Chapter 80: Beginning Preparations for the Second Acquired Phase

Bedroom attic.

Sunlight shone in through the window, falling onto Li Luo's body. At this moment, he held a jade slip in his hand, pressed it between his brows, closed his eyes slightly, and was browsing through the vast information within.

What was recorded in this jade slip was precisely the "Minor Formless Divine Forging Art" left behind for him by Li Taixuan and Dantai Lan.

After a long while, Li Luo opened his eyes and reached out to rub his brow. Although he was somewhat mentally fatigued, his eyes were filled with excitement.

After all, Li Luo Long Anticipated planning out that second Acquired Phase.

And with this true contact with the "Minor Formless Divine Forging Art," Li Luo finally understood just how troublesome a matter it was to forge an Acquired Phase.

The essence of the so-called "Minor Formless Divine Forging Art" was to extract the required energy or substances from the countless materials in the world that contained various energies. For example, if one wished to forge an Acquired Fire Phase, one would need to find materials imbued with fire energy, refine and extract them using a specific Shou Fa, and finally balance the energies within. Then, using one's own soul and essence blood as a guide, what was formed could finally be considered a qualified Acquired Phase.

And the most troublesome point in this was the need to constantly search for countless materials, then test their compatibility with one another, until a certain point of balance was reached.

In a certain sense, this was a technical job, and even more so a job of brute labor.

So after reading this "Minor Formless Divine Forging Art," Li Luo knew that in the days to come, a great deal of his time would likely have to be spent on this.

But the only good news was that at the back of the jade slip, Li Luo saw some notes left behind by Li Taixuan and Dantai Lan—records of their previous attempts. This was clearly a precious experience that could save Li Luo a great deal of valuable time in the early stages.

And Most Important, he saw a piece of advice left by Li Taixuan and Dantai Lan regarding his second Acquired Phase: they suggested that the primary attribute of this Acquired Phase could be chosen as Wood Phase.

The reason for the choice was actually still because of the essence blood and lifespan Li Luo had lost when refining his first Acquired Phase. Although the phase power of the Water-Light Phase would gradually make up for these deficits, to be safe, the primary attribute of the second Acquired Phase was best to be Wood Phase.

Because the power of Wood Phase not only had restorative effects, but also had some special detoxification effects, which would enhance Li Luo's survivability. Under the triple healing of Water Phase, Light Phase, and Wood Phase, those past deficits of Li Luo's should no longer affect his foundation.

"Wood Phase, huh."

Li Luo fell into deep thought. Originally, his conception for the second Acquired Phase leaned toward the offensive type, but now that his father and mother had recommended Wood Phase, his conception would have to change somewhat.

Li Luo thought for a moment. In fact, with the enhancement of his improved phase arts, the offensive power of the Water-Light Phase was not weak either, so if the primary attribute of this second Acquired Phase was Wood Phase, it was not unacceptable.

Moreover, the phase arts of Wood Phase were mostly of the control type. In the future, he could develop more in this area—when the time came to fight someone, he would first restrain them, then shoot them full of holes like a hornet's nest with his arrows.

But like this, it seemed rather uncool, and instead people would think he was a perverted tormentor.

But it didn't matter—his handsome looks had already reached the peak, and he didn't really need any boost in that area.

Thus, Li Luo made his decision. With one hand he formed a Shou Yin, channeled it with phase power, and then tapped it onto the jade slip.

Hum!

He saw a ray of light emerge from the jade slip, rapidly fall, swell in the wind, and finally form a six-pointed light wheel roughly a foot in size.

On the light wheel, many Kong Dong could be seen. At a rough glance, there were one hundred and twenty-eight in total, distributed on the two sides of the wheel—eighty-six on one side, forty-two on the other.

The greater number was the primary, the lesser the auxiliary.

And at the central position of the wheel was a concave pit outlined with mysterious patterns.

This was the "Minor Formless Divine Wheel."

It was precisely the auxiliary item needed for forging an Acquired Phase. This thing was quite troublesome to forge, and with Li Luo's current strength he could not do it, but fortunately his father and mother had thought ahead and left him one.

From now on, if he wished to forge the second Acquired Phase, he would need to refine and purify various materials using a special Shou Fa, then fill them into the Kong Dong of this Minor Formless Divine Wheel, so that the primary and auxiliary elements on its two sides reached a perfect balance in some proportion, and finally infuse his own soul and essence blood to complete their fusion.

Li Luo gazed at this six-pointed light wheel for a long while, then with a flick of the jade slip, drew it back in.

If the primary attribute was Wood Phase, then what about the secondary attribute? How should it be chosen?

Li Luo sat down before the tea table, lost in thought.

The scorching sunlight shining in through the window gradually shifted, finally turning into the dark red of the setting sun.

Li Luo finally exhaled a breath, then casually picked up the brush from the tea table and gently wrote two characters on the white paper before him.

