Chapter 293: Refining a Treasured Artifact

Whether it is the Divine Soul Armor or the Strange Spirit Bead, there is no trace of refining or forging, giving a sense of natural formation.
"This spirit bead should indeed be a naturally formed spiritual object, perhaps it was bred within the earth, or it may be like the spirit gourd and spirit lotus that I cultivated, condensed from a special life form."
Compared to it, the "Inborn Nature" of the Soul Armor appears more peculiar.
Clearly, in the real natural world, it may be possible for a peculiar spirit pearl to be naturally born, but it is definitely impossible for a humanoid armor model to be born.
Not only the limbs, trunk, and head-body proportion perfectly match, but also the natural curves of muscle strength revealed on the surface of the armor, the proportion distribution of facial features, and so on, are exactly the same as those of real humans...
If such objects can be naturally nurtured by this world, all practitioners will have to fundamentally reshape their outlooks.
The world will no longer be the familiar world that everyone knows.
Fortunately, Meng Zhou was not completely unprepared for this.
"Perhaps, this is truly the work of a painter," Meng Zhou thought to himself.
"However, based on Bai Zhi's current achievements, it is highly unlikely that this is the work of a third-tier painter."
Not a third-tier artist, so most likely it's a fourth-tier artist.
"Sigh~" Meng Zhou felt a chill in his heart.
In his mind, an artist was a profession that could be on par with a rope-knot master, but they excelled in different areas.
From Baizhi, he can already imagine what stunning performances there will be when a painter reaches the third-order limit and fully develops and utilizes it.
What kind of means do fourth-order painters have?
I dare not think about it, really dare not think about it.
Meng Zhou remembered the scene of witnessing Bai Zhi's divine painting technique. He used his divine soul to draw with the newly acquired "divine painting" ability after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage. By directly painting a soul power veil, she, with her divine soul covered in the soul power veil, obtained a real improvement in her divine soul defense.
"A fourth-order artist may already be able to extend similar methods from the sea of knowledge and the realm of the mind towards the external world, including the material realm and even the real world?"
"...and exist permanently?"
"...Hmm, this seems a bit exaggerated, perhaps it's not entirely made up out of thin air, but rather uses certain real existing special spiritual materials as a carrier?"
Soon, Meng Zhou suppressed these scattered thoughts in his mind and redirected his attention back to the item in his hand.
"The supposed potential for growth that Yan Zhuang claims is actually just an illusion."
"The object itself does not possess any growth potential; it is just seal away."
"The so-called growth potential is nothing more than a deceitful statement."
The purpose should be to ensure that Yan Zhuangwen can grow to a higher height, and to make sure that this armor can always be his 'Golden Cudgel', its quality must be stronger.
This seal naturally needs to be lifted, at least partially.
For Yan Zhuang, who has always been kept in the dark, doesn't this mean that this thing is growing stronger and stronger?"
This seal may have originally had a very elaborate setup, requiring certain conditions to be met in order to be triggered. However, now, as the entire object has been cleansed by the power of life, it has become completely transparent before Mengzhou, with no secrets to speak of.
He can manipulate the seal according to his own will, allowing it to freely adjust and fluctuate between second and third grade quality.
However, the maximum limit is the third grade top level.
"If this seal is completely opened, it should be able to break through the third grade limit and become a genuine fourth grade item... However, for me right now, it is actually a huge burden. A third grade top-quality item is just right."
As the divine soul armor was completely revealed in front of Meng Zhou, he also had some certainty about the purpose of the "controller" hidden behind Yan Zhuang.
In fact, after organizing Yan Zhuang's memories, he already had a rough guess in his mind. Now, it is just about turning the "guess" into "reality".
Since "entering the trap", all of Yan Zhuang's actions, including using blood to wash the ancient painting spirits with the spirit cleansing secret method at Cuiyu Lake, have only one purpose -
the path of false infants.
This peculiar Soul Armor is the "shell" of a fake infant, while the ancient painting spirit cleansed by the "Blood Inheritance Cleansing" secret technique is the soul of the fake infant.
However, he is merely the one who "plants the fruit tree", and it is not him who truly reaps and eats the fruit.
Another person exists.
