Chapter 160: The Flood Dragon Armor is Forged

Deep within the Rat Garden, a figure as large as a calf materialized. Rat Tianjiao half-closed its eyes, continuously inhaling and exhaling the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. At this moment, its belly was severely distended, resembling a fiery crucible refining various ores of gold, silver, copper, and iron.

During this period, to aid its cultivation, the Taiping Sect had specially gathered a considerable number of spiritual ores. Although none were of exceptionally rare varieties, they remained immensely important to Rat Tianjiao, who was currently in the Inspiration Realm, saving it a vast amount of energy.

At a certain moment, the essence of the ores permeated its limbs and bones, and Rat Tianjiao abruptly opened its eyes.

"Melt gold and temper the form..."

Driving its cultivation technique to the absolute limit, Rat Tianjiao opened its mouth and inhaled deeply.

In an instant, rolling spiritual energy poured into its body, undergoing continuous transformation until it finally birthed a wisp of pale golden, wondrous true qi. This was the unique Gold-Melting Qi exclusive to the royal bloodline of the Gold-Gnawing Rat clan, possessing profoundly mysterious properties in the smelting of various metal ores.

For ordinary cultivators, extracting spiritual ores was actually an extremely time-consuming and energy-draining task, usually requiring the aid of a smithing furnace. However, the Gold-Gnawing Rat royal family had no such need; they could directly extract metal spiritual ores using their Gold-Melting Qi.

Powerful Gold-Gnawing Rats could even rely on a single breath of true qi to directly refine the metal ores of an entire vein, operating at an efficiency far surpassing that of ordinary cultivators.

With a roar, as the true qi formed, Rat Tianjiao's aura underwent a drastic change. Every single hair on its body stood on end, radiating a brilliant silver light, while its two golden fangs appeared exceptionally dazzling.

"It is done."

Outside the Rat Garden, sensing this change, a smile appeared on Jiang Chen's face.

Having completed its bloodline transformation, its cultivation speed had surged greatly, and with sufficient resources provided, Rat Tianjiao had finally taken this crucial step today. With this, the Taiping Sect had gained yet another combat force at the Qi Refinement level.

"Since Rat Tianjiao has successfully advanced to Qi Refinement, the plans for Changfeng County can indeed commence."

With this thought arising, Jiang Chen turned and left. He only needed to confirm that Rat Tianjiao had successfully broken through; having just advanced to Qi Refinement, Rat Tianjiao still needed to spend some time consolidating its cultivation foundation.

As Jiang Chen departed, Rat Tianjiao seemed to sense it, casting a glance in the direction he left. It then suppressed the restlessness in its heart and plunged completely into deep seclusion. Just like that, the Taiping Sect had gained yet another Qi Refinement-level beast.

The leaking of aura during Rat Tianjiao's breakthrough had attracted the attention of a few individuals, but thanks to Jiang Chen's gag order, the matter did not spread further.

"It is time to begin!"

Returning to the Spirit Cave with a tranquil mind, Jiang Chen retrieved a set of flood dragon bones, which were the remnants left behind by the Mist Flood Dragon.

"The grade of these flood dragon bones is not particularly high, and it would be a pity to use them alone for weapon crafting. However, they contain a trace of the essence of a pure-blood flood dragon. If they can be integrated into the Flood Dragon Water-Covering Armor and combined with those Tier 2 flood dragon bones, it will surely further enhance the potential of the armor, granting it a higher probability of evolving into a spiritual tool in the future."

Circulating his technique, Jiang Chen cast the flood dragon bones left by the Mist Flood Dragon into the Weapon Pool.

The next instant, a flood dragon roared as two silhouettes, one black and one white, emerged within the Weapon Pool. The black one represented the Flood Dragon Water-Covering Armor, while the white one represented the Mist Flood Dragon bones.

"Refine!"

Taking in all these changes, Jiang Chen drove the White Bone Weapon-Sacrificing Art to its absolute limit.

With a splashing sound, the Weapon Pool churned. Influenced by Jiang Chen's technique, the black and white flood dragons instantly began to battle fiercely within the pool, entangling and biting each other, each attempting to devour the other.

