Lou Xingyao smiled slightly and asked, “I wonder if Brother Wen has heard of artifact spirits?”
“You mean the spirit of the artifact?” Since Wen Hanshan’s biological mother came from a big world, he naturally had a bit more knowledge than ordinary cultivators in these matters.
The so-called weapon spirit was literally a summary of its meaning.
Spiritual weapons were naturally raised, and they were born with a bit more spirituality than ordinary magic weapons. If the opportunity was enough, these little spiritual things could be like human beings, with their own thoughts and thinking.
Among them, those with great fortune possessed exceptional spirituality and could even materialize into physical form.
These creatures, manifested through spirituality, could almost be indistinguishable from ordinary living creatures.
However, these beings were born dependent on spiritual artifacts and were connected to their energy flow. Even if they could manifest a physical form, they could never fully separate from the artifact. This was why they were called artifact spirits.
In addition, the artifact spirit and spiritual artifacts complemented each other. A spiritual artifact that possessed a spirit always had some mysterious qualities that ordinary spiritual artifacts lacked.
Even when the master of the artifact was injured, the spirit could hold the artifact on their behalf.
Wen Hanshan quickly understood the meaning of Lou Xingyao’s words and was a bit surprised. “You mean, that consciousness is actually an artifact spirit?”
However, it didn’t seem right.
He had only heard of the idea of an artifact spirit before.
The Sword Dao Stone in his dantian might have an extraordinary origin, but it was still merely a national treasure.
Even after his rough polishing, it was just a rough sword embryo. It couldn’t even be called a magic weapon. How could it give birth to an artifact spirit first?
“It isn’t quite to that point, but it isn’t far off.” Lou Xingyao smiled even more and hurriedly told what he knew.
It turned out that the artifact spirit was indeed easier to be born in an innate spiritual weapon, but this didn’t mean that it didn’t exist in other places.
Heavenly treasures were like spiritual weapons. They could be both born and raised. If they were given the right chance, they might also give birth to a bit of spirituality and give birth to their own consciousness.
However, this type of consciousness could be called very vague compared to the artifact spirits with clear thinking. Most of them could only rely on their own instincts to act.
In the end, those who developed a consciousness had more possibilities than ordinary natural treasures.
If such a refining material was selected by a cultivator as a natal magic weapon, was carefully polished and trained by the cultivator, it could also grow and progress before finally evolving into a real artifact spirit.
Therefore, compared with the resistance of spiritual artifacts to the cultivator, these heavenly treasures that had given birth to spirituality were more willing to choose a cultivator with the same attributes, becoming a natal magic weapon and completing their own path.
“If an artifact spirit is an adult body then the consciousness of the Sword Dao is more like a newborn baby. If taught properly, it will be even more suitable than an innate artifact spirit.” Speaking of which, Lou Xingyao used a relatively easy-to-understand analogy.
This wasn’t difficult to understand. After all, the innate artifact spirit already had its own thinking and consciousness. It was inevitable that they would have different views from the cultivators on some issues.
But the vague consciousness of the Sword Dao Stone was different.
Their thoughts could be taught by cultivators, so they could often be of the same heart and mind as the cultivator. In terms of tacit understanding, they would be more compatible than innate spirits.
Speaking of this, Lou Xingyao once again couldn’t help sighing in his heart.
Wen Hanshan’s Sword Dao Stone had the thunder attribute, not to mention that it had a living soul inside.
If it wasn’t for Wen Hanshan truly being the villain in the original novel, Lou Xingyao would’ve even suspected that he was the author’s own son.
“I see. Thank you for resolving my doubts.” Wen Hanshan’s eyes once again filled with the spirit they showed when he was refining the Sword Dao Stone.
Obviously, as he got to know the Sword Dao Stone better, the connection between him and the stone got closer.
Soon, the momentum around Wen Hanshan’s body changed again.
But unlike the previous sharp edge, the spiritual power that lingered around him this time was much more restrained.
At the same time, the aura Wen Hanshan’s body started to rise.
Lou Xingyao had never seen such a scene before. It could be seen that this was a precursor to a cultivator building the foundation.
Lou Xingyao realized this and frowned slightly.
You know, there would be a thunder tribulation when a cultivator built the foundation.
The Great Dao was ruthless. The heavenly thunder naturally had the power to destroy the heavens and earth. It was beyond the ability of ordinary cultivators to resist.
Therefore, a cultivator often had to be fully prepared when breaking through.
A defensive weapon, a defensive formation, or a healing pill… After all, when the thunder tribulation fell, something that could resist it once or twice would increase the probability of a successful thunder tribulation.
Now, Wen Hanshan obviously wasn’t fully prepared.
Lou Xingyao originally wanted to give a reminder. But when he looked up, he found that the sky had begun to darken gradually. This was a manifestation of the gathering of clouds.
He immediately didn’t dare to stay in the room. He quickly turned around and left.
After all, the thunder that fell wouldn’t specifically avoid the people who weren’t undergoing the thunder tribulation. It would only ignore everyone and fall down.
If a person who wasn’t undergoing the tribulation stayed within the range of the heavenly thunder for too long, they might anger the Heavenly Dao to send down an extremely powerful thunderbolt, splitting apart the outsider and the cultivator undergoing the tribulation.
Not intervening in other people’s thunder tribulations had become a common rule in the cultivation world.
Who knew that Lou Xingyao had just stepped out the door when he found that the aura of Wen Hanshan’s body had suddenly fallen?