At the beginning, Meng Zhou thought it was quite simple, thinking that what the other person wanted was most likely the entire fake baby.
Later, he corrected his thinking a bit.
Both Yaya and Baizhi are incredibly intelligent and extraordinary in their performances.
If the purpose of the person behind them is just to use them as a part of fake infants, it is really wasting precious resources and lacking vision.
Isn't it possible that the person behind the scenes is also ignorant of the true spirit of the ancient paintings, such as Yan Zhuang, Ya Ya, Bai Zhi, and Bai Pobuo, which are ultimately washed out, and only thinks that it is a simple spirit of ancient paintings?
He cannot think of the person behind him as stupid.
So, the person's motive is likely to be "Yaya" and "Baizhi".
And that divine armor, its true function is actually to imprison and seal them in a special prison.
The viewpoint was ultimately confirmed by real discoveries.
In the deeper space of the spiritual pearl, which was sealed off, the "cloud and rain cluster" that was spread everywhere, so thick that it almost dripped ink, was filled with a sense of decay, decline, and old age.
The destructive power is much greater for purely spiritual beings than causing rapid distortion of the progeny in a great demon's belly.
If Yanzhuang successfully manages to insert Bai Zhi into this type of mental space, Yanzhuang might briefly experience the joy of becoming a "pseudo-infant" powerhouse, while Bai Zhi will be completely imprisoned within this cell.
As these two items were thoroughly "washed" clean, Meng Zhou also had a feeling that he could separate the perfectly fused soul armor and the strange spirit pearl according to his own desire, and take out one of them separately.
It can also combine them again, which is very convenient.
The separate Divine Soul Armor performs the same as regular Divine Soul Armor.
When he takes out the Strange Spirit Bead separately and holds it in his hand, he naturally understands its efficacy and how to use it.
This is an extremely bizarre and precious treasure that targets the soul.
If activated, it can forcibly pull out the soul of others from the sea of consciousness, and then transform the soul into a special resource called "Cloud Rain Group" within the spirit pearl.
However, the cloud and rain formations obtained through this method are imbued with extremely dark and negative attributes.
In addition, if it is taken out in a place where Foundation Establishment and Core Formation cultivators have died, it can automatically absorb the dispersed souls of the deceased in the air and refine them into special resources.
One drawback is that the resources collected through this method are filled with a decaying, declining, and even dead aura.
Then Meng Zhou understood.
"Those cloud and rain formations, hidden and sealed in the core layer, filled with intense negative energy, should be accumulated bit by bit by the person behind the scenes through killing and collecting the souls of the deceased."
"Its purpose is not to use the power of these divine souls that have been refined, but the extremely intense negative energy contained within them."
However, despite its terrifying destructive power, Meng Zhou is not interested in it.
What's more, these negative forces have now been washed away in the process of conceiving life, one after another.
What remains is only the purest power of the soul.
But this is exactly what Meng Zhou wants most.
"With such a large deposit of soul power, I can also enter Yan Zhuang and use the burning of a large amount of stored soul power to go back to a more distant time in the past."
其实，这么纯粹的神魂之力，用来恢复神魂消耗，甚至帮助神魂更快的成长进步，都是可以的。
但孟周却没怎么犹豫就拒绝了这些选项。
首先是膈应。
就像是明知道一杯水纯净无杂质，可当亲眼看到它从一杯恶臭污浊、充斥着各种可以想象、不可想象的莫名物质的污水被净化成纯净水的全过程之后，要再面不改色的将其一饮而尽，还真的需要莫大的勇气。
Secondly, he doesn't even need this kind of external aid.
……
Meng Zhou re-incorporated the Strange Spirit Pearl into the skull position of the Divine Soul Armor, playing with it slowly while contemplating in his heart.
What is the use of this thing for me now?
Although not completely certain, Meng Zhou is not confused.
He chose to spend time and energy unlocking this spoils completely during the critical period of "meeting" directly with the Qingxuan Five Elders, naturally, he has his considerations.
Mengzhou completes the ritual of refining the Soul Armor and the Strange Spirit Pearl, reaching a level where he can control them with ease.
He sits cross-legged in a hidden cave.
A black armor swiftly flies out of the cave, escapes from the island, and disappears into the boundless sea of the Wumong Sea.
