Eternal Life Begins with Learning

「A fortnight later.」

In his room, Chu Mu’s hair was a mess, and the floor was covered in manuscripts. To this day, he still hadn’t grown accustomed to using Jade Scrolls, that incredibly convenient and fast method of recording information.

Wangcai had been forced to retreat to a corner, staring helplessly at his somewhat crazed-looking master, completely at a loss.

’A Top Grade Spiritual Artifact...’

Chu Mu muttered to himself, his tone a mixture of certainty and confusion.

Designing the Artifact Refining Formula for the Divine Wind Boots had gone very smoothly.

Thanks to his accumulated knowledge, he had encountered almost no obstacles.

The manuscript was perfectly clear. If he followed it to the letter and succeeded in the Refining, the result would undoubtedly be a Top Grade Spiritual Artifact!

And yet...

Even though this manuscript represented the very limit of his knowledge, he couldn’t shake the feeling that it was somehow flawed.

But he had no idea where this flaw originated.

He had no idea where to even begin to fix it.

It was a contradictory feeling, and a contradictory reality.

’Forget it!’

After agonizing over it for a long time, Chu Mu finally forced the inexplicable feeling down.

It was beyond his comprehension. This most likely meant that even if he did identify the problem, he wouldn’t have the means to fix it.

There was no point in getting hung up on it.

He let out a sigh of relief. He formed a hand seal, and with a stir of his Divine Sense, it was as if a gentle breeze swept through the room. The manuscripts scattered on the floor instantly floated up, arranging themselves into a neat stack that landed in his hand.

A moment later, he placed them in his Storage Talisman.

He then sat cross-legged, closing his eyes to meditate for about an hour. When he opened them again, the pile of Spiritual Charcoal before him had already ignited.

As with every Artifact Refining session before, he habitually started by using some Low Tier Spiritual Materials to practice inscribing various Artifact Pattern Array Prohibitions.

This time, however, the process didn’t last very long.

After all, he had created this Artifact Refining Formula himself. He knew every Artifact Pattern and every Array Prohibition like the back of his hand.

One by one, the Spiritual Materials were presented. Above the Spiritual Fire, they melted under the heat.

As he removed their impurities, he also used his Divine Sense to meticulously adjust the fundamental structure of the Ore Materials, making them more compatible with the properties of the Magical Artifact he intended to refine.

The process was almost identical to Alchemy. With his experience in that field, compounded by his Spiritual Radiance Blessing, he had failed this step a negligible number of times.

This time was no different; it went very smoothly.

He didn’t try to preserve the broken Wind Spirit Feather. Instead, he fused it completely into the main body of the Divine Wind Boots, which used Hawk Bone as its primary material, enhancing the boots’ Wind Attribute effects.

After about six hours, the main body of the Divine Wind Boots, at the Grade of a Top Grade Spiritual Artifact, was complete.

The Boots were a very plain dark gray, their style almost indistinguishable from that of ordinary tall boots.

Upon close inspection of the boot shaft, one could faintly make out grayish-white feather patterns. A faint, cyan-green tree-like pattern also extended upward from the back of the heel.

Overall, they looked unremarkable, even plain.

They completely lacked the gaudiness of the Magical Artifacts one might find in the Marketplace.

This, of course, was by his design.

When it came to Magical Artifacts of any kind, Chu Mu’s philosophy had always been that the more inconspicuous, the better.

’Why make something so flashy that it’s spotted at a glance? Wouldn’t that just put others on their guard?’ 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

’The best Magical Artifact is one that looks ordinary until the critical moment arrives.’

The Spiritual Fire continued to burn, with the Boots still suspended above it. The most critical step in Artifact Refining had clearly arrived.

It was time to inscribe the Artifact Patterns and Array Prohibitions—to fuse and even sublimate all the boots’ effects through them.

The process was extremely complex.

The slightest mistake, and all his previous efforts would be for naught.

Chu Mu was extremely careful, focused as never before, as he inscribed the Artifact Pattern Array Prohibitions onto the Boots one by one.

He only had one set of Spiritual Materials. There would be no second chances. He couldn’t afford the slightest lapse in concentration.

Time trickled by. On the surface of the Boots, intricate patterns began to appear, one after another.

The process continued for nearly a full day and night. The complexity of a Top Grade Spiritual Artifact was expected, but actually executing it was far from as easy as he had imagined.

Chu Mu didn’t dare to blink. His mind was stretched to its absolute limit, and a profound exhaustion had long since set in. All he could do was grit his teeth and push through it.

Finally, on the morning of the third day, the last Artifact Pattern was completed.

A faint radiance flowed along the Artifact Patterns, flickering across the Boots. The aura of a Top Grade Spiritual Artifact emanated from them, growing clearer with every pulse of light.

Chu Mu stared blankly at the pair of Divine Wind Boots floating before him. After a long moment, the light slowly returned to his eyes.

From a daze, to clarity, and then to elation...

In that single instant, all his fatigue was swept away.

This was... a Top Grade Spiritual Artifact that he himself had conceived, designed, and refined!

This was his creation, Chu Mu’s own work.

Suddenly, he felt tears welling in his eyes.

To have designed and refined a Top Grade Spiritual Artifact all on his own.

’As an Artifact Refiner, I suppose this means I’ve finally achieved true mastery, right?’

He admired his work for a long time, unable to put the boots down. Even though he knew their capabilities perfectly from when he finalized the Artifact Refining Formula.

He couldn’t contain his excitement and began to test them out, one feature at a time.

Just like the previous version of the Divine Wind Boots, their primary functions were dodging and escaping.

The only difference was that he had added Rejuvenation Wood as a supplementary material, significantly improving the Divine Wind Boots’ Gathering Spirit effect.

While this came at the cost of a little speed, it also reduced the boots’ Magical Power consumption by about forty percent.

Furthermore, the boots’ main Spiritual Material was the Wind and Thunder Attribute Hawk Bone, which was then reinforced by the fusion of the two broken Wind Attribute Wind Spirit Feathers.

The boots’ inherent speed enhancement was also quite terrifying. For short-distance evasion, the combination of the Wind and Thunder Attributes was powerful enough to be called Shrinking Inches.

He named the long-distance sprinting function "Wind Thunder Burst."

If short-distance maneuvers used the combination of Wind and Thunder Attributes to achieve rapid evasion...

...then a long-distance sprint pushed that combination to its absolute limit.

In an instant, by overdrawing the Magical Artifact’s Mighty Power—even to the point of its destruction—all the Wind and Thunder Power contained within its Spiritual Materials would erupt at once.

Chu Mu estimated this burst could last for about seven or eight minutes.

As for the speed... his simulated calculations suggested it would be about thirty percent faster than a Tier Two Lower Grade Divine Wind Talisman.

He tested them for a long time, only stopping when his Magical Power was completely depleted.

After recording and comparing the data from his experiments, Chu Mu turned his attention to the other two types of Tier Two Spiritual Materials.

Red Flame Iron and Rejuvenation Liquid...

And, piled next to them, were various Tier One Spiritual Materials.

He had another recipe he needed to follow to the letter.

He had been coveting several Puppet formulas from his Puppetry Skill inheritance ever since that Divine Appearance...

...