[Year 26, age forty-five.]

[In just two short years, you have given mobilization speeches to the major powers across the Five Regions.]

[You made the rounds of Limitless Sword Sect, Myriad Methods Sect, Celestial Intelligence Pavilion, Danxiang Valley, Divine Arms Pavilion, Bagua Sect, Beast Taming Sect, and Vajra Temple — the Eight Pillars of the Five Regions in the Five Regions.]

[You also left your mark among the tribal forces of the Northern Frontier, the imperial forces of the Central Plains, the nations of the Southern Borderlands, and the religious forces of Xiliang.]

[Everywhere you went, you did not go empty-handed.]

[Either you accepted small tributes, or you arranged academic exchanges.]

[Gradually, you discovered that your theoretical knowledge seemed to improve even through these unrelated activities.]

["The masters truly are experienced. Traveling around has given me fresh insights and smashed through my bottleneck!"]

Now, you were returning to the Starry Domains, feeling that you could forge an Immortal Artifact!

Also, a side note.

[The main C trait of these two years was indisputably Chinese-Style Succubus.]

You discovered that this trait did not affect everyone the same way.

Some people believed you after a single sentence and were even willing to follow you.

Others required elaborate persuasion and logically coherent arguments before they would trust you; to win their loyalty and followership you still had to display personal charm.

This difference had nothing to do with cultivation level.

"Perhaps everyone's resolve is different. Conversely, this trait can screen out those with firm resolve."

Of course, this was not your main concern right now.

You returned to the Starry Domains and opened a resource inventory to forge the Immortal Artifact Ten Thousand Souls Banner.

Shen Yue read it and shook his head.

"Brother Chen, the materials you request are far too precious, and you need so many of them, until you succeed. This is a bit excessive."

"You won't approve it?"

"I have to consider the Shen Family, especially now that every day we help martial artists on the surface grow stronger and cultivate the next generation. We need to conserve resources."

"If the human world is gone, does Shen Family keep these resources as burial goods?"

"That said, the human world is still fine. The Shen Family hasn't reached the point of burning our boats yet, right?"

"Fine, I'll ask my brother-in-law."

"Then again, resources of this level are useless to outsiders. Only an Immortal-tier forger like you would need them. Rather than letting them gather dust in the warehouse, why not put them to use?"

You obtained a huge pile of precious Immortal Artifact materials from the Shen Family.

The sight set the group of Immortal-tier forgers ablaze with envy.

"My word! In all my life I have never seen so many heavenly materials!"

You called these master forgers over not to show off, but to have them assist you and speed up the process.

You had already experimented before: if others forged individual components and you assembled them at the end,

that would not trigger Enhancement!

The trait clearly would not let you exploit that loophole.

But if others preprocessed the raw materials, that was fine.

The more precious the forging material, the more complex the preprocessing.

Most were incredibly tough and required complicated procedures to render them malleable for polishing.

With these masters helping, that step could be accelerated a lot.

[Year 27, age forty-six.]

Forging an Immortal Artifact was by no means easy.

Only with ten Immortal-tier forgers assisting could you speed up the progress.

During this period you again corresponded with the Free and Unfettered Holy Land and learned that the Saint Selection final would be held three years later.

"Three more years of extreme forging! Artifact Refining Sage, give me an outburst!"

[Year 28, age forty-seven.]

Forging in progress.

[Year 29, age forty-eight.]

A complete Ten Thousand Souls Banner, identical to the original blueprint, was produced!

The Banner's Artifact Spirit successfully moved in.

But when you unleashed its Hundred Demons Night Parade, the whole artifact took off and scattered itself apart.

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner ran ahead while its spirit chased after it; in the end it was a stare-down between you and the artifact. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"What's up, bro? You want me running around naked?"

"Another failure..."

Seeing that next year you had to return to the Free and Unfettered Holy Land, you estimated the forging of the Ten Thousand Souls Banner might be delayed.

At this moment, the Banner coughed and said faintly.

"Alright, bro, I admit you're a little forging prodigy, but an Immortal Artifact, hmph! It's still an Immortal Artifact! It's not so easy to make."

"Feeling itchy to show off?"

"My point is, I have a method to let you quickly forge my true body!"

"If you had a method, why not say earlier? You think I enjoy hazing myself at the furnace every day?"

"Ahem... even if I had told you earlier, your skill level wouldn't have been enough. If I gave you my method, you still couldn't produce it."

"Spit it out!"

"When an artifact is near completion but not yet finished, pour my spirit body into the casting furnace. Use my spirit to permeate the whole artifact, making inside and outside one, so it won't shatter from carrying too much power!"

You hesitated.

This required forging the Banner's spirit as well.

If it failed, you could lose both the artifact and your resources.

"Forget it, no rush."

"No, bro, your forging technique is already very strong. Those old men already address you as senior brother. No matter how much you study later, you might not succeed.

Immortal Artifacts are hard to make, and my Ten Thousand Souls Banner is the Immortal Artifact among Immortal Artifacts — rarer than rare!

If you try to forge my true body, it's a challenge on top of a challenge!

Without this method, giving you another hundred years might still not succeed!"

"Take the gamble?"

"Not a gamble, this is all-or-nothing! Whether you can restore your former glory hinges on this move! Once my true body is completed, let's see which little nobody still calls me a lowly Earth-Grade Spirit Artifact!!"

Inside the Cauldron Realm, the Demon Refining Pot sneezed.

"Hey! Who the hell insulted me?"

You told the other Immortal-tier forgers this Banner method, hoping to discuss together and devise a safer forging procedure.

"Huh? You have a Ten Thousand Souls Banner?"

"That's not the point."

"Huh? You want to forge the Artifact Spirit into the artifact during forging?"

"That's the point. Do any of you seniors have experience with this?"

"Hardly anyone has. Normally there's the artifact first and then the spirit. You want the spirit first and the artifact later — it's completely backwards."

Although they had never used this method, the seniors were extremely experienced and could apply analogous reasoning.

You led the forging while ten elder seniors assisted.

In less than a year's time, the true Ten Thousand Souls Banner came off the forge!

On the day it was completed, a heavenly phenomenon appeared in the Starry Domains.

Golden waves rolled beneath the starry sky, and countless silhouettes stood upon those waves. Their faces were blurred, yet one could tell men and women, old and young, plump and thin.

Above this multitude stood the enormous silhouette of a giant wearing imperial robes and a crown.

Immortal music sounded, like the ringing of great bells, supremely sacred.

All who witnessed the portent were astonished, not knowing what it signified.