此刻的它，已经从巴掌大小变成了正常成人一般大小。
在深水中极速遁行的它，忽然表面光泽流动，先是变成正常人类色泽，面部五官也变得更加柔和，从外观看去，与真实人类已经没有什么差别。
This state did not last long, and soon it became shiny and flowing again, transforming from the human color and shape into one with the water environment, and eventually completely disappearing in the water environment.
The color change of the Divine Soul Armor is just a simple optical invisibility, which is completely child's play for Meng Zhou.
In front of a powerful Golden Core cultivator with strong divine perception, this optical invisibility is of no use at all.
But with this simple invisibility combined with the characteristic of being extremely insensitive to divine consciousness, it's completely different.
Just through divine consciousness, it can't be seen.
Now, even the eyes can't see it, which is similar to being completely invisible.
Meng Zhou tried it and easily displayed a power comparable to the peak of Foundation Establishment stage.
Moreover, there is no consumption at all.
It relies entirely on the third-grade top-tier quality of the spiritual armor itself.
If you think this would still appear clumsy, it can only serve as a third-order superb physique vessel at most, that's thinking too simplistically.
The massive power of divine souls stored in the Strange Spirit Pearl can also be used to launch even stronger and deadlier divine soul attacks.
However, in Meng Zhou's mind, this usage is somewhat wasteful.
Meng Zhou controls this object and freely roams in the deep sea area. He can achieve precise operations comparable to actual human operation within a radius of 600 miles centered on him.
This is exactly the limit of the range that the Transparent Moon Mirror can illuminate.
This is not the limit of the armor's mobility, but only the limit that his consciousness can control accurately.
As long as the range of the Transparent Moon Mirror continues to expand, the range of motion of this armor can continue to increase.
After playing enough, the Divine Soul Armor quickly traversed hundreds of miles in the void in an invisible state, returning to his side. It then reappeared clearly, hovering motionless in front of him.
What most satisfied Meng Zhou was that, after all this tossing and turning, there was no additional cost except for some thoughts that were equivalent to playing games for fun.
No mana was consumed, no soul power was consumed, and no mental energy was consumed.
And this time, the attempt is not over yet.
With a thought in Meng Zhou's heart, another human figure appeared next to the Divine Soul Armor. With the appearance of this human figure, the surrounding void seemed to become scorching and dry.
This is the Scarlet Flame Fire Lotus Spiritual Body.
Meng Zhou reached out and captured a group of third-grade superior divine souls from within this Scarlet Flame Fire Lotus Spiritual Body.
Meng Zhou held it in his hand and played with it for a while, and the plan in his mind quickly took shape.
He extended his hand and dispersed the "program" he had infused into the clone of his soul, then refined it again and gave it a new "program".
After refining it, he implanted this clone of his soul into the helmet of the soul armor.
In Mengzhou's divine perception, this divine soul avatar has entered the space of the peculiar spiritual pearl.
It directly entered the "cloud and rain layer" that was completely washed clean by the remnants left by Yan Zhuang.
After a while, the soul projection emerged from the "cloud rain layer".
The original soul projection was just a lump, and except for the person himself, it cannot be seen in the eyes of others.
The one called Soul Doppelganger didn't have any trace of soul fluctuations.
But now, this reappearing Soul Doppelganger has obtained a genuine appearance of a soul and emits authentic soul fluctuations.
Furthermore, at critical moments, it can actually unleash various techniques such as soul attacks and soul defense.
It appears to be a soul, and various sensing techniques confirm it as a soul. It possesses all the abilities that a soul can possess and lacks none of the characteristics of a soul.
Then it is the soul.
Even in front of the ancestor, dare to say it is not the soul?!
After this soul reappears from the "cloud and rain layer", it still doesn't escape from this similar sea of consciousness space, and just sits cross-legged in it.
Under its control, the black soul armor turned colorless and dispersed into nothingness.
Soon, it entered the consciousness sea position at the brow of the Scarlet Flame Fire Lotus Spiritual Body.
The initially closed eyes of the Scarlet Flame Fire Lotus Avatar opened and woke up.
Meng Zhou raised his eyes and locked eyes with him, as if he had seen a life that was genuine and not artificial.