Chapter 158: First Turn and Autonomous Floating Cannons (Combined Chapter)

Gao Jie Ming temporarily suppressed the various thoughts arising in his mind and turned his attention to another matter.

At the critical final moment of refining the Profound Xuan Gang Hong Chen Barrier, that dazzling light breaking through the boundary between void and reality brought him the opportunity to re-refine his natal magic treasure.

The Light of Creation, the final core material needed to re-refine the "Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror." Read novels on Tiantian Kan Xiaoshuo, ttk s. tw, super worry-free.

The materials required to re-refine the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror were not complex; they were still various concepts of light.

Gao Jie Ming had long ago collected all the other materials, but the most important "Light of Creation" had remained elusive.

It was not until the very instant the Profound Xuan Gang Hong Chen Barrier was completed and erupted with light today that Gao Jie Ming finally gained enlightenment.

The so-called "Light of Creation" represents the instant from nothing to something; it is the source light of the moment life sprouts, and can only be perceived and captured at the instant of extreme energy aggregation.

Although the manufacturing process of the Profound Xuan Gang Hong Chen Barrier is simple, the materials required are not "low-end," which is why it could erupt with the Light of Creation upon taking form.

With a thought from within, the "Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror," which had been quietly floating deep in his dantian, immediately responded to the summons and emerged.

After so many years of sacrificial refining, this magic treasure no longer appeared as flamboyant as when it was first forged; it now looked like an ordinary, unadorned ancient bronze round mirror, appearing quite plain.

"The Light of Creation has been obtained; it seems today is also your opportunity," Gao Jie Ming murmured while gazing at the bronze mirror. The unadorned bronze mirror emitted a faint glow in response, seemingly expressing its own joy.

Due to the special materials used in its refinement, the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror inherently possesses the quality of existing between void and reality.

Its true core is an illusory aggregate of light concepts.

This unique composition allows it to undergo continuous re-refinement through a weapon-forging method known as "Turn."

Each "Turn" signifies a substantial increase in the magic treasure's quality and power.

Refining once is "First Turn," refining twice is "Second Turn"; the higher the number of turns, the more formidable the magic treasure becomes.

Over these years, Gao Jie Ming had never relaxed his efforts in sacrificially refining the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror.

Every day, he would nourish the magic treasure with his own pure true essence, and at regular intervals, he would carefully manipulate the Red Dust Qi to repeatedly polish its spirituality.

After so many years of effort, not only had the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror become more compatible with his soul, but its spirituality had also reached the standard required to bear higher-level concepts and undergo its first "Turn."

Cultivation relies on opportunity; seeing that the timing was perfect, Gao Jie Ming recovered some of his true essence, sat cross-legged again, and suspended the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror before him.

He took a deep breath, calmed his mind, and entered an ethereal state of weapon forging.

His spiritual power surged out like a tide, completely enveloping the magic treasure.

"Disperse!"

He shouted in a low voice, moving his fingers through the void to trace complex seal arrays.

These seals, directly inscribed into the void, flashed with light and resonated with the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror.

Guided by spiritual power and the seals, the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror began to emit a humming vibration; the form of the bronze round mirror gradually became blurred and distorted.

Finally, with a soft "pop," the exterior form of the bronze mirror completely dissipated into the air, leaving only the five core beams of pure rainbow light floating before Gao Jie Ming.

This was the first step: discarding the mortal form to retain only its essence.

Next came the reshaping.

Gao Jie Ming took out the various light concepts he had prepared in advance and threw them toward the several beams of rainbow light.

Under the control of the weapon-forging technique, the core of the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror began to split and recombine.

Soon, the new materials were absorbed by the core rainbow light, and the entire mass of light quickly condensed into the shape of a mirror under Gao Jie Ming's manipulation.

However, no matter how it condensed, this light could never regain form and mass.

Next was the most critical step.

Gao Jie Ming carefully guided the cluster of Light of Creation, accidentally captured while refining the Profound Xuan Gang Hong Chen Barrier, to the center of the mirror surface formed by the light.

