Chapter 966: The Treasure Gathering Basin

What a loss!

After trying for two months straight, He Pingsheng finally reached a conclusion.

Then, with a snap, he dropped the golden sphere onto the ground.

No good!

It simply cannot be refined!

What a loss!

But He Pingsheng still wanted to try one last time—he picked up the golden sphere again and tossed it into the Treasure Gathering Basin.

Next came the enhancement.

As he enhanced it, he split off a portion of his spiritual sense to watch the Treasure Gathering Basin.

Because he couldn’t risk enhancing the original divine sphere as well.

Once duplicated, he’d take out one, and keep the other for further enhancement—perhaps another divine ability would emerge!

He Pingsheng watched silently.

Time passed slowly.

But his brow furrowed.

That’s odd!

Inside the basin, the golden sphere had not been enhanced at all!

What’s going on?

It wasn’t even duplicated!

Until dawn, He Pingsheng saw no enhancement whatsoever.

That wasn’t the key issue.

After all, some treasures were too high-grade, beyond the enhancement range of the Treasure Gathering Basin—that was understandable.

But what struck He Pingsheng as strange was that not only had the sphere not been enhanced, but none of the other items had either.

At this moment, the Treasure Gathering Basin contained more than just the sphere.

There was also a third-rank immortal artifact, the [Bronze Mask], a first-rank immortal artifact, the [Qianyuan Jin Dou], and roughly hundreds of low-grade spirit stones!

The Bronze Mask not being enhanced was understandable!

The Qianyuan Jin Dou and the golden divine sphere not being enhanced was also understandable.

After all, these items were simply too high-grade!

But why hadn’t the spirit stones been enhanced either?

Could my Treasure Gathering Basin have malfunctioned?

He Pingsheng felt unprecedented tension surge within him.

The Treasure Gathering Basin was the foundation of his superiority over all others, his greatest safeguard on the Dao path.

If this thing became useless, how would he ever break through again?

Next, with a try-it-and-see attitude, He Pingsheng added more items to the Treasure Gathering Basin.

But no enhancement occurred.

Yet at night, he still observed moonlight gathering into the basin.

What was going on?

He Pingsheng racked his brain but found no answer.

Finally, he let out a deep sigh, frowning as he muttered to himself: “I get it… the Treasure Gathering Basin doesn’t malfunction without reason—it’s almost certainly tied to the Heavenly Dao!”

“The Heavenly Dao manifests a ‘Jiazi Heavenly Blindness’ once every sixty years—could my basin’s malfunction be linked to this Jiazi Heavenly Blindness?”

“Hmm…”

“That must be it!”

“Fine… I’ll wait until after the Jiazi Heavenly Blindness passes and see then!”

He Pingsheng withdrew his spiritual sense from the Treasure Gathering Basin and ignored it.

There was nothing else to do.

Because He Pingsheng could no longer cultivate.

At present, the most crucial aspect of cultivation was breaking through the Dao barrier—but to break through, one must comprehend the laws of heaven and earth.

He Pingsheng was saturated with karmic light; trying to comprehend heavenly laws now would be futile.

For the next period, he neither cultivated nor studied arrays or talismans—he picked up his alchemy furnace and began refining elixirs.

A year passed in the blink of an eye.

Liu Molin had finished the array!

“I’ve fulfilled my duty!” Liu Molin grinned as he showed off his work in He Pingsheng’s Dao hall: “Brother He, I’ve completed the array plate, the array core, and the array flags…”

“Now comes the setup!”

“It’ll take about a few days to install.”

“Should we install it on Solitary Pine Mountain?”

He Pingsheng nodded.

He muttered inwardly: If the Treasure Gathering Basin still worked, wouldn’t it be better to enhance this array inside it?

Thinking this, his spiritual sense swept over the Treasure Gathering Basin once more.

He didn’t realize it until he looked—then he was stunned.

Holy shit…

Holy shit holy shit holy shit…

Enhanced?

Yes—the [Qianyuan Jin Dou], which he’d thought impossible to enhance, had been strengthened by the Treasure Gathering Basin.

One had become two!

He Pingsheng swiftly pulled one of the Qianyuan Jin Dou out.

What’s going on?

Wasn’t it supposed to be unenhanceable?

Why had it split into two?

He looked again—the low-grade spirit stones inside the basin had begun to enhance as well, and several had already become top-grade.

Damn!

Could the Treasure Gathering Basin be working again?

What the hell?

He Pingsheng was utterly bewildered.

“Brother He… Brother He, what’s wrong?” Liu Molin was equally puzzled.

“Nothing, nothing, nothing…” He Pingsheng glanced at the array materials scattered on the ground. “Brother Liu… go rest for now. I’ll examine these materials, and in a few days I’ll take you to Solitary Pine Mountain to set up the array!”

“Alright!” Liu Molin left immediately.

He Pingsheng sat on the chair, closed his eyes, and thought deeply.

Then, he emptied every single item from the Treasure Gathering Basin.

He placed only Liu Molin’s newly crafted array materials inside.

When night fell, he extended his spiritual sense into it once more, observing closely.

Soon, moonlight gathered.

Countless rays of moonlight converged into the basin, and within moments, one set of array materials had been enhanced into two.

He Pingsheng took out one set; the remaining set had been enhanced to top-grade.

Next, He Pingsheng launched into frantic experiments!

Spirit stones!

Normal enhancement—yes!

Herbs—normal enhancement—yes!

Elixirs—normal enhancement—yes!

Every item within the Treasure Gathering Basin’s enhancement range could now be enhanced.

So what had been wrong before?

He Pingsheng stared at the two Qianyuan Jin Dou before him, frowning.

But the answer wasn’t hard to guess.

Soon, he thought of a possibility.

That the Qianyuan Jin Dou was an immortal artifact!

Though it was within the Treasure Gathering Basin’s enhancement range, it required far more energy.

Far more moonlight.

And that much moonlight couldn’t be gathered in a single night—so it enhanced night after night.

Unconsciously, it had enhanced continuously for a full year.

It had taken a full year to complete the enhancement!

Perhaps that was it.

For example, earlier, when the Treasure Gathering Basin seemed to enhance nothing at all, it wasn’t truly idle—it had been quietly enhancing the Qianyuan Jin Dou all along.

He Pingsheng suddenly slapped his thigh: “Damn, thank goodness I didn’t take that Qianyuan Jin Dou out of the Zhubao Immortal Basin back then—otherwise, I wouldn’t know if the immortal artifact could’ve been strengthened at all.”

Thank goodness, thank goodness!

Looking at the two Qianyuan Jin Dou before him, He Pingsheng’s face was nearly blooming with smiles.

Phew…

But this raises another question!

If my guess is right, then strengthening an immortal artifact requires a full year.

The problem is, He Pingsheng had previously refined a Grade Nine elixir, the Earth Mother Blood Pill—this thing was theoretically Grade Nine, which equals Grade One in the Immortal Realm, identical in level to the Qianyuan Jin Dou.

Then why could the Grade Nine Earth Mother Blood Pill be strengthened in a single night?

I can’t figure it out!

Forget it—if I can’t figure it out, I’ll set it aside for now!

Next!

He Pingsheng pulled out the golden divine bone sphere from the Witch Clan.

Toss it into the Zhubao Basin!

Let’s see if it can be strengthened now!

He Pingsheng’s spiritual sense monitored it constantly.

Night fell!

Two hours later, moonlight condensed, and suddenly one divine bone sphere became two.

He Pingsheng was overjoyed and swiftly pulled out one.

The other continued to be strengthened.

One night passed, and this second golden sphere had turned purplish-gold.

The runes on its surface had changed.

The patterns had changed.

Even its aura had changed.

The moment he grasped it, a vast, ancient aura surged toward him.