Upon receiving Yang Kai's order, the Stone Puppet immediately sprang to its feet, pounding both fists against its chest twice, then darted over to the Great Origin Divine Stone, wrapping both arms around it and shoving it into its mouth.
In all fairness, the Stone Puppet's mouth wasn't particularly large, yet somehow, that basin-sized Great Origin Divine Stone was bizarrely swallowed down whole, leaving the nearby Ye Xiyun utterly dumbfounded.
…
An hour later, inside the Heavenly One Palace, Yang Kai sat cross-legged with a delighted expression on his face. Before him lay a total of six materials.
First, a section of wood brimming with vitality, crackling with lightning. Each green leaf seemed to have arcs of lightning dancing across its surface — this was the Lightning Wood that Yang Kai had kept in storage for a long time. It had been formed by chance from the condensation of a Tier Ten demon beast's, the Thunder Phoenix's, blood, flesh essence, and inner core after its death. In terms of value, it far surpassed even a Tier Ten demon beast's inner core. Though it carried the power of lightning, its fundamental nature was that of a wood-attributed material.
A palm-sized piece of metal, the Profound Gold that Yang Kai had won at the Treasure Gathering Tower's auction for seventy million Sacred Crystals. Its metallic energy was razor-sharp, almost tangible, pricking Yang Kai's skin with pain.
A bottle of milky-white liquid that radiated a frigid cold — this was the Profound Yin Sunflower Water that Yang Kai had not fully consumed previously. Judging by the quantity, there were at least a dozen or so drops remaining.
A massive Ice Jade Platform, pure and flawless, looking utterly unremarkable at first glance. However, if one swept it with Divine Sense, the cold energy contained within was enough to freeze a spiritual consciousness — truly terrifying. And resting atop the Ice Jade Platform sat a piece of fire-red metal the size of an infant's head. To the naked eye, it too revealed nothing extraordinary, but the searing heat contained within was shocking to behold.
The Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Jade Platform and the Solar True Essence!
Beyond these, there was a small pile of granule-like substances. There were over a hundred of them, looking no different from ordinary grains of sand, yet these were the Great Origin Divine Sand that the Stone Puppet had extracted from inside the Great Origin Divine Stone.
That single piece of Great Origin Divine Stone had actually nurtured such a large quantity of Great Origin Divine Sand. This not only filled Yang Kai with delight, but even Yang Yan privately found it remarkable. She had assumed twenty or thirty grains would be good enough, but the final count turned out to be several times what she had expected.
Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth — all five gathered together! And there was even an extra Heaven and Earth Treasure of the Water attribute.
Six materials. Every single one was invaluable, the kind of thing one could scarcely hope to encounter, yet here they all were, laid out before Yang Kai. How could he not be pleased?
With them in hand, he could now begin Cultivating the Immortal Five Elements Sword.
Among these materials, if one were to judge by value alone, the Lightning Wood and Profound Gold were undoubtedly slightly inferior. The most precious of all was undoubtedly that piece of Solar True Essence the size of an infant's head. After all, Solar True Essence was said to be the product left behind when supreme powerhouses refined entire stars. The energy within even this small fragment, if fully released, would be more than enough to destroy the entire Dark Star.
Gazing at the materials before him, Yang Kai drew a deep breath, steadying his surging emotions. He furrowed his brow slightly and fell into contemplation.
The Immortal Five Elements Sword was a technique specifically designed for tempering the physical body. Quite some time had passed since he had first obtained it, and Yang Kai had naturally studied it thoroughly. Strictly speaking, the technique was not particularly profound — on the contrary, it was straightforward and easy to understand. The true difficulty lay in gathering the materials and the Cultivation process itself.
Moreover, using different materials to Cultivate would yield different results. This was the Immortal Five Elements Sword's greatest strength — its adaptability. In other words, the higher the quality of the materials, the better the Cultivation effect.
He wouldn't dare speak for everything else, but the Solar True Essence could be considered the absolute pinnacle of materials bar none.
The Profound Yin Sunflower Water and the Great Origin Divine Sand were both treasures that had nearly vanished from existence. Even though the Lightning Wood and Profound Gold were slightly lesser in comparison, their grade was still far from low.
Cultivating with these materials meant his starting point would be extremely high. He believed that even if martial artists elsewhere in the Star Field had obtained the Immortal Five Elements Sword, they would not necessarily enjoy advantages such as these.
His spirits soaring, Yang Kai began inscribing a formation right where he sat.
To Cultivate the Immortal Five Elements Sword, one had to rely on a specialized formation. This was explained in clear detail within the technique itself — how to inscribe the formation, how to activate it, all meticulously described.
Though Yang Kai was no expert in the art of formations, having spent so much time with Yang Yan, he had absorbed enough through osmosis to possess a passable level of skill. Inscribing this particular formation was not especially difficult for him.
One Sacred Crystal Source after another was placed down in orderly fashion, and the five materials — Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth — were arranged in their respective positions around the perimeter as required.
Two days later, Yang Kai gazed with satisfaction at the Immortal Five Elements Formation he had painstakingly laid out. After carefully inspecting it once more and confirming there were no errors, he leapt to the very center of the formation and sat cross-legged.
He casually swiped his spatial ring, retrieved a few spirit pills, and held them under his tongue. Then he closed his eyes tight and activated the Immortal Five Elements Sword's Cultivation technique.
His Saint Yuan surged into motion. With Yang Kai's seated position at the center, the ground around him suddenly erupted with flickering light as line after line of intricate, complex patterns blazed to life. Within those patterns, rune after rune — some large, some small — shimmered in and out of visibility, lending the whole an air of unfathomable mystery.
Hummm… A resonant vibration rippled outward. The Sacred Crystal Sources arranged within the Immortal Five Elements Formation blazed with brilliant radiance one after another, their pure, concentrated energy pouring forth and flowing along the intricate patterns.
Replenished by the energy from the Sacred Crystal Sources, the Immortal Five Elements Formation that Yang Kai had laid down roared to life in an instant.