Jie Ming temporarily set aside the myriad thoughts swirling in his mind, turning his attention to another matter.
At the critical moment of forging the Mysterious Astral Mortal Dust Barrier, a dazzling light that transcended the boundary between illusion and reality had granted him the opportunity to reforge his natal treasure.
The Light of Creation—the final core material needed to reforge the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror.
The materials required to reforge the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror were not complex, merely various concepts of light.
Jie Ming had long since gathered the other materials, but the most crucial one, the Light of Creation, had eluded him.
It wasn’t until the moment the Mysterious Astral Mortal Dust Barrier was completed, bursting with radiant light, that Jie Ming had an epiphany.
The so-called Light of Creation represented the instant of genesis from nothingness—the primal light of life’s spark, perceptible and capturable only in the moment of extreme energy convergence.
Though the crafting process for the Mysterious Astral Mortal Dust Barrier was simple, its materials were far from “low-end,” enabling it to unleash the Light of Creation upon completion.
With a gesture, the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror, quietly suspended deep within his dantian, responded to his call and emerged.
After years of refinement, this treasure no longer radiated the ostentatious aura it had when first forged. It now resembled an unremarkable, ancient bronze mirror, plain and unassuming.“The Light of Creation is in hand. It seems today is your moment of destiny as well,” Jie Ming murmured, gazing at the mirror.
The bronze mirror emitted a faint glow in response, as if expressing its own joy.
Due to the unique materials used in its creation, the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror inherently possessed a quality that bridged the tangible and intangible.
Its true core was an aggregate of illusory light concepts.
This unique composition allowed it to be repeatedly reforged through a refining method known as “Turn.”
Each “Turn” significantly enhanced the treasure’s quality and power.
One reforging was a “First Turn,” two was a “Second Turn.” The higher the turn count, the stronger the treasure.
Over the years, Jie Ming had never neglected refining the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror.
He nourished it daily with his pure true essence and periodically polished its spirituality with the qi of mortal dust.
These efforts not only deepened its bond with his soul but also elevated its spirituality to the level required to bear higher concepts, ready for its First Turn.
Cultivation hinged on seizing opportunities. Seeing the timing was perfect, Jie Ming restored some of his true essence, sat cross-legged, and suspended the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror before him.
Taking a deep breath to calm his mind, he entered a serene state of artifact refining.
His mental energy surged like a tide, enveloping the treasure completely.
“Disperse!”
With a low command, his fingers traced intricate patterns in the air, forming complex runic arrays.
These runes, inscribed directly into the void, shimmered and resonated with the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror.
Guided by his mental energy and runes, the mirror began to hum and tremble. Its bronze form grew blurry and distorted.
With a soft puff, the mirror’s physical shape dissolved into the air, leaving only five pure streams of rainbow light floating before Jie Ming.
This was the first step: shedding its mundane form to reveal its essence.
Next was reshaping.
Jie Ming retrieved the various light-concept materials he had prepared and cast them toward the rainbow lights.
Under his refining technique, the mirror’s core began to split and reassemble.
The new materials were swiftly absorbed by the rainbow lights, which, under Jie Ming’s control, rapidly coalesced into the shape of a mirror.
Yet, no matter how they condensed, the lights couldn’t regain form or substance.
The final, most critical step awaited.
Jie Ming carefully guided the Light of Creation, captured during the forging of the Mysterious Astral Mortal Dust Barrier, to the center of the glowing mirror.
The Light of Creation, carrying the wondrous essence of genesis from nothingness, merged with the core of light concepts.
The fusion was not seamless.
Each light concept had unique properties, attracting and repelling one another.
When the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror was first forged, it contained five light concepts. Now, with Jie Ming’s additions, the number had doubled, increasing their conflicts.
As the Light of Creation merged, the five light clusters trembled violently, their glow flickering as if on the verge of collapse.
Jie Ming’s true essence and mental energy were consumed at a frantic pace. He adjusted the runic arrays, maintaining energy balance, using his will to resolve the conflicts and guide them toward fusion.
Fortunately, his prior successful forging gave him experience, making it manageable.
“Fuse!” Jie Ming growled, pressing the final wisp of Light of Creation into the core.
Instantly, the five light clusters contracted sharply, then erupted in an unprecedentedly brilliant radiance, sparked by the central Light of Creation!
Jie Ming’s eyes gleamed. He freed one hand and cast a technique on the radiant light.
Guided by the technique, another identical Light of Creation coalesced in his hand.
This was the terrifying power of conceptual materials—they could self-generate and even multiply from nothing.
With this Light of Creation, gathering materials for a Second Turn would be far easier.
As the radiance faded, the ancient bronze mirror slowly reappeared.
Jie Ming felt a wave of exhaustion. The forging hadn’t taken long, but the mental strain was immense.
Looking at the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror in his palm, a joyful smile spread across his face.
“First Turn… success!”
He recalled the mirror, and it merged back into his body, perfectly aligned with his soul.
