Amidst a series of muffled thuds, all the black stones were enveloped by spiritual power and crushed, leaving a layer of black grit floating before him.
These black sands shifted and changed like flowing evil spirits. The sand grains formed from the black stones were the same as the dozen or so gourds of varying sizes from before.
The previous dozen gourds had been constantly shriveling in the cyan and white energies, all condensed into a mass, eventually forming these black stones.
Looking at these black sands, Zhang Ling couldn't help but ponder.
Subsequently, Zhang Ling directly used spiritual power to envelop these black sands and took them out of the Two-Realm Gourd.
Over the next few days, he studied the black sands. These things appeared to be merely impurities formed after the refinement of those cyan or white gourds.
However, injecting spiritual power into them increased the weight of these black substances, which was no ordinary feat.
The combined weight of these black sands was only thirty-odd pounds. But when spiritual power was injected, each pound could weigh at least a thousand pounds. If all thirty-odd pounds of black sand were driven by spiritual power, the weight would be terrifying.
To study these black things, he even made several trips to the market to collect relevant records of the Two-Realm Gourd, but the gains were minimal, with no material similar to it.
The Two-Realm Gourd itself was a seventh-grade spiritual root, and even in ancient times, few people had seen it. It was likely that no one knew what these black sand grains were for.
But these black sands were strange after all, and Zhang Ling experimented with various methods. Besides increasing in weight when injected with spiritual power, they were also very hard. Neither water nor fire attacks, nor chopping with knives or axes, could destroy them.
Apart from these two characteristics, there were no other discoveries.
This day, Zhang Ling was in a pile of rocks next to the cave dwelling. A cloud-like mass of black sand surrounded him, constantly changing. One moment it transformed into the shape of swords and sabers, and the next it quickly flew around, turning into gusts of black whirlwind.
Suddenly, Zhang Ling opened his mouth and spat a cloud of yellow essence onto these black clouds. Immediately, these black sand grains all converged towards the center, forming a black ball several feet in size.
The black ball rotated rapidly and, with a loud boom, directly smashed into a gray rock next to it, shattering the rock into pieces.
With a thought, the black ball instantly disintegrated and transformed into several gusts of black wind, sweeping towards another boulder. The boulder was blown away, and after a series of crackling sounds, Zhang Ling waved his hand, and the black sand grains spun back and hovered above his head.
In the mid-air before him, there was still a spherical gray stone suspended, but this boulder had been polished by the black sand grains until it was as smooth as a pebble.
Several rays of light passed through the stone, revealing countless tiny holes densely packed on its surface. At this time, this boulder was already like a rotten piece of wood, with its interior eaten away.
With a gentle wave of his sleeve, the boulder turned into a pile of gray powder in the breeze and fell to the ground.
Zhang Ling's hand flashed with cyan light, and the Two-Realm Gourd appeared in his palm. The black substance above his head, like quicksand, poured into it and was collected by him.
Then, Zhang Ling left the spot, pondering all the way as he walked towards his cave dwelling.
These black sand grains were both hard and could increase in weight, making them a special material. This gave him an idea: to refine these black sand grains into another Natal Treasure to increase his strength.
Although he had already refined the seven flying swords and the Two-Realm Gourd as his Natal Treasures, the Two-Realm Gourd's role was auxiliary, and its effect on increasing strength was not obvious.
Although the seven flying swords were much more powerful than ordinary magical artifacts, in the years since their refinement, he had also found that the cyan and white energies in the gourd had not been fully utilized.
Usually, when practicing with the flying swords, it was not enough to just put them in the Two-Realm Gourd; he also had to use his own Dan fire combined with cyan and white energies to practice.
The reason why Natal Treasures are different from ordinary magical artifacts is that they are constantly nourished by the cultivator's aura.
Practicing with the seven flying swords at most only mobilized about 30% of the cyan and white energies. The remaining excess cyan and white energies were actually idle.
If he refined another Natal Treasure, he could not only use all the cyan and white energies, but also better exert his strength.
There were not a few cultivators in the cultivation world who refined multiple Natal Treasures, and often these cultivators were extremely powerful.
He had the Two-Realm Gourd to assist in practicing with magical artifacts, which was a great advantage. After having this plan, Zhang Ling thought of a gold and earth attribute magical artifact in the cultivation method, the 'Heavenly Star Sand'.
This was a type of magical artifact in his current main cultivation method, the True Spirit Earth Origin Art, which was very suitable for cultivators who cultivated earth spiritual power.
Although the power of this treasure was not the strongest, it was the most difficult to destroy.
Sand grains themselves belong to malleable objects that are shapeless and formless. Although they are not truly formless like water and fire, they can be arbitrarily assembled into anything, which can be used for both attack and defense, and can be used to perform unpredictable changes.
The main material of Heavenly Star Sand is Heavenly Star Stone, plus other gold and earth attribute materials. It is refined.
Heavenly Star Stone is actually a kind of star stone with magnetic force, which belongs to star fragments and is a very precious spiritual mineral. However, if you look carefully and spend some time, you can still find it.
The power of Heavenly Star Sand actually does not depend on Heavenly Star Stone, but also on the matching materials. If the matching materials have special properties, the power exerted will be different.
The black sand grains in Zhang Ling's hand can absorb spiritual power and become extremely heavy. The material itself is special, impervious to water and fire and not easily destroyed. If it is refined and added with several kinds of gold and earth attribute materials, even if there are no special magical powers, the single physical attack power will be extremely strong.
In addition, this treasure is not afraid of slashing, which can be said to restrain sword-like magical artifacts in some ways.
After deciding on this matter, he began to prepare. First, he carefully studied the refining method of Heavenly Star Sand several times.
At the same time, he also consulted a large number of classics, looking for gold and earth attribute materials, and studying what materials could be combined with black sand grains.
During this time, Zhang Ling also went to Myriad Manifestation City and posted several tasks in several places where rewards could be issued to search for special gold and earth attribute materials, as well as Heavenly Star Stone.
After returning to the cave dwelling, he began to refine these black sand grains.
These black sand dust are inherently hard and cannot be destroyed, but this material can still be processed.
In the cultivation world, there is actually a simplest method to deal with this kind of extremely hard and difficult-to-handle material, which is to feed this kind of material with the blood refining method. As long as one's own blood essence can be integrated into these materials, a preliminary refining can be obtained.
This method belongs to the magic path's method of refining treasures. It consumes a lot of blood essence, but the effect is also the best. It is said that anything can be refined.
