I woke up only the next day; fortunately, nothing happened during that time. Looking around, I realized what had happened; all my progress in taming the escaping internal energy had gone to waste. Although now the leakage manifested as a weak breeze and occasional current, it proved that any strong emotional fluctuations could seriously harm me. On top of all this, my body had experienced a huge overload due to the powerful energy surge; it would require a couple more days to fully recover.
"What happened, why did you flare up like that?" Asura's surprised voice sounded in my head; hearing him like this was both strange and funny.
However, his phrase made me remember the entire nightmare I had in my dream. Now I could think more clearly than then and realized that this was likely my fears manifesting. Namely, the fear of losing Lin Yun Er if we continued not to see each other. But understanding this didn't significantly lessen the pain in my chest from the memory of the dream.
"So, what happened, what's going on with you?" Asura's surprised voice sounded again.
"Huh? You don't know?" I emerged from my thoughts. "Didn't you see the dream I had? Didn't you arrange it?" I asked him in return.
"I can influence your dreams, that's true, but I haven't done it since the new year, so don't accuse me," Asura replied, offended. "And I don't see your dreams, even if I wanted to, I couldn't. I can only vaguely understand your emotional state. However, I clearly remember you waking up for a minute yesterday, a huge amount of energy burst out of you, turning everything around into dust, and then you passed out again," Asura blurted out, almost without stopping, in one breath and a rush.
"Yes, it doesn't concern you," I said, trying to dismiss thoughts about the dream and return to pressing matters, but the decision to visit Xian before admission only intensified.
"Is this related to Lin Yun Er?" Asura asked, thinking for a moment and distracting me again.
"Yes, but it doesn't concern you!" I said, raising my voice slightly and adding a note of anger.
"As you wish, I'm not a good advisor in love matters anyway," Asura said and fell silent.
After examining my body, I realized that it would be better to spend a couple more days in safety. Besides the fact that I needed to regain control over my elemental energy, I also needed to focus on artifacts. This cave is quite safe, considering that in the three days I've been here, no one has attacked me, so I think I'll stay here.
But first, after eating and drinking one of the old man's very strong healing decoctions, I began to cultivate, once again taking control of my magical energy. It took about six hours to fix all the visible symptoms. Also, this incident with the energy surge convinced me that the problem couldn't be solved so easily. Firstly, I need to keep my emotions under better control. And secondly, I need to do something that will direct the excess escaping elemental energy in the right direction during combat.
The solution to the second problem came to me quite quickly: I just need to make an artifact that will collect and use this excess energy for combat. All that remained was to decide what kind of artifact it would be. At first, I wanted to make two ordinary daggers that I would hold in my hands, like the ones I have now. But after thinking a little, I decided that it wasn't very convenient, nor effective, and also not very cool. Remembering the events of the original web novel, I decided to create artificial claws for myself.
These claws, like all my artifacts, were supposed to be permanent artifacts, otherwise, they could disappear during combat and put me at a disadvantage. The next important question was what to make these claws from. The solution also came very quickly; besides ordinary lightning wolves, there are so-called swift lightning wolves here.
These are monsters of the high level, or in other words, elder pack leaders, similar to lightning wolves but taller, tougher, stronger, and much faster. Of course, I couldn't fight them now; even killing one would be an incredibly difficult task for me. So, for starters, I decided to finish my previous project, namely, six mini daggers that attach to an improvised shield, which I constantly wear on my back.
For this, I had gathered all the main materials: six fangs of three-eyed wolves, six soul shards of the same wolves. Of course, if I had another whole soul, it would be better. Perhaps I'll find one here someday; I bought a vessel for it on my last trip to Xiamen, spending twelve million earned. So I'm a poor vagrant again, ha! Also, for the shield's core, I needed bones, someone's, but due to recent events, those "someones" were lightning wolves. Their bones would allow excess lightning and wind energy to be directed into the daggers, thus making them even more effective.
All that remained for me was to bring my skills to an acceptable level to create the artifact I needed. Ordinary one-eyed wolves and their souls served as raw materials for trial attempts. For about a week and a half, I was engaged in creating artifacts, taking breaks for food, cultivation, and accumulating internal energy.
Thanks to the old man's tinctures and the local energy, both of the latter points were going very well, and space magic had practically approached the second stage. Also, after awakening my internal energy, my innate seeds received a boost for development, with the help of special herbs I bought in Shanghai, similar to the lightning flower. The old man's notes also contained information on how to enhance their effect! But all these gadgets couldn't compare to the lightning-air core that I bought at an auction in Guangzhou. So, I was still far from great spiritual seeds. But I think I'll raise the level of space magic and seeds before going into battle against the swift lightning wolf.
