Yuan Ming nodded silently as he read this segment; he gained a deeper understanding of top-grade magical tools. After steadying his mind, he continued reading.

The book also mentioned two methods for forcibly upgrading ordinary magical tools to top-grade magical tools.

One method was the Refining Method, which involved mixing top-grade spiritual materials into an already refined magical tool through special means, allowing it to withstand the Enriching of a fourth rune.

The other was the Strong Injection Method, which, simply put, was to choose the fourth rune as a derivative of the runes already on the magical tool. For example, if the magical tool had a "Frost" rune, then the fourth rune could be the derivative "White Frost" rune or the lower level "Cold" rune.

The advantage of this method was that it could bypass the limitation that ordinary spiritual materials could only bear three runes, and any magical tool could be elevated to a top-grade magical tool using this method. The downside was that the success rate of this technique was extremely low; if one in ten attempts was successful, that would be considered very lucky.

Moreover, if the Strong Injection Method failed, it would result in the destruction of the magical tool, rendering it unusable.

Even if the creation was successful, top-grade magical tools enriched by this method would not qualify for advancement to a Magic Treasure. Compared with top-grade magical tools crafted through normal methods, their power was also weaker, but still far superior to high-grade magical tools.

Yuan Ming read the content of the book carefully and took note of the methods for crafting top-grade magical tools.

Naturally, the methods for advancing top-grade magical tools couldn't be limited to these two, but other methods with higher success rates were privately held by Artifact Refiners and would not be casually available on the market.

In order to find Sha Hao's whereabouts, Yuan Ming now had to use his possession ability on this person every seven days. He couldn't spare any time to seek out and learn Artifact Refining techniques from other Artifact Refiners.

Therefore, he could only start by trying out these two methods described in the book. If these proved to be ineffective, he would then consider other options.

However, he currently had no top-grade spiritual materials on hand, so the Refining Method was out of the question. He could only try his luck with the Strong Injection Method.

Of course, with such a low success rate, he dared not apply it directly to the Black Needle; after all, it was the only high-grade magical tool he was quite comfortable using. If something went wrong, he would really be in tears.

Yuan Ming thought for a moment and suddenly took out a yellow short halberd and a green feather fan from his Storage Bag.

Though he had acquired these two magical tools from Gu Qiulong, it was inconvenient to use them openly. Now was the perfect time to practice with them.

First, he picked up the yellow short halberd and identified the three runes inscribed on it as "Earth Element," "Hard," and "Sharp." When he tried to identify the runes on the green feather fan, though, he encountered difficulties.

The runes he was familiar with were almost all from Master Hei Mu's notes, and the rest of the Artifact Refining books he bought only covered basic runes.

Out of the three runes on the green feather fan, he could only recognize "Wind Blade," and the other two were unfamiliar to him.

However, if it was just for practice, one was enough.

After pondering for a while, he decided to inscribe the fourth rune on the yellow short halberd as "Heavy," and the fourth rune on the feather fan as "Wind Roll."

These were derivatives of the "Hard" rune and the "Wind Blade" rune, respectively, with significant relevance.

Yuan Ming's residence lacked the tools for Artifact Refining, but fortunately, there were several shops in Little Lake City that rented out Artifact Refining Rooms. After briefly recalling their locations, he quickly packed up his things and left his residence.

One and a half months later, inside a certain Artifact Refining Room, steam billowed.

Inside the massive casting furnace, red spirit fog firmly enveloped the short halberd as Spiritual Power flowed unceasingly into the fourth rune at the handle of the short halberd, slowly filling the lines.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly, but just as the fourth rune was halfway lit up, the short halberd suddenly shook, and the previous three runes on it also lit up, bursting out with extremely dazzling light.

A muffled "bang" sounded, the spirit fog in the furnace instantly swelled, then dispersed rapidly, and soon, there was no light left inside the furnace.

Yuan Ming opened the Sealing Door with a darkened expression and took out the fragments of the yellow short halberd.

As he looked at a high-grade magical tool turn to nothing, he couldn't help sighing deeply, feeling melancholic.

Since leaving the Southern Border, Yuan Ming had scarcely touched Artifact Refining. Although he still remembered a fair amount of the basics, his skills were indeed quite rusty.

Therefore, after renting an Artifact Refining Room, he did not directly use the Strong Injection Method, as it also fell under the scope of Artifact Refining.

He spent a month practicing forging, ruining who knows how many spiritual materials, before he stumbled his way to crafting his first Mid Grade Magical Artifact.

Although the quality of the magical tool he crafted wasn't great, it greatly bolstered his morale.

After numerous attempts and feeling sure that he had grasped the knack for crafting Mid Grade Magical Tools, he began to try crafting high-grade magical tools.

However, despite the difference of just one rune, the difficulty of crafting high-grade magical tools was many times greater.

Yuan Ming, aiming to make the crafting easier, almost exclusively chose simple runes with fewer strokes for Enriching. Yet every attempt would go awry midway through. After half a month, not one magical tool was successfully endowed.

If he couldn't even craft high-grade magical tools, let alone top-grade ones.

Yuan Ming still harbored a sliver of hope before giving up completely, thinking of giving the Strong Injection Method a final try, hoping it might be simpler than starting from scratch.

The current result, however, completely dispelled his thoughts of crafting a top-grade magical tool using the Strong Injection Method.

He quickly tidied up and then rose to leave the rented Artifact Refining Room.

...

Two hours later.

Yuan Ming returned to the secret chamber of residence number eighty-six, placing the books he had purchased on his way back on the table,

For him, Sha Hao's trickiest assets were two-fold, one being the top-grade magical tool, the silver sphere in his possession, and the other, his Soul Cultivation Illusion Technique.

Since the path to refining top-grade magical tools was impassable, Yuan Ming momentarily had no better strategy to contend with the silver sphere and could only consider how to deal with Sha Hao's illusions.

As a disciple of Xi Cangqiong, Sha Hao's mastery in the art of Soul Cultivation Illusion Techniques had received the true teachings of the Great Elder and showed signs of even surpassing his master.

On the other hand, Yuan Ming could only grope his way across the river, deducing the usage of illusion techniques on his own.

For this reason, he had specifically visited a shop in the city that sold various classics and purchased some of them.

These classics contained more or less some basic knowledge of illusion techniques and described some combat related to such techniques. Yuan Ming's choice to learn from the fragmentary knowledge within these books was an act of desperation since his soul cultivation master, Xi Ying, was currently in the Southern Border, a distance from Little Lake City that far exceeded ten thousand miles. Even using the Sound Transmission Talisman she had left him wouldn't reach her.

Previously, when he encountered Sha Hao, due to the urgency of the situation, his emotions erupted suddenly, and he had forgotten this, using one of the talismans.

The books he had purchased were very rudimentary, and the authors' analyses of illusion techniques were not profound—some even held biased views. However, for ordinary cultivators to understand illusion techniques and fill in foundational knowledge, these could still just barely suffice.

One of the books mentioned that the essence of illusion techniques is, in fact, to use one's Divine Sense to influence the opponent's perception.

Whether through magic or runes, the use of illusion techniques would inevitably consume the cultivator's own Divine Power.

Therefore, the stronger one's Divine Power, the more lifelike the illusion techniques cast and the harder they were to break.

By the same token, to counter illusion techniques, one either needed to possess Divine Power far surpassing that of the caster or utilize rare talismans, magical artifacts, and other means to dispel them.

After reading this, Yuan Ming thought of the range his illusion techniques could cover, which was comparable to the reach of his Divine Sense, and he nodded to himself, believing quite a bit in the contents of the book.

However, he then recalled something else.

After all, illusion techniques were merely a means every Soul Cultivator could master. The unique and bizarre abilities that came with Divine Soul Transformation were what truly differentiated one Soul Cultivator from another.

Yuan Ming's transformed Soul Crow possessed abilities such as Far Travel, leaning more towards assistance. Then what kind of abilities would Sha Hao's Blood Bat have?

Yuan Ming carefully recalled the details of his encounters with Sha Hao, particularly how, no matter how Yuan Ming fled, Sha Hao always managed to find him.

Yet, this ability felt to Yuan Ming more like Sha Hao had mastered some secret technique or magic artifact rather than an intrinsic ability of his Divine Soul Transformation into a Blood Bat.

After racking his brain to no avail, Yuan Ming switched tracks and began to consider what he possessed that could restrain the exertion of Divine Power.

Quickly, he thought of the Fog Incense.

The dense fog created by the Fog Incense was something even the Great Elder couldn't see through directly, so it certainly would have a restraining effect on Sha Hao as well.

After pondering for a moment, Yuan Ming stood up and left his residence. He exited Little Lake City and, riding a magical tool, arrived at the Rain Ruins Swamp. Finding a secluded spot, he voluntarily descended, brought out the Stealing Heaven Tripod, took a stick of Fog Incense, lit it, and also released Vajra.

Soon, the thick white fog swallowed up the figures of Yuan Ming and Vajra, shrouding an entire area.

"I want to test if the Fog Incense can counteract illusion techniques. In a moment, no matter what you see, stand still and do not move," Yuan Ming instructed before moving five steps away from Vajra.

Seeing Vajra nod in preparation, he gathered his focus, intent on casting an illusion technique.

However, under the cover of the white fog, his Divine Sense could hardly leave his body, let alone reach Vajra to trap him in an illusion.

Yuan Ming tried several times, each time slightly decreasing the distance between himself and Vajra. Yet, even when he walked up to Vajra and pressed his hand on Vajra's shoulder, he was still unable to successfully cast an illusion.

Seeing this, Yuan Ming felt a surge of excitement.

Indeed, the Fog Incense had a countering effect on illusion techniques. With this card up his sleeve, he would likely have a much easier time dealing with Sha Hao in the future.

With the experiment yielding results, Yuan Ming did not linger. He extinguished the Fog Incense, gathered up Vajra and the Stealing Heaven Tripod, and then mounted the Jade Shuttle, ready to return to Little Lake City.

But suddenly, his expression changed, and he halted in his tracks.

"What's going on?"

Just now, he had unexpectedly received a distress signal from Hua Zhi, sent through the connection with the spirit beast.

Without a second thought, Yuan Ming hastily changed direction, flying towards the location of Hua Zhi.

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