While Nine Heart Thunder Flame was fully melting the Blue Stone Magical Item, Yang Che continued to study the Jade Slip given to him by Tianxie Ziyin, which contained some rudimentary Artifact Refining techniques.

Although Tianxie Ziyin only had a slight understanding of Artifact Refining, in Yang Che's eyes, she was already quite formidable.

He now knew that back in Qing Jian Sect, the sword-casting techniques of those sword smiths were merely the most basic Dao of Artifact Refining.

After entering the Golden Core Stage, the flames within a Cultivator's body undergo a qualitative change, which is the so-called 'Core Flame', capable of directly enveloping and refining a great many Heaven And Earth Treasures.

Just like the Nine Heart Thunder Flame at this moment, if its flame power is strong enough, it can directly envelop the object to be refined and melt it.

The same principle applied when Tianxie Ziyin helped him melt the Jiao Entangling Silk and then fuse it with Flying Fire Meteor.

The difference was that the stronger the flame power, the more Materials could be refined, and the shorter the time required.

In advanced Artifact Refining, flame melting is the first step; if one's Divine Sense is strong enough and experience is rich enough, everything else can be completed within the flames.

However, the details involved in this process severely test an Artifact Refiner's 'skill', and even their attainments and abilities in other areas.

For example, an Artifact Refiner who understands Formation can engrave Formations during the refining process, making the final Magic Treasure produced possess even more extraordinary power.

What Yang Che was currently studying focused on a single point.

That was how to perfectly integrate rare Materials into Sword Four as much as possible, to enhance Sword Four's existing power and add other more bizarre abilities to Sword Four.

Yang Che remained engrossed in this Artifact Refining Jade Slip, concentrating on how to integrate the melted Blue Stone Magical Item Materials into Sword Four, so that Sword Four would also possess 'ice-cold' power.

After all, he had taken Tianxie Ziyin's advice to use Sword Four as the foundation to refine an Dark-attribute Magic Treasure for his Lower Dantian.

Although Sword Four was currently undergoing continuous tempering by the black Core Flame, apart from its extraordinary sharpness, it seemed to have no other abilities.

Originally, Yang Che had another idea: simply focus on Sword Four's sharpness and just find suitable Materials to repair the blade's nicks.

However, Tianxie Ziyin still advised him not to have too many worries or concerns, saying that Sword Four's inherent Material was extraordinary and could absorb and integrate countless rare Materials, allowing for multi-faceted improvements.

Of course, it would be best if these rare Materials were all Dark-attribute.

Since Zi Yin had said so, Yang Che had no more qualms and prepared to boldly integrate various rare Materials.

The thin old man from Jiang Huo City who held a whisk, whom he had fortunately killed back then, had a 'Blue Stone Magical Item' whose icy Qi left a deep impression on Yang Che.

Thus, he had a sudden idea: after melting this Blue Stone Magical Item, he would integrate it into Sword Four.

However, although Nine Heart Thunder Flame was known as one of the three great Ancient Divine Flames, it was currently incomplete, and it would still take some time to completely melt the Blue Stone Magical Item.

So, for the time that followed, Yang Che came to the Bronze Hall where Tianxie Ziyin was, continuing to ask her about Artifact Refining techniques, while also taking advantage of the 'Thunder Fire Refining Hall' to Cultivate more Ancient God Power to provide to her.

More than half a year passed in a flash.

On this day, Yang Che was vigorously Cultivating by devouring the white lightning drawn down by Zi Yin using the «Devouring Thunder Art», when he suddenly heard Tianxie Ziyin say:

"Yang Che, your Physical Body has been tempered by this lightning quite thoroughly now; you can consider condensing some 'Sky Thunder Pearl' for self-defense."

Hearing this, Yang Che's heart stirred, and joy quickly surged within him.

He had long heard of and desired these 'Sky Thunder Pearl', but he had never encountered a finished Sky Thunder Pearl.