The clouds in the sky, which were still gathering and hadn’t taken shape, started to gradually dissipate.
This was…
Did it fail?
Lou Xingyao stopped and looked in astonishment at Wen Hanshan, whose eyes were still closed.
It shouldn’t be the case.
He had heard of the failure of the cultivator to break through the thunder tribulation, but he never heard of a cultivator failing to break through before starting the tribulation.
Could it be that Wen Hanshan gave up himself?
Just as Lou Xingyao was guessing in his heart, Wen Hanshan opened his eyes again. He faced Lou Xingyao’s complicated expression and slowly said, “It isn’t time yet.”
The meaning of the words was very obvious. It was indeed Wen Hanshan who gave up building his foundation and suppressed himself back to the realm that was close to breaking through.
“But when I looked at Brother’s dantian, it had already reached the state of foundation building.” Lou Xingyao frowned slightly. It was rare for him to express his disapproval of Wen Hanshan’s decision.
He understood Wen Hanshan’s mood of wanting to lay a solid foundation.
However, everything could be too much or too little. The behavior of forcibly suppressing it when a breakthrough was imminent would inevitably have a certain impact.
“Junior Brother Yao, don’t worry and listen to me.” Seeing that Lou Xingyao’s expression was getting uglier, Wen Hanshan comforted him. At the same time, he didn’t forget to explain his reasons to Lou Xingyao.
It turned out that not long after the Sword Dao Stone took the initiative to appear in Wen Hanshan’s dantian, Wen Hanshan faintly touched the opportunity to break through to the foundation building realm.
However, at that time, Wen Hanshan was only at the ninth level of qi condensation. In order to pursue a perfect foundation, Wen Hanshan didn’t pay attention to it and chose to fight steadily to break through to the tenth level of qi condensation.
Once the tenth level of qi condensation was harmonious and he touched the threshold of the foundation again, Wen Hanshan had a faint premonition in his heart.
It still wasn’t time for the foundation building.
Cultivators also cultivated their minds when training. Their feelings in their heart were never aimless, especially in matters related to themselves.
At that time, Wen Hanshan also felt that he seemed to be lacking. He naturally chose to go with his heart, and once again suppressed the idea of building a foundation. He patiently polished it.
However, as his dantian and meridians broadened to almost perfection, Wen Hanshan was surprised to find that the feeling of not building his foundation still existed.
He was puzzled in his heart, but after thinking about it, Wen Hanshan finally chose to follow his heart and continued to polish it patiently.
In this process, his meridians and dantian became broader and firmer. Even his sword intent became more refined.
Lou Xingyao had explored his dantian twice and thought he was only one step away from building the foundation, but the feeling in Wen Hanshan’s heart told him it wasn’t time yet.
Wen Hanshan originally thought this feeling might not disappear until his sword intent was completely refined.
It wasn’t until today when he heard about the heart refining method from Lou Xingyao that he finally had a realization in his heart.
The opportunity he had been waiting for wasn’t a breakthrough in the way of the sword, but the polishing of his natal magic weapon!
So why did he choose to forcibly suppress his realm despite the Sword Dao Stone now clearly having an embryo shape?
Wen Hanshan explained it slowly. “The Sword Dao Stone suddenly left my body, so the polishing wasn’t complete. It will be lacking if my foundation is built at this time.”
Speaking of this, Wen Hanshan was really a bit helpless.
He had a clear understanding in his heart once he heard the heart refining method. Once he woke up, the Sword Dao Stone in his heart had already taken shape.
The timing wasn’t quite right, but it wasn’t a big deal. Wen Hanshan wanted to polish it completely along with his enlightenment.
Who knew that just as he was about to succeed, the power in the dantian that imprisoned his Sword Dao Stone suddenly disappeared.
It could be seen from the style of the Sword Dao Stone that the consciousness might be still vague, but it was also lively.
It had been trapped in Wen Hanshan’s dantian for nearly ten years and had long been unable to sit still.
After discovering that the power was gone, it immediately ignored everything else and rushed out of dantian, even causing Lou Xingyao to suffer from internal injuries.
Now, it had settled down in the dantian again due to Wen Hanshan’s suppression, but everything happened in one breath.
The polishing of the Sword Dao Stone was hastily interrupted. Now if he wanted to continue, it wouldn’t be as smooth as it was in the beginning.
There was only a little bit remaining, but Wen Hanshan would have to take more time and energy to polish it carefully.
At the same time, Wen Hanshan had a clear sense in his heart. He needed to polish it completely before building the foundation.
Otherwise, once his foundation was built, he would have to put in thousands of times more effort to achieve the best results.
Therefore, once he was about to break through, Wen Hanshan weighed the pros and cons and suppressed his realm.
“It is like this. I was really overthinking…” Lou Xingyao’s expression gradually eased as Wen Hanshan explained. In the end, he even looked somewhat embarrassed.
Yes, from the beginning of their acquaintance, he knew that the other person always had a plan in mind. How could he be confused about major issues like building the foundation?
His thoughts were really inappropriate.
“Junior Brother Yao, you were just worried. It was my fault. I should’ve made things known to Junior Brother Yao as soon as possible.” Wen Hanshan obviously didn’t take Lou Xingyao’s momentary mistake to heart.
He enjoyed Lou Xingyao’s concern while directly taking responsibility.
Although this was indeed a bit nonsensical… After all, how could a cultivator tell others about their situation in such detail?
But it also made the shame in Lou Xingyao’s heart fade a bit.
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