After seven days and seven nights of combat, both the black and white flood dragons exuded a dense baleful aura, temporarily causing the entire Weapon Pool to vibrate violently. Yet at that very moment, a green lotus swayed, absorbing the baleful aura and naturally smoothing away the turbulence of the pool.

Seeing this, Jiang Chen glanced briefly at the main body of the green lotus, noticing that the twelve lotus seeds nurtured within its seed pod were growing increasingly plump.

"Having this green lotus here saves me a considerable amount of effort."

Seeing that the fierce and baleful Qi of the black and white flood dragons had been fully stimulated, Jiang Chen knew the timing was ripe and triggered a new change.

At that very moment, the black dragon's aura surged dramatically as it locked its jaws onto the white dragon's neck. Within moments, it completely devoured the white dragon.

Upon consuming the white dragon, the essence of the black dragon immediately began to undergo a transformation.

With a fierce roar, its savagery erupted, seemingly giving birth to a trace of subtle sentience. The black dragon fixed its gaze upon Jiang Chen, as if attempting to leap out of the Weapon Pool and swallow him in one gulp.

"Sentience born. It now appears that this magical artifact indeed possesses the potential to become a spiritual tool, having even taken a very subtle step forward. However, this artifact is a lethal weapon of slaughter; ordinary people would not find it easy to wield."

Detecting the faint trace of sentience born within the black dragon, ripples stirred in Jiang Chen's heart.

The greatest difference between a spiritual tool and a magical artifact is that a spiritual tool possesses sentience. Relying precisely on this sentience, they can more easily rouse the energy of heaven and earth to unleash formidable power. After fusing with the Mist Flood Dragon bones, the Flood Dragon Water-Covering Armor had indeed birthed a faint trace of sentience.

Yet, due to the crafting method and the primary materials, this trace of sentience was rather malevolent, turning it into a tool of slaughter. Nevertheless, as an instrument of destruction, this was not necessarily a bad thing.

"Disperse!"

With killing intent in his heart, Jiang Chen looked at the black dragon displaying blatant malice and pointed a finger downward.

With a mournful howl, facing Jiang Chen's Profound Slaughter Finger, that trace of rudimentary sentience within the black dragon had no ability to resist and was instantly shattered. In a flash, the silhouette of the black dragon dissolved, leaving behind only a round, glittering white bone bead that floated up and down in the Weapon Pool, emitting a faint baleful aura.

Witnessing this, Jiang Chen reached out and grabbed the white bone bead directly into his palm. This was the true core of the Flood Dragon Water-Covering Armor. Once refined, channeling its power would cloak the wielder in a white bone flood dragon armor, summoning the strength of a flood dragon to imbue the body and granting the freedom to move through rivers and seas, excelling supremely in water dominion.

"A full one hundred legal restrictions! It seems the integration of the Mist Flood Dragon bones has indeed further unlocked the potential of this artifact."

Observing closely, a trace of pleasant surprise surfaced on Jiang Chen's face.

In Elder Ash-Bone's original plan, the Flood Dragon Water-Covering Armor could barely generate seventy-two restrictions, and stepping into the ranks of high-grade magical artifacts would already be considered quite good. After all, with his methods, refining a high-grade magical artifact was somewhat straining, and he relied mostly on the superior essence of that Tier 2 flood dragon bone.

Building upon this foundation, although Jiang Chen had constructed a superior Weapon Pool, he had not expected to elevate the quality of the Flood Dragon Water-Covering Armor further based on this alone. After all, the time he had spent engaging with the Dao of Weapon Crafting was not exceptionally long. Under such circumstances, the armor birthing one hundred restrictions was genuinely a pleasant surprise.

"One hundred and eight legal restrictions in total... A Flood Dragon Water-Covering Armor with one hundred restrictions is already a rare treasure among high-grade magical artifacts. After a period of further tempering, evolving into a top-grade magical artifact will be entirely natural."

Sensing the essence of the Flood Dragon Water-Covering Armor, the delight on Jiang Chen's face grew even more profound.