Silver Shield

There are many kinds of magical artifacts in the cultivation world, but apart from those with special uses like storage bags, they can be roughly divided into two categories: offensive and defensive.

Among offensive and defensive magical artifacts, defensive magical artifacts of the same grade are often more expensive.

The reason is simple: cultivators have many means of attack, including magic weapons, spells, talismans, poisonous insects, beast taming, puppets, and so on. However, a cultivator only has one life. Once injured, even if he can recover, it will still delay a lot of his cultivation time.

Faced with a constant stream of offensive tactics, a high-quality defensive artifact becomes extremely valuable.

Gu Fan happened to have a high-quality spiritual material in his storage bag that could be used to refine defensive magical artifacts.

Shenji Peak, in a quiet room.

The five-foot-square seashell quietly emitted a hazy glow; it was the spoils of war that Gu Fan obtained from killing the Sea King during his journey through the Cloud Mist Sea.

The thickest part of the shell is nearly a foot long and it is over three hundred years old. Even if it is not refined into a magic weapon, it can withstand Meng Wei's palm lightning.

That was a full-force attack from the late stage of Qi Refining, not to mention that Meng Wei cultivated the Thunder Technique, which was known for its violence.

Gu Fan pondered for three days before devising a refining plan based on the material characteristics of the seashell.

To avoid any accidents, the relevant restrictions were written down in advance and carefully checked several times with the All-Seeing Eye.

After all, there is only one shell, and if he fails, Gu Fan will suffer heavy losses.

In addition, Gu Fan also exchanged some precious spiritual materials, which he planned to incorporate into the seashell.

The few merit points remaining in the white jade ring were not enough to exchange for spiritual materials, but the diagram of the Minor Illusion Array had been completed.

Gu Fan went to Wendao Peak and handed the array diagram to Zhou Furui, successfully earning one hundred merit points, which solved his immediate problem.

When Gu Fan handed over the jade slip containing the complete array diagram, Zhou Furui's eyes held a mixture of joy and melancholy.

After fulfilling his good deed, he did not let Gu Fan choose freely, but instead suggested that Gu Fan take a jade slip, which contained an incomplete array diagram called "Golden Lock Array".

Gu Fan had already guessed the meaning of the incomplete array diagram, and upon hearing Zhou Furui's suggestion, he naturally adopted it without hesitation.

After examining the jade slip, Gu Fan discovered that the Golden Lock Formation was a trapping formation. Its effect was to render those trapped within it unable to move, as if bound by golden locks, leaving them at the mercy of others.

While achieving outstanding results, the Golden Lock Formation is far more complex than the Small Maze Formation.

There are only five intact array pattern hubs, which correspond to the eight trigrams. Therefore, Gu Fan speculates that this array should have eight array pattern hubs.

Zhou Furui seemed worried that Gu Fan would refuse, so before Gu Fan could speak, he took the initiative to increase the reward for the array diagram to two hundred merit points.

This surprised Gu Fan slightly.

The complexity of the Golden Lock Formation made it impossible for Gu Fan to predict the completion time, so he decided to refine the magic weapon first and earn spirit stones.

The dragon head stone sculpture suddenly spewed out earth flames, and Gu Fan began to refine this magic weapon on which he had placed high hopes.

......

Lingxi Peak, Meng Wei's residence.

Meng Wei's eyes widened as he examined the silver round shield in his hand, staring at Gu Fan in disbelief: "This... was forged by Junior Brother?"

Gu Fan's eyes were full of exhaustion, but there was a slight smile on his lips. He nodded slowly upon hearing this.

It must be said that the difficulty of refining seashells into magical artifacts exceeded Gu Fan's expectations.

Because the seashells come from the sea and contain the essence of water, it took Gu Fan half a day of continuous burning with earth flames to finally melt them.

At this moment, Gu Fan desperately longed to possess a spiritual fire.

After melting the seashells, Gu Fan added various water-based spiritual materials to the Earth Flame. Under strict control of the proportions, he burned the materials for half a day to remove impurities before evenly fusing them together.

Even with Gu Fan's powerful magic, he almost couldn't hold on during this process.

Fortunately, he was prepared in advance and had a bottle of Qi-replenishing pills, which prevented an accident from happening.

Qi-replenishing pills differ from Qi-gathering pills in that they do not enhance cultivation, but they can quickly replenish mana and are one of the essential pills for cultivators.

With the support of the Qi-replenishing pill, Gu Fan successfully fused many spiritual materials into one.

After fusion, the spiritual liquid was no longer the grayish-white color of a seashell, but instead presented a silvery-white metallic color, and emitted ripples of light. Gu Fan carefully stretched it to form a shield-shaped artifact.

Next, Gu Fan spent another half a day carving six restrictions on it, maximizing the properties of the spiritual material, which resulted in the silver shield in Meng Wei's hand.

The Six Restrictions are already the best among mid-grade magic weapons, which is the limit of Gu Fan's weapon-refining skills at this time!

Although the refining process lasted less than two days, the mental and physical exertion left Gu Fan feeling extremely exhausted.

But after Gu Fan tested the round shield's defensive capabilities, his fatigue was immediately replaced by a sense of accomplishment.

No matter how many times he manipulated the trident to poke and strike the round shield, not a single scratch was left!

Whenever the trident approaches, a silver aura appears on the round shield, causing the attack to deflect.

This was an inspiration Gu Fan drew from his memories of his past life. Rather than directly receiving the attack, he could deflect it by refraction, thus greatly reducing the pressure on the magical artifact.

So, in high spirits, Gu Fan visited Meng Wei to show off his masterpiece.

Meng Wei held the round shield in his hand and examined it several times, clicking his tongue in amazement and saying, "Junior Brother said before that he could take on weapon crafting, and I thought he could only craft some low-grade magic weapons. I never expected it to be such a fine piece."

Upon hearing this, Gu Fan chuckled smugly: "I came to visit you, Senior Brother, to demonstrate my weapon-forging skills. To be honest, Senior Brother, it's not like I'm being laughed at. In the past six months, not a single person has asked me to forge any weapons."

Upon hearing this, Meng Wei laughed heartily and said, "It seems we've all underestimated our junior brother!"

After exchanging a smile, Meng Wei asked softly, "Junior Brother, are you prepared to use this silver shield?"

"That's right. If you're interested, senior brother, I can offer a discount as a lucky draw prize. You just need to spread the word to the other disciples later." Gu Fan nodded in reply.

Meng Wei immediately perked up and leaned forward tentatively, asking, "Junior Brother, how many spirit stones are you planning to sell?"

"two thousand."

"Two thousand?" Meng Wei exclaimed in surprise, tilting his head back slightly and taking a deep breath.

After carefully examining the silver shield for a few moments, seemingly afraid of discouraging Gu Fan, she said slowly, "Although this shield has outstanding defense, isn't two thousand a bit too expensive?"

Gu Fan shook his head and laughed, "Who said this shield is only good for defense?"

After saying that, Gu Fan took the shield and said in a deep voice, "Senior brother, be careful."

Upon hearing this, Meng Wei immediately became alert, staring at Gu Fan with wide eyes. He saw that after Gu Fan poured magic power into the silver shield, the smooth surface of the shield instantly burst forth with a dazzling silver-white light.

"Ouch!" Meng Wei was caught off guard by the bright light. He felt a blinding white light before his eyes, cried out in surprise, and quickly reached out to shield his eyes.

Gu Fan then withdrew his magic, and the bright light disappeared. Meng Wei then opened his eyes, but they remained blurry for several seconds before his vision cleared.

"How are you feeling, senior brother?"

Gu Fan, like a child who had successfully pulled off a prank, slapped his thigh and laughed out loud.