Chapter 1290: Doushuai Eight Scenic Lanterns Level Six (Supplementary Update)

"Here are ten Wuchang Talismans," Dong Tai said, taking a stack from his wide sleeve and placing them on the table. Seeing that Chen Mobai wasn't buying the other six Heavenly Venerate scrolls, Dong Tai didn't press the sale further. "If you ever need any information in the future, fellow Daoist, you can contact us anytime. If you don't need them yourself, you can give them to your disciples. Wuchang Zhai handles intelligence transactions for Tier 5 and above."

"Thank you, Lord," Chen Mobai replied, rising to see Dong Tai off. Dong Tai waved his hand dismissively, then with a swipe of his ceremonial tablet, a void portal emanating yin energy appeared before them. After Dong Tai stepped into it and vanished, the Black and White Wuchang also bid Chen Mobai farewell.

"I'd like to inquire about the price of some less crucial information," Chen Mobai called out, stopping them. The Black and White Wuchang, whose forms were on the verge of dissipating, immediately halted and nodded respectfully. "Please speak, Senior," they replied. Chen Mobai then asked about True Lord Suiyu, True Lord Yiyuan, and the Changsheng Cult.

"Information concerning ascended cultivators requires the Lord's intervention to unlock the relevant scrolls," they explained. "For True Lord Suiyu, ordinary Tier 6 knowledge is sufficient. True Lord Yiyuan, however, is a Void Refinement cultivator closest to Dao integration, so the price will be slightly higher." They continued, "There are a total of 176 scrolls related to the Changsheng Cult. One scroll can be unlocked with ordinary Tier 5 intelligence, which we can approve. However, the final two scrolls require Tier 6 knowledge and the Lord's approval." They also clarified in advance, "Most of the content related to the Heavenly Venerate within the Changsheng Cult scrolls has been removed and placed in the Heavenly Venerate's own scrolls, to prevent you from being disappointed if you purchase them excitedly and find they don't contain what you're looking for."

To Chen Mobai, these prices weren't particularly high, as he had already grasped the classification of knowledge. However, he needed to carefully consider exactly which knowledge he could sell to Wuchang Zhai and which he could not. So, after inquiring about the prices, Chen Mobai nodded and waved his hand, signaling the Black and White Wuchang that they could depart.

"Farewell, Senior, until fate allows us to meet again," the two ghost cultivators politely stated. As they were manifested here as spiritual bodies, their disappearance was simple: they dissolved into two wisps of black smoke and merged into the earth.

Chen Mobai stood on the barren mountain for a while, recalling the contents of the Heavenly Venerate's scrolls. He waited until the sun set before waving his hand to erase all traces of Wuchang Zhai from the area, then returned to Huozhen Immortal City, filled with worry. Originally, he had viewed the reconstruction of the Cycle of Life and Death as a bystander, indifferent to its success or failure. But now, having learned the truth, it seemed he might not be able to avoid involvement. After all, in the eyes of discerning individuals, he should lend his aid, even if the probability of the Heavenly Venerate's awakening and return wasn't high. If only he had known, he wouldn't have read the scrolls. However, since things had come to this, he could only let nature take its course, for he truly didn't know what the situation would be like after the Cycle of Life and Death was reformed.

With this thought, Chen Mobai's mind found peace again, and he began the process of upgrading the Doushuai Eight Scenery Lamp, which had been stalled at the peak of Tier 5 for a long time. Regardless of anything else, strengthening himself and his sect was undoubtedly the right path.

From the storage bag provided by Zhang Pankong, he retrieved three boxes containing Tier 6 Purple Fire Gold Copper, White Glass Sky Crystal, and Nine Yang True Fire Stone. With these materials, combined with the Tier 6 lamp wick he had refined long ago from the heart of the Sun God Tree, all the necessary components for the Doushuai Eight Scenery Lamp's advancement were now complete.

Compared to other Tier 6 artifacts like the Yuan Yang Sword, Purple Lightning Sword, Hunyuan Bell, and Haotian Mirror, this lamp was something Chen Mobai had personally refined from beginning to end. Although it was currently not very useful to him, his emotional attachment was different. In Chen Mobai's view, only by elevating this lamp to Tier 6 could he truly establish himself in the realm of Tier 6 artificers. As the Doushuai Eight Scenery Lamp was destined to become a legacy token for the Xiaonanshan lineage, Chen Mobai called Zhuo Ming to assist him during this refinement. Under Chen Mobai's tutelage, Zhuo Ming had already achieved some success in the art of artifact refinement; with her foundation from refining the Myriad Creations Fortune Cauldron, she was theoretically considered a Tier 5 artificer.

Chen Mobai chose the moment when the day's yang energy was most concentrated to begin the upgrade. He sat at the vent where true earth core fire surged, summoning forth the artifact: a long-handled, circular lamp, entirely purple-gold, with a shade resembling blooming crystal petals. Through the shade, one could see the central wisp of purple-green flame burning on the wick, constantly flickering and brimming with spiritual essence. This was the spirit of the flame, and also the spirit of the artifact.

Chen Mobai's mind was deeply focused. Even without the Can Tong Qi technique, he could easily achieve resonance with the Doushuai Eight Scenery Lamp. However, possessing the Can Tong Qi allowed him to upgrade it without fundamentally altering the artifact. As time passed, the Doushuai Eight Scenery Lamp's flame spirit burned more intensely. This was due to the infusion of Chen Mobai's Dao power, as it began to absorb the three Tier 6 materials suspended around it, replacing the lower-tier materials within the artifact.