After a week and a half, I was almost ready to create the artifact I was interested in. So, leaving the cave, I headed in search of three-eyed wolves, which wasn't too difficult. There were no particular problems with killing them either. Of course, as always, I had to struggle with them and jump around, but nothing supernatural. As a result, over the next week, I collected four more servant-level souls, as well as one three-eyed wolf soul, gradually honing my artifact-making skills.
Everything necessary was gathered; my skills, abilities, and understanding of magical formulas were sufficient to try to create my first artifact. In a week of new active hunting, I collected enough bones, meat, and fangs from lightning wolves, so in case of failure, I would only have to spend about two weeks to obtain another three-eyed wolf soul.
Finding a safe place, I began creating the artifact. First, I needed to prepare the physical shell of the artifact, sharpen the daggers, and create the shield frame. Much of this was ready in advance; I had been gradually preparing the necessary parts over these two weeks. After that, I needed to apply the magical system, eliminating the problem of weak conductivity of the three-eyed wolf fangs, and also apply a structure for transferring magical energy to the shield. This required immense concentration and precision; I spent a lot of time practicing this stage. The next step was to bind all seven elements of the artifact into a single structure. After that came the magical construction necessary for binding souls and artifacts. Immediately after that was the actual binding of the three-eyed wolf's soul and its shards with the shield and daggers simultaneously.
All these manipulations took me about sixteen hours! I was almost completely exhausted, both mentally and physically. But I was pleased with my creation; I managed to create my first personal artifact, essentially on the first try. Hiding the artifact in a spatial bracelet, I went to sleep, as I was incapable of any further actions.
I woke up quite late; the sun was already setting again, and fortunately, nothing supernatural had happened while I was asleep. After my morning, or rather not-so-morning, exercise, a snack, and another cultivation session, I reverently took the artifact out of the spatial ring, which I could boldly call my masterpiece.
It somewhat resembled a turtle shell, with six holes on the sides from which daggers protruded, blade outward. Its size perfectly covered my back, so it turned out to be a dual defensive-offensive artifact. Only its durability was severely lacking, of course; the fact that it was made from the bones of high-level servants made itself known, as well as the fact that the shield itself was strengthened by the lightning-wind energy flowing from me. But I couldn't expect anything supernatural; the maximum defense of this shield was against high-level servants, maybe it would save me once from a low-level servant, so I had to be careful not to get hit directly.
Another function of this artifact was that it accumulated excess energy during use, and when I returned to my inner world, it returned the energy to the nebula. I struggled with this for a long time, poring over all the books that PinZhoulong gave me and that I bought myself; I barely found the magical circuit I needed.
And the main function carried by the six daggers inserted into the shield's holes. They can be removed using space magic, and I can wield them freely as I wish, killing opponents. The artifact also simplifies interaction with the daggers. That is, special magical circuits based on space magic are embedded in the artifact itself, which can return the daggers back if I directed them somewhere and forgot about them or gave such a command myself. And also, when removed, if I am not using the daggers, they will fly behind my back, forming a kind of circle. This was all possible due to the fact that both the shield and all six daggers are connected and represent a single artifact.
The sharpness of each dagger is enough to scratch a junior commander, provided a significant energy infusion into them. Also, the main feature of this entire construction is that it is a permanent artifact. That is, it won't disappear during combat after a certain amount of time but will remain hanging behind my back until I remove it myself. I spent more than one week and even more than one month dismantling and perfecting the magical circuits of a permanent artifact. Sometimes I wanted to give up and make a simpler artifact, but I overcame this desire and now hold this masterpiece in my hands.
The estimated cost of such an artifact, despite its specificity, namely that it is perfectly suited only for me, would be over one hundred and twenty million yuan at auction. If I had made a more general artifact with the same functions, I could have expected two hundred million yuan! But naturally, I won't waste time and effort on this, as each type of artifact has its own peculiarities, and I still have to learn to make good, high-class artifacts. I was able to create such a complex artifact of my own only because I deeply comprehended the method of creating exactly this type of artifact. Of course, it will be easier for me to create others based on this experience, but again, I will have to spend a lot of time practicing skills to create other artifacts.
After admiring this masterpiece to my heart's content, I placed a spiritual seal on it. After a minute, it began to shimmer, and covered in golden dust, it disappeared into my inner world. I immediately put it on, moved my arms, walked back and forth, jumped around, checked how it sat on my back, and was satisfied. Now, the simplest thing remained of everything, namely, learning to use this artifact. Yes, that's right; I currently don't have the ability to unleash the full potential of this artifact; I can't simultaneously control and monitor six daggers while moving myself at insane speeds. I will have to learn this.