriving robustly.

Li Mu cast a few Clear Wind Rain Summoning Skills to replenish the Spirit Rain for the water-deficient Spirit Field.

Then, having nothing to do, Li Mu wandered to the edge of the Illusion Array, his divine sense reaching towards the two Profound Wolf Gang ’members’ trapped inside.

Both lay listlessly on the ground playing dead.

“Your brothers were killed halfway, who among you wants to go out, help me buy Talisman Paper.” Li Mu entered the Illusion Array, indicating from far away.

Upon hearing, both were startled, immediately sitting up from the ground.

“What! My third brother died? How did he die? Did you kill him?” Pang Wenxiong asked in shock, looking at Li Mu.

“It must be him, he lured the third brother out to kill! Brother, let’s fight him!” Pang Chengxiong glared at Li Mu, suggesting to Pang Wenxiong.

…

Li Mu was speechless, feeling amused by their reaction.

“If I wanted to kill you, I’d activate the Killing Array directly, would you still be alive? Why go through this trouble?” Li Mu laughed, questioning.

Upon hearing, Pang Wenxiong and Pang Chengxiong exchanged glances and instantly lost words, knowing the power of the array, realizing his words weren’t false.

“Who, who killed my third brother!” Pang Wenxiong asked furiously.

“A very skilled assassin, he was likely brought by ’Senior Brother Wang’, but! He’s afraid to enter the array, guarding outside, perhaps to inquire about the situation on the mountain, so he targeted your third brother, his body is at the foot of the mountain, who among you wants to go down? As long as you help me buy enough Talisman Paper, I’ll let you go.” Li Mu explained with a smile.

“Me! I’ll go.” Pang Wenxiong, anxious, walked towards Li Mu.

Li Mu took a step back, ready to exit the Illusion Array, giving Pang Wenxiong a warning glance.

Pang Wenxiong met Li Mu’s wary gaze, his face changed slightly, hurriedly stopping.

In these ten plus days, they had suffered greatly, fearing Li Mu who controlled the Illusion Array.

“Brother, let me go! You’re injured, have difficulty moving.” Pang Chengxiong argued.

“Alright! You go, walk ten steps to the right, then seven steps south, I’ll release you now.” Li Mu directed Pang Chengxiong to exit the array, simultaneously giving a stern warning to Pang Wenxiong who was about to move: “You, better not move!”

Upon hearing, Pang Wenxiong immediately stopped, sitting dejectedly, inwardly swearing: “Damn Wang Feng, damn Lin Qiu Hai, once I escape this, they’ll get what’s coming.”

As for the owner who trapped them in the Illusion Array, Pang Wenxiong couldn’t muster the desire for revenge.

This guy wasn’t old, yet sly!

Who knows how many arrays he installed on Little Liang Mountain, for so many days, the three of them tried every strategy to deal with him but failed to find any flaw in him.

Such a troublesome person, even with imprisonment grievances, Pang Wenxiong didn’t want to get involved any further.

Soon, under Li Mu’s guidance, Pang Chengxiong walked out of the Illusion Array, taking off running downhill.

Sure enough, Pang Chengxiong hadn’t gone far before he spotted Pang Shixiong, trapped by tree, a few small beasts gnawing on his corpse.

“Third brother! Shoo! Shoo!” Pang Chengxiong rushed forward, violently swinging True Essence, driving away the wild creatures.

Pang Chengxiong, grief-stricken, released his third brother’s body from the tree, quickly dug a pit and buried him, then ran to Qing’an Town to buy Talisman Paper for Li Mu, planning to release his big brother, then together seek revenge for the third brother.

In less than a quarter hour, Pang Chengxiong returned with a large bag of Talisman Paper, appearing outside the array.

“Bought your Talisman Paper, now fulfill your promise!” Pang Chengxiong said loudly, holding the cloth bag outside the array.

“Throw the items in, then your brother can come out!” Li Mu extended his divine sense and confirmed.

Pang Chengxiong didn’t hesitate to toss the large bag of Talisman Paper into the Illusion Array, whereupon the cloth bag was taken by an invisible force.

Soon after, Pang Wenxiong hobbled out from the Illusion Array.

“How is it! Did the third brother really fall?” Pang Wenxiong asked first after exiting the array.

“Yes, I buried him myself!” Pang Chengxiong solemnly nodded.

“Let’s go! Take me to see, then plan how to avenge the third brother!” Pang Wenxiong’s eyes flashed with malice, deciding.

——

Inside the array, Li Mu received the large bag of Talisman Paper, his face lit up with joy, ready to start crafting talismans again.

As for those two, let them and Wang Feng fight it out, Li Mu didn’t want to dirty his hands, he just wanted to stay on the mountain, cultivate and farm peacefully, without needing to kill.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep