Inside the Floating Light Pot.
After refining the storage rings of Mad Demon and Mistwalker, Su Yuan poured out all their contents, forming two small mountains beside the Silver Spirit Lake.
The collections of these Nascent Soul demonic cultivators were astonishingly rich. Aside from vast quantities of spirit stones, there were all kinds of rare materials below fifth-grade, hundreds of third-grade treasure weapons, and over a thousand second-grade spiritual artifacts.
Other treasures were equally abundant.
A single storage ring contained thousands of years' worth of collections from a Nascent Soul cultivator - truly innumerable!
This was Nascent Soul!
The highest tier of cultivators in the currently known territories.
Su Yuan searched through them but only found one fifth-grade spiritual treasure and two fourth-grade treasure weapons!
Treasures above fourth-grade were scarce, though materials were plentiful - only these few finished items remained.
The fifth-grade spiritual treasure turned out to be a Soul-Gathering Banner containing nine thousand ghosts!
This must have belonged to Mistwalker, as it bore many cracks, clearly damaged.
The moment it was taken out, the banner showed signs of activity. Xiao Li, prepared in advance, immediately suppressed it with the power of her sixth-grade spiritual treasure, rendering it immobile.
The other two treasure weapons were a tower and a bell - a Corpse-Nurturing Tower and a Soul-Destroying Bell respectively.
Su Yuan glanced at them briefly before losing interest.
Staring at the Soul-Gathering Banner, he scratched his head: "What should I do with this?"
Unable to refine it, it seemed he could only hand it over to the sect.
At that moment, the Myriad Treasures Heaven-Earth Cauldron floated over.
"Su Yuan, besides absorbing divine essence to upgrade my grade, I can also absorb the essence of spiritual treasures to recover from damage! I can even inherit some functions from refined spiritual treasures. If you don't need these spiritual treasures and weapons, why not let me refine them?"
Little Qian's voice was full of anticipation and nervousness.
Su Yuan looked at him strangely: "You never mentioned you could refine existing treasures before. Only now do you reveal this ability - isn't this function particularly problematic?"
Xiao Li jumped into Su Yuan's arms, baring her teeth at Little Qian: "You're too dishonest! I knew you weren't a proper spiritual treasure!"
Little Qian replied urgently: "I had reasons for not mentioning it earlier! Although severely damaged, I'm still difficult to refine completely, which is why I advised Su Yuan to use divine essence for refinement. But now that I'm over halfway refined and Su Yuan has obtained these treasures, it makes sense to mention it. There was no point mentioning it before!"
"Really?" Xiao Li looked completely unconvinced.
Su Yuan smiled: "No rush, no rush."
Little Qian stared at the mountain of treasure weapons, practically drooling.
Su Yuan asked again: "So in reality, you don't need divine essence to restore to seventh-grade? You can just refine and absorb other treasures?"
Little Qian immediately answered: "Exactly! Though absorbing divine essence remains my primary method for grade improvement. Refining treasures has poor cost-effectiveness, but it's quite fast for grade restoration!"
"What do you mean by poor cost-effectiveness?" Su Yuan asked suspiciously.
Xiao Li warned: "Su Yuan, it must be a scam!"
"For example, if I'm a lower seventh-grade spiritual treasure, I'd need to absorb about a hundred lower seventh-grade spiritual treasures just to advance to middle seventh-grade!" Little Qian admitted sheepishly.
"What? A hundred? For just one minor grade improvement?" Su Yuan was dumbfounded.
No wonder this old fellow never mentioned this function - afraid Su Yuan would abandon him upon hearing it!
Su Yuan looked at the two mountains of spoils and immediately spotted a cauldron among them.
He extended his true energy to form a giant hand that pulled it out for inspection.
Little Qian commented: "A lower third-grade treasure cauldron, suitable for alchemy and artifact forging."
Su Yuan nodded: "A decent cauldron. Want it?"
Little Qian replied joyfully: "Very much."
"No rush," Su Yuan laughed.
Little Qian rolled his eyes.
"Hahaha!" Xiao Li wagged her tail in amusement nearby.
Su Yuan then began refining the small cauldron.
Massive amounts of true energy poured into it continuously for half an hour before he successfully refined it.
Looking at the newly refined cauldron, then at the dejected small bowl nearby, Su Yuan grew thoughtful.
He suddenly realized something unusual - the Myriad Treasures Heaven-Earth Cauldron currently only had two special effects: aura transformation and Fasting Spiritual Liquid, both obtained from refining numerous Fasting Pills.
Where were all the functions it should have obtained from other treasures? Even damaged, it shouldn't be this thorough - at least the core functions like absorbing divine essence and refining treasures remained!
There could only be one explanation:
'He's not the original artifact spirit of the Myriad Treasures Heaven-Earth Cauldron - he's its former master!'
Su Yuan's mind raced to this possibility.
