Chapter 4: Refining and Transmuting

  Zhu'er and Ke'er had almost finished venting their emotions, and finally shifted their attention back to Su Tang. Su Tang had been pretending to be unconscious all along, feeling a bit bored, but with Ke'er's gentle and considerate movements, he unknowingly fell asleep.

  In his dream, he saw a series of strange scenes.

  A sturdy and heavy gate made of alloy was pushed open, and a figure walked in with slow steps.

  Inside and outside the door are two completely different worlds.

  Inside the room, a man in his thirties sat upright at the long table, quietly enjoying his meal. His expression was very calm and serene. On the candelabra were over ten silver-white candles, emitting a soft, flickering glow that filled the atmosphere with warmth.

  Outside the room, there were bodies scattered everywhere, with blood slowly flowing between them, apparently they had not been dead for long.

  The robust man continued to savor his food, unperturbed. The unexpected guest who had just walked in didn't say a word or make any movement, but stood there quietly, gazing at the other person silently.

  It wasn't long before the middle-aged man suddenly laughed, grabbed a napkin to wipe his mouth, and then leaned back in his chair with a very lazy posture: "You know? Evolving self-awareness isn't entirely a good thing. You can think for yourself like humans do, but you also inherit some of humanity's flaws. For example, you've developed emotions like joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure. And another example is that you have curiosity."

  The unexpected guest still didn't speak, standing there motionless.

  "You didn't immediately make a mechanical killing move, proving that my judgment was correct. You're willing to listen to me say these useless words because you're enjoying the joy of victory and want to know what this loser will say... Ah... you've already learned to enjoy it..." The young man smiled and said: "But, you underestimated our determination."

  Just then, a number of blindingly bright electric arcs suddenly burst forth from the ground and wildly zigzagged across the floor.

  "The electronic signal is completely lost, you can no longer transmit your self-consciousness back to the base in a pulsating manner. Then, everything within tens of kilometers around us will be torn apart into basic particles, including you and me." The young man's eyes revealed a playful expression.

  The body of the uninvited guest moved slightly, and his eyes suddenly emitted a red glow. At that moment, the floor cracked open, and a white semicircular light screen rose from the ground, expanding at an unimaginable speed. In one second, the light screen had just swallowed up the entire room, while in the next second, it had already burst into the high sky thousands of meters high, shattering the drifting clouds into pieces.

  The expanding light screen contains an incomparable destructive power, tearing the entire world apart, the earth is violently fluctuating, and the air within tens of kilometers around is wildly surging like a sea wave.

  The world seemed to be unable to withstand it anymore, but the light curtain suddenly began to collapse inward, shrinking into a dark vortex in the blink of an eye. When the last ray of light was absorbed by the vortex, the vortex quickly dissolved and disappeared without a trace.

  Su Tang only felt a dizziness in front of his eyes and found himself in the vast starry sky, then a slightly hoarse voice came over.

  "This spiritual refinement method has 81 chapters, can open up 81 spiritual apertures. Once you've achieved complete mastery of the practice, even the gods and demons from all heavens will have to yield to you."

  "Ancestor, can the art of spiritual refinement achieve immortality?" A voice like a loud bell rang out, causing Su Tang's head to spin and his eyes to blur.

  "As long as the spiritual orifice does not collapse, the body will not perish. Longevity is easy to attain. Can you wish to learn?"

  "I'm willing to learn, thank you for your guidance, ancestors!"

  Su Tang looked in the direction of the sound, his eyes widening involuntarily. There was a gigantic ancient tree there, and even from such a distance, he had to crane his neck to see it. He couldn't even see the top of the tree, with its layered, dense leaves that seemed to stretch on forever. Any one of those leaves would be big enough to serve as Su Tang's blanket.

  In front of the ancient tree, an old man sat cross-legged in mid-air, his body shape similar to that of Su Tang.

  If the ancient tree is compared to a mountain, then the old man would be like an insignificant ant, but strangely, the sound of the bell came from the ancient tree, and judging by its tone, it was extremely respectful to the old man.

  At this moment, the old man's hands moved, and a series of strange golden runes appeared out of thin air, striking the giant branches of the ancient tree one after another, shaking countless leaves rustling.

  After a moment, the ancient tree suddenly burst out laughing: "The Spiritual Refining Gate is too simple, in just over a hundred breaths, I have already opened two spiritual apertures. Old Ancestor, it won't be long before I achieve perfection!"

  "Is the practice complete? How easy it is to talk... Hehe, time will tell." The old man sighed and his face turned solemn: "You must remember, the art of spiritual refinement steals the creation of heaven and earth, invades the spirit of all things. This great way... will not tolerate you! Demons have their calamity fire, gods also have their twilight, after the spiritual orifice is opened, you will have a tribulation, if you can endure it, becoming a saint is just around the corner, if you cannot endure it, everything will be over!"

  "Old Ancestor, don't deceive people." The ancient tree laughed and said: "This place is a chaotic mess, not within the Three Realms, not related to the Five Elements, neither Heaven nor Earth governs it, so where does this calamity come from?"

