35. Refining the Celestial Grotto

“All the martial arts in my family are military combat techniques. Training is exhausting, and I’m not joining the army, so why should I bother? Your skills, boss, are practical and look cool—only a fool wouldn’t want to learn them,” Xu Dalin said with a chuckle.

“My skills aren’t easy to learn either, so let’s talk about it another time,” Chen Fengyun replied, shaking his head. He hadn’t expected them, though older than him, to be so childish. Spotting the hotel ahead, he gave a perfunctory answer to brush them off.

Once back in his hotel room, Chen Fengyun took out the jade slip. His consciousness instantly entered it and, as expected, he found the record of a cultivation technique—specifically, a method for crafting magical artifacts, called the Art of Forging.

A wave of disappointment washed over Chen Fengyun. What he needed most right now was a cultivation technique to advance his level; without one, he couldn’t improve his cultivation. Yet, what he’d obtained was something else entirely.

Still, having a forging technique wasn’t a bad thing. At present, he possessed only two magical artifacts, and his flying sword was merely of Mortal Grade, Fifth Rank. He had no way to enhance it, but perhaps, after mastering this forging art, he could improve his artifacts.

“First, I should refine the miniature grotto-heaven. Only after refining it and storing it in the cultivation system can I hide it. Since it’s a grotto-heaven, I should be able to store things inside, which will be convenient for future travels.”

Overjoyed, Chen Fengyun took out the gray jade bead. It appeared unremarkable, and if not for the cultivation system’s detection capability, he would never have known it was a miniature grotto-heaven.

In ancient times, when the world was rich with spiritual energy, there were only thirty-six famous grotto-heavens and seventy-two renowned blessed lands. Perhaps there were some hidden and lesser-known ones, but those would be insignificant miniature grotto-heavens. Even so, a single miniature grotto-heaven was enough to incite fierce battles among cultivators of old.

Refining a miniature grotto-heaven was unlike refining an ordinary artifact; it required the cultivator’s essence blood and a special formation to imprint a strand of their divine sense within the miniature grotto-heaven.

Once refined, the miniature grotto-heaven would become the cultivator’s magical treasure and could even grow over time, perhaps one day becoming a grand grotto-heaven.

Originally, Chen Fengyun had no idea how to refine a miniature grotto-heaven, but after his formation skills reached Mortal Grade, Seventh Rank, he naturally comprehended many powerful formations—including the soul-imprinting formation for refining a miniature grotto-heaven.

Chen Fengyun pricked his finger, forcing out a drop of essence blood that radiated dense spiritual energy. Using his divine sense, he shaped the blood into a complex formation that spread across the surface of the miniature grotto-heaven.

He then severed a strand of his consciousness and infused it into the formation on the grotto-heaven’s surface. The formation suddenly gleamed, then faded into the bead itself.

The miniature grotto-heaven began to ravenously absorb the spiritual energy around it, and when that proved insufficient, it started drawing directly from Chen Fengyun’s own reserves, pouring it into the bead.

Chen Fengyun hadn’t realized refining a miniature grotto-heaven would require such immense spiritual energy. In moments, a third of his internal energy was drained, yet the process continued unabated.

Soon, his reserves were nearly depleted. His face, already pale from the loss of essence blood, turned even whiter. The severing of his divine sense had left his spirit wounded, and the sudden loss of energy made his body wither rapidly.

“This is bad. If this continues, before the refinement is complete, I’ll be completely drained of spiritual energy—and perhaps even my very flesh will be converted into energy and absorbed,” he thought anxiously.

In this desperate moment, Chen Fengyun remembered his ten attribute points. Since they could enhance his cultivation, perhaps they could be converted into spiritual energy as well.

With this thought, he willed it, and instantly a surge of spiritual energy poured into his body through his crown. Though the miniature grotto-heaven immediately absorbed it, this influx prevented his body from being depleted.

About two minutes later, the miniature grotto-heaven finally ceased its absorption. It emitted a gray ray of light that merged into Chen Fengyun’s body, appearing in his spiritual palace, where it floated alongside his flying sword and the Mysterious Yin Mirror in the sea of his spiritual power.

He exhaled a long breath, finally successful. Half his attribute points—five in total—had been consumed by the miniature grotto-heaven, but he felt it was worth the price.

When Chen Fengyun sent his consciousness into the miniature grotto-heaven, he discovered a stretch of land roughly one square kilometer in size, shrouded in faint mist. At the center was a spring, forming a small well with a shallow layer of crystal-clear water.

“I wonder if the spring water inside the miniature grotto-heaven is drinkable?” Chen Fengyun mused, and with a flick of his mind, scooped up a small handful with his divine sense.

Amazingly, the spring water materialized before him, radiating a rich spiritual energy. Chen Fengyun swallowed it in one gulp and felt the energy coursing through his body.

Not only was the essence blood he’d just lost replenished, but the energy drawn from his flesh was also restored. His body returned to its normal state, and nearly half the spiritual energy in his meridians was recovered.

“As expected of a grotto-heaven—the spring water is saturated with spiritual energy! I wonder how much the miniature grotto-heaven can produce. If it’s abundant, I could use the spring to restore my cultivation or even to train!” Chen Fengyun thought joyfully.

Though his bodily depletion was remedied by the spring, his divine sense remained wounded and slow to recover. Thus, instead of practicing the forging technique, Chen Fengyun chose to sleep soundly. Only after eight o’clock the next morning did he rise.

Fortunately, after a night’s rest, the strand of divine sense he’d severed was gradually restored, and the minor spiritual wound healed. He was back to his previous state.

After breakfast, Zhao Jianguo sent someone to take them to the ancient garden. The place was packed with crowds of people from all over, eager to select and gamble on stones, none the wiser about last night’s events underground.

Zhao Jianguo allowed Chen Fengyun and Zeng Yiyue to pick and unravel any stones they liked, and let Geng Chunming and Xu Dalin each choose five stones. Chen Fengyun discreetly stored several stones containing top-grade jade in his miniature grotto-heaven, then selected a few ordinary or worthless stones to open, ultimately earning more than half a million.

With Chen Fengyun’s help, Zeng Yiyue uncovered three or four stones containing jade, earning over three million. She quickly lost interest, as the stones belonged to her uncle, meaning the money was essentially his gift to her.

Geng Chunming and Xu Dalin each revealed stones worth about two hundred thousand. Feeling embarrassed about continuing, since they were not close with Zhao Jianguo and had already been generously gifted these stones, they chose to stop.