The cultivation technique practiced by the Holy Lord of the Nine Heavens Holy Land — Yang Kai truly had no interest in it.
Using one's own vitality as the price to seek power was putting the cart before the horse. The martial arts pinnacle Yang Kai pursued was nothing like that.
So he had never intended to walk his life's path treading the footsteps of previous Holy Masters.
He had his own goals and aspirations.
But this required An Ling'er's cooperation. Seeing her nod, Yang Kai felt relieved and set down a weight on his mind.
"But... what if the Elders ask about it?" An Ling'er couldn't help but worry. "They all seem rather anxious."
"Busybodies, every last one of them..." Yang Kai muttered without restraint. He didn't need to ask — the most anxious one was surely that old geezer Xu Hui, who must have been pressuring An Ling'er to cultivate with him sooner rather than later.
At his words, An Ling'er burst into laughter, and the room seemed to brighten considerably.
"Tell you what — if they ask, just tell them we've already started cultivating."
"That could work... but it'll only buy us so much time!" An Ling'er lightly pressed her red lips together. "You'll be fine — with your talent, even without practicing that technique, your strength will grow rapidly. But if I don't break through my current realm for a long while, the Elders will definitely get suspicious..."
"I'll help you!" Yang Kai said with a grin.
"How can you help me?" An Ling'er asked, startled.
Yang Kai flipped his hand, and a delicate jade vial appeared in his palm. He held it out to her. "There's some very special spirit liquid in here. Take it back and consume one drop each day — your strength will gradually rise."
An Ling'er took it with a healthy dose of skepticism. She lifted the stopper and sniffed — a refreshing fragrance washed over her, and she couldn't help but feel invigorated. Her beautiful eyes lit up as she looked at Yang Kai. "Will this really work?"
"Of course it will." Yang Kai nodded firmly, then added, "When it runs out, come find me for more."
"Then I'll take it back and give it a try. Thanks!" An Ling'er giggled. It seemed that chatting with Yang Kai for a while had brightened her mood considerably — the melancholy from before was gone.
They talked for a while longer before An Ling'er finally took her leave.
Yang Kai extended his divine sense, informing Xu Hui, Li Rong, and the others that he would be entering seclusion and that they should not disturb him unless something came up.
After receiving their replies, Yang Kai left the Holy Lord's garden and headed alone to the Holy Mausoleum.
The Holy Mausoleum was an ideal place for seclusion. Apart from Yang Kai using the Holy Lord's Spirit Ring to open it, no one else could access it — there was no worry of being disturbed.
Arriving before the massive bluestone, Yang Kai pressed the Holy Lord's Spirit Ring against the designated spot, opened the Holy Mausoleum, and ducked inside.
The dim, eerie environment still bore traces of the Nine Heavens Holy Land disciples who had once lived here. The surroundings were far from pleasant, but the spiritual energy within was incredibly dense.
Finding a random spot, Yang Kai sat down cross-legged.
He took out the long shuttle artifact he had obtained from the starry sky and examined it carefully.
He could feel it — this artifact harbored wondrous power, its interior inscribed with countless complex spirit formation diagrams. But without refining it, there was simply no way to know what it truly did.
Clearing his mind, Yang Kai extended his divine sense into the long shuttle artifact, probing its material and structure, searching for a point of entry.
To refine an artifact, the first step was to leave one's own soul imprint within it — to carve one's life mark. Only then could the refinement begin.
After leaving the imprint, one stored the artifact within one's body and nourished it with true yuan and divine sense.
Once it reached a certain stage, the artifact would resonate with its wielder, becoming usable.
Even after storing it inside, extended nurturing was still required before the artifact's full power could be brought to bear.
For this reason, no martial artist would casually swap out their artifact. Long periods of refinement and nurturing had created a subtle bond between wielder and artifact — a bond that allowed the artifact to unleash its full might in battle, dramatically enhancing combat power.
Switch to an unfamiliar artifact, and that effect vanished entirely.
Only when one's strength had outgrown an artifact's grade would a martial artist choose to replace it.
Even then, they would seek out artifacts that resonated with their own techniques and martial arts.
Most martial artists would gather materials and commission an artifact refiner to create something custom-tailored for them.
A skilled artifact refiner, crafting something bespoke for a martial artist — that was what truly suited the wielder.
Yang Kai had never bothered with any of that. The main reason was that he rarely relied on artifacts in the first place. When he found something useful, he refined it on the spot and couldn't be bothered hunting down materials or begging someone to forge something for him.
This long shuttle artifact had once had an owner. That owner had likely lost their way in the starry sky, or perhaps met with some misfortune and perished among the stars. The long shuttle had drifted along with a sea of meteorites until Yang Kai happened to discover and claim it.
His divine sense plunged into the artifact, and soon, Yang Kai detected a faint soul aura within the long shuttle.
This was the soul imprint left by the previous owner.
It would have to be erased before he could carve his own.
Sensing that soul aura, Yang Kai couldn't help but feel alarmed.
Though many years had passed and the aura left within the artifact had grown exceedingly faint, Yang Kai could still sense just how impossibly pure and dense it must have been before its decline.