Chapter 507

Another thirty years passed.

Yan Buji successfully cultivated three Earth Fiend Divine Abilities; the host spirit Spiritual Material was not in his dantian but in his Mud Marrow Palace, moving with the activation of his divine sense.

"However, the mana consumption is also enormous; although it can be turned on and off at any time, there's no need to keep it active all the time." Yan Buji thought.

These Earth Fiend Divine Abilities seem to be like that; as long as you keep them active, they automatically manifest their power, and the mana consumption is not small. No wonder an ordinary Golden Core Cultivator, even if he or she obtains an Earth Fiend Divine Ability, doesn't really want to cultivate it.

First, Earth Fiend Divine Abilities themselves are hard to cultivate, and host spirit Spiritual Material is difficult to find and select; second, the mana consumption is too great, making them unsuitable for direct combat; third, a cultivator's allocation of resources cannot afford to spend too much on a low cost‑performance Earth Fiend Divine Ability.

Of course, Earth Fiend Divine Abilities are not weak; it's just that for a Golden Core Cultivator the cost‑performance ratio is not high.

Not everyone comes from a great sect or wealthy clan; who has that much time and resources to cultivate Earth Fiend Divine Abilities?

Yan Buji only managed to secure a hundred years of peaceful, arduous cultivation through years of gathering resources.

This is the norm for most low‑level cultivators: they spend hundreds of years gathering resources, and perhaps only a few decades of bitter cultivation before those resources run out.

Being able to sit in one's cave dwelling and cultivate in seclusion, with everything provided for you, is what truly defines a high‑level cultivator.

Thinking about it, Yan Buji is indeed far luckier than ordinary cultivators in gathering resources.

It's undeniable that Yan Buji encounters danger every time he gathers resources, but compared to the nameless cultivators who die in secret realms, he is already quite fortunate.

Thus many cultivators actually take things in stride; if there is no pressing need, most people, once they have achieved some cultivation, will choose a life of non‑contention with the world.

Furthermore, if one can let go of life and death, one will live very happily.

Can bitter cultivation really make one happy?

The answer is negative.

The beauties of the world are countless; even sitting on the shore each day watching the tides rise and fall has its own charm—but if one wants something better, one must strive for it.

The so‑called firmness of the Dao Heart is whether, when facing choices such as life or death, bitter cultivation or pleasure, one can follow one's own inner heart.

If one fears pleasure and hesitates to move forward, such a cultivator is destined to achieve nothing great.

Yan Buji clearly knows what he wants; even suffering can make him relish it as sweet.

"Having cultivated the divine abilities, the next step is to consider the construction of the remaining natal Accumulation Devices and the beast armor equipment."

Yan Buji doesn't have any particularly good ideas about this; beast armor equipment provides a great boost for a Golden Core Cultivator, and although most Golden Core Cultivator are pressed for time, they will still try every means to complete their own beast armor equipment.

However, this also raises a problem.

If the beast armor equipment is too weak, then even if one manages to reach the Nascent Soul stage, one would have to spend a great deal of time refining the Accumulation Devices and recombining the armor; but if the goal is set too high, some Golden Core Cultivators might never finish constructing their armor before they die.

"Anyway, I have taken the Three Powers Celestial Pill, giving me a ten percent chance to break through to Nascent Soul. Moreover, my Martial Dao has advanced, and my essence, energy, and spirit far exceed those of an ordinary Golden Core Cultivator, which by rights gives me a thirty percent chance; if I also obtain the Sacrifice Pill... breaking through to Nascent Soul is no problem!" Yan Buji laughed.

That way, there would be no worries left behind.

However, refining the Accumulation Devices is still somewhat difficult for Yan Buji.

He thought that if he wanted to upgrade the Asura Accumulation Armor directly to the Fivefold Transformation level in one go, the time required would likely not be shorter than that of Alchemy Technique, and could even be longer, because he would need other natal Accumulation Devices to construct the armor.

This also involves the construction and sealing‑together refinement of five or more Accumulation‑device components, the reconciliation of their differences and coordination, and the planning of the overall construction.

Generally speaking, although Yan Buji has quite a few accumulation diagrams, all scavenged from others' storage bags, no one would leave behind a specialized design for beast armor equipment for him to observe and reference.

"Beast armor equipment... although I was lucky in the Abnormal Zone to obtain a single abnormal‑mutation bone, plus the two beast armor equipment pieces I took apart from the Dragon People earlier, making three in total, that should be enough."

Yan Buji pondered.

The original purpose of beast armor equipment was to allow cultivators, when facing large numbers of Abnormal Beast, to quickly use their Accumulation Devices not one by one but simultaneously.

This developed rapidly during the years when Abnormal Beast broke out, gradually becoming a trend among cultivators.

Likewise, although many cultivators today choose not to construct beast armor equipment, it is evident that Golden Core Cultivator who possess such equipment are stronger than ordinary ones.

This is mainly because beast armor equipment can make the fullest possible use of each of one's Accumulation Devices.

Thus Yan Buji feels troubled; he does not know which aspect he should prioritize when constructing the beast armor equipment.

"If I first design the armor diagram, then my natal Accumulation Devices would have to be refined according to the armor's requirements. But the natal Accumulation Devices I need are nothing more than for attack, defense, and cultivation assistance; defense is already covered by the Asura Accumulation Armor, and my physical body does not need to deliberately pursue defensive performance, so what I need is to strengthen the armor's attack power and versatility."

"Moreover, I need to design the component interfaces based on versatility... fortunately I have extra abnormal‑mutation bones, which should suffice."

Yan Buji thought that, up to now, the only offensive Accumulation Device he has refined is the Fissure Scepter; the Sea Kun Hammer belongs to Martial Dao weapons and cannot be activated by mana.

Also, the links and staff I refined earlier to match the Heavenly Heart Four Symbols Technique were made because of melee‑combat needs.

As a Magical Cultivator, when would I ever have so many opportunities for melee combat?

Isn't everyone supposed to start fighting with spells from a distance?

"Speaking of offense, strong options include swords and such, which can form sword formations and the like; with a natal Accumulation Device in hand, learning some techniques is also simple. However, swords do not suit my path...."

Yan Buji thought that his natal Accumulation Device, the Fissure Scepter, is very well suited to his cultivation method; it can use fissures to launch spatial bee‑sting attacks against enemies, and it is flexible and versatile.

"But the Fissure Scepter is not easy to disassemble." Yan Buji frowned; he was originally quite satisfied with the finished Fissure Scepter, but if he were to disassemble and combine it into beast armor equipment, he would also have to consider whether other Accumulation‑device components could withstand the influence of Space Power.

Moreover, the Fissure Scepter has the ability to contain vengeful spirits and can release ghosts under his control to attack enemies.

In that case, there is no need to modify the Fissure Scepter as part of the beast armor equipment; using it as is yields better results.

"Then I'll just design a new offensive Accumulation Device."

Yan Buji thought.