The wind raged wildly, with the sound of muffled thunder, and colossal waves crazily battered against the coastal rocks, creating a deafening roar.

Jiang Yuebai returned to her cave abode on Eight Diagram Island. The cold pond still existed, but only a shallow layer of water remained at the bottom. As soon as she took out the Cold Jade Pendant and the Spiritual Beast Bag, the Ice Armor Beetle King flew into the cold pond to absorb spiritual energy.

Jixiang had slimmed down significantly, lying on the ground listlessly while squeaking, its small black eyes filled with tears of grievance.

Jiang Yuebai hurriedly retrieved the broken Golden Tiger White Dragon Seal and placed it in front of Jixiang. "I’m really sorry, Jixiang. I was afraid you’d be eaten by the dragon, so I had to lock you up."

This confinement lasted for more than three months.

Seeing food, the hungry mouse pounced without complaining about Jiang Yuebai, prioritizing its survival.

Watching Jixiang swallow without even chewing, Jiang Yuebai felt a pang of heartache, so she placed three gold-attributed top-grade Spirit Stones next to it.

"Eat slowly. There’s water in the pond, so don’t choke."

Squeak, squeak!

In the pond, the Ice Armor Beetle King’s body radiated a flickering bluish light. Half of the cold pond water had been consumed by the Four Symbols Eight Trigrams Array, and the rest had mostly been absorbed by it. It seemed just a bit more potent stimulation would allow it to advance yet again.

What a diligent and motivated little bug!

"It’s time for my favorite moment, taking stock of the harvest!"

Jiang Yuebai rubbed her hands together and took out two storage rings, each shaped like an encircling Azure Dragon. She split her divine thought into two, starting to break the divine sense marks on them and finding them stronger than any she had encountered before.

However, with a Divine Soul inherently stronger than ordinary people, this was not a problem for her.

With two rings suspended on either side, Jiang Yuebai used her remaining divine thought to check the benefits gained from the foolish dragon.

First, of course, were the three small restrictions: immobilization, blinding, and Thousand Jin Fall. Immobilization and blinding were self-explanatory, while Thousand Jin Fall could make an opponent’s body heavy, reducing their speed.

Jiang Yuebai greatly suspected that the foolish dragon wasn’t foolish at all, having taught her only the relatively simple auxiliary restrictions while withholding the formidable ones.

For example, its Space Great Forbidden Technique, besides enabling space compression, could also set up a spatial barrier around it during a battle, making the opponent’s moves ineffective—immeasurably useful.

"Ahh, I really want it. It seems I’m still not content!"

Sighing, Jiang Yuebai continued her inventory. Beyond the three small restrictions, the biggest gain was achieving Body Refining Great Success, and she had acquired quite a bit of Dragon Transformation Water—about a third of the lake.

Speaking of which, Jiang Yuebai summoned the Condensing Light Mirror. Initially, she intended to store the water in the Ruyi Water Gourd, but as the Dragon Transformation Water entered the gourd, it was absorbed by the Condensing Light Mirror. The mirror, being water-attributed, seemed like a bottomless pit.

If she wasn’t afraid of the foolish dragon going berserk, she felt the Condensing Light Mirror could swallow the entire lake. Although it appeared unchanged, the Ice Hornless Dragon sealed inside seemed to have undergone an unknown transformation. Pressing the mirror to her ear, she faintly heard dragon roars.

"Could it be... the spell Ice Hornless Dragon is about to transform into a true dragon?"

This was merely Jiang Yuebai’s conjecture, and she dared not release the Ice Hornless Dragon to check. If it truly was transforming into a dragon, interrupting it now might be disastrous. Better to keep nurturing it and wait.

"I was gifted, um... ’fooled’ the foolish dragon into granting me over a hundred thousand top-grade spiritual stones, collected over a hundred black dragon scales, filled a Spiritual Wine Gourd with dragon blood, gathered a dozen or so broken black dragon skin pieces, left with twenty-one Demon Cores, and lastly the spiritual medicine..."

The Cloud Mushroom Grass required for the Immortal Ganoderma Transformation exhausted the foolish dragon’s medicinal stockpile. Currently, Jiang Yuebai had deliberately kept ten different types of thousand-year-old spiritual medicine, rare on the market, for later use.

"These are my takings from the foolish dragon. Hmm? The small dog thief’s ring has been unlocked, let’s take a look!"

The items on the little and big dog thieves had been considerably consumed during several battles with her and the foolish dragon, so not much was likely left.

Her divine sense entered the little dog thief’s ring, immediately spotting his spear.

A spear with a cyan metallic shaft, dragon scale patterns, and a blade held in a dragon’s mouth; its icy sheen was brilliant. It felt heavy in her grip, yet swished silently when swung.

