Chapter 23: Transformation of Mind in a Secret Chamber

  Although he felt uneasy, Wang Guang still decided to continue building the forbidden array in the underground secret room. On one hand, he wanted to protect the extremely precious Wan Zai Kong Qing; on the other hand, he thought that since he had set up the entire forbidden array himself, even if the monk's magical powers increased greatly and he wanted to deal with him, he could still use the array to resist his opponent.

  With this calculation, Wang Guang didn't delay any further. The best time to transport the law force had already passed, and he was too lazy to continue refining his law force here, so he used the Treasure Light to wrap himself up and returned directly to the gathering place of the inner door disciples.

  "Boundless Heaven Venerable! This brother, I want to take some refined iron and copper ore for use." A treasure light fell on the inner hall where various materials were stored. The treasure light dissipated, and a man in green robes, Wang Guang, walked out of the light.

  "I don't know how much refined iron ore this junior brother needs, I'll have someone bring it out for you." The guards of the inner temple's warehouse were dozens in number, each one a master on the verge of condensing their golden elixir. One of them sat cross-legged on the steps at the entrance and asked Wang Guang in a low voice.

  On the way back, Wang Guang had already thought about what he needed, so he immediately bowed his head and said: "Brother, I want a thousand pieces of refined iron, ten thousand pieces of copper ingots, as well as thirty to fifty pieces of red gold and white silver."

  "You've taken too much at once." As soon as Wang Guang finished speaking, the cultivator waved his hand and said: "The refined iron and copper ingots will require 100 crystal stones to take away. The red gold and white silver can be given to you for free according to the sect's rules. If you're not willing to pay the crystal stones, you can go to the mine and refine them yourself."

  After hearing this answer, Wang Guang did not hesitate and agreed. It turned out that he had already carefully calculated it when he came here earlier.

  According to the sect's rules, for an inner disciple like him, when requesting ordinary ore worth less than 100 pieces at a time, it is provided free of charge. If the demand is high, however, it must be purchased at a price that is half that of what outer disciples pay. Therefore, after hearing the other party handle things completely according to the sect's rules, he didn't say anything and directly agreed.

  One hundred crystal stones were handed over to the Qi Gong practitioner, and soon after, the warehouse door opened. In no time, dozens of giant puppets, three to five meters tall, walked out of the massive warehouse. Each puppet held dozens of refined iron or copper ingots in its arms, and with each step, it made a loud clanging sound, which was caused by the extreme weight of the refined iron and copper ingots.

  The puppet continued to transport ore outward, while Wang Guang stopped after loading more than a dozen pieces of ore into the treasure bag.

  It turned out that this treasure pouch could indeed store a large number of items, but it couldn't eliminate the weight of these items out of thin air. The refined ore according to the sect's rules weighed over 100 catties per piece. Wang Guang had already stored more than ten pieces in one breath, which was equivalent to over 1,000 catties in weight. Although he could still carry some more, if it became too heavy, his flying speed would be greatly reduced, and it wouldn't be worth it after all.

  "Senior brother, I can only take away so much at a time. Let me put the things on my body in order and then come back for the rest, what do you think?" Looking at the pile of ore in front of him, Wang Guang couldn't help but frown and say in a low voice.

  "Thousands of blocks of ore, you can only move a dozen or so at a time. Wanting to completely move them away, I don't know how long it will take." The Qi-refining cultivator guarding the warehouse glanced at Wang Guang and then waved his hand: "Go! Leave these materials here, come and take them whenever you want, even if someone else is on guard, they won't make things difficult for you."

  "This is thanks to my senior brother." Wang Guang bowed and saluted, this was his first time coming to the warehouse to retrieve ore, he didn't know if those puppets would bring out all that he needed at once, which led to this awkwardness. Fortunately, the Qi-refining cultivator guarding here did not make things difficult for him, which made him feel grateful.

  After loading these things, Wang Guang swung out the Hundred Miles Flowing Light to roll up his body and flew back to the gathering point of the Black Bear Demon. For a whole day and night, this guy used all his strength to transport these ores. When he was hungry, he would kill a demon beast to fill his hunger. When he was thirsty, he would find some spring water to replenish his thirst, but during this day and night, not a single moment was delayed.

  The great monk who was sitting next to Wan Zai Qing and practicing his magical powers saw Wang Guang being so serious, but he didn't know what he was thinking in his heart. Not only did he give up on moving the magical powers cultivation method, but he also took out a bronze cauldron and began to refine the materials needed for the formation according to the requirements of the Taoist book using these ores.

  Hundreds of kilograms of copper ingots and refined iron were thrown into the copper cauldron, where they were melted by the fierce flames driven by the great monk's magical powers. In no time at all, they had melted into a liquid, which was then condensed under the great monk's manipulation into three-pronged nails, each one foot long. The great monk then killed the hundred black bear demons captured from his own treasure trove, and nailed them to the ground with these nails, using their fresh blood to temper them.