And Sky Thunder Pearl also had different Ranks.

Their power depended, firstly, on the strength of the Heaven Thunder itself, and secondly, on the power of the refining flame.

For example, for the same white Heaven Thunder, the stronger the flame used to refine it, the more powerful the Sky Thunder Pearl produced would be.

And the most powerful Heaven Thunder in legend was the 'Nine-Colored Heaven Thunder', which was extremely rare.

According to what Tianxie Ziyin once said, Nine Heart Thunder Flame was the spirit of the Ancient Divine Beast Nine Heart Fire Crow, reborn and nurtured in thunder-fire after being struck by a Nine-Colored Heaven Thunder.

Undoubtedly, using Nine Heart Thunder Flame to refine this white Heaven Thunder into Sky Thunder Pearl would naturally result in greater power than if Yang Che were to refine them with his Core Flame.

However, Nine Heart Thunder Flame had just finished melting the 'Blue Stone Magical Item' and was currently in a resting state.

Therefore, after a brief consideration, Yang Che decided to personally refine this white Heaven Thunder with his own Core Flame to improve his Artifact Refining Dao.

Soon, Yang Che, following the method Tianxie Ziyin described, spat out his Core Flame to envelop the white Divine Thunder, and began refining 'Sky Thunder Pearl'.

In the blink of an eye, more than half a year passed again.

After countless failures in the first month, Yang Che found some tricks in the following months and refined a large number of 'Sky Thunder Pearl'.

Although the power of each of these Sky Thunder Pearl was only comparable to a full-strength strike from a Late Stage Golden Core Stage Cultivator, if dozens or hundreds were thrown out simultaneously, even Early Stage Nascent Soul Cultivators would not dare to take them head-on.

With this massive quantity of 'Sky Thunder Pearl', Yang Che believed that even if he encountered a Nascent Soul cultivator, he would have the power to protect himself.

After storing these Sky Thunder Pearl in a cyan gourd, Yang Che began to slowly integrate the melted Blue Stone Magical Item Materials into Sword Four, continuing to nurture it in his Lower Dantian, while simultaneously dedicating himself wholeheartedly to the Cultivation of 'Dark Domain' and 'Extinction Sword Intent' recorded in the «Silent Extinction Scripture».

The Cultivation of Dark Domain and Extinction Sword Intent were both extremely difficult.

This was something Yang Che only realized after he truly began to Cultivate.

Even after more than a year of Cultivating 'Dark Domain', Yang Che could only form a small black world several zhang in radius around his body, merely stepping into the threshold of Dark Domain.

As for 'Extinction Sword Intent', it was even more difficult.

Fortunately, Yang Che's Comprehension Ability was not too bad; in this past year, he had stumbled his way into the threshold of Extinction Sword Intent.

After three years in total, Yang Che could now finally barely move to head towards 'Dark Abyss'.

After accompanying Tianxie Ziyin and slowly finishing another pot of 'purple bamboo spirit tea', Yang Che then bade farewell, left Zi Tian City, and embarked on the desert road to Dark Abyss.

To conserve Magic Power, Yang Che took out the 'Dunjxing Shuo' which he hadn't used for a long time, and sped like lightning towards Dark Abyss, tens of thousands of miles away.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, Yang Che kept flying high on the shuttle, deliberately avoiding Yao Beasts and Cultivators in the desert.

During this period, he stopped and went, continuing to Cultivate while unhurriedly traveling.

Nearly half a month later.

In the desert.

In a large dense forest of sea buckthorn somewhere, Yang Che was sitting cross-legged, holding Spirit Stone, rapidly recovering his Magic Power and stamina.

At this moment, from a distance, a rather disheveled woman suddenly flew from a certain direction.

"Fellow Daoist, please lend a helping hand."

Yang Che, who was about to leave quickly, suddenly heard the woman's panicked plea for help.

Before long, he saw a Middle Stage Core Formation Stage Cultivator with a very sinister expression appear behind the woman.