Chapter 161 Natal Magical Artifact

High above the clouds and mist, an azure flood dragon thrashed about wantonly.

Ten zhang in length, its face was entirely covered by bone armor, revealing only a pair of deep blue eyes. Between its claws and along its back, numerous bone spurs sprouted, presenting a ferocious appearance. A faint, deathly white chill lingered around its entire body, resembling a layer of armor that protected it from harm.

With a single thought, the flood dragon plunged into the water, instantly stirring the entire river surface and forming a massive whirlpool.

"With the enhancement of the Flood Dragon Water-Overwhelming Armor, my control over the river's power has grown even stronger."

Triggering mighty waves with a mere movement of his mind, Jiang Chen clearly felt his own changes. While the Flood Dragon Water-Overwhelming Armor granted him formidable physical strength, it also heightened his mastery over the river currents. Even the cloud-riding technique and the cold light spell received amplifications; it could be said to be an all-around enhancement.

Compared to the intermediate-grade Tide-Born Fan, this magical artifact provided a vastly greater boost to the Mist Flood Dragon.

"Cold light!"

As his power flowed according to his will and his spirit soared, Jiang Chen activated the Mist Flood Dragon's most lethal technique, the Cold Light Spell. After practicing for this period, he had already advanced this spell to the minor completion stage, and it was not far from major completion.

Crack, crack, crack. The flood dragon breathed out, and a deep blue cold light bloomed at the bottom of the river. The previously spinning, ceaseless whirlpool was frozen instantly. At this moment, the flow of the entire river seemed to stagnate.

Taking in all these changes, Jiang Chen was quite satisfied.

"Although the spell tier is somewhat low, with the enhancement of the Flood Dragon Water-Overwhelming Armor, the power of this strike should be in the uppermost tier of the Qi Refining major completion stage. Of course, the credit also goes to those two portions of Frost Spiritual Water."

"After refining those two portions of spiritual water, the Mist Flood Dragon's ascending cloud breath has gained an additional trace of bone-chilling coldness."

With thoughts turning in his mind and the power of the flood dragon surging through him, Jiang Chen whipped his tail, instantly shattering the solid ice.

At this moment, the previously stagnated river water resumed its normal flow once again.

Witnessing this scene, Jiang Chen slowly reined in his power. The coldness surrounding his body gradually faded, and the bone armor on his face and the spurs on his back began to recede. Although the Flood Dragon Water-Overwhelming Armor had not been refined for long and was a ferocious weapon difficult to control, he—or rather, the Mist Flood Dragon—wielded it with complete mastery.

"Their auras are of the same origin, as if they were one. This Flood Dragon Water-Overwhelming Armor truly possesses the bearing of a natal magical artifact."

Pacifying all strange phenomena and reflecting upon himself, Jiang Chen felt a wave of admiration as he gazed at the white bone bead within the Mist Flood Dragon's body.

Through continuous testing over this period, he had confirmed that the Mist Flood Dragon had completely mastered the power of the Flood Dragon Water-Overwhelming Armor and had even drawn it into its body—a characteristic unique to natal magical artifacts.

Once a magical artifact entered the body, every session of a cultivator's practice served to nourish and refine it, allowing the artifact to grow alongside the cultivator. This was known as a natal artifact. The Impermanence Sect's natal demon skins had originally been inspired by the concept of natal artifacts, though they were simplified using their own characteristics, allowing practitioners of the Impermanence Sect to possess an alternative type of natal magical artifact even during the Qi Refining stage.

One must know that under normal circumstances, a Qi Refining cultivator could never possess a natal magical artifact; that was a characteristic exclusive to high-tier cultivators.

"The Flood Dragon Water-Overwhelming Armor is fused with the bones of the Mist Flood Dragon; it is inherently one with the dragon skin itself. This is perhaps the fundamental reason why the armor could be easily controlled by the Mist Flood Dragon and even transformed into a natal artifact. After all, the two are identical at their roots."