The Light of Creation, carrying the mystical aura of creating something from nothing, fused with the core of the light concepts.

However, the fusion process was not smooth sailing.

Each type of light concept possesses its own unique nature; they attract and repel each other simultaneously.

When the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror was first refined, it contained five types of light concepts; now, with Gao Jie Ming's additions, the number of light concepts inside had doubled, increasing the conflict between them.

As the Light of Creation merged in, the five clusters of light concepts began to tremble violently, their brightness flickering on and off as if they were about to collapse at any moment.

Gao Jie Ming's true essence and spiritual power were being consumed frantically; he continuously adjusted the rune arrays to maintain energy balance, using his will to reverse the conceptual conflicts and guide them toward fusion.

Fortunately, having successfully refined it once before, the task was not too difficult.

"Fuse!" Gao Jie Ming roared softly, pressing the last trace of the Light of Creation in.

In an instant, the five clusters of light concepts contracted sharply, then, using that single point of Light of Creation at the center as a catalyst, erupted with an unprecedentedly brilliant light!

Gao Jie Ming's eyes lit up, and he immediately freed one hand to cast a technique upon this beam of light.

Under the guidance of the technique, another cluster of identical Light of Creation quickly condensed on Gao Jie Ming's hand.

This is the terrifying aspect of conceptual materials: they can be entirely self-produced and even grow out of thin air.

With this cluster of Light of Creation, the difficulty of collecting materials for the Second Turn was greatly reduced.

The light gradually dissipated, and the unadorned small bronze mirror slowly reappeared.

Gao Jie Ming also felt a wave of weakness; although the refining time just now was not too long, the consumption of mental energy was quite exaggerated.

Looking at the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror floating in his palm, he could not help but reveal a look of joy on his face.

"First Turn—successful!"

He recalled the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror; it merged back into his body, perfectly compatible with his soul.

He could clearly feel that a qualitative change had occurred within the magic treasure.

The most significant improvement of the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror after the First Turn was that its escape capability had reached a new level.

After playing with the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror for a moment, Gao Jie Ming couldn't wait to head to the Purgatory Sulfur Plane.

"This will do." Gao Jie Ming had studied the survey map provided by the "Construction Team" for a long time before finally choosing a location near a lava lake as the testing site.

This vast area contained no living creatures, making it very suitable for testing.

Gao Jie Ming closed his eyes to communicate with the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror, perceiving more specific information.

Besides the enhancement of basic abilities, the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror after the First Turn possessed an extremely important advantage compared to before.

Or rather, a new safeguard!

From the information transmitted back by the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror, Gao Jie Ming learned that before transforming into light, he could now apply shields to himself using other methods first.

During the light transformation, although these shields would likewise "transform into light," merging into the radiance of his body's conversion.

Yet after the light transformation ended, when his physical flesh re-condensed, these shields would reform and remain maintained upon his person!

This meant that if he later encountered situations requiring escape via light transformation, he would no longer be in a completely exposed state, but would possess an extra layer of protection during the vulnerable period following escape.

At critical moments, such a layer of shield could buy him precious time, preventing enemies from exploiting his weakness.

This was undoubtedly tremendous progress!

Without hesitation, Gao Jie Ming took out a tier-four witch artifact to apply a shield upon himself, condensed his true essence, and activated the "Transform into Light" ability of the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror: "Transform into Light!"

His body instantly turned into a beam of pure radiance, crossing the lava lake in an instant at speeds surpassing what the naked eye could perceive.

Gao Jie Ming could feel that his current state of light transformation was more stable, meaning that while consuming the same amount of true essence, the duration he could maintain the light transformation state had become longer!

Boom!

In the blink of an eye, the light transformation ended; Gao Jie Ming crashed straight down onto a volcano, shattering the entire mountainside upon impact and plunging directly into the molten magma.

Rumble-rumble! Stimulated by such a massive impact, the already extremely active live volcano erupted without surprise.