He could clearly sense a qualitative transformation within the treasure.
The most significant enhancement of the First Turn Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror was its improved escape capabilities.
After briefly examining the mirror, Jie Ming eagerly headed to the Infernal Sulfur Plane.
“Here… will do…”
After studying the survey map provided by the “construction team” for a long time, Jie Ming chose a spot near a lava lake for testing.
The area was devoid of life, perfect for experimentation.
Closing his eyes, Jie Ming communed with the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror, receiving detailed information.
Beyond enhanced basic abilities, the First Turn mirror had a critical new advantage.
Or rather, a new safeguard!
Through the mirror’s feedback, Jie Ming learned he could now apply shields to himself before activating its light-transformation ability.
During the transformation, these shields would also “turn to light,” merging into his transformed light form.
When the transformation ended and his body reformed, the shields would reconstitute, remaining active!
This meant that when escaping via light-transformation, he wouldn’t be left defenseless during the vulnerable post-transformation period. The shields provided an extra layer of protection.
At critical moments, this could buy him precious time, preventing enemies from exploiting his weakness.
A tremendous advancement!
Without hesitation, Jie Ming used a fourth-level artifact to apply a shield, then channeled his true essence to activate the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror’s light-transformation ability.
“Transform to Light!”
His body instantly became pure light, crossing the lava lake at a speed beyond mortal sight.
Jie Ming felt his light-transformation state was more stable, allowing him to sustain it longer with the same amount of true essence!
Boom!
The transformation ended abruptly, and Jie Ming crashed headlong into a volcano, shattering its wall and plunging into molten lava.
Rumble…
The already volatile volcano erupted under the impact, spewing black smoke and searing lava from the breach, adding more ash to the Infernal Sulfur Plane’s already polluted air.
After a moment, a hand emerged from the lava lake, grasping the nearby rock.
Jie Ming climbed out, his shield faintly flickering as lava slid off it.
“Sigh… I got too excited too soon.”
Ignoring the intense heat below, Jie Ming sat on the volcano’s rim, looking at his flickering energy shield with a rueful sigh.
He should’ve realized that light-transformation was a function of the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror, and every ability had its “power limit.”
As a natal treasure of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, freshly advanced to First Turn, maintaining a fourth-level shield was overly ambitious.
During transformation, most of the fourth-level shield’s energy dissipated, nearly failing to maintain its form upon reconstitution.
“It seems the limit for shields during light-transformation is second-level at this stage. Higher-level shields destabilize both the shield and the transformation duration.”
Feeling a bit greedy, Jie Ming shook his head. “Oh well. I’ll only use light-transformation in dire situations, so I can’t be too picky. Escaping farther is the priority, and that’s improved significantly.”
By his calculations, without the fourth-level shield’s interference, he could’ve sustained the transformation a moment longer.
Compared to before, the First Turn Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror doubled the transformation duration for the same true essence and mental energy, doubling his escape distance.
For a Foundation Establishment cultivator, light-transformation already allowed a thousand-mile leap in an instant. Doubling that meant even third-tier beings couldn’t catch him.
“Unexpectedly, body refinement brought extra benefits. It’s truly a path focused on combat, with remarkable adaptability to negative conditions.”
Feeling the emptiness of depleted true essence and the stabbing pain from exhausted mental energy, Jie Ming clenched his fist, a flicker of astonishment in his eyes.
He turned to the rock wall he’d gripped and smashed it with a punch.
Boom!
The calming volcano roared back to life, a powerful force erupting within. A figure burst through the lava and rock.
Crash…
The figure landed, scattering dense lava like water.
Standing unprotected in flowing lava, Jie Ming looked at his body with excitement.
He hadn’t expected body refinement to yield such benefits.
His robust physique prevented the post-transformation weakness he’d experienced in prior tests, leaving him with strength for basic self-defense.
Though his mental energy and true essence were drained, his powerful body allowed him to stand firm and even engage in simple combat, providing a double layer of security.
As his mental energy rapidly recovered, Jie Ming’s satisfaction grew. “A strong body is indeed valuable. It not only gives me self-defense after transformation but also speeds up mental energy recovery… I should focus more on body refinement going forward.”
…
Satisfied with testing the First Turn Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror’s enhancements, Jie Ming waited for some mental energy to recover before activating a teleportation device to return to his laboratory.
Over the next few days, he focused on refining the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror.
While stabilizing its new state, he further enhanced its already impressive spirituality.
Sitting in a chair, Jie Ming watched the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror float outside his body, circling him playfully like a pet with its master.
Observing its state, he stroked his chin, musing, “The First Turn has elevated its spirituality to what could be called spiritual intelligence. It’s time to test an old idea.”
The First Turn Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror exuded an unprecedented liveliness within him.
It was no longer just a medium or tool but akin to a “living being” with independent thought.
Though its “intelligence” was low, comparable to a low-tier creature with mere instincts, as a treasure, it possessed immense computational power.