"A similar case can be found with the Old Man of Black and White and their black and white magical swords. However, the demon skin possessed by the Old Man of Black and White is merely a lifeless object, and the core remains human at best. They can only use the demon skin to lower the difficulty of refining their magical swords, falling far short of the Mist Flood Dragon's level."

With thoughts swirling in his mind, Jiang Chen pondered matters related to natal magical artifacts. He keenly noticed that after refining the Flood Dragon Water-Overwhelming Armor, the speed at which the Mist Flood Dragon cultivated on its own was much faster than before, obviously driven by the natal artifact.

"Perhaps the Mist Flood Dragon will truly reach the Great Circle of Qi Refining before long. If that happens, it will be a good thing for me."

"It is only a pity that although it is a natal demon skin, the Mist Flood Dragon currently seems unable to feed back into my own cultivation realm."

Shaking his head and pulling back his mind while maintaining the flood dragon form, Jiang Chen sped away along the riverbed. When he reappeared, he had already entered the water vein node.

"The spiritual Qi has recovered quite a bit."

Shedding the flood dragon body and returning to human form, Jiang Chen carefully sensed the changes in spiritual Qi within the node space and nodded. After some time, the spiritual Qi in the node space had recovered by about fifty percent.

"Compared to Bewitching Bay, the spiritual pool here is much more suitable for the growth of those high-quality Cold Star Clams. Although Bewitching Bay is blessed with a chilling yin force, the spiritual Qi is ultimately a bit too thin, and Taoyao currently focuses most of her energy on the western slope, unable to attend to that place for the time being."

Thoughts turning in his mind, Jiang Chen opened his storage bag and placed the carefully selected Cold Star Clams into the spiritual pool. These were all high-quality Cold Star Clams; if nurtured well, they could produce the first-tier spiritual resource, Cold Marrow Liquid.

Squeak, squeak, squeak. As the Cold Star Clams entered the water and were stimulated by the rushing spiritual Qi, they instantly became lively.

Seeing this scene, Jiang Chen smiled.

This spiritual pool was connected to the water veins of the Qingyuan River, and the river's vapor was abundant, providing an excellent nourishing effect for any water-attribute spiritual objects.

"Cold Star Clams favor the cold. If there is an opportunity in the future, I can set up an ice-attribute formation here. For now, I can only use some minor tricks to cope temporarily."

With true Qi surging, Jiang Chen took out a massive profound ice stone and tossed it into the spiritual pool. This was obtained together with the Frost Spiritual Water back then, and that was not the end of it. As the profound ice stone entered the water, Jiang Chen channeled the power of the Mist Flood Dragon.

The next instant, cold light bloomed, enveloping the entire spiritual pool. With the profound ice stone as the core, rolling chills converged, ultimately forming a miniature ice mountain within the spiritual pool—pure white on the outside, with wisps of deep blue pulsing within.

For a time, cold air overflowed, and the temperature of the entire node space dropped significantly.

Feeling this change, the Cold Star Clams became even more active, swarming toward the miniature ice mountain to build their small nests there.

Taking in all these changes, Jiang Chen nodded in satisfaction.

"With such a good place, the growth rate of these Cold Star Clams should quicken considerably."

"The reason Gao Siyuan was able to easily refine his Azure Serpent Whip all the way up, apart from the whip's good intrinsic quality, was precisely because he had enough Cold Marrow Liquid at his disposal."

"If there is enough Cold Marrow Liquid, the Mist Flood Dragon's refinement of the Flood Dragon Water-Overwhelming Armor will be even easier, and a top-grade magical artifact is within reach."

Observing closely to confirm that the Cold Star Clams had no abnormalities, Jiang Chen turned and left the water vein node. He had originally intended to raise spiritual fish in the spiritual pool here, but lacking suitable fish species for the time being, rather than leaving it empty, it was better to use it to cultivate the high-demand Cold Star Clams.