"Much better than my Fire Thunder Spear. Could there be... Azure Dragon Essence Blood inside?"

Using her divine sense to probe thoroughly, Jiang Yuebai indeed found a trace of Azure Dragon Essence Blood, akin to the Huo Dou Essence Blood sealed within Xie Jingshan’s Huo Dou Sword, making it a quasi-spiritual artifact.

Xie Jingshan once mentioned that such quasi-spiritual artifacts could be sacrificially refined into lifebound spiritual artifacts during the Core Formation Thunder Tribulation.

"So this was what the little dog thief intended to use as his lifebound spiritual artifact, but now it benefits me."

Jiang Yuebai continued examining the contents, finding over three thousand spirit stones in the little dog thief’s storage ring, seemingly better than top-grade spirit stones. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Some refining materials, which were even superior to those she had encountered in the Earth Spiritual Realm.

Two Jade Scrolls engraved with Azure Dragon totems, a cauldron, about ten green logs, two bottles of elixirs, and a medicinal box.

"Was the little dog thief an Artifact Refiner? Isn’t this Star Meteorite Iron?"

Jiang Yuebai took out a fist-sized piece of dark silver ore, confirming it matched the Star Meteorite Iron described in books. True Monarch Fuyi instructed her to find it to upgrade the Eight Arrays Plate and refine sixty-four Arraying Iron Sticks.

Happily, Jiang Yuebai stored the Star Meteorite Iron. The logs should be for refining fires, since Foundation Establishment Cultivators hadn’t yet developed Elixir Fire.

"Wow, there are so many precise Fire Control Arrays on this cauldron! A top-grade cauldron; it can be used for both alchemy and artifact refining. A Refusing Fire Cauldron? What a peculiar name."

One bottle of elixirs was for healing and the other for spiritual energy recovery, while the medicinal box contained only one azure elixir, which made Jiang Yuebai’s eyes light up upon smelling it.

Having refined elixirs that increased the success rate of Golden Core Formation, Jiang Yuebai was knowledgeable about such medicines. Although the name of this elixir was unknown to her, it was certainly more potent than the top-grade Golden Core Formation Elixir she had refined.

"The little dog thief was well-prepared to use this after snatching the Five-Colored Beads for Golden Core Formation. Yet again, this benefits me."

Jiang Yuebai took out the two Jade Scrolls, with the first containing comprehensive artifact refining knowledge, detailing many schematics crafted from dragon materials, including a promising Dragon Scale Armor.

"I’ll start learning artifact refining once I achieve Core Formation. The materials I have are too conspicuous if handed over to others; it’s better to refine them myself. Anyway, I have money, so I’m not afraid of the initial learning costs."

The other Jade Scroll was, as expected, the little dog thief’s "Green Dragon Spear Technique."

Both a martial art and a cultivation method, it included a movement technique. Primarily of wood attribute with water as a secondary, the technique promised the power of an Upper Three Grade Cultivation Technique in the Earth Spiritual Realm. It surpassed the "Burning Hundred Spear Technique" in suitability for cultivators, allowing the integration of spells into the spear techniques.

The contents of the little dog thief’s ring already greatly satisfied Jiang Yuebai, but it wasn’t over yet; there was still the big dog thief’s ring.

"The divine sense mark on the big dog thief’s ring is remarkably difficult to break."

Jiang Yuebai took out the jade flute and red small sword dropped by the big dog thief before his death. The flute, having cracked and lost its luster upon his death, was fit only to be offered for refinement to the Five Elements Lotus Platform.

The focus was on this red small sword, which Jiang Yuebai had favored the moment it appeared.

Though called a small sword, she discovered it was a palm-length fire dragon when held, primarily gold with a secondary fire attribute. Containing Fire Dragon Essence Blood, it was also a quasi-spiritual artifact.

With its many splitting capabilities, didn’t it perfectly align with the Green Cicada’s characteristics in her Golden Dao Platform? It could be refined into a spiritual artifact akin to the Green Cicada Flying Coin.

Now, with just an earth-attributed magic treasure, her plan to refine the Five Spirit Artifacts would be complete!

Before placing the fire dragon small sword into the Ruyi Fire Gourd, Jiang Yuebai suddenly had a bold idea.

The Sword Sky Puppet currently also lacked a set of flying swords, and being a magic treasure, its base crafted by Moh Baichun was excellent and further reinforced with Bronze Face by Jiang Yuebai.

Could she combine the fire dragon small sword with the Sword Sky Puppet and refine them as a whole into a spiritual artifact puppet using the Ruyi Golden Gourd?

If successful, she could multitask, controlling the Sword Sky Puppet with precision via "Silk Control Technique," treating it as another combat clone.

Before doing so, she could use dragon scales to reinforce the Sword Sky Puppet once more.

After careful thought, Jiang Yuebai decided to give it a try!