  He immediately started preparing the materials and working on them with great enthusiasm. In just three to five days, he had transported all the materials to this underground secret room in a flurry of activity. Many of the materials were not provided free of charge by the sect, so Wang Guang and Da Heshang consumed all the crystal stones they had on their bodies, and to save time, Wang Guang even sold more than ten thousand Lingguo fruits he had stored up to exchange for crystal stones to buy from the sect.

  After all the materials were brought back, Da Heshang continued to refine the ore, while Wang Guang carved talismans and inlaid arrays on those roughly refined tools according to the secret method. For a time, they were busy, except for practicing qigong at fixed times every day and swallowing the essence of the sun and moon, the two people didn't even have time to go out and rest. As for the matter of snatching the Wanling fruit, it was even more abandoned by the two of them.

  One of the nails that had been pierced into the body of the black bear demon was pulled out by Wang Guang, who didn't even bother to wipe off the blood on the nail and instead held it in both hands, continuously spewing out magical energy from his mouth.

  A wisp of cyan smoke infused with magical power drilled into the nail, until the magical power was sufficient, and the nail emitted a series of crisp crackling sounds. Only then did he stop pouring in magical power, and instead began to grasp at the air with both hands, as threads of condensed magical power outlined a rhombus-shaped array that coalesced in mid-air.

  "Hmph!" After the spell array took shape, Wang Guang pointed at it with one hand, and the spell array transformed into a cyan light that drilled into the foot-long nail. The nail was seen trembling continuously between his hands, and the bloodstains on its surface slowly seeped into the nail.

  "What a pity, this material is trash and hasn't been further refined. Otherwise, it would definitely make this nail a treasure, even if it's just an ordinary, low-ranking one, its power would be much greater than this half-finished product." Looking at the nail that had a faint blue glow in his hand, Wang Guang couldn't help but sigh.

  "Hey! Taoist, even if it's a semi-finished magic treasure, it's already not bad for us. It's just that your magical powers are pure and refined, if I were to refine it, I would need the law door to be upgraded another level to achieve this. Comparing like this, why should you be dissatisfied?" The big monk on the side said enviously while controlling the copper cauldron in front of him to refine the ore.

  He nodded: "It's just a pity that I don't have any crystal stones on me, otherwise I would buy some heavenly and earthly essences to temper my magical powers, and it wouldn't take so much time. We need to speed up our actions, if my divine ability doesn't get a large amount of spiritual energy replenished soon, its level will drop immediately, and when the time comes to cultivate again, not only will it consume a lot of precious spiritual fruit pills, but also waste time."

  The Great Master listened to Wang Guang's words and only let out a cold laugh: "I'm telling you, as a poor monk, I've seen this before. If you don't cultivate your spiritual powers, it's fine! But if you use the stolen Spiritual Fruit to absorb its spiritual energy and then activate your spiritual powers to fight against enemies, it may seem elegant and safe at first glance. However, in the long run, the large amount of unrefined spiritual energy will accumulate in your meridians and slowly erode them. Later on, when you want to recover your meridians, you'll have to pay a huge price to achieve that. You should know that the erosion of meridians caused by this spiritual energy is vastly different from the damage caused by injuries sustained during intense battles with others."

  Listening to the words of Dahe Shang, Wang Guang nodded silently. In fact, in the past few days, he had also noticed this point. A large amount of unrefined spiritual energy had been lingering in those meridians for a long time, and now every three to five days, the meridian would ache for a short while. Upon careful observation with his magical powers, he discovered that the spiritual energy was slowly eroding the entire meridian as well as the acupoints within it.

  "In the past, I also cultivated divine powers like you, but it was precisely because of this discovery that I gave up on cultivating such methods." The great monk saw that Wang Guang wasn't speaking and continued.

  "So that's how it is." He weighed the long nail in his hand, and Wang Guang didn't ask why he was only saying this now, but just smiled wryly and stabbed the nail fiercely into the stone pillar over a meter thick in front of him.

  This stone pillar is over ten zhang high, its entire body made of giant stones stacked together and tempered with special talismans, extremely hard. If he hadn't infused the long nail with his magical powers, it would have been impossible to pierce it.

  When this long nail was thoroughly pierced into the stone pillar, there were already 108 long nails on the entire stone pillar. These long nails formed a formation of more than ten groups, and 108 formed another formation. Although no magical power was injected to activate the formation, each long nail only saw that relying on its instincts had already made contact, and the green and red light emitted from the end of the long nail wandered randomly on the stone pillar, occasionally colliding with each other and emitting a faint explosive sound.

  "Boundless Heaven Lord!" Looking at the hundred nails on the stone pillar in front of him, Wang Guang couldn't help but sigh. These long nails looked exactly the same, but their internal array methods were vastly different. Each time he refined a nail, he had to grasp a simple array method.

  Among them, simple formations can be understood in a few breaths, while more complex or bizarre ones would cost him at least an hour or even a whole day. This was still with the help of Dahe Shang on the side and the detailed records in the Taoist scriptures, otherwise, relying solely on his own efforts, the difficulties would have been several times greater than they were now.