'For some reason, he possessed his own artifact spirit, becoming the cauldron's new spirit. That explains why he sounds both childish and ancient!'
'This also explains why the cauldron seems like a blank slate, with only two basic functions remaining - because its core has been replaced.'
'His urgency to refine treasures for recovery? He hasn't given up - planning to escape once restored. As long as not fully refined, he still has a chance to use the artifact as a body and regain humanity?'
Su Yuan also understood why Little Qian seemed increasingly anxious - realizing Su Yuan's growth exceeded expectations!
Previously at Foundation Establishment, Su Yuan couldn't completely refine even a damaged seventh-grade spiritual treasure quickly. But with Su Yuan's rapid advancement, Little Qian grew nervous!
Su Yuan secretly observed the cauldron. Even now, Little Qian hadn't manifested as an artifact spirit, hiding in the core under pretext of injury - clearly afraid of exposure!
Previously, when refining large quantities of low-grade items could refine the cauldron faster, Little Qian recommended higher-grade items instead - which increased recovery speed but decreased refinement efficiency!
Would a seventh-grade artifact spirit not understand this trade-off?
'What a sneaky old fox! Too bad you're just an artifact spirit now - no threat!'
This realization came from witnessing how hard it was to kill a Nascent Soul cultivator. The original owner of a seventh-grade treasure should have been at least at the Void Refinement or Body Unity stage - wouldn't they be even harder to kill?
After some internal grumbling, Su Yuan activated the cauldron to attempt artifact forging.
The Myriad Treasures Heaven-Earth Cauldron floated over curiously: "What are you forging?"
"A lower first-grade Spirit-Gathering Pearl!" Su Yuan smiled.
"Oh, that's quite easy!" Little Qian nodded. "Each grade improvement of a Spirit-Gathering Pearl yields divine essence. It's good practice!"
"My thoughts exactly," Su Yuan agreed.
He threw some fire-attribute spirit ore into the cauldron, igniting it with true energy flames. With his alchemy experience, forging came even more naturally.
Under his control, the ore gradually formed into a pearl. Su Yuan's spiritual sense guided true energy to carve spirit-gathering runes inside.
In moments, a Spirit-Gathering Pearl was complete!
Opening the cauldron, the pearl flew out as a strand of divine essence entered the Myriad Treasures Heaven-Earth Cauldron.
Little Qian said happily: "Now the cauldron has a spirit-gathering effect, though very weak. You could try forging lower second-grade pearls for more noticeable effects."
"No rush!" Su Yuan waved with a smile.
He could feel his refinement of the cauldron deepening, yet its displayed grade remained firmly at upper first-grade - exactly what he wanted.
After this success, Su Yuan became more proficient.
This time, he threw in large quantities of various attribute materials. Under his flames, impurities were burned away, leaving pure essence.
Five large masses of refined material formed.
From these, he separated portions of wood, earth, water, and metal attributes, forming individual pearls with spirit-gathering runes - creating Wood, Earth, Water, and Metal Spirit-Gathering Pearls!
With a wave, these four pearls flew out, sending four equal strands of divine essence into the cauldron.
Little Qian sounded surprised: "Different attribute pearls indeed provide complete divine essence, but that's it. You could forge middle-grade pearls now!"
"Not necessarily!"
Su Yuan shook his head.
"Hmm?"
Su Yuan combined two materials each from the five refined essences, unifying them with spirit-gathering runes.
Ten dual-attribute Spirit-Gathering Pearls emerged, providing ten more divine essence strands.
Little Qian fell silent.
Next came combinations of three materials, producing another ten pearls.
Little Qian's "eyelid" twitched.
It recalled the Hundred-Flavored Fasting Pills incident - realizing Su Yuan was up to something big!
Just as expected, with experience gained, Su Yuan began experimenting with various material ratios to create entirely new Spirit-Gathering Pearls!
The combinations of low-grade forging materials were endless - every ratio created a new pearl variety!
Moreover, spirit-gathering runes came in many types, and their combinations could form even more complex patterns!
Attributes weren't limited to just the five elements - there were wind, thunder, lightning, yin, yang, ice, darkness, etc. The combinations multiplied further when considering unequal material proportions - the more random, the better!
Precisely because lower first-grade Spirit-Gathering Pearls were simple, they offered endless possibilities, with near-perfect success rates and rapid forging speed!
It required little mental effort, perfectly fitting his "balance work and rest" philosophy.
Thus Su Yuan devoted himself entirely to forging Spirit-Gathering Pearls in the grotto-heaven.
Two months passed in this manner.
On this day, as he completed an omni-attribute Spirit-Gathering Pearl,
A final strand of divine essence merged into the Myriad Treasures Heaven-Earth Cauldron.
Every core restriction within the Myriad Treasures Heaven-Earth Cauldron had been completely refined by Su Yuan!

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