Gradually, the Doushuai spirit emitted an unprecedented dazzling radiance. It pierced through the lamp's shade and shot skyward, its brilliant light breaking through the night sky and illuminating Huozhen Immortal City as if it were day. This spectacle naturally alarmed many artificers within the immortal city. From the warm, vibrant glow, they sensed an unprecedented level of artifact spirituality. Previously, Chen Mobai had refined Tier 5 artifacts in Huozhen Immortal City, but the light from those was far inferior to the current display. *Could it be Tier 6?!* Realizing this, these artificers could no longer restrain themselves and rushed to the vicinity of Chen Mobai's refining chamber. Although the area was separated by tall walls and protected by a grand formation, the closer they got, the more active and rapidly growing spirituality they could feel, hoping to perhaps comprehend a method for cultivating artifact spirits from it.

The Doushuai Eight Scenery Lamp's phenomenon lasted for a full eight years. It was only then that Chen Mobai truly understood the difficulty of refining a new Tier 6 artifact. Previously, both the Yuan Yang Sword and the Purple Lightning Sword had benefited from good fortune and inherent spirituality, being just on the verge of breakthrough. Thus, after receiving the entrustment of relevant Dao principles, they quickly succeeded in advancing. However, the Doushuai Eight Scenery Lamp's spirituality was cultivated by Chen Mobai himself from scratch, by integrating Doushuai Fire. Even compared to the Haotian Mirror, which had the shallowest foundation, it was still significantly inferior. The Haotian Mirror's successful advancement was mainly due to the fragments of the Heavenly Phoenix Mirror left by Daoist Dan Ding, which were Tier 7 raw materials; even then, it took twenty years. This time, Chen Mobai fully immersed himself in resonance with the Doushuai Eight Scenery Lamp, bringing forth all his artifact refining skills, which allowed him to successfully elevate it within eight years.

After the three Tier 6 materials were fully integrated, the flame spirit, shining through the lamp's shade, emitted substantial light patterns that spread across the entire lamp and its base. The lamp's light was exceptionally bright at this moment, like a brilliant star descending upon Huozhen Immortal City.

Many Nascent Soul cultivators from the Five Elements Sect were nearby, including Yan Huo of Yiyuan Dao Palace. He already had a residence here, and after gathering the Tier 5 materials he needed, he had been waiting at the entrance of the refining chamber, hoping Chen Mobai would refine it as soon as he had time. When he realized Chen Mobai was refining a Tier 6 artifact, he felt it was a once-in-a-millennium opportunity and remained by its side for eight years without leaving. Now, he had finally seen the clouds part and the moon shine through.

Above, upon the star formed by the lamp's light, eight faintly discernible scenes emerged. Upon closer inspection, one could clearly see the rotation of the four seasons and the cycle of solar terms: some depicting blossoming spring flowers, others rumbling summer thunder, crisp autumn air, or vast winter snow, along with other natural phenomena like morning fog and frost, and rainbows after rain. Each scene interwoven, together forming a miniature yet atmospherically complete world.

Once all eight Doushuai Sceneries had fully manifested, Chen Mobai, on the ground, opened his eyes. With a lift of his right hand, he grasped the Doushuai Eight Scenery Lamp, which had been suspended before him. Under the infusion of Dao power, the eight sceneries flowed, and the light began to retract into the lamp's shade. Soon, the brilliant illumination that had made Huozhen Immortal City as bright as day completely vanished. Yet at that moment, all the artificers sensed an unprecedented surge of spirituality bursting forth, vibrant and energetic.

Boom! At that moment, muffled thunder suddenly rumbled across the sky. "It's an artifact tribulation!" exclaimed the many artificers, greatly shocked as dark clouds gathered, and thunder and heavenly fire descended simultaneously. When living beings break through their limits and reach a high tier, they trigger a heavenly tribulation, and artifact spirits can also experience this. However, artifacts in the Heavenly River Realm capable of triggering a heavenly tribulation were extremely few; the last time this occurred was with the Hunyuan Bell, jointly refined by True Lord Yiyuan and Lay Buddhist Bailian. This meant that Old Ancestor Chen had successfully refined a Tier 6 artifact comparable to the Hunyuan Bell! Realizing this, all the artificers in Huozhen Immortal City widened their eyes, eager to witness the artifact's tribulation. Regardless of whether it succeeded, this event was destined to become a widely talked about legend among artificers for the next thousand years.

In the sky, the thunder and heavenly fire emanated a strange frosty, cold yin energy, indicating that the artifact undergoing tribulation was fire-attributed. As a terrifying cold current, powerful enough to freeze Nascent Soul cultivators, began to descend, Chen Mobai, sensing this, hurled the Doushuai Eight Scenery Lamp from his hand into the sky. In an instant, the now Tier 6 purple-green divine flame emitted a warm radiance and surged into the tribulation clouds. To everyone's disbelief, the Doushuai Eight Scenery Lamp, like a great whale swallowing water, completely absorbed all the dark clouds and the terrifying heavenly tribulation contained within them. It was as if the lamp's shade contained an infinitely vast space; even this tribulation, capable of destroying Huozhen Immortal City, merely caused a slight ripple in the light patterns on its shade. Chen Mobai couldn't help but nod, his eyes filled with deep satisfaction. This was the divine ability of the Doushuai Eight Scenery Lamp after reaching Tier 6: "Doushuai Heaven," a realm of its own!