Sky-piercing black smoke and scorching magma gushed forth from the fissure Gao Jie Ming had smashed open, contributing even more dust to the already foul air of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane.

After being submerged for a moment, a hand extended from the lava lake, gripping the nearby rock wall.

Supporting himself against the rock wall, Gao Jie Ming slowly climbed out of the magma; the shield upon his body flickered in and out of visibility, with molten rock constantly flowing down off the shield.

"Ugh—I got happy too soon."

Ignoring the waves of intense heat rising from below, Gao Jie Ming plopped down on the crater rim, looking at the fluctuating energy shield on his body and unable to help but sigh.

He should have realized long ago that light transformation itself was a function of the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror, and wherever there was an ability, there would certainly be a "power output."

As his natal magic treasure, and furthermore the natal magic treasure of a Foundation Establishment cultivator who had just completed their first refinement, asking it to maintain a tier-four shield was indeed somewhat too strenuous.

During the process of light transformation, the vast majority of the energy in Gao Jie Ming's tier-four shield dissipated completely; upon re-condensing, it had nearly failed to maintain even the shield's own state.

"It seems that at the current stage, the maximum level of shield that can be applied in advance during light transformation is limited to tier two; if the shield level is any higher, it will not only affect the shield's stability but also impact the duration of the light transformation."

Gao Jie Ming felt he seemed somewhat insatiably greedy and couldn't help shaking his head: "Forget it; anyway, situations where one needs to use the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror to escape are basically crisis moments, so one cannot worry too much about that; escaping farther is the hard truth, and in this aspect, the enhancement is quite good."

According to Gao Jie Ming's calculations, if not for the energy interference from the tier-four shield just now, his light transformation could have been maintained for a split second longer.

Compared to before its re-refinement, the first-refined Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror, while consuming equal amounts of true essence and spiritual power, doubled the duration of light transformation, meaning Gao Jie Ming's escape distance had also increased twofold.

Originally, a Foundation Establishment cultivator using light transformation could instantly leap a thousand li; doubling that distance meant that even tier-three creatures would be unable to catch up.

"However, I didn't expect body refinement to yield such an unexpected benefit; body cultivators truly live up to their reputation as a cultivation method specializing in offense and defense, their adaptability to various negative states is truly exaggerated."

Feeling the emptiness within his body after exhausting his true essence, along with the throbbing pain in his brain from draining his spiritual power, Gao Jie Ming looked at his hands, clenching and unclenching them, a trace of astonishment flashing in his eyes.

Suddenly, he turned his head to look at the rock wall he was supporting himself against, extended his hand, clenched his fist, and smashed down violently.

Boom!!

The volcano, which had slightly subsided, was stimulated into activity once again; powerful force exploded from within the mountain body, and a human figure burst out, breaking through the obstruction of magma and rock walls.

Splash—

As the figure landed, the extremely dense magma was smashed apart like water spray.

Without the slightest protection, relying entirely on his physical body to stand amidst the flowing magma, Gao Jie Ming gazed at his own body with excitement.

Gao Jie Ming truly had not expected body refinement to have such benefits;

His formidable body meant that after ending his light transformation, he did not become limp-handed and footed with no power to fight back upon landing, as he had during previous tests.

Although his spiritual power and true essence were exhausted, relying on his formidable physical qualities, he could still stand firm and even perform some simple hand-to-hand self-defense; this equated to providing himself with double insurance.

After landing, feeling his spiritual power recovering rapidly, the satisfaction in Gao Jie Ming's eyes grew even stronger: "Having a good body is indeed a good thing;

Not only does it give me the power of self-preservation after using light transformation, but my formidable body also makes the recovery of spiritual power faster; it seems I can allocate more attention to body refinement in the future."

Fully satisfied after testing the improvements following the first refinement of the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror, Gao Jie Ming waited until his spiritual power had recovered slightly, then activated the teleportation device to return to the laboratory.

Over the next few days, he focused his attention on the sacrificial refinement of the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror.

