As Mu Jinyu pondered,
Wang Hu, lying on the ground panting weakly like a dying dog, suddenly began to sweat profusely, and his breathing grew louder.
Then, as the pool of water was expelled from his body, he struggled up from the ground with a grunt.
It seemed that Wang Hu had fallen into such a lifeless state because too much of the Water Ghost's liquid had infiltrated his body and seized control of it, leaving him unable to move.
It was unclear whether Wu Shisan had let him off on purpose, or if it was because, with Wu Shisan's departure, he could no longer remotely control the pool of Evil Water, that Wang Hu finally was able to act.
"Damn it!"
Wang Hu got to his feet and glared in the direction Wu Shisan had left, cursing angrily.
However, Wu Shisan had already left and couldn't hear his cursing.
And he knew that he was no match for Wu Shisan and didn't intend to chase after him to continue the fight once he was free.
Wang Hu cast a cold glance at Mu Jinyu, snorted, and left without saying a word.
He seemed to be quite resentful that Mu Jinyu hadn't stood up for him just now, and he didn't reproach Wu Shisan for his reckless actions either.
Watching Wang Hu leave without a word, Mu Jinyu gave a wry smile but said nothing.
Indeed, to earn respect, if you don't have sufficient strength, it's simply not possible.
Shaking his head slightly, Mu Jinyu no longer dwelled on these thoughts and asked the onlookers to leave while he headed toward a building.
That building wasn't home to any families.
Instead, it housed the esteemed members of sects like Buddha's Light Shines Everywhere and Way of Nature, who essentially didn't have to do any other chores but wake up, eat, and then monotonously craft Gold Inlaid Jade Magic Artifacts.
Some were taken by them to be handed over to Buddha's Light Shines Everywhere and Way of Nature behind them, while others were distributed by Dragon King Hall.
However, Mu Jinyu felt that they couldn't tolerate such a dull life forever.
So he wanted to discuss with them whether it was possible to rely on formations to achieve mass production of Gold Inlaid Jade Magic Artifacts.
"Dragon King, what brings you here?"
When Mu Jinyu reached the door of a suite on the second floor and began to turn the doorknob, the people inside, who were continuously carving jade, looked up at him.
Seeing that it was Mu Jinyu who had come, Ning Fan from Way of Nature chuckled lightly and asked.
Mu Jinyu didn't beat around the bush and got right to the point, "Esteemed masters, I've recently had an idea. I always feel that relying solely on manual craftsmanship to produce magic artifacts is hardly sufficient to meet the current demand, so I've been thinking if we could use a formation to replace our handiwork..."
After listening to Mu Jinyu's explanation and proposal, everyone fell into thought, then Master Yi shook her head and said,
"Wouldn't that be difficult? When creating these magic artifacts, the difficulty isn't in engraving the Evil-Repelling Runes—we are all thoroughly familiar with that, and using machines might be feasible, but the most important thing is, if the engraving of the Evil-Repelling Runes isn't accompanied by the appropriate pure True Qi, then it would be pointless."
"Right," Ning Fan agreed, "We're indeed getting quite tired of carving these magic artifacts. If we could substitute machines, we would be delighted, but the key issue is that if a machine does the engraving of the talismans, we can't accurately embed True Qi into them, activate the talismans, and make them effective."
Arhat didn't directly object like the others. After pondering for a moment, he said, "Let's give it a try. Since the Dragon King has suggested it, he must be somewhat confident, and if it proves successful, or even somewhat feasible, we'll help analyze how to use formations for the crafting process. That would allow us to withdraw earlier and head to the battlefield!"
"All right, let's give it a try then!"
Arhat clearly held a very high status, and once he spoke, no one had any objections.
Mu Jinyu nodded slightly and also breathed a sigh of relief.
What he feared most was that these people, too stubborn by nature, wouldn't even be willing to give it a try.
Left on his own, he couldn't fathom how much effort it would take to delve in and perfect the process.
Afterward, Mu Jinyu used local materials, picking up several pieces of high-quality jade from the ground, quickly carved a few runes, and then began setting them up.
After nearly half an hour, Mu Jinyu finally completed the formation.
Then, he picked up a piece of jade and said to everyone, "Now, I will carve the Evil-Repelling Spell. I won't infuse True Qi while carving."
With that, he put his fingers together like a blade, and began to quickly etch dense runes onto the piece of jade with his middle and index fingers.
He finished the carving quickly.
Everyone watched the piece of jade in Mu Jinyu's hands, knowing for certain that there was no fluctuation of True Qi present.
If Mu Jinyu had been infusing True Qi while carving just now, then by embedding this piece of jade into a gold bar, it would have become a fine Protective talisman.
But at this moment, if Mu Jinyu's experiment failed, there was a very high probability it would be ruined.
Because after the runes were carved, infusing True Qi would result in a stagnant sensation, making it impossible to fully channel the True Qi back into the countless runes inside the jade, with a great possibility of a failed inscription, rendering it a defective product in the end.
"All right, the jade is carved. Let's try it now,"
Mu Jinyu said softly, and then placed the piece of jade into the small Primordial Gathering Formation he had just set up.
He then activated the formation.
"Humming…"
The formation emitted a humming sound, and the Spiritual Energy and Elemental Qi in the air were drawn over, starting to flow into the jade at the core of the formation according to its operation.
Everyone stopped their jade carving and stared unblinkingly at the process.
They saw the Spiritual Energy and Elemental Qi turning into fine threads, guided through the eye of an invisible needle controlled by the formation, and then surged into the gaps within the runes carved in that piece of jade!
It didn't take a minute for the Spiritual Energy to fill the entire piece of jade, perfectly activating the Evil-Repelling Spell carved upon it!
Mu Jinyu stepped forward, removed several pieces of jade, halting the small Primordial Gathering Formation, and took out the piece of jade used for the experiment.
He did this because operating the formation would deplete the Spiritual Energy within the jade used for the formation. If he didn't dismantle it, the jade would eventually run out of Spiritual Energy and be completely wasted.
Now that high-quality jade was scarce, it should not be wasted.
Holding the piece of jade, Mu Jinyu felt the changes in it, his eyes revealing a hint of disappointment. He then handed it to Arhat and sighed, "The crux of the matter is just so. Using formations to create magic artifacts is feasible, but the only difficulty is that something is missing, something that prevents the Evil-Repelling Runes from being truly activated!"
Arhat took the piece of jade, looked at it thoughtfully, and then said, "I think I know what's missing."
"What's missing?" Ning Fan took the jade and also noticed that although the Evil-Repelling Spell was filled with Spiritual Energy without a trace lacking, it still wasn't activated.
Arhat replied, "Upright and Magnanimous Energy."