With this nascent spiritual intelligence, the mirror could now judge and act on Jie Ming’s intentions.
This discovery reignited an old idea: if the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror could independently control other runic artifacts, could he delegate their operation to it, freeing his focus and even achieving a degree of automated combat assistance?
Achieving automated combat had three challenges. First, the mirror’s spirituality, now sufficient after the First Turn.
Second, connecting the mirror to runic artifacts for direct control, a hurdle he’d overcome while studying reconnaissance runic artifacts.
The final challenge was how the mirror would “activate” runic artifacts.
Runic artifacts required slightly more mental energy than equivalent artifacts, and the issue was that the mirror lacked a soul to generate mental energy!
Fortunately, on the Elosia Plane, Jie Ming found the key: the Divine Faith Network.
With this, the final piece of the puzzle was in place, leaving only the assembly.
Jie Ming retrieved an attack-type runic artifact from his inner space, suspending it before him. He wove a “network” with his mental energy, extending it like a probe toward the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror.
“Since the mirror lacks mental energy, I’ll simulate the Divine Faith Network to grant it access to mine, allowing it to control this attack runic artifact.”
He adapted the energy transmission structure of the Divine Faith Network into a mental energy network, enabling the mirror, already attuned to his will, to draw his mental energy as needed.
The mirror responded instantly, its five light clusters flickering faintly. An invisible ripple spread, connecting to Jie Ming’s mental sea and extracting a wisp of pure mental energy.
This energy didn’t flow directly to the runic artifact but was first processed and guided by the mirror, then linked to the crystal-like attack runic artifact.
“Test: attack the target,” Jie Ming commanded.
The crystal runic artifact trembled, then fired a brilliant elemental beam, precisely striking a preset target on the lab wall.
“Success!” Jie Ming’s eyes gleamed with pride.
He hadn’t controlled it himself—the mirror, receiving his intent, had drawn his authorized mental energy and, with its unique spirituality, activated the runic artifact.
This meant the mirror could “think” and “execute,” independently handling combat tasks even while he performed complex sorcery.
Proving his idea’s feasibility, Jie Ming dove into the next phase.
He gathered a pile of metal materials and, after consulting the Magic Network, began crafting self-suspending, autonomous metal platforms.
Designed as sleek, rhomboid pillars with streamlined shapes to reduce air resistance, they were intricately engraved with flight and gravity arrays.
The flight arrays provided continuous lift and thrust for agile hovering and movement.
The gravity arrays ensured absolute stability, unaffected by external air currents.
Jie Ming carried a corresponding gravity component, allowing the platforms to maintain a subtle gravitational link, enhancing their ability to follow his movements.
To give the platforms independent energy sources, he embedded high-quality energy crystals purchased from the Magic Network.
These artificial crystals, simplified versions of elemental pools, steadily powered the platforms’ arrays, enabling long-term operation without Jie Ming’s energy input.
He then retrieved various attack-type runic artifacts from his inner space, crafted in batches during recent refining practice.
Realizing his inner space allowed him to “have it all,” he saw no need to limit his attack strategies.
Whether energy bolts, elemental beams, or traditional fireball or lightning spells, he could stockpile them.
For firing speed and ease of control, he selected several beam-firing runic artifacts.
Each was delicately embedded on the four faces of a rhomboid pillar, giving each pillar four attack runic artifacts.
Jie Ming crafted six such pillars, each an independent firepoint.
Once completed and fitted with runic artifacts, he used his Eye of Reconnaissance as a medium to deeply link these “weapon platforms” to the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror.
This allowed the mirror to autonomously control the runic artifacts, while the Eye of Reconnaissance added “vision” to the combat system.
The mirror’s spirituality flickered again.
It adeptly processed the influx of data, constructing a 3D model of the surroundings.
With its enhanced spirituality, it analyzed potential threats while building the map, directing the six pillars to coordinate combat based on Jie Ming’s preset logic.
When Jie Ming activated the system in the lab’s center, the six slender rhomboid pillars silently rose behind him, hovering in a stable array like six swords pointing in all directions. Each pillar’s front bore four faintly glowing crystal runic artifacts.
Their surfaces shimmered with energy traces from the flight and gravity arrays, powered by the energy crystals.
Jie Ming observed his new combat system.
Taking a few steps forward, the six pillars followed silently, maintaining their relative positions perfectly.
“Attack all moving objects.”
He commanded, releasing several elemental-energy targets that shot out from a distance.
The instant the targets appeared, the six pillars reacted.
Their crystal runic artifacts lit up, firing dozens of beams like a laser net, instantly vaporizing the targets with precision.
The process was fluid and swift, without delay.
Jie Ming, watching the display, smiled with satisfaction. “This system’s reaction speed is faster than mine… Is it because the mirror’s essence includes the concept of swiftness?”
After pacing the lab, observing the vigilant pillars floating behind him, he murmured, “This system can truly be called Autonomous Floating Cannons.”