While stabilizing its current state, he also further enhanced its already considerable spirituality.

Sitting in a chair, Gao Jie Ming watched the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror float outside his body, circling around him of its own accord, just like a pet playing with its owner.

Observing the state of the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror, Gao Jie Ming stroked his chin in thought: "The first refinement has also caused the magic treasure's spirituality to break through—spirituality at this current level can be called spiritual wisdom; it is time to try that old idea."

After its first refinement, the "Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror" emanated an unprecedented liveliness within Gao Jie Ming's body.

It was no longer merely a medium, nor merely a tool; it was more like a "living being" possessing independent thought.

Although this living being's "intelligence" was very low, roughly only slightly better than low-level creatures possessing mere instinct, as a magic treasure, it inherently possessed extremely strong computational abilities.

With the emergence of preliminary "spiritual wisdom," the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror could now make judgments and execute actions on its own according to Gao Jie Ming's intentions.

This discovery suddenly brought an old idea surging into Gao Jie Ming's mind: If the "Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror" could manipulate other talisman witch artifacts on its own, could he then entrust his talisman witch artifacts to its control, thereby liberating part of his mental energy, or even achieve some degree of automated auxiliary combat?

There were three difficulties in achieving combat automation: first, the level of spirituality of the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror itself, which had now been reached after the first refinement.

Second, how to connect the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror with talisman witch artifacts, allowing it to directly manipulate them.

This second difficulty had already been overcome when Gao Jie Ming was researching reconnaissance-type talisman witch artifacts.

As for the final difficulty, it was how the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror could "activate" talisman witch artifacts.

The spiritual power required to activate talisman witch artifacts was actually slightly higher than that for witch artifacts of the same tier; although not by much, the problem lay in the fact that spiritual power originated from the soul, and the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror at its current stage simply did not possess such a thing as a soul!

Fortunately, after arriving in the Elosia Plane, Gao Jie Ming had come into contact with the key to solving this difficulty: the Divine Power Faith Network.

Thus, the final piece of the puzzle for all technical difficulties had been gathered; all that remained was to assemble them together.

Gao Jie Ming immediately took an offensive-type talisman witch artifact from his internal space, suspended it before him, and then used his spiritual power to weave a "network," extending like probes toward the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror.

"Since the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror lacks spiritual power, I will simulate the Divine Power Faith Network to grant it the authority to mobilize my spiritual power, thereby manipulating this offensive-type talisman witch artifact."

Gao Jie Ming simulated the energy transmission structure of the Divine Power Faith Network with his spiritual power, integrating it with a spiritual power transmission network, allowing the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror, which was already in sync with his thoughts, to directly mobilize his spiritual power when needed.

The Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror responded immediately; the five clusters of light within it flickered slightly, and suddenly, an invisible wave spread out from it, connecting to Gao Jie Ming's spiritual sea and drawing forth a wisp of pure spiritual power from within,

This mobilized spiritual sense did not flow directly into the talismanic witch-artifact, but first underwent transformation and guidance through the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror before connecting to that crystal-shaped offensive talismanic witch-artifact.

"Test, attack target," Gao Jie Ming ordered the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror.

The crystal-shaped talismanic witch-artifact trembled slightly, and immediately, a brilliant elemental beam shot forth from its tip, striking precisely the preset bullseye on the laboratory wall.

"Success!" A look of pride appeared in Gao Jie Ming's eyes.

He had not manipulated it personally; rather, after receiving his intent, the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror independently mobilized the spiritual sense he authorized and, through its unique spirituality, drove the talismanic witch-artifact.

This meant the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror possessed the abilities to "think" and "execute"; even while he himself engaged in other complex sorceries, it could independently assume a portion of combat functions.

Having proven the feasibility of his idea, he immediately plunged without pause into the next stage of creation.

Gao Jie Ming took out a batch of metallic materials, found relevant knowledge on the Demon Web, and began refining some metallic platforms capable of automatic suspension and following.

Gao Jie Ming designed these metallic platforms with extreme ingenuity: slender rhombic pillars with streamlined shapes to reduce air resistance.

Inside them were inscribed complex flight arrays and gravity arrays.

The flight arrays could provide continuous lift and thrust, enabling flexible suspension and movement in the air.

The gravity arrays ensured absolute stability during suspension, unaffected by external air currents.

Furthermore, as long as Gao Jie Ming carried corresponding gravity components, both sides could exert a weak gravitational pull on each other, allowing better tracking of Gao Jie Ming's movements.

To give these platforms independent power sources, Gao Jie Ming also inlaid several high-quality energy crystals purchased from the Demon Web into their cores.

These artificial energy crystals were extremely simplified versions of small elemental pools, capable of supplying energy very steadily to the arrays inside the metallic platforms, enabling prolonged aerial operation without requiring Gao Jie Ming to provide additional energy.

Next, Gao Jie Ming took out various types of offensive talismanic witch-artifacts from his internal space one by one.

These talismanic witch-artifacts were all mass-refined recently while he practiced artifact refinement techniques.

Gao Jie Ming now understood clearly: with his internal space serving as logistics, he could truly "have it all" without needing to choose any single attack strategy.

Whether pure energy bullets, elemental beams, or traditional fireball spells and lightning spells, he could produce and store some of each.

Considering firing speed and ease of manipulation, Gao Jie Ming selected several talismanic witch-artifacts that fired energy beams.

He exquisitely inlaid each talismanic witch-artifact onto the four faces at the front end of the rhombic metallic pillars, one per face, so that each metallic pillar simultaneously carried four offensive talismanic witch-artifacts.

Gao Jie Ming refined a total of six such rhombic metallic pillars, each representing an independent firepower point.

After all metallic pillars were refined and the talismanic witch-artifacts inlaid, he used the Eye of Reconnaissance as an intermediary to establish a deep connection between these newly born "armed platforms" and the "Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror."

Thus, not only could the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror directly and autonomously manipulate the talismanic witch-artifacts, but the Eye of Reconnaissance also added "eyes" to this auxiliary combat system.

The spirituality of the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror flashed once more.

It began skillfully processing the flood of information pouring in, constructing a three-dimensional model of the surrounding environment.

Relying on its higher spirituality, while constructing the three-dimensional map, it began analyzing potential threats and, according to Gao Jie Ming's preset combat logic, directed the six rhombic metallic pillars to coordinate their attacks. When Gao Jie Ming stood in the center of the laboratory and activated this system, six slender rhombic metallic pillars rose silently from behind him, automatically suspending themselves at his back.

They arranged themselves in a stable formation, like six swords pointing in all directions; at the front end of each were inlaid four crystal-like offensive talismanic witch-artifacts glowing with faint light.

On the surface of the metallic pillars, the glow of energy circulating within was faintly visible—traces of the flight arrays and gravity arrays operating efficiently, powered by the energy crystals. Gao Jie Ming turned his head to observe this brand-new auxiliary combat system.

He tentatively walked forward a few steps; the six metallic pillars immediately followed silently, maintaining their relative positions to his body, perfectly achieving automatic suspension and tracking.

"Attack all moving objects."

After Gao Jie Ming issued the command, he controlled several small targets composed of elemental energy to rise within the laboratory and launched them from a distance.

Almost the instant the targets were launched, the six metallic pillars behind Gao Jie Ming reacted.

The crystal talismanic witch-artifacts at their front ends lit up simultaneously; dozens of beams shot forth like a laser net, striking the targets with precision.

Vaporizing them instantly.

The entire process was smooth and swift, without any delay.

Watching the scene before him, Gao Jie Ming's face broke into a satisfied smile: "This system's reaction speed is actually faster than my own—is it because the essence of the Five Aggregates Rainbow Mirror encompasses the concept of swiftness?"

Walking around the laboratory a few more steps, watching the metallic pillars constantly floating behind him on alert, Gao Jie Ming murmured to himself.

"This system can now truly be called an autonomous floating cannon."