  The old man was about to speak, but suddenly realized something, pinched his fingers and calculated, his expression becoming dazed, and after a long time, he revealed a bitter smile, sighing: "Heaven's will, heaven's will..." After finishing speaking, the old man's body transformed into a stream of light, shooting towards the starry river.

  "Old Ancestor?" The ancient tree didn't expect the old man to leave without warning, and hastily shouted loudly. But in the next moment, a dazzling light screen surged from afar, and before the ancient tree could react, it shattered and turned into flying ash within the light screen.

  The screen changed again, and Su Tang saw himself. His body was flying in mid-air, the speed slowed down very slowly. Suddenly, the light curtain broke through the space-time barrier again, pouring into this world, but the duration was very short, less than one-thousandth of a second. The energy contained in the light curtain had also been exhausted, and it did not trigger any external effect changes. It just brought in billions of basic particles.

  For some reason, the surging basic particles all gathered towards Su Tang's body. This process was too swift, and neither Su Tang who was flying and falling, the old man with a sly smile, nor the tiger girl who was struggling hard, nor Qian Biao who was frightened to stare blankly, had any perception of it.

  Huh... Su Tang suddenly sat up in bed, his heart racing fast, because he had a sense of confusion.

  Su Tang could feel the young man's resolute determination to die, the uninvited guest's icy coldness from the deepest part of his heart, and the ancient tree's despair and unwillingness to die.

  And those feelings are extremely strong, just like a personal experience.

  It's as if he is them and they are him!

  The room was quiet, with a few candles burning on the table. His servant, Ke'er, lay on the edge of the bed, snoring softly, probably due to exhaustion, she slept very soundly, and Su Tang's getting up did not disturb her.

  Su Tang was stunned for a moment, then slowly reached under the bed and pulled out the broken sword he had hidden in the chaos earlier. As soon as he saw the broken sword, a cold voice suddenly echoed in his mind: "A damaged spiritual artifact has been found, do you want to refine it?"

  Su Tang was startled and almost dropped his sword, but quickly regained his composure. The speaker was an artificial intelligence that had now become a part of him.

  Su Tang didn't understand how he knew these things, but he just did.

  After a moment of hesitation, Su Tang attempted to give an answer in his mind: "It can be refined."

  Suddenly, that splitting headache came back, and he clearly felt his physical strength rapidly draining away. At the same time, the broken sword in his hand emitted a soft glow as if it had been tempered.

  Su Tang's strength was getting weaker and weaker, golden stars were flashing before his eyes, his breathing became heavier, like a fish that was about to suffocate, his mouth was wide open, his chest was violently heaving up and down, finally, he couldn't hold on any longer, slowly collapsing onto the bed.

  It wasn't until the sky was bright that Su Tang finally came back to himself, his first feeling being that his mind seemed to have become infinitely vast.

  Where's the broken sword? The loot can't be seen by others! Su Tang wanted to sit up, but as soon as he moved, he slumped back down. He only then realized that every inch of his muscles and bones were sore and numb, and he couldn't exert any strength.

  What happened? Su Tang narrowed his eyes, and suddenly a series of strange symbols appeared in his mind. The symbols flew rapidly, finally condensing into a magnificent large array. Most of the symbols were dark gray, but two symbols on the edge emitted light. One symbol's light was very soft, while the other symbol only had a halo, with nothing inside.

  When he focused his attention on the previous glyph, a piece of information appeared in his mind.

  Incomplete soul.

  Su Tang seemed to have come to a realization, and with great difficulty, he stretched out his hand from under the quilt and took out the mask.

  "Found a defective spiritual artifact, should it be refined?" The cold voice sounded again.

  "It can be refined." Su Tang subconsciously responded, then reacted and realized that refining a spiritual artifact required physical strength. The first refinement had exhausted him, how could he endure a second one?

  However, once the program started, it couldn't be terminated. Su Tang only felt dizzy and disoriented, unable to catch his breath, his eyes rolled back, and he fainted.

  It wasn't until much later that Su Tang finally regained consciousness, opening his eyes to see Ke'er sitting blankly beside the bed. He was startled, and in his mind, he had only been unconscious for a short while, but Ke'er had completely changed into another person. Her originally lively big eyes were now red and swollen, filled with sorrow and despair, her cheeks thinner by a circle, her hair disheveled, looking like a little beggar girl.

  Su Tang opened his eyes, but the child was stunned. After a long time, she rubbed her eyes hard, closed them tightly, and then suddenly opened them again, making sure it wasn't her own illusion. The child suddenly let out a sharp cry, got up and stumbled out, running while shouting: "Zhu'er sister, Young Master is awake! Zhu'er sister..."

  Soon, a figure rushed into the room, her movements were so hasty that even the door curtain was torn off. It was precisely the tall and slender Zhu'er. She locked eyes with Su Tang for a moment, then slowly backed out of the room, and soon, a sorrowful yet joyful cry echoed from outside.

  What the hell?! Su Tang tried to shout, but nothing came out, his mouth couldn't even open. He wanted to turn his head, but his neck was stiff and he couldn't move it at all. However, from the corner of his eye, through the torn door curtain, he saw something black outside in the courtyard, which looked like a coffin.