Wood.

Earth.

These were the attributes he had decided on for his second Acquired Phase: Wood as primary, Earth as auxiliary.

Wood-Earth Phase!

Since the strength of Wood Phase lay in control, he would push it to the extreme in that regard. And the best auxiliary for Wood Phase was undoubtedly Earth Phase.

With the power of Wood Phase and Earth Phase reinforcing each other, the control effect achieved should be even stronger.

Moreover, Water Phase and Light Phase also fit quite well with Wood Phase.

And the power of Earth Phase was adept at defense, which could also enhance Li Luo's survivability.

For these reasons, Li Luo decided on the attributes of his second Acquired Phase.

And having made his decision, Li Luo no longer hesitated. He got up directly, left the room, found Cai Wei in the old residence, and presented his request.

"The young mansion master needs various materials imbued with Wood and Earth energy?" Regarding this request from Li Luo, although Cai Wei found it somewhat strange, after a moment's thought she agreed to it.

"There are some stocks in the old residence's storeroom. I'll help you set them aside. If it's not enough, I'll arrange for people to go to the market and purchase more for you."

Although these materials were quite valuable, the income of Xiyang House had been climbing steadily now, and it could already share a great deal of pressure for Cai Wei—no longer like at the very beginning, when she wished she could split a single Sky-Measure Gold in half to spend.

"Thanks, Sister Cai Wei."

Li Luo waved with a smile, turned and left, not disturbing Cai Wei's work.

Cai Wei's beautiful eyes gazed at Li Luo's departing back, and she smiled slightly as well, because she felt that Li Luo seemed to be in a very good mood today.

Then she carefully put away the account book and personally went to handle the matters Li Luo had instructed.

Under Cai Wei's astonishing efficiency, two hours later, the first batch of materials was delivered straight to Li Luo's room.

On the attic.

Li Luo took out a green plant from a jade box. On its branches and leaves grew green flowers, shaped like wind chimes.

This was the Wood Chime Flower, a rare flower imbued with Wood attribute energy.

Li Luo silently recited the incantation of the Minor Formless Divine Forging Art in his heart, while his fingers formed a seal, channeling his own phase power.

Sizzle sizzle!

After a moment, he saw a flame as thick as a thumb form in his palm. That flame was extremely special—it actually had a somewhat transparent hue, as if it contained no energy attribute whatsoever.

"So this is the Minor Formless Fire?"

Li Luo's eyes held some curiosity. This flame was actually the most core element of the Minor Formless Divine Forging Art. Only materials refined through this fire could be used to forge an Acquired Phase.

However, Li Luo's own phase force was simply too weak, so the Little Formless Flame he channeled was only this single wisp.

"Sigh, I'll just have to make do."

Li Luo shook his head helplessly, then plucked a wooden bell flower and used the Little Formless Flame to ignite and calcine it.

But on his first attempt at refining, Li Luo failed to control the heat properly, so he burned it straight into ashes.

No matter—failure is the mother of success.

The second, the third, the fourth—one whole wind chime flower burned into ashes.

"No way? This hard?" Li Luo was a bit dumbfounded, but there was nothing to be done; he could only treat it as gaining experience, and continued to take another set of materials and begin refining.

After burning through several sets of materials in a row, Li Luo finally got a feel for it, and in the end, successfully refined a strange grass imbued with earth-attribute energy.

It was a ball of brown liquid. Li Luo placed it into the first hole on one side of the "Six-Pointed Light Wheel," and immediately that hole lit up; a thin ray of light spread out and linked to the hole beside it.

Seeing this, Li Luo was overjoyed. He switched to another material to refine, and in the end placed the refined product into the hole linked by that ray of light.

But this time, the moment the second energy liquid was put in, the Six-Pointed Light Wheel gave a faint tremor, as if about to expel the thing.

This was a rejection reaction.

Li Luo hurriedly took it out, realizing this set of materials was unsuitable for forging a Postnatal Aspect.

After that, Li Luo tried several more materials one after another, and only then found one that wasn't rejected, filling the hole connected by the ray of light.

As this second hole was filled, another ray of light spread out, connecting to the third hole.

Clearly, only when Li Luo filled all the holes on this "Six-Pointed Light Wheel" and achieved balance between the primary and secondary sides would the forging of this second Postnatal Aspect be considered complete.

But after an entire night, until Li Luo exhausted his own phase force, he had only filled four holes on the "Six-Pointed Light Wheel."

This was clearly a rather time-consuming endeavor.

However, Li Luo wasn't in any hurry; after all, he still had time before reaching the Aspect Master realm, giving him ample opportunity to slowly test various materials and perfect this "Six-Pointed Light Wheel."

And when that time arrived, it would mark the birth of his second Postnatal Aspect, the Wood-Earth Phase.

Regarding this, Li Luo expressed Great Anticipation.

(End of chapter)