The air in the meditation room seemed to solidify, with only the faint hum of the concealment formation plate in the corner breaking the silence.

Su Ming sat cross-legged, a pile of messy materials laid out before him: Red Copper, Star Pattern Steel, and several pieces of unrefined crude mica stone. His gaze was fixed on the fingernail-sized piece of Red Copper in his hand, his brow deeply furrowed as if trying to solve an unsolvable math problem.

“Master, something’s not right.”

Su Ming put down the Red Copper and let out a long sigh. “According to the theory in the ‘True Meaning of Basic Rune Deconstruction,’ as long as my control over spiritual energy is precise enough, I should be able to construct perfect circuits inside the material. But… there are just too many impurities inside this Red Copper. My spiritual energy barely probes in before being blocked by those tiny grains of sand and air bubbles. It’s like trying to drive a car on a wasteland full of rubble; you simply can’t get up to speed.”

Just now, he had tried to verify the reverse application of that “Cold Light” rune—the “flashbang” concept. But before he could even complete the reversal cycle, the Red Copper, unable to withstand the heat generated by the turbulent flow of spiritual energy, cracked in half with a sharp *snap*.

“Expected,” Lin Yu’s voice sounded in his mind, carrying a trace of worldly-wearied laziness. “Even the cleverest housewife can’t cook a meal without rice. The most exquisite formation diagram is futile if inscribed on common iron. How do the artifact forgers in the sect handle this?”

“With fire,” Su Ming recalled the scenes he had secretly observed in the Vessel Hall before. “They use earth fire or their own pill fire to repeatedly smelt and burn, turning impurities into ash or smoke.”

“A clumsy method, yet direct,” Lin Yu commented. “However, smelting with fierce fire is overly aggressive and leaves hidden consequences. While impurities are removed, the material’s own spiritual nature is also damaged. It’s like setting yourself on fire to ward off the cold—the gain does not outweigh the loss.”

“Then…” Su Ming looked thoughtfully at the ruined piece of Red Copper in his hand. “Since I’m currently cultivating a water-attribute technique… can I use water?”

“Water?” Lin Yu was momentarily stunned, then his phantom within the ring abruptly sat up straight. “You mean… high-pressure water jets? Or chemical leaching?”

Su Ming didn’t answer. Instead, he directly began to act.

He took a jade bowl, filled it with clean water, then cupped his hands in a void embrace and activated the ‘Like Water Art.’

Dark blue water spiritual energy flowed out from his fingertips, slowly infusing into the jade bowl. The originally calm water seemed to be given life, beginning to rotate slowly and rhythmically.

“Go.”

Su Ming flicked his finger, and a thumb-sized piece of crude mica stone fell into the water.

This time, he didn’t just simply flush the surface like when performing a ‘Cleaning Technique.’ With the assistance of Lin Yu’s soul power providing a supplementary perspective, he controlled those strands of water spiritual energy, fine as gossamer, like a swarm of micro-sharks that had caught the scent of blood. They followed the tiny fissures on the mica stone’s surface and fiercely drilled in!

“The characteristics of water are ‘moistening’ and ‘penetrating,'” Su Ming said with his eyes slightly closed, concentrating fully on perceiving the water flow’s feedback. “It permeates everywhere. As long as there’s a crack, it can get in. Once it gets in… it can squeeze out the things hidden deep inside!”

*Hum!*

The water flow in the jade bowl suddenly accelerated, emitting a dense, vibrating sound.

In Su Ming’s perception, that hard piece of mica stone was undergoing a microscopic-level “baptism.” Gentle yet tenacious water spiritual energy seeped between every crystal grain, tenderly but firmly enveloping the sand, iron filings, and other substances that didn’t belong to the mica structure. Then, using the water flow’s tension, it began to slowly “pull” them out, bit by bit.

This wasn’t like violent excavation. It was more like a precise vascular clearance surgery.

A moment later.

Threads of black filaments drifted out from within the mica stone, muddying the bowl of clear water.

When Su Ming withdrew his spiritual energy and fished out that piece of mica stone, even the well-traveled Lin Yu couldn’t help but whistle in admiration.

The originally dull, gray mica stone with mottled spots had now become crystal clear, emitting a warm, lustrous glow in the dim meditation room.

Although its volume had shrunk a little, that level of purity made it seem like a completely different stone.

“Incredible!” Lin Yu exclaimed in amazement. “This isn’t artifact forging; this is clearly ‘ultrasonic cleaning’ plus ‘solvent extraction’! Disciple, your mind works fast! You’ve actually grasped the essence of fluid mechanics without a teacher!”

Su Ming looked at the nearly perfect piece of mica stone in his hand, his eyes sparkling with excitement.

“Fire refining removes its form; water refining extracts its essence,” Su Ming murmured to himself, gently rubbing the stone’s surface with his fingers. The smooth, delicate texture made him reluctant to let it go. “Fire nature is violent and inevitably damages the foundation; water nature is enduring and can eliminate the dross while preserving the essence. Master, I think… this is the path for my future artifact forging.”

“Not just a path, this is practically a cheat!” Lin Yu chuckled. “Think about it. In the future, others will have to guard their furnaces, getting smoked and exhausted like a dead dog. You’ll just need to brew a cup of tea, get a basin of water, and elegantly get the job done. Moreover, materials processed by this ‘Water Refining Method’ have a more complete internal structure, and their affinity with spiritual energy is increased by at least thirty percent!”

Su Ming nodded and immediately placed this processed mica stone on the workbench.

“Then let’s try using this ‘Water-Refined Mica’ to bear that modified ‘Spirit Gathering’ rune.”

This time, Su Ming wielded his brush as if divinely inspired.

The water-refined mica stone was transparent and unobstructed inside. Su Ming’s spiritual energy brushstrokes moved within it as smoothly as a hot knife through butter, incredibly fluid.

He didn’t draw that explosive “flashbang” again. Instead, he incorporated the “voltage stabilization” concept Lin Yu had mentioned earlier.

At the core of the traditional Spirit Gathering rune, he added a “buffer loop” resembling water ripples. The function of this loop wasn’t to block spiritual energy, but to use the “viscosity” of water spiritual energy to “stretch” the originally violently rushing spiritual energy, turning it into a gentle, continuous flow.

A quarter of an hour later.

A formation plate emitting a faint blue light took shape.

It didn’t whip up a whirlwind of spiritual energy upon activation like the Spirit Gathering plates on the market, sending sand and stones flying everywhere.

It was as quiet as a piece of jade resting at the bottom of a pond.

But Su Ming could clearly feel that the surrounding spiritual energy was gathering towards this formation plate at an extremely gentle, stable, and continuous rate.

Like spring rain moistening things silently, the spiritual energy concentration in the entire meditation room had already increased by twenty percent without anyone noticing.

“Perfect,” Lin Yu gave his evaluation. “Cultivating in this kind of environment makes it less likely to deviate from the proper path and go berserk. It’s especially suitable for seclusion. Disciple, if you take this out to sell, those old monsters afraid of death will wear out your doorstep.”

Su Ming smiled faintly, carefully placed the formation plate beside him, then formed hand seals and slowly closed his eyes.

“We’ll talk about making money later. Now that we have this ‘voltage-stabilized’ environment, it’s time… to attend to the real business.”

Formations and artifact forging are, in the end, merely techniques.

Cultivation base is the true path.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep