“Originally, the three sect masters helped me carve the talisman and infuse it with spiritual energy. I was planning to use a basic ice rune combined with a swift wind rune, which should give me good penetrating power. But now, if I have to carve the talisman myself, I don’t know if I can do it,” Yuan Ming looked at the Qingyu Sword and said slowly.

“I’ve seen you draw talismans, and you have a bit of talent in this aspect,” Xiying said slowly.

“This may be related to my practice since childhood. I used to practice carving talismans on some iron embryos, but at that time, my mindset was completely different from now. Afterwards, I only had others help me look at it, and I never really infused it with spiritual energy, so I couldn’t verify if it was truly successful,” Yuan Ming hesitated.

Xiying nodded to confirm this.

“It’s impossible to have everything go perfectly. Cultivation is about opportunities and fate. Today is your chance. Just give it a try. After all, this is not a good material. If it fails, you can find a new one,” Xiying said dismissively.

Yes, it’s better to take a chance with a glimmer of hope than to miss it. If he hesitates, he will lose everything.

Moreover, the arrow is already on the string and he has to shoot. If he hesitates any longer, he won’t have the chance to continue.

Yuan Ming found a stone to sit down on, his wrist turned, and a strange carving knife three inches long appeared in his palm. The tip of the knife was not sharp, but embedded with a small dark red multi-faceted crystal.

“My disciple is well-prepared, even the carving knife for opening the spirit is ready,” Xiying praised.

Yuan Ming didn’t refute, he had already started adjusting his breathing and calming his mind, no longer responding to Xiying.

He held the hilt of the Qingyu Sword with one hand, placed the long sword horizontally on his knee, and held the carving knife in the other hand. Instead of rushing to start, he slowly closed his eyes.

At this moment, the appearance of the ice rune and the wind rune had already begun to take shape in his mind.

After a long time, Yuan Ming opened his eyes, without any hesitation in his gaze.

He brought the carving knife close to the sword, pressed it against the blade, and a strand of mana entered it. The dark red crystal embedded in the tip of the knife immediately lit up and became hot.

Huo Chen’er was also attracted by the light and approached Yuan Ming, but was driven away by the Silver Cat with its claws.

Yuan Ming began to slide the carving knife on the blade, without making any harsh sounds, and there were no visible scratches on the blade. However, a clear mark began to appear on it.

With Yuan Ming’s movements, as the carving knife moved, an ice rune resembling a snowflake was completed.

Yuan Ming’s gaze focused, and all his attention was on the blade. His movements did not stop as he connected it with a gentle curve, carving out a wind rune resembling a vortex.

The moment the rune was completed, Yuan Ming immediately lifted the carving knife, and there were no additional marks on the blade.

The Silver Cat had been lying on the casting furnace all this time, seemingly indifferent, but its gaze never left Yuan Ming’s hand.

At this moment, when it saw that he had finished carving, it was about to raise its head, but then turned its head to look elsewhere.

During the entire process of carving the talisman, Yuan Ming was so nervous that he almost stopped breathing. It wasn’t until he raised his head that he let out a long breath and stood up in front of the Silver Cat.

“Xiying, take a look for me, how is it?” he couldn’t wait to ask.

He believed that the Silver Cat’s eyes were definitely above his own.

However, Xiying didn’t even look, but a voice sounded in his mind, “You’ll know if it works when you try.”

“Then let’s give it a try,” Yuan Ming said with a smile.

With that, he sent the Qingyu Sword into the furnace.

“Don’t be in a hurry, you have to ignite and activate the spirit gathering array first, melt the spirit stones, and then you can send the sword in for infusion,” Xiying said as it stood up.

Yuan Ming awkwardly withdrew the long sword and began to search for materials to ignite the fire from his storage bag.

“No need to look, it should be able to help,” Xiying said, looking at the Fire Greedy Child on the ground.

Upon hearing this, Yuan Ming immediately picked up the Fire Greedy Child and aimed it at the casting furnace.

“Fire Greedy Child, help me out and I’ll give you something delicious,” Yuan Ming smiled and took out a pill to feed the Fire Greedy Child.

After eating the pill, the Fire Greedy Child looked at the direction of Yuan Ming’s finger and quickly understood.

Its eyes lit up, its cheeks puffed up, and it suddenly opened its mouth and spat out a blazing flame, accurately landing on the flame rune in the center of the fire pit.

In the next moment, the flame rune lit up, and a red light spread along the runes of the array, illuminating the surrounding five spirit gathering runes one by one.

The entire array lit up like a five-petal fire lotus.

The temperature in the furnace suddenly rose, and due to the door not being closed, a scorching heat wave immediately spewed out.

Yuan Ming nervously stared at the changes in the fire pit, and then saw that the several red spirit stones began to reveal a spiderweb-like pattern, spreading from the bottom to the top.

Accompanied by a crisp “crack” sound, all the spirit stones shattered.

A surge of spiritual power overflowed from them, turning into tiny streams and converging towards the top of the array, forming a cluster of red spiritual mist, which was restrained by the array and did not dissipate.

“It’s ready,” Xiying reminded in a timely manner.

Upon hearing this, Yuan Ming immediately sent the long sword into the furnace.

The Qingyu Sword entered the fire pit and was immediately suspended in mid-air by an invisible force.

The red spiritual mist surrounded the sword, but did not pour into it.

“Close the furnace door, and then start infusing your mana into the casting furnace. Use your mana as a guide to inject spiritual power into the sword,” Xiying reminded again.Without hesitation, Yuan Ming immediately closed the furnace door and pressed his hand onto the casting furnace.

The scorching heat radiating from the furnace almost made him retract his hand.

However, he knew that this was a crucial moment for the spirit infusion, and he couldn’t afford to back down, or else he would surely fail.

He immediately activated the Nine Elements Formula, mobilizing the mana in his dantian, flowing through his arm meridians, and pouring into the casting furnace.

Following that, just like the scene he saw when the Three-Hole Master was refining tools the other day, a green light shone under his palm. The light traces flowed along the rune lines on the furnace, illuminating the entire casting furnace.

Yuan Ming could clearly feel his mana, flowing along the runes on the furnace body, continuously pouring into the bottom of the furnace, merging with the spirit gathering array.

At the same time, the burning sensation in his hand also faded away.

Then, he saw a strand of green light rising from the center of the spirit gathering array, like a towering tree growing out of a sea of fire, connecting directly to the Green Fish Sword.

The Green Fish Sword, which had been hovering motionlessly, suddenly began to tremble violently at this moment.

And those self-floating spiritual powers, like ownerless objects finding their master, followed Yuan Ming’s mana guidance and poured into the Green Fish Sword.

The green light on the Green Fish Sword flourished, and the tiny white marks on the sword body lit up like stars.

The ice rune engraved on it was the first to light up a bit, and spiritual power began to reside on it, gradually filling and illuminating the rune lines.

When the entire rune was completely lit up, the spirit infusion was considered to be completely finished.

Just as Yuan Ming felt his mana was rapidly depleting, he suddenly noticed that the ground connected to the casting furnace, which originally had some runes, was now also flickering with a faint light.

He immediately used his other hand to strike a mana onto the rune.

As his mana fell, the runes on the ground were immediately lit up, and a yellow array immediately lit up. A not very strong, but continuous spiritual power rose from the ground and poured into the casting furnace.

Yuan Ming immediately felt a lightening of pressure, and his mana depletion was not so fast.

“I underestimated this guy called Heimu, his arrangement is really good, there is even a ground array to assist.” Xiying couldn’t help but sigh when she saw this.

Yuan Ming was fully focused at this moment, not daring to be distracted at all.

But the process of spirit infusion was very slow, and after a long time, only half of the ice rune lines were lit up.

Yuan Ming noticed that his mana was depleting too quickly, fearing that he would not have enough for the next steps, he immediately took out a spirit stone and held it in his hand, recovering as much as he could while continuing to output.

Time trickled away, and the spiritual power in the spirit gathering array was also rapidly consumed.

Silver Cat Xiying watched the changes in the furnace body, her eyes flickered slightly, seeming to sense something wrong.

“Yuan Ming, what runes did you draw?” Xiying asked.

“Ice runes and Wind runes.” Yuan Ming repeated.

Deep suspicion emerged in Silver Cat’s different-colored eyes. She stepped forward and waved her cat paw.

The door of the casting furnace was immediately opened, and the scorching heat wave swept out again, but she ignored it.

Seeing the ice rune on the Green Fish Sword that was about to complete the spirit infusion, her mood changed slightly. She no longer communicated with Yuan Ming through telepathy, but spoke directly:

“This is not an ice rune at all, but a much rarer extreme cold rune!”

Yuan Ming was taken aback when he heard this, and didn’t even notice that Silver Cat had spoken.

The rune description he saw in Master Heimu’s notes was an ice rune, which was said to be more powerful than ordinary five-element runes, but there was no further explanation.

“So that’s how it is.” Yuan Ming said.

Upon hearing this, Xiying didn’t respond to his words, but said, “Do you have any more spirit stones? Throw five more in.”

Hearing her urgent tone, Yuan Ming didn’t dare to delay and quickly took out five spirit stones and threw them into the casting furnace.

The Silver Cat’s eyes lit up, and an invisible force held the five spirit stones, accurately dropping them onto the five spirit gathering symbols.

As soon as the spirit stones settled, they were immediately affected by the array, turning into spiritual power mist and rising, enveloping the Green Fish Sword.

(End of the chapter)