"Senior Brother, are we really just going to let this matter end like this?"
Upon regaining consciousness, Gao Zhenhao's face was filled with resentment. The Coldwater Sword, painstakingly forged from thousand-year Cold Iron Essence—something he had begged and schemed for countless times—had ultimately become nothing more than a wedding garment for Lin Tian. Such an outcome was utterly unacceptable to him.
"Rest assured, Junior Brother," Zhao Zhenjie replied, a trace of cold malice flickering in his eyes. "The Coldwater Sword is only temporarily in Lin Tian's hands." Compared to Gao Zhenhao, Zhao Zhenjie was even less able to tolerate Lin Tian's success. The thought of Lin Tian claiming the sword only deepened his irritation.
"Does Senior Brother have a plan?" Gao Zhenhao's eyes lit up instantly.
"Do you remember what day it will be one month from now?" Zhao Zhenjie asked, a faint smile slowly curling at the corner of his lips.
"Senior Brother means to…?" Gao Zhenhao understood at once.
...
While the two were secretly plotting how to deal with Lin Tian, Lin Tian himself was pacing restlessly inside the artifact-refining chamber, at a complete loss. Truth be told, the number of spiritual artifacts in his possession had grown excessive: the Spirit Gun, the Mortal Cannon, and now the Coldwater Sword. Carrying all of them on his person would be extremely inconvenient, yet leaving them behind felt equally unsafe.
"If only I had some kind of space to store all of this," Lin Tian muttered, lying flat on the ground and staring blankly at the ceiling. The moment those words left his mouth, he suddenly sat upright, a sharp gleam flashing in his eyes.
When he had previously studied artifact refinement, he vaguely recalled reading about a rare metal endowed with spatial properties. If that metal's spatial ability could be used to store objects, then wouldn't it be possible to carry everything with him at all times?
With that thought, Lin Tian immediately hurried to the Outer Sect Treasure Pavilion. After scouring the inventory records again and again, he finally found what he was looking for.
Voidshift Stone—fourth-grade metal. According to the records of the Artifact Peak, Voidshift Stone was discovered within fallen meteors, containing a naturally formed spatial domain. It was an exceedingly rare material. Yet within the Artifact Peak, it was treated no better than scrap metal; not a single disciple was willing to exchange points for it.
The reason was simple: although precious, no one had ever managed to put Voidshift Stone to practical use. Throughout the history of the Artifact Peak, many disciples had attempted to harness its spatial properties, but every attempt had ended in failure. Over time, Voidshift Stone was relegated to obscurity, left to gather dust in the Xuanwu Sect's treasure vault.
"Senior Brother, I want to exchange for Voidshift Stone," Lin Tian said directly, handing over his token.
"Voidshift Stone? Junior Brother, are you certain?" The disciple in charge of the Treasure Pavilion stared at him in astonishment, clearly not expecting anyone to request it.
"That's right—Voidshift Stone," Lin Tian replied decisively. "Whatever remains, I want all of it."
"All of it?" The disciple was stunned. Although Voidshift Stone was practically useless, it was still a fourth-grade metal, and the Xuanwu Sect had quite a large stockpile. Exchanging for all of it would require an astronomical number of points.
"Junior Brother, to exchange for all of this would cost seven hundred and fifty thousand points. Are you sure you want to spend that many points on Voidshift Stone?" the disciple asked hesitantly.
"Absolutely," Lin Tian replied without the slightest pause. He was momentarily surprised himself—the number happened to be exactly the amount of points he had earned.
Seeing that Lin Tian could not be dissuaded, the disciple simply hauled out all the Voidshift Stone and handed it over to him.
Faced with the sheer volume of it, Lin Tian could only carry the stones back to his refining chamber bit by bit. His bizarre behavior quickly became the talk of the Artifact Peak.
Ignoring the outside rumors entirely, Lin Tian immersed himself in experimentation with the Voidshift Stone. One piece after another was consumed. Half a month passed, and more than half of the stones were gone, while deep dark circles formed beneath Lin Tian's eyes.
At last, he succeeded in storing an object within a Voidshift Stone ring. With a gentle infusion of spiritual energy, the object was retrieved once more.
"I did it—I really did it!" Lin Tian exclaimed, clutching the item with unrestrained excitement. Soon, however, he realized that the storage capacity of the ring was extremely limited. At present, it could only hold a small number of items. If he wanted to store everything he owned, the space was clearly insufficient.
"If I could refine all of this Voidshift Stone into Voidshift Essence, wouldn't the storage capacity increase dramatically?" Lin Tian muttered thoughtfully, sitting on the ground. No sooner had the idea formed than he was eager to put it to the test.
Unfortunately, Voidshift Stone was a fourth-grade metal. To melt it down into Voidshift Essence would require green-grade artifact flame to even begin the refinement. At his current level, Lin Tian could only condense yellow flame—barely enough to process the stone, let alone produce green artifact fire.
Left with no other choice, Lin Tian sent a message to his master. Not long after, the old man arrived. When he saw the mountain of Voidshift Stone before him, he was utterly dumbfounded.
"Good heavens, disciple—why did you get so much Voidshift Stone?" the old man exclaimed, eyes wide, looking at Lin Tian as though he were a prodigal son. Though not particularly skilled in artifact refinement himself, he knew all too well that Voidshift Stone was considered one of the most useless metals. Spending such a vast number of points on it was sheer waste.
"Master, I called you here to help me with something," Lin Tian said sheepishly.
"Don't tell me you dragged me over just for this pile of Voidshift Stone," the old man said helplessly, glaring at the stones. Even though Lin Tian had used his own points, the sight still made his heart ache.
"Master, take a look at this," Lin Tian said, handing over the completed